Chapter 799: Ali
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“What the hell is that?” Li Du was startled.
Lu Guan, who had just walked behind the car, looked frightened. He said, “Boss, is this a facehugger? Oh god, isn’t this a facehugger?”
Li Du stared at him and said angrily, “Go away!”
The facehugger was a monster in the Hollywood movie, “Alien.” When they saw humans, they jumped on their faces, held their heads, and then entered their mouths like parasites.
The thing that jumped into Li Du’s arms was clearly a small kangaroo. Lu Guan had just been messing around.
Li Du pulled the kangaroo out of his arms. It had short brown hair, long pointed ears, and big, shiny eyes.
“What’s the matter?” Godzilla couldn’t resist asking.
“This is a red kangaroo,” Brother Wolf said. “What’s missing is a female red kangaroo. When the female red kangaroo is attacked by predators and endangered, it will throw the baby kangaroo out of its pouch to divert attention from its predators so that it can escape.”
“Is that so?” Li Du was stunned.
Sofie said, “What Brother Wolf said is just a rumor. But right now, it looks like it might have some truth to it.”
“Poor thing. Its mom abandoned it.” Ivana’s little voice sounded sad. “How did that happen?”
The three little animals came near to take a look. Ah Ow stretched out a paw wanting to play with the small kangaroo. The frightened joey peed on Li Du in fear.
Li Du carried him up to wipe his clothes and asked, “What about this? Put him here. Will his mother come back?”
“No,” Sophie said, shaking her head. “Kangaroos are so exclusionary that they can’t tolerate foreign members entering the family, or even returning after a long absence.”
Li Du said, “This does not have to do with our situation, right?”
“I’m not finished yet,” Sophie looked at him. “A mother kangaroo who abandoned her baby will lose her status in the clan and will no longer be welcome back in the clan.”
“There are so many problems,” said Lu Guan indignantly.
Li Du had a headache. What were they supposed to do with this baby kangaroo?
Unless the mother kangaroo came back for it, it would not survive in the wild.
“Leave it to the zoo or the kangaroo protection agency, otherwise, it will die,” Brother Wolf said.
Australia’s wild was dangerous, as there were a variety of venomous snakes, raptors and other predators. The small kangaroo’s meat was tender, and it would be eaten if left outside alone.
There was some discussion, but no decision had been reached.
Li Du sighed and said, “We caused the fight and have to be responsible for it.”
“What do you mean?” Lu Guan did not understand.
.
Li Du said, “I mean we should take care of it. Get in the car, go look for a supermarket and buy some kangaroo milk powder.”
The mother kangaroo would not come back, now that she had disappeared. She threw away her child, jumped into the wilderness, and disappeared without a trace.
It was Li Du who had caused the incident. If they hadn’t hit the mother kangaroo, and if they hadn’t gone after her, she would not have thrown the joey away.
For the time being, they had to take responsibility for the joey and raise it on their own.
The baby kangaroo did not resist them. After Li Du put it in his car, it immediately jumped back into Li Du’s pocket.
Sophie opened her handbag and tried to find a wet wipe. The kangaroo jumped into the bag, showing only half its head. It blinked its eyes and looked at Sophie.
“We must give it a name. What shall we call it?” Sophie asked.
Li Du remembered the classic image of a boxer as a kangaroo and thought about Ah Ow and Ah Meow’s names. He laughed and said, “Name it Ali, after the boxer, Muhammad Ali.”
There was no better name than this. Sophie pointed her finger at the joey’s head and said, “Ok, remember your name. Now you’re Ali.”
The little kangaroo did not understand. It looked at Sophie’s fingers and suddenly opened its mouth.
As soon as Li Du tried to get it off, Sophie laughed and shook her head and said, “It doesn’t matter, Ali isn’t biting me. It is sucking my finger.”
“I want to suck, too,” Li Du chimed in.
Sophie gave him a soft punch and gave him a visual cue that Brother Wolf was driving.
Brother Wolf was an excellent bodyguard. He kept a sharp eye on the road ahead and turned a blind eye to the boss behind him.
Li Du released the little bug to see if it could fly into the joey’s head.
As a result, the little bug came out with no interest, so he did not have that kind of sense of belonging it as his pet.
There was goat’s milk powder in the supermarket in the next town. Kangaroos could drink goat’s milk. Li Du bought the milk powder and Sophie bought a milk bottle, mixed it into milk, and gave it to Ali.
Ali held the bottle in its arms with its two little paws in front of him. He gushed happily and looked at Li Du and Sophie while drinking the milk.
Smelling the powdered milk, Ah Ow and Ah Meow licked their lips and reached up to grab the bottle.
Around people, Ali would pee on itself, but when it came to food, it didn’t back down. It showed its small claws and started scratching at Ah Ow and Ah Meow’s claws.
Sophie glared at the two small animals, and they moved away.
Crispy Noodles was lying prone on the seat and sneered at his two small friends as if to say, Haha, you were scolded? You could not keep your claws out of trouble!
To the north of Victoria was New South Wales. While they were deep in the heart of a semi-desert like area in New South Wales, the town of Lightning Ridge came into view.
Compared to the towns they had seen on the road, Lightning Ridge was a large and populous place. Such areas were not common in central Australia, which was known to be sparsely populated.
One reason Lightning Ridge was so populous was because of the expensive and rare black opal, a gem that was gaining international popularity. As opal prices increased, more people tried their luck at finding them.
Australia was rich in mineral resources, and like other mining towns, there were many artificial mines in Lightning Ridge. The artificial mines were made of stone and earth dug out of the ground.
Seen from a distance along the highway, the surrounding area of Lightning Ridge was flat desert, while the town itself was on a small hill.
At the entrance to the town stood a large sign enhanced with beautiful black opals.
Of course, they were cheap, synthetic black opals.
As their car rolled into town, a Toyota pickup drove past them. The window was rolled down. A man looked out and said, “Hey, are you here to mine gems?”
Without waiting for Li Du and the others to answer, the other side spoke again. “Oh, another group of fools has arrived, haha. You won’t have any luck here. Forget this unrealistic dream while it is still not too late!”
