Chapter 112

Chapter 112: [Great Auk: Let me see who’s out here talking nonsense.]

There was a slope between them, and the guests were standing above, quite a distance away from the group of great auks.

There was no snow in the air, but a cold wind would blow through from time to time. On the mountaintop, one had to raise their voice just to speak. Lin Qianyu had only spoken in a low murmur—by all accounts, the animals in the distance shouldn’t have heard her.

But just as Lin Qianyu’s words fell, the great auk lying on its back sunbathing suddenly raised its head, eyes blazing as it stared in her direction.

Only, the spirit was willing but the flesh too plump. It looked like it was trying to do a push-up—its body tensed with effort, and it only barely managed to lift the back of its head off the ground.

Lin Qianyu blinked. “Eh?”

What she noticed was also caught by the livestream camera still fixed on the group of great auks. Fans in the chat saw it clearly too.

【LMAO, that hearing is impressive.】

【Great Auk: Let me see who’s talking big.】

【Hahaha that stare looked fierce, but why did it try to lift its head twice and still fail to stand up?】

Its vestigial wings were no help at all, and its webbed feet flailed in the air as it struggled.

The great auk rolled once on the ground, struggling to its feet with great effort. Then it spread its little wings and charged toward Lin Qianyu with great momentum, “Ooooh oooh——!”

It didn’t come off as fierce—if anything, it was kind of soft.

“Sorry, sorry.” Lin Qianyu, with her little snow leopard-shaped hand warmer in her arms, apologized sincerely.

The great auk shook out its feathers, shook its head to scatter the snow, adjusted its posture, and leaned back again to resume sunbathing.

It lay back down with exaggerated effort, suddenly lifted its head again, and stared at Lin Qianyu once more.

Seeing she had nothing more to say, it slowly reclined again… and then suddenly rolled over. Lin Qianyu’s eyebrow arched slightly, but she still didn’t speak.

It was testing her.

Only after confirming she wouldn’t say anything else did the great auk finally flop back down, spreading its little wings beside its body and dozing off.

Seeing this, Lin Qianyu laughed and stood up. “Let’s eat first—if we keep cooking the meat stew, it’s going to boil dry.”

The fire wasn’t very strong, but the wood added earlier kept it going at a steady simmer.

“Okay.” Feng Jingye stood up with her.

Since the livestream viewers were very interested in the great auks, Lin Qianyu left the livestream device at the edge, pointed toward them.

The other guests remained as still as statues, rooted in place.

Hang Sisi looked at her pot, then at the great auks below. She figured food could wait—it wasn’t every day you saw great auks come ashore. Better to watch now while she could and eat later.

With that thought, she held up the livestream equipment and started filming even more enthusiastically.

Yin Youlin absentmindedly poked the fire.

Su Yuxing rubbed his watch and thought: Good thing he joined the show. No phones, no outside contact—if he had his phone right now, it would’ve blown up from notifications.

Just a creature with thylacine blood had already made waves in the market. And this—this was a living, breathing great auk.

As Lin Qianyu and Feng Jingye stepped inside, the other guests silently moved forward, lining up near the edge in a row.She set down the little snow leopard and added a few more sticks to the fire to build it up and warm her hands.

Lin Qianyu ladled a bowl of meat broth, placed a wooden spoon in it, and handed it to Feng Jingye. “Here, try it and see if it tastes okay. It’s been simmering for a while—should I add a bit more snow?”

She had turned nearly all of the canned meat prepared by the production team into stew. Having done it so many times, she could now judge by eye exactly how much water to add per can—whether the stew should be more savory or just right. She basically had a perfect sense for the snow-to-can ratio.

“No need. It’s good—tastes just right.” Feng Jingye dipped the compressed biscuit into the broth. The salty biscuit softened in the soup, making it much easier to eat than chewing it dry.

Lin Qianyu nodded and sat down beside the fire. She took the meat stew off the flames and replaced it with a container full of snow to melt for hot water.

The little snow leopard was already familiar with the smell of meat broth and, as usual, had no interest in it.

Lin Qianyu checked the seal meat leaning near the fire. One side was already cooked dark, while the other remained fresh and red—melting from the inside, blood dripped from the red side.

She poked it. It had already softened.

Lin Qianyu set the seal meat down. “Come on, little guy, here’s your lunch.”

“Awoo!”

Everyone’s enthusiasm for the great auks hadn’t diminished with time.

No one knew who took the first step, but once one person dared to try, the other guests slowly followed. Afraid of startling the great auk flock, they moved very carefully.

Before the guests could descend the slope, a polar bear that had failed at fishing on the ice floe approached the group of great auks first.

The polar bear had been on the floe for quite a while. When it approached, the great auks didn’t seem to notice—until suddenly, as the bear passed them, it attacked without warning.

“Ooooh!”

In an instant, the group of great auks erupted in chaos, scrambling for the water at the edge of the ice. While polar bears could swim and even chase them into the sea, their speed in the water was no match for that of the great auks.

The whole thing happened so fast, and the polar bear had walked right along the edge—completely out of the guests’ line of sight from the mountaintop.

From their perspective, it looked as though the polar bear had vanished from the ice and suddenly burst out of the snow-covered mountain.

Su Yuxing immediately stood up. “This…”

He wanted to rush down and help. While it was completely natural for a wild polar bear to hunt a great auk, it was hard to stand by and watch a declared-extinct species being pursued right in front of your eyes. Instinctively, he sided with the great auks.

Su Yuxing turned and shouted, “Director Feng! Something’s happening!”

【Bear, no, don’t eat it!】

【That’s a great auk! Eat me instead, just let it go!!】

【Island lord, aren’t you going to do something?! Hurry down and save it!】

【Calm down… Don’t you understand that hardship breeds strength and comfort leads to decline? Either they’re brought back to the rescue center and never leave again, or they live on their own out here. These auks are strong and healthy—stop worrying.】

Though the group of great auks appeared to scatter in panic, they were incredibly agile—far beyond what their bulky forms would suggest.

Like slippery fish, their movements were hard to follow. Viewers couldn’t even clearly see what they were doing—just that they narrowly dodged the bear’s paw and vanished into the sea.

Hang Sisi let out a breath of relief—but before she’d even finished exhaling, the polar bear had already clamped its jaws around a great auk that had been lying on its back on the ice!

There was no time to rush over now—and even if there was, the polar bear might not back off just because someone showed up. Charging in wouldn’t help, and standing still felt just as helpless.In that tangled moment, almost instinctively, Hang Sisi turned and shouted, “Qianyu-jie, help!”

Lin Qianyu, biting the edge of a compressed biscuit: “?”

She exchanged a glance with Feng Jingye, then got up and walked to the edge.

The polar bear attacking the great auk had opened its mouth, but before it could reach the bird’s neck, a snow-white polar bear suddenly charged out from the side and knocked it away without a word.

The attacking bear was caught off guard. Its roar cut off midway as it was slammed to the ground and rolled over, clearly dazed.

Lin Qianyu called out, “Xuetuan?”

“Woo!” Xuetuan gave a low grunt in response, then gently picked up the unconscious great auk and began trudging back up the mountain.

The knocked-aside polar bear looked left and right. All the other great auks had vanished. So it simply dove into the sea—whether to chase the great auks or to go fish again was unclear.

The heavy snow-covered ice quickly concealed its presence the moment it entered the water.

However, one great auk still onshore suddenly burst out from hiding and started chasing after Xuetuan, crying out nonstop, “Woo woo! Woo woo!”

It waddled upright, swaying clumsily as it gave noisy complaints while chasing.

But, with a clear sense of self-awareness, it didn’t try to attack the polar bear.

Knowing it couldn’t win in a fight, it opted instead to squawk loudly on the side.

【Uh… This is clearly a serious moment, but why does it feel so comical now?】

【LOL, when physical attacks don’t work, it switched to magical damage, huh?】

【I seriously suspect this great auk waited for Xuetuan to get yelled at and insulted, then took the chance to snatch the unconscious auk and run.】

【Still, this great auk’s got some loyalty, daring to chase after them like this.】

…

Even when facing off with a polar bear, the great auk still had the guts to shout. But once it noticed the humans blocking the path ahead, it paused, and its calls grew quieter.

Compared to familiar animals it had seen before, humans were completely foreign to it.

They triggered even more wariness than polar bears.

The guests, still halfway down the slope, seemed to sense something too.

Hang Sisi was the first to react, stepping to the side. The others quickly followed, all moving to clear a path.

A corridor was formed in the middle.

The polar bear didn’t look sideways at all, heading straight up the slope toward the humans.

The great auk swayed slightly. It was clearly hesitant, but after a short pause, it stepped forward with determination and followed, still crying out beside Xuetuan.

It kept a distance close enough that if the polar bear raised its arm to swat, it would only graze past without hitting.

Out of reach, free to complain.

The polar bear wasn’t disturbed in the slightest—calm as still water, its expression indifferent, as if its ears had been sealed and it couldn’t hear the noisy squawking beside it at all.

That was until it saw the man standing beside Lin Qianyu on the mountaintop—then it let out a low growl and charged straight up.The great auk instinctively stepped back a few paces upon hearing that growl, even readying itself to run—only to realize the polar bear wasn’t charging at it.

It thought for a moment, then trotted after the polar bear.

“Good boy.” Lin Qianyu came down and walked toward the polar bear. “Is it okay?”

The polar bear dropped the great auk it had been holding in its mouth and pawed at it, but the bird didn’t open its eyes. “Awo!”

Seeing its companion unresponsive, the great auk cried even louder, “Woo woo!”

“Don’t worry, it’s still alive.” Lin Qianyu checked it over—no external injuries, not even a scratch. “It probably just fainted from fright.”

She glanced at its signature belly, which made it easy to distinguish from the others. “This seems to be the one that reacted when it heard me speak earlier.”

The polar bear rubbed against her cheek. “Mmm…”

Yours.

“Mine?” Lin Qianyu hugged the polar bear from behind and patted its head. Understanding what it meant, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Xuetuan must’ve thought I knew it, so when the other polar bear attacked, it stopped them and brought the great auk to me.”

In an animal’s mind, it likely saw it as: if it’s yours, whether you’re keeping it or eating it, it belongs to you—no other animal is allowed to touch it.

To Xuetuan, that other polar bear looked like it was stealing Lin Qianyu’s food, so it didn’t hesitate to fight back and snatched the great auk away.

【Xuetuan, seriously, I’m crying.】

【From its size to its personality, I actually feel Xuetuan is incredibly reliable.】

【No joke—this is a high-IQ, high-combat polar bear. If you can raise one like this, you could strut around the Arctic like royalty.】

“Thank you, Xuetuan. You’ve worked hard.” Lin Qianyu wrapped her arms around the polar bear affectionately and kissed its ear.

Its furry round ears twitched. Xuetuan plopped down with a thud, nuzzled into Lin Qianyu’s neck, and whined, “Mmm…”

Lin Qianyu patted the polar bear, then looked at the unconscious great auk and couldn’t help asking, “When do you think it’ll wake up?”

It was risky for it to stay unconscious without supervision—even with a companion nearby, it could still get snatched up by predators.

As she spoke, she noticed the rise and fall of the great auk’s chest seemed to subtly change.

Almost like it was deliberately trying to suppress it.

Lin Qianyu raised an eyebrow and suddenly said, “This is the roundest great auk I’ve ever seen.”

Before she’d even finished the sentence, the great auk’s chest started heaving more violently.

…Most likely from sheer indignation.

Author's note: Good night, sleep early, love every one of you.