Chapter 312: Chapter 312: The Fearless Youngsters
Raising cubs is hard work, but it’s also full of fun.
The five-month-old Snow Leopard cubs were bouncing around in the snowfield, following their not-so-reliable aunts.
The main focus was on learning to find caves and hunt Highland Rabbits and Ground squirrels for food.
The little guy had strong learning abilities, and his best Skill now was “digging rabbit burrows.”
Because of his small size, he could easily co and go from the rabbit holes.
After eating, he even knew to pack up so snacks for his aunts.
Following consecutive days of sunshine, the accumulated snow on the wilderness ground had completely lted.
Exposed yellowed grass roots were attracting quite a number of even-toed ungulates to wander down from the mountains.
This area was wilderness, but the overall topography consisted of rolling hills. To the north lay the high mountain region.
During cold weather, even-toed ungulates mostly moved around in the canyons between the two mountains, only venturing out to the wilderness when the weather was clear and there was no wind to look for food.
Four leopards, three adults and one youngster, lay in a half-circle, idly watching the Tibetan Gazelles moving ahead.
Today’s hunting ti was over.
In the morning, they cooperated in hunting two Tibetan Gazelles; after eating their fill, the leftovers even fed several Vultures.
This laid-back life, basking in the sun, was almost making Jinya reluctant to leave, even contemplating the idea of settling down here.
But she quickly dismissed that thought as the weather got colder and Little Jin beca increasingly lethargic, barely moving except to hunt, practically growing attached to the heater.
The Two-legged beasts had been away for the last few days; they said they were going to see the Little Lynx.
Before leaving, they had asked Jinya if she wanted to co along, but she had decisively refused.
The Little Lynx was still too small and ill to live on the wilderness; they would reconsider it next year when he was bigger.
Little Jin, on the other hand, had gone along to see the “adopted child”; compared to Jinya, he was a responsible father.
After a three-day stay at the River Source Protection Station, Chen Ying and Xiao Song completed the first phase of their data collection work.
Next was a three-month observation period; when the weather ward up a bit, they planned to transfer the Lynx brother and Little Lynx to the Semi-wild area to observe how they adapted to the wilderness environnt.
Chen Ying hurried over not only to preside over the summary of the first phase and arrange the tasks for the second phase, but also to perform surgeries on two rescued animals.
One was a sub-adult Tibetan brown bear, about 1.3 ters long, that had been injured in a fight with other bears, with a broken leg bone and torn shoulder blade.
The little guy was pitiful; by the ti he was found, the leg bone had necrotized, and in order to save his life, his right hind limb had to be amputated.
Chen Ying ca to perform surgery on his left shoulder blade; after recovery from the surgery, his movent wouldn’t be greatly affected.
The other patient was an elderly male Lynx.
He had fallen off a cliff while fighting with a Snow Leopard over food, his spine fractured and unable to move.
Fortunately, he was found by a Mountain Patrol Team mber in ti to be rescued; otherwise, he wouldn’t have survived the cold wind and low temperatures of the night.
Neither of these two could return to the wild after recovery.
Chen Ying contacted Qing Ye’s Veterinarian to arrange transportation; in half a month, the two would be sent there for further treatnt and to spend their remaining years.
With his work done, Chen Ying had Er Niu, Jinya, and the Little Cub on his mind. Without much desire to chat, he packed his things and was ready to head back to the Pasture.
Yin Li ca over to handle so matters, coincidentally allowing him to pick up Xiao Song on the way back to the Protection Station.
Before they could get in the car, Yin Li received a call from the Protection Station, informing him of orders from above to join forces with two nearby stations to conduct a search.
“In the dead of winter? Searching for whom?”
“Two herdsman’s children. Sothing happened at ho, and they, God knows influenced by whom, believed that seeking the Snow Mountain Goddess could save their family.”
Yin Li rubbed his face with a bitter smile; “Don’t look at like that. A lot of the older herdsn truly believe in the existence of spirits.”
Chen Ying sighed, only able to remark on the overwhelming responsibility of education.
Complaints aside, their priority was to find the kids.
“The two children took all the dry food and the limited amount of jerky from ho, even packing buttered tea. Looks like they were planning to go to the highest Snow Mountain.”
“Most importantly, they rode off on horses. All the herdsn are helping with the search, but because it took a day before they were noticed missing, we have no idea where they might be now.”
“And of utmost importance, the Protection Station’s Mountain Patrol Team mbers found two packs of wolves on the outskirts of their area.”
Those words made everyone around take a sharp intake of breath.
Yin Li had already set people in motion to prepare to head out, with him following up with the second team.
Even those on leave had to join; this was a human life-and-death situation.
“Now the Pasture villages have contacted the rescue team, as well as the Forest Police and firefighters; everyone is helping with the search.”
Duanmu joined a group chat that was discussing the matter, and many people had spontaneously organized rescue teams ready to go in and search.
“We should go as well. Xiao Song, you stay here at the center for now, and we’ll co back to pick you up once they’re found.”
“Okay, Brother Ying, Brother Li, be careful. Bring the drone and is there anything else you need? I can help you load the car.”
Chen Ying’s car was already packed with a lot of supplies, New Year’s gift bags for the children of the Pasture.
Unloading the car now would be too troubleso, and who knows, the supplies might co in handy.
Chen Ying’s vehicle was modified, with dual fuel tanks, capable of a range exceeding 1000GL.
There was also a 30L spare fuel drum on board, enough to support a round trip to the base of the highest Snow Mountain.
Yin Li’s car was diesel-powered, with a range of over a thousand kiloters as well.
They planned to first head to River Source Protection Station, pick up the second team and another vehicle, then head east into the interior from River Source.
“One team will go through the west side, we’ll take the east side. It’s highly likely the kids went west, as it’s the most direct route from there.”
After eting up with the second team mbers, the three vehicles sped into the wilderness.
“The search and rescue team has dispatched a patrol helicopter, and so far, no trace of the children or horses has been found within a twenty-kiloter range,”
Dajie, while checking his phone, relayed the situation to his teammates through the walkie-talkie.
“Station Chief, do you think those two kids might have run off to Sanjiang Origin?”
Although the Snow Mountain Goddess is considered the highest peak of the snowfields in the hearts of the herders, there is also a legend of the Goddess Mountain within the national forest park to the east of the highway.
“Let’s not worry about that for now, just follow the command center’s instructions and we’ll talk afterwards.”
“Station Chief, they’ve also started searching on their end, if we work from both sides, we should be able to find them, right?”
Yin Li kept quiet, he couldn’t guarantee they would find them.
There were also Protection Zone team mbers in Chen Ying’s vehicle.
They were a couple who had worked here for more than three years and were transferred to River Source this sumr.
Chen Ying asked Old Ke, a male team mber, to drive while he deployed the drone for an aerial search.
“Old Ke, stop the car up ahead.”
Chen Ying spotted a Tibetan Fox peeking out from behind a sand dune, curiously studying them.
Old Ke’s wife opened her mouth to speak but held back under her husband’s gaze, her anxiety causing her to clench her fists tight.
After Chen Ying got out of the car, he was fully focused and quickly approached the fox.
“Hey, I need to ask you sothing. Have you seen any two-legged beasts shorter than passing through here? Two of them, about the sa size, and a horse?”
The fox’s eyes widened in shock as it stared at Chen Ying; it took half a minute to snap out of it.
It was actually able to understand what this two-legged beast was saying!
“Ah ah ah.” No, I haven’t seen any.
“Thanks anyway.” Chen Ying stood up, walking back anxiously.
The fox took a couple of steps and called out again, “Ah ah ah’er” – I haven’t seen any two-legged beasts here since the last snowfall.
Chen Ying looked back, nodded at the fox, and got back into the vehicle.
“Ali, just go straight ahead; no humans have been here since the last snowfall.”
After receiving the ssage from Chen Ying, Yin Li issued instructions over the walkie-talkie to speed up and head directly towards Snow Mountain.
Old Ke glanced at Chen Ying in the rearview mirror, feeling an indescribable strangeness.
Little Jin had already been released by Chen Ying from the transshipnt cage to curl up on the back seat.
Sensing Chen Ying’s anxiety, Little Jin affectionately licked the back of his hand.
“Station Chief, Team One has found nothing.”
They were almost at the agreed eting point, and both teams had co up empty-handed.
They had also made contact with other rescue personnel, who likewise had found no trace of the two children.
It was as if they had vanished after entering the wilderness.
Theoretically, the children of the herders are aware of the dangers of the wilderness, having been taught from a young age not to play in the wilderness or they would never return ho.
The eting point, two vehicles from Team One had been waiting for a while.
The team leader ca over to greet them and said that along the way, they had seen nothing but rabbits, foxes, and vultures.
Even wildlife rarely appears in the wilderness during winter, so those two children must have been incredibly brave to venture into it on horseback.
Chen Ying placed Little Jin on the ground and asked it to help gather so information.
After lunch, ready to continue their journey, Little Jin brought back news.
“Are you saying there’s a pack of wolves to the east planning to taste so two-legged beasts?”
“According to them, a pack has found two-legged beasts at the foot of the nearest Snow Mountain, and they want to join in. With food so scarce on the winter wilderness and a brown bear nearby, the competition for food has intensified and they’re hoping for a stroke of good luck.”
Chen Ying’s expression turned grave, and he mumbled to Yin Li for a while.
“No reports of anyone entering the uninhabited zone recently,” he thought, then pulled out his phone.
“Hello, Officer Huang, I want to ask if there have been any recent missing persons reports near the uninhabited area.”
The answer he received was no.
Yin Li looked at Chen Ying and shrugged his shoulders.
“Should we continue towards Snow Mountain, keeping an eye out on our way, just in case Little Jin got it wrong?”
“Okay, we have to pass that Snow Mountain anyway, so let’s check it out and see how it goes.”
Chen Ying sowhat regretted not bringing Jinya and the others; after all, Little Jin was a forest animal, and the wilderness was not its main turf.
Around three in the afternoon, they arrived at the first Snow Mountain.
A search and rescue team had already set up camp there.
“How’s it going, found anything?”
“Nothing, our team leader said to set up the tents first, leave a few people to guard the camp, and the rest will go search the mountain.”
There were two Snow Mountains here, one to the left and one to the right. To get to the highest peak, they had to go through a gorge, then follow the base of the mountain and walk northwest.
The mountains here belong to the southern branch of the Kunlun Mountains, locally known as Kekexili Mountain.
The highest peak reaches over six thousand ters, with the other peaks varying in elevation by five to six hundred ters.
But don’t underestimate these five to six hundred ters of altitude.
Already at highland altitudes, with every hundred ters climbed, the temperature drops by about 0.5 degrees Celsius and oxygen becos even scarcer.
On lowland, a few hundred ters of hill climbing is easy, but on the highland, a few hundred ters can exhaust a person.
Chen Ying and his team also planned to set up camp at the foot of another mountain and then spread out for a thorough search.
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