Chapter 43 - 39: The Monkeys’ Strict Father
Qin Ziwen frowned. "We’re not close. You’re perfectly able-bodied. What does losing your husband have to do with you being unable to go out and find food?"
Qin Ziwu added, "My brother’s right!"
With that, Qin Ziwen walked straight off. His brother and Deng Guang followed close behind.
Watching his retreating figure, Wang Juan’s expression was complex. Her fists clenched, only to fall limply open. In the end, she hung her head. After coming here and facing one setback after another, she had discovered that the knowledge and societal rules she had once mastered were utterly useless. The rules here were more primitive, more crude, more nakedly raw.
Deng Guang hadn’t voiced an opinion from start to finish. He was a kind man, but he didn’t waste his kindness. He reserved it for those he was close to.
Leaving through the east gate, Qin Ziwen walked downstream along the riverbank. Out of respect for the crocodiles, they maintained a safe distance of at least ten meters from the water’s edge.
Along the way, his younger brother Qin Ziwu was a flurry of activity.
"Bro, some wild vegetables over there."
"I think I just heard a monkey."
"Careful, there’s a hole here."
"Hang on, I’m gonna leave a mark on this tree."
Qin Ziwen looked up. Through the gaps in the canopy, he could see a dark gray figure gliding slowly.
He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt the Beaked Eagle was surprisingly well-suited to the forest. It made a bit of noise at takeoff, but once it settled into its glide, it was virtually silent. It was also remarkably adept at weaving between the trees.
Deng Guang took a power bank out of his bag. "My wife said you’d be taking pictures and would need this. There’s still some juice in it. Go ahead and use it."
"Thanks, Brother Deng."
Deng Guang smiled good-naturedly. "Don’t mention it."
After plugging the power bank into his phone, Qin Ziwen started taking photos every so often, snapping a picture whenever he came across a spot he felt was worth documenting and adding notes to each image.
The farther downstream they went, the wider the river became and the gentler its current.
A long, dark shadow sliced across the water’s surface, and Deng Guang happened to spot it.
He warned in a low voice, "There’s a crocodile in the river."
Qin Ziwen nodded in acknowledgment. "Mm."
Crocodiles were to be expected. While they had killed a few in recent days, wiping out the entire population in this river basin was practically impossible.
Qin Ziwen said, "The terrain here is level and the current is slower. It should be an ideal habitat for crocodiles to hunt and live."
"There are monkeys over there."
Qin Ziwu pointed to the opposite bank.
On the far bank was a grove of banana trees where several long-armed monkeys were hanging around. They spotted the humans across the river but showed no fear, chattering loudly instead.
Qin Ziwu asked, puzzled, "What are they called?"
Qin Ziwen replied with a straight face, "They’re called monkeys."
Qin Ziwu: "..."
THWACK.
A sudden pain flared on his head. Above him, a monkey sat on a branch, holding a piece of fruit and letting out sharp chirps. "CHEE! CHEE! CHEE!"
THWACK!
Another monkey, higher up and to the side, also threw what it was holding.
Qin Ziwen dodged quickly. When the object hit the ground, he saw it was just a small twig.
Qin Ziwu cursed under his breath, "Shit, these monkeys are trying to drive us off."
Qin Ziwen gazed up at the monkeys. "The monkeys on the other bank sent out a warning when they spotted us, and this troop received the message. They’re alerting each other. Interesting."
The dense canopy overhead blocked out the sun, leaving most of the forest floor shrouded in dim light. Luckily, they were close to the river, so sunlight could filter in from the side.
"Let’s go, Big Bro. These damn monkeys seem even more brazen than the ones on Mount Emei."
Before Qin Ziwen could answer, the canopy above them suddenly fell silent.
He instinctively looked up. A gray shadow shot through a gap in the leaves, radiating pure killing intent, moving so fast it was just a blur.
The monkey that had been the most brazen a moment ago vanished from its perch, its piercing shriek the only thing left echoing through the canopy.
The Beaked Eagle’s talons, like iron clamps, had sunk precisely into the monkey’s shoulder blade and spine.
The sheer force of the impact sent them plummeting, crashing through a swathe of leaves.
The Beaked Eagle used the downward momentum to flap its powerful wings, executing a sharp turn in midair before landing on a thick branch nearby. Its once adorably vacant eyes were now cold and severe. Monkeys scattered in a panic wherever its gaze fell.
The monkey pinned beneath its talons let its head hang limply, all its previous bravado gone, now just a dying creature.
"SCREEE—!"
The troop of monkeys erupted into chaos. They leaped from branch to branch, fleeing with cries full of terror.
In their first encounter with the Beaked Eagle, they reacted with the same fear a misbehaving child has for a stern father.
DRIP.
A few warm drops of blood fell from the tree.
Qin Ziwu’s eyes burned with excitement. He clenched his fist and pumped it in the air. "Holy shit, that was so cool!"
He looked at his big brother. "That stupid eagle—no, that awesome eagle is just too savage!"
Deng Guang stared at the Beaked Eagle overhead, his first instinct to run. When he saw Qin Ziwen and Qin Ziwu just standing there, he urged them, "Hurry, run! That bird is vicious! We can’t let it spot us."
Seeing that Deng Guang’s reaction wasn’t an act, Qin Ziwen asked, "Brother Deng, your wife... she didn’t tell you?"
"Tell me what?" Deng Guang froze, then a thought struck him. "Wait a minute. Don’t tell me that the one Xiaomei came down to sew a backpack for... was this bird!"
He had assumed it was a small bird they’d found, like a sparrow or a parrot. At the time, he’d thought the two brothers were amusing—finding a little bird in the forest to keep for fun, and even sewing a tiny backpack for it. How whimsical of them.
But it turned out to be this huge creature.
Deng Guang exclaimed, "Your bird is pretty big."
Qin Ziwu coughed abruptly, nearly choking on his own spit.
Deng Guang realized his slip of the tongue and hastily corrected himself, "Not a bird, an eagle."
There was a moment of silence.
The three men looked at each other, then burst out laughing in unison. Sometimes, a bit of dirty humor was all it took to relax a tense mind and relieve exhaustion.
Wiping the smile from his face, Qin Ziwen said, "Okay, it’ll help us keep an eye out for any large animals. If it finds any, it can help keep them occupied. For now, let’s keep following the river."
After walking for nearly another half hour, another cove came into view ahead.
This one was quite large, with the river bending sharply inland.
The terrain here was flat, and the trees along the bank were sparse.
In the cove, numerous large, grayish-brown backs broke the surface of the water, most of the creatures submerged.
Qin Ziwen grew wary. "A pod of hippos."
He took out his phone and took a picture of the hippos.
Only these thick-skinned, blubbery giants would dare to lounge around so carelessly in this stretch of the river.
On the water, one of the hippos seemed to spot the distant humans and began to swim slowly in their direction.
"Move."
Qin Ziwen decisively led the other two away. Hippos were notoriously bad-tempered and territorial, no less of a threat than crocodiles.
"We’ll end our survey of the downstream banks here for now. There’s not much point in going any farther at the moment."
It had taken them over three hours to walk here from the Gated Community.
A round trip would take at least seven hours on foot alone. Factoring in time for hunting and gathering, this was pretty much the limit for a single day’s expedition.
On the way back, Qin Ziwen focused his attention primarily on the plants along their path.
Before long, on a gentle slope near the river, he found three Gray Sweet Potato plants.
...
...