thefictionvixens Chapter 47 A Battle of Wits and Courage
Chapter 47 A Battle of Wits and Courage
The sun had not yet fully risen, and the angle of the light was low.
At this distance, Da Tou's vision was so poor that he couldn't see the flashlight's light source; he could only see some irregular bright spots moving in the grass in the distance.
It tilted its head, to the left and then to the right.
Then he yawned, lay down next to Chen Fei, rested his chin on his front paws, and continued to look in that direction, as if cooperating with Chen Fei to carry out some kind of task that he did not understand at all.
It held on for about two minutes, then buried its head in its front paws and fell asleep.
The on-site investigation lasted the entire morning.
The five people were very efficient. They divided the area into several small sections and proceeded step by step, placing a small marker at each valuable trace they found.
More and more numbered signs appeared at the top of the markers, and from Chen Fei's perspective, a dense little forest slowly rose up in the grass.
The gun was found near where the guide was discovered; it was covered by grass, with half of the barrel sticking out.
The man who found the gun shouted, and the other four men walked over, gathered together, and began some kind of inspection procedure.
Chen Fei knew what they were checking.
Gun firing log.
Bolt-action rifles, after each shot, either leave the spent cartridge case in the magazine or eject it.
Gunpowder residue will remain on the rifling, and there will be impact marks on the hammer.
The gun was never fired, and all of these things were missing.
Five people surrounded the gun. The last person picked it up, looked at it in the light for a while, then turned to the others and said a few words in a tone that Chen Fei couldn't understand but could sense the emotion in.
That tone was stating a confusing fact.
All five of them frowned.
At noon, five people rested next to the off-road vehicle.
They took out food and water, and two of them sat in the shadows by the car, holding notebooks and talking with their heads down.
Chen Fei's superhuman vision allowed him to see the page of the notebook, but he couldn't make out the characters. He could only see the dense handwriting and a few parts marked in different colors.
Another thing he could see was that during the conversation, the person with the notebook made a few marks on the paper, then turned the notebook to the other person, pointed to a certain spot, and said something.
The other person shook his head, then nodded, as if to say, "I'm not sure, but what you said makes some sense."
This detail is interesting.
Disagreements began to emerge within them.
This was something Chen Fei had anticipated.
When faced with an inexplicable scene, the most common reaction of a professional investigation team is internal disagreement.
Some people tend to think, "This is a known animal, just an individual with abnormalities," while others tend to think, "This is due to human intervention."
A small minority also tend to propose any hypothesis that seems a bit extreme at the time but can explain the data.
The disagreement was something that benefited Chen Fei.
Teams with disagreements are slower to produce conclusions, less unified in their actions, and have a lower threshold for retreat.
Its tail swept across the sandstone platform, then stopped.
In the afternoon, one of them left the main search area and headed west towards the territory.
They weren't walking aimlessly; their steps were directional. They held up an instrument pointed at the ground and stopped to record the data every ten steps.
Chen Fei's gaze followed that person.
The instrument is rectangular and has a small screen. When you point it at the ground, a certain reading will appear on the screen.
Metal detector? No, that's for underground.
Animal behavior analyzer? No, this is scanning the ground, not the air or distant objects.
He went through all the field survey equipment he could think of in his mind, and finally settled on one possibility.
Footprint scanner, or surface pressure analysis equipment.
These devices can read residual data on ground pressure distribution without contact, which can be used to estimate an animal's weight and gait.
He had only seen this thing on a certain technology channel program. It was expensive, and ordinary investigation teams wouldn't carry it.
Chen Fei frowned.
This is not an ordinary local investigation team.
It is either a high-end research institution that specializes in the study of wild animals.
It could be an organization that has been consistently paying attention to this area.
This judgment made him prick up his ears and turn north.
The person with the equipment walked to the vicinity of the eastern exit of the gully, stopped, and scanned the ground.
They paused for a while.
I scanned it again.
He raised his head, looked around, then took out a communication device and said something to it.
Over in the main search area, the person with the notebook stood up and walked in his direction.
The two met at the exit of the ditch and stood in front of the screen of the device for a while. One of them put his finger on the screen and swiped a few times.
The other person turned his head further into the grassland, looking southwest.
The southwest direction is the general direction of the place to settle down.
Chen Fei tightened his grip on the sandstone platform with his front paws.
The direction they were looking in was separated from their landing spot by nearly two kilometers of grassland.
From that distance, the two people couldn't see anything but the grassland.
However, this turning of the head implies that the device has given them a certain directional conclusion.
The conclusion points to the southwest.
Pointing in the direction where there are signs of large animal activity.
The person with the communication device spoke again, this time for a longer time and in a steady tone, as if reporting to someone.
After finishing his report, he put away his communication equipment, turned to his companion, and said one sentence.
The companion nodded.
The two walked back towards the main search area.
[Host: Chen Fei]
[Identity: Sub-adult male lion]
[Energy Points: 865↑]
Chen Fei remained motionless on the sandstone platform, his super vision locking onto the back of the person who had just put away his communication equipment, until the person walked into the shadow of the off-road vehicle and sat down.
In the main search area, the other three people had already started packing up their equipment and loading it into the vehicle.
This isn't a retreat-style packing method, but a preparation-style packing method for moving—only the recording equipment and precision instruments are loaded into the vehicle, the markers remain in place, and the notebook is placed on the passenger seat for easy access.
They want to move to a different location to continue their search.
Chen Fei already knew the direction of their new location before they even started the engine.
The front of the SUV slowly turned southwest.
The sound of the off-road vehicle starting came from three kilometers away, deep and continuous, like the throat resonance of some large animal, but the rhythm was completely off.
Chen Fei descended from the sandstone platform.
Instead of heading towards his destination, he went southwest, at an angle to the off-road vehicle's path.
Chen Fei kept his speed very low, his abdomen close to the grass roots.
He needed to transform the open meadow between him and his lodging into a more costly location for the survey team before the vehicles reached it.
It's not a trap.
It made that meadow less quiet.