Chapter 1077 - 96: Dealing with the Northeast Tiger

Very soon, Hua Yun came back with the sled.

She and Chen Wen together shifted the Moose onto the sled; it had to be said, a Moose close to half a ton was really heavy.

If it weren’t for the help from Chen Wen’s entries, just relying on him and Hua Yun alone, it would’ve been very hard to get the Moose onto the sled.

After they put the Moose on, the two of them pulled the rope together and hauled the sled out of the forest.

This job cost them a whole afternoon.

After hauling out the Moose, both of them were pretty exhausted.

Sitting in the camp, neither of them really felt like talking.

Even so, Hua Yun still lit the campfire and planned to pick up some firewood while she was at it.

Chen Wen, meanwhile, looked at the Northeast Tiger that had followed them all the way; after Hua Yun left, he activated his Communication and interaction abilities.

The Northeast Tiger stared blankly at Chen Wen for a while; very soon, it looked a bit confused.

What was going on now?

Chen Wen coughed, a bit helpless as he said, "Don’t just stand there dumbfounded. You can understand what I’m saying now, right?"

The Northeast Tiger opened its mouth wide, looking utterly shocked.

Right now, staring at Chen Wen, it had no idea what to do.

What was going on now?

Beside them, the Golden Eagle flapped its wings and landed near the Northeast Tiger.

It looked curiously at this big tiger. "Hello there."

The Northeast Tiger took quite a while to react, then said somewhat nervously, "H-hello, hello, I think I..."

Seeing how worried the Northeast Tiger was, Chen Wen patted its head. "It’s fine, it’s just some new abilities."

"Here’s what we’ll do: you and the Golden Eagle have a chat; I’ll go get dinner ready."

As he spoke, Chen Wen cut off a big chunk of Moose meat and told the Golden Eagle and the Northeast Tiger to go eat and talk off to the side.

As for him, he followed the Moose’s wound, continued cutting along the hide, and took some meat from the front chest, planning to roast it later.

...

Over on the Golden Eagle’s side.

As Chen Wen’s chief animal diplomat, it started explaining the current situation to the Northeast Tiger.

The Northeast Tiger tore at the meat while listening to what the Golden Eagle said.

Gradually, it also understood what was going on now.

The Northeast Tiger looked at the Golden Eagle curiously. "Have you known that weird two-leg for a long time?"

The Golden Eagle thought for a moment, then nodded. "More or less, it’s been quite a while, I guess."

The Northeast Tiger nodded.

The Golden Eagle then talked about leaving here together with Chen Wen, and the "three guarantees" policy of food, lodging, and protection all included.

After listening, the Northeast Tiger asked worriedly, "What if I don’t want to go with you? What happens then?"

When it finished, it added, "All the food you mentioned, I’ve actually eaten before, and the place I used to live in was pretty good too, so I don’t really want to leave with you."

Hearing this, the Golden Eagle was stunned for a moment. "Nothing, I guess. I heard from Grey Wing—oh, that’s Screaming Kite, an animal just like us—it said that in some place called something ’Gold’ or whatever, Chen Wen also met animals who didn’t want to leave with him, and he didn’t force them. He really respects what animals like us think."

At those words, the Northeast Tiger felt a bit relieved.

It had thought it would be forced to leave.

But the Golden Eagle was curious. "Why don’t you want to leave?"

At that, the Northeast Tiger glanced at the dark forest.

It was silent for a while, then said, "Because I really like it here. The wind here feels nice, the grass smells good, the trees are big, and the water is sweet and wide. I still remember when I was very small, my mother once took me to live in a place that was a lot like this."

"But later, my mother disappeared, and I accidentally got caught by a cage, and after that I never saw places like this again."

The topic turned a bit heavy.

Having been with Chen Wen for a long time, the Golden Eagle could more or less understand what the Northeast Tiger was feeling.

But the animals on Chen Wen’s side didn’t have this kind of worry at all.

On the island painstakingly built by Chen Wen, whether it was the wind, the grass, or the trees and water, they were almost exactly the same as the places they had lived before.

And there were plenty of friends there they could chat with; it wasn’t boring at all.

Everyone hanging out, chatting and roughhousing together, lively and noisy, was far better than surviving alone in the wild.

The Golden Eagle thought this, but didn’t say much more to the Northeast Tiger.

Seeing the Golden Eagle stay quiet, the Northeast Tiger went on. "But two-legs are pretty nice too. I mean the two-legs from the place I lived before, and also... this two-leg, Chen Wen."

At that, the Golden Eagle asked curiously, "The place you lived before? Where was that?"

Talking about this perked the Northeast Tiger up; it told the Golden Eagle about its previous place. "It was a really big place. Felt about as big as this forest. There was a red house, and I lived inside it. There was also forest around, though that forest didn’t look as good as this one, but I liked it too. Oh, and there was a garden there. I really liked playing around in the garden with the previous two-legs."

The Golden Eagle asked in confusion, "If it was that nice, why didn’t you just keep living there?"

The Northeast Tiger shook its head, looking puzzled. "I don’t know either, I just..."

It paused, not quite knowing how to put it.

...

Watching the two animals chatting in the distance, Chen Wen didn’t step in.

Because come night, the Golden Eagle would recount everything that had happened to him word for word.

Chen Wen sliced the Moose meat, skewered the cut pieces onto wooden sticks, and set them by the campfire to roast.

While he waited for the meat to cook, Hua Yun came back from the forest with the firewood.

After the two of them finished their chores, they sat quietly by the campfire, enjoying its warmth and waiting for dinner.

Using the hide as a pad, Chen Wen picked up the can, poured the hot water into the kettle, and shook it.

He took a small sip of hot water and let out a satisfied sigh.

At this point Hua Yun opened up the conversation. "That Northeast Tiger—what are you planning to do with it? Are you going to take it back yourself, or hand it straight over to Arseny and the others?"

At that, Chen Wen shook his head.

"You don’t know?"

Hua Yun asked back.

"No, I’m not choosing either of those."

Chen Wen said, "Mainly it depends on what it wants. If it wants to come with me, then I’ll take it. If it wants to stay here, then it stays here. If it wants to go back, then we give it to Arseny and the others."

Hua Yun was speechless. "Nice, we’re talking about a tiger—what could it possibly understand?"

At that, Chen Wen chuckled. "Don’t underestimate animals. A lot of the time, animals aren’t necessarily less smart than humans, especially ones with a lot of spirit like this."

"Alright, I can’t deny that. The Golden Eagle is a living example, after all."

Hua Yun also laughed.

The two of them didn’t dwell on this topic, instead talking about their next moves.

Chen Wen felt the goal of this trip was more or less achieved, and that they could just head back now. Hua Yun, on the other hand, felt she hadn’t had enough.

She wanted to keep going forward and see if they could find some new prey.

Chen Wen started calculating their food supplies.

Honestly, with six people and more than two months still to get through, they really did need to stockpile more food.

For now, moving around over these few days hadn’t met much resistance, but once heavy snow sealed the mountains...

The extreme cold and deep snowdrifts would make it almost impossible for them to move.

You could say that the latter half of this survival stint would basically be spent hunkering down in the shelter.

Chen Wen had watched previous Forest Extreme Challenge videos; all the challengers were like this, and even he figured he wouldn’t be an exception.

So stocking up more food was the proper thing to do.

He thought for a bit, then agreed to Hua Yun’s idea, but at the same time he brought up a problem. "But with our food stores already this big, even if we move forward, it’s going to be hard to manage all this food!"