A row of broken walls stands alone among the ruins overgrown with grass, like the skeleton of a giant beast, telling the story of the former prosperity of this place.
A huge metal tower-like building fell on a dilapidated wall. When Dong Qiangqiang got closer, he saw that one of the brackets of the metal tower had been broken, and only the other "leg" was still standing tenaciously. It looked very similar. A puppet whose strings were torn off, and withered shrub branches and leaves winding along the broken wall, making the metal tower a part of it.
He even walked into a tin house with drafts on all sides and no windows. The garbage scattered on the floor and the cobwebs all over the house clearly told him that this place had been abandoned for a long time.
There are piles of mechanical equipment that Dong Qiangqiang cannot name lying scattered in the snow. Most of them are covered with snow. When the wind blows away the floating snow on the equipment, the rust stains are revealed.
After leaving the abandoned factory, he walked aimlessly in the forest. The moonlight stretched his shadow thin and long. Small animals such as rabbits or roe deer ran quickly past his eyes and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
But no one was seen.
After drinking too much wine, he inevitably became thirsty. Just when he was regretting not buying a bottle of mineral water at the train station, he heard the faint sound of water rushing in his ears.
What surprised Dong Qiangqiang was that the river did not freeze in such a cold weather. He guessed that it might be because of the wide surface of the river, the depth of the river, and the fast current. After observing the movement for a while and confirming that there were no animals around, he slowly walked towards the river.
Under the light of the fire, he saw traces of fish in the clear river. He squatted by the river and washed his face several times, staring blankly at his face in the rippling water.
He had been walking for hours and found nothing. He could walk for a few more hours, but the result would probably be the same.
Should I stop? he asked himself. No one forced him to do this, and even Lao Bai's wife Hualing never called him to beg him for help.
But he didn't do it for others, he needed to give himself an explanation. Even if he couldn't find Lao Bai after walking all night, at least he would be able to face himself calmly in the future, and look into Lao Bai's child's eyes and say that he had tried his best, instead of regretting that he didn't persist a little longer. At this moment, Lao Bai may be waiting for him to lend a helping hand in some cave, or he may be facing a crisis, so even if no one understands what he is doing now, he thinks he should do something about it. Ended.
Even the worst outcome is still an outcome for him.
He leaned over and took a few sips of the river water. He only felt the ice water was sweet. He simply dug out a bottle of whiskey in his backpack that was almost finished. He drank it up and then immersed the empty bottle in the river.
Just when the bottle was about to be full, a rustling sound came from the bend of the river not far away.
Dong Qiangqiang immediately lowered his body vigilantly, held the dagger in his hand, and quickly looked around by the firelight.
The sound was getting louder and louder, and it seemed to be coming from the water, but there was nothing on the water downstream of Dong Qiangqiang, and there were no signs of animal activity. It seemed that the source of the sound was upstream of the river.
Dong Qiangqiang was worried that it was Lao Bai who made the noise. He was hesitating whether to raise the torch and walk over to take a closer look. He saw a columnar broken log rushing down from the upstream. The broken log was moving very quickly in the rapids.
Seeing that the movement was not from Lao Bai, Dong Qiangqiang couldn't help but feel a little depressed. Just as he was about to escape, he suddenly noticed a wriggling black shadow on the broken wood.
In the moonlight, he saw clearly that it was a bear cub.
Dong Qiangqiang and the police encountered bears when searching other islands a few days ago. He always thought that bears were hibernating and would not come out in winter. However, experienced police officers told him that although bears hibernate, they will also come out to look for food, especially This is especially true for the mother bear with her cubs, and she also taught him some strategies when facing bears.
Dong Qiangqiang knew very well that encountering a small bear meant that there must be a big bear nearby. Even if he had torches and weapons, he didn't want to face the bear, and it certainly wouldn't be a sweet scene.
He put the water bottle in his bag and was about to return the same way when he saw the broken tree, for some unknown reason, begin to spin in circles and speed up towards the downstream. The cub seemed to be at a loss as it kept dodge on the broken tree. He moved around and finally fell into the river.
When Dong Qiangqiang was drinking water, he noticed that the water flow was fast, and it was difficult to tell how deep it was at the deepest point in the center of the river. Just as he was about to leave, the cub that fell into the water let out a sharp roar, and at the same time, its two bear claws started to flap violently in the water.
Bears can usually swim, so Dong Qiangqiang is not worried about it drowning, but is more worried about the female bear nearby. He did not rush to rescue him immediately, but looked around first, but there was no suitable long branch on the ground. He could only choose the nearest small tree, raised his knife and dropped a thick branch. Just hold it in your hand.
Seeing that the cub's paws and head were submerged under the water, with only a bunch of bubbles left on the water, and the mother bear still hadn't appeared, Dong Qiangqiang no longer hesitated and rushed towards the river.
Just when he stepped one foot into the river, the cub had been washed 5 meters further downstream. The bear's head emerged from the water for a second and then submerged again.
Dong Qiangqiang ran downstream while observing the river surface. He noticed that there seemed to be raised rocks on the water surface in the distance, which meant that the water there might be shallower, and maybe the cubs could be stopped there.
He rushed to the rocks.
As he expected, he ran to the rocks and saw the cub's left forelimb stuck in the cracks of the rocks. Just when it couldn't hold on anymore and was about to swim down the river again, Dong Qiangqiang, who was wading in, grabbed it. The right limb was stuck.
Although he caught the bear, Dong Qiangqiang was afraid that the cub would bite him, so he was ready to let go at any time. But the cub was already drunk, as gentle as a sheep, and showed no resistance to Dong Qiangqiang's actions. Dong Qiangqiang walked toward the shore carrying the soaked cub, as if he was carrying a 50-pound rice bag.
He threw the cub on the snow and was about to carefully observe the life and death of the cub when he heard a roar from upstream that caused the earth to shake. He felt a buzzing in his ears and immediately felt a tremor under his feet.
He quickly raised his head and saw a black shadow running towards him from a distance. It took him the blink of an eye to see it.
He didn't even care to look at the cub, or hold the torch again, and plunged directly into the river. When he was studying wild boars, he had checked the running speed of these large animals. The running speed of adult bears was about 2-3 times that of adults. He did not want to race with them on land. But if it is in water, a bear cannot be twice as fast as a human.
As he swam to the opposite shore, he looked back and saw the black bear suddenly disappearing about seven or eight meters away from the cub. After a shrill scream, a cloud of snow mist rose from the snow.
Dong Qiangqiang stepped ashore in horror, wiped the water from his face, and stared blankly at the motionless cub in the flickering firelight on the other side, his heart filled with confusion.
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