"The immortal sent us in."
The simple country man's answer made Xu Chuxiang slightly startled, and he couldn't help but once again fell into the memory of the afternoon when he first met Professor Holt.
…
"A mysterious valley? Mr. Professor, you don't want to go to Shennongjia to find savages, do you?"
Xu Chuxiang sat on the mahogany chair with gold velvet cushions and took a sip of the authentic sirloin black tea specially purchased from Shanghai. This was a habit she developed while studying abroad in Wudu.
Then she smiled and said to the Inlon gentleman sitting opposite.
If Professor Holt really wanted to go to Shennongjia to find savages, then she would try her best to persuade him to give up the idea.
Because that's meaningless.
The legend of savages in Shennongjia has been circulating for many years. The origin of the legend can be traced back to 800 years ago, during the Longtai Dynasty of the Great China Dynasty. At that time, in a small village on the edge of Shennongjia, more than a hundred people in the village died overnight. They all died mysteriously. When the county police arrived at the scene, they found that no one in the village was alive. They died in pieces and in horror, as if the village had been attacked by some ferocious beast.
However, it was impossible to tell what kind of beast it was from the scene, and there were no other traces left, only a few strange huge footprints.
This incident is clearly recorded in the local county annals.
This is also the first time there is a clear record of the legend of the Shennongjia Savages.
In the next eight hundred years, stories about savages would spread from time to time in the area around Shennongjia. However, most of them had no clear records and were just passed down orally among the villagers.
Many of them were later proven to be falsehoods, drunken bragging, or lies fabricated with ulterior motives for some reason.
Regarding the Shennongjia savages, both the government during the Great China Dynasty and the government during the Republic of China specially organized a large number of people to go into the mountains to search for traces of the savages.
As for the final result, it is not all without gain. Over the past hundreds of years, these people who have searched into the mountains occasionally did find some strange and huge footprints in the primeval forest of Shennongjia, but other than that Apart from that, there is no other gain.
In fact, since the legend of the Shennongjia savages began, all that existed were those huge human-like footprints.
In the twelfth year of the Republic of China, a professor of paleoanthropology at Yanjing University in the capital led a special team to Shennongjia for scientific research. They spent nearly two months going deep into the primeval forest and studying almost all the things they could find. After returning from the footprints left behind, the paleoanthropology professor wrote a paper summarizing their expedition to the Shennongjia savages.
"...Apart from those footprints, we have not found any other savage fossils, bones, hair and remains... From the perspective of species evolution, this is very unreasonable, unless there is no such species at all..."
"...Moreover, the existence of a species should never be just one savage or a few savages. The population base must reach a certain level. In the continuation of life, if these numbers are not reached, inbreeding will definitely occur. The species of savages will become extinct. But if there were a certain number of savages in Shennongjia, the chances and frequency of discovery would not be as high as they are now."
"...I can't explain how those footprints were formed, but according to the discussion earlier in the article, from a biological point of view, it is certain that such a huge human being cannot exist."
"Perhaps, the Shennongjia savages are a puzzle that can never be solved."
These are the words of the paleoanthropology professor at the end of his paper.
Because of this professor's authoritative status in the field of paleoanthropology, after the publication of his paper, the debate about the Shennongjia Savage Incident gradually diminished, and most people accepted the professor's views.
Even if someone disagrees, they have no evidence to refute it.
Therefore, in recent years, the mystery of the Shennongjia Savages has gradually turned into a regional legend. It has become a gimmick for some rural areas around Shennongjia to attract tourists. Many villagers bring attracted tourists into the mountains to search for them every year. They lived a quite prosperous life as a savage.
Xu Chuxiang also believed that the Shennongjia barbarians were a myth.
A legend, after eight hundred years, there is no way to prove its authenticity, so there is a high probability that it is really just a legend.
"Mr. Professor, if you go to Shennongjia to look for savages, you might be regarded as a savage yourself!"
"Of course, I don't mean to offend you at all by saying this, but because this really happened."
"A few years ago, several tourists from Russia went on an adventure to Shennongjia. As you know, men from Russia are generally taller than white men, so after those tourists from Russia entered the mountains, they were beaten by some The mountain people who had never seen a white man thought they were legendary savages. If they hadn't been carrying guns, they might have been killed by those mountain people."
"Many savage legends actually come from this."
Xu Chuxiang said as if telling a joke.
Her purpose in telling this joke was to persuade Professor Holt to give up the idea of going to Shennongjia to find some savage, because it would only be a wasted trip without any results.
"We have a professor at Dahua Yanjing University who organized an inspection of Shennongjia a few years ago and concluded that there will never be any savages in Shennongjia. Believe me, it was a very professional and large-scale inspection. The conclusions drawn from the large-scale inspection activities are also rigorous.”
"I know about that expedition, and I also know that you are talking about Professor Lai Sheng. I have read his paper and have always admired his academic level in the field of ancient humans. Many of his research results have given me A big inspiration.”
When Xu Chuxiang was speaking, Professor Holt had been listening politely and carefully, and only then did he speak.
He took out a cigar, then raised his hand and looked at Xu Chuxiang with questioning eyes.
"Mr. Professor, feel free to smoke. If you weren't at home, I would ask you to give me one too."
Professor Holt laughed and said:
"Miss Xu, if I were thirty years younger and a lady like you, I would definitely pursue you crazily."
While speaking, he glanced at James Potter sitting next to him with a smile, then he lit the cigar, took a deep breath, blew out a green-gray smoke ring, and said slowly:
"I strongly agree with all the points in the paper written by Professor Lai Sheng of Da Hua. Under normal circumstances, it is indeed impossible for such creatures as savages to exist. Of course, only under normal circumstances..."
Professor Holt specifically emphasized the four words "normal situation", then paused slightly before saying the next sentence.
"But there are some things in this world that are not normal."
Xu Chuxiao's eyes showed confusion.
Professor Holt took a deep puff of his cigar again, smiled and said to the beautiful oriental woman sitting opposite him:
"I have explored many places in my life, such as the most famous mysterious and dangerous places, the Death Valley in Melician, the primitive jungle in the southernmost part of the mainland, the Snake Island in the West Sea, and the Skeleton Coast on the edge of the Dead Sea. , I have been to all of these places, and naturally have much more experience than most people. Miss Xu, believe me, there are some things in this world that cannot be explained by science and common sense."
"In our exploration community, these places where there are things, forces, or creatures that cannot be explained by science are called extraordinary places."
