BXBX NOVEL Chapter 169: 166: The Sparrow Stalks Behind?
As the glider flew closer, the audience finally got a clear view of the creatures, which turned out to be large deer with long antlers!
[Reindeer? Is Old Fang going hunting again?]
[Wow, are we going to have meat now? But isn’t it illegal to eat wild reindeer meat?]
[Etienne: You’re kidding me, I just forced down that nasty lichen, and now you tell me there’s meat?]
[Upstairs, do you still think this is inside the country? This is foreign territory, lawless land, Master Fang has been unleashed!]
Bi Fang hadn’t expected such good luck to stumble upon a migrating herd of reindeer on flat ground!
Seeing the barrage screen messages from the Shuiyou, Bi Fang shook his head, “Don’t worry, everyone. Reindeer are the most abundant species of deer in the world, with nearly four million wild reindeer worldwide. They are a major source of meat for many people living in the Polar Regions, and there are quite a few reindeer meat restaurants in Finland itself.”
Bi Fang gained altitude with the glider, circling around, looking for a place to land.
Fortunately, if there’s one thing Finland has plenty of, it’s lakes.
Finland’s land area is only 330,000 square kilometers, not even as large as Yunnan Province, yet it’s known as “The Land of a Thousand Lakes.” Even that title is an understatement, as Finland has 188,000 lakes; that’s roughly one lake for every two square kilometers.
If it weren’t for that, Bi Fang wouldn’t have bothered with the desperate calculations of latitude and longitude, as he could simply find his location on a map by some of the larger lakes.
After circling around, a small frozen lake came into view.
Bi Fang piloted the plane to spiral down, breaking through the thin ice with the pontoons, cutting a long waterline and docking steadily at the shore.
The geese landed on the lake’s surface, got a shock from the cold, trembling as they flapped their wings to climb onto the shore, shaking their feathers incessantly.
Bi Fang pulled out a hunting knife, handed it to Etienne for self-defense, and pointed at the glider, “You take the glider to the middle of the lake. Don’t get off on shore recklessly. If you run into danger, just yell for me. The drone stays with you, And the audience will help you watch too. I’ll come back as soon as I can. If all goes well, we’ll have deer meat tonight.”
Etienne was initially worried, but thinking of the lichen’s unique “flavor” …
He had no choice but to agree, as he did not wish to taste lichen again.
“Remember, don’t panic if you encounter danger. Even if the geese are in danger, don’t rush to shore easily. Don’t put yourself in peril for them. If it really comes to it, just fly the glider up into the sky.”
Before leaving, Bi Fang reiterated his instructions several times. He set the drone’s barrage screen to French to facilitate communication between the two parties.
With the drone, he could constantly monitor Etienne’s situation to prevent accidents.
As long as Etienne followed his instructions exactly, there wouldn’t be a problem.
Very few predators are willing to swim to hunt their prey and even if there are, Etienne would have enough time to take the plane to the sky.
As Bi Fang left, the live broadcast screen switched to two split views.
One showed Bi Fang’s first-person perspective as he hunted reindeer, and the other displayed Etienne, who remained on the water, in third-person view. Looking at the drone in front of him, Etienne was quite curious. He watched the screen as a heap of barrage comments popped up furiously, surprisingly translated into French!
Etienne got excited, marveling at how intelligent the drone was, almost enabling barrier-free communication, and he extends his hand in greeting.
“Hello! Huaxia’s audience!”
[Wow! It’s a handsome guy!]
[By the way, is it winter vacation in France already?]
[So interesting, one live stream, double the fun!]
[Can the handsome guy tell us the story of raising the White-fronted Geese?
I’m so curious!]
The barrage was thick and fast, and Etienne was taken aback by Shuiyou’s enthusiasm, but he quickly got used to it.
“Of course, to be honest, I didn’t like them at all when Elvan first brought the goose eggs home. To get them used to the engine noise, Elvan played that sound on the speakers every day, really loudly too, making it impossible for me to sleep at night. But gradually, I got used to it, and one day when I went to see the eggs in the hatchery…”
Crrack!
Bi Fang snapped off a branch, checked its weight and length, and held it in hand to serve as a walking stick.
It had been less than fifteen minutes when Bi Fang reached a snow slope, and the reindeer herd spotted earlier from the air appeared once again before everyone’s eyes.
in the first-person perspective, this hunting view caused the adrenaline of the viewers to surge, and they held their breaths nervously, as if afraid to startle the deer herd in front of them.
Bi Fang slowly descended the snow slope, lay down in the snow, and pointed to the nearby reindeer herd, saying.
“The most astonishing behavior of reindeer is their annual migration that spans hundreds of kilometers. With the arrival of spring, they leave the forests and grasslands they live in and head north along centuries-old unchanging routes. It is always the females that lead, followed closely by the males, marching in orderly fashion, eating as they go, and traveling day and night.” “They shed their thick winter coats along the way, and grow new, thin summer fur; the shed wool falls to the ground, serving as markers, year after year, for who knows how many centuries.”
“This herd of reindeer is most likely migrating.”
Below the snow slope, the reindeer herd formed a long line, with several leading reindeers bearing huge antlers, elegant and robust, their dense brown fur and powerfully arched backs indicating they are animals adept at leaping, and those big, fine-haired antlers seemed so touchable.
Several deer in the line occasionally stopped to nibble the green grass buried under the snow, then lifted their heads to look around alertly, just as Bi Fang had described.
What puzzled viewers, however, was that all these reindeer seemed to have antlers?
Were they all males?
[Damn, Old Fang’s walking stick has appeared again.]
[Why do I feel like this hunt seems even more difficult?]
[I feel like it looks like the Pere David’s deer I’ve seen before, is it really not illegal?]
“Many people think reindeer are similar to Pere David’s deer, also known as ■the four not alike,’ but there are significant differences between the two,” Bi Fang said without looking at the barrage, having to respond to netizens’ questions in a different way since the drone was absent.
“Pere David’s deer has the longest tail among deer, while the reindeer has an extremely short one. Pere David’s deer’s antlers have no brow tines and all the tines grow backward, whereas reindeer have very complex antlers growing forward, and they are the only type of deer where both males and females grow antlers.”
“Actually, there are no wild reindeer in our country; they are basically introduced and domesticated, speaking of which, it’s interesting that the reindeer herders are the Ewenki people whom I’ve mentioned many times before!”
Bi Fang watched the reindeer herd, moving along with them and slowly looking for the right hunting opportunity while determining which deer was easier to catch.
The reindeer below the snow slope remained oblivious to everything.
Bi Fang took out his harpoon and tied it to the walking stick with vine, making a makeshift short spear, and took this opportunity to share some knowledge with everyone.
“In Ewenki legend, long ago, the Oroqen, Ewenki, and Hezhen people shared the same ancestors and lived in the primeval forests near Lake Baikal.” “As the tribes gradually migrated, those who did not want to leave the Khingan Range became the Oroqen.”
“The tribes that moved out of the mountains to the plains became Ewenki people, living in Hulunbuir, primarily engaged in pastoralism.” “The Hezhen people followed the river down and reached the north of the Changbai Mountains.”
“Over three hundred years ago, one of the most distant and mysterious branches of the Ewenki people migrated from places like Lake Baikal to the Argun River basin, settling on the northern banks of the Genhe at the Argun (Hulunbuir).
“Unlike the Oroqen, they developed an inseparable bond with reindeer and thus were referred to as ‘the reindeer-herding Ewenki,’ sustaining themselves through reindeer herding and hunting.”
“Among the Huaxia, Ewenki are the only ethnic group that herds reindeer. Regrettably, as society progresses, more and more Ewenki choose to leave the forests, and their unique hunting culture has started to collapse.
“In the vast northern forests, the sound of Ewenki people calling reindeer and knocking on birch bark vessels will no longer echo.”
[Damn, I was wondering why they all had antlers, thought it was a fencing team or something!]
[Fencing team… looking at those reindeer antlers, they’re so damn picturesque.]
[Damn, it’s the Ewenki again, this ethnic group seems so badass!]
[Me too, feels like they know a bit of everything.]
“These traditional hunting-based ethnic groups have many practical survival skills, and many of my skills come from them,” Bi Fang said as he continued to watch the reindeer.
The reindeer slowly moved, with one or two occasionally straying from the line to graze on the sides.
Bi Fang fixed his gaze on a nearby reindeer, like a hidden tiger lying in ambush. But what no one knew was that, not too far away, another pair of eyes was quietly watching their own “prey.”
The resemblance between the two was striking!