CHAPTER 452: CHAPTER 419: ALWAYS WINNING

Mountain Eagle saw Quida slow down the boat and start to turn around, and gently tapped Luna’s head, watching the girl grimace...

This wasn’t painless; this was her curiosity about the world or her playful spirit overcoming physiological pain.

If it were his own son, Mountain Eagle would never let him have his way; he’d take even a minor scratch to the hospital for some iodine and wouldn’t be reassured without hearing a few words from the doctor.

But perhaps because it was someone else’s child, Mountain Eagle felt like he could understand Luna’s thoughts better, like an onlooker stepping into the role, finding a position that was comfortable for both him and the others.

After making sure Luna was alright, Mountain Eagle smiled and said, "What did you say you saw just now?"

Luna made a scary face, grimacing and waving her arms, and said, "I saw a bear, a bear underwater..."

Mountain Eagle was about to say the girl must be hallucinating when Daria suddenly pointed at the water and said, "Look, it’s that mother bear, it’s dead..."

Stunned for a moment, Mountain Eagle followed Daria’s pointing finger and discovered a gigantic brown bear carcass floating up where they had just passed by in the boat, which must have been what jolted their boat earlier!

As Quida slowly steered the boat near the brown bear, Mountain Eagle grabbed a shotgun and nudged the bear’s body with it...

The brown bear’s body floating face-up on the water was already rigid, its limbs contorted, its mouth wide open...

Luna, like all children, lacked a clear concept of death...

Curiously, she leaned close to the grimacing bear and sniffed, even wanting to touch the bear’s big teeth.

Mountain Eagle grabbed the bold girl by the neck, told her to sit down properly, and then turned to Old Qiao, asking, "Are there hunters nearby?"

Old Qiao shook his head and said, "It wasn’t shot to death. It looks like it suddenly fell ill in the water and drowned.

These creatures don’t live long anyway, it’s a relief it’s dead now, saves everyone the trouble..."

Looking at the huge corpse of the brown bear, Mountain Eagle nodded slightly and said, "If this creature can’t store fat, it can’t hibernate. It becomes very dangerous when the temperature drops.

Indeed, it’s better that it’s dead!

How do you hunters usually deal with these creatures?

Bear skin must be valuable, right?"

Old Qiao pulled out a hunting knife, forcefully stabbed it into the bear’s abdomen, and then vigorously yanked open a wound, exposing the innards...

Seeing Mountain Eagle’s curious expression, Old Qiao shook his head and said, "Bear skin nearing winter is valuable. The skin of these modified monsters sheds badly, useless...

Let its body contribute to the swamp fish!"

Understanding, Mountain Eagle nodded, just about to signal to Quida to leave when Luna suddenly pointed to the edge of a marshy green area and shouted, "Look, bears, two bear cubs..."

Following Luna’s pointing finger, Mountain Eagle spotted the two bear cubs they had seen earlier...

They must have been born not long ago; their mother might have been a tamed experimental subject, then impregnated through artificial insemination with genetically modified bear cubs...

So far, Mountain Eagle couldn’t tell anything different about the two cubs...

The mother bear had probably been dead for no more than 8 hours, so the cubs seemed energetic, hearing the noises above the water, they jumped out mimicking their mother, howling demonstratively.

Watching a mud-covered bear cub attempt several times to swim towards the dead brown bear, Luna turned to Mountain Eagle and said, "Daddy, their mom is dead. If they get hungry, will someone put them in a cage and feed them?"

Mountain Eagle was taken aback, then shook his head and said, "You want to help them?

There’s no cage, just give them food, let them have a safe, warm place, give them a chance to grow."

Hearing this, Luna widened her eyes and said, "Daddy, you could be their daddy, right?"

Mountain Eagle was stunned by the little girl’s words; she obviously didn’t grasp the true meaning of mommy and daddy, having picked up just a bit from others’ conversations in the lab...

But in her understanding, a daddy was someone who could provide protection, food, and a warm home – that part wasn’t wrong.

Seeing the expectant look in Luna’s eyes, Mountain Eagle thought for a moment, then waved to Quida, who looked amused, and said, "Move closer..."

As the boat approached the shore, the two bear cubs were still standing there, mimicking their mother, standing upright and howling...

Mountain Eagle couldn’t hold back; Luna, like a little monkey, jumped ashore and pounced on a bear cub the size of a small dog, tumbling into the grass.

The other cub, startled, roared a few times ineffectively, and just as it prepared to bite this terrifying little two-legged monster, Balang rushed up, grabbed it by the back neck, and lifted it up like a battery-less toy, its limbs dangling, calming it down.

Mountain Eagle hadn’t expected Luna to be so fierce; he hurriedly ran up, pulled Luna up, but noticed that the little girl had been bitten by the bear cub, then like a frog, pressed down on it, one hand around its neck, the other around its belly...

Though the brown bear cub’s anger was quite frightening, Luna didn’t care, squeezing the cub’s neck making it stick out its tongue, while continually comforting it...