Cold, hard, morning mist drifting, yet seemingly like gun smoke.
That was Bi Fang’s first sensation upon awakening in the morning, and even though the rest was soft sponge padding, it still felt like he had slept on a hard plank bed all night.
Sleeping in the city was vastly different from sleeping in the wilderness. It was colder, more uncomfortable, not only more constricting but also more unsettling.
Upon waking, his airways felt as if they were clogged with dust.
“Cough, cough.”
After coughing twice, Bi Fang opened his eyes, gazing at the seat above him for quite a while before he realized he was in the middle of a six-day Wilderness Survivalist broadcast in Yemen.
Today was the second day.
[Wow, Master Fang is up!]
[Spread the word!]
“Everyone…”Bi Fang wanted to say hello, but as soon as he began to speak, the rumbling from his stomach abruptly cut off his words, making the scene quite awkward for a moment.
[It’s noon now, and I’m just eating my lunch, so delicious. Hahaha]
[Hot pepper mixed with rice, with a side of steaming spicy veggies]
[Got to go, I’ll take down this fish head first.]
Amidst the Shuiyou’s boastful comments, Bi Fang scratched his head and laughed, all the while removing the sponge padding that blocked the window as he introduced his situation.
“I’m currently in Abbascan’s war-torn city of Yemen, which seems to be an abandoned industrial area, and I’ve had a rough night.
Cold, wet, and hungry doesn’t begin to describe my current state. If there were a basin of hot breakfast in front of me now, it would definitely be the happiest thing for the past few days.”
Climbing out of the car’s interior, Bi Fang breathed deeply into the morning sun, exhaling a misty breath, the cold stimulating every cell in his body, quickly reviving him from his dormant state.
After doing some simple warm-up exercises to recover, Bi Fang decided to check the traps he had set yesterday. If he came back empty-handed again, it would not be good news for him.
Grasping the rope to re-enter the factory, Bi Fang once again arrived at the trap site, but his heart sank before he got close. From a distance of several meters, he could see that every single noose trap was empty!
[It’s over, fortune is not on Master Fang’s side!]
[It seems Old Fang is having a rough time this round, not catching any game for a whole day, just eating some bugs]
[Seems like only the first time with the ocean direct broadcast when Old Fang was this unlucky, right?]
The Shuiyou, seeing Bi Fang’s traps coming up empty again, were not exactly rejoicing in his misfortune, but they found the situation amusing nonetheless, finding entertainment in seeing the strong falter. 𝑅ÀƝօ𐌱Ёs̈
Fought bears, killed wolves, yet repeatedly frustrated by setting traps.
“Although the traps are empty, let’s not give up too easily. Let’s get closer and look. There might be a surprise discovery. I left mouse guts here yesterday. Now that the noose traps didn’t catch anything, it doesn’t necessarily mean no game approached. It’s also possible that the prey wasn’t fooled and escaped. But there must be traces if they came by, so there might still be hope.”
Despite the disappointment, Bi Fang was not frustrated. Trapping was always a matter of luck, and one couldn’t place too much hope on it.
Getting closer by a few meters, Bi Fang, who was about to give up completely, suddenly knit his brows and then smiled.
It seemed there was not a total lack of findings.
A faint stench in the air indicated that some creature had indeed been there.
As they got closer, even the online friends noticed that the leftover mouse innards from last night were gone!
[Holy moly, there really was something?]
[What the heck is so clever?]
“Foxes!”
Bi Fang squatted on the ground, pointing to the unmistakable diamond-shaped footprints in the dust, and nearby, a few strands of pale yellow fur could be found, obviously left by some other creature.
“I don’t know if you still remember the training method for tracking prey that Mugalen taught us last time; those discussions were basically correct.”
“Foxes have three little claws, cats have plum blossom prints, bears have four claws in front plus large pads, deer and sheep are similar, with two sharp points, rabbits have a plum blossom spot in front followed by a long stripe, which are the back leg prints. The ground looks like it’s been bulldozed where wild boars have passed.
Look, these footprints are narrow diamonds, because fox footprints are thinner and longer than dog’s, usually 5 centimeters long and 4 centimeters wide.
There’s a gap between the two front paws and the two back paws; the gap is longer than a matchstick.”
And early spring, March to April, is when foxes shed their fur, so you often see fur between the footprints, not just foxes, most animals shed during this time, dogs between March and May, cats in spring and autumn too.”
Bi Fang picked up some fur on the ground to show the audience, a thick tuft of short hair.
Most crucially, Bi Fang smelled the distinct stench unique to foxes.
[Holy shit, is fox stench real?]
[The smell is so strong, can you really smell it directly?]
[Amazing, Master Fang, is your nose a dog’s nose?]
Bi Fang shook his head, explaining that anyone paying close attention could actually smell it, as it was indeed overwhelming.
“Foxes themselves don’t smell much, otherwise if they really had a natural body odor, wouldn’t they be a natural mark in the eyes of many predators with a keen sense of smell?”
The online friends nodded involuntarily, as if there was some sense to it.
“Foxes are similar to skunks in this regard; they have a gland sac on each side of their anus that can release a peculiar smell, functioning to evade predators. So when a fox is irritated or frightened, it’s very likely to emit an unbearable stench.
Moreover, the stench in a fox’s urine is also strong and hard to remove. It’s even more apt to say it’s a kind of pungent stench rather than just an odor.
So I guess, this little fox not only ate the mouse innards but also relieved itself here.”
With a flare of his nostrils, Bi Fang easily found the fox’s excretion spot, distinguished by the dry traces amidst the dust on the ground.
A patch of dried yellow irregular stains starkly appeared on the factory floor, and Bi Fang was sure it hadn’t been there the day before.
It’s true that foxes are rare in cities, but in abandoned urban areas like Yemen, it’s still possible to occasionally see some wildlife.
Moreover, the urban construction in Abbascan is quite loose, not as dense as in Huaxia, otherwise the big fire the day before yesterday, unchecked, would not have just burned down half a street. In such cases, some wildlife might occasionally enter the city.
“I don’t have any bait left on me, and under these circumstances, it’s unlikely that the fox will appear a second time. So I can only try to track it and see if I can catch it directly, just by following the footprints…”
And the scent…
Bi Fang, pointing to a series of footprints on the ground, lowered his eyelids, leaving the latter half of the sentence unsaid.
In a city covered with cement surfaces, it’s hard to find prey by footprints alone. Sadly, this fox made a fatal mistake; after eating the innards, it urinated, getting the smell on itself.
Isn’t this seeking death?
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