Chapter 502 - 336: Dad Arrives Before the Grim Reaper

Chapter 502: Chapter 336: Dad Arrives Before the Grim Reaper

"Something seems a little off."

Lin Chen observed for a moment, frowning as he slowly lowered his raised axe and took a deliberate step to the side.

He couldn’t afford to be careless. The distance between them was just too close—only about five meters, with a small stream separating them that he could cross with a single step.

For a four-legged creature, that distance could be covered in the blink of an eye. Any slightly large movement could startle it.

When he moved, Jin Meiyan’s body trembled in fear. She quickly followed with small, shuffling steps, pressing her head tightly against his back, not daring to look ahead.

A strange thing happened.

He had clearly changed direction, but the coyote’s gaze remained fixed straight ahead, locked on his previous position. It was as if he had just moved out of the center of its vision, or perhaps as if it hadn’t paid him any mind at all.

’...Could it be?’

A bolder idea suddenly surfaced. He swallowed silently, wrapped his left arm protectively around the girl’s waist, and slowly turned her with him in a half-circle so he could see what was behind them.

"Wh-What’s wrong, Oppa? Is there something behind us?"

His movement nearly scared Jin Meiyan so badly she collapsed on the spot. Almost her entire weight leaned against his back, and her hands moved from clutching the corner of his shirt to resting on his shoulders.

If she hadn’t been afraid of impeding his movements, she would have instinctively grabbed the arm he had wrapped around her.

It was quiet behind them. The empty forest had no bushes or other obstacles to block their view.

He froze for a moment, then turned his head back to look at the coyote.

Thinking back, he hadn’t noticed any tracks from large animals when they came this way. This meant there was no threat behind them.

’Then what in the world is this coyote looking at?’

He had never encountered such a bizarre situation. The strangest part was that the coyote hadn’t moved at all since their eyes first met.

With the axe in hand, he honestly wasn’t afraid of the creature at all. He patted the back of the girl’s hand and said, "You stay here and don’t move. I’m going to go check it out. Something’s not right."

The moment he finished speaking, a terrified Jin Meiyan threw her arms around his. "N-No! Oppa, don’t leave me! My legs have gone soft..."

"Er, okay, then just hold on to me. We’ll move a little to the side."

You couldn’t blame her for being so timid. For the most part, throughout their entire lives, the vast majority of Da Xia People and Koreans—with the exception of those from the island nation—only ever saw aggressive wild animals in zoos.

Most girls are naturally more timid than boys, and she had zero wilderness survival experience. To encounter a coyote on her first time out and still be on her feet was already quite impressive.

He shielded the girl and slowly took two more steps to the side. The coyote still showed no intention of turning its head.

"Something’s wrong. Very wrong."

He frowned, glanced around at the ground, and picked up a stone. Winding up his arm, he threw it.

THWACK—

Empowered by Basic Throwing Mastery, the stone accurately struck the coyote’s head.

The immense impact knocked the coyote’s head to the side, and its entire body slid down the rock wall, collapsing onto the ground.

’A dead coyote?’

"Whew... It’s okay. That coyote was dead all along. No idea why it was leaning against the rock wall with its eyes open. I’m going to go take a look. Are you coming?"

"D-Dead?" ℯℯ𝑙.

Jin Meiyan slowly opened her tightly shut eyes and glanced at the stiff coyote corpse on the ground, a flicker of bewilderment in her eyes.

’I was just scared stiff by a dead coyote?’

In an instant, her delicate, fair face flushed bright red, and she couldn’t bring herself to meet Lin Chen’s eyes.

Luckily, both of their cameras were pointed straight ahead, not capturing her mortified expression. At most, only a few snippets of their conversation were recorded.

She tentatively lifted a leg, but before she could take a step, she lost her balance and fell forward onto Lin Chen. Fortunately, he was prepared, catching her by the elbow and helping her stand up again.

"Haha, I’ve never seen someone’s legs get *that* weak. Have you not hiked or done cardio in a while? Was the intensity suddenly too much for you?"

"M-Maybe... I don’t really do cardio usually."

Teased to her face by Lin Chen, Jin Meiyan’s head drooped, her face as red as if she were drunk. She wished she could bury herself in a pile of dirt on the spot.

’This is so embarrassing!!’

Lin Chen picked up a branch that had fallen on the ground at some point and handed it to her, saying with a smile, "It’s totally normal. My legs were weak every day back when I was filming that show in Alaska. You get used to it after a while. But you still gotta do your cardio. Here, use this for support. I’m going to go check things out."

"Don’t!"

Feeling him move half a step away, the word escaped her lips instinctively. When she realized what she’d said, she could only force an explanation, "Er, I mean, let’s go together. I want to see what’s going on, too. Why would a wild coyote die here?"

"Alright, let’s go together then."

Lin Chen also found it strange. He supported her with his left arm, his right hand still gripping the axe tightly, and they moved forward.

Gradually, her legs regained their strength, and their pace quickened.

Reaching the body, Lin Chen crouched down and touched the coyote corpse. As expected, it was hard as a rock. The spot he touched was ice-cold, long devoid of life.

"No warmth. The body is completely stiff. It’s been dead for at least twelve hours, maybe even more than a day."

"It’s early April, and the average temperature can reach about twenty degrees Celsius, or sixty-eight Fahrenheit, when the sun is out. But its body shows no signs of decay, just some flies gathering, which means it hasn’t been dead for too long."

"The weirdest part is why it died leaning against the rock wall with its eyes open. It’s just so strange."

"Yeah, it is strange. Don’t all those nature documentaries say that animals can sense their own death and find a place away from their pack to die peacefully? But this one died standing up with its eyes open, as if... as if it were guarding something."

Jin Meiyan’s casual remark made Lin Chen freeze. He instinctively looked at the coyote’s abdomen.

Its abdomen, which should have been flat, was swollen high. Two rows of engorged teats were exceptionally conspicuous.

"This was a nursing mother?!"

At the thought of this possibility, his heart began to pound. He hurriedly used both hands to pull the mother coyote’s corpse aside.

There was nothing special underneath or behind her, but Lin Chen quickly discovered a trail of paw prints on the ground leading off into the distance.

"See these tracks?"

He walked over and crouched down, parting the new grass on the ground to reveal the faint, circular indentations hidden beneath where the grass had been trampled.

They weren’t very obvious from a standing position, but when he crouched down, from this angle, he could indeed see a crooked line of circular depressions where the weeds had been flattened.

Jin Meiyan’s eyes lit up. "Oppa, do you mean its den is in that direction?"

"Right," Lin Chen nodded, pointing at the mother coyote’s abdomen. "She clearly gave birth recently. I don’t know why she died, but analyzing the detail that she died standing, it’s highly likely she was trying to let gravity pull her milk down."

"If she were lying flat, even her blood would stop circulating, let alone her milk. She probably knew she was dying and thought that if her pups could just get one last drink of milk, they might live one more day."

"That... can’t be, right?"

Jin Meiyan covered her mouth, her face a mask of disbelief. Her eyes were filled with emotion, the fear and terror from before completely gone.

When she looked at the stiff corpse again, her eyes held nothing but profound emotion.

The thought that there might still be living pups in that direction made Lin Chen forget all about looking after Jin Meiyan. He quickly followed the tracks.

After only about ten or twenty meters, he found a litter of tiny pups huddled together in a semi-subterranean den next to a crevice in the rocks.

The pups were about the size of his palm. They were already covered in a basic coat of fur, so they didn’t look newborn, maybe a week or two old.

He reached in and felt them. Ice-cold. Almost every body he touched was already stiff.

The corner of his mouth twitched. Refusing to give up, he pulled them out of the den one by one.

"Omo!!"

Jin Meiyan, who had followed him, gasped when she saw the stiff little pups on the ground. She immediately knelt down and placed her hands over their hearts.

Cold.

Cold.

Still cold!!

She checked six of them in a row, all as hard as stone, clearly long dead.

Thinking of the mother coyote who had died standing against the rock wall, her emotions surged, and her eyes gradually grew moist.

"Huh?"

Just then, Lin Chen let out a sound of surprise. He pulled out another small pup that had been hiding in the very back of the den.

"This one’s still warm!!"

"Mworago?!"

Jin Meiyan’s expression changed. She had subconsciously cried out in her native language. She hurriedly and carefully took the small pup from Lin Chen’s hands. Its body was still soft, but it still felt ice-cold to the touch.

Cradling it in her palm, she anxiously pressed her fingertips to its chest.

Before she could even feel for a heartbeat, she felt the little one squirm in her palm with an incredibly faint bit of strength.

Her heart skipped a beat. Acting on pure instinct, she lifted the hem of her shirt and tucked the little pup inside.

"It’s alive!"

After rummaging around in the den a bit more to make sure none were left, Lin Chen finally stood up. He glanced at the girl, who was protectively holding her slightly bulging belly, her face a mask of anxiety and nervousness.

"Looks like it only survived because it was at the very back. Its brothers and sisters used their bodies to shield it from the cold, creating one last pocket of warmth."

"If we had found them a few hours later, their whole family would have probably been reunited in the sky."

"What do we do now? We have to save it!"

"Of course," Lin Chen nodded solemnly. This was his territory, after all; he had an obligation to help the wildlife.

"Come on, let’s find another spot. We need to start a fire."