Chapter 172 - 169: The Origin of the Wild Animals

Chapter 172: Chapter 169: The Origin of the Wild Animals

Deep in the mountains, over a hundred kilometers from Lin Xian Village, several people in gray leather clothes were gathered inside a cave.

The cave was quite large and filled with cages holding various wild animals.

Among them was no shortage of Level 1 and Level 2 protected species; even a leopard could be seen.

"I told you the Golden Eagle would be hard to catch, but you wouldn’t listen. Great, now the monkey we had is gone."

"You have the nerve to blame me? Who was it that let the giant panda escape last time?

I told you it’s a bear, it just has ’panda’ in the name. Did you really think you were tough enough to take on a bear?"

A man nearby with a scar by the corner of his eye and a sinister gaze said, "What’s all this arguing about! Just wait until the Boss gets back. I’d like to see how you explain this to him."

At the mention of the Boss, the two men began to tremble. One of them asked, "Wu the Second, can we still find the panda and the monkey?"

"Find them? My ass! You two should be praying those animals die out in the mountains. If someone from the outside finds them, the Boss will kill you when he gets back."

These men didn’t have cell phones, only satellite phones, so they had no idea what was happening in the outside world.

After every poaching deal, they would move to a new location.

Furthermore, their hunting grounds and storage sites were usually separated by hundreds of kilometers, a precaution to avoid being discovered.

They’d only had one incident in all these years, when a hiker accidentally stumbled upon them. Although they "took care of" the person, they were ultimately forced to abandon that shipment of goods.

This time, however, the shipment was plagued by a series of accidents. The goods were all ready, but their middleman died unexpectedly due to civil unrest in his country.

The Boss had no choice but to go out and contact the buyer himself. But when he got there, he nearly got himself killed.

A shipment that should have been sent out a month ago was still stuck here, with no way to get it out of the country.

Being cooped up deep in the mountains for so long in such an isolated environment was taking a toll on both their minds and bodies, leaving them agitated.

The giant panda’s escape was due to the carelessness of Old Fourth, who was just trying to have some fun and accidentally let it get away.

As for the young monkey, that was because they spotted a Golden Eagle—basically USD flying through the sky. That bastard Old Third got greedy and tried to catch it himself, leading to another accident.

Wu the Second wondered, ’Should I try to persuade the Boss to abandon this shipment? Our luck has been abysmal.’

Meanwhile, the man he called Boss, Ruan Tianzhong, had just returned from abroad and was staring at the news online with a dark expression.

Although his trip to contact the buyer hadn’t gone smoothly, he had ultimately succeeded.

But upon his return, he found that a giant panda and a young Golden Monkey were in the news, and the location was not far from their hideout.

There were no such coincidences in the world. The hideout he’d chosen was in an area with no native giant pandas or Golden Monkeys. For these two animals to appear there now, something must have gone wrong at the hideout.

He took out his satellite phone and called Wu the Second, simultaneously driving his car toward a less populated area.

"Wu the Second, has something gone wrong on your end?"

"Boss, you’re back! Did it go well? We had a small problem... Old Third and Old Fourth lost the panda and the monkey."

"A death wish! Is that what you all have? A small problem? That panda and that monkey are all over the news now!"

Wu the Second was stunned. "Boss, how could they be on the news? Even if someone found them, it shouldn’t have become a news story, right?"

Ruan Tianzhong did a quick search and found that the story had made the news because of its connection to a place called Lin Xian Village.

The place had only been around for two months, but not only had it trended online multiple times, it was also associated with many strange and miraculous events.

The two animals making the news after being discovered was also because of their connection to this village.

When he read about the Earth God, Ruan Tianzhong’s expression turned grim. He never expected such a place to appear near his hideout.

’Could my recent string of bad luck be because of this place too?’ he wondered.

Ruan Tianzhong said grimly, "Move to Evacuation Point Two immediately. Be quick. If anything else goes wrong, you can just stay in the forest for good."

"Understood, Boss. I guarantee there won’t be any more problems."

After hanging up, he popped the battery out of the satellite phone. He glanced at the news about Lin Xian Village and thought, ’Should I go check it out?’

In the end, he decided against it. The place felt uncanny, and he worried something bad might happen to him if he went there.

Just as these men began moving the goods from the cave, the appearance of the injured young Golden Monkey was also drawing the attention of another group.

A team of forest police had also arrived in Wuyuan County. Sheng Xia had been on this case for several years. Every time he was about to uncover a clue, this group of poachers would miraculously vanish.

"Captain, this has to be them. There are no giant panda or Golden Monkey populations in the surrounding area, so these two species shouldn’t be appearing here."

"Xiaoxia, don’t be hasty. Let’s get a handle on the situation first."

"I’m not being hasty, Captain. It’s just that when I think about how many wild animals this group has poached and trafficked, I just want to catch them as quickly as possible."

Sheng Xia recalled the hideout they had discovered two years ago, filled with the carcasses of protected animals. Those people had even eaten some of them. ’They’re a truly depraved bunch,’ he thought.

Moreover, based on the intelligence they had gathered, this was clearly not the first time this group had illegally captured and sold a giant panda.

The Wuyuan County Animal Protection Bureau had been planning to organize a team to enter the mountains and investigate whether there were wild populations of giant pandas and Golden Monkeys.

But this morning, they learned that there might be poachers in the mountains, and that the giant panda and the young Golden Monkey were likely prey captured by poachers from the Qinling Mountains.

"Captain Shi, this is all the information we’ve gathered. If they are indeed poachers, they should still be in the mountains."

"How did you determine that they’re still in the mountains?"

"Based on the condition of the young Golden Monkey, as well as its droppings.

If you hadn’t come, we wouldn’t have noticed that the young monkey had been hand-fed."

At first, the young Golden Monkey was afraid of people, and they thought it was due to the trauma of being captured by the Golden Eagle. Now they realized the little one had likely been in the poachers’ hands before that.

"Thank you for the tip, Director Cheng. Could you take us to Lin Xian Village for a look?"

"Of course. You might want to speak with Boss Lin of Lin Xian Village about this. He might have a way to help you find them."

He added this suggestion, thinking of the mysteries of Lin Xian Village and how capable that Lin Feng was.

"We’ll assess the situation first."

He wanted to use the young Golden Monkey and the Golden Eagle’s range of activity to determine the poachers’ hiding spot.

When Lin Feng received the call, he was at the Clothing Workshop, checking on the progress of their garment production.

Currently, all the materials they used were purchased from outside. To be able to use materials sourced entirely from Lin Xian Village, they would probably have to wait until this time next year.

This was especially true for the Silk Institute, a building that wouldn’t start producing right after its construction was complete.

Right now, three of the auxiliary buildings—the Silk Institute, the Water Mill, and the Oil Workshop—had not appeared in any tasks.

Lin Feng had even considered planting mulberry trees to line the roads and then using a reward to mutate them. ’Maybe that would make the silkworms produce silk faster,’ he mused.

Of course, that was just an idea. He still hadn’t decided what kind of trees to use for the roads.

"Boss, what do you think?"

"Not bad. Use this as the standard for making the employee uniforms for the village."

"Boss, can the clothes we make here be sold to the public?"

Lin Feng asked in surprise, "Have people been coming here to buy clothes?"

"Some tourists have asked, but they were interested in that traditional-style garment. Our skills aren’t quite there yet.

Boss, when are you going to find some master artisans to come here? For example, masters who understand Suzhou Embroidery, Xiang Embroidery, Yue Embroidery, and Shu Embroidery, as well as Shu Brocade, Cloud brocade, Song Brocade, and Zhuang Brocade."

"You really know how to dream big. Are you asking me to assemble the Four Great Embroideries and the Four Great Brocades?"

"Boss, you’re rich, you built such a large Clothing Workshop, and you’re using these ancient production methods. You must have some grand plan."

Gu Yuxi wanted the Clothing Workshop to develop so she could earn more money and get a higher salary, so of course she hoped for its success.

But right now, apart from a few tailors who could make ordinary clothes, the Clothing Workshop had nothing impressive to show for itself.

She did hear from Manager Hu that he was ordering some Four-Threaded Jiaoluo looms, which would allow them to produce a special kind of fabric.

However, without skilled master tailors, even with the fabric, they wouldn’t be able to create exquisite clothing.

"I can’t find those people for you, but you can recruit them yourself.

Hmm, once this month’s salaries are paid out, you can use that as a benchmark to negotiate with people."

Gu Yuxi’s delicate eyebrows twitched, and her eyes lit up as she looked at Lin Feng. "Really? Using this month’s salary as the standard!"

"As long as they have genuine skills, you can negotiate using this month’s salary as the benchmark."

Receiving her boss’s affirmation, Gu Yuxi was overjoyed. Even if the Clothing Workshop didn’t expand, her salary wasn’t low.

The boss would take a portion of the total profits to supplement the income of employees in her situation.

But with everyone else earning so much and striving for higher pay, employees like her who needed subsidies from the boss always felt a step below everyone else during meetings.

When she resigned from her job at a clothing company to come to Lin Xian Village, it wasn’t to just coast and wait for retirement; she wanted to achieve something great.

It was only after arriving that she realized she’d been duped—at the time, she was the only employee in the entire Clothing Workshop.

The current employees were all people she had recruited through her old contacts.

Gu Yuxi, in her thirties, was very career-driven. But during her previous recruitment efforts, many people were unwilling to come after hearing that their salaries would be based on profit-sharing.

To be honest, the base salary at Lin Xian Village wasn’t that attractive to true master artisans.

The main issue was that the Lin Xian Village Clothing Workshop wasn’t as famous as the Medicine House or the Restaurant, and the positions themselves had specific technical requirements.

Finding outstanding skilled workers in Wuyuan County was exceptionally difficult, which was why they currently only had a group of ordinary tailors.

She had tried on the clothes made by the Clothing Workshop herself and found them to be very comfortable.

At first, she was puzzled. Why weren’t clothes made from the same fabric elsewhere as comfortable as the ones made here?

Later, she asked Manager Hu Xia and received an answer she couldn’t quite comprehend: the buildings in Lin Xian Village were all special.

However, with the existence of the Land God Temple, she didn’t dwell on the issue for long.

With these kinds of advantages, the workshop would surely become famous if it developed slowly over time, but she couldn’t wait.

’Fame can’t wait, and fortune favors the bold.’

With Lin Feng’s assurance, once this month’s salaries for Lin Xian Village were paid, she could start her recruitment talks.

Lin Feng said goodbye to Gu Yuxi and left the Clothing Workshop, heading toward the village entrance.

’I didn’t expect this to involve poachers. It seems the appearance of the giant panda and the young Golden Monkey is related to them,’ he thought.

He had been skeptical from the start about a wild population of giant pandas and Golden Monkeys appearing in the mountains. He had never heard of any before, and no one in the surrounding cities had ever spotted them.

The influence of Lin Xian Village’s environment currently only extended for ten kilometers; it was impossible for it to attract terrestrial wildlife all the way from the Qinling Mountains.

Soon, he met Shi Jing and Director Cheng Kang from the Animal Protection Bureau. The two got out of their car and briefly explained the situation.

Captain Shi said, "Mr. Lin, could you take us to the place where the Golden Monkey was found?"

"No problem. Everyone, follow me. It’s not far from here, in the western mountains."

Some of the team members had looked up information about Lin Xian Village online. Although they were curious about the place, catching the poachers was the priority.

Lin Feng led them to the tree hollow where the Golden Monkey had been found and watched as they began to inspect the surrounding area.