novelbin Chapter 68 Adjustment Plan
Chapter 68 Adjustment Plan
Chen Fei circled back from the south, passed the outer side of the northeast corner outpost, and continued walking towards his destination without stopping.
The homeless man watched him walk away, then turned his ear tips back to the south.
The smell from the south was clearer in the cold morning air. Without the dilution of the daytime heat, it went straight into the nasal cavity—fishy, thick, and the smell of a swarm.
He tightened his tail tip, then relaxed, and continued to wait.
A place to settle down.
When Chen Fei returned, Sair was still on the outer edge of the bushes.
She wasn't asleep, and he knew she wouldn't.
He stood beside her for a moment, bent down to sniff the scent of her neck, and then looked up to glance south.
Sel didn't move, it just flicked the tip of its tail.
He lay down next to her, turned his ears south, and began to organize the existing information in his mind.
The group on the south side, two kilometers away, advances in a northeast direction at a speed of seven to eight kilometers per hour.
There are no dedicated defensive arrangements along the southern border of the territory.
Landing location defense forces: Sel, Meimei, Wanderer A, Wanderer B, Big Head, and himself.
The stingy guy next to Sel is no fighting force.
He put these points together and began to push forward the plan to adjust the defense line.
The southern boundary is the weakest point of the territory. There are no canyons, no dense vegetation, no natural barriers, only open grasslands. This terrain is most advantageous to hyena packs, allowing them to spread out along the entire front and use their numerical advantage to force the determination of the defensive direction to the last moment.
What he could do was to mark the hyenas' territory at several key locations on the southern grassland before they reached the border, thus solidifying the boundary signal. At the same time, he moved Big Head and Stray Armor's positions a bit further south, ensuring that the southern boundary was actually defended.
But the big head...
He put this aside for a while.
Big Head's old left shoulder injury has recovered by about 85%, and the limp has disappeared. However, in a real confrontation with a pack of hyenas, the explosive power of the shoulder is a key variable. He is not 100% sure whether the injured muscles will have problems under high-intensity use.
He suppressed this uncertainty and decided not to deal with it for the time being.
A soft humming sound came from the side.
He turned his head and glanced at the side of Sel's hind legs.
The stingy little devil was sleeping. That whimper was from his dream. After he finished, he turned over, buried his face in the hind legs of the little devil, and fell into a deep sleep again.
Chen Fei turned his gaze back to the south.
He needs to complete the scent marking on the southern boundary before dawn.
There is enough time, but not enough room.
He stood up, paused in front of Sel, lowered his head and tapped her forehead, then turned and walked to the south.
Sel turned his ear tip in the direction he was facing, watched him exit through the gap on the east side of the landing site, and then turned his ear tip south again.
It was still dark.
Big Head was sleeping soundly in the thick clump of grass on the north side.
He curled up into a ball in the grass, his front paws pressed under his face, his hind legs curled up, and his tail wrapped around himself—a sleeping position he invented to keep his body temperature warm.
The wind was stronger outside the grass clumps than in the middle of the ground because the earthen slope couldn't block the wind from the north. However, he found that the overlapping stems and leaves of the thick grass clumps formed a tiny windbreak layer. As long as he kept his body low enough, the wind would go around him.
He was very proud of this discovery, but there was no one he could tell.
Chen Fei wasn't interested; whatever he said, Chen Fei would basically just nudge him with his nose or ignore him completely. Sair would listen, but Sair had been looking at the south side lately and didn't have time to listen to what he was saying. He tried to talk to Meimei once, but Meimei glanced at him and then continued on her way without reacting.
So he kept the discovery to himself.
In his dream, he was still chasing that wildebeest leg.
This wildebeest leg had been running in his dreams for several nights, and each time he was just one step away from catching up. Each time, he was interrupted by something just when he was about to get close.
Tonight is no exception.
What interrupted him was a smell.
It wasn't the smell of a dream, but a real smell, wafting in from outside the grass and into his nostrils—fishy, thick, and unfamiliar, unlike the smell of any animal he knew in his territory.
He was jolted awake from his dream, his head buzzing. He opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by darkness. Thick clumps of grass pressed the night even deeper, and he could only make out the outlines of the grass stems and leaves. He couldn't see anything clearly.
He twitched his nostrils twice.
The smell was still there, not just a single odor, but a persistent background concentration, drifting in from the south, much stronger than the last time he smelled it last night.
His hind legs tightened beneath him, and his tail emerged from its wrapped-up position, sweeping across the ground twice.
He stood up, emerged from the thick clump of grass, and stood on the edge of the earthen slope, pointing his ears and nose south.
The smell is real, not a residue; it's a continuous input, indicating that the source of the smell is moving north and is still moving, without stopping.
He put his hind legs firmly on the ground and walked towards the spot where he had been standing. His steps were faster than usual, his head was down, and his eyes were wide open.
After walking about fifty meters, I ran into Chen Fei.
Chen Fei returned from the south, his pace quick, and the two nearly collided on the grass north of their landing spot.
Big Head took a step back, then rubbed against Chen Fei, nuzzling his chin with his forehead and letting out a low, short "hmm." It wasn't a coquettish sound, but rather a way of telling him: I smelled it, I'm awake, I'm following you.
Chen Fei glanced down at him.
I looked at it for about two seconds.
Then he nudged his left shoulder with his nose, not hard, but in the right spot, right where the old injury was. He paused for a moment, then looked up and walked toward where he had landed.
Da Tou stood still, checked the feeling in his left shoulder, and then took a step to follow.
A place to settle down.
After Chen Fei returned, he woke Mei Mei up from her sleeping position.
It didn't call out to her, but walked up to her and brushed her ear with its tail. Meimei immediately opened her eyes, without being confused, and stood up straight.
He gestured to the south, then took a few steps to the east, stopped, and pawed at the ground with his front paws.
Meimei followed, looked at the spot he was digging, then looked up to the south, nodded, and lay down in that spot with her ears facing south.
He walked toward the direction of the homeless man, who was still sitting on that low rock at the northeast corner outpost. As he approached, the homeless man turned his ear, already knowing that he was coming.
He paused in front of the stray ape, gestured to the south, then took a few steps in a south-southwest direction and stopped at a spot on a sloping hill with a good view, where he scratched at it with his claws.
The homeless man stood up, followed, looked at the spot, then sniffed the ground, looked up to the south, paused for about three seconds, and then lay down in that spot.
Chen Fei walked back to his lodgings. When he passed the outpost of Wanderer B, he flicked his tail at him. Wanderer B sprang up from his half-asleep state, immediately turned his ears south, stood up, tensed up, and his stress level was obviously higher than that of Wanderer A. His body trembled slightly.