Hunters of the Forbidden Region ch 6.1 - It Will Have To Do

After they have deboarded the plane, there were more travelling to do.

Three days later, Lin Shuo and the group finally arrived at Dzhalinda – a small town in the far east of Russian.

This border town sits on the north side of Heilongjiang, and borders Meho, China by just that. The residents mostly have black hair and darker color skin like that of Asians. Most of the residents are fishermen or lumberjacks.

Naturally the living condition here was nowhere close to that in Chun Ning. The guest rooms were dimly lit and the bed as hard as steel.

Lin Shuo slept soundly nonetheless. A total of 19 individuals plus the bird, Lin Shuo was the only one that has his own room.

Whether he was sitting down, lying down, or standing up, Lin Shuo had been sleeping majority of the time through the entire trip, with the large ebony box upright next to him, and the chatty bird on his shoulder.

Everybody has gotten used to that.

The next morning after they have arrived at Dzhalinda, Lin Shuo rose exceptionally early for a change. Leaving through the decrepit door of the hotel, Lin Shuo stood in the outdoors squinting his eyes from the bright light of the sun.

Even at 3,000 kilometers from the north tropic of Cancer, but summer at the far east can still reach 30 degrees Celsius. The time now was end of summer and beginning of fall, the temperatures vary greatly between day and night times.

Granted, this was not comparable to heading into the mountains during the worst season of the far east, but thinking about their target this trip, Lin Shuo’s mood was heavy.

When his eyes finally adjust to the sun, the first thing he saw as Anne the beauty.

Out here, Anne dressed very differently from her usual white collar outfit. She had on full outdoor outfit. Not only did she appeared to be efficient and ready for business, her outfit further accentuated the curvature of her body.

At the edge of the forest just outside the hotel, she was stretching  against a white birch tree with one foot high up on the tree branch while standing on the other.

Noticing that Lin Shuo was approaching her, the beauty put her leg down and walked in front of Lin Shuo, “Good morning, Mr. Lin. Please get ready, we will be leaving in an hour.”

“Looking at your stance here, how many years have you trained?” asked Lin Shuo.

“Oh, I have trained in both judo and Taekwondo,” Anne smiled lightly, “Don’t worry, Mr. Lin, I won’t become a burden.”

“What you have practiced won’t be useful on this trip,” Lin Shuo shook his head and walked into the white birch forest.

---

Anne didn’t see Lin Shuo again till ten minutes later.

“I won’t do it again, Shuo-ge!” The starling was being held in Lin Shuo’s hand, struggling violently.

Lin Shuo flicked the starling on his forehand with his fingers from the other hand and said solemnly, “What time do you think it is now? You just can’t control your bird down there? You have been gone all night! Look at yourself! There will not be a next time, I am going to castrate you right now!”

“No! Please don’t, Shuo-ge!” The starling continued struggling violently, “Aren’t we brothers? You can’t do that to me!”

“Sure I can!”

“Shuo-ge! Shuo-ge! There are outsiders here, save me some face!” The starling was close to tears, “Aye! Woman! Quick, speak for Ba-ye here!”

Anne looked a bit uneasy but finally took a couple of steps forward and hesitantly said, “Mr. Lin, is that really necessary? Ba-ye was just having some fun…”

“He’s not an ordinary bird,” said Lin Shuo after casting a glance at Anne.

“Of course Ba-ye wasn’t an ordinary bird,” replied Anne, perplexed.

“The reason he’s not an ordinary wasn’t because of how smart he is, or how human-like he is, but he has a great responsibility within him,” continued Lin Shuo. “He is a very important partner of mine during combat. If he loses his mind during combat, I may not make it out alive. And if I don’t make it out alive, none of your will make it out alive.”

After saying that, Lin Shuo paused for a second before he asked, “You still want to appeal to me for him?”

Anne quickly wave her hands and shook her head. She even took a few steps back.

The starling saw that he has no one else by his side and played hard, “Shuo-ge, give me one more change, huh? If I messed up, you don’t need to castrate me, I will flew into the cliff and kill myself!”

Lin Shuo was unaffected by his words. He pulled up a shiny dagger from his waist and with a flicker of his wrist flipped the staring with his stomach side up.

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Hunters of the Forbidden Region ch 5.2 - Old Rival

"I was once in combat with it six years ago,” Lin Shuo decided to divulge a bit of information. He felt that Anne was too overconfident about his ability.

This was, naturally, not a bad thing for Lin Shuo. But as one of the leaders for the troop, her mentality might not necessarily be a good thing.

“Have you heard of the incident at Mount Kunlun six years ago?” asked Lin Shuo.

“A little bit of it. It was a tragedy among the circle of hunters. Thirty or so of you entered the mountain, and you were the sole survivor,” said Anne. “Truth be told, this was the reason ILRO decided that we must have you as the leader of this mission.”

After saying that, she seemed to recall something else, “Do you mean that the creature we are facing at Heilongjiang right now is the same creature from Mount Kunlun that annihilated almost the entire group of hunters?”

“From the evidence we have so far, I’d say so,” nodded Lin Shuo. Then, casted a look at Anne, “You know who taught me all my skills?”

“Naturally the 86^th head of the Lin’s household and also your father, Mr. Lin Yaoshan,” replied Anne in the most respectful tone. “He is the current leader of the hunter circle.”

“My father died on Mount Kunlun six years ago,” a painful look flashed past him briefly but his tone remained calm.

Anne was obviously shocked. She then lowered her head and said, “I am sorry. We didn’t know.”

“We didn’t expect you to,” said Lin Shuo. “Our battle on Mount Kunlun was the best kept secret among the hunter circle. It was already quite impressive that you have found out about that.”

“If that is the case, does that mean you are the current leader of the hunter circle as Mr. Lin senior had already passed away in the unfortunate event?” Anne look rejuvenated.

Lin Shuo paused for a second and casted a glance at Anne, “There was never a leader within the circle of hunters. The hunters in the group were just being respectful and willing to follow our lead when we work together on missions.”

“Oh,” nodded Anne, like she had learned something new. She then asked again, “I have also heard that, since the very ancient time, in addition to the ebony box that you had on your back, the Lin family has another token of the hunters’ circle called the Dragon Bone Thumb Ring. This token represents the absolute authority that the Lin family among hunters.”

Picture: Dragon Bone Thumb Ring (What I think right now. I might update to a different picture if later on the description suggests otherwise.)

Source: read01.com

Picture: Some other types of thumb rings (agate, emerald, and jade, in order)

Source: ehiding.co

As soon as the dragon bone thumb ring was brought up, Lin Shuo’s attitude turned cold and he stopped talking.

“Woman, you’ve heard too much!” said the starling after swallowing a bite of pastries.

“I’m sorry, so sorry,” said Anne as she bowed and apologized.

“It’s fine,” Lin Shuo waved his hand, “I am only telling you this to let you know that the creature might be stronger than you have imagined. I will do my best. I know you might be trying to establish authority for me that’s why you boast about my abilities to others. But I want you to know that you didn’t hire some sort of superior being and everything will naturally work out the way you have expected.

“I merely accepted the money for my assignment. I don’t need to be responsible for anyone’s lives. But you are not the same. Miss Anne, you are not just anyone. I trust that you know what I am saying.”

“I appreciate what you’ve said, Mr. Lin,” nodded Anne, taking his words seriously.

---

Everybody had a day’s rest at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Lin Shuo returned to his room for a nice, long sleep. He didn’t care what was going on outside.

The next morning, Anne woke him up using the phone inside the hotel and asked him to meet up at the hotel lobby.

When he arrived at the lobby, the entire team heading toward Heilongjiang was assembled.

Anne – the person in charge of ILRO’s Asian branch.

Wei Xingshan – captain of the Asian branch mobile unit along with Liu Qing, his vice captain, and 13 elite mercenaries.

There were also ILRO’s lead researcher, Professor He Zihong, along with his student Yang Ta.

All 18 of them with Lin Shuo being the mission leader mounted the tour bus arranged by Anne one by one and headed toward Chun Ning International Airport.

Destination of their flight: Northeast China. 

 Picture: Northeast China

Source: mikongjian.com

Hunter of the Forbidden Region ch 5.1 - Old Rival

Four Season Hotel was one of the tallest structure in Chun Ning.

August was usually the hottest time of the year here, but this was shortly after day break, the temperature was vey comfortable.

Lin Shuo took the elevator to the top of the building, leaning up against the railing, he could enjoy the panoramic view of most of the city.

Looking at the rows and rows of modern architectures, Lin Shuo lamented.

Time has changed, number of individuals in his trade has certainly dwindled.

Fishing out the pack of cigarette from pocket of his shirt, he lit one up and blew the smoke into the air and heard fluttering sound.

The starling circled a bit in the air and found Lin Shuo at the top of the building. Fluttering his wings, he landed on the railing in front of Lin Shuo, “Shuo-ge. There were so much pesticides in the woods that I almost got poisoned!”

“Oh yeah? You mean I could almost have some peace and quiet for a change?” Lin Shuo glanced at the bird and teased, “Well, are they female birds around here pretty?”

“Their looks are acceptable, but the birds here are so simple. All you need to do is to talk to them to hook up, not as challenging as those in the mountains.”

Lin Shuo smiled and shook his head, “We’ve already signed the contract. No more goofing off for you after tonight.”

“I understand,” said the starling, “By the way, Shuo-ge, I heard the entire argument earlier in the restaurant from the outside. That Wei Xingshan is such a fool!”

“Oh?” The starling’s words piqued Lin Shuo’s interest, “Why do you say that?”

“Surely the two researchers will be a burden, that part was obvious,” said the starling bluntly, “But what about Wei Xingshan himself? And his dozen of team member, aren’t they burden too? That’s why Shuo-ge didn’t care. What’s the difference between two more?

“If you ask me, we don’t need any of them. We could handle this entire mission perfectly with just the two of us. At most, we will let that woman Anne tag along. That woman is very good with her words, she appeases Ba-ye.”

“You!” said Lin Shuo as he reached out and flick the starling on his forehand with his fingers, “Where did you get this arrogance from?”

“Shuo-ge is so strong and powerful, I’ve got to be more arrogant as your sidekick. I don’t want to reflect poorly on you,” said the starling.

“It’s okay to joke around now,” reminded Lin Shuo, “When we run into that thing, you better be careful.”

“Of course, we’ve been brothers for how long now? Have I ever let you down?” replied the starling indifferently.

“Mr. Lin, Ba-ye.”

The pretty Anne walked slowly toward the two.

In her hand she carried a ceramic plate full of pastries, they looked to be from the buffet restaurant. Somehow she was able to bring it out of the restaurant.

She placed the plate in front of the starling and said, “Were you able to find anything good outside, Be ye? This is not a great hotel and the food are mediocre, I hope you don’t mine.”1

“See what I mean, Shuo-ge, this woman is good.”

Anne turned to Lin Shuo and said, “Mr. Lin, I was able to convince to Captain Wei to let Profession He and Dr. Yang join our team, I am wondering about your thought….”

“I am okay with that,” waved Lin Shuo. “They are researched who are almost fanatics in their field. Which make sense, how else could they have accomplished what they had? If we don’t take them with us, they will put their own team together. Then they are really going to die.”

“Mr. Lin is such a compassionate person deep down inside,” said Anne with a sweet smile, “I feel much better after hearing that from you.”

“But don’t let your guard down,” Lin Shuo shook his head, “Our target this time is quite powerful.”

“Oh?” Anne’s eyes filled with interest, “You seem to know this creature quite well?”

___

Note:

1.       This is the Chinese way to be polite. Not literally that the hotel is alright and the food mediocre.

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Hunter of the Forbidden Region ch 4.2 - New Members

After finished saying that, Yang Ta let out a deep breath, and said again, “Mr. Lin, this is practically a miracle in the field of biology. Given that Professor He and I have been in this field for our entire lives, we can’t possibly give up the opportunity to witness this creature in the flesh.”

“We understand that this mission will be extremely dangerous,” He Xihong chimed in, “And that’s precisely why we know that even with the help of Mr. Lin, it’d still be very difficult to capture this creature live. So if we want to witness this creature in its flesh, we must go on this mission in person.

“If only I can just catch a glance of it, my life would be worthwhile even if I die in Heilongjian.

“I am bringing Xiao Yang with me because he’s young, and that I have already passed onto him most of my knowledge. If anything happens, I will be the one to go first, you just have to keep Xiao Yang alive.”

He Xihong’s voice wasn’t loud, but his determination was clear. There was no room for argument.

Yang Ta did not express any opinion differently after hearing He Xihong’s words; he just looked at Lin Shuo eagering as though he was seeking for his approval.

“I don’t agree!”

Before Lin Shuo could respond, Wei Xingshan stood up from the table next to theirs and ostentatiously swaggered over to the table that Lin Shuo was sitting at.

“He doesn’t belong to ILRO so I have no jurisdiction over him, “ said Wei Xingshan as he pointed at Lin Shuo, then he looked at Professor He Xihong and continued, “But as the captain of the research organization’s Asian branch mobile unit, I have the authority to decide who from ILRO can or cannot join this mission. You two are researchers, you should stay in the base camp. Why go into the field and muck things up for us?”

“Captain Wei,” He Xihong’s face darkened, “I think you’ve got something wrong. I am the lead consultant and one of the founders of ILRO. I can decide who will be the captain of the Asian mobile team.”

“Great! Then just swap me out already!” Wei XIngshan slammed on the table, “I have had enough anyway! You guys are all talk, you think you can just join the mission like that? Do you know how many of us will die trying to get you back alive? You may have spent ten million dollars to buy the lives of the 15 of us, but are our lives really that worthless?”

Wei Xingshan’s voice got louder and louder as he spoke and, quickly, the other patrons of the restaurant got up one by one, and ran away from the restaurant.

A female server walked up next to their table as though she wanted to give them a reminder, but she was intimidated by Wei Xingshan’s terrifying look stopped her from approaching them.

He Xihong’s face was beet red and his hands shaking from anger. Anne quickly walked up to rub the old man on his back and gesture Wei Xingshan to talk.

Right then, Yang Ta adjusted his spectacles and said with deterministically, “Captain Wei, all lives are equal and cannot be measured with money. With regards to this mission, you have your responsibilities, but we also have our duties. If you truly think that we will just be your burden, that’s fine. We will go on our own, we won’t be needing your protection.”

“Well, we all have a common goal here,” said Anne, “And we are all aware of how dangerous this mission is. Then why can’t we just work together as a team? With Mr. Lin on our team, I believe our safety will be guaranteed. Do you agree, Mr. Lin?”

She turned and looked at Lin Shuo with her beautiful eyes as she talked.

Lin Shuo didn’t say a word the entire time. He looked at the others at the table that were at each other’s throats and said indifferently, “I am only here to do what I am paid for. The rest are not my problems. I am done eating and going to smoke a cigarette upstairs.”

Hunter of the Forbidden Region ch 4.1 - New Members

The fleet of SUVs drove on the rugged, mountainous paths on the border of southwest China for over seven hours.

At around 1 PM, they finally arrived at the suburb of a small city.

Nobody stopped, they merely turned onto the highway and roared on.

Another three more hours on the road and one could finally see the high rises in Sang Shing through the car windows.

By now, the sun was about to rise.

Anne was the one who drove the SUV that Lin Shuo was riding in. Normally, a girl driving for 12 hours straight could be fairly dangerous.

But this girl chatted with the starling the entire trip and showed no signs of being tired.

It was Lin Shuo who found the woman and the bird being too noisy through the entire trip.

The SUV fleet finally arrived at their destination -- the five-star Four Season hotel in Chun Ning, Seng Shing. They stopped for food.

Chun Ning was known to be spring like year round. The city did a great job in turning itself into a green city.

Lin Shuo let the starling went to seek his own food in the forest nearby and placed the ebony box neatly into the guest room before heading to the buffet restaurant inside the Four Season with Anne, Wei Xingshan and the rest of the crew.

The 200-something square meter fine dining restaurant barely have anyone inside at this hour of the day. It seemed quite empty.

Their group of a dozen or so individuals, especially Wei Xingshan and his team of soldiers marched into the restaurant. The ten or so of them were in sync whether they were walking, looking for seats, or sitting down. The few patrons in the restaurant all turned their heads to look at them.

Lin Shou picked a table that was slightly secluded and Anne waived for Liu Qing and the two women sat down with Lin Shuo. Lin Shuo invited Wei Xingshan to join them as well, but he gave Lin Shuo a look and declined his invitation.

After they have gathered their food and in the middle of dining and eating, two more walked inside the buffet restaurant.

Both of them were bespectacled. The older one of them looked to be about 60 years or so year old, cladded in traditional Chinese silk garment (tangzhuang). His hair was all silver but he was still quick on his feet. One could feel the wind brought up when he walked.

Following behind him was a man in his thirties looking very refined in his white buttoned down shirt.

The two of them picked up a plate and picked their own food before they looked around and finally headed toward Lin Shou’s table.

Anne and Liu Qing stood up when they saw the two men.

“Let me introduce them,” said Anne. “This is professor He Zihong, the top researcher of Global Lifeform Research Organization. And this one is his student, a young biologist from our country, Dr. Yang Ta.

“Professor He, Dr. Yang, this is Mr. Lin Shou, the team lead of our project.”

“I’ve have long heard about you, Mr. Lin!” Old man He Zihong passionately stretched out his hand, “I never imagined Mr. Lin to be so young!”

Lin Shuo paused for a second then stood up and shook hands with He Zihong.

After some pleasantries, everybody finally settled down in their seats. Lin Shuo looked at Anne inquisitively.

Anne immediately explained with a smile, “I’m just a half-assed research student and don’t measure up to the knowledge of these two experts. So they will be the subject matter expert for the trip to Heilongjiang. They have been waiting to join up with you here.”

“You mean Professor He and Dr. Yang will be coming with us to Heilongjian?” Lin Shuo frowned and looked at the two scholars.

“Well, of course!” Professor He Zihong beamed and said loudly. Then looked around at their surrounding and lowered his voice, “From the specimen we have obtained from the scale, we have just completed our preliminary research on the creature at Heilongjiang. Oh my God! This is truly a miracle in biology! Xiao Yang, why don’t you explain!”

The refined Yang Ta pushed up his spectacles and beaming with excitement, started with a low voice, “From the size of the scale, we gathered that it’s size is unmatched on earth.

It weight is around the currently largest creature on earth, around 100 ton. But it lives in the ocean, the buoyancy of the water can protect and support it’s weight.

On the other hand, the creature we are talking about now is terrestrial.

This was almost impossible in the biological sense. With this kind of weight, what kind of biological structure and strength of the body does it have to handle gravity?

This is our first question.

Second, the hardness of it reached 9.5 on the Moh’s scale, almost that of diamonds. We are talking about hardness of ore and have never been observed on any living organisms.

Third, from our analysis, we were able to find out that it’s shares 97% of its genome with the Titanoboa, a giant snake that lived during the Middle to Late Paleocene epoch. Yet even the Titanoboa did not reach this size.

On top of that, we have also discovered that this creature has been alive for over 1,000 years.”

Hunter of the Forbidden Region ch 3.2 - Farewell

The adults sat on the bamboo folding chairs or folding stools with their palm leave hand fan and kids ran around the locust tree.

Bamboo folding chair

Photo credit: jd.com

 

Bamboo stools

Photo credit: jd.com

Palm leave hand fan

Photo credit: aliexpress.com

When they saw Lin Shuo, they stopped chattering and starting greeting him in their regional dialect:

“Instructor Lin, how are you?”

“Instructor Lin, who are all these people?”

“Instructor Lin, are you taking a trip?”

“Instructor Lin, how long are you going to be gone? What about my kid’s study?”

Lin Shuo paused for a second then turned around and placed the ebony box upright next to the SUV.

Smiling, he walked over to the locust tree. Raising his pant legs a bit, he sat in one of the folding stools vacated by a villager and started chitchatting with them.

They were conversing in a heavily accented regional dialect. Neither Anne nor Wei Xingshan could understand a word they were saying.

Thirty minutes had passed and the sky was completely dark.

The mercenaries had long since finished removing the back seat and just waiting for Lin Shuo to take off.

Anne stood and waited patiently by the SUV but Wei Xingshan couldn’t quite control his termperament, “What’s that bastard going on and on about? It is going to take another 7 hours to get through the mountains.”

Anne just ignored him. Vice captain Liu Qing said, “Captain Wai, that is normal. Be a little more patient.”

Wei Xingshan remained silent for a while, then pointed at two mercenaries next to him and then pointed at the ebony box sitting next to the SUV, “Hey, you two, hurry up and put this box inside the car. It’s dark outside, and a coffin next to me. So creepy.”

The two mercenaries smiled and carried out his order right away.

Both soldiers were about 1.8 meters (approx. 5 ft 9 in) with a sturdy build. None of them gave the box a second thought. They went over to both side of the box and planned on directly carrying the box into the car.

One of the mercenaries gave it a push and let out a “huh?”. The ebony box didn’t give way at all.

He gave it another push. Still, the box didn’t move, but the mercenary took a step back.

“What? You haven’t had lunch yet or something?” Teased his teammate then he grabbed the box with both arms and tried to lift it.

He gave his all his might and the color on his face changed. He turned as if he wanted to say something to Wei XIngshan but finally didn’t say anything.

“Oh, c’mon, step away you two!” said Wei Xingshan impatiently. “This is embarrassing. Here, let me!”

After he was done talking, Wei XIngshan took a couple step forward and grabbed the black sash hanging down on one side and lugged it over his shoulder.

“What?”

Still the box didn’t move.

The remaining dozen or so mercenaries gathered around and one of them said, “Captain Wei, do you need some help?”

“No.” replied Wei Xingshan with a serious look.

He assumed a steady horse stance and grabbed the black sash tightly. With both feet planted steadily on the ground, he slowly exert more forces to lift the box.

 

Horse Stance

Photo Credit: baike.com

“CRACKLE! CRACKLE!”

All the joints on this 1.9 meter giant man crackled and veins were bulging out on his neck.

“Up!” roared Wei Xingshan. The wooden box shook a little then finally slowly being lifted off the ground.

Half an inch, one inch, one and a half inch, two inches.

Two inches off the ground and Wei Xingshan’s body started to shook violently and his face turned purple.

Right when he was about to be spent, he felt that the weight on his shoulder suddenly decreased by half and the wooden box was lifted up.

He turned his head and saw that Lin Shuo had already returned from the old locust tree and had bent over and lifted the backend of the wooden box.

Lin Shuo gave a fake smile and said, “I appreciate your help, but I got this.”

While saying that, Lin Shuo reached out his hand and grabbed onto the black sash. A casual swing and slug and the ebony box was placed steadily on his back.

Surrounding them, all the mercenaries looked at Lin Shou like they were staring at a ghost.

Others might not know how strong Wei Xingshan was, but his team was well aware of it.

Three years ago, he was the champion of the dead lift event. He was the strongest in the entire team.

Wei Xingshan looked at Lin Shuo with very complicated emotions and mumbled, “You look skinny and all, how are you so strong? And, what’s inside the box?”

“You will find out.” When he was done talking, Lin Shuo, lugging the box on his back, opened up the hatch back of the SUV.

As though it was nothing but a regular back pack, Lin Shuo took off the box and place it’s end on the backside of the car. Then, with a shove, the entire box went inside the vehicle.

Along with his action, the SUV shook violently and the tires visibly depressed.

Everybody witnessing this was silent.

……

With the engines roaring, the SUVs slowly drove away from this remote village on the border of southwest China.

Just when they were about to leave the village, Lin Shuo opened up the window and the starling flew inside and landed on his shoulder.

The bird looked a little depressed and remained motionless and quiet.

“What happened?” Lin Shuo turned his head and looked at him.

“Shuo ge.” The starling said in a low, deep voice, “I ended up…. lying to them after all. I said I will be back.”

Lin Shou looked at all the lights from houses in the rearview mirror and pondered.

“Will we be coming back?” asked the starling.

“I hope so.”

Hunter of the Forbidden Region ch 3.1 - Farewell

Lin Shuo carried the bleeding rooster with him and pushed open the red painted door.

Ever since he moved here six years ago, he has been pushing open this wooden door on the 1^st and 15^th of every month.1

Chopping a rooster’s head off and offering the strongest and most yang chi to the item sitting on top of the incense table.

Incense table

Photo credit: blog.xuite.net

But today, today was neither the 1^st nor the 15^th. Today was June 20^th, the year of jiashen.2

Or August 5^th, 2004, according to the solar calendar.

There was blood all over the floor in front of the incense table.

Lifting his hand, he dripped the rooster’s blood into a white ceramic cup on top of the incense table. Tossing away the chicken corpse, he retrieved three incense from the incense table and lit them up with a match.

After waited for a little while, Lin Shuo first lifted up the cup passed his center of his brows, the spill the still unclogged blood in front of the incense table.

After he had completed the entire process, Lin Shuo lit another cigarette and took a few puffs. Among the spiraling smoke, he said, “Zhui ye, you had looked over me six years ago so I survived Mount Kunlun.

I have gotten news today. Not only did the bastard from Mount Kunlun survived, it had gone to Heilongjiang.

Why don’t you take a trip with me.

This monster, should not have survived.”

His voice was soft, it was as though he was merely talking to himself.

After he finished talking, he got down on his knees and kowtowed three times before getting up. He rummaged around behind the incense table and finally retrieved a black sash as wide as a palm.

The black sash wrapped around an ebony box.

Ebony box

Photo credit: jszyzsgc.com

This ebony box was placed right behind the incense table. It was 3 meters long and 1 meter high. It’s size was enormous, almost looked like a coffin.

Lin Shuo bent over slightly, looping the black sash over his shoulder, he lugged the “coffin” onto his back and walked outside of the house.

Outside the house, after seeing the ebony box on Lin Shuo shoulder, Anne put her hands together and respectfully bowed at it. She quickly pulled Wei Xingshan out of the way so Lin Shuo and his ebony box could get pass.

“It’s all for show.” Grumbled Wei Xingshan disdainfully.

The starling flew over to the ebony box, pecked at it a couple of times, making a knocking sound before he said, “Zhui ye, how have you been?”

After greeting what was inside of the ebony box, the starling said to Lin Shuo, “Shuo ge, I am going to take a quick trip back to the forest. Since we don’t know how long this trip is going to be, I am going to tell my wives to get re-married. A couple of them have pretty strong personality, I wouldn’t want them to flew up against a cliff and kill themselves.”

“You go,” waved Lin Shuo with a helpless look.

Anne couldn’t help but laughed out loud. Then with a serious look, she gave the starling a thumbs up and said, “Ba ye, always the gentleman.”

“Women, are such trouble,” said the starling before he flew up into the sky.

After the starling was out of sight, Lin Shuo asked, “Which car am I taking?”

“Same one as me,” replied Anne.

Lin Shuo nodded and said, “Then please remove the back seat of that car.”

“Oh?” Wei Xingshan rolled his eyes, “Removed the backseat, why?”

“To place the box behind me.”

“Your box is well packed. Just tie it to the rack on the top of the car.” Wei Xingshan frowned and said, “We had quite a difficult time getting permits for the cars this trip. Every seat is taking. If we remove the backseat, where are my guys going to sit?”

Lin Shuo didn’t even bother lifting his eyes. He shook his head slightly and said, “I need to watch over this time.”

“I disagree,” insisted Wei Xingshan.

“Captain Wei,” said Miss Anne, “We will listen to Mr. Lin’s arrangement. Higher up had instructed us that Mr. Lin will be taking the lead as long as he joins us. We will follow his lead.”

Wei XIngshan remained silent for a little bit then said coldly to Anne, “You are the boss. Whatever you say.”

After saying that, Wei Xingshan made a gesture and all the other SUVs’ doors opened up and a dozen or so soldiers exited swiftly.

These soldiers stood neatly in a row in front of Wie Xingshan.

Lin Shuo was a bit surprised by what he saw.

He had quite a few encounters with mercenaries in the past. Most of them were veterans and not very disciplined. But this team of mercenaries seemed to be different.

“Everybody help out, let’s remove the back seat of this car,” ordered Wei Xingshan. “Whoever sitting here previously will have to squeeze into one of the other cars.”

In front of his team of mercenaries, Wei Xingshan seemed to have utmost obedience. Nobody utter a word of disagreement but quickly retrieved the tool box and started removing the backseat.

What was surprising was that the one overseeing the mercenaries and providing professional advices was a female soldier.

This female soldier was 1.7 meter tall (approx. 5 ft 5 in), short hair length to her ears. Quite attractive.

Noticing that Lin Shuo was observing the female soldier, Miss Anne introduced her immediately, “Her name is Liu Qing. She’s the vice captain of the Asia branch mobile team. She is also our technical equipment expert.”

All said and done, it was started to get dark.

There was a locust tree with thick foliage right smack in the center of the village not far from Lin Shou’s house.

Around 6 PM at night was when the villagers came out and chill under the tree.

___

Note:

1.       Referring to the Chinese lunar calendar here

2.       The twenty-first term of the Chinese sexagenary cycle. Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%94%B2%E7%94%B3

Hunter of the Forbidden Region ch 2.2- Negotiation

“Ugh…” Anne was speechless for a second but quickly added, “We have absolute faith in your ability, Mr. Lin.”

“Okay,” Lin Shuo nodded, “Since you have so much faith in me, I wouldn’t want to beat around the bush either. I’ll make an exception and come out of my retirement this one time, ten million dollars, live or dead.”

“Ten million!” Wei Xingshan cried out aloud before Anne could respond, “Buddy, are you insane?

I will have you know that even my elite mercenary group, three teams totally 15 in headcount signing our lives away only get ten million dollars in total!

We are essentially exchanging for this ten million RMB with our lives! And here you have to audacity to ask for ten million dollars just for yourself?”

Lin Shuo casted him a glance and said nonchalantly, “I am talking about USD.”

“What?!” Wei Xingshan looked as if he had been punched in the face. He face beet red and veins throbbing visibly in his neck.

He was about to say something else before Anne gave him another swift kick at the back of his knee, gesturing him to keep his mouth shut.

“That’s an amount greater than I am authorized to approve. Please wait a moment, Mr. Lin. Let me confer with my supervisor.” Said Anne calmly.

After that, she waved an apologetic gesture before she took her cellphone from her purse and walked outside of the house.

Wei Xingshan’s eyes widened as he looked at the back of the beauty.

Judging from her words, ten million dollar USD is negotiable?

Wei Xingshan was very distressed.

He had just joined the Global Lifeform Research Organization. Anne is his superior by name, but also his target of protection in this assignment.

From the pieces of information he was able to obtain on her, she wasn’t just any Harvard phD in biology.

Looking again at the bird on the desk, and the lanky, young village teacher who looked like he was in dire straits and straight up asked for ten million dollar.

Wei Xingshan had thought that him being a mercenary who’d risk his life would be the most abnormal one in the house and that the skill he possessed is the most valuable.

But now it looked like he couldn’t be more wrong.

While Wei Xingshan was still in a daze, Anne had finished her call and came back inside the house.

Smiling she said, “Mr. Lin, I have received my instructions. My superior was happy that we are able to hire you for that amount.

But we are a public service research facility after all and we have limited capital. How about this. Ten million dollar for the life sample, eight hundred thousand for the dead body. We will pay 3% upfront.”

“Are you seriously?” shrieked Wei Xingshan, “Higher up had agreed to that?!”

Anne ignored Wei Xingshan and bowed to Lin Shuo, “I thank Mr. Lin for your assistance for the Global Lifeform Research Organization.”

“You are welcome. That will work.” Lin Shou nodded and stood up, “I need to get ready.”

“No rush, we will wait.”

……

Lin Shuo walked to the back of the house and pushed open the door while the two looked on.

Outside was a small yard and a blue stone table top next to the door. On top was it was the cutting board and a cleaver. This was where Lin Shou prepared his meals normally.

On the other side of the courtyard was the principal room with a red painted door. Yet Lin Shuo didn’t normally live in there.

Red painted door

Photo credit: www.redocn.com

Inside the courtyard grown some vegetables, and five to six chickens pecking at the ground looking for food.

Lin Shuo bent over, reached out his arm, and grabbed a large rooster with a red comb.

The rooster fluttered its wings violently and wailed.

Lin Shou picked up his cleaver from the blue stone table in the courtyard and swung. The rooster’s flew into the vegetable field to the side.

A yellow dog dashed out from nowhere, picked up the head in his mouth and disappeared in no time.

Carrying the rooster’s body with blood still gushing out, Lin Shou walked straight to the principal room and pushed the door open without any hesitation.

All these transpired in barely two to three seconds. There were no wasteful moves between grabbing the chicken and killing the chicken. It was swift and efficient.

As Wai XIngshan watched his move, he felt a shiver ran down his spine but also baffled.

“What is he doing?” Uttered Wei Xingshan.

“Roosters’ blood is the strongest and most yang1 of all matters,” explained Anne lightly, “It’s the best offering for a weapon.”

“Offering to a weapon?”

“Lin’s, the family, worship an ancient weapon for 86 generations,” said Anne. “And Lin Shuo, is the 87^th descendent of the Lin’s family.”

___

Note:

1.       Yang. Considered as strong, bright (sunny), and associated with male principal (taoism). As opposed to yin,  dim, soft, and associated with female principal (taoism).

Hunter of the Forbidden Region ch 2.1 - Negotiation

Hearing Lin Shuo started talking, Anne smiled brightly.

“My name is Anne, I am in charge of the Asia branch of Global Lifeform Research Organization. Global Lifeform Research Organization is a national public service organization, our purpose is to research mysterious lifeforms worldwide and develop their applications thereof.”

My companion here is Wei Xingshan, head of the Asia Mobile Unit.”

When she finished the introduction, Wei Xingshan had finally recovered from the shock from the starling. Standing upright, he gave Lin Shuo a perfect military salute.

Lin Shuo nonchalantly gave the sturdy giant a glance and didn’t say anything.

“We apologize for visiting you unannounced, and this is the reason,” as she spoke, Anne reached into her purse and retrieved something wrapped in a piece of white cloth. She unwrapped the item slowly and showed it to Lin Shuo.

Lin Shuo was indifferent up to the point he saw the scale in front of him. His faced dropped slightly.

He sniffed a couple of times to get a better smell of it.

A familiar smell. Behind his spectacles, his eyes squinted. Reaching out, he took the scale from Anne.

He examined it carefully. The scale was the size of two palms. Under the sun inside the adobe house, the scale was completely black with a peculiar copper-like glow.

When he tilted it a bit, he could see a three-finger wild dark red line in the center.

A gut-wrenching feeling overtook him. Turning page, he thought to himself, “it’s it?”

The starling who resting on the desk fluttered it’s wings, flew over and landed on Lin Shuo’s shoulder. He joined Lin Shuo at examining the scale and said, “Shuo ge, how is this possible?”

“It was impossible before, it is possible now.” Lin Shuo held the scale closer to his nose and sniffed again, “It is it. And the smell is fresh, it had fallen off no more than a month ago.”

“it was still alive?” The starling fluttered it’s wings anxiously, “I thought it was…”

“No point in speculating,” Lin Shuo interrupted the starling and looked up at Anne, “Where did you find this?”

“Eastern federal district of Russia, northern part of Heilongjiang.” Replied Anne immediately. “Two weeks ago, 182 people disappeared from a village approximately 20 kilometers north of Heilongjiang. Seventy-three of them are Chinese citizens.”

During the Russian police investigation, they discovered what looked like crawl marks of a giant creature along with this scale.

Heilongjiang bothers both China and Russia so it hindered the Russian police’s ability to continue with the investigation. In addition, this entire incident was very bizarre so the Russian government contacted our organization and hope we will take over the investigation.

This incident was of high interest to our organization because…”

“Hold on!” With a raised hand, Lin Shuo interrupted Anne’s narration. Frowning, he asked, “You said, this scale appeared near Heilongjiang?”

“Yes,” confirmed Anne.

“That’s impossible!” The starling refused to believe what he heard.

It wasn’t just the starling, even Lin Shuo found it hard to believe.

He recognized this scale. Or to be more precise, the owner of the scale.

This is a snake scale.

If one scale is the size of two palms, then how big is the body?

Six years ago he entered Mount Kunlun with his father and seen the owner of the scale with his own eyes.

That was the largest bizarre creature that Lin Shuo had every seen.

At that time, it was bathing in thunderous rain, as if it was trying to transcend1!

From what he had witnessed first hand, the giant bizarre creature had died in the mysterious thunderous rainy night six years ago.

But the scale in front of him said so otherwise.

As it turned out, it was time to venture out after all.

It was quite inside the house when Lin Shuo was staring at the scale pondering.

Finally, Lin Shuo broke the silence, “So what was the purpose of your visit, Miss Anne?”

“To capture this mystical creature, of course.” Miss Anne answered eagerly, as though she had been anticipating his question all along. “Everybody knew that you are the best of the best in the circle of hunters.”

“Capture?” Squinted Lin Shuo again, “If you are just some amateurs, I can see why you’d use the term ‘capture’. But you being from the Global Lifeform Research Organization should be no amateurs. You should  know that when facing a creature like this, you’d be lucky to stay alive.”

___

Note:

1.       An update to my original footnote on transcending. Ancient Chinese believed that animals that lived a long time (over 500 or 1,000 years) will transcend. As the act of transcending is considered to be against nature, many a times thunders will strike down the creatures trying to transcend, so it’s risky business. Pardon me if this is not entirely accurate, these are concepts that one grows up with and never really questioned what “transcending” really means… It simple made so much sense when you hear it. J

Hunter of the Forbidden Region ch 1.2 - Have a Smoke, Baye

The beauty was visibly shocked by his action. She didn’t have enough time to stop him verbally so she had no choice but to life her leg immediately and the tip of her heel hit his knee almost right away.

The sturdy man just felt that his entire leg went numb with a tingling sensation. He let out a soft hrmph and stumbled a few steps. Startled, he said, “Miss Anne, you…”

“Wei Xingshan,” interjected the beauty coldly, “Let me remind you this. You must be polite to this Mr. Lin. We are here to ask him a favor. It will be our honor if he will join us.”

“Miss Anne,” The sturdy man, Wie Xingshan, looked displeased, “We belong to the same employer, and I command the best mercenary team in the entire Asia. What couldn’t we handle?”

The coldness on Miss Anne’s face subsided a little. Calmly she said, “Captain Wei, if these are humans that we are fighting, of course I will have a lot of faith in you and your team. But different skill sets are required here. What are talking about are those things.”

The door opened with a creaking noise during their conversation.

And it was, indeed, Lin Shuo standing behind the door.

He dressed in appropriate outfit that belonging to a teacher in a village, a fountain pen in his breast pocket. No expression could be made out from his scrawny face.

Anne saw his face and felt as if a burden have been lifted off of her shoulder. At the same time, she could feel the coldness exuded from that face.

The man’s look, even through his spectacles, was still sharp like daggers, sending chills down one’s spine.

This was a look that could only belong to someone who had been through mountain of corpses and rivers of blood.

Remembering all the rumors around him, Anne turned a bit pale.

“Greetings, Mr. Lin. My name is Anne.” Anne did her best to suppress her fear and made herself looked at ease.

The air of rejection coming from Lin Shou was more than obvious. It was only when he saw the crowd standing outside did he his look turned a little more friendly.

“C’mon in.” said Lin Shuo nonchalantly then turned and walked back inside the house.

The two followed him inside the Adobe house and Anne turned around to close the door behind her.

Inside the minimalistic adobe house, there wasn’t even a second chair. Lin Shuo sat down on his own chair by the desk, and Anne and Wie Xingshan have no choice but to stand.

Lin Shuo didn’t pay any attention to them, the air was awkward.

Flutter.

Fluttering it’s wings, the starling flew inside the house and landed on the desk. It cocked it’s head and looked at the two strangers.

Looking at the starling, sturdy guy Wie Xingshan nodded, “This starling looks to be of good spirit. The hair on his hair looks like a crown.”

“Asshole.” Said the starling.

Wie Xingshan smiled. Naturally he wouldn’t be offended by a bird, it only made him want to tease it some more.

He took a few steps forward and bent over to look the starling at eye-level. Pretending to be angry, he said, “Why are you calling me names?”

“Asshole.” Said the starling again.

“Is ‘asshole’ the only word you know? Can you say anything else?”

“Asshole.” Repeated the starling.

Anne looked down, rummaged through her purse, and pulled out a pack of Chunghwa brand cigarette1 and unwrapped it. She placed it between her lips and lit it up with a lighter.

Chunghwa brand cigarette

Photo credit: wemedia.ifeng.com

She then removed it from her lips, holding it carefully with both hands, she turned the cigarette butt toward herself and the filter side toward the starling. Taking a few steps forward, she said in a serious tone, “Baye, please have a cigarette. We have long heard that you enjoy good smoke and good wine. I was only able to find this somewhat decent brand of cigarette but I wasn’t able to get hold of any wine. I hope you will pardon us.”

After hearing her words, Lin Shuo was taken aback a little. He looked at Anne with squinted eyes.

Wie Xingshan’s mouth dropped open. He looked from the starling to Anne. He felt for sure that Anne had gone insane.

“So you knew about me huh?” The starling stared straight at the woman and spoke.

“Everybody have heard you with among the circle of hunters. You’ve left behind so many legends.” Replied Anne hastily.

“I have never seen a woman like you among the circle of hunters.” Said the starling coldly.

“A colleague of mine had the good fortune of meeting you once. He found out that I will be paying you and Mr. Lin a visit and told me explicitly to wait on you well.” Anne lowered her head slightly and maintained the way she was holding the cigarette.

“Go head,” Lin Shuo interjected, “Such a good cigarette, there’s no reason to let it go to waste.”

The starling put aside his excessive politeness after his words, accepted the cigarette, and placed it inside its own beaks, “Woman, you are quite good at this.”

“Thank you, Baye,” smiled Anne.

Wie Xingshan had finally came to and muttered, “Is it really just a bird?”

Nobody paid him any attention.

Anne saw that the starling started smoking and looked as though she had completed an important assignment. Her stiff body relaxed.

With glittering eyes she looked at Lin Shuo, struggling with her words.

“It would seemed that you have done quite a bit of research on me beforehand.”

Lin Shuo drummed lightly on the desk and said nonchalantly, “Do tell, why did you spend so much time learning all about me? What is this all about?”

___

Note:

1.       For the sake of reference, Chunghwa brand cigarette ranked #31 most expensive in 2017. I was hoping to find a more exciting-looking picture; alas, how exciting can a pack of cigarette look? =)