blogombal Chapter 31 An Unexpected Incident
Chapter 31 An Unexpected Incident
Chen Fei walked out without looking back.
The new settlement after the westward migration was located in the northwest of the old territory, backed by a low shrub belt, with grass covering three sides, and an open view to the east, allowing a clear view of the way they came.
Choosing this location wasn't based on Chen Fei's aesthetic sense, but purely on tactical considerations.
The scent of dark brown bristles wafted in from the east, directing your gaze eastward, which was like setting your eyes in the right direction.
Once the pride had settled down, Sel found a sheltered spot at the edge of the bushes and sat down. Meimei was to her right, and the little rascal curled up next to Meimei's belly like a ball of fur, all four limbs tucked in, shamelessly falling asleep in the atmosphere.
Big Head isn't asleep.
It kept its ears perked up and its eyes fixed on the east, its expression much more serious than during its "reconnaissance performance" in the morning. Even its slow-reacting sense of smell had detected something amiss in the air.
Chen Fei stood in front of Da Tou for two seconds, fixing it in place with his eyes.
Big Head paused for a moment, then realized what Chen Fei meant. His ears, which had been tilted forward as if to "follow along," slowly returned to a "stay put" position, pressed against his head.
It lowered its head, pursed its lips, and then shifted its gaze to a blade of grass beside it, beginning to sniff it casually.
I sniffed twice, but couldn't smell anything.
I sniffed three more times, but still found nothing.
Finally, it gently patted the grass stem with its front paws. The grass stem bent, bounced back, and hit its nose. It quickly pulled its head back, looked around to make sure no one was watching, and then calmly put on its new posture and closed its mouth tightly.
Chen Fei had already turned and left.
To get to the northeast corner, one has to cross a sparse forest in the middle of the territory. This route usually takes fifteen minutes to walk, but Chen Fei took twenty minutes by keeping his pace slow.
It's not that I can't walk fast, it's that I'm deliberately walking slowly.
He needs those twenty minutes to go through the entire scent belt on the east side from beginning to end.
In the evening on the African savanna, the wind direction is fixed.
The northeast wind pushed the scent westward, which was like a tailwind for Chen Fei to scout, practically bringing the enemy's movements right under his nose.
As he walked, he kept his head down, raising his nose every five or six steps to remember the changes in odor concentration.
The scent of the dark brown mane is a heavy aroma, a mixture of old, decaying flesh and prairie soil, deeper and more intense than the territorial markings of a typical male lion. It's as if years of domineering presence have been layered together and blended into one.
Chen Fei first smelled it on the edge of his old territory. At that time, it was a faint warning, like someone had put up a sign at the door, politely and calmly telling you: I've been here.
It's different now.
The odor concentration exhibits a clear gradient progression from the eastern edge of the territory to the middle section.
The scent is lighter at the edges, stronger in the middle, and becomes heavier towards the east, indicating that the time of the scent marking decreases from east to west.
The newest marker is on the east side, and the earliest marker is in the middle. Chen Fei figured out what this order meant in less than three seconds.
Dark brown mane was busy this afternoon.
It entered the territory from the east, marked a diagonal line westward, walked three or four hundred meters, and then retreated.
This is not an unconscious territorial declaration; it is pre-battle reconnaissance.
It personally scouted the location to confirm the lion pride's position and direction of movement.
Chen Fei mentally compared this route of advance with the timeline of his westward movement with the group that afternoon, which made the hair on the back of his head stand on end.
The pride moved west around 2 p.m. The latest scent from the dark brown mane, a reconnaissance marker, was found in the eastern part of the territory, estimated to be between 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., later than the westward movement.
It already knew that the pride was no longer in the original low-lying area.
This big guy isn't here to try his luck.
Before a male lion on the savanna officially launches a territorial war, it will complete a relatively fixed sequence of behaviors. Chen Fei had seen this description in several studies on African lion behavior that he had read in his previous life.
A show of force to intimidate, a scent reconnaissance mission, a roar to declare war.
The three steps are generally in the correct order.
There will be a time interval between each step, giving the defender enough time for fear to fester.
Chen Fei looked up and estimated the sky.
The evening light had begun to shift from golden to orange-red, and the sun had fallen below the tree line on the west side. In about an hour, it would be completely dark.
The roar will subside within an hour.
He mentally confirmed his judgment a second time, but found no flaws, and continued walking towards the northeast corner.
The northeast corner is located on the edge of an open area where the grass is waist-high. A sloping earthen mound separates this area from the main territory, and the wandering individuals land on the back of the mound.
Before Chen Fei even reached the earthen slope, he smelled two familiar scents.
The scent of the homeless person A is calm and old, with a faint, healing scent emanating from the old wound on their left shoulder; it's highly recognizable. The scent of the homeless person B is slightly fainter, carrying a hint of glandular secretions characteristic of post-stress conditions; it's not strong, but it's stable.
Both ends are there.
No way.
Chen Fei stopped at the top of the earthen slope, but didn't go down. He just stood there, letting his scent drift down with the wind.
Below the earthen slope, the wanderer A was the first to notice, his ears perked up, his head raised, he sniffed twice, recognized Chen Fei's scent, and then lowered his head back down.
The homeless man reacted about three seconds slower, repeated the same process, and relaxed.
They didn't gather around, nor did they make a sound; they simply used this silent gesture of confirmation to tell Chen Fei: We're still here, we haven't moved.
Chen Fei stood on the top of the earthen slope for about ten seconds, glanced at the positions of the two stray individuals, mentally re-marked the terrain and relative coordinates, and then turned around.
As the wanderer left, he glanced in his direction, and the muscle on the side of his old left shoulder twitched slightly for a moment before stopping. Chen Fei didn't respond and continued walking back.
Some things don't need to be confirmed a second time.
On his way back, he encountered an unexpected incident.
It's not the danger, it's the smell.
In the southern part of the territory, at the edge of a low acacia thicket, there was a territory marker the size of a stone, the scent of dark brown bristles even stronger than when he had left.
This location was not on the path he had previously outlined for advancement.
Chen Fei stopped in front of the rock, lowered his head and sniffed carefully for three seconds, aligning this detail with the scent map in his brain, and then started again.
The dark brown mane didn't just advance from the east; it also left a marker on the south side, and the marker was newer than the one on the east side, indicating that its route this afternoon was not a single line, but two parallel lines.
This big guy was more patient and meticulous than he had imagined.
Chen Fei did not speed up; his pace remained exactly the same as when he arrived. However, he incorporated this new information into his calculations for the decisive battle, silently increasing the weight of the southern position by one level.