Chapter 159: Chapter 156: Positive Guessed wrong?
What do you mean?
As soon as the audience heard this, they grew anxious. The mission’s significance was extraordinary; its success would mean the rescue of a species, a profoundly meaningful event to witness first-hand. Now that there was a problem, everyone was especially concerned.
[Why not follow and fly with them?)
[What does Old Fang mean by that?]
[Didn’t the White-fronted Goose mistake Etienne for its parents?]
[ How come they encounter a difficulty right off the bat? I thought the challenging part was the migration, never thought that getting the geese to follow would be the issue]
[Isn’t this just utterly ruined?]
Seeing the barrage of comments, Bi Fang stepped away from Etienne and whispered, “We can’t rule out that possibility.”
Otherwise, there was no explaining why the geese wouldn’t follow them.
Past cases had told Bi Fang that there was nothing wrong with their plan, so the problem must lie with the people!
Therefore, Bi Fang sought out Elvan and explained the possibility to him.
Elvan panicked at once. If that were the case, how could he lead the geese in their migration? He asked urgently, “Then what should we do?”
“If the geese truly recognize only Etienne, my advice is to abandon the mission. It’s far too dangerous for Etienne,” Bi Fang said.
Bi Fang was willing to take risks with Elvan because Elvan, like him, had his own dreams and passion and was willing to sacrifice almost everything for them.
Moreover, as an adult, Elvan could take responsibility for his choices.
Etienne was different; he was even younger than Bi Fang had imagined, lacking three months to his fifteenth birthday.
Bi Fang could not let a fourteen-year-old boy take risks with him.
Upon hearing this conclusion, Elvan held his head and knocked it hard.
If he must migrate, he could certainly set out with three people, but as Bi Fang said, the journey was too dangerous for Etienne.
Reality isn’t a novel, nobody is the protagonist, and accidents can truly happen.
Between the geese and his son, the choice was undeniable.
In that moment, Elvan was pained by his failure to the eighteen White-fronted Geese.
Seeing Elvan in such a state, Bi Fang couldn’t help but feel compassion and consoled him, “Don’t be too distressed; this is only a possibility. Perhaps I guessed wrong, maybe the geese just haven’t gotten used to my presence and thus didn’t follow the glider.”
“Right!” Elvan clutched at this lifeline, “Yes, it must be that reason; we can definitely do it if we try a few more times.”
“Let’s try again tomorrow,” Bi Fang suggested as he looked up at the sky, “We’ll give it another try tomorrow.”
It was too late today.
Within the Arctic Circle, the autumn days are very brief, with darkness beginning to fall at just after three o’clock. Now at four o’clock, the stars were already out.
Elvan, resigned to the situation, agreed it was too dark for flight and decided to wait until tomorrow.
The pressure of time was growing ever more intense.
If the weather forecast was correct, it would snow the day after tomorrow, leaving them only one more day, or perhaps not even a full day.
The crackling of burning logs resounded; the campfire lit up everyone’s faces. Everyone was in low spirits due to the failure of the first flight.
Just as everyone was feeling downcast, a streak of green light suddenly shone down upon the land.
Bi Fang looked up, his pupils contracting.
Without warning, a flame seemed to ignite in the sky, dancing and changing colors, even bursting into a near-white intense light.
Strips of green ribbons stretched across the sky above them.
It was the Northern Lights!
These high-energy particles from space continuously collided with the Earth’s atmosphere, transforming into wondrous streams of light that danced in the sky.
The audience was instantly excited, and in just a few minutes, the number of viewers surged again with no sign of stopping.
[Holy shit, it’s the Northern Lights!]
[Mom, I’m seeing the Northern Lights!]
[Isn’t this just too beautiful? I’ve only seen photos before, never with my own eyes]
[Wake up, you’re still at home. You’re seeing this on a screen too, no difference]
[No, I feel like Old Fang’s live stream is different, just as breathtaking as seeing it in person.]
[Old Fang’s head has turned green (humorous)]
[Plus one on the green, so green, Old Fang has gone completely green.]
Auroras constantly changed shape, and Etienne couldn’t contain his excitement. He rushed to the nearby grassland, trying to enjoy this magnificent moment alone.
It was as if a symphony had reached its climax, myriad green lights began to dance, underpinned by the purple glow, shining down like divine rays upon the land.
Gazing up at the sky at this moment made one involuntarily drop to their knees.
At this moment, humans were but a speck of dust in the cosmos.
The night belonged to the stars and the aurora.
Bi Fang immersed himself in the moment and it took a while before he responded, speaking to the screen, “In Finland, you can see the aurora about too times a year, mainly in spring and autumn. We’re lucky.”
“There’s a legend in Finland about the Northern Lights—Fox Fires. According to Sami folklore, a fox running swiftly across the Lapland wilderness sweeps its tail across the snow, flinging snowflakes up to the northern sky where they turn into twinkling sparks. These sparks draw colorful arcs, lighting up the pitch-black land—that is the origin of the aurora borealis.”
“In Finnish, the Northern Lights are called ‘revontulet,’ which literally means ‘Fox Fires,’ stemming from this legend.”
Bi Fang did not explain the scientific reasons for the aurora’s formation but chose to share a beautiful legend instead, lest it spoil the mood.
The aurora lifted everyone’s spirits from their gloom, and Lenin happily ate his canned food, “A few years ago, I came here with some students and saw the aurora too. It was really beautiful.”
“Was it for a research trip?” Bi Fang added more wood to the fire, curious.
“Yes, at that time we placed the eggs of the White-fronted Goose into the nests of Barnacle Geese, hoping they would rear the White-fronted Goose and teach them to migrate.”
“And what happened?” Etienne was very curious; their team had two Barnacle Geese.
“At first, everything went smoothly, but… in fact, we didn’t have a permit, Johnny ordered us to leave, and then they killed the White-fronted Geese to prevent them from interbreeding.”
“That’s terrible,” Elvan couldn’t believe it.
Bi Fang glanced at the geese in the cage, “This time it will work.”
“Yes.”
The next day.
“Morning, Johnny.”
“Morning. Gosh, it’s really cold today.” Johnny, dressed in a sharp suit, walked into the hall and stood in front of the air conditioner, enjoying the warm air for a moment.
“By the way, Johnny, did you finish the blood tests Lenin asked for? They seem pretty urgent about it.” A colleague kindly reminded him.
“What blood tests?” Johnny was taken aback.
“It’s for the White-fronted Goose; they need the report to be allowed to leave the Schengen Area.”
“Oh!” Johnny slapped his forehead, “You mean using the glider to migrate the geese?”
“Right.”
Johnny chuckled, “Please, it’s totally unnecessary. There’s no way the project will work. Geese following a glider to migrate? That’s the funniest joke I’ve heard this year, there’s no need to waste time on tests.”
The colleague was stunned, not expecting Johnny to dare do this, “But they’ve called to follow up.”
“Just give them a positive report, it’s just a waste of a few sheets of paper.”
“Isn’t that inappropriate? They’ve been waiting for over ten days,” the colleague tried to interject with little effect.
“No, I’m just saving them time and effort for a plan that won’t work,” Johnny said nonchalantly, “Come on, print out a report quickly; we’ll go find them, no need to have them keep getting cold by the lake.”
The colleague shook his head slightly; Johnny was no ordinary employee. His father was a retired official and his family wealthy; Johnny often treated everyone to food and drinks.
Oh well, as Johnny said, it didn’t matter what the blood test results were; the plan was bound to fail.
“Are we ready?”
By the lakeside, Bi Fang and Elvan were preparing for takeoff when a car suddenly arrived.
Seeing the license plate, Lenin’s heart sank.
He had promised Johnny not to release the geese from the cages until the report was out.
Clearly, the geese were joyfully flying about.
Johnny in the car also saw the flying geese and hurriedly got out.
“Hey, what did I say? Without permission, no releasing birds! And the avian flu test results are positive!”
Johnny angrily threw out the report.