Deep affection knows no origin; remember the polar bear's love for you.

Chapter 4 A Startling Dream
The Arctic nights are very long. Guo Mi endured the cold and slept for a while, but was woken up by the cold wind and could not fall asleep again. She could only hug her two little bears and huddle in the withered branches, looking up to count the stars.

It has to be said that although this place is cold and desolate, covered in ice and snow, and there is nothing to eat, the only good thing is that the stars are brighter than elsewhere.

When she was once taken to the zoo, she could only look up and count the stars, but the stars there were small and few, and many were buried by clouds and mist.

During the day, she also had to deal with those enthusiastic tourists. Honestly, she didn't have a single good day in the zoo!

I remember one day a little boy threw a fruit into Bear Mountain.

Two bears nearby started slapping each other across the face over the half of the apple he had thrown down, their grunts and growls never ceasing.

The two bears were fighting, and the sounds were getting closer and closer. She habitually shifted her body slightly.

The next second, the "bear ball" rolled around and tumbled past her, crashing down the artificial hill and finally hitting the eight-meter-high concrete railing!

The noisy surroundings fell silent for a second or two, then erupted into cheers even louder than before!

She looked up at the little boy behind the glass railing high up. The little boy was also looking at her, a wicked smile playing on his lips.

Just as a sense of foreboding rose in her heart, the little boy threw down another half-ripe apple!

The apple flew through the air in a parabola before hitting her squarely on the forehead. Before she could even react, everything went black!
A large, fat brown bear charged at her from the side, knocking her flat on her back. Its thick paws landed directly on her stomach, ready to snatch the apple before she could!
The blow from her companion was far more severe than that apple. At that moment, she felt a darkness before her eyes, and her internal organs felt like they were being trampled out by the stupid bear on her body!

The brown bear that was on top of her stretched its neck to grab the cracked apple not far away, and it seemed to have no intention of leaving at all. Finally, she couldn't bear it anymore and kicked the bear away!

The bear paw slapped the other party several times, knocking him unconscious, and then kicked him off the artificial hill!

The brown bear, which was trembling as it climbed up from under the artificial hill, was so frightened by her that it lowered its body and fled in panic against the cement wall without daring to raise its head!

The other brown bears nearby were also frightened and huddled in a corner, too scared to move.

Guo Mi remembers that she only had time to breathe a sigh of relief at the time, but she did not expect that this wonderful brown bear fight would attract the attention of enthusiastic tourists!

They bought apples from the zoo and threw them at the bears in the pit, hoping to make them fight over the food!
What was once a single apple that two bears fought tooth and nail for is now scattered everywhere, falling from the sky with a crackling sound, then smashing to pieces on the ground.

Behind the glass fence were people's faces contorted with excitement, their cheeks flushed as they shouted:

"Start the fight! Charge!"

"You want to eat, so let's start fighting!"

Looking at their ferocious expressions, their flushed faces, and the spittle flying from their mouths, Guo Mi suddenly lost interest.

She felt like a circus clown, a mere object, utterly devoid of dignity.

In the eyes of these humans, bears are merely tools for entertainment.

Guo Mi looked back at the group of brown bears huddled in the corner. They looked longingly at the fruit that had been smashed to pieces on the ground, but were too intimidated by her to approach. They could only watch longingly, one or two at a time.

Guo Mi was also very hungry, but had no appetite.

Looking at the longing in their eyes for the smashed apples on the ground, she suddenly felt a strange sense of powerlessness.

She stood up, shook her fur, glanced at the bears who dared not approach, and then slowly walked to a corner of the bear mountain, where she sat down facing the wall.

The bear behind him cheered and ran towards the broken apples smeared on the ground. It lay down and licked the broken apples into its mouth, unwilling to give up even a single one.

With her eyes closed, she unsurprisingly heard a chorus of curses from the tourists above her, all muttering "What a spoilsport!"

Some people even threw apples at her.

Although her thick fur shielded her from most of the pain, she was still extremely annoyed by the harassment, so she simply lay down on the ground and covered her head with her bear paws.

Human society is characterized by complex and hypocritical interpersonal relationships, with various rules and procedures making it appear more respectable.

However, if the object is a bear that cannot speak, or other animals, many people become repulsive without the constraints of rules.

Thinking back to this, Guo Mi looked at the stars in the sky and sighed. Suddenly, she felt a dull ache all over her body. The flushed faces of the tourists behind the glass fence that day, and the curses they uttered, were the things she could never forget in her life.

Because then they started to escalate their actions, as if they had found something new and interesting, and began throwing fruits of similar weight at the bear in the pit.

Because of her large size and distinctive fur, she was the first to be hit, and soon she was surrounded by small, smashed fruits.

Even with her thick fur, she eventually couldn't bear the pain after being hit so many times that she stood up and walked to the door of the cage where she slept at night.

The door was closed, of course, but there was a passageway from the cage to the park that could barely conceal a bear. She tried to shrink her body into the passageway to avoid being hit by objects thrown by tourists outside. This action angered the tourists, who began to complain to the staff selling fruit and meat nearby.

Then, unsurprisingly, she heard the sound of the cage door behind her being opened.

Immediately afterwards, a bamboo pole was poked into her buttocks from behind, and the force increased, urging her to go out and continue being hit.

Finally, having no other choice, she walked out of the passage and faced the fruit falling from above. She tried her best to dodge, but to little avail.

If an ordinary person were in that position, they might just feel unlucky or curse those tourists as crazy.

However, as a wildlife photographer, Guo Mi had once been in close proximity to these wild animals in nature, and eventually became an animal herself, experiencing all of this again.

After that day, whenever she had a dream, Guo Mi would always think about what position humanity should occupy in nature, what the right way to get along with nature is, and how they should face the world.

But one thing is certain: only when she truly becomes a wild animal, and a domesticated wild animal at that, will she discover just how terrifying humans can be to animals.

With these complicated thoughts in mind, Guo Mi pulled the two bear cubs closer to her chest before falling into a deep sleep in the cool wind.

At that very moment, another person thousands of miles away was also on the verge of collapse.

The slick-haired secretary stared at the two real polar bears before him, exchanging bewildered glances with another staff member beside him.
"What's going on? Weren't you told there were only two polar bears? One was taken away yesterday, so how come there are still two here!"

The staff member next to him shook his head in puzzlement:
"I don't know, I've also heard there are only two."

All the managers and keepers who had any influence in the park were taken to the police station for questioning on charges of illegally capturing wild animals and animal cruelty.

These are all temporary helpers, only responsible for taking the animals away.

After all, the zoo's owner already owed the group a huge debt, and for the sake of prestige, the chairman didn't want to spend too much money to hire any more experts.

The slick-haired secretary had a bad feeling. She took out her phone and started dialing a number:
"Let me ask."

A moment later, he hung up the phone, his face grim, and said:

"I've already asked, and there are indeed only two polar bears."

Everyone present started sweating profusely.
"Then, what kind of bear was that we sent away the day before yesterday?"

The slick-haired secretary took a deep breath, his gaze falling on the two polar bears trapped in the cage. The more he looked, the more uneasy he felt, and he couldn't help but lean closer for a better look:

"Wait a minute, these two bears look different from the one from the day before yesterday. Why are their faces so small? The one from yesterday had a big, round face like this!"

A staff member nearby also leaned closer to look and agreed:

"It definitely doesn't look like that. Yesterday's bear had a round face that did look quite like a brown bear..."

His voice grew weaker and weaker until it disappeared. He exchanged a glance with his slick-haired secretary and they both gasped in shock!
Could it be... that was a brown bear yesterday?!

The slick-haired secretary felt a chill run down her spine. Oh no! The company's publicity campaign about releasing wild animals had already been launched. If word got out that they'd sent brown bears to the Arctic, wouldn't that be the end of them?!
He was the one who introduced the zoo owner to the boss, and then the whole thing went wrong.

The boss is already very dissatisfied with him and the zoo. If he messes things up again, won't he lose his job?!
Thinking of this, the secretary grabbed the shoulder of the staff member next to her:

"Where is that bear now? Bring it back quickly!"

My colleague, who's from Northeast China, scrunched up his face and after a long pause, finally managed to say:
"Well... there's nothing we can do. The black bear... uh, the brown bear... ah no, the white bear has already been put on a plane. It probably landed early this morning. Where are we supposed to get it back for you?"

The folder fell from the slick-haired secretary's hands, and he clutched his head in his hands.
"Then what?!"

He grabbed a handful of his hair in frustration, turning his meticulously styled hair with hair wax into a spiky mess!

After a while, his eyes darkened, he suddenly stood up, picked up the folder on the ground, quickly flipped through it a couple of times, and breathed a sigh of relief:

"This bear was illegally captured and wasn't registered. Let's just send it to the Arctic and keep the video of its release. Let's just pretend it never existed!"

The staff member next to him hesitated:
"If we send a brown bear to the Arctic, wouldn't it be..." doomed?
"So, do you want this brown bear to live, or do you want to keep your job?"

Now everyone present dared not utter a sound.

A sinister glint flashed in the secretary's eyes:
"Let's pretend today's events never happened. I'll handle the rest myself. You'd better keep your mouths shut, or don't blame me for being ruthless if you leak even a single word!"

(End of this chapter)