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

Chapter 52 Summer Preparations
Caesar never returned after leaving that night. Guo Mi was upset for two days, but then she got over it and continued living with the two little bears.

Life is always full of partings, and so is the life of a bear.

The only difference is that Slok will still appear by the lake.

—He came to play with the little bear.

He said Caesar was ignoring him, and to avoid being bullied by other male bears, he decided to stay away from them.

The two bear cubs wouldn't bully him; they were the only cubs the mother bear allowed to touch him.

Slok couldn't bear the loneliness of living away from his kind for a few days, so he came to find the little bear.

Guo Mi's observation period for him has finally come to an end, and he can now play and frolic with the little bear.

A male bear was swimming in a lake with his cub, fish bones were on his back, and salmon were learning to imitate his swimming movements.

Slok was content as long as he had bears with him. He played in the water until he was satisfied before climbing ashore. He shook his fur on the bank, sat down next to Guo Mi, and watched the two bear cubs learn to swim. He said regretfully:

"I wonder if my little bear cub can swim."

Guo Mi asked him:

"Don't you go to see them often?"

Slok was somewhat disappointed:
"I can't find them anymore; I haven't seen them in a long time."

This was not good news for him, because his mother had left the area and gone to another region.

The Arctic is vast, and he had tried to find it before, but all his attempts ended in failure.

He didn't understand if the fact that the mother bear and cubs couldn't be found meant they had gone to live somewhere else.

Guo Mi vaguely heard him mention his and Caesar's childhood and their mother, and knowing what he was worried about, she comforted him:
"Maybe it's just a temporary departure due to the changing seasons, and they'll probably come back when it gets colder."

She looked down at the ice beneath her feet; the edges had changed from a misty white to a crystal clear layer.

This is a sign that the ice is starting to melt.

The "Iceland" in the middle of the lake has long since disappeared, and in another two days she may not be able to bring the bear here anymore.

At that time, the entire frozen lake will disappear.

Slok realized this too and suddenly jumped up:

"Oh no, it's so late!"

Guo Mi looked up at the sky with some confusion; the sun was high in the sky.

Slok was already able to stand up, and as he hurriedly walked out, he said:

"At this point, the ice floes might have already drifted away. If we don't get on the ice floes soon, we might have to stay on the island all year!"

In the summer, the seals all leave with the ice floes, making it difficult for them to survive on the island.

Slok turned back halfway and asked Guo Mi, who was still sitting in the same spot:

"Aren't you coming with me?"

He assumed Guo Mi was concerned for the bear cub's safety, and continued:
"It's alright. Although there are many bears on the ice floes, summer ice floes are much harder to move than winter glaciers. In particular, male bears are afraid of breaking the ice, so the probability of them chasing and killing cubs will be greatly reduced."

He tilted his head in confusion:
"Didn't your mother take you on ice floes when you were little?"

Guo Mi silently thought to herself that she really didn't, but smiled and said:
"I'm going to stay on the island this summer."

A polar bear can stay in the water for four or five hours and swim for dozens of kilometers. When driven to the brink of death, it can even swim for hundreds of kilometers!
This is their trump card for surviving on the ice floes.

Guo Mi didn't have such a trump card; she couldn't do it, so she had no choice but to abandon her prey, the floating ice of Youwo, and stay on the island.

Staying on the island, even with scarce food, at least offered a glimmer of hope. But if she were on the ice floes, and the ice broke or melted, her chances of survival would be extremely slim, not to mention the two bear cubs on top of that.

Slok looked at Guo Mi in surprise.

Staying on the island, and still having to feed two cubs whose appetites are getting bigger and bigger?!

How can this be? !
He kindly advised:

"If you don't reconsider, staying on the island in the summer won't just be about food shortages."

Guo Mi's gaze was firm; she had made up her mind.

“I know, but I have to stay on the island this year.”

Let her try again. Hopefully, next year she can catch up with at least half of the polar bear's swimming ability, even if she can't catch up with all of it.

Only then could she feel at ease taking the bear cub aboard the ice floe. Seeing that she wasn't going to change her mind, Slok thought to himself, "So stubborn," and could only leave first.
"I'll be going now."

He needs to catch up with the ice floes, and before that, he needs to find Caesar. Although he is his cold-blooded older brother, he will feel safer with Caesar.

After saying goodbye to Slok, Guo Mi finally had time to calm down and make some plans for the future.

Not only Caesar, but even Slok told her that food was scarce on the island in the summer.

Guo Mi wasn't blindly optimistic; the two male bears' words suggested that the island in summer might not be as wonderful as she imagined.

Is there any way to stock up on food in advance?

Guo Mi's gaze fell on the frozen lake in front of her.

The lake is a seawater lake, and freshly caught sea fish will naturally absorb salt if they are not left on the snow for a long time.

Since arriving in the Arctic, Guo Mi was finally able to put human knowledge to use and found a place that was windy and sunny.

First, use the bear's paws to clear away all the surrounding snow, and then use its weight to compact the soft soil little by little.

It no longer snows. The mud platform built by Guo Mi's "bear craftsman" will dry and harden in just one day, becoming a natural drying platform.

Guo Mi spent all her afternoon rest time fishing, repeatedly transporting the fish she caught to the drying platform.

To prevent the fish from losing salt, they cannot be left on the snow for long periods, so she has to transport them back and forth several times.

Fortunately, there are two bear cubs who have grown up and can help transport the fish.

Although they didn't know what Guo Mi was doing, the two little furballs obediently ran back and forth without uttering a single complaint.

Guo Mi had considered putting the fish on something and then dragging a lot of them away at once.

Unfortunately, this is the Arctic, and cold-climate plants do not have the broad leaves characteristic of tropical rainforests, so Guo Mi had to give up.

After several trips back and forth, the fish finally covered the natural drying platform. Guo Mi breathed a sigh of relief and then took the little bear back to the lake to fill their stomachs for the day.

When they returned that evening, all the fish on the drying platform had disappeared, leaving behind several huge bear paw prints and two rows of small bear footprints.

Guo Mi's gaze darkened, and she lowered her head to smell it; it was an unfamiliar scent.

It must have been another mother bear leading her cubs in search of food, who discovered this "gift from nature."

Guo Mi was helpless. Now that things had come to this, she could only blame herself for being careless and presumptuous, and had no one else to blame.

She had no choice but to move to another location and rebuild the drying platform overnight. The next day, she arrived at the lake early to start catching fish. This time, she ate as she caught fish, and after barely managing to feed the two little bears a little, she went straight to the drying platform.

At night, they dug a hole right next to the sun terrace and managed to get the two bear cubs to sleep inside.

……

When Slok arrived at the shore, the ice floes hadn't completely drifted away. He breathed a sigh of relief, looked around, and tried his luck to see Caesar.

After all hope was dashed, he had no choice but to keep searching, and finally found him by following his scent on the beach.

Slok was overjoyed and ran over happily:

"Caesar!"

Caesar glanced back at him, then looked away and lay down on a huge rock by the sea.

Slok leaned close to him, opened his mouth, and couldn't stop:

"It's already this late, why haven't you gotten back onto the ice floe? Are you waiting for me? I'm so touched..."

Caesar kept his eyes closed and endured Slok's incessant chatter until he heard him say:
"Guo Mi said she's not going to climb the ice floes anymore; she's going to stay on the island. That's strange. There's no food on the island. How is she going to raise the bear cubs if she stays there? And also, why haven't you gone to see her lately..."

Caesar opened his eyes, and was not surprised to hear the news.

That round-faced bear was always incredibly stubborn; what he said had no effect whatsoever. Of course, it was also possible that she simply didn't want to listen...

The male bear felt a surge of irritation and rolled over, covering its ears with its paws.

Slok stopped talking when he ran out of things to say, and looking down, he found Caesar's eyes were closed, clearly indicating that he hadn't been listening to anything he said.

He wasn't angry, after all, he'd been used to it since he was a child, and only after a moment did he continue:
"Caesar, it's too late, let's get onto the ice floes quickly."

Caesar opened his eyes, looked at the rocks exposed by the melting snow on the beach, squinted, and remained motionless for an unknown amount of time before whispering:

"I'm not going to go ice floes this year."

(End of this chapter)