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

Chapter 97 The Knowledgeable Black Bear

As the stars twinkled in the deep sky, Guo Mi and her two bear cubs hid in the bushes.

Before evening, she made a point of walking around the berry grove, leaving her scent extensively throughout it.

Sometimes the scent left behind is to tell the other person "I'm here" or "Don't come near me," and sometimes it's to create a false impression and cover up other things.

Guo Mi's behavior was the latter.

Bears have a very keen sense of smell, and black bears are probably no exception.

She and the teddy bear were waiting for him here; no matter how well they hid, their scent couldn't be concealed.

So Guo Mi simply let her scent permeate the entire berry forest. The fresh scent was quite strong, which could create the illusion that she was wandering around here during the day, thus concealing her current scent.

She bet the black bear would eventually take the risk.

—Because he was very hungry.

From the moment Guo Mi started looking for him, she discovered that although he had been fleeing all the way, he still refused to give up and lingered around the area.

It was probably the sweet aroma of the berries that attracted him, so even though he knew there were two bears bigger than him guarding the forest, he was still unwilling to leave.

The little bear lay quietly beside Guo Mi, waiting patiently. Several tens of minutes passed quickly. Then, the bear looked up and asked Guo Mi:

"Will he really come?"

Guo Mi's tone was resolute:

"will come."

After all, Caesar almost killed him during the day, and he still didn't give up, so he would naturally choose to take the risk at night as well.

After another period of waiting, while the little bear was dozing off, the sound of grass rustling suddenly came from the bushes.

The little bear, who had been drowsy, was immediately awakened. Its little eyes sparkled, and it stared intently at the direction from which the sound came. The salmon had already stood up, ready to pounce.

Guo Mi gestured to her with her eyes to calm down.

The sound of the grass and trees swaying lasted only a moment and then disappeared.

Then came another long silence. The two bear cubs, growing anxious, whispered:

"Will he leave?"

Guo Mi rested with her eyes half-closed, looking completely at ease.
"No."

Fishbone wasn't as confident as Guo Mi:

"But there was no sound."

Guo Mi's thick bear paw landed on his little head, patting it soothingly:

"hold on."

So the two bear cubs had no choice but to patiently lie back down in the grass and wait with Guo Mi.

Time passed silently, second by second, until finally, the sound of grass rustling in the bushes could be heard again!
This time, the sound didn't stop after a short while; it continued to ring out and got closer and closer!

The final sound of breaking wood rang out, and the dark bear emerged from the bushes.

The two bear cubs stared at him intently, their eyes filled with amazement.

After all, this black bear was really black. Even the pale moonlight shining on it did not turn it white at all. Its shiny black fur would occasionally reflect a sliver of moonlight as it moved, but most of the moonlight seemed to be absorbed into its jet-black fur.

The black bear looked around and stood still for a while.

His body was leaning to the left, half of his body still in the bushes, and his nose was twitching.

The two bear cubs had no doubt that at the slightest disturbance, he would immediately turn around and dart back into the bushes.

The little creature held its breath, its tiny paws gripping the ground tightly, afraid of making even the slightest sound and scaring the black bear away. The black bear remained in place for a while before finally relaxing its guard, its body loosening, and it quickly walked into the berry grove, lowering its head and frantically plucking berries from the branches!

A gentle evening breeze blew through the nut grove, and the only sounds were the black bears wolfing down their food.

Watching the black bear devour its food, the two bear cubs turned to look at Guo Mi with adoring eyes.

Guo Mi slightly raised her chin, and her round ears twitched twice.

She had already guessed that the black bear wouldn't come out so quickly, which is why she waited patiently beside him.

Now that the black bear was completely immersed in the sweetness of the berries, Guo Mi knew it was time!

She winked at the two bear cubs, then suddenly stood up and led the way out of the berry grove!

The black bear was eating heartily when it suddenly heard the sound of grass rustling behind it. It turned around and saw Guo Mi standing not far away. It was immediately terrified!
He turned around and tried to rush out of the bushes he had crawled out of, only to find that the two bear cubs were already firmly guarding in front of him!

The polar bears were half-grown, and their size was not much different from that of an adult black bear, let alone two of them!
On the left is a brown bear that looks menacing, while on the other side are two polar bears, only slightly smaller than myself, but judging from the strength of their paws and their eyes, they are clearly cubs.

The black bear gritted his teeth, just about to charge towards the cub, when Guo Mi called out to him first:
"Wait, I won't attack you."

The black bear stopped leaning forward abruptly, looking at Guo Mi with a mixture of disbelief and skepticism:

"Really?"

Guo Mi was somewhat helpless:

"Didn't I attack you during the day?"

The black bear strongly disagreed with what she said:

"But you were with that polar bear, I saw it!"

Guo Mi was stunned. Did he know that Caesar was a polar bear?
So, does that mean he's been here more than once, and even come into contact with other polar bears?
As for what he said about being with Caesar... well, in a way, that's true.

Guo Mi didn't dwell on this for too long, but simply raised her own question:

"This is the Arctic Circle, why are you here?"

The black bear snorted coldly, dismissively saying:
"I'd like to ask you the same thing. Why are you, a brown bear, here, and getting along so well with polar bears? What's wrong? Only brown bears are allowed to come here, but black bears aren't?"

The amount of information in his words was so great that Guo Mi was stunned for a moment.

First of all, this black bear can recognize not only polar bears, but also brown bears.

Secondly, what he implied was that not only black bears would come here, but even brown bears would.
This truly transcends the established scope of Guo Mi's understanding.

However, this guess was quickly dismissed by the black bear's mutterings:

"But brown bears don't even roam this area. They never come here. How could one suddenly appear here?"

Guo Mi finally voiced her doubts:
How did you recognize me as a brown bear?

The black bear immediately looked at her strangely:
"Judging from your appearance and size, you're clearly a brown bear, except your fur is white. Are you sick? Sometimes black bear cubs are born with white fur like you. What's so strange about that?"

Albinism, caused by a genetic issue and a lack of melanin, is technically a disease.

The black bear took two steps toward Guo Mi, as if wanting to take a closer look, but quickly stopped out of fear, and suddenly said:
"No, that's not right either. You're too big. The female bears in that group of brown bears aren't as big as you. You're not a brown bear from that area."

His gaze toward Guo Mi was full of inquiry:
“Look closely, you look a bit different from them. The brown bears here are only the southern kind. Where did you come from?”

Guo Mi's eye twitched, and she thought to herself:

"That's really unfortunate. I came by truck, then plane, then ship."

Guo Mi's setting is that of the Kodiak brown bear, also known as the Alaskan brown bear, which is the largest of the brown bear subspecies. The Arctic Circle is just a high latitude, but in reality, it includes parts of many continents. The brown bear mentioned here is the only one that exists in the area traversed by black bears.

(End of this chapter)