Looking at Feng Yi running over, Steve finally felt relieved when he saw that he didn't have a python in his arms or a snake in his hands. But his heart soon grew tense again. If Feng Yi hadn't discovered anything serious, he wouldn't have shouted like that.
"What happened?"
"I'm sending something over there."
"what?"
Steve followed Feng Yi to the tree.
"There was a package tied to it by a belt."
Steve looked up for a moment.
Although the branches and leaves partially blocked the view, the package could still be seen if one looked carefully.
"Did you climb up there and look?" Steve asked.
Otherwise, it would be impossible to see clearly that the package was tied with a belt.
"I've seen it." Feng Yi replied.
"Is it electronic equipment?"
"Probably not."
"Don't worry about it. Just tell Professor Zhou later and have him inform the ranger."
Steve usually doesn't mind his own business. He has participated in many scientific expeditions and has also encountered some private treasure hidings, but he doesn't have a strong curiosity about them.
You never know if there is any special meaning behind these private treasures.
Steve once encountered a situation where a father deliberately hid something and then took his children to find it.
Of course, there were also some events of other nature, some good and some bad, but he was only interested in scientific research and finding cute reptiles, and didn't want to cause too much trouble that would interfere with his time.
Feng Yi didn't know how to deal with such incidents, so after hearing what Steve said, he decided to ignore it.
However, since I also have to inform the forest rangers and the police about this matter, of course I have to explain it in more detail.
Feng Yi told them what he discovered when he climbed up the tree.
"There should be some metal objects in the package, and the belt is real snakeskin..."
"Real snake skin?!!"
Steve got angry when he heard that.
This is beyond his tolerance!
If it is indeed real snake skin, it would be absolutely illegal to sell it now!
The strictest protection laws after a period of abnormal climate may vary slightly from country to country, but they are absolutely not allowed in China!
Steve immediately ran to tell Professor Zhou about it.
"Are you sure that is real snake skin?" Professor Zhou asked Feng Yi.
"Sure, I can still recognize snake skin." Feng Yi replied.
Professor Zhou nodded with a serious expression, "If it is real snake skin, this matter may involve a lot more things."
Professor Zhou asked Feng Yi, "How did you find that thing on the tree?"
Feng Yi said, "Just now there was a bird on the tree. It looked pretty. I wanted to take a picture of the bird, but I didn't expect to find something else on the tree."
Several people came under the tree, and Professor Zhou asked Teacher Lei to film the whole process.
Feng Yi climbed up the tree and took down the package.
To facilitate filming, Teacher Lei also put a portable camera on Feng Yi.
If there is any involvement, they will have video evidence to prove that they have nothing to do with it.
Seeing Feng Yi climbing up the tree steadily, Steve couldn't help but say, "I didn't know this guy has such strong tree climbing skills! We had to climb trees to shoot in a few places recently, and we should have asked this guy to help us!"
Teacher Lei also agreed: "Indeed, we wasted talent in the first half of the journey."
Teacher Lei was responsible for the filming. Although he had many skills, he was not good at climbing trees and could not compare with Feng Yi.
So when we encountered some arboreal snakes during the survey, we had to give up several times because it was inconvenient to take pictures, or the angle of the picture was not good.
After Feng Yi climbed up the tree steadily, he untied the package from the tree.
The package is not big, but it is very heavy in the hand, no wonder it is tied with a belt.
Sturdy and easy to take off.
Professor Zhou put on gloves and opened the package.
It's full of gold bars!
Steve raised his eyebrows.
Just looking at this thing you can tell it can’t be a family interaction!
It is very likely that it is related to some major case!
Professor Zhou was of course aware of the seriousness of the situation and immediately contacted the base to inform them of what had happened.
But when he was talking about it, he was talking about discovering the package while photographing arboreal snakes.
Steve quickly realized that Professor Zhou was protecting Feng Yi.
It is unknown what the matter is related to, and Professor Zhou is worried that Feng Yi will be hated and retaliated against.
The team also spoke with one voice.
After seeing the photos sent by Professor Zhou, the base immediately called the police.
The current location of South 6 Team is already on the edge of the nature reserve. Feng Yi took a nap and when he woke up, Professor Zhou told him that the person who would take over the matter had arrived.
Five helicopters landed at suitable locations nearby.
There are two police planes, two for the base rescue team, and one for the Joint Security Bureau.
After all, a snakeskin belt was involved, and the Joint Security Bureau was concerned about this. The Joint Security Bureau had been following up on Nanchong's scientific expedition activities, so they received the news and rushed over as soon as possible.
However, the person who came from the Joint Security Bureau was not Captain Yuan, whom Feng Yi knew. Feng Yi did not say a few words to them and walked aside in a daze.
Professor Zhou will take care of the rest.
The team leader and several persons in charge of the field expedition have all had experience in dealing with various emergencies and know how to protect the interests of the team members.
Because of this situation, the team needs to stay here temporarily.
Feng Yi: “…”
Heart: Ah——
Every day Feng Yi watched helicopters flying over his head. There were police officers coming here to investigate and collect clues. There were also people from the base coming here to protect the team.
The people from the Federal Insurance Bureau were staring at the snake skin, and the police were staring at the gold bars.
The package left clues, and by extracting fingerprints and DNA and comparing them with the database, the target was quickly identified.
Feng Yi seldom moved during the two days he stayed there, and basically just lay there. Other members of the team, such as Wang Wentao, were busy sorting out records or starting to write papers, while Feng Yi was sleeping nearby.
It was Steve who told him about the progress of the case investigation.
"The package was left by a pair of brothers named Tian. But the gold nuggets belonged to their grandfather.
"Their grandfather was involved in a gold theft case more than 30 years ago. I don't know the details, but I know that the old man took the gold nuggets back to his hometown. However, before the old man could sell these things, the whole village was relocated, so he didn't dare to take the things out. So he found a place to hide them secretly and marked them. In order to prevent himself from forgetting, he also drew a picture in a notebook he carried with him.
“Their ancestors were all local mountain people, and they used to live in the small village surrounded by plants that we passed by.
"Their grandfather moved away from the village and died in an accident not long after. No one knew about these gold nuggets.
"The two heard about the scientific expedition team online not long ago, and learned that the Nanchong Research Base has been collecting information about the mountains, forests and species in the Nanchong Mountains and surrounding areas."
Feng Yi knows this.
The Nanchong Research Base is worried that if the climate changes again one day, all the unknown endangered animals in the mountains will die out, so they try to collect as much information as possible, then formulate an investigation route and assign additional tasks to each team.
In terms of understanding of this mountain forest, the base is certainly not as good as the mountain people who once lived here.
For example, the ancestral story...
For example, what kind of divine creatures were seen in which area, what kind of monsters were in which ponds, what kind of snakes ate people in which caves, etc. All the exaggerated and mythologized things would provide some clues for the scientific expedition team to find out whether it was an endangered animal or a new species, and whether it needed protection and rescue.
"The two brothers recently learned that a fellow villager had sold a piece of information that they considered to be full of nonsense for 500 yuan, so they became interested.
"A story that they have heard so many times since childhood is now just nonsense to them. It is worth selling it for 500 yuan. In short, it is just like selling scraps.
"They just found their grandfather's notebook while looking through some old stuff and thought the old man must be hiding something."
Steve was also amazed when he said this.
"Their ancestors all lived in the mountains. Although the two brothers themselves were not familiar with the area, they were able to learn more from some of the video files left by their ancestors. For example, where there were shortcuts and hidden paths, which were unknown to others.
"The two of them successfully bypassed the rangers and surveillance cameras and sneaked into the former village. Following the old man's hand-drawn map, they dug out the gold bars, but..."
Steve's tone changed, and he sounded a little gloating.
"When the two were returning, the younger one was bitten by a poisonous snake. Although they brought some medicine, they couldn't delay for too long and might have to call for help. The older one hid the gold bar in a tree and took the younger one to get treatment."
Steve spread his hands.
"You know what happened next. Oh, speaking of that snakeskin belt, the two actually each had one. They wanted to save face but didn't have that much money, so they found a way to get someone to help them buy two hard-to-detect imitations.
“They’ve been so proud of that belt for a long time, and no one has ever noticed it when they wore it outside.
Now, the people from the Joint Security Bureau are waiting nearby."
…
In the minds of the two brothers, they did not lose to anyone this time, they just lost to the snake.
If they hadn't been bitten by a snake, they wouldn't have hidden the package of gold bars and called for help urgently.
If it weren't for the snake, the expedition team wouldn't have found the package on the tree.
They hid it so well, the pattern of the belt and the color of the wrapping cloth were not conspicuous, how could they be discovered under normal circumstances
They even wondered if the Nanchong Spirit Snake really existed
Of course, they would never have thought that what would expose them would be a fake.
Soon, news related to this incident was reported.
It involves a major gold theft case that happened many years ago. It has been so long that many people have forgotten about it or have never heard of it at all. When they see this news, they search for the gold theft case of that year, and then combine the information from the report and the logical line analyzed (filled in the blanks), and start to comment and, by the way, step on the two brothers.
After being spread by word of mouth, this story took on a legendary color, and the self-media reaped another wave of traffic.
Related topics are on the hot search list.
Cheng Si woke up today and saw the news about South 6 Team: "…"
Many of Cheng Si’s fans commented on the news, saying that he had missed another big event.
Cheng Si could tell from the news reports that the scientific expedition team members didn't want to show their faces in this kind of news, but...
I do!
Looking at the hot searches and news push discussions on various platforms, Cheng Si felt like his heart was bleeding.
What a loss!
He covered his chest with shaking hands and his lips trembled.
"Why would I mess with that cobra!"
When Cheng Si's assistant entered the room, he saw Cheng Si holding his chest.
"Brother Cheng! Brother Cheng! How are you!"
When Cheng Si whispered, the assistant comforted him: "Forget it, Brother Cheng. Just think positively."
Who could have expected that cross-circle news would come out when the scientific expedition was almost over
After all, only a minority of people pay attention to the developments of scientific expeditions. However, many people have discussed the matter reported today, and some even say that there are definitely spirit snakes in the Nanchong Mountains!
Otherwise, why were those two people so unlucky that they fell into the hands of snakes twice at critical moments
Cheng Si's assistant also thinks so.
There must be spirit snakes in the Nanchong Mountains!
Even Cheng Si was in trouble!
If Cheng Si hadn't provoked that cobra, he would be able to appear on the national TV station now!
—
The scientific expedition team was delayed for two days in order to cooperate with the investigation.
It is not convenient for Feng Yi to go out to find food alone these two days.
Feng Yi sat on the ground, staring into the distance with lifeless eyes.
There was another helpless roar in my heart:
ah-----
But soon, good news came.
Professor Zhou received a weather warning and made a decision.
"The weather in the next few days is not suitable for field investigations, and there is not much distance left, so we will end the investigation mission early this time. We will leave directly on the rescue team's helicopter later."
Feng Yi:!!!
Visible excitement.
Quickly take out your phone and order ten boxes of beef jerky!
You can eat it when you get home!
Before packing up and boarding the plane, Teacher Lei looked back at the mountains and forests and took another set of photos.
Surrounded by clouds and mist, broad-leaved plants hide the figures of mountain creatures. Only by walking into the mountains and forests can you deeply feel the vitality of all things there.
"The mountains hold many secrets, most of which may never be known to anyone. Only the water, wood, soil and rocks in the mountains remember them, but they will not tell anyone on their own initiative."
Teacher Lei looked at Feng Yi and said, "So, are you going to explore the mountains next year?"
Feng Yi: “…”
Thanks for the invitation, I won’t come!!