"Yaya! Wake up!" Meng Jiuzhao, who kicked Yaya's foot and said that he would treat Yaya gently, decided to use violence to wake Yaya up.
It seemed that it was very interesting. Dongdong, who was standing on the side, also jumped up. The fat cub jumped up and down on his father's paw, having a good time. Dongdong didn't understand what his father went through last night. The other Kantas protected him very well. In his opinion, seeing his father after sleeping was a very common thing.
After all, poor Yaya was tossed by their concerted efforts.
As soon as he opened his eyes and saw his cub, Ya Ya burst into tears!
My dong dong~ I'm so chubby today, so cute!
Bending down, he stuck out his tongue full of love, and was about to give the cub a loving lick, but Meng Jiuzhao grabbed something and forced it under his nose—
"Ha Chirp—" Ya Ya immediately sneezed loudly, with a small tear hanging from the corner of his eye, he looked at Meng Jiuzhao's palm with grievance, and when he saw the gray-green grass, Ya Ya couldn't help but widen his eyes.
"I found this from your claws. Where did you find it?" The gray-green leafy plants were the next target I was looking for. When he found them between his teeth, Meng Jiuzhao was very excited.
this! This is what I found by the lake. "Understanding where Meng Jiuzhao's excitement came from, Yaya immediately explained the process of discovering this plant in a considerate manner.
by the lake? Strange Kantas
Ya Ya's narration was mixed with too many subjective thoughts, but it was quite clear. Meng Jiuzhao felt that it was necessary for him to go to that lake to have a look.
The heavy rain stopped in the morning, but the water on the ground was still very deep. All Kantas became prototypes, and the cubs were properly put into their pockets. Meng Jiuzhao also sat on Louis' shoulders.
It is a beautiful feeling to see a calm and deep lake under the clear sunshine during the day. But thinking of what happened to Yaya in this lake last night, Meng Jiuzhao couldn't find it beautiful anyway.
"I almost died in this lake yesterday~ Fortunately, that Kantas saved me." Yaya also had a frightened expression, and after he finished feeling, he talked about the experience of being rescued last night.
"Did you find these grasses here?" Ignoring Yaya's nagging, Meng Jiuzhao slid off Louis himself, and when he walked to the lake, he carefully bent down and squatted in the pond where the water accumulated by the lake to touch it. For a long time, he didn't touch anything.
"Strange, I found it by the lake before." Yaya also felt very strange: "I just fell into the lake just to pull these grasses!"
After hearing Yaya's words, Meng Jiuzhao and the other Kantas searched for a long time by the lake, but unfortunately, the water was too deep, and the vegetation here was completely destroyed, so they went back without finding anything.
In the next two days, Ah Lu found this kind of gray-green grass in another direction. Although it was only sporadic, it had already begun to appear in a small area after all.
The gray-green grass representing the direction of home grows in two completely different directions!
The road home instantly parted ways in front of them as a fork in the road. On one side of the intersection is the flat grassland ahead, and on the other side is a deep lake that can drown Kantas.
"It must be the place where Ah Lu found it! On the way we came, we only encountered such a big lake on the extremely cold ice!" Qiao Qiao analyzed it seriously, Kantas in the same straight line as Qiao Qiao There are many, and everyone agrees with Jojo's opinion.
Only teeth—
"But... I really saw a lot of gray-green grass by the lake... Qiao Qiao said weakly, in a group of Kantas, his voice was pitifully small.
For Kantas who is eager to go home, these grasses represent the direction of their home. After the baptism of yesterday's heavy rain, a large area of vegetation here is submerged in stagnant water. If the soaking continues, the plants on the ground will die , At that time, they will completely lose the "indicator" of going home.
A little later, if it rains again, they may not be able to go home—thinking of this, there were many Kantas who were ready to go in the direction of Alu.
"Yaya, did you really see a lot of this kind of grass by that lake??" Just as the other Kantas gathered automatically, Meng Jiuzhao didn't move, raised his head, and asked directly to the side, standing in a daze teeth.
"Yeah!" Although the voice was low, Yaya answered with certainty.
So Meng Jiuzhao stopped the other Kantas.
"Before I leave, I want to go to that lake again. There is something I want to confirm no matter what."
Although Meng Jiuzhao's behavior was incomprehensible, everyone had habitually allowed him to do things that no one understood. So, all Kantas came to the lake again before leaving.
Here, Meng Jiuzhao confessed his decision to everyone.
"I decided to dive to the bottom of the lake to have a look."
"Ah?!" As soon as the words came out, all Kantas looked at Meng Jiuzhao with horror: This is too unexpected! Isn't Ah Tu the worst swimmer among them
"Uh... bald, do you want to eat fish?" After a while, Xiaohua finally thought of a reason for Meng Jiuzhao's actions.
"How is that possible!" Meng Jiuzhao said in embarrassment, "I just think that this lake... Maybe it's the right direction to go home."
Meng Jiuzhao finally expressed his thoughts: "Even if it is not, at least we have to prove that this road is not the way home. After the proof is over, we can go in another direction."
"Why do you think so?" Xiao Hua looked at him in confusion, this is a big lake, where is the road
"I can only say... it's wild intuition." Meng Jiuzhao's eyes flickered strangely when he pursed his lips into a straight line and turned to look at the lake behind him.
The first time he saw this lake, for some reason, thoughts like "this is the way home" immediately appeared in his mind. These thoughts came too suddenly, but they were extremely strong and could not be ignored by Meng Jiuzhao.
"I always feel that if we swim across this lake, the other side of the lake is the direction we will go home. If this idea is correct, once we go in the other direction, maybe we will never go home again..."
Whenever he approached this lake, he always had a premonition that he was about to go home; on the contrary, when he moved away from this lake and headed in another direction, Meng Jiuzhao suddenly felt an inexplicable panic in his heart.
It was a kind of panic that made him extremely sad, as if as long as he chose the other side, he would never see his father again...
As a solid theorist, Meng Jiuzhao never believed in intuition. "Intuition is something that women only have, and men only have illusions." He has always believed so firmly until today—
Thinking of the possible consequences if he went the wrong way, Meng Jiuzhao decided to believe in his feelings no matter what.
Whether it's intuition or illusion, you have to try it before you talk!
"Okay, we need to go down and have a look." Xiao Hua finally nodded: "However, you should stop going down, let me go down instead."
"what?"
"Ah Tu, you have a wild instinct, but you don't have a wild body." She said it as a matter of course, ignoring Meng Jiuzhao's choked expression, and Xiao Hua went to find other Kantas with good water skills.
"Well, don't worry, I'll go into the water for you." Patting Meng Jiuzhao's shoulder lightly, Louis took George out of his arms and stuffed him into Meng Jiuzhao's arms. Tass assembled.
The final Kantas that went into the water were Louis, Xiaohua, Jojo and... Yaya.
Yaya's water quality is not good, but this time he was determined to go down to have a look, there was no other way, everyone had to let him go.
"Alice, if Uncle Yaya can't come up, remember to bring him up. By the way, if you feel uncomfortable breathing down there, come up quickly!" Meng Jiuzhao asked Alice worriedly, and Meng Jiuzhao told Alice that he needed them again. Pay attention to things and tell them again.
In full view of the other Kantas, they hit the water.
Each Kantas is assigned to a direction, and they will be responsible for bringing up the vegetation and soil from the bottom of the lake in their area.
Louis is the fastest diving Kantas, only a little slower than Alice. Even during the dive, he has been paying attention to Alice's reaction. After confirming that his daughter is all right, he is relieved to check the situation at the bottom of the lake .
The bottom of the lake was very dark, so he could only use his hands to stuff the plants and rocks he could touch into the backpack he carried with him as quickly as possible. He also forgot to dig a handful of soil from the bottom of the lake.
He was the first to dive, and also the first to surface. Not long after he surfaced, Xiaohua and the others also came up. According to Kantas's breath-holding ability, they can only stay underwater for so long. Knowing this, when they found that Fang Fang hadn't come up after a long time, their expressions immediately changed!
***
Carefully holding his breath, Yaya slowly swam down.
Probably because of the rain just now, the water in this lake is a bit cloudy, and not long after diving, Yaya can't see his companion at all. Fortunately, Alice was by his side, the little guy's tail was patted slowly, and when the water hit him lightly, Yaya would feel very at ease.
Although Yaya's water quality is not the best among Kantas, he has a large lung capacity. After diving to the bottom of the lake, he immediately began to collect underwater plants. He planned to finish his underwater work as soon as possible and float to the shore.
But he was so unlucky.
Just when he felt that he was about to lose his breath and was about to go ashore, Yaya found that his feet were caught by something. When I pulled it hard for several times but couldn't get rid of the shackles, Yaya panicked!
He immediately thought of Alice, but soon he remembered: In order to speed up the collection, he just asked Alice to go to the side to collect soil!
The violent struggle accelerated the consumption of air, and the air inhaled into the lungs was about to run out soon, and the pain of suffocation swept over Yaya, and when the last few struggles were ineffective, Yaya fell into a near-death state.
Half-conscious, Yaya felt that he heard that familiar growl again.
"Wake up! Wake up—"
Just like last night, the other party called to him softly, and then Yaya felt that the thing that was tying him on his feet was untied, and someone began to pull him upstream forcefully.
The moment the big head finally surfaced, Ya Ya took a deep breath!
saved again—
Greedily sucking in a big mouthful of air, Yaya finally fell into a coma with peace of mind.
***
So, when all Kantas went into the water one after another to look for Fangya, Fangya quietly floated up from the bottom of the water.
With a big round belly, Yaya floated on the water peacefully.
looks... like dead...
Everyone hurriedly pulled him up, after a while of punching and kicking, a small fountain spewed out from Fang Fang's mouth, and he finally woke up faintly.
The first thing Ya Ya does when he wakes up is to look for his savior.
"Hey? Where's the Kantas that saved me? It's the Kantas that saved me yesterday! He just saved me again!" While shouting, Ya Ya hurriedly looked at the Kantas on the shore, but No matter how many times he counted, the Kantas on the shore were still the same as before, not one more.
"There are no other Kantas, you floated up by yourself." Looking at Ya Ya strangely, Meng Jiuzhao hurriedly asked the other Kantas to lift him up so that he could sit more comfortably.
"I've checked everything Louis and the others brought up, and there's no gray-green grass in them, so... After you rest, we're going to the place where Ah Lu found the green grass." With a dazed look, Meng Jiuzhao slowly explained to him what had just happened.
"It's really hard work for you." Meng Jiuzhao thanked Ya Ya, and then apologized softly, "I'm sorry."
Because of his illusion, Yaya almost drowned in this lake, Meng Jiuzhao blamed himself very much.
"Oh...it's okay." He replied blankly, Yaya wanted to get up, he was still a little confused, and needed to hug his cub to comfort him.
Just when Yaya stood up, a touch of red on his feet caught Meng Jiuzhao's attention—
"Yaya, what's that?" Meng Jiuzhao stopped him reflexively.
"Ah?" Yaya raised his foot for some unknown reason, his huge belly blocked his sight, he couldn't see anything after looking for a long time, finally Meng Jiuzhao ran over and took out the thing between his toes.
This is actually...
a flower
Fiery red, this is a flower that is incompatible with the dark bottom of the water or the desolate land here.
Vibrant flowers.
The flower was caught between Fang Fang's toes and brought up from the bottom of the water.
Meng Jiuzhao felt that he had vaguely grasped some key point, and he was only a little bit short, but he just couldn't say the answer. This feeling is extremely aggrieved, and he is completely anxious! At this time, Xiao Hua just passed by.
"Ah!!!! Isn't this the flower I planted along the way? It finally bloomed! Where did you find it?"
Xiaohua's excited words were like a flash of lightning, instantly piercing through the fog in Meng Jiuzhao's mind, and he was so enlightened that he was completely clear!
"Xiaohua, your flowers were brought up by Yaya from the bottom of the lake! Sure enough! This... the opposite side of this lake is indeed the direction of our hometown—"
His voice was trembling with excitement, and Meng Jiuzhao was almost incoherent: the things that pointed the way home better than the vegetation he had recorded were actually the flowers that Xiaohua planted along the way!
There are no flowers here, which is the reason for small flowers to grow flowers. Along the way, Xiaohua planted a seed every time she rested.
If they germinate and bloom smoothly, they will be the best landmarks: the vegetation recorded by Meng Jiuzhao is the local native plants, and their distribution will be affected by the water flow, wind direction and even the migration of animals, but the flowers of small flower species will not.
The seeds planted by Xiaohua are flowers unique to his hometown, and here, they are unique flowers.
It's a pity that the climate here is so bad that most of these seeds did not survive. However, in a place unknown to Meng Jiuzhao and the others, in this lake, there was a seed that germinated quietly.
Even, it quietly opened up, blooming beautiful fiery red flowers, until it was accidentally brought up by Yaya.
"It's so strange, this kind of flower doesn't grow in water~" Carefully sniffing the precious flower, Xiaohua muttered her doubts.
"Probably this wasn't a lake in the first place." After thinking for a moment, Meng Jiuzhao expressed his thoughts: "This place was originally a normal ground, either because of the melting of the ice, or because of frequent heavy rains. It has become a lake."
"Look carefully, this place is indeed a depression. There was so much water accumulated in the rain yesterday. I guess it hasn't been long since this place became a lake? Maybe the flowers bloomed here before it became a lake."
Even Meng Jiuzhao couldn't figure out the reason that land-born flowers bloomed underwater, but he didn't plan to figure it out, because he had more important things to do.
Taking Xiaohua's flowers as important evidence, they finally confirmed the correct way home, and now they plan to go home.
Now that it is not raining, the Kantas can actually fly across the wide lake, but in order to take care of Alice who can only swim, they still choose to swim.
With their cubs on top of their heads, the Kantas were slowly swimming in the lake. The sunset glow covered the entire lake and all the Kantas. This lake gave them a bad feeling. But the joy of going home overwhelmed their dislike for the lake water, and they finally went ashore happily.
Meng Jiuzhao was the first one to go ashore. After landing, he habitually counted the number of people, but this time he counted several times.
"What's wrong?" Noticing his partner's strangeness, Louis asked him softly.
"No, it's nothing..." Obviously they have twenty-one male Kantas (+one human), but he counted out the number of twenty-two just twice.
"Probably my eyes are dazzled." Shaking his head, he finally ordered again, and after making sure that all the Kantas had arrived, Meng Jiuzhao led Haohao Tangtang's team to move on.
After walking for a long time, it was dark. After Meng Jiuzhao announced the camp, the Kantas went around to find food. Today, Xiaohua is the hero, so everyone gave Xiaohua the best meat from their prey.
"This kind of flower is the best to live ~ as long as it is thrown in the mud, it can live without watering ~" During the meal, Xiaohua's excited voice filled the entire camp, and he is selling his own flower seeds again, you see! His flower seeds have done a great job!
"Even if there is no mud, it can survive by planting it in the body of the prey. When I was a cub, I accidentally threw the seed into Dad's nostril, and then a month later, Dad's nose blossomed~"
Hello! This is a bit scary! Stop—
The other Kantas did not have Meng Jiuzhao's concerns, and chatted with Xiaohua about flower seeds with great interest. They asked Xiaohua to order some flower seeds one after another, planning to use them when the cubs went to the breeding ground in the future.
"Suddenly I remembered that in the place where the gray-green grass grows, I seem to have only planted one seed~ that Kantas who was abandoned by his companions, do you remember him?"
"This flower, maybe he opened it for us to see..."
Before falling asleep, Xiaohua suddenly said such a sentence, and then he fell asleep sweetly without realizing that he had said something extraordinary.
The other Kantas also fell asleep sweetly.
Only Meng Jiuzhao couldn't sleep at all.
"Louis, can you turn into a human form and hug me to sleep?" Meng Jiuzhao tremblingly made a request to Louis as he hugged George tightly and couldn't stop his body from trembling.
"Okay." Louis smiled softly. Not only did he change into a human form, but he also thoughtfully wrapped his partner and cubs tightly with his wings.
Surrounded by Louis in all directions, his sense of security returned instantly. Feeling the heavy weight of George on his chest, Meng Jiuzhao finally felt sleepy.
That Kantas who saved Yaya twice... is that Kantas, right
The young Kantas who was injured and abandoned by his companions, the young Kantas whose body was half eaten by other animals, and the Kantas who were finally buried by them—
He must really want to go home, surely
Unfortunately, now, he can only sleep peacefully at the bottom of the dark and cold lake.
That's why he didn't want to tell Yaya his name.
No one knows his name, so no one knows that he will never go back. When his father thinks of him one day, he will probably think that he is still alive somewhere
Amidst the deep sadness, Meng Jiuzhao fell asleep.
In the dream, he returned to the huge lake, and in the middle of the lake, he saw a black Kantas.
He watched him in the water.
And that's all.