Forest Ranger, starting from Picking Up a Lynx Girl

They stayed put until nearly noon, as the monkeys returned to quiet spots to rest and would only come back to forage around dusk.

The seven young students planned to stroll around the scenic path, while Chen Ying and Dao Meihua returned to the inn to prepare for check-out and departure.

"Mr. Chen, Teacher Dao, don't rush to leave yet. A message from the village chat group said someone spotted a white monkey in the woods to the left of the waterfall upstream."

The innkeeper showed them the village messages, and in the blink of an eye, there were already hundreds of them.

The innkeeper saved a photo, though it was still very blurry, but you could see a standing figure flash by in the forest.

"The photo is too blurry; it's hard to distinguish anything other than that it's not human, but it's unclear if it's a monkey or a bear."

Chen Ying zoomed in and out for a while, only barely able to confirm it was an animal.

This area around the Big Dragon Pond has quite a few Baihua animals, especially Baihua bears are often seen.

There is quite a bit of research on the Shennong White Bear, and currently, it can be confirmed that the Baihua bear's gene is very stable. Unlike the appearance of the Asian black bear, they more closely resemble the giant panda, but with a longer snout.

Moreover, Baihua bears have gentle personalities, unlike the temperamental Asian black bears.

(Shennong White Bear. Honestly, this bear's appearance is rather sketchy.)

They made a phone call to the Administration Bureau and after forwarding the photo the innkeeper gave him, Chen Ying and Dao Meihua decided to stay for two more days.

To appease Little Bai, Chen Ying even asked the team members from the Administration Bureau to help bring it over.

"Here, take this leopard tooth with you."

"Leopard tooth? Which leopard fell victim to you?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? This is Big and Small Baby's milk tooth. After they changed teeth, half of the teeth were thrown onto the roof, and the remaining four were made into pendants."

Making pendants was also approved by the center, you can wear them yourself, but they cannot be traded.

Aside from the two teeth submitted to the center, Chen Ying gave one to Teacher's wife, and this one he kept for himself.

"Big and Small Baby are quite capable, even though it's a milk tooth, it carries their scent, wear it and maybe it will bring some mystic luck."

After lunch, Chen Ying and Dao Meihua went to the photo spot under the guidance of the innkeeper.

"It's not allowed for outsiders to indiscriminately dig soil and plants here, but local villagers are generally allowed to pick common herbs in small quantities. Like patchouli, Acorus Calamus, and cow bile. If you pick herbs listed, you'd have to go to the police station for a cup of tea."

Even with a familiar guide, it took almost forty minutes to get there.

"There it is, under that tree up ahead, that's where the picture was taken."

From where they're standing to the tree across, they would have to descend a small ditch and climb a small slope, which would take at least half an hour.

"When you come back later, remember the coordinates I told you, the forest here is dense with many trees, if you take a wrong turn, it'll be hard to find you guys."

If it weren't for the fact that they were researchers and understood these rules, the innkeeper wouldn't have dared to bring them here so easily.

If anything went wrong, he wouldn't be able to explain it.

Field positioning has never been an issue for Chen Ying.

Others may not have anyone to ask directions, but he has his ways.

Without enough gear and equipment today, it's impossible to stay put here, so they just came to familiarize themselves with the area.

After marking it and noting the location, Chen Ying and the other two returned the way they came.

The innkeeper is a hiking enthusiast, and apart from the Grand Canyon, he's been to almost every place around Golden Monkey Ridge, enthusiastically sharing local knowledge as they chat.

"I'm not exaggerating, if my grades were better back in the day, I surely would have been cut out for field research. I chose to open an inn here in Golden Monkey Ridge because more researchers come here, and I often hear them chat knowledgeably over meals and tea, so I've learned a lot and made money too."

After hearing the innkeeper's words, Chen Ying gave him a thumbs-up.

He even added the innkeeper on WeChat and was invited into a hiking group.

"People like you can't be busy 365 days a year, right? Occasionally, if you want to go out for a walk, you can arrange with someone from the group. This group is small and consists of well-acquainted friends."

Chen Ying took a look and saw two familiar names inside.

He didn't rush to greet them, knowing there would be plenty of time in the future.

When they returned to the inn, two team members from the Administration Bureau arrived with equipment and snake boxes.

"Two tents. Dai Wang and I plan to stake out with you. The professor asked me to bring over these things too."

These are all field research equipment that Chen Ying checked and divided into two sets.

"We'll be staking out in different places; Dao Bo and I will go to the spot where we took photos today, you and Dai Wang will go here. There's a waterfall here, with a small hill above suitable for setting up camp. More importantly, two groups of monkeys often come to forage and play here in the morning and evening, and some people have even seen Golden Snub-nosed Monkeys here before."

The small waterfall is closer to the inn and a bit more convenient, with a mobile toilet not far down the stone steps.

"Alright, the professor wants us to stake out here for two days, regardless of discoveries. We must return by Friday. He arrives Friday morning and will hold a meeting in the evening to assign tasks. By Saturday, we'll split into two groups to conduct measurements and sample collection outside the canyon."

These past few days, the other team members haven't been idle either. They plan to investigate for half a month to a month, so supplies definitely need to be in place. Therefore, the employees of the Administration Bureau have been assisting in transporting supplies to the Observation Station at Big Dragon Pond.

After all, it's deep in the mountains and forests, and transporting supplies relies entirely on manpower to carry them in.

At mealtime, the seven college students had not returned, and the innkeeper was a bit anxious, standing at the door of the guesthouse trying to call them, but no one answered.

"What's going on? They should be walking along the mountain path, right? Signal is available on the scenic route, could they have gone to Old Dragon Pond over there?"

Chen Ying curiously asked, is there a road here that goes to Old Dragon Pond?

"There is. But it's not the place for your scientific expedition; it's closer to the scenic area, where there's a deep water pond. Actually, it's just a regular pond, and then they named it, writing a few words on the rock next to it to create a tourist spot."

That place belongs to the end of the forked path, with no road when reaching the pond. Visitors there have to return the way they came.

The climate changes greatly in the mountains; it's sunny during the day but may wind and rain heavily at night.

Today's weather isn't too good; by six o'clock, fog had already begun to form in the valley.

Once fog sets in in the mountains, it's easy to get lost, especially when unfamiliar with the surroundings and feeling nervous and scared, making it even harder to calm down to observe the surroundings.

This place is quite open; if it were near the pond, the fog would be heavier. If one takes an unusual path, the most likely scenario would be needing to call for rescue.

About three or four minutes later, the innkeeper's phone rang.

"Innkeeper, please call the police quickly, we've found a human skeleton here."

The speaker was a girl with a sobbing tone, and her breathing was extremely unstable.

"The innkeeper asked where she was, you call the police, we'll come over immediately to check the situation."

Chen Ying and the others didn't bother with eating, quickly standing up and putting on their backpacks, which contained walkie-talkies, high-intensity flashlights, compasses, and first-aid kits.

"About five meters south from the fork in the road at Old Dragon Pond. Okay, got it. You guys stay safe, wait on the road; I'll call the police right away and then come to pick you up."

"Ni Ni, you stay here to wait for the police, I'll go with Mr. Chen to check the situation first."

Dao Meihua stopped another girl's action, "You are familiar with this place, later guide the police officers. We'll go first; there are girls there, so it'll be inconvenient for just Mr. Chen and the others to go."

"Alright, Dao Bo, you guys go quickly, I know what to do."

Besides their guesthouse, about two hundred meters up the slope, there's a vacation resort. But that resort is relatively expensive and caters to regular customers.

The guesthouse owner made a call to them, seemingly asking for the resort's security guards to come down to assist.

Jogging along the way, they saw three girls huddled together by the roadside.

"Just the three of you? Where are the others?"

"Wei Zi is down the cliff, checking if there are any other traces."

Chen Ying clicked her tongue; are these young men brave or heartless? Aren't they afraid upon seeing the skeleton?

Dai Wang took a look and frowned tightly, "How did you discover the situation there? That place has already deviated from the regular path of the scenic area, hasn't it?"

"Yes, yes, Xiao Lu and Wei Zi led the way. They've been here before, saying there's a path that goes down directly to the scenic area service station, and then we can take the scenic area's transportation back to the guesthouse."

"From such a high place, how did you see..."

A girl nearby suddenly burst into tears.

"It was me, my, hat fell, fell down there, wuu~~, so I wanted to go down, to pick it up. Xiao Lu said he would help me pick it up, and then my hat, dropped onto the skeleton, wah~"

The girl cried as she spoke and then began to sob loudly.

She followed Xiao Lu down and saw her hat perfectly covering the skull, barely fainting was considered still good.

Dao Meihua imagined the scene and looked at the girl with sympathy.

"Mr. Chen, could you come and take a look?"

Dai Wang and the innkeeper went to bring those students up, and when passing by the skeleton, Dai Wang instinctively glanced at it, feeling that the remains were incomplete and even had bite marks on the scattered bones.

After Chen Ying went down, he dared not disturb the remains; he only took a few photos of them, mainly focusing on the bones that seemed to be gnawed by wild animals.

"Looking at these bite marks, they seem very similar to those left by cats. There are no records of tigers here; they might be left by leopards or other feline animals."

The exact cause of death of this skeleton's owner would still need to be determined by a forensic expert; he was merely making a judgment based on the remaining traces on the bones.

He also speculated that the gnawing marks might have been left after death.

Just then, Chen Ying suddenly picked up a flashlight and swept it behind him.

"What's the matter?" Dai Wang was startled by him and glanced around.

"Where's the innkeeper, and those four college students?"

Earlier when coming down, he could still hear their voices; suddenly now, there's no sound at all, what's going on?