Jiang Yao heaved a sigh of relief: "I was scared to death just now!"
After washing his hands, Lu Zhe comforted: "Don't worry, it should be a tribe of crab-eating macaques in this territory. Their monkey king died, so they will spend some time electing a new monkey king and expanding their tribe."
"Will they come again?"
"Probably not in the short term, but we still need to be vigilant and prepare our defenses! If possible, we should also take the initiative to hunt some monkeys to control their numbers and reduce the threat."
The courage of monkeys has a positive correlation with the size of their tribe."
Lu Zhe picked up a half-eaten papaya that the monkeys had gnawed on. Feeling somewhat distressed, he said: "They ruined all the resources we worked hard to stockpile."
Then he dug out the papaya seeds and fed the rest to Hai Yan and Yong Qiang.
Jiang Yao said: "I feel like monkeys are the most dangerous and annoying creatures on this island. They are organized and social."
"Even so, after all they are still just monkeys! Their brain capacity is only one-fifth to one-sixth of that of humans. They can't compare with us in intelligence and they can't defeat us!" As Lu Zhe thought about it, he was reminded of that dangerous Malayan sun bear again.
Lu Zhe's eyes suddenly lit up. Sun bears are the natural predators of monkeys!
Monkeys have an innate, deep-seated fear of Malayan sun bears.
What if we capture that Malayan sun bear and tie it up in our camp to ward off the monkeys?
But sun bears themselves are also very dangerous!
Muttering to himself, he said: "Why don't I talk to it and ask for its opinion?"
Jiang Yao was puzzled: "Talk to who?"
Looking at Hai Yan and Yong Qiang, Lu Zhe casually uttered: "Liu Neng!"
"Liu Neng?"
"Yes, that Malayan sun bear." Lu Zhe pondered for a moment, then his eyes lit up again: "Hey, don't you think the random name I came up with suits it pretty well!"
After thinking about it, Jiang Yao agreed: "Not bad! Its temperament is quite similar!"
"Just now I hypothesized about capturing that sun bear and tying it up in our camp to drive away the monkeys. But on second thought, that would also pose great risks. Malayan sun bears are much more dangerous than monkeys!"
Jiang Yao shrugged her shoulders: "I don't really feel that way. No matter how I look at it, that Malayan sun bear doesn't seem like the troublemaking type. It's as silly and innocent as Xiong Er."
"Maybe under its harmless exterior lies a vicious heart. I'll go take another look tomorrow to see if it's still there."
At this time, the other two groups had returned as well. Seeing the camp in such chaos, they were all shocked.
Shen Bing anxiously asked: "What on earth happened?"
Lu Zhe explained: "We were attacked by a troop of monkeys. It was extremely dangerous at the time, but fortunately I talked things over with them and the rest of the monkeys left. It's just that our camp was left in a mess."
Shen Bing nodded: "As long as everyone is alright, those things don't matter."
Lu Zhe inspected the log cabin.
The grass mats were faintly emitting the pungent monkey odor!
The girls couldn't smell it out, but Lu Zhe had a keen sense of smell that clearly distinguished it. He estimated that the monkey king had rolled around on the grass mats several times.
They should all be taken out and thrown away.
Fortunately the bear skins were hanging outside to dry, otherwise they would have fallen victim as well.
However, from another perspective, if the bear skins were inside the cabin, perhaps the monkeys wouldn't have dared to enter.
"Monkeys broke into our bedroom, so it's best to wait a couple days. In the meantime, let's continue improving the tree house platform. Once it's done we can thoroughly clean it several times before moving back in. We'll continue sleeping under the trees these next few nights."
Ning Shu pointed at the dead monkey on the ground: "What should we do about this?"
After thinking for a moment, Lu Zhe suggested: "We can hang it in the trees. It may have a deterring effect on the monkey troops too!"
The girls imagined a dark, windy night in their camp with a primate corpse hanging there. A gentle breeze causes it to sway back and forth, stretching out its tongue...
"A hung monkey ghost?"
"Sorry, there's no way I can fall asleep looking at that thing!"
"Not even in Lu Zhe's arms!"
"Just throw it in the sea. Out of sight, out of mind!"
Lu Zhe shook his head: "This monkey corpse can still be of use. Here's what we'll do - I'll put it somewhere else for now. Tomorrow I'll take it with me to apologize to the Malayan sun bear. Maybe we can turn confrontation into cooperation!"
Ning Shu nodded: "Alright, I'll go with you tomorrow!"
With that said, Lu Zhe threw the corpse into the woods.
The nights on this volcanic island weren't very hot. Without enduring the high daytime temperatures, corpses generally won't start smelling rotten.
August 9th, the 61st day stranded on this deserted island, Tuesday. Person on duty: Ning Shu!
Shen Bing's plan was to thoroughly tidy up the camp with Qian Qian, Jiang Yao and Guo Er, while also continuing construction on the tree house platform and stairs.
Lu Zhe and Ning Shu would take the monkey king's corpse to find the Malayan sun bear and discuss a guard duty arrangement.
Of course this wasn't set in stone, they didn't have to go through with it.
Lu Zhe just wanted to observe the bear's attitude towards monkeys.
In a low, solemn tone he warned: "That bear becomes extremely dangerous once fully grown. We must act with utmost caution."
Ning Shu tightened up with nervousness. "Should we bring an axe too?"
Lu Zhe picked up a suitable stick from the firewood pile. "No need, we'll just use this stick. If we strike first, we should be able to overpower it."
Ning Shu also grabbed a stick. "Can I hit it too?"
"Mm!" Lu Zhe reminded her again: "We might not even run into it. If that's the case, we'll just leave the monkey corpse in the woods and look for other plants or protein instead."
The two set off from the northeast corner into the forest.
Luckily, they encountered the fearsome Malayan sun bear before long.
Despite being called a sun bear, it was completely nocturnal, coming out at night to forage while spending most days snoozing away in deep slumber atop tree branches, undisturbed even by earthquakes.
It was still sprawled on that tree branch, snoring loudly while clutching a palm-sized chunk of honeycomb to its chest like a treasure, its long tongue dangling out as it slept very soundly and peacefully.
Looking at this bear about the size of a dog, Ning Shu couldn't help but be surprised: "Pfft...it's really that dangerous?"
"Yes, extremely dangerous!" Lu Zhe said gravely. "In a bit, I'll hang up the monkey in front of it then wake it up to see its reaction upon seeing the monkey. If it kills the monkey and still comes at us, hit it with the stick! Remember, don't give it a chance to retaliate."
Ning Shu tightened her grip on the stick. "Got it!"
Lu Zhe nodded, then held out the stick with the monkey dangling from its tail in front of the bear.
Catching a whiff of some peculiar smell, the Malayan sun bear opened its eyes to the sight of a monkey with contorted skull, baring its teeth and grinning hideously right before it.
The bear let out a loud roar in fright, toppling down from the tree. Seeing Lu Zhe, it blinked its tiny black bean eyes before turning tail and dashing off...straight towards Ning Shu!
Ning Shu also got a huge shock, reflexively brandishing her stick to unleash a lethal straight punch. The force of the blow landed squarely on the bear's head.