Extinct Animals

Lu Zhe was just as shocked to see a giant panda or golden snub-nosed monkey here. Its slender body, jackal-like face, and long tail like a snake, with a slightly bulging abdomen.

At first they thought it was a thin dog, but when they saw the black spots on its back and butt, they were all stunned.

"Hey, this animal looks familiar..."

"From a textbook..."

"This thing, I think it's called... thylacine!"

There was some excitement in Lu Zhe's eyes: "That's right, it's a thylacine!"

"Isn't it a prehistoric creature?"

"What prehistoric, it only went extinct a few decades ago!"

Extinct a few decades ago is still extinct!

A species that went extinct in Australia and New Guinea, yet discovered alive here. No wonder you would be excited!

Lu Zhe looked at his gun, tucked it into his waistband, then pounced at it. However, this thylacine was extremely sensitive. At the moment Lu Zhe pounced at it, it actually jumped to the side, as fast as lightning.

After dodging Lu Zhe's pounce, it still didn't want to give up the food in front of it. Baring its teeth, it made a "hissing" sound. This was slightly different from the way ordinary canines would threaten.

Lu Zhe looked at it, trying to make his eyes as gentle and friendly as possible: "Don't be afraid, I'm a good guy..."

Hearing Lu Zhe say that, the thylacine inexplicably shuddered, then the threatening sound stopped abruptly. It turned around and disappeared into the woods.

Lu Zhe realized its movement was as agile as the clouded leopards on Volcano Island.

Lu Zhe sighed, "It doesn't seem good at socializing."

Tang Xiaoguo said, "Should we go after it?"

"Why chase it?"

"Hey, this is a thylacine that's been extinct for decades!"

"Yes, then what?"

"Catch one and take it back to sell, we'll make a fortune!"

"Then spend a lot of time and effort catching it, instead of taking care of Sister Bing and the Class Monitor?"

"Well..." Tang Xiaoguo was speechless.

Lu Zhe pondered and said, "I don't blame you. When I first saw this thing, I also wanted to catch it! But when I think about it calmly, I realize that discovering an extinct species is important, but compared to companions, it's as light as a feather! Sister Bing and Class Monitor, as well as you all, are just as important."

The three girls looked at each other and felt their own importance in Lu Zhe's heart.

"Our top priority now is to go back to Volcano Island. If we happen to catch one or two... we'll have to hand it over to the country. Most likely a $500 bonus plus a pennant of honor!"

"Huh?" Tang Xiaoguo was a little disappointed.

Jiang Yao said, "It's not as good as selling crab-eating macaques. There are plenty of them on Volcano Island. It is the most suitable non-human primate to replace humans for animal testing. Europe and America are looking everywhere to buy them, several thousand dollars a piece."

Tang Xiaoguo was shocked: "Wow, I don't need to ask my dad for money anymore!"

Lin Qianqian worriedly said, "Isn't it illegal to trade wildlife?"

"What if it’s not within our territory? ...Well, I’ll have to ask Sister Bing about this later!"

Lu Zhe figured he probably wouldn't encounter the thylacine again for a while, so he calmly continued with the task at hand!

The sheep they captured was a ram. Looking at the place pierced by the thylacine's sharp teeth, it was above the neck and didn't affect skinning the whole hide for the raft!

Give it a imaginary lunch of tender strawberries, then humanely kill it.

Lu Zhe first cut off the lower legs of the limbs, then tied three legs tightly with ropes.

Then he poked a small hole in the skin at the broken leg stump of the front right leg, and blew air in from here. As he blew, he slapped the sheep's body to separate the skin from the flesh.

He tried for three minutes, and the skin was actually blown open. Then Lu Zhe started vomiting!

"Damn, too freaking fishy, you guys try..."

The three girls all came over to smell it and ran away before even trying.

"Is this something humans do?"

"Why blow into this?"

Lu Zhe explained, "With this process, it won't be easy to damage the skin when pulling it off. Professional raft makers have extremely strong lung capacity. Their cheeks can swell up like frogs."

Tang Xiaoguo pondered, "Hmm, no wonder ‘blowing cowhide’ comes from this!"

Jiang Yao said, "That’s blowing cowhide, this is blowing sheepskin, how can they be the same?"

Lin Qianqian gently explained, "Actually there really is a connection! I read in a book that people along the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers not only make sheepskin rafts, but also cowhide rafts. Sheepskin can be blown up, no matter how hard you blow, cowhide can’t be blown up. Saying you can blow up cowhide means you're lying!

Over time, people in that area used ‘blowing cowhide’ to refer to people who lie. It then spread out from there."

Tang Xiaoguo and Jiang Yao looked at each other. "Strange knowledge +1!"

Lu Zhe also knew that not to mention these three girls blowing it up, even ordinary adults would have a hard time, so it looks like he had to do this himself.

After resting for a while, he continued blowing!

Half an hour later, it was finally almost done.

Then he cut open the sheep's butt and started pulling the sheepskin from the back to the front little by little. In no time at all, a whole sheepskin was pulled off.

Then the leg hair took up another afternoon.

"Is that it?"

"This is just the first step. It still needs to be dehaired, oiled, salted, inflated, stitched, and sun dried, more than a dozen steps in total."

"So how long would it take to make a raft following all the steps?"

"At least three months!"

"Three months? Sister Bing and the Class Monitor would go crazy!"

Lu Zhe nodded, "So we can't follow the normal procedures!"

Lin Qianqian said, "What problems would there be not following the normal procedures?"

"Although untreated sheepskin rafts are also very sturdy, air will leak through the pores."

Jiang Yao worried, "You mean this raft could sink halfway?"

"To be frank, yes!" Lu Zhe said lightly. "But we can modify it to solve the air leak issue."

"How to modify it?"

"We can put empty plastic bottles inside the sheepskin raft!"

Lin Qianqian's eyes lit up: "Empty bottles can provide buoyancy but are prone to scattering. The new skin may leak some air but it can ensure the bottles don't scatter."

"That’s right, that’s it!"

The other two girls seemed to vaguely understand, and then started discussing how to eat this sheep.

At dusk, the second sheep was caught!

At that time, it was on a cliff thirty meters away looking at Lu Zhe. Lu Zhe raised his gun and shot it directly in the skull. It fell straight from the cliff, convulsed and died.

Lu Zhe figured no animals would come around to make trouble for a while.

While eating roasted lamb and drinking boiled lamb soup, the thylacine came again.

It was no longer as agile as before. Covered in scratches and wounds, it staggered out of the woods, blood flowing continuously from its mouth. It seemed to be at the end of its life.

This made Lu Zhe feel somewhat surprised.

Then it crawled to Lu Zhe and collapsed in front of him. The way it looked at Lu Zhe seemed to be pleading!