Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

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During the Spring and Autumn period in Chu State, Prince Shang Chen staged a palace coup and turned against his own father, King Cheng of Chu. On his deathbed, King Cheng strongly requested a bear’s paw dish before he could close his eyes in peace.

On reflection, it was perhaps not because of the delicacy’s taste that King Cheng made the request—he was weak and ineffective.

His demand may have been mere mockery, a critique of his son’s actions.

Back then, eating bear paws was largely a way to retaliate against the Zhou dynasty’s rule, which at the time was in name a nation but in reality a tribal confederation.

Bear, brown bear, panther, chimera, thunder beast, tiger.

Six beasts served as totems for the tribes, with the bear symbolizing the ancestors of the Huaxia people. Chu State adopted the bear as its emblem, to showcase its formidable power.

However, the people of the Central Plains didn’t see it that way; they always considered Chu State as barbaric. Alas, they couldn’t defeat its strong military, so they resorted to eating bear paws to express their disdain, akin to the modern hierarchy of scorn, to flaunt their sense of superiority.

From then on, eating bear paws became fashionable, with everyone deeming it "stylish."

But are bear paws really tasty?

The answer is not necessarily, or rather, quite unpalatable.

If modern seasonings can’t make it palatable, it’s highly improbable that it was prepared perfectly thousands of years ago.

At this revelation, the audience was greatly disappointed.

They had waited so long only to be told that bear paws aren’t delicious?

"Other than bear paws, I haven’t heard of anyone enjoying other parts of the bear, so I guess they’re also undesirable because of their taste."

Bi Fang rummaged through his memory and found a century-old case that supported his claim.

"In the 1980s, natural reserves were already established, and poaching was strictly forbidden. A mountain villager, who originally wanted to hunt some boars and musk deer, accidentally shot a panda wearing a radio collar."

A panda?

The audience perked up upon hearing this.

Given the context...

What the fuck, that person didn’t eat the panda, did they?

Bi Fang nodded, affirming the audience’s suspicions.

Sure enough, such an act, if it happened today, would be incredibly daring.

In court.

Judge: "Tell us how you found the panda."

Resident: "I saw footprints in the snow. At first, I thought they were human’s. Then I discovered the strangled panda. I knew killing it was wrong, and I wanted to hide the matter. I cut off the feet with a knife and then I split open the body to remove the insides. I hid all that in the woods.

In the end, I took the skin and the meat."

Judge: "What did you do with the meat?"

Mountain villager: "I took it home, my wife cooked it with radish, we ate some. It didn’t taste good. So we fed it to the pigs. I also gave some to my sister."

This was the record on the case file.

But Bi Fang could no longer remember clearly, so he recounted the general content to the audience.

"The final sentence was two years in prison, and that was in ’83 when wildlife protection laws were not fully established. If it were today, he’d probably serve a much longer sentence."

"Pandas are also bear species, so I suppose the taste would be similar. Bear meat is truly unpalatable; there’s no need for anyone to try it, besides wasting money, it serves no purpose."

Locals live off the land or water resources nearby.

Mountainous areas yield low grain harvests; without hunting to trade for food from outside, life would be very tough.

Mountain villagers rely on hunting for extra income, and they’re not choosy—whatever they catch is what they sell, whatever is trapped, they sell.

Even such villagers would feed the bear meat directly to pigs, which speaks volumes about how unappetizing bear meat must be.

Perhaps, as some comments suggested, it would take one or two years of preparation and processing to make a barely edible dish.

To such an extent, what is eaten is not the ingredient itself but an air of pretense.

Look, this dish, it took countless man-hours and resources, can you afford it?

[The theme has been elevated.]

[Why do I suddenly think of indirect salvation?]

[Boohoo, another day of shattered dreams.]

The audience howled.

"Well, you’ve seen it now; it’s already 8 PM, so that’s all for today’s livestream."

Shattering the illusion that bear paws are tasty, Bi Fang delivered a double blow as he ended the livestream.

[Damn, just kill the livestream like that!]

[Boss Fang, don’t just hide away silently; I know you’re at home. You have the audacity to eat bear paws, why not to stream it?]

[Open the door, if you are brave enough to eat bear paws, you should be brave enough to livestream. Livestream, livestream, do it now, Boss Fang, don’t hide away in silence, I know you’re eating.]

[Damn, that’s some serious nagging.]

Even though bear paws don’t taste good, Bi Fang wasn’t one to waste food.

It was suspicious to see someone stuffing down unappetizing bear meat so relentlessly.

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After dinner, around nine o’clock, Richard and his companions were once again blocked at the hotel entrance, with the gangsters even more aggressive than the day before, constantly making provocative remarks.

The shadowy figures of society only needed to enrage Richard and company. If Richard and the others couldn’t endure it and struck first, the local police would have a reason and evidence to deport them!

At nine in the evening, a few gang members loitered at the entrance.

However, they all found it strange that Richard and his associates seemed quite different from yesterday. Instead of coming out and having a big fight with them, they were quiet in their room.

They made occasional noises, without which one might have suspected they had vanished from the room.

"Have they given up so quickly?"

"I don’t know, maybe they’re pretending? They changed their room today, I wonder what it means."

"Isn’t it good if they don’t react? The commotion yesterday gave me a headache, and I’m even a bit sleepy today."

"We absolutely can’t let our guard down. If they catch something on camera, the town is done for."

"Got a cigarette? Give me one."

"Here, the last one. You’re really persistent. With this much effort, why don’t you do something more meaningful?"

"Who knows..."

In the corridor, several youths dressed in flashy clothes leaned against the wall, casually flicking cigarette ashes onto the carpet as they chatted with each other.

Suddenly, one young man seemed to remember something and excitedly looked at his companions.

"Hey, did you watch today’s Black Bear Hunting season? Wasn’t it so cool?"

Another companion didn’t quite understand. "I didn’t watch it. It’s just a TV show. What’s so interesting about it? I never watch those things; they turn you into an idiot."

"Who said that? You really missed out then. Today one of the contestants actually defeated a 1.6-meter-tall black bear with a spear. A spear! And that bear, when it stood up, was even taller than me. It was so cool; he was like a superhero!"

"Hey, hey, are you kidding? Fighting a black bear with a spear? Isn’t that a scene straight out of a TV drama?"

"It’s true. Live broadcast, just with a spear. He managed to leave the black bear without any strength to fight back. I heard he’s here in Taiji Town; I’d really like to meet him."

The few of them talked about today’s hunting season. The one who initiated the conversation about it was especially animated, clearly full of admiration for Bi Fang’s actions.

What they didn’t know was that the superhero they talked about had his hands on a handful of fine sand and was preparing to climb the hotel building once more.

With the experience from the first time, Bi Fang was now even better prepared.

He tied the Prusik knot on his rope, first making a loop with a shoelace using an overhand knot, and then, he wrapped the rope around it, threading it through his own loop and then through the loop formed by the rope twice before pulling tight.

The Prusik knot is a safety knot used in rock climbing, serving as an extra lifesaving measure for climbers.

Its unique method of tying allows it to move only up the rope; the downward pressure locks it in place.

If a Prusik knot is tied on a harness, it activates an automatic braking system that can still hold a falling Bi Fang in case of other equipment failure.

In infiltrations or escapes, Bi Fang could take advantage of the knot’s property of moving only up the rope to lock himself in place.

Bi Fang tied a total of four Prusik knots to use as loops and footholds when he unsteadily climbed up the rope.

In one of the rooms, Mandy and Keke had also opened the windows and saw Bi Fang below the hotel.

Having learned from their experiences, this time they chose rooms on the fifth floor, which meant it didn’t take much effort for Bi Fang to reach the windowsill.

Bi Fang’s previous advice to Mandy to change rooms was not only to make rock climbing easier but also to avoid certain unique surveillance methods.

Hotel rooms are notoriously unsafe.

This is particularly true in some developing countries, where even those trusted brand hotels can easily be blamed or monitored, many with official sanction.

In this era of global uncertainty, radical governments go to great lengths to gather intelligence on foreigners, from high-ranking diplomats to ordinary businessmen, with none spared, especially someone like Richard who holds a unique position in a certain field.

Many ordinary people on their travels are oblivious to these invisible threats, believing that hiding in hotel rooms or rented cars ensures their safety.

But Bi Fang was aware of the dangers, particularly as they were already under surveillance.

Any hotel under the control of an unknown entity is subject to various threats, and some hotels place foreigners in rooms equipped with hard-wired surveillance.

Fortunately, frequently changing rooms and hotels could thwart their plans.

Last night, Richard and the others checked into their rooms and settled in without giving anyone else a chance to install surveillance devices, and the same held true for today.

Not just today, but every day after, Richard and his companions would have to switch floors and rooms, and in three days, they would have to switch hotels.

"Hotels can easily have emergencies; the safest rooms are on the second or third floor, so move to the third floor tomorrow," Bi Fang advised.

Most countries’ firefighting equipment doesn’t reach above the third floor, making them vulnerable to the threat of fire. Even if there were other guests, such a move might harm the innocent and could be outrageously callous.

But Bi Fang didn’t trust the moral standards of those swayed by profit.

Besides, living on the first floor should also be avoided. In case of sudden attacks, being away from the lobby is crucial for one’s safety.

Mandy and Keke nodded their heads, signaling they would pass the message to Richard and the others tomorrow, and then began to climb down the rope one by one.

If one observed carefully, it wasn’t hard to notice that beneath their clothes, both had donned skintight diving suits.

That night the trio wasn’t just there to install cameras; they were undertaking a far more dangerous underwater operation.

The sea floor was yet another battlefield for them!