Chapter 262: Chapter 252: A Human Tragedy

"Can I go see them?" Tang Mo asked Duoyang.

’For some reason, Tang Mo really wanted to see the bear cubs. Maybe it was because the little bear with Duoyang was so adorable it stirred a feeling of pity within her.’

"Do whatever you want. Besides me, no one goes to that place anyway."

Duoyang was telling the truth. Other than him, no one ever went to the bear cubs’ tent.

The others didn’t care if the cubs lived or died. To them, capturing the cubs served no purpose other than as a way to abuse them and show off their own strength.

Feeding sheep and bears was considered the most worthless job at Hulan Base. Anyone with a bit of ambition went out to fight; hunting bears was the most pride-worthy work at Hulan Base.

And when Tang Mo walked into that stinking tent the next day, she finally understood just how cruel the people here were.

"How long... can they live?"

Inside the huge tent were rows of small iron cages, each holding a single bear cub.

The cages were far too cramped for them. They could only curl up as tightly as possible, hoping to make themselves a little more comfortable.

Every cub was covered in bloody wounds, and most of them were on the brink of death.

Without treatment, they would die soon.

"They won’t last a few months. The cubs here never live more than a few months. They die from all sorts of reasons—infected wounds, disease, and so on.

There are thirteen cubs here right now."

Duoyang reached his hand into a cage and stroked a cub’s furry head. The little bear affectionately nuzzled its head against Duoyang’s hand.

This was why Duoyang was willing to take on this thankless job.

"They don’t seem to be afraid of people?" Tang Mo ventured, reaching out her hand. Before she even got close, a cub was already rubbing its head against her.

"Quite forward."

Tang Mo looked at the cub under her hand. Its eyes were round and dewy, as if it had never been harmed by humans.

"That’s what’s so cruel about Qiangba and the others. It’s in the bears’ nature to like humans. If humans didn’t hurt them, they would want to be friends with us."

Duoyang tossed the cubs some fruit and sheep bones he had brought. It wasn’t enough to fill their stomachs, but it was sufficient to meet their most basic needs for Life.

"But the bears come to the grasslands, even the base," Tang Mo said. She had heard about the conflict between the bears and humans before.

"They just want the sheep! They have no intention of harming humans. We can coexist peacefully with them!"

Duoyang argued loudly on behalf of the lives in the cages.

Tang Mo remained noncommittal, her hand still stroking the cub.

She could understand some of Duoyang’s feelings, but not completely.

Every day after that, Tang Mo would follow Duoyang to the cubs’ tent to feed the little bears, go to the grasslands to pick sheep-grass, and then head to the sheepherding tent to feed the sheep.

Other than being larger, these mutated sheep were no different from the sheep of the past.

Because they were tied up with ropes from birth and had no freedom of movement, what little aggression they had left was nothing to be afraid of.

Duoyang said the reproductive ability of these mutated sheep was terrifying; they gave birth to a litter of lambs every two months.

Each litter had over a dozen lambs, with a high survival rate, and they were easy to raise. As a result, Hulan Base had no shortage of food.

Sometimes, the demand for sheep-grass was so great that they even had to restrict the mutated sheep from breeding; supply was greater than demand.

Looking at the tent packed with a dense flock of sheep, an idea formed in Tang Mo’s mind.

’If they released this incredibly prolific flock of sheep back onto the grasslands, wouldn’t that solve the food problem for both humans and bears?’

’With the average strength of the people in Hulan Base, catching mutated sheep would be a piece of cake.’

’Besides, if they focused their energy on the right thing, it would stop them from constantly targeting the bears.’

Compared to caring for the bear cubs, many more people were involved in feeding the sheep. Many of the elderly and sick who could no longer fight would go pick sheep-grass to feed the sheep in exchange for some food.

Mutton was the currency of Hulan Base.

Tang Mo stayed here for a while. Aside from chatting with Duoyang’s grandmother, she was out from morning till night every day.

For someone with her exceptional personal abilities, Hulan Base wasn’t a bad place to be.

This was because it had something other bases didn’t: absolute freedom.

At Hulan Base, as long as you were strong enough, you could kill, set fires, and rape women as you pleased. No one would restrain you.

Being exceptionally beautiful, Tang Mo had also been harassed quite a few times.

The first time this happened, Duoyang panicked and tried to shield Tang Mo, hoping to block the ill-intentioned men for her.

But to his surprise, Tang Mo pushed him aside, drew a large saber, and took care of all of them in a few swift moves.

After that, whenever something similar happened, Duoyang was smart enough to immediately hide behind Tang Mo and wait for her to handle it herself.

Hulan Base wasn’t that big. After this happened a few times, no one in the entire base dared to mess with Tang Mo anymore.

Through their daily chats, Duoyang discovered he was a year younger than Tang Mo. Humbled by her fierce capabilities, he started calling her "Big Sis" from then on.

Having a big guy follow her around all day calling her "Big Sis" was a strange feeling. Tang Mo wasn’t used to it at first, but she eventually grew accustomed to it.

However, these peaceful days didn’t last long. Soon, Tang Mo saw a familiar figure on the grasslands.

Because neither of them wanted to start a conflict with the bears, Tang Mo and Duoyang were always timid whenever they went out to pick sheep-grass.

On the couple of occasions they were unlucky enough to run into a bear, the two of them would just stand there with their hands raised.

The bear, over two meters tall, would sniff them all over, and upon finding that they—rarely for humans—had no hostile intent, it would leave.

Duoyang didn’t want to hurt the bears because he liked them, while Tang Mo simply had no reason to.

She still didn’t know where the pearl she was looking for was. For now, she didn’t want to make an enemy of humans, nor of the Bear Clan.

But what moved Tang Mo was that even though the bears knew full well how the people from the base slaughtered and harmed them, they still chose to spare lone humans who showed no hostility.

’Perhaps Duoyang was right. The bears had never considered humans their enemies. All their resistance was merely for self-preservation.’

But the sheep were the only scarce food resource on these grasslands, and they were monopolized by humans. As long as this problem existed, the conflict between humans and bears could never be resolved.

Just because Tang Mo and Duoyang didn’t harm bears didn’t mean no one else did.

And the familiar figure Tang Mo saw on the grasslands was, at that very moment, carrying a freshly killed bear back toward the base alongside the natives of Hulan Base.

It was Lin Yu.

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