Chapter 67 Hope
Bai Tang took the white fruit that Zhao Lei had just cut open and smelled it; it had a sweet and sour, refreshing aroma.
The fruit felt hard to the touch, so I didn't dare to bite it directly. Although they said it was non-toxic, the red seeds still looked a bit creepy.
These white fruits look a bit like white strawberries with the skin and seeds reversed, only much larger.
As Bai Tang told Lin Fan and the others to get the bags, she said:
"Since these white fruits have a smell, is it because the mutated wild boars have a highly developed sense of smell that they can find these fruits?"
Our sense of smell is not as sensitive as that of animals, so we can't smell it immediately.
Thinking of this, Bai Tang thought of canned food. Since the others' sense of smell was not good, then the sense of smell of canned food should be good.
Then she called the can over, took half a white fruit, and held it in front of the can's nose so it could smell it.
Bai Tang let the canned food smell as she spoke:
"Take a good sniff of this canned food, remember the smell, then go look for it nearby. If you find it, I'll give it to you as an extra treat when we get back."
Zhao Lei was completely baffled by her actions. Could a domesticated stray cat really be used as a search dog?
Bai Tang didn't offer any further explanation.
All the canned food could hear was: "blah blah... same taste... found... extra meal."
Upon hearing the words "extra food," the canned food was so excited that it wanted to run out and find it immediately.
Bai Tang patted its head and said to Zhao Lei:
"Captain Zhao, you can pack up the stuff in this area now. We'll go look for more canned goods elsewhere."
Captain Zhao Lei: "Okay, then please be careful."
After saying that, Bai Tang put the can out, and the can flew out in a flash.
Then Bai Tang and his team followed the canned food in another direction.
Bai Tang and the others, carrying their tools, jogged after Guan Tou for about ten minutes. Guan Tou would occasionally look back to check on their pace.
They didn't run very far; the canned food stopped at one place near the mountain.
Then the canned food kept meowing at the side of the mountain.
Bai Tang understood its meaning and said:
"Is this the place? The canned goods."
Canned food: "Meow~ Meow!"
Then Bai Tang and the others took their tools and started digging in the snow in that area.
They searched for less than two minutes and then found the same vine with five or six white fruits on it.
Bai Tang quickly asked Lin Feng to bring over the prepared woven bags.
Gu Yanxu, Lin Feng, and Lin Zhou cleared away the snow and picked out the vines bearing fruit.
Bai Tang, Bai Jiyang, and Lin Fan followed behind the three of them with woven bags, stuffing the fruit and vines into the bags.
Fortunately, the white fruits and vines are relatively hard, so there's no need to worry about them being crushed.
They filled about a third of the bag in this small area, which is about 30 kilograms.
However, the weight of the vines was included in these 30 jin (15 catties), so after searching this area, Bai Tang called Guan Tou (a type of canned food) and asked it to search other places.
(ps: Taking urea bags as an example, one urea bag can hold about 50 kilograms, or 100 jin.)
The canned food quickly led them to another place where they found the same white fruit, and the two places were not far apart.
Soon they had searched through the snow in another area as well.
They also unearthed many vines bearing white fruit.
Gu Yanxu and his two companions were still rummaging through things in front, while Bai Tang and her two companions were picking things up behind them.
They filled the bag with 30 pounds earlier with about 20 pounds more.
Then they changed to another woven bag to pack it, so that when they carried it back, one person wouldn't have to carry 100 pounds at once.
After searching this area, they found some white fruits scattered around in other places.
The total weight was about 100 kilograms, because the vines also weighed a lot. This plant is valuable for research not only because of its fruit, but also because of its vines.
Hopefully, the experts at the base can figure out why this plant can survive and produce fruit in this kind of weather.
The task posted at the base was to find 50 kilograms of white berries, which they have already completed.
After searching for a while longer, they finally hurried back with two bags on their backs.
It was still the canned food that was hopping and skipping ahead, leading the way.
When they returned to where they had been, Zhao Lei said:
"We also found some white fruits over there."
Then Zhao Lei noticed the two bags they were carrying.
He exclaimed in surprise, "Captain Bai, is your cat really good enough to be used as a patrol dog?"
Bai Tang: "My cat, Guanshi, is a wild cat, so it has certain hunting habits."
In addition, it must have undergone a slight mutation, making it even more powerful.
Besides, some people in our base also keep pets, and those pets have all mutated to varying degrees.
Fortunately, even if a pet mutates, it won't harm people.
The two teams estimated that the white fruits they found weighed about 180 jin (90 catties).
It far exceeded the base's mission requirements, so they could keep the extra fruit for themselves.
After Bai Tang and the others returned, the two teams quickly got into the car and left.
After all, there should be some mutated animals living near these fruits.
If you encounter smaller mutated animals like rabbits, that's fine, but the real problem is running into a herd of mutated wild boars.
So they left without stopping.
After driving for more than half an hour towards the base, we encountered several mutated wild rabbits, which we took.
It took another half hour to finally see the base's gate.
After swiping their cards to enter the base, they drove towards the base's service center.
Some people at the base have almost memorized what Bai Tang and his team's vehicle looks like.
Because every time they went out and came back, they brought something with them, such as the mutated wild boars from the previous two times.
So even though no mutated wild boars were seen this time, some people still went to the base's office to see what they brought back.
When the two teams arrived at the service center, Captain Zhao Lei had three bags carried in and two weighed.
Because Bai Tang had already discussed it with Captain Zhao on the way.
The extra fruit was divided equally between the two teams.
Captain Zhao is a shrewd person in the base, so it's best to be on good terms with him.
People from the base came to weigh their fruit.
They picked the fruit one by one, weighed out fifty pounds of fruit, and then bought the vines at a separate price.
After paying Bai Tang contribution points, they returned the fruits and the extra ones.
Bai Tang and Captain Zhao Lei distributed all the fruit that was due in the service hall.
Then Captain Zhao Lei gave them a few words of advice:
"It's best not to eat the fruit we've been allocated yet. Let's wait until the base conducts in-depth analysis and research before we eat it."