Chapter 456: Bear

Bear walked silently to the side of the busy Shaoyin. Shaoyin also felt someone behind him, but enemies would absolutely not come here, nor would any irrelevant people, so he thought it was probably his colleague coming over to stroll around, and thus he did not pay much attention, continuing to busy himself.

It was not until Shaoyin stood up and turned his head that he discovered it was his father, but Bear's appearance was already very different from before; at a glance, he felt much older.

Shaoyin could only put down the bucket he was carrying and timidly called out, "Father."

Bear did not say any words of reproach, just patted Shaoyin on the shoulder, telling him to finish his work first and that they would chat slowly once the work was done, and then Bear took the initiative to help Shaoyin carry water.

Once all the water was poured into the horse trough, Shaoyin's work was temporarily finished, and then Shaoyin took Bear for a stroll around the Pasture. Having not seen each other for several months, the words between the two of them had become much fewer; Bear only asked about how Shaoyin's work was going here, asked nothing else, and did not say that he would find a way to have him transferred.

They walked for a long way, until both father and son had nothing left to say, and only then did Bear give Shaoyin a final instruction to work hard, before turning and leaving the Pasture.

On the way back, Bear also recalled Shaoyin's current state; he was indeed much more steady than before. As expected, young people need to be tempered more. Bear also felt that his own educational methods might be problematic and that he should consult the King more and let him give some advice. After all, he had many children, and currently, not one seemed like they would have great prospects, and it was impossible to rely entirely on himself.

Looking at Baifeng, although he only had three children, the daughter was still young and not worth discussing for now, but the two sons were definitely dragons and phoenixes among men. Bai Yulong had already displayed his demeanor and talent as a leader; even Baifeng dared to entrust some matters that were not too important to Bai Yulong to be responsible for without asking, and in the end, he could also handle things beautifully.

Bai Zhangle was even more of a crusher of his peers and the previous generation in terms of scholarship. Now he had already opened a subject in school to teach, imparting the knowledge he had summarized and learned to the clansmen, cultivating assistants for himself, and was even writing books. After Bai Yulong, he would absolutely become a figure like Shennong.

Looking at his own sons, it seemed that apart from being a bit bolder and having a bit more strength, they had no advantages at all. Even in their studies, they could not achieve good results. In his view, their only way out in the future might be to join the army, but their personalities were too flighty, and Bear felt troubled just thinking about it.

After Bear left, the others at the Pasture gathered around, wanting to ask Shaoyin what kind of work Bear had arranged for him and when he would leave this boring and dangerous place of theirs.

Shaoyin shook his head indifferently: "My father does not intend to let me leave the Pasture; he told me to work hard, and I have not thought about leaving either. Instead of worrying about my staying or leaving, you all should think of a way to see how to separate these colts. They are already big now; if it is any later, I am afraid this second generation will not be able to be used by us. By then, we will have to waste another year, and our Pasture's evaluation will be the bottom one again."

The others' faces grew hot, making their faces, already reddened by the wind, even redder. Everyone felt a bit embarrassed and said awkwardly: "Oh, oh... we'll think of a way, we'll think of a way."

After Bear's vacation ended, he immediately went to work. That day, Baifeng also convened a grand meeting, wanting to discuss the intelligence Bear had obtained after going out this time and to determine the next step of Huaxia's strategy.

All departments were present, and Baifeng presided over the meeting, then asked Bear to take the stage first to talk about what he had seen and heard. Although much of the news had gradually spread throughout Huaxia, everyone still wanted to hear the unedited, official version of the news.

Bear had not prepared a manuscript because he did not know many characters. He just recounted what he had seen and heard along the way like a running account, and what he mainly talked about was what he had encountered at the Golden Autumn Gathering.

As for how to sell Huaxia's cheap things at a high price through marketing and storytelling, this was not the main content of Bear's talk. Bear first talked about the good things he had traded back. Baifeng had already seen all the goods, and most of them had been put into storage, with only a portion taken out to be used for display at the meeting.

As for various furs, there was basically no need to talk about them, but there were a few special ones that needed to be taken out specifically to be discussed.

Bear took out a pelt that was not very big, white in color with some black spots. As soon as everyone saw it, they immediately associated it with the white tiger that had been captured before, but the tiger skin was already kept in Baifeng's home. Every fur product Baifeng used could be considered rare and precious, even among all the tribes. The only fur he kept that was of poor quality was the wolf skin of the old wolf he had killed when he first arrived in this wilderness; Baifeng felt it had great commemorative significance, which was why he kept it.

Baifeng had already told him what the pelt Bear held in his hand was, and now Bear only needed to repeat it.

Bear pinched the fluffiest tail and said: "This pelt, the King said it is from a beast called a Snow Leopard, very rare and very precious. My brain can only think of this much, but the King saw something different. The King said this kind of beast only lives in places with very high altitude; this altitude, uh, seems to mean mountains that are especially high, so high that after people go up, even breathing is difficult.

That kind of high mountain has snow that does not melt all year round, so this leopard's fur is white, to hide well, you see; the black spots are to imitate the stones on the mountain."

The Shaman interrupted Bear's speech: "Bear, this kind of pelt does sound very precious, but for our Huaxia, the significance is not that great, right? As long as there are a few pieces, it is enough for the King to use. You wouldn't be thinking of hunting this thing, would you?"

Bear was not angry because the Shaman interrupted him, just because his setup was a bit long. He shook the pelt and continued: "This is what I am about to say next. The King's meaning is that the place where this kind of leopard lives is especially high, and basically they will not go down the mountain, but a tribe was actually able to catch this kind of beast, which shows that there are tribes living on the snow-capped mountains. This can also infer one point, which is that the West might not be as desolate as we thought before; the human tribes living there are probably far more numerous than we thought."

After hearing this, everyone felt it really made sense. Many tribes meant that after Huaxia expanded to that area in the future, the population and labor force that could be absorbed would be greater, rather than just receiving a piece of wasteland.

If there are people living even in places where breathing is difficult, then wouldn't there be even more people in places at the foot of the mountain where the environment is a bit better?