Chapter 76 Red Falcon
Looking at the huge rock not far away, Du Ruo did not run and climb up as quickly as before. He still remembers clearly that time when he almost stepped on a clouded leopard lying on the rock to bask in the sun.
Coming under the boulder, Du Ruo pulled it up like a scallion in dry land. This time he didn't use his feet for leverage. Instead, he raised his hands and when his body was at the highest point in the air, he grabbed the edge of the boulder with four fingers. Then, with a force, he pulled his entire body up onto the boulder with just four fingers.
After climbing up the boulder, Du Ruo did not see the clouded leopard. When he was about to send the "qi" to his ears, a slight "woooo" sound came into his ears.
Du Ruo turned his head and saw a clouded leopard lying on the trunk of a pine tree not far from the boulder, licking its paws. Its belly was bulging and seemed to be bigger than a few days ago. It was obvious that it had the wild boar as a reserve of food these days, so it should be living well.
When she saw him appear, she did not run away, but just looked at Du Ruo, making a "wuwu" sound from her mouth.
"Here, I brought you some beef."
Du Ruo smiled, sat down on the boulder, opened the plastic bag in his left hand, took out the fresh beef and put it aside. There was still some minced meat in the bag, and Du Ruo was too lazy to clean it up, so he rolled up the plastic bag and put it back in his pocket.
"Meow~~"
The clouded leopard, which was licking its paws, stood up from the pine tree after smelling the scent, and kept staring at the piece of beef next to Du Ruo.
Since yesterday afternoon, the clouded leopard has stopped eating wild boar meat. The weather has been too hot these days, and under the scorching sun, the wild boar meat began to emit a strange smell. The clouded leopard only eats fresh food.
Now is the time when it needs nutrition, so when he smelled the fresh beef, he couldn't help but feel excited.
After hesitating for a while, the clouded leopard climbed down from the tree and slowly came to Du Ruo. Then, it sniffed the beef and after confirming that it was fresh meat, it began to eat it with relish.
When the clouded leopard was halfway through eating, Du Ruo reached out and slowly approached the clouded leopard with the back of his hand. This time the clouded leopard did not dodge and allowed Du Ruo to take over.
A piece of beef weighed only a little over one pound. The clouded leopard ate it very quickly. After eating, it did not run away. It lay on its back and let Du Ruo touch its body. It even exposed its belly and was no longer on guard against Du Ruo.
"Okay, you continue to bask in the sun here. I'm going to continue climbing up."
Du Ruo stroked it for a while, patted the clouded leopard's head, then stood up and looked at the mountain behind him.
This huge rock was at most on the mountainside, and behind it was a stone wall that was probably nearly a hundred meters high. Du Ruo stood on the rock and looked up. The wall had a slope of about sixty degrees. Apart from the stacked stones, there were only scattered weeds in the cracks. There was a large bulge just before the top of the cliff, where a small pine tree stood alone on the wall.
Only by climbing up this stone wall can you see large areas of pine trees. The pine trees grow in a gently sloping valley, with higher peaks behind them. Those pine trees are where the group of short-tailed monkeys Du Ruo discovered last time.
"Meow~~"
The clouded leopard turned over, not understanding why Du Ruo suddenly stopped tickling it. It swept its long tail across Du Ruo's legs and rolled on the stone.
"Hey, I'll bring you something delicious next time."
Du Ruo said this, then began to climb up using his hands and feet.
Du Ruo had no climbing experience. If the slope was a little lower, Du Ruo could accelerate and use his feet to gain momentum to get over it. However, with such a slope and such a height, he couldn't just accelerate and run up. So he could only climb up by pinching the gap with his fingers.
Rock climbing is a great exercise for developing finger strength, core body strength, and mental toughness.
Although this is Du Ruo's first time climbing, as long as he is careful, he is not afraid at all given his physical condition.
The clouded leopard continued to lie on the boulder. It seemed a little sleepy after eating. It looked at Du Ruo for a while, then fell asleep with its tail wagging.
Steep rock walls of nearly a hundred meters in height are very common in Huangshan. Du Ruo's is considered an easy one to climb, as there are always cracks or bumps in the mountain for Du Ruo to leverage on. His finger strength alone is far beyond that of ordinary rock climbers.
It was inevitable that he had to be cautious when climbing for the first time. It took Du Ruo more than ten minutes to climb to the distance of two or three meters from the small pine tree in the middle. "I didn't expect that there was a small platform under this pine tree. It's just right to take a rest here."
Du Ruo looked up and saw a pine tree not far above his head. There was a huge rock protruding there, like a small platform, and the pine tree was rooted on the small platform.
Du Ruo felt easy when he started climbing, but his fingers started sweating after a while. Du Ruo planned to climb up and take a rest on the small platform, or at least wipe the sweat off his hands before continuing to climb to the top. After all, the raised part was still nearly ten meters away from the top, and it was even steeper above. It was not an exaggeration to say that it was a cliff. Du Ruo had to be well prepared before he dared to continue climbing.
After climbing for a distance again, Du Ruo hooked his fingers on the raised edge of the stone where the small pine tree was rooted. Confirming that the stone was firm enough, Du Ruo grabbed it with both hands, exerted force with his arms, suspended his feet in the air, and then sat down on the small platform.
The platform was not big, and when Du Ruo sat down, his butt was right next to the small pine tree, taking up half of the platform, with only his feet hanging in the air.
"Wow, it's so high."
Du Ruo faced the bottom of the cliff, his back against the stone wall, his feet hanging in the air, with no obstructions in front of him. Looking down, the height of nearly 100 meters made Du Ruo swallow his saliva. Although he was not afraid of heights, it was his first time sitting in such a high position with such a perspective, so he couldn't help feeling nervous.
"ke~ke~ke~"
Du Ruo had just sat down and was looking down, trying to find the huge rock where the clouded leopard was lying, when he heard a rather strange bird call.
Du Ruo turned his head and saw that the protrusion on the cliff seemed to be a bird's nest. There was a groove where the platform and the stone wall were connected. It was covered with pine branches and a few brown-red feathers could be seen here and there.
When Du Ruo sat down, he blocked most of the nest, and the bird's chirping sound came from inside.
"Hey, sorry, I didn't notice."
Du Ruo didn't care whether the bird inside could understand him or not. He smiled and moved his butt a little, revealing the entire bird's nest.
"kek~kek~"
The calls became louder, but no bird flew out.
Du Ruo lowered his head with difficulty to look inside. There was a falcon that should be an adult, calling with its mouth wide open, as if trying to drive Du Ruo away with the sound.
Du Ruo didn't expect it to be such a coincidence. He didn't expect that he could just find a place to rest and sit at someone else's door.
Du Ruo wiped his hands on his body, trying to wipe off the sweat before leaving. Suddenly he thought of something and took out the plastic bag containing beef from his pocket. He searched inside and found a piece of minced beef.
He put a finger-sized piece of minced beef on his palm, then slowly moved his hand to the hole and put the plastic bag back into his pocket.
Perhaps it smelled the beef, the kestrel stopped calling and started to stick its head out to check.
"Whoosh~"
A red kestrel about ten centimeters long flew out of the nest, then suddenly grabbed one of Du Ruo's fingers, and then turned around and flew back into the nest without even looking.
Its tiny body was no match for Du Ruo's hand. Its sharp claws grabbed Du Ruo's fingers and its wings flapped in the air, but it couldn't fly back to the nest.
"This bird is so stupid, I'm afraid it's a university student... Pah, I'm afraid it has a problem with its brain, doesn't it know it caught the wrong person?"
The corners of Du Ruo's mouth twitched, and the skin on his fingers, which had been trained to be very resilient, was stinging from being scratched. However, the falcon did not realize that it had grabbed the wrong thing, and kept flying towards the nest, but it just couldn't pull his fingers away.
(End of this chapter)
