King of the Wilderness

He didn’t write with too many lavish words, but rather like writing a profoundly thoughtful book review.

Dr. MacKeez Rain:

Hello.

My name is Lin Yu’an, and I am the discoverer of your box, which I found on the Labrador Coastline.

I’m sorry, but I had to crack your combination lock because at that time, I didn’t know what was inside.

The combination, 1984, was very clever.

I guessed the box might belong to a scientist, as for the intellectual group where scientists, scholars, geeks belong, George Orwell’s ”1984” has long transcended the realm of a mere novel and has evolved into a cultural symbol.

It is an unavoidable classic in your general education, a powerful ideological symbol representing eternal vigilance against totalitarianism, the defense of truth and history, and the highest pursuit of freedom of thought.

Quotes like ”Big Brother is watching you,” ”War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength,” have deeply penetrated the hearts of people.

Using ”1984” as a password, for scientists, scholars, geeks, and that kind of group, is a low-key, tacit ”identity recognition.”

It implies that the user is someone with independent thinking, who cherishes freedom, with a touch of idealism and rebellious spirit.

As it turned out, I guessed correctly.

This completely matches the image I glimpsed in your log, one that is unruly, resilient, and full of exploratory spirit.

Sorry, I read part of your log, not intending to pry into your privacy, just trying to find some clues about the owner of the box.

Your records, your enthusiasm for science, and the humor interwoven in your words made me feel a wonderful companionship during the loneliest times.

Your materials, I have preserved them for you intact, these data are far more precious than any other thing I found here.

I hope you can reunite with them soon.

Wishing you and your friend J.C peace.

——Lin Yu’an

He carefully folded the letter, placed it in Max’s log, and then personally placed it into that dark green box.

Having done all this, he felt as if he had completed something extremely important, and the heat in his heart subsided significantly.

Mark watched him finish all this, a touch of approval and emotion flashed in his eyes. He was also happy to add a highlight to the show and decided secretly to find this MacKeez before the broadcast!

He glanced at his watch: ”Alright, Lin. Our time is almost up, we still need to check the status of the other contestants. Take care of yourself, we’ll see each other again, perhaps when the outcome is decided.”

Lin Yu’an nodded, watching them lift the green box onto the helicopter. The moment the cabin door closed, his last bit of connection with the civilized world was also severed.

The helicopter took off again, swirling up snow debris, and flew south.

Lin Yu’an stood in place until the black shadow completely disappeared beyond the horizon, then turned back to his shelter.

The world returned to silence once more.

The helicopter flew south for about forty minutes and reached the second contestant’s camp—Vonia’s home.

Unlike Lin Yu’an’s workshop filled with a primitive industrial vibe, Vonia’s camp was perfectly integrated into the surrounding environment, showing almost no traces of human presence.

Her shelter, cleverly utilizing the indentation of a massive rock, was a semi-dugout hut built with moss and branches, warm and concealed.

——

When Vonia crawled out from the shelter, her state was equally astonishing.

She wore a thick scarf made from fox fur that she had sewn herself, the fluffy fox tail fur swaying gently with her movements, adding quite a bit of killing intent to her presence in the snowfield.

Her camp was also filled with a sense of harvest.

Behind the shelter, several cleanly processed snowshoe rabbit pelts were hanging, and in a naturally stone-enclosed ice cellar, a large amount of frozen hard rabbit and fish meat was stored.

Everything was orderly, filled with a sense of primitive yet efficient order.

During the medical check, Vonia didn’t say much, not eager to showcase her achievements, she simply extended her arm calmly, allowing Anna to take her blood pressure and oxygen levels, her eyes occasionally looking towards the distant forest, as if contemplating the next hunting route.

”How have the past twenty or so days been?” Mark conducted the interview from the side.

”Very good.” She took the medical report handed over by Anna, glanced at the numbers, nodded in satisfaction as if everything was under her control.

”When the storm came, I hid in my cave, very safe, after the storm, the sea brought gifts.”

She pointed to a section of the coastline with rocks in the distance: ”There were plenty of mussels and some fish there, I spent two days collecting enough to last me for quite a while.”

Subsequently, Vonia’s brow furrowed slightly, she voluntarily revealed her dilemma: ”But it’s not without difficulties, all my lasso traps were completely destroyed by the storm.”

”The delicate spruce roots used to make the traps were all buried under thick ice and snow, making it hard to find, I need to make a new batch, which takes time.”

As she spoke, she gently twirled the spruce-root woven bracelet on her wrist with her fingers, as if feeling the texture of the material, or calculating the workload needed to repair the traps.