Chapter 101: High-Tech Poachers
After waiting a full day, Lin Jiangye made it to the afternoon with no response from them at all.
Something felt off. He called again—only to find the line wouldn’t go through.
“No one’s picking up?” That was really strange. He had dialed their office directly; how could no one answer?
Not until evening did he finally get a call back.
“Advisor Lin, are you messing with us?”
Lin Jiangye froze for a split second. The tone on the other end was terrible—so terrible it sounded like the caller wanted to punch him.
Holding back anger, the caller relayed the search results.
To verify what Lin Jiangye had said, everyone in the reserve had mobilized, and even the local forestry bureau had joined in. After searching nonstop for an entire day and night, they hadn’t found a single animal carcass—not even a trace of blood.
In other words, there were no so-called poachers in the reserve at all.
After a full day of exhaustion, everyone was wiped out, and they all felt Lin Jiangye had been deliberately toying with them.
If they didn’t know Lin Jiangye was a special consultant for the Yue City Public Security Bureau, the director would have been cursing by now.
But when Lin Jiangye heard the accusation, his voice turned even sharper than theirs.
“Another bird just came to me—also a tawny owl. It says that ‘that strange thing’ showed up again last night, and this time it took a golden snub-nosed monkey—a baby.”
“You’re telling me you found nothing. Then why are the protected animals in your reserve so desperate that they came all the way to me?” Two tawny owls—one after another—had come looking for Lin Jiangye.
Mín Province tawny owls were an endemic variety. You couldn’t just find them somewhere else.
And Lin Jiangye—forget “recently”—since returning to the country, he hadn’t gone to Mín Province even once. There was no way he could’ve had contact with this kind of owl.
The director fell silent.
Lin Jiangye said that if they still didn’t believe him, they could add his contact right now and video call to verify it.
“Mín Province tawny owls look quite different from other gray-brown owls. I’m sure you won’t mistake them, right?”
As the forestry bureau director, surely he wouldn’t misidentify an endemic species in his own jurisdiction.
Lin Jiangye’s absolute certainty left the director momentarily stunned.
But they really had taken a whole group up the mountain and checked. They truly hadn’t found anything abnormal.
They had even rewatched footage from the reserve’s thousands of cameras—there was indeed no problem!
“Then it means the poachers have gotten smarter—better at hiding.” Maybe… they’d even got some internal cooperation, too.
Lin Jiangye didn’t say that last sentence aloud, but he was done holding back.
“I’m going to the reserve tomorrow. I’ll be bringing a few apex predators with me. Be prepared.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go tonight—there were no late-night flights anymore.
Besides, if he was bringing Tiger Mom, he could only fly private.
Staring into the pitch-black night outside, Lin Jiangye felt uneasy. The only thing he could do now was silently pray that nothing happened in the reserve tonight.
After hanging up, the director’s face darkened like it had been dipped in ink.
Lin Jiangye hadn’t sounded like he was joking at all. After hesitating, the director called the Yue City Forestry Bureau.
That call made his heart sink all the way down.
The Yue City Forestry Bureau specifically warned him: he could ignore Lin Jiangye on other matters, but when it came to animals, Lin Jiangye was the authority—the authority among authorities.
“Taibai Mountain’s ‘Mountain God’ chose him. That alone tells you everything.” Even if it was just a tiger, it was a spiritual mountain god—an animal that could sense whether a human’s heart was good or bad.
If Lin Jiangye ever turned rotten, the mountain god would leave.
Whether in Yue City or elsewhere, every forestry bureau Lin Jiangye had ever helped stood firmly on his side.
But if Lin Jiangye truly wasn’t lying, then why had they searched so long without finding even the faintest trace?
Unless… someone had tipped off the poachers and helped them move.
After the director hung up, the others saw his thundercloud expression and assumed he was furious at Lin Jiangye. One by one, they started complaining.
“I’ve always thought he was a fraud. How could anyone actually understand animal speech? Those Yue City cops are out of their minds…”
The man didn’t even finish before the director slammed a palm on the table.
“Shut up! All of you!”
He scanned the room. Everyone was cowed by his anger and obediently fell silent.
Taking a deep breath, the director pointed at the reserve manager.
“Advisor Lin is coming tomorrow. When he gets here, you will host him properly. Wherever he wants to go, you take him.”
The manager was stunned. Everyone was stunned. No one expected that kind of decision after the director’s phone call.
“But why? Didn’t we find nothing in the reserve?”
The director looked back at the speaker with a meaningful gaze. He remembered how that person had sounded—how dissatisfied he’d been—when Lin Jiangye was mentioned yesterday.
Now, it didn’t seem like “dissatisfied” was all it was.
“That’s the decision. Let him come and inspect first.”
With poachers involved, the director felt there was nothing wrong with being cautious.
If he’d known, he would’ve agreed earlier and let Lin Jiangye come right away. Then he wouldn’t have been run ragged like this.
Thinking about tonight, unease prickled at the director’s spine. If protected animals had been killed before, they could blame cunning poachers. But if something happened again tonight…
That would be entirely on him.
The director raked a hand through his hair, troubled, and decided he’d take a small group out to camp in the wild and keep watch tonight.
After one night passed, Lin Jiangye boarded a plane early the next morning with Tiger Mom.
Along with him were Tianheng and Kaiyang, Changeng and Qiming, plus Bixi and Cang Ao.
And of course, the two tawny owls that had come to report the danger were coming too—he wasn’t about to make them fly all the way back alone.
Tiger Mom was there to protect Lin Jiangye. Tianheng and Kaiyang were responsible for communicating with other large predators; the other “kids” had similar roles—talking to wild animals of their own size.
When Lin Jiangye landed at the nearest airport to the reserve, he saw several people holding signs with his name.
They, on the other hand, were thoroughly shocked.
They’d been told he would bring “fierce beasts.”
But they hadn’t expected real fierce beasts.
Even before Tiger Mom—just the two North American gray wolves alone was enough to terrify them.
Those were wolves—among the largest canids on Earth!
And yet they were as obedient as well-trained German shepherds.
Fortunately, they didn’t say any of that aloud, or Lin Jiangye would’ve laughed himself to death—he actually did have a properly trained German shepherd at home, and it was far more rebellious than Tianheng and Kaiyang.
Then they saw the raptors circling overhead—two… no, three of them.
Which meant the tabby cat in Lin Jiangye’s arms was, hilariously, the “lowest-tier combat unit” among the group.
Cang Ao instantly caught their gaze and hissed in displeasure:
[Mi can fight too!]
Back then, it had pounced and pinned Opal and Bixi in one move!
Seeing their stunned faces, Lin Jiangye rubbed the little cat’s head and asked, “Is the car ready?”
Before coming, he’d requested either a truck, an SUV, or even a pickup.
Thankfully, they hadn’t treated the director’s instructions like nonsense—they’d rented an SUV so Lin Jiangye could go into the mountains at any time.
But the moment Tiger Mom and the two wolves climbed in, the vehicle visibly sank.
Bai Zhengwen had come along as usual. Once the two of them also got in, the SUV basically felt like it was carrying six grown men.
For a non-reinforced SUV, that weight was pushing it.
“It’s fine. We’ll switch to a better one later.” Bai Zhengwen checked the specs—max load was around 500 kg, nowhere near enough for them.
After reaching the reserve, while Lin Jiangye spoke with the person in charge, Bai Zhengwen rented another SUV under his own name—one with an 800 kg load limit—and brought it over.
By then, Lin Jiangye had also learned where they’d searched yesterday.
But those locations didn’t match the environment details the tawny owls had given.
Meaning: after a whole night of frantic searching, the forestry bureau hadn’t even gone to the right place.
Lin Jiangye and the others stared at each other.
After a moment of stunned silence, the group looked like they wanted to cover their faces and flee.
Help. They’d searched the wrong area.
Lin Jiangye frowned. “Who led the way yesterday?”
According to the owls, the area they’d pointed to was where wildlife was most concentrated. But judging from these people’s expressions, they genuinely didn’t seem to know that.
This was beyond “oops.” This was negligence.
“No, no, no! Advisor Lin, you have to believe us!” the manager babbled in panic. “Based on our monitoring over the years, the places we searched yesterday really do have frequent wildlife activity!”
He wasn’t just nervous—he looked like he was about to die on the spot.
If Lin Jiangye hadn’t been right in front of them, talking directly with the owls, they truly wouldn’t have believed that what they’d always called “wasteland” actually hosted so much wildlife.
Lin Jiangye watched their blank, lost faces and felt a headache coming on.
“Forget it. I’ll go myself.”
Why did these people feel so unreliable?
The others panicked even more, hurriedly grabbing his arm and explaining.
“It’s not that we were careless—there are cameras over there. But the surveillance footage—”
Halfway through, their words died.
Something wasn’t right.
Their “wasteland” wasn’t a treeless barren mountain. It was just near the reserve’s boundary—land that used to be farmed by villagers. It had been considered unsuitable for wildlife, so it was never a priority.
But as fewer people stayed in the mountains, the fields had been abandoned. They installed cameras there—just in case animals ever migrated in.
Yet now it seemed the cameras had a problem.
Over the years, they had occasionally seen animals pass through on camera—but never stay and live there.
That was exactly why they’d always believed it was still “wasteland.”
But from the owls, they learned that not only were there golden snub-nosed monkeys living there—there was even a small group of forest musk deer, and at the far edge, snow leopards.
How was that “wasteland” anymore?
The group exchanged looks, unease creeping into their chests.
When Bai Zhengwen returned with the new SUV, Lin Jiangye took his “kids” and two reserve staff and drove deep into the mountains.
The tawny owls flew ahead to guide them.
As they entered the protected area, Lin Jiangye began hearing all kinds of animal cries.
Sitting in the middle seat, he hugged Tiger Mom. One man and one tiger leaned toward the window, quietly observing the environment.
There were no tigers in this reserve. The largest felid here was probably the snow leopard.
Even so, the wild animals here had never met a tiger—but Tiger Mom’s savage aura still startled them instantly.
When she sensed the small animals hiding in the trees, Tiger Mom gave a small, dismissive snort.
“They’re all staring at you, Tiger Mom,” Lin Jiangye murmured. He’d noticed too—those curious faces peeking out weren’t adults. They were juveniles, not fully grown yet.
They must have sensed something large and unfamiliar, and curiosity had dragged them over to watch.
A lot of them were even felines.
Lin Jiangye suddenly waved at a patch of leaves in one tree.
The next second, a tiny cat face poked out from the dense foliage.
A clouded leopard cub.
“Ang!” Tiger Mom barked a warning.
[Go back!]
The cub startled so hard it nearly fell off the branch. Luckily, the clouded leopard mother appeared in time and caught the cub by the scruff.
She glanced at Lin Jiangye and Tiger Mom, amber eyes full of confusion—probably unable to understand why a huge predator was sitting in a vehicle with a human.
The mother and cub soon disappeared from view.
They climbed to higher elevation.
From here on, they’d have to continue on foot.
Each person shouldered a large hiking pack with a sleeping bag inside—because if they found evidence, Lin Jiangye wouldn’t leave until the poachers were dragged out.
Besides their packs, the two reserve staff watched Lin Jiangye pull out two guns.
“Guns?!” Their hearts jumped—until they remembered Lin Jiangye’s special status.
“If we run into poachers face-to-face, what then—go in bare-handed?” Bai Zhengwen sounded downright disgusted at their shocked reactions.
To be precise, he wasn’t just disgusted with them. He was disgusted with the entire reserve staff. 🙂
While Lin Jiangye checked his magazines, he noticed Bai Zhengwen’s look and gave a helpless smile.
Once everything was ready, the four of them—along with a small army of beasts—hiked deeper in.
The farther they went, the taller and denser the forest became, until the canopy almost blotted out the sky.
Without the tawny owls, they would have gotten lost.
The two staff at the back studied the surroundings and grew grim.
Judging by their pace and direction, they were approaching the area the owls described—the former “wasteland” where wildlife had been attacked.
But it didn’t look like wasteland at all anymore.
It was nothing but lush forest.
More importantly—this looked nothing like what they had been seeing on surveillance.
Not even close.
Which meant only one thing:
The cameras that were supposed to be here had been moved—quietly, without anyone noticing.
It wasn’t just that someone tipped off the poachers.
It was that, at some point, the cameras here had already been deliberately relocated.
No wonder they’d always believed the wasteland had no resident wildlife.
The place with no wildlife… wasn’t the wasteland.
It was somewhere else entirely.
“We didn’t come this way at all yesterday…” Because they thought no animals lived here, they never came. And because they never came to verify it in person, they never realized the camera view didn’t match the so-called wasteland.
Perfect. The logic loop finally closed.
The more they thought about it, the angrier they got. If they didn’t still have the mission of catching poachers, they would’ve raced back immediately to report what they’d seen.
After hiking for a long while, Lin Jiangye looked up and suddenly saw flashes of gold glimmering among the branches.
A closer look—adult golden snub-nosed monkeys, sitting up in the trees, basking in the sun.
They’d been about to scatter when they sensed Tiger Mom’s presence… but overhead, the tawny owls cried out in a familiar call:
[He’s here! The human who can save lives is here!]
The one who could save lives was here? That was the human who could save lives?
They didn’t even have time to be afraid of Tiger Mom and the wolves’ scent. One after another, they climbed down to lower branches, eyes full of hope—and a little fear.
“Hi there. Are you the ones who ran into that black… strange thing?”
The golden snub-nosed monkeys immediately realized he was the human they’d been looking for.
So those big birds that had come back from the south really hadn’t lied—there truly was a human in the east who could understand animal speech!
At that moment, one tawny owl landed on Lin Jiangye’s forearm. The beasts nearby didn’t react at all, and that eased the monkeys’ fear a little.
Lin Jiangye smiled at the owl. He knew it was doing this on purpose—trying to reduce the troop’s fear of Tiger Mom and Tianheng and Kaiyang.
He patted the owl’s head. The other owl flew back too and landed on Bai Zhengwen’s forearm.
The monkeys studied Lin Jiangye’s group for a while. Finally, the troop leader slowly climbed down from the tree and walked up to Lin Jiangye.
[Human, please help us.]
The troop had already lost five monkeys to that strange thing—two of them were babies!
Lin Jiangye stepped forward alone, crouched in front of the leader, and asked what exactly had been happening these past few nights.
[That black thing only comes out when the moon is up. When it passes by, it makes a buzzing sound—bzz bzz bzz. We try to hide, but what’s strange is… no matter where we hide, that black thing still finds us!]
The leader was shocked—and terrified. They had even smeared mud all over themselves to mask their scent, then wrapped their bodies in huge leaves. Even a snow leopard shouldn’t have been able to spot them so easily.
But the black thing found their hiding place with ease.
To the golden snub-nosed monkeys, that ability was both mysterious and horrifying.
“That black thing… what exactly is it? What shape did it look like?” Lin Jiangye felt that once they identified the black thing, they’d know whether poachers were involved.
Then the leader brought him good news.
[Yesterday, we threw rocks at the black thing. A small piece fell off, but we don’t know what it is.]
The whole troop looked at it. Then they showed other animals too—no one could recognize what part it belonged to.
“A piece fell off? Can you show me?” Lin Jiangye was intensely curious—what could it be, if no animal could even tell what it was?
Soon, an elder from the troop dug up that small black fragment and handed it to Lin Jiangye.
The moment Lin Jiangye saw it, he froze.
It was a piece of metal—part of a man-made machine.
Metal. Black. Able to fly. Able to attack animals and carry off small bodies.
Combined with what the monkeys had described, Lin Jiangye’s mind immediately produced a modern piece of equipment:
A drone.
A drone could be equipped with thermal imaging to detect every living body nearby. With thermal imaging, it didn’t matter how well an animal hid—living heat signatures would be found effortlessly.
And a drone could also be fitted with weapons and special devices—tranquilizer darts, poison needles, even mechanical grabbers.
Given current drone capabilities, some heavy-lift drones can carry very large loads, and even ordinary drones can carry substantial weight.
No wonder the animals kept saying the bodies were disappearing.
Adult golden snub-nosed monkeys usually weigh around 20 kilograms, with some reaching close to 40. Forest musk deer are typically around 10–15 kilograms. By normal drone load limits, it could easily carry away six or seven musk deer in one trip.
No wonder the animals couldn’t identify it—of course they couldn’t. It was a drone. How would they possibly recognize that?
Bai Zhengwen and the two staff members saw Lin Jiangye standing there in a daze and came over, curious.
One look—and all three sucked in a sharp breath.
Confirmed. It was poachers—poachers with high-tech equipment.
Lin Jiangye took a deep breath, his gaze on the drone fragment turning dark and cold.
“We need to find a place with signal and send this out.”
Then he remembered something and snapped his head toward Qiming. Signal or not didn’t matter—he had a gyrfalcon.
And if Qiming didn’t know the route out, that was fine too—have a tawny owl guide it back.
The staff realized it at once. They pulled out their phones, filmed the surroundings and their own faces, and clearly recorded the fallen drone fragment.
Then they reported the swapped “wasteland” surveillance camera and their theory about high-tech poachers.
If the poachers were really using drones to scan for living creatures, they couldn’t afford to wait.
The moment the poachers realized humans had entered the area, they might immediately pull out and move on to a new hunting ground.
So they had to strike first.
