After waiting in the hotel room for less than four hours, the bedside phone rang again. Eric, who had been waiting impatiently, grabbed the phone and briefly communicated with the person on the other end of the phone in Norwegian. After a few words, he put down the phone.
"My cousin's car has arrived downstairs," Eric said as he grabbed the hiking bag with his name on it and put it on his back. "We are going downstairs now, and he will take us to dinner. Immediately after eating, we set off to Bear Island."
Wei Ran and Professor Jonas looked at each other, quickly picked up their own mountaineering bag and put it on their shoulders, and then carried it with Eric. The heavy wooden box left the room.
The three of them walked out of the hotel with a lot of luggage. At a glance, they saw a very period van parked at the door. In the cab of the van, there was a man who looked to be in his early thirties. The man greeted them warmly.
"That's my cousin Leo, let's get in the car!" Eric enthusiastically greeted Professor Jonas to get in the car, and then he and Wei Ran carried the wooden box in. out of the carriage.
When the three of them closed the car door in turn, Leo, who was in charge of driving, immediately stepped on the accelerator and led them towards the dock. At the same time, under Eric's translation and introduction, he and Wei Ran and Professor Jonas had a brief acquaintance.
Leo led us to a seafood restaurant on the pier to eat two king crabs that were as big as our faces and a delicious mutton soup.
After filling his stomach with a sumptuous meal of seafood, Leo led them to the edge of the pier, pointed at a fishing boat more than 20 meters long, and said something that looked not old.
“My cousin said that this is the only boat that can take us to Bear Island at present.” Eric helped translate after listening, “The only boat that dares to go to Bear Island during the polar night is Not much. The captain of this boat is a friend of Leo’s and is willing to send us there.”
“Then let’s use this boat.” Professor Jonas, who didn’t seem to like talking very much, was not picky. Leo happily followed the lead and was the first to step onto the deck of the fishing boat.
On the deck of this ship, in addition to some frozen crates, on the middle deck covered with pine needles, there were four sturdy reindeer lying side by side. Beside them were two sleighs tied to the deck with ropes.
Each of the two sleighs is the size of a deck chair, one of them is filled with various supplies, and the other empty sleigh is not only covered with thick reindeer skins, but also under the reindeer skins. There was even a snow-white bear skin hidden inside.
Leo touched the bear skin, then quickly covered it with the reindeer skin and said something proudly.
Seeing Jonas and Wei Ran looking at him, Eric shook his head helplessly and translated, "Leo said that the bear skin came from the adult male polar bear he caught this year. If you If anyone likes it, he can sell it, but I advise you not to do this unless you want to be sent to jail by the customs.”
"Forget the bearskin, when will we set off?" Professor Jonas asked rather urgently.
Eric turned to ask Leo, who was standing aside and lighting a cigarette. The latter immediately untied the cable and waved to the cab.
With the roar of the engine, the small fishing boat sailed away from the dock lightly, turned around, and sailed alone to the depths of the sea with some floating ice. Wei Ran and others, also led by Leo, carried their luggage on their shoulders and got into the dim cabin.
The captain of this fishing boat is a fat man with a height of 1.9 meters. The beard on his face makes him look very much in line with the image of the legendary Viking pirate.
It’s just that unlike Leo, the tall and fat captain didn’t seem to like talking. He just nodded in greeting, and then pointed to the cabin, which was only separated from the cockpit by a corridor. .
The area of this cabin is also small. There are four high and low bunks connected end to end in a circle. On the table in the middle are some pornographic magazines and a candy box filled with bullets. On the wall on the side of the entrance, two civilian shotguns with scopes were hung.
Leo familiarly gestured for everyone to find a place to sit, and he turned around and left. Not long after, he brought everyone a pot of scalding coffee.
Although the language barrier required Eric to help translate, both Wei Ran and Professor Jonas could tell that Leo liked to chat very much, or in other words, he liked to show off his hunting results. , and the high-grade gold deposits he discovered over the years.
As for how much content there is in these words, Wei Ran had guessed at least 70% just by looking at the helpless and embarrassed expression on his cousin Eric's face.
"Eric, ask Leo, has he prepared weapons for us?" Jonas asked while Leo was picking up the coffee cup.
Hearing this, Leo quickly put down the cup, bent down and pulled out a wooden box from under a bed, opened it and placed it on the table. At the same time, he was talking very fast. .
Eric on the side rolled his eyes and translated helplessly, "Leo said there are no bears at all on Bear Island, and the only animals are Arctic foxes and Arctic lemmings. Only good luck We can only meet a walrus at a certain time, so we just prepared some pistols for us."
"Something is better than nothing, at least it is a psychological comfort."
Although Professor Jonas didn't talk much, he had a good temper. He took out a 1911 pistol made in Norway from the box, grabbed a few magazines and stuffed it in without even looking at it. In your pocket.
Seeing this, Wei Ran also casually took a pistol and two magazines filled with bullets from the box. Eric, on the other hand, did not raise his hand at all, obviously not interested in his cousin's words. Very trusting.
"Eric, how long does it take for us to get to Bear Island?" Wei Ran asked in the same casual manner while casually checking the pistol and magazine he just got.road.
Hearing this, Eric asked Leo a few questions, and then replied, "It will take about 20 hours. If nothing happens, we should be able to land on Bear Island by this time tomorrow."
I glanced at Professor Jonas who was really playing with the radio without any trace. Wei Ran wisely did not look at it again and casually picked up a seemingly latest erotic magazine from the table. Lying on a bed covered with fluffy reindeer skins, I critically tasted the clothes on the girls in the magazines that were made of more materials than masks.
Seeing that the two people who needed translation to communicate had something to do, Eric was relieved. This translation job is not easy to do, especially when there is a chatty person around. My voice is even worse.
However, his cousin Leo did not intend to shut up. He reached out and pulled out a bottle of wine from the box under the bed, opened it, raised his neck and took a sip, and then pulled Eric along with him. The cousin continued to chat about something in Norwegian that only the two of them could understand.
I waited patiently on the floating fishing boat for a whole day. During this period, except for less than four hours of daylight, the rest of the time was completely covered by the dark night and the occasional The aurora and the falling snow from time to time fill it up.
Of course, in addition to this, there is also the increasingly louder snoring mixed with the roar of the engine, the more and more pungent smell of stinky feet and body odor, and the vomit that Eric vomited after getting seasick. The disgusting smell lingers for a long time.
After finally suffering, a small stretch of dark coastline appeared directly in front of the fishing boat’s searchlight. Everyone became energetic. Even Eric, who was about to vomit out his gall, struggled to get up. , looking excitedly at Bear Island getting closer and closer.
More than half an hour later, seeing that the fishing boat had docked near a man-made simple pier, Leo immediately slung the shotgun hanging on the wall over his shoulder and took the initiative to help carry the The huge wooden box walked out of the cabin.
While everyone was busy, the luggage of the three people, the two sleighs, and the four particularly honest reindeer were all safely transferred to the pier illuminated by the searchlights.
Before setting off, Leo gave everyone a compass and two flares from unknown sources, and then hung a compass on the raised backrests of the two sleighs. With a lit kerosene gas lamp, he sat on the vacant sleigh without hesitation. After Eric and Professor Jonas wrapped themselves tightly in polar bear skin blankets, they skillfully shouted to the reindeer and started running.
Behind him, Wei Ran waited for a moment, also shouted to the two reindeer, and pulled him and the sled cart filled with various supplies under his buttocks to follow. Amidst the crisp ringing of bells, two sleighs, carrying two bright lights, flew into the depths of the desolate Bear Island.
Behind them, the tall and strong Captain Martin, after observing them with a telescope for a long time, showed a greedy smile full of expectation on his fat face.