out of control
"Wow, this is such a surprise!" Glenn caught up with him, clearly having a blast. "You could compete in professional events!"
Milo patted Glenn on the shoulder: "Happy?"
"Of course I'm happy!" Glenn laughed heartily. "Even if I lose this match against you, it will be a great experience!"
The two walked back side by side and took the cable car back up the slope.
The view from the mountaintop was exceptionally beautiful. The two sat together, their cheeks slightly flushed from the vigorous exercise.
Milo suddenly spoke up: "Is the company planning to cooperate with Ganzhou recently?"
Glenn was caught off guard and stunned, then gave an awkward smile: "I was still thinking about how to explain this to you. Milo, you have to believe me, it really is a misunderstanding. It was quite troublesome when you asked me to send that piece of jewelry to auction. If we didn't want the people on the cruise ship to find out, the only option was to go through the Gan Valley route. But because of that incident, they seem to think that Green Contract is very interested in their raw materials and has been willing to cooperate. In order not to affect your plans, I didn't tell you about this, but they seem to be planning to come and investigate. But don't worry, I'll handle them when the time comes."
"Just asking." Milo handed over a dry towel. "You've been sweating a lot."
Glenn took it and wiped his face: "Really?"
"It's snowing again." Milo looked towards the cable car in the distance, where a few people were gathered together, obviously waiting for them.
The one waving and gesturing at the front is Aoi Tai.
"Is that boy an adult?" Milo's voice was devoid of emotion. "Is he your boyfriend?"
“Hey! Milo, what are you talking about! Of course he’s an adult! He’s nineteen. As for a boyfriend…” Glenn said, a hint of embarrassment flashing across his face, “I hope so.”
Milo was somewhat surprised by Glenn's expression. He had initially thought the two were just playing around, but it seemed that wasn't the case. Glenn looked like he was genuinely in love.
Looking further down, Milo's gaze quietly fell on Blaise, who was standing at the very back of the crowd, his head tilted slightly upwards.
The sky and earth were one color, black clothes and white snow.
Even though he couldn't see his face clearly, Milo could still feel his gaze.
Scorching hot, silent.
"So, is that person your...lover?" Glenn carefully chose his words, unable to find an accurate description.
"I hope not."
Upon hearing this answer, Glenn hesitated for a moment before saying, "I've heard that he's always been infatuated with you."
Milo smiled faintly: "That's his business."
His expression was indifferent, devoid of any tenderness, and even carried a subtle sense of looking down from above.
Glenn understood, so he changed the subject: "Although it's just a light snowfall, it might be up to your knees overnight. Planes haven't been able to take off for a long time, and the train journey takes more than ten hours. It would be too tiring for us to go straight back today. Milo, perhaps you could rest for the night in Sule, enjoy a nice dinner and hot springs, and then go back to Akda. Of course, it would be even better if you could spend Christmas here."
Milo did not give an immediate response to the proposal.
The reason he rushed to Sullar was because Glenn had neglected his duties and showed no sense of crisis. Instead of being at the company headquarters, he was on vacation in Sullar, which was too frivolous. However, considering his four years of dedication, Milo didn't directly confront him about it.
As soon as Glenn got off the cable car, he casually mentioned his idea of staying in Sule. Before anyone else could say anything, Aoi Tai chimed in, "Then why don't we go hunting in the national park?"
As he spoke, he even began to make arrangements, and Glenn seemed to be used to it, tacitly approving of his actions. After a long while, he turned to Milo and said, "Milo, why don't you come along?"
Milo silently observed the two of them, and was about to speak when a middle-aged man walked over from a distance. Milo's gaze shifted slightly, and he changed his mind: "I'll follow your arrangements."
Gary stepped forward and stood beside Milo.
Glenn looked at Milo with some confusion.
Milo introduced, "This is Gary, the project manager I brought from Lanman. He will be handling all matters with Green Deeds. Please feel free to ask if you need anything from him. This is Glenn, the executive director of Green Deeds."
Glenn looked at Gary, stepped forward, and the two greeted each other amicably.
Before long, three modified Land Rover Defenders equipped with snow tires drove up one after another. The person who got out appeared to be a local guide. He was burly and strong, and greeted Aoi Tai familiarly, discussing the route.
Before getting on the bus, Gary quietly pulled Milo aside and said, "Should I book a ticket for you? The earliest flight to Akda is a week from now, but I can arrange a bus ride right away."
"Don't rush," Milo said in a low voice, glancing at the figures of the people ahead. "Go and investigate the background of this Aoi Tai, the more detailed the better."
Gary was a little unsure: "You trust them? In this freezing cold, who knows where they'll take you?"
"This is a good opportunity to test how capable your bodyguards are." Milo patted Gary on the shoulder. "Doing your job well is the greatest help you can give me. Do you understand?"
Gary paused for a moment, then nodded: "Understood."
*
As the car rolled over the hard permafrost, the desolate atmosphere of the Sule Mountains loomed larger and larger.
Surrey National Park is a very famous attraction in Frostraven, with well-established ice fishing and hunting services, and the hunting grounds bordering the pristine wilderness are even more thrilling.
The people inside the car were all bundled up tightly. Glenn looked at Milo and asked, "Do you know how to use a gun?"
Milo shook his head.
Glenn was a little discouraged: "Okay, then you can go ice fishing. Who would you like to go with?"
Milo noticed Blaise's eyelids twitch across from him and immediately spoke up first: "It's not like it's anything dangerous. Besides, I have bodyguards with me, so you don't need to arrange anything for me. You guys do your thing."
Glenn glanced at the burly man beside Milo and smiled, "Alright." His gaze then shifted to Aoi, "And what about you?"
Aoi pursed his lips: "I'm really too tired to play anymore, I'll choose ice fishing instead." As he spoke, Aoi looked at Milo, "As long as Mr. Milo doesn't find me troublesome."
Milo could sense that Aoi was trying to be friendly to him, and he didn't refuse.
The ice fishing area is located outside the hunting grounds of the national park. There are professional rest huts around the frozen lake. Milo changed his gear with Kui Tai, and the two went to the ice fishing spot with bodyguards.
The rest of the group followed the vehicle into the national park. After driving for more than ten minutes, they reached a restricted area and began to walk with their equipment. Halfway there, they bumped into another group and proceeded side by side.
In temperatures below -20 degrees Celsius, with no wind or snow, snow particles still brushed against our breaths, and our exhaled breaths quickly frosted over our hair.
The lead guide kicked the frozen moss, signaling the group to stop at the edge of the fir forest.
Nonai unloaded the rifle he was carrying and bent down to place the barrel on the fallen log.
A gray shadow flickered across the snow slope in the distance, a bullet left the barrel with a crisp sound, and struck a puffin.
Several men from the neighboring group with high noses and deep-set eyes lifted their ear flaps and whistled short notes at the young woman.
Blaise stood by the cedar tree with his hands in his pockets, clearly not thinking about the hunt.
After about half an hour, they had hunted quite a few artificially bred animals, and the group chatted and laughed.
"Alright, the next line leads to the restricted area. We can turn back now," the guide called out.
Glenn, who was walking at the front, didn't move. He slowly stepped forward and said excitedly, "Look, there are reindeer hoof prints here. It's a big one! Maybe we should go further in!"
There were hoofprints of varying depths on the ice field, stretching towards the crevasses, with a gray-blue horizon in the distance.
Before the guide could refuse, Glenn couldn't wait any longer and grabbed his shotgun, ready to plunge into the depths of the cold fog.
The guide waved for them to stop, and the group had no choice but to halt. Blaise, at the head of the group, coldly watched Glenn's retreating figure, his brow furrowing in annoyance. This damned cold was chilling him to the bone, as if his skin had been peeled off. This good-for-nothing was causing so much trouble, completely oblivious to his own mortality.
Soon, the sound of gunfire echoed from the icy plains.
The guide hurriedly tucked his gun away: "Something's wrong."
The group was forced to follow, and could only hear rustling sounds coming from the bushes at the end of the fir forest.
Before they could get a good look, a herd of moose suddenly rushed out and scattered, and everyone hurriedly took cover.
Glenn lay flat on the ground, knees bent, firing at an adult male moose at extremely close range, but still failed to kill it and was about to be trampled to death.
The reindeer were wild and unmarked. Hunting wild reindeer would violate local beliefs, so the guide hesitated and didn't dare to fire.
Seeing his sluggish and pathetic appearance, Blaze quickly stepped forward, snatched the guide's Tica T3x, and naturally pressed his shoulder against the butt of the gun, his cheek pressed against it.
Through the crosshairs of the scope, the massive head of the male moose occupies the center of the field of view.
"Bang--"
After a short, crisp gunshot, the smell of gunpowder instantly filled the air.
The male moose collapsed with a crash, its heavy head slamming into the snow and kicking up a cloud of white mist.
This startled everyone present.
Blaise threw the gun back, strode forward, and ripped off Glenn's snow goggles.
Glenn's pupils trembled violently and dilated slightly on the snow. His body was flushed and sweating unnaturally, and the melted snow mixed with cold sweat soaked through his collar.
Blaze tried to pull him up, but Glenn had no intention of escaping death; instead, he was extremely excited: "Hey! We've got our prey!"
Blaze frowned and looked down. Glenn's pants were torn from the fall, and his knee was bleeding, but he seemed to have lost all feeling of pain. Even when Blaze deliberately pressed on his injury, he didn't react at all.
Seeing this, Blaise withdrew his hand.
“Something’s wrong,” Nonai’s voice rang out. “These deer seem to have gone out of control.”
Blaise turned around abruptly; the path he had come from, shrouded in mist, looked like a strange loop.
Nonai's voice held a hint of hesitation: "Are they heading back the way we came?"
To maintain compliance with regulations in the hunting area, no man-made outposts are set up within a radius of several hundred miles. The most eye-catching feature on this vast expanse of ice is the ice fishing area at the entrance.
In other words, these out-of-control moose headed towards where Milo and Aoi were.
Blaise grabbed his shotgun, jumped up, and ran back immediately.
*
The vast ice field, like a huge, slightly bluish frosted glass, stretches all the way to the horizon, blurring into the gray-white sky in the distance.
In the middle of the frozen wasteland, two young people, bundled up tightly, sat together in a relatively sheltered, icy bay.
The ice surface is thick and transparent. Looking down closely, one can vaguely glimpse the dark blue water world below. Scattered across the ice field are several ice holes, each with a thin, barely perceptible layer of water vapor emanating from its opening.
Milo, dressed in a thick, bright orange winter coat, stood out like a leaping flame against the cold hues of the icy plain. His hat brim was pulled low, revealing only his slightly reddened nose and his eyes fixed intently on the water. An ice fishing rod rested steadily on his knees, its tip slightly bent downwards, the thin, resilient line sinking vertically into the depths.
Aoi, wrapped in a gray down jacket, imitated Milo by gently lifting the fishing line, but his movements were significantly larger.
Aoi lowered his voice: "Why does my float feel like it moved? Or is it the wind?" He leaned down, almost pressing his face against the ice cave entrance to examine the small float.
Milo didn't even look up, just shook his head very slightly: "The fish under the ice are much more cunning than you think. Sometimes, your feeling is just because the ice is breathing." He gestured for Kui to look at his almost still rod tip, "Let the bait come alive, but don't scare them."
Apart from their low conversation, the only sound on the ice field was the whistling of the wind as it swept across the ice.
Aoi sat up straight, glancing at Milo's profile with a hint of emotion: "You're a very patient person."
"Just killing time. I used to go sea fishing often, and I learned a bunch of miscellaneous skills, but I'm not an expert in any of them."
Milo's float suddenly sank, and he immediately lifted the rod, hooking another fish.
Aoi shook his head: "No, I can tell you're very good, and maybe not just in fishing."
Milo timed it perfectly, figuring Glenn and his group were almost done, and started packing up.
"Why do I feel like you know me very well?"
Aoi blinked and said, "It's not quite 'very,' just a bit more than those fools who come to pick you up at the airport. Green Contract Company only has one Mr. Joshua. You and Glenn are about the same age, and I heard you studied together. Although it's scary to make such a guess, I always feel that this real business tycoon, the billionaire Mr. Joshua, is more likely to be you."
"Aoi-ta." Milo turned to look at the boy beside him. "Logically speaking, a child your age shouldn't be here. Where are your family?"
"Family, do you mean parents? I guess that's practically none. But I have a very good friend, he's my family."
"Glen?"
“Of course not.” Aoi shook his head and smiled brightly. “My good friend is dead.”
This topic, which should have been somber, was somehow linked to such a bright smile. Milo felt a strange unease for no reason. He was about to speak when he felt a tremor on the icy plain.
"What's that sound?" Milo asked, puzzled.
Aoi Tai frowned and looked in the direction of the sound.
A heavy hoofbeat suddenly broke through the air, and Milo instinctively turned his head.
On the gentle slopes of the vast white wasteland, a giant moose wandered into this man-made safe zone.
His brown eyes were bloodshot, his pupils dilated from extreme stress, his abdomen was abnormally large and noticeably sagging, and his heavy breathing condensed into large, rapidly billowing white mists in the cold air.
With a loud "boom," the nearest large windproof tent was lifted off the ground by its heavy shoulders and huge antlers.
An uproar erupted in the crowd, with screams of terror rising and falling. Most of the ice fishermen were pampered guests, and some instinctively tried to run, but on the smooth, mirror-like ice, their feet, clad in thick winter boots, couldn't run fast at all, and instead slipped and fell awkwardly.
"My God! It's charging at us!"
"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"
"Help!"
In the chaos, the mother moose swung her massive head from side to side, her antlers sweeping across, uprooting another smaller tent, which rolled out covered in snow.
After overturning several tents, the moose's crimson eyes locked onto the most densely populated central area of the crowd.
In the chaotic crowd, Milo's bright orange outfit became the most eye-catching feature.
Seeing the moose charging towards him, Milo darted forward, grabbed Aoi's arm, and slammed his body into Aoi's shoulder with tremendous force, knocking him out of the moose's attack range.
Aoi Tai crashed heavily onto the ice and slid a considerable distance. Milo didn't even have time to glance at Aoi Tai before his body spun sharply on the ice, instinctively controlling his weight to avoid breaking a bone.
Milo's heart pounded, his gaze piercing through the chaotic crowd and swirling snowflakes, landing precisely on his private bodyguard.
"Quick! Fire!" Milo's voice was short, clear, and carried an unquestionable command, instantly drowning out all the screams and the sound of the wind.
The bodyguard was also startled. He immediately drew his gun and fired, but the first two shots were inaccurate, and the third shot jammed because of the low temperature.
After several consecutive overhead strikes, the crazed moose charged straight towards Milo's location.
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