Forest Ranger, starting from Picking Up a Lynx Girl

"Boss, bring out your meat for it to eat, put it on my tab, no matter how much it eats."

The tourist, who seemed to have a coastal accent, looked up; the huge camera lens poking out of the window shimmered with the gleam of money under the light.

"That veterinarian over there, is the bear's temperament alright? Can I take a photo with it?"

Hey, bro, do you even hear what you're saying? Whether the bear is friendly or not, you can experience that for yourself, really!

The locals who understood Mandarin all looked at him with odd expressions, the landlady frowned tightly and yelled at him unkindly.

"Do you think this is a zoo? What's a wild animal to you, don't you see we're all too scared to get close?"

The guest upstairs, old brother, wasn't upset and pointed at Chen Ying to argue, "I see this veterinarian can get close to it, it doesn't seem too vicious."

Chen Ying lowered his head, closed his eyes, and after holding his breath for a moment, he couldn't hold it in any longer; he patted the brown bear's soft belly, "Go on, show him how you can split bricks with your bare hands."

The bear didn't quite understand what Chen Ying meant, but tempted by the delicious large pumpkin, it stood up and with one swipe of its paw, split the old pumpkin into pieces, then unceremoniously picked it up and began to feast.

Leaning back but feeling uncomfortable, the heap of jagged rocks poked at it unpleasantly; it stood up with brute force, pushed hard, and easily toppled a pile of rocks weighing over a hundred pounds.

The bear sat down in the corner between the wall and the rocks, its arms comfortably resting on the toppled pile, eating its pumpkin while casually crossing its legs.

Regardless of how astonishing the old brother's comments were, he indeed paid up for the bear's extra feed.

Chen Ying helped bring the bowl of meat over to it; the brown bear lowered its head and sniffed carefully for about a minute, then started eating.

One bowl of meat is roughly the amount a half lamb would provide, with the internal organs and bones all cleaned out.

The full and satisfied brown bear yawned, eyeing a spot as if planning to lie down right there, with everyone watching Chen Ying closely.

If it lay down, no one else would dare to close their eyes.

Chen Ying sighed, went straight over, and pulled at the bear's shoulder and neck fur.

Ge Sang's house was south of the highway, located in the middle, with a small supermarket in front and another household at the back.

No one knew why the brown bear didn't enter the outermost house but instead invaded Ge Sang's house to eat the sheep. To drive the bear away, they had to pass through the laneway between the yards of Ge Sang's and the neighbor's house.

The laneway was about one and a half meters wide, walkable, but with low walls on both sides and livestock pens, there's a fear the bear might start climbing over halfway through.

The other option was to drive it directly onto the highway, crossing through the town and then heading into the wilderness.

The town's staff and the police officers quickly discussed and decided to guide the bear along the highway to leave the residential area.

Having eaten its fill, the bear wasn't particularly aggressive, and with Chen Ying, a reassuring presence for the bear, it wobbled along his directions, slowly heading out of town.

This creature, while on its way, still kept rummaging through trash cans, especially fond of licking the packaging of artificial meat products.

Like ham sausage casings, canned lunchmeat boxes, that sort of thing.

The coastal old brother, undeterred and carrying his long lens, followed them trying to sneak a photo with the bear and even thought about bribing Chen Ying with a case of lunch meat.

Chen Ying was amazed at how bold the old brother's heart was.

Seeing that he wasn't giving up and the bear was also moving too slowly, Chen Ying simply directed the bear to sit down, posing it perfectly for a photo, then let the old brother take a "selfie" with the bear at a distance using forced perspective.

The old brother grinned like a 249-pound child.

Chen Ying was responsible for chasing the bear, while the police and town staff handled the clearance and alert operations.

From three in the morning until nine, the well-fed and rested bear finally left the town's perimeter.

After leaving the residential area, the bear gave a low growl towards Chen Ying; first, it walked slowly toward the grassland, then quicker and quicker, eventually running, disappearing like a small tank crashing out of sight.

After watching the bear leave, Chen Ying exhaled a sigh of relief, turned around, and saw the big brother still taking pictures of the prairie with his camera.

Ignoring him, Chen Ying went to talk with the town's staff.

"It'd be best to install alarms on both sides of the town, and if possible, set up a low-voltage protective fence later. I suspect this bear might come back here looking for food."

The mother brown bear estimated that in her living area, there was another male bear and a female bear. That mother bear had a cub with her, and it would at least be until next year before the cub would leave its mother.

Whether or not the mother bear with cub will mate again and bear more cubs next year is anyone's guess.

But looking at the current situation, this area will likely have brown bears activity for a rather long time.

How to fend off bear intrusions into human settlements was something the local departments had to consider; Chen Ying was only there to raise awareness and suggest that they contact relevant authorities to assess the surrounding bear population.

With bears being so close to human habitats, any incident could be catastrophic.

After sleeping for two more hours back at the small guesthouse and eating lunch, Chen Ying was ready to hit the road again.

While checking the car, the tourist brother came over, wanting to know where he might photograph wildlife.

In a casual conversation, Chen Ying found out the old brother was merely a passionate photographer with a little business and some free time. Waiting for his children to start school in September, he planned to take a self-drive tour of the northwest's big loop, hoping to snap some beautiful photos.