The massive off-road tires rolled over the frozen, hard snow and onto the gravel road leading to the main road.
On the navigation screen, the destination has been set: the old industrial area in the north.
The drive takes one hour and forty minutes.
Su Wei did not take the coastal highway.
The icing warning for this week hasn't been lifted yet; that section of road will freeze over with a layer of black ice during the coldest part of the morning.
It's not visible to the naked eye, but the wheels can easily skid when they run over it.
Therefore, he chose the inland state road that winds around the mountains.
It will take a while, but the road conditions are stable.
He didn't turn on the stereo; the only sounds in the car were the low hum of the engine and the airflow from the heater vents.
Su Wei rested one hand on the steering wheel and took a lunchbox out of his canvas bag with the other, unscrewing the lid with one hand.
The venison steaks were still piping hot, and the aroma of the charred cast iron pot, combined with the spiciness of black pepper, wafted out of the box.
He picked up a piece of meat, took a big bite, and chewed it as he went.
The fir forests on both sides of the highway rushed past the car window.
The sky gradually brightened, and the leaden halo turned grayish-white, but the sun showed no sign of showing its face.
The clouds were low, clinging to the mountaintop.
7:51.
Black Raptor have entered the old industrial area in the north.
This place is a completely different world from the rest of Kodiak Town.
There were no houses, no shops, only rows of factories that had been closed for many years and rusted iron warehouses.
There were no tire tracks in the snow on the road, and Su Wei's Raptor was the first car to drive in today.
He was already very familiar with this place.
I swung the steering wheel to the right and turned onto a narrower concrete road.
All the way to the end, there stood that dilapidated red brick factory building.
The withered vines on the wall froze into a clump of gray-black threads in winter.
As always, there were several blackened reindeer skulls and a broken moose metacarpal bone piled up at the entrance, half-buried in snow.
Su Wei turned off the engine, opened the door, and got out of the car.
Before you even reach the factory gate, that signature smell wafts over.
The familiar smell of chemicals, mixed with a putrid odor, penetrated the dry, cold air and entered my nostrils.
Su Wei slammed his fist against the iron gate three times.
The vibrations of rusty iron echoed through the empty industrial area.
A dozen seconds later, the door was pulled open from the inside.
Old Hope stood behind the door.
His 1.9-meter-tall, hunched back blocked most of the door frame.
His gray, messy hair was tied back with a rubber band that could never be washed clean, and the wrinkles on his face looked even deeper in the dim light of the factory.
The leather apron she was wearing was still the same as before.
The stains on the front are indistinguishable, no longer showing blood, chemical residue, or just plain dirt.
The old man didn't say hello.
He glanced at Su Wei from head to toe, then turned and walked inside.
"Keep up."
Su Wei stepped across the threshold.
It was more than ten degrees Celsius warmer inside the factory than outside, and the heating pipes hissed overhead.
He followed Old Hope through the main control room.
On that huge stainless steel table, there was a whole, unprocessed black-tailed deer hide.
The edges of the leather were held together with clips, and a thick layer of ointment was applied to the surface.
The two didn't stop.
Old Hope led him to the deepest part of the factory, to a separate, high-end, temperature-controlled bone chamber.
Su Wei took this same route last time he came to retrieve the Deer King's antlers.
Old Hope shoved open the insulated door of the temperature-controlled room.
Su Wei went in.
His gaze fell on the reinforced display stand in the center of the room, and he stopped in his tracks.
It's right there.
Kodiak brown bear king weighing 600 kilograms, with a complete skeleton.
The last time Su Wei saw it, its skeleton was still soaking in the degreasing pool, immersed in the pungent medicinal liquid.
Now, Old Hope has spent several weeks cleaning every single bone thoroughly.
The skeleton was fixed in an upright position with its hind limbs by a steel frame.
The forepaws are raised above the head, the ten toe bones are spread out, and the claw grooves at the ends of each toe are still present.
The spine runs perfectly from the coccyx to the top of the skull, with the gaps between each vertebra calibrated to the millimeter level.
The ribs were arranged neatly, forming a huge thoracic cavity.
When this bear was alive, it stood over three meters tall.
Under the cool light of the temperature-controlled room, the skeleton gleamed with a very light porcelain white, with an almost transparent mineral luster.
Those are traces left by deep degreasing and Preservation Treatment, so clean it's practically spotless.
But Su Wei's attention was completely captivated by its skull.
The bear king's skull was enormous, with broad cheekbones and a row of repositioned canines and molars on its maxilla.
The sagittal ridge rises high; that's where the masseter muscle attached in life.
The extent of the bulge indicates that this bear's bite force far exceeds that of its kind.
On the front of the skull, the two eye sockets are empty.
Two dark, bony depressions, facing the direction of Su Wei, resembled two bottomless wells.
A skull without eyeballs, no matter how well the skeleton is crafted, looks like a lifeless object.
Old Hope walked to the display stand and crossed his arms.
He stared at Su Wei for a few seconds, then pulled something out of a hidden pocket inside his leather apron.
A scratched aluminum box.
There was a deep mark on the lid, as if it had been hit by a heavy object.
The box was old; the paint on the edges was worn away.
Old Hope lifted the lid with his thumb.
The box was lined with a layer of gray sponge, and two round grooves were cut into the sponge.
Each slot contained a glass eyeball.
Each one is approximately four centimeters in diameter.
The sphere is amber in color, with extremely fine brown lines radiating outwards from inside, mimicking the natural texture of a brown bear's iris.
The pupils are hand-painted vertical ovals, jet black, with a tiny point of light under the cool light.
Industrial-grade custom-made products, each costing no less than three hundred US dollars.
Old Hope pushed the tin box towards Su Wei's chest.
"Take it."
Su Wei caught it with both hands.
"Kid, I warned you."
Old Hope's voice was deep and hoarse.
"If you mess this up, you'll be thrown into the incinerator along with these bones."
Su Wei did not respond.
He looked down at the two eyeballs in the box and gently pressed the edge of the sponge groove with his thumb to check its stability.
The gloves are in the third drawer from the left.
Old Hope left with those words and sat down on a metal folding chair two meters away.