"It took me several weeks to work on this skeleton."
Old Hope's voice was even hoarser than usual.
"I've touched every single bone with my hands at least twenty times."
"Degreasing, preservation, fixation, calibration—I did my best in every step, to the best of my ability."
His thumb rubbed against a thick callus on his index finger.
But when it's there, it's just a pile of bones.
"Clean, precise, beautiful bones."
"But dead."
Old Hope raised his head, his cloudy gray pupils fixed on Su Wei's face.
"You put two glass marbles in there, and it came to life."
Su Wei could sense the weight behind those words.
An old craftsman who had been making specimens for forty years watched as his painstakingly crafted work made its final leap in the hands of another.
From excellent to perfect.
From inanimate to living.
That person was only twenty-one years old.
Old Hope stared at him for ten seconds.
Then the old man did something the Su Wei never expected.
He smiled.
It wasn't a sneer, nor a mockery; it was a rough laugh that came from deep within the chest.
The bloodstains on his leather apron trembled as he laughed.
"FUCK!"
Old Hope cursed with a single word.
"You did it, kid."
"You possess a specimen that everyone would envy."
"A perfect specimen of the King Bear!"
"It will prove your honor, as long as it exists."
Chapter 207 Field Hedging and Coexistence
Old Hope pulled a business card from his leather apron pocket and handed it over.
The business card had a freight company logo printed on it in gold lettering, with a mobile phone number below it.
" Arctic Glacier Transport. We specialize in this."
"They have a real knack for transporting specimens."
"The shock-absorbing chassis is military-grade, with constant temperature and humidity throughout the entire process."
Su Wei took the business card and flipped it over.
It was blank, with only a handwritten number: 2400.
"Freight?"
"Freight."
Old Hope turned and walked towards the control panel, his back to Su Wei.
"The road to Emerald Lake is in terrible condition in winter; they need to add a temporary paving section."
"This price is already a favor to me."
Su Wei put the business card into the inside pocket of his down jacket.
"The stag antlers are included too?"
"Nonsense."
Old Hope didn't turn around.
He bent down and pulled out a long, hard-shell shipping box from under the control panel. The box was wrapped in two layers of bubble wrap and then wrapped in industrial cotton felt.
Deer antlers.
Last time, Su Wei completed the final anti-corrosion sealing treatment here.
We'll move everything together once the exhibition hall is completely finished.
Now, the time has come.
Su Wei dialed that number.
The phone rang three times before the other end answered.
Su Wei gave Old Hope's name and explained the situation.
The other party asked for the address, specifications, and weight of the goods.
Su Wei reported the dimensions of the bear king's skeleton and the dimensions of the box containing the deer king's antlers.
When will it arrive at the earliest?
Two hours.
The call ended.
Su Wei walked back to the temperature-controlled room.
The skeleton of the Bear King stood under the cold light, while two Dragon's Fury burned in the empty factory.
He stood in front of it for a few seconds, then squatted down to inspect the fixing bolts at the bottom of the steel support.
Four M16 stainless steel bolts, each coated with anti-loosening adhesive.
Every word Old Hope wrote was genuine.
Su Wei straightened up and began to examine the finger joints in the forefoot.
All ten finger bones were fixed with medical-grade stainless steel pins, the pin heads of which were ground flat and almost invisible.
He pinched each and every one of them.
It remained completely still.
Old Hope walked in from outside, carrying two cups of black coffee, handing one to Su Wei.
The coffee was served in an open-top tin cup, the sides of which were very hot to the touch.
Su Wei took a sip; it was very bitter and hot. The coffee grounds hadn't been properly filtered, and he could feel the fine particles on his tongue.
Old Hope's coffee always tastes the same.
The two people stood in the temperature-controlled room, drinking coffee, neither of them speaking.
The skeleton of the bear king stood silently among them.
Two Dragon's Fury captured the light from different angles, and the resulting dark red threads slowly churned inside the glass sphere.
Su Wei held the tin cup, his gaze shifting from the Bear King's skull to Old Hope's face.
The old man was also watching the bear.
Disheveled gray hair, a hunched back, and large hands covered in burn marks from medicine.
During his forty-year career as a taxidermist, Old Hope processed at least a thousand skeletons.
But the way he was looking at this bear at this moment was different from how he looked at any other work of art.
It's not about scrutiny.
It's a farewell.
Su Wei didn't say anything, finished his coffee, and placed the tin cup on the counter.
Two hours later, a dark blue heavy-duty van drove into the old industrial area.
The vehicle is painted with the white letters "GLACIER TRANSIT" on its body, and it has widened snow tires. The chassis is also higher than that of a regular truck.
The hydraulic lift at the rear of the vehicle slowly lowered, revealing the temperature-controlled interior space.
Two young men in overalls jumped out of the cab, carrying shock-absorbing straps and an inflatable cushion.
Su Wei supervised the loading process the entire time.
The bear king's skeleton was the most difficult to find.
The skeleton weighs 600 kilograms, plus a steel frame, with its center of gravity positioned slightly above the chest.
Two workers used a hydraulic trolley to push the entire base onto the lifting platform, while Su Wei stood inside the carriage directing the positioning.
The inflatable cushions filled all the gaps between the frame and the carriage walls.
The shock-absorbing straps were tightened in a crisscross pattern from four directions, and Su Wei personally checked the tension of each strap.