"Lin." Mark’s tone regained a hint of a producer’s authority, but beneath that authority was an unspeakable concern.
"I must be responsible for the entire production team and the sponsors. I can’t risk violating Canada’s wildlife laws to provide you with any substantial assistance. Do you understand? Any at all."
"The show’s helicopter cannot bring you a spare battery or a piece of venison."
"From now on, unless you press the ergency withdrawal button, or you win the challenge, that aircraft will only appear in the sky as part of the aerial footage."
"As the show’s producer, I have to be accountable to the whole team, to the other contestants, and to the company’s legal and financial aspects. I hope you can understand my position."
The call ended.
Lin Yu’an stood quietly, Mark’s every word echoing in his mind.
He smiled, the official indifference, Mark’s tacit approval, like two heavy weights, completely crushed the line of "rules" in his heart.
No longer hesitating, he turned around and walked towards the fixed caras inside the shelter.
He reached out, pausing for a mont in front of the lens, as if confirming they were in a "powered state."
This decision would make him face all the risks alone, but it also allowed him to uphold the bottom line of his heart.
Lin Yu’an slowly pushed open the wooden door of the shelter that he had built with his own hands.
"Squeak—"
A blast of polar wind mixed with ice crystals rushed in, instantly dispelling the warmth of the fireplace and blowing away the last trace of hesitation in his heart.
He took a few steps forward, his boots crunching in the snow outside the door, coming to a stop in the little life’s world.
Without the barrier of a viewing hatch, there were only a few ters of cold air between him and it.
The little bear imdiately looked over cautiously, its body instinctively shrinking, and Lin Yu’an finally saw its eyes clearly.
They were eyes as pure as obsidian, which should have been reflecting all the novelty and liveliness in the world.
But at this mont, they were empty, with only an exhaustion nearly extinguished by life’s burdens.
It looked at Lin Yu’an, its complicated gaze mixed with an instinctive fear of the large creature.
But beneath the fear, the gaze held a faint, almost heartbreaking glimr of hope... hope for warmth and food.
Lin Yu’an understood this gaze all too well.
It was the gaze on the edge of darkness and cold despair, using every last bit of strength just to grasp at a final straw.
The little bear before him, like a mirror reflecting his once helpless self, was also abandoned to struggle in the cold world, equally waiting for a miracle whose arrival was uncertain.
"To hell with the treaties, to hell with bureaucracy!"
"To hell with ’natural selection’ and ’dangerous precedents’!"
Since the officials had given up on it and the rules bound it, he would fight for it in his own way.
He would docunt it all in his own way.
A thought stirred in his mind, and from a space only he knew, he retrieved a black GoPro action cara.
He skillfully attached the cara to the strap on his chest, the clasp making a crisp "click," as if marking the beginning of a ritual.
He carefully adjusted the angle to ensure he could record all his actions from the most direct first-person perspective. After confirming the battery was fully charged, he pressed the record button.
After a barely audible "beep," the small red dot next to the lens on his chest began to flash rhythmically in the gray-white daylight.
From this mont, this lens would no longer be an impartial observer on behalf of the production crew, but as his first-person perspective, it would be the most direct and undeniable witness of this rescue mission.
This cara would beco his sole black box, needing to prove to soone in the future—whether Mark, legal institutions, or audiences worldwide—that what he did was not the reckless harm of a man overwheld by compassion, but a well-planned rescue based on science and goodwill."
After doing all this, his gaze returned to the little bear, filled with determination.
Having completed everything, he walked to the snow well refrigerator. Before Mark’s promised ’change of luck’ arrived, he had to keep this little one alive.
Taking a deep breath, he gripped the heavy stone slab on top and strained to slide it away.
As he uncovered the wooden lid underneath, a strong, cold fishy sll wafted directly from the plastic bucket, quickly perating the surrounding air.
The little polar bear, previously lying motionless in the snow pit like an ordinary white rock, suddenly had its small black nose twitch violently.
Its ears twitched slightly, capturing the scent, the sll of food triggering its nearly extinguished survival instinct!
Struggling, it propped up its upper body with two weak forelegs, its head lifting feebly, sniffing around in a daze.
When it finally locked onto the source of the scent, Lin Yu’an and the snow well beside him, its body erupted with a heartbreaking sliver of strength.
It staggered a few steps toward Lin Yu’an, more of a series of uncontrolled lurches than determined walking.
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