Chapter Forty-Six: The Arrival of Late Autumn

After resting for just half a minute, Lu Chen gripped his prey and dragged it into the river. Only after swimming to the center and burying the catch in the muddy riverbed did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Then, he stretched out his limbs and floated on the surface, basking in the sun. Before long, he heard a rustling from the grass on the riverbank—a few earth-brown gray wolves came into view. Their beastly eyes gleamed with greed the moment they spotted the thick layer of blood floating in the shallows.

A robust gray wolf stood at the edge, emitting a threatening howl.

So you think you’re the only one who can make noise? If you’ve got the guts, come down here! Lu Chen responded with sounds of his own—after all, these creatures couldn’t swim, so he might as well indulge himself by shouting back.

Truthfully, his current weight matched that of an ordinary gray wolf, and if they happened to meet alone by the water, he wouldn’t fear them. He might even seize the advantage of the terrain to counterattack. The problem was, these wolves never fought fair—they always came in packs.

But then, to Lu Chen’s surprise, after a round of howling, the wolves all charged into the river, attempting to surround him from the shallows toward the center.

Damn, can gray wolves swim?

As he watched them approach, Lu Chen suddenly realized: domestic dogs can swim, so as fellow canines, there’s no reason why gray wolves couldn’t.

Still, if they truly dared venture into deep water, he wouldn’t mind showing them the true power of the river’s overlord.

To tempt them closer, Lu Chen intentionally swam a few meters toward the shallows. But as it turned out, the wolves simply kept howling at the edge, refusing to enter the deeper waters. Clearly, they were aware of their own real advantage.

Seeing they wouldn’t take the bait, Lu Chen lost interest in provoking them. There would be time enough—sooner or later, that pack of wolves would become his prey.

Having rested enough, he turned and dove back to the riverbed to retrieve his hidden catch. To his surprise, the scent of blood had already attracted a swarm of fish and even an old soft-shelled turtle the size of a bowl.

Lu Chen would never refuse such a conveniently delivered meal. With a crunch, he broke the turtle’s shell and swallowed it whole.

“Soft-shelled turtle, family Trionychidae, genus Pelodiscus—it provides 3 energy points.”

As the food digested quickly in his stomach, Lu Chen felt most of his lost stamina restored.

There were still more than thirty pounds of meat left on the young deer—far too much to finish in one meal. He decided to keep it as a reserve for the evening.

With the temperature this low, he knew the meat would keep for a couple of days without spoiling.

Drifting downstream with his food was no effort. In just half an hour, he floated back to the area near his den.

It was nearly noon, and the three little ones hadn’t gone fishing; they were still sprawled on the rocks, basking in the sun. Hearing movement in the river, the eldest crocodile turned its head alertly. Upon recognizing its brother, it relaxed again and lazily called out in greeting.

Achoo… As Lu Chen approached, he heard the little sister sneezing—one after another.

The little one had caught a cold! Lu Chen realized instantly.

Though saltwater crocodiles are cold-blooded, they can still catch colds due to the weather, leading to coughing and sneezing.

Humans take medicine for a cold—but what about saltwater crocodiles? Lu Chen had no medicine at hand, and even if he did, he wouldn’t know the right dosage. Taking the wrong amount could be dangerous.

Given the circumstances, they could only tough it out.

Soon, Lu Chen noticed it wasn’t just the little sister—all three seemed listless and unwell. Only then did he realize he’d underestimated the impact of temperature on saltwater crocodile hatchlings.

He’d been planning to keep the prey for himself, but seeing the state of his siblings, he decided to share it with them to give them some strength.

Just as he’d hoped, after eating, the young crocodiles perked up considerably. With the afternoon sun warming the air, they soon became active again.

Lu Chen, however, remained uneasy. Lying on the bank, he began to plan for the future.

It was only late autumn, and the cold had just begun. Winter would bring even lower temperatures, possibly dropping below ten degrees Celsius, or even bringing ice and snow in extreme conditions.

What would they do then?

His first thought was hibernation, but unfortunately, the memories of his current body told him that saltwater crocodiles lacked this ability.

In fact, the crocodile family mostly inhabits tropical regions, where winter cold is unknown and hibernation unnecessary.

Only a few species, such as the Chinese alligator and the Mississippi alligator, which live in temperate zones, possess the ability to hibernate. They gorge themselves before winter, storing up fat, and then hide deep in their burrows to survive the cold months.

In this respect, their hibernation resembles that of many mammals.

The Mississippi alligator has an even more remarkable talent: it can hibernate directly in the water. If the temperature drops too quickly and the river freezes overnight, these alligators, unable to find shelter in time, simply float in the water, leaving only their nostrils exposed through the ice for breathing.

In this state, their metabolic rate plummets, almost all organs cease functioning, minimizing energy consumption. But if their health is poor or their fat reserves insufficient, they may never see another spring.

The Tiannan Mountain Nature Reserve lies in the subtropics, where snow and ice should, in theory, be impossible. The waters near the cave provided ample food, more than enough for the young saltwater crocodiles to build up fat reserves.

Still, Lu Chen wasn’t confident they could survive the winter.

If the temperature kept dropping, even he wasn’t sure he could make it.

Should they migrate again—move further south?

Having settled here for less than three months, Lu Chen found it hard to make such a decision.

As he pondered, chattering calls sounded overhead—the troop of monkeys had come again to trade food.

Lu Chen was annoyed and at first didn’t intend to respond, but when he saw two monkeys carrying bananas, his eyes lit up.

Previously, the monkeys had brought him bananas many times, but he hadn’t thought much of it. After all, this was a subtropical region; wild banana trees were normal in the mountains.

Now, though, he realized something was amiss.

Bananas are tropical fruit trees, flowering and fruiting year-round, but they require warm temperatures. Their growth slows when the temperature drops to twenty degrees Celsius, stops entirely below ten, and their leaves suffer frostbite below four or five degrees, turning pale or withering.

In the autumn and winter of a subtropical region, it was impossible for bananas to flower and fruit in the wild.

This was a protected area, rarely visited by humans, and it was even less likely that someone would bring bananas specifically for the monkeys.

He’d never heard of monkeys storing food for autumn and winter, either.

Besides, these bananas looked extremely fresh—their skins bright with a hint of green and yellow, clearly just picked.

This could only mean that somewhere in Tiannan Mountain, banana trees were still bearing fruit. At the very least, the temperature there was high enough for them to grow.

If that was the case, it should also be suitable for saltwater crocodiles to survive.