Chapter 726 - 459: Encouragement (Part 2)

Chapter 726: Chapter 459: Encouragement (Part 2)

The sound echoed across the vast, empty snowfield.

It carried a father’s love and worry, lingering long after.

AWOOOOOOO!!

A series of howls pierced faintly through the polar night sky.

It was the reply from the Prince and Princess, their voices weaving together, carrying to the distant Khilla.

Each howl was filled with a deep affection for their father.

They were also telling their father of their soaring ambition as they embarked on a new journey.

...

The departure of the Prince and Princess cast a somber mood over the entire logging site.

The usual lively scene of people at work was gone, replaced by a stifling silence.

Everyone seemed to have been infected by the sorrow of parting, working quietly on their tasks, devoid of the usual laughter and chatter.

Khilla sat alone to one side, his brow slightly furrowed, his eyes revealing a conflicted heart.

He was lost in thought.

’Was letting the Prince and Princess take the Wolf Pack to forge a path in the Tundra the right decision? Or was it a mistake?’

The question circled endlessly in his mind, and for the moment, he could find no answer.

However, there was one thing Khilla knew with absolute certainty: Jenny must not find out about this.

Jenny treasured the Prince and Princess.

If she found out he had sent her two precious babies away to suffer, he would definitely be in for it.

Jenny probably wouldn’t give him the time of day for a very long time.

At that, Khilla stood up, his gaze sweeping over everyone present as he issued a loud warning.

"Listen up! Nobody says a word about what happened today! Especially you, Feng Jun! You’re a chatterbox and the town crier all in one. If Jenny finds out, you’ll be sorry!"

The men all thumped their chests in assurance, chiming in all at once.

"Boss, don’t worry. We definitely won’t breathe a word of this."

"Yeah, we know the rules."

"Our lips are sealed!"

"Brother Feng, as of today, the broadcasting station is officially shut down."

「Time passed without them noticing.」

The sky turned from polar night to daylight, and from daylight back to polar night.

Cart after cart of logs was hauled back to the camp, piling up like a mountain.

When David announced that they had collected enough logs, Khilla called an end to the workday. They packed up their tools and rode the sleds towed by snowmobiles back to camp.

As the men dragged their weary bodies into the dining hall, a sumptuous dinner was already waiting for them.

For lunch, everyone had made do with a simple meal in the Moonlight Forest.

It was nothing special, meant mainly to fill their stomachs.

But now, as steaming pots of savory beef and mutton stew were placed on the tables, an irresistible aroma instantly filled the air.

Everyone’s stomach was already rumbling with hunger.

They paid no mind to their appearances, grabbing their spoons and ravenously devouring the food.

For a moment, the dining hall was filled with only the sounds of chewing and swallowing.

Just then, Jenny, holding a glass of red wine, gracefully walked up to Khilla. She gently placed the glass on the table before him and asked casually,

"Did you see the Prince and Princess when you were in the Moonlight Forest? They came back once on Christmas Eve but haven’t been back since. Those two thoughtless creatures."

Jenny pouted slightly as she spoke.

Her eyes held a light that mingled complaint with concern.

COUGH, COUGH, COUGH!!

Jenny’s question came out of the blue.

Caught completely off guard, a piece of beef lodged in Khilla’s throat, and his face instantly flushed crimson.

He instinctively clutched his throat, leaning forward and coughing violently.

"Why are you eating so fast? There’s more in the pot!" Jenny said, her heart aching at the sight. She quickly reached out and patted Khilla’s back gently.

The other men eating also heard Jenny’s question, and their movements paused.

They all lowered their heads, pretending not to have heard.

Then they went back to eating, though their pace had quickened noticeably.

Each man was afraid the question would be directed at him next, and they all prayed silently not to get dragged into it.

With great effort, Khilla finally managed to swallow the piece of beef that had nearly choked him.

He immediately grabbed the red wine on the table and took a huge gulp.

Only then did he feel a bit better, letting out a long sigh of relief.

Trying to change the subject and cover his guilt, Khilla quickly said, "I saw them. The Prince and Princess have gotten fatter again, right, Nash?"

As he spoke, Khilla shot Nash a look heavy with suggestion.

Nash froze where he stood, spoon in hand. The expression on his face solidified, and a flash of panic crossed his eyes.

’I’ve suddenly been called out by Khilla to be the scapegoat!’

’What do I do?’

’I’ve never told a lie in my life.’

In the end, with no other choice, Nash steeled himself and, against his conscience, nodded forcefully. He mumbled an indistinct "uh-huh," barely managing to muddle through.

Having gotten her answer, Jenny nodded, reassured. The worry on her face lessened as she said softly,

"Next time you go to the Moonlight Forest, remember to bring them vitamin tablets. Eating only meat will cause a vitamin deficiency and affect their bone development."

"Got it!" Khilla nodded eagerly, like a chicken pecking at grain, wishing only to end this conversation as quickly as possible.

He shoveled down the last few bites of food on his plate and then hastily stood up. "I’m going to check the location we picked for the classroom. We start building it tomorrow."

With that, he hurried out of the dining hall, his retreating figure looking slightly flustered.

With the boss gone, the other men in the dining hall felt a little intimidated.

None of them had the heart to continue eating. They quickly finished their meals, made their excuses, and left one by one.

After some surveying, the location for the Crown Territory’s first classroom was tentatively set on the edge of the Mossy Tundra, near the Melting Ice River.

After all, the various functional areas within the camp had already been clearly divided. And, considering the classroom was only a temporary facility—once the road was completed and container homes could be transported in, a proper school would be built—there was really no need to disrupt the already established camp layout for it. The area by the river was undoubtedly a suitable choice.

Meanwhile, Tessa had requested that the office be built only next to the warehouse.

The area around the warehouse was relatively convenient, which would help improve work efficiency.

「The next morning, the sky was still shrouded by the polar night.」

Khilla left his small cabin early and headed to the dining hall to meet up with the others.

Come to think of it, Feng hadn’t returned to the large cabin to sleep for several days.

This made Jenny start to wonder. Something felt a little off.

’We clearly agreed at the beginning that during our relationship, we’d maintain a degree of independence and not move into the cabin together. We would each have our own living circles, allowing us to enjoy the sweetness of our relationship while still keeping our personal space.’

’But look at things now. Feng is always staying in the small cabin. I see Feng every day. What’s the difference between this and living together?’

Jenise thought about it over and over. She felt that events had deviated from their original plan.

’But she couldn’t quite put her finger on what exactly was wrong, leaving her with a faint, nagging feeling of unease.’

When Khilla arrived at the dining hall, the men he was meeting were already sitting at a table, eating breakfast.

Khilla greeted them with a smile, then ordered his own breakfast and sat down to eat.

After breakfast, the group went to the workshop to get their tools, then crossed the wooden bridge and headed toward the construction site for the classroom.

Members of the Bear Tribe were already there. They had also collected stones from a nearby snowy mountain and piled them next to the logs.

The classroom would be built using the Indigenous People’s method for constructing log cabins.

First, a foundation needed to be dug, about half a meter to a meter deep.

This was done so that stones could later be laid in the foundation pit. By doing so, the logs would be prevented from coming into direct contact with the damp ground, which would keep them from rotting due to long-term moisture exposure and ensure the classroom’s durability.

Just then, Yves took a few men and headed toward the runway hangar.

「Before long,」

they drove back with several small excavators and bulldozers.

This construction machinery was a generous gift from the North Slope Petroleum Company’s engineering team back when the runway was being built.

They hadn’t expected it to come in handy for building the classroom, but it was certainly being put to good use now.

Everyone began to work in an orderly fashion, following the lines David had carefully marked out with lime.

The small excavators raised their long arms and dug out the foundation pits.

The excavated earth was tossed high into the air before falling in showers, piling up into small mounds on the side.

Next, the small bulldozers, running at full power, pushed the piles of stones into the foundation pits.

The stones collided with one another, making dull thuds and kicking up clouds of dust.

Finally, a road roller flattened the stones. Its heavy cylinder rolled slowly over the rocks, compacting and leveling them in preparation for the next stage of construction.

...