Subduing the narwhals was a matter of a minute or two. By the time the Kun babies led them back to the Xue Long, the people on board hadn't even noticed.
They also had no idea that a group of local inhabitants had joined their scientific expedition.
However, this situation only lasted for less than a day before it was broken.
"Are you sure there's a large area of ice floes ahead?"
"The narwhals told you, so it should be correct."
Inside the cabin, Yang Lin, who was originally admiring the scenery outside the ship, suddenly received a message from the Kun babies.
The content of the message immediately made him take it seriously.
Although the Xue Long is an icebreaker that can break through ice up to two meters thick, it is not absolute.
If it gets trapped in a large area of ice floes, there is a high probability of being stranded.
Once stranded, it would not be a matter of a day or two to get out.
Therefore, to avoid this situation, Yang Lin immediately issued an order to the narwhals through the Kun babies.
He could not directly inform the scientific expedition about the area with ice floes, so he had to let these whales inform them.
Five minutes later, exclamations from the crew could be heard on the deck again.
"So many whales!"
"These are narwhals, how can there be so many? Why are they all in front of the ship?"
"I don't know, it seems they gathered suddenly."
"Should we keep going, or should we ask the experts on board?"
"Let's ask those experts. The behavior of these narwhals must have some deeper meaning."
Shortly after the crew finished speaking, Yang Lin and a group of experts from the scientific expedition were invited onto the deck.
As the marine experts looked at the narwhals whose heads were emerging from the sea in front of the Xue Long, confusion appeared on their faces.
"Impossible, narwhals should be very wary of humans. Why are they daring to get so close to us this time?"
"Yes, Inuit people hunt thousands of narwhals every year. They should flee at the sight of people."
"Can they recognize that we are not Inuit?"
"It's hard to say, we still know too little about narwhals."
After the marine experts discussed without any conclusion, Teacher Xiao Liang, who had also come onto the deck, turned his gaze to Yang Lin.
"Director Yang, as a recognized expert in animal behavior, you wouldn't possibly not know, would you?"
Hearing Teacher Xiao Liang's words, the experts and professors present suddenly had their eyes light up, and they all looked at Yang Lin simultaneously.
Yang Lin, however, put on a show of being flattered.
"I dare not, I dare not. In front of these seniors, how could I dare to call myself an expert? I am merely a layperson at best, without formal training."
"Xiao Yang, what's wrong with not having formal training? Not all knowledge comes from books."
"Exactly. We old guys have heard about you. You are truly dedicated to animal protection."
"Yes, say what you think, don't hold back. Perhaps in animal behavior, we old fellows will have to call you teacher."
Faced with the high regard of the experts and professors, Yang Lin, after some polite back-and-forth, finally said what he had been wanting to say.
"I think their behavior is not unintentional. The fact that they are blocking the Xue Long now is likely a warning to us."
"A warning?"
Hearing these two words, everyone present frowned.
"In ancient European mythology, unicorns were originally derived from narwhals."
"And the kind and beautiful qualities of unicorns also came from narwhals. Legend has it that unicorns would help humans, so I think narwhals must have sensed some danger ahead, which is why they came in front of the scientific expedition ship."
"Makes sense, there does seem to be such a saying."
"It seems the ancestors of the Inuit used this to hunt narwhals."
"It's comparable to those who hunted sables in our country."
"I also think Director Yang's analysis is reasonable. All we need to do now is verify it."
"Don't we have drones? Let's send a drone ahead to investigate."
After it was generally agreed that Yang Lin's words made sense, the scientific expedition quickly launched a drone, which flew along their current route.
After flying for about three to four nautical miles, a large area of ice floes appeared on the route. The key problem was that besides the ice floes, the drone even captured large numbers of collapsing icebergs hidden deep within the ice floes.
When these scenes were transmitted back by the drone, everyone on the scientific expedition ship gasped in shock.
If they had recklessly charged into such an area of ice floes, they would definitely be trapped, and there would even be a risk of colliding with icebergs.
"It seems these narwhals were indeed warning us."
"Fortunately, they appeared, otherwise it would have been troublesome."
"Why didn't the satellite detect this area of ice floes?"
"The climate in the Arctic Ocean is changing too fast now. Who knows where it drifted from."
......
As everyone was sighing with relief, the group of narwhals once again chose to move forward.
Seeing this, Yang Lin immediately shouted:
"It's guiding us. Hurry up and follow. Following them, we should be able to reach Yellow River Station soon."
Hearing this, the members of the scientific expedition did not dare to delay and immediately controlled the Xue Long to follow behind the narwhals.
To their surprise, with the narwhals leading the way, the journey was smooth sailing.
The route that would have required caution was now navigable without even looking at the satellite map.
In less than two days, the Xue Long, carrying the members of the scientific expedition, arrived at the Yellow River Research Station in the Svalbard archipelago.
Arriving here meant that the polar scientific expedition officially began.
And this day was already March 21, 2023.
On this day, Yang Lin witnessed the transition from polar night to polar day, and saw the vast and boundless Arctic ice sheet, known as the northernmost part of the Blue Star.
Of course, the most important thing was that as he and the brothers Goudan and Gousheng stepped onto the ice sheet, a colossal white figure emerged from behind a snowdrift not far away with leisurely steps.
At this moment, Yang Lin and this giant beast from the snowfield made eye contact.
In an instant, immense surprise spread across his face.
"Holy crap! A polar bear!"
He never expected to encounter a polar bear as soon as he arrived in the Arctic.