Free Web NovelChapter 468: Chapter 263: Reunion with December!
Afternoon, Alaska, Anchorage.
After wrapping up the storm-like press conference, Lin Yu’an made no stops in Vancouver.
He declined the celebratory banquet hosted by Marcus, directly boarding the Gulfstream private jet arranged by CAA for his return to Alaska.
By the time the plane landed at Anchorage International Airport, the sky had already darkened again.
He didn’t go home but picked up a pre-booked Ford F150 pickup truck directly at the airport and drove straight to the Alaska Arctic Biological Research Center on the city’s edge.
It had been over twenty days since he last saw the little guy he missed so much.
As he walked into the quarantine area filled with the scent of disinfectant and animals, a young figure in a white lab coat was already leaning against the wall with crossed arms, waiting there.
She was a white girl around the age of twenty-six or twenty-seven, her beautiful flaxen hair casually tied into a ponytail, her healthy wheat-colored skin exuding outdoor vitality.
The lab coat, meant to be strict, instead accentuated a breathtaking silhouette on her figure.
The crossed arms further tightened the lines around her waist, making them elegant and slender. As she turned, the hem of the lab coat slightly opened with her movement.
A deep black instantly flashed across his eyes, the black stockings wrapping her long legs contrasting sharply with the white professional attire.
It gave her a beguiling charm blending both intelligence and danger.
She was the youngest and most brilliant Arctic biologist at this research center—Dr. MacKeez.
"Oh, look who’s here?" Mai Ke saw him, raised her eyebrows, her tone containing unabashed teasing.
"Our superstar, Mr. Lin Yu’an, finally deigns to return to this snowy land from the spotlights of Vancouver?"
"Sorry to keep you waiting." Lin Yu’an looked at her and smiled helplessly.
She tossed him a white protective suit, complaining in an exaggerated manner.
"If you hadn’t come, I was afraid it would tear down the observation room! I’d be sending the repair bill directly to you!"
Lin Yu’an quickly changed into the protective suit.
"Also," Mai Ke, while helping him check the suit’s airtightness, seemed to remember something, her eyes sparkling as she asked,
"Honestly, is Justin Bieber still as handsome as he used to be?"
"...I haven’t met him yet."
"Boring." She pouted but quickly resumed a professional demeanor, "Alright, inspection complete. As per rules, you have only fifteen minutes of contact time."
"I know it’s short, but for that little tyrant, it’s enough to keep it happy till next year. Go on in."
Lin Yu’an smiled and shook his head, pushing open the heavy, sterilized iron door.
Beyond the door, the bitter cold air hit him; it was a massive indoor facility simulating a polar environment, with thick layers of broken ice and snow on the ground, and a pool exuding cold mist.
A fluffy white little polar bear was facing away from the entrance, clawing anxiously at the wall corner, its back radiating a sense of agitation.
Over the past twenty days, its size had increased, its previously round figure now elongated, revealing a hint of the agile outline of a top predator.
The metallic scraping of the door caught its attention, and it turned its head warily.
Upon seeing the familiar figure, its agitation instantly froze, and its obsidian-bright eyes first showed confusion then erupted in an incredulous burst of joy.
It stared for a full two seconds, then let out a howl as if venting all its grievances to the heavens.
Its four short legs activated at once, charging towards Lin Yu’an like an uncontrollable white avalanche!
"December!"
Lin Yu’an laughed, spreading his arms, and the next second, a massive force crashed into his embrace.
He staggered back two steps before barely standing firm, now cradling a furry head that was burrowing frantically.
"Ooo... howl... ooo..."
December buried its massive head fiercely into Lin Yu’an’s chest, its throat emitting sounds of coyness, complaints, as if denouncing every long minute and second spent waiting over those twenty days.
It extended its warm, rough tongue and randomly licked Lin Yu’an’s protective mask, occasionally gently nibbling his sleeve with its teeth, using every possible way to verify the reality of the person in front of it.
Lin Yu’an let it act playfully, tightly embracing its warm, hefty body with one arm, while the other hand burrowed into its thick, slightly coarse back fur, kneading it with delight.
"Alright, alright, my sweet girl, I know you missed me, and I missed you too."
Meanwhile, in the monitoring room outside the quarantine area, Dr. MacKeez stood with her arms crossed, quietly watching the screen. Her assistant couldn’t help but laugh, "It really likes Lin, like a clingy big dog."
MacKeez didn’t laugh; instead, her brows furrowed slightly.
In the venue, Lin Yu’an seemed to conjure up something from the wide pocket of his protective suit: a bright red, elastic rubber ball.
At the sight of the ball, December’s whimpering abruptly stopped.
It stared fixedly at the ball, its nose twitching hard, sniffing that familiar rubber scent, its eyes filled with memories and ecstatic joy of warm past times.
Lin Yu’an threw the ball, and like a white flash, December excitedly darted after it.
But it didn’t play by itself; instead, it held the ball in its mouth and quickly ran back, placing the ball at Lin Yu’an’s feet, then looked up with an expectant gaze, making a "gurgling" sound from its throat.
It was inviting him to play together.
Lin Yu’an’s heart completely melted. He laughed and sat in the snow, playing fetch with it. Each time, December would sprint with all its might and then proudly bring the ball back.
Getting more enthusiastic, Lin Yu’an simply pulled out a second, a third... when a total of ten identical red rubber balls rolled onto the snow like ripe fruits, December was utterly jubilant!
It rolled excitedly in the snow, trying to gather all the balls into its embrace with its two front paws. As a result, when it hugged one, another rolled away. It frantically grabbed one with its mouth and clawed at another with its paws, busy and utterly engrossed.
Lin Yu’an sat by its side, allowing this furry giant to brush snow and happiness onto him, even rolling and wrestling with it in the snow.
December carefully controlled its strength, pushing him with its uncurled padded paws, bumping him with its head, playing truly like a child.
In the monitoring room, the assistant’s smile also disappeared, and she softly asked, "Doctor, isn’t this too close?"
MacKeez’s expression became extremely stern. She looked at the screen where the person and the bear were playing without any gaps and said softly yet very clearly, "This isn’t closeness, it’s deadly dependency."
"It doesn’t see Lin as a collaborator or caretaker; it sees him as its mother. This is not beneficial for its future reintegration training; it’s a disaster."
The passage of time always seems particularly fast during moments of joy. Fifteen minutes passed quickly.
"Lin, time’s up." MacKeez’s voice came through the communicator, devoid of emotion.
Lin Yu’an’s movements stiffened, and it seemed that December, wrestling with him, also sensed the shift in atmosphere. It stopped, tilting its head, looking at him in confusion.
As Lin Yu’an stood up, December immediately realized something.
It anxiously picked up a red ball and ran to Lin Yu’an’s feet, rubbing its head against his leg repeatedly, making a low, pleading, reluctant sound, as if saying, "Don’t go, let’s keep playing."
Lin Yu’an crouched down and, for the last time, hugged this warm and heavy little guy tightly, resting his forehead gently against its broad one.
"Alright, my sweet girl." His voice was as gentle as a fireplace in winter, "I have to go."
"Listen," Lin Yu’an looked into its pleading eyes and spoke slowly, "you have to be good, grow up well, become stronger. I promise you, one day, I will return and take you away from here, back to the world where you truly belong."
After saying this, he gave December’s head a final, firm rub, then resolutely stood up and turned to walk toward the heavy iron door without looking back.
Because he feared that if he looked back one more time, he would be unwilling to leave.
Behind him came the sound of December’s howling, filled with sadness and a sense of abandonment.
When he exited the quarantine area and took off his protective suit, Dr. MacKeez handed him a steaming cup of coffee.
MacKeez led him to an office filled with data charts on the walls. Her expression was extremely solemn, "Lin, I saw a polar bear that considers itself a human cub and you, a human father who treats it like a biological daughter."
"Lin, the promise you just made to it is not an easy one," MacKeez’s tone turned cold, "since you’ve made up your mind, I must make you understand what the term ’rehabilitation’ truly means."
"It’s not a romantic fairy tale; it’s a lengthy, cruel, and even inhuman scientific experiment."
She opened a computer, displaying a complex flowchart pointing to the first module on the screen.
"Now, December is almost four months old, with a healthy physique index, but that’s just the foundation. Starting from the day it turns five months," MacKeez’s tone turned icy, "the first stage, human imprint removal, and environmental stimulation therapy will officially begin."
