Deep affection knows no origin; remember the polar bear's love for you.

Chapter 118 Heatstroke

Guo Mi was fast asleep, her heavy breaths blowing out, causing an unnamed little flower beside her face to tilt to the side. Before it could straighten up, another breath followed.

The few remaining petals sadly withered and fell to the ground, while the rest of the flower stalks drooped dejectedly.

The bear that had been ravaging it rolled over, its ears twitched twice, and then went to ravage another flower.

Guo Mi wasn't dreaming, but her brain didn't feel like it was resting. It even had the energy to think about things, just like her heavy eyelids.

Subconsciously she knew it was time to wake up, but no matter what she did, she couldn't open her eyes; her body forced her to stay in place and sleep.

During this period, she rarely ate, mostly wild fruits. When she was extremely hungry, she even plucked grass to eat. Occasionally, she would catch one or two prey, but they were pitifully small.

Guo Mi took a couple of bites to taste it and then gave it to the little bear.

She didn't know if this was the reason why bears living in cold regions hibernate to conserve energy due to food shortages.

But now that autumn is halfway over, it's at most late autumn, far from the time when Guo Mi thinks she should hibernate.

Guo Mi thought in a confused state, her clear thoughts only lasting a short while before becoming muddled again.

Sure enough, sleep is the brain's rest, and the illusion of being awake doesn't last long.

She was about to give in to herself, thinking she'd just fall asleep and wake up in an hour or two, when a panicked cry reached her ears:

"Guo Mi, Guo Mi, wake up, wake up quickly!"

The salmon anxiously approached Guo Mi's ear and called to her, but only saw that she was motionless, with her eyelids slightly bulging beneath her tightly closed eyelids, her eyeballs probably moving around randomly.

She didn't care about anything else and directly used her claws to push Guo Mi forcefully!

After a series of movements, Guo Mi finally opened her eyes as if startled, staring blankly ahead. After a second or two, she seemed to regain her senses and shook her head vigorously!

The salmon was delighted to see that she was awake, but quickly remembered what he needed to do and hurriedly said:
"Guo Mi, something's happened to Yu Gu!"

Guo Mi had barely cleared her mind when she heard this thunderous news. She hurriedly dragged her still-sleepy body to follow behind the salmon, anxiously asking:
"what happened?"

The salmon opened its mouth, but then suddenly seemed to remember something. A hint of guilt flickered in its eyes, and it only answered when Guo Mi asked a second time:

"He...he seems to be too hot and is sick!"

Guo Mi's mind went blank for a moment. She was sick from the heat, which meant she had heatstroke!
Now is not the time to ask her, "You never felt hot, so why did you suddenly get heatstroke after just one nap?"

All she knew was that heatstroke was not as common as it sounded, and that it could be fatal if not treated properly!
Every year, a significant number of people die from heatstroke, and countless cats and dogs also die from heat exhaustion. This is a desolate wilderness without any hospitals!
Guo Mi quickened her pace, following the salmon for quite a while without seeing any fish bones, and hurriedly asked:

"Why did you walk so far when you were eating fruit by the berry bushes?"

Little Bear is usually well-behaved, and in this unfamiliar place, he knows to stay in a spot that Guo Mi can see as soon as she opens her eyes. But today, he is behaving out of character.

The salmon, which was running wildly ahead, blinked when it heard Guo Mi's words.

At first, they did stay obediently by Guo Mi's side, but it was too hot and they couldn't help but pant heavily. They were afraid that Guo Mi would hear them if they stayed too close, so they took a few steps further away.

Later, the heat became unbearable, and the air was filled with the damp, slightly fishy smell characteristic of water sources.

Although they had only found damp soil in the previous visits, they couldn't withstand the high temperatures this time and went to look for it again.

I was thinking that even if I found some damp soil, I could press it down a couple of times to see if I could squeeze out any water. If not, I could lie on it and cool down with the moisture. Even if I could just eat a couple of mouthfuls of soil, that would be fine.

As a result, he wandered further and further away, and before he could find the fish bones, he suddenly collapsed on the ground!
The salmon was startled by his appearance. Although the little guy was usually more mature than other bear cubs his age, he still panicked when he saw his younger brother in such pain.

The only person she could think of was Guo Mi, so she ran back with all her might.

Guo Mi listened as she intermittently said she was thirsty and wanted to find water, her gaze falling on her tense little ears.

My intuition tells me that she seems to have left out a lot of things.

Finally, upon seeing a "giant tree" rarely seen in the North, the salmon was overjoyed:
"over there!"

Guo Mi looked over and finally spotted the familiar white fluffy ball under the tree. She quickly walked over to check on it. Fishbone was lying on its side under the tree, its limbs twitching slightly. It was breathing rapidly and violently with its mouth wide open, drooling all over the ground. There was a puddle of yellowish water around its mouth, mixed with berry remnants.

This should be vomit.

His open mouth revealed varying degrees of purple spots on his gums and tongue. Guo Mi's gaze sharpened; these were clearly symptoms of heatstroke.

And it has already taken up quite a bit of time.

The salmon was in a panic, running around in circles:
"What should we do, Guo Mi, what should we do..."

Even though he didn't understand what was happening, the little bear realized that his brother, who was his blood relative and depended on him for survival, was now in a life-or-death situation.

Even the little bear, who could bravely stand up to protect its younger brother despite being dozens of times larger than an adult bear, finally broke down at this moment, its voice filled with sobs and whimpers.

The sorrow in her voice urged Guo Mi on.

Guo Mi looked around. There were only trees and grass, nothing else, no medicine, no medical equipment, not even basic first aid supplies.

There were only trees, only grass, trees...

She finally noticed the giant tree in front of her. Its large, broad leaves were a deep green, and its branches were spread out, which were not characteristics of ordinary hardy plants.

Polar bears are not heat-tolerant, and the temperature that can cause a polar bear to suffer from heatstroke is actually not warm enough for plants.

Besides, it's already autumn, and it still has green leaves.

Guo Mi's gaze quickly swept across the surrounding environment. Only this tree was very tall, and its broad canopy blocked most of the sunlight, causing most of the surrounding plants to be short.

It monopolized all the sunlight, but that wasn't enough.

For plants to grow well, fertilizer, sunlight, and water are all essential.

Animal droppings are excellent fertilizer, but what exactly attracts them to this place so often?

Guo Mi was certain almost instantly that there must be a water source nearby, and a fairly large one at that!

She immediately went to check the roots of the tree.

This tree is already very large, so large that its roots have even broken through the soil and are exposed to the air.

Most of these exposed roots extend in one direction, with only a few scattered ones extending in other directions.

The direction of the water source is self-evident.

Guo Mi acted decisively, grabbed the fish bone by the back of its neck, and struggled to move towards the direction the tree roots were pointing.

Fishbone is now a half-grown bear cub, no longer the way she used to easily carry him on her back.

After dragging the fishbone for two steps, Guo Mi felt pain from the root of her teeth to her gums.

The salmon wanted to help, but found itself in the way, so it could only helplessly follow along.

Guo Mi's entire mouth hurt, especially the teeth that were biting the fish bone. He had to be careful not to bite him, but also not let him spit it out. He could only use a clever trick, which was very difficult for Xiong.

She could only stare longingly at what was in front of her, hoping to see a water source soon.

After all, that tree was so huge that no one knew exactly how far its root system had extended.

Here comes another little tidbit of knowledge:

Polar bears are actually very intolerant of heat. They have thick subcutaneous fat, transparent fur, and dark skin, so they absorb far more heat from light than ordinary animals.

Polar bears kept in zoos have more or less adapted to the warmer surrounding temperatures, and the temperatures that can cause heatstroke are much higher than those of wild polar bears.

Wild polar bears, in earlier years, could even suffer from heatstroke at temperatures as low as 5 degrees Celsius.

Although temperatures have risen rapidly in recent years, polar bears have had to adapt to the environment in order to survive. Most of the polar bears that survive through natural selection can tolerate higher temperatures, but they are still afraid of the heat.