POLAR BEAR ARC CHAPTER 36

                                    

                                          

After zoning out for who knows how long, Qiao Qixi finally snapped back to reality. He had been so absorbed in the shocking realization that Otis might have romantic feelings for him that he had tuned out everything else.
As he returned to the present, he caught a faint whiff of something in the air-a subtle, fishy scent. Despite Otis's thorough cleaning, Qiao Qixi's incredibly sharp polar bear nose still picked up on it.
His thoughts, which had just started to calm down, became tangled again. He didn't know what to say. It wasn't the first time Otis had left him covered in that kind of scent, so Qiao Qixi knew exactly what it was.
Embarrassment welled up inside him, making his toes curl. He mentally told himself to hold his breath and not focus on that indescribable scent lingering in the air. But sometimes, the more you try to avoid something, the harder it is to resist.
In the end, Qiao Qixi couldn't help but sniff the air to discern the scent. When he did, he was startled to detect something else-a familiar smell of coffee.
He was astonished...
How could there be the scent of coffee in the Arctic snow?
Suddenly intrigued, the little bear scrambled out of Otis's embrace, resting his chin on the big bear's back as he gazed in the direction the smell was coming from, blinking his round eyes.
It smelled so good.
The first thought that popped into his head was how much he missed drinking coffee. It had been a long time since he last had some. Then he realized something crucial: where there's coffee, there must be humans nearby.
But who could they be? A research team or an animal observation crew, maybe?
Qiao Qixi suddenly froze as it dawned on him that 'he' was now an animal. 
Dang it, could it be a documentary filming crew?
He recalled the hidden cameras disguised as rocks and the GPS tracker that the rescue station had on them, and it seemed highly likely that he and Otis were the stars of a documentary.
Qiao Qixi was petrified at the thought, his mind racing with one idea: 'It absolutely cannot be a documentary crew! If it is, I might have to... well, eliminate them, or this will never be settled peacefully!'
Of course, he was joking, exaggerating his feelings to express how horrified he was. But first, he needed to confirm if those people were indeed filming a documentary. It wouldn't be too hard-he just needed to get closer and take a look.
He briefly considered the possibility that they might be bad guys, but his instincts told him they weren't dangerous. They didn't seem like poachers; if they were, they would have made a move already. Besides, Otis had been burned by poachers before, so his sense of danger should be even sharper now.
In any case, Qiao Qixi was very concerned about whether these people were filming him and Otis. He decided to find out.
As the little bear tried to make his way toward the humans, Otis immediately followed, gently biting the back of his neck to stop him from going any further. Otis even let out a low, warning growl.
Qiao Qixi translated that as: 'Don't go; it's dangerous.'
To his surprise, Qiao Qixi realized that Otis could lie.
First, if there was any real danger, Otis wouldn't have been so absorbed in rubbing against him earlier; he would have led them away immediately. Second, if there was danger, Otis had plenty of chances to leave afterward, but he had stayed put in the spot he had carefully chosen for them to sleep, seemingly unbothered by the humans' presence.