In September, the northern hemisphere is sunny and its autumn cold, while in Australia located in the southern hemisphere is a different scene.
The northern territory is located in the central northern regions of Australia and covers an area of one-fifth of Australia’s landmass, larger than that of Tibet. However, the population of the Northern Territory is as small as 250,000. On the road, there are many dark-skinned and high-rooted indigenous Australians everywhere.
In the northern part of the northern territory lies Kakadu**, Australia’s largest national park.
**T/N: Kakadu National Park
Near the equator, there are only two seasons—wet and dry seasons, with the dry season having longer days and extremely hot weather and wet season with thunderstorms and rainfalls.
Apart from the original frescoes of cliff caves which have been well preserved for 20,000 years, the wetland ecosystem is more famous here.
Simply speaking, wetlands can be regarded as low-lying plains with shallow water areas. Water is the source of life for all animals. Plants, animals and insects can inhabit and multiply on wetlands, forming a complete ecological chain.
In Kakadu’s wetland area, tens of thousands of creatures live in harmony. Unfortunately, only few people appreciate such wonderful natural scenery.
Fundamentally, the Northern Territory is large and barren, and in the eyes of tourists, Kakadu National Park is far less attractive than Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. With a very difficult holiday, who would like to plunge into swamps and be covered with mosquito bites?
“The crocodiles are all fed up!”
Penny, carrying an empty bucket and a two-meter long iron rod on her shoulder, staggered off a boat and entered the deserted tourist service center.
She was overweight and was about 40 years old, with short brown hair. Australia’s scorching sun left countless sunburns and dark spots on her body, but she remained a confident beauty.
She had been working here for nearly 20 years, specializing in the Yellow Water cruise project, which is the hottest project in the whole park! More than 80,000 saltwater crocodiles inhabit the whole water area and everyday, Penny takes tourists on a motorboat and goes deep into the nest of saltwater crocodiles.
Also, from time to time, she prepares some fresh meat to “seduce” the crocodiles out of the water.
Entering the small door of the staff lounge area, Penny was greeted with a different view. Unlike the clean and tidy front lobby of the service center, it was small, with several tables haphazardly arranged along the wall and piled on with strange things—fresh pork, unknown flowers and plants, collected rabbit corpses and several stacks of documents pressed beneath them.
As soon as she opened the door, two big butterflies collided head-on. Their wings spread as they flew out of the door. Being strangely bigger than most butterflies, Penny got frightened and hurried to hide nearby. Then, the creatures flew past her deftly.
“My bird-wing butterflies!” In the room, there was a shrill cry from a boy.
Footsteps sounded, and Edwin came out with a sad face. He was as thin as a bamboo pole, nearly two meters tall with a messy red hair. He looked up at the butterflies that were flying farther and farther, and said sadly, “Oh no! It’s so difficult to catch them!”
“We will never run out of butterflies. Just catch another two again.” Penny shoved the empty barrel and iron rod into a corner.
“This is different!” Edwin looked dejected. He was a Canadian who came all the way here to “suffer”… No, he came here to study his most-loved living things on earth—butterflies! He’s going to collect data for his PhD thesis, which is already his third degree.
The smell in the lounge was not very good. A few little bastards who were in-charge of bird migration data threw their smelly boots on the floor, leaving the room smelling of biological and chemical weapons. Ivanovic from Russia, despite the hot noon,was drinking vodka during working hours, completely uncaring of the clear regulations plastered on the wall.
Penny was the oldest and she knows everyone here as well as she does her children.
She looked around and found one person missing: “Where is Lin? Why isn’t Lin here? ”
“Lin is out on patrol.” Edwin made a gesture of shooting. “He went to the pool. Didn’t you see him there?”
“No.” Penny shook her head solemnly.
Saltwater crocodiles are almost extinct outside Kakadu National Park. As a result, many unscrupulous poachers sneaks into the park to steal. Fortunately, they have Lin.
Lin was the best marksman of all of them and he seldom cooperates with other people. He goes alone every time and pursues those hateful poachers by himself.
Everyone was guessing the location of Lin.
Ivanovic said that Lin’s skill was so exquisite that he might be a veteran hunter like himself. And Edwin said that Lin Bo knows a lot and can keep up with any topic. It seems that he had been to many cities and was a scholar.
Penny felt, however, that he was more like a traveler who traveled around and stayed if he liked to. When this place no longer satisfies him, he would certainly leave.
“Well, let’s not talk about him.” Penny crossed her arms and looked around the little lounge angrily.
“Didn’t you hear what I said before I left this morning? A new volunteer will come today! Why didn’t you clean up this dog’s kennel? Everything’s dirty and messy. I don’t think even saltwater crocodiles would want to live here!”
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Kakadu Park has been recruiting volunteers due to a serious shortage of manpower. It’s a pity that the environment here is too harsh. Besides this, volunteers don’t get paid, and they don’t earn any money as immigrants. Thus, only few people apply. Even when they come, they often run away after a period of time, leaving behind idle people.
None of their current employees was suitable for the job of introducing the park to tourists. Ivanovic had a poor personality and an even worse English. Lin was silent and always distant.
As for Edwin, he is a bookworm he and would bore the tourists with his detailed comparisons of butterfly species!
Therefore, when recruiting volunteers this time, they especially require the other party to have excellent language skills, preferably in multiple languages.
“Volunteers?” Ivanovic lifted his eyelids lazily. “Can all the written work be pushed to him in the future?”
“Not him, but her!” Penny said, “A young girl, whose mother tongue is Chinese and is fluent in English.”
“Chinese?” Ivanovic was not very interested. “Chinese tour groups seldom come here, therefore there’s no need of volunteer fluent in Chinese. I seriously think that Lin is the only Chinese in the northern territory!”
Despite this string of infuriating words, Penny ignored him and went on to say, “Her personal profile also said that because of her previous job, she could speak Japanese, Korean and Cantonese for simple communication.”
“Wow, was she an interpreter before?” Edwin asked.
“Maybe.”
“Then … does she look good?” After asking this sentence, Edwin became red to the neck.
Penny shrugged her shoulders. “I wasn’t the one who interviewed herd. But I heard that the girl is very beautiful. ”
The Russian laughed scornfully and did not believe her story. Where in the world can there be such a perfect woman? Enthusiastic, kind, multilingual, young and beautiful? …… Even in a dream, there was no such absurdity.
The strange smell in the lounge was still spreading, the crumbling papers and garbage on the table are becoming hills, Edwin was quarrelling with Ivanovich, and Penny was educating several other lazy men who remained indifferent.
The small lounge room was like a chaotic vegetable market. They were so noisy that no one noticed the approaching footsteps outside…
Luggage wheeled across the ground and a pair of flat shoes stopped in front of
the lounge door.
The girl was wearing a cool condole belt dress and her long black hair fell neatly on her waist. On his slender neck, a boehmite firmly tied by a leather rope fell between her collarbones.
She slipped half her head through the wide open door, but everyone in the lounge was busy and no one saw her do so.
Seeing them unaware of her intrusion, she took the opportunity to observe her new colleagues.
She once had ups and downs in the complicated entertainment circle for three years, and she was forced to develop a set of exemplary skills.
On her escape, she chose Kakadu because she wanted to be a wetland volunteer on one hand, and to escape from prosperity, chaos and the past on the other.
She wanted to find her old self.
The Northern Territory is the most sparsely populated place in Australia. She didn’t have to worry about meeting Chinese tourists here, thus revealing her identity.
Looking at them, she couldn’t help but smile. She likes to deal with people who are warm and straightforward, because it reminds her of her sister, who, despite being thousands of miles away was connected to her by blood
After a pause, she took a deep breath and raised her hand to knock on the door.
“Excuse me?”
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The next second, the noise suddenly disappeared, and the six pairs of eyes inside turned to the door at the same time and landed on her.
There was excitement, embarrassment and surprise in those eyes—and admiration.
Lucky for them, the girl didn’t feel uneasy as she was long used to being watched.
She had no makeup on her face and looked plain and beautiful, smiling like a handful of spring water flowing slowly through their hearts.
In the next moment, skilled English blurted out. “Hello everyone, I am a new volunteer—my name is Su Jinqing.”