Chapter 4 Jealousy Flooded the Work Group Chat

He looked down, meeting a pair of golden-brown eyes.

Chen Ying did not panic; he bent over and touched the mother leopard's head.

"Don't be afraid, we're here to rescue you. Your children are safe now, my partner will take good care of them. How do you feel? Can you move? I plan to take you back to my territory to treat you, if you don't object, how about we shake hands?"

He murmured for a while, and to the astonishment of the onlookers, the mother leopard weakly lifted her right front paw, resting it on the palm of the outstretched left hand of Chen Ying.

"Alright, I'll give you some medicine, and you rest for a while; when you wake up, you'll be able to see your children."

Whether it was affinity having an effect or not, the mother leopard moaned with difficulty, closed her eyes, and fainted again.

To avoid the mother leopard struggling and worsening her injuries if she accidentally awoke during the transfer, Chen Ying still administered an additional dose of the anesthetic.

With the help of the locals, they smoothly carried the transshipment cage onto the vehicle.

Chen Ying cradled the two little cubs, sitting cross-legged in the truck bed, accompanying the mother leopard back to the rescue station.

When he got off the truck, he stumbled; his legs had gone numb.

"Brother Liu, could you give me a hand? There are breeding boxes at the center, and I'm not sure about the condition of these two little leopards; they might need to be taken down for a check."

The mother leopard was severely injured, and she would not be able to continue nursing for the next few days; they must resort to artificial feeding.

Brother Liu was an old hand too; after glimpsing the state of the little leopards and getting the mother leopard settled, he didn't say another word and carried the two little leopards down the mountain.

Chen Ying opened the video link, connected with the director of the center, and reported on the mother leopard's condition as well as his own rescue treatment plan.

"Little Chen, you've worked hard; take extra care on your end, and let Little Yin help you with anything you lack. In a few days, we'll have interns and volunteers coming over, and the center is considering assigning you two assistants to lighten your workload."

"Thank you, leader. I don't need anything else, but since the mother leopard gave birth just over a month ago, I'm thinking, after her condition stabilizes in a few days, maybe we should let her care for the cubs herself. With some additional artificial feeding measures on my part, there shouldn't be any major problems."

The leader readily agreed.

The center fundamentally advocates for wild animals to rear their young themselves, resorting to human intervention only as a last resort.

It couldn't be helped these days; the mother leopard was so badly injured and needed to undergo surgery and medication – the little leopards definitely could not nurse and would starve without artificial feeding.

After four long hours of surgery, with the help of Yin Li and colleagues, Chen Ying successfully stitched up the mother leopard's wounds.

He was so focused during the process that he didn't even pay attention to the task issued by the system.

It was only after sending the still-unawakened mother leopard to the observation room that Chen Ying stretched his stiff shoulders and sat down to drink water.

While waiting for the mother leopard to awaken, Chen Ying checked the task that the system had just issued.

[Rescue the injured mother leopard and assist in rearing the cubs, with a task duration of three months. A successful task will be rewarded with one Skill Book and an additional chance at a draw.]

Chen Ying looked at the task description, scowled, and turned it off.

What failure? There was absolutely no room for failure!

He got up to check on the mother leopard's condition again, finding that the anesthetic had actually worn off; the mother leopard was now in a state of sleep.

Thinking about it, it made sense; enduring such severe injuries and worrying about two little cubs, the mother leopard must have been utterly exhausted and overwhelmed.

Sleep was good; sleeping and eating more would help her recover better.

After aiming the surveillance camera at the mother leopard, Chen Ying tiptoed out of the observation room.

He needed to replenish his own energy, and also prepare nutritious meals for three patients.

Meng Yan was in the best condition. It was just a fracture, nothing else wrong, able to eat and play happily, especially when nibbling on apples, looking as well-behaved as a plush toy.

The lynx girl was feeling much better today too, now able to move around the animal shed on her own, just seeming a bit agitated.

After all, she was a child of nature; to her, the animal shed was a prison confining her.

Chen Ying, carrying a food basin and some fruit, entered the cage and patted the lynx girl's approaching head, then sat down cross-legged.

"Come here, let me take a look at your wound," he said, half-cradling the lynx's upper body, scratching its chin while the other hand unwrapped the bandage to change its dressing.

"Recovering pretty well, here's a treat for you."

He stuffed a treat from the Skill Book into the lynx's mouth, rubbed its big head again, and let it go. He placed today's nutritious meal on the ground for her to eat, changed the water in the drinking basin, and took the opportunity to clean the inside of the animal shed.

Usually, with only one or two wild animals at a time, these tasks were his responsibility. After all, only he and Yin Li were permanent at the Rescue Station, and other colleagues only needed to come once a week to help with major cleaning.

But now the Rescue Station had three patients, one of them seriously injured, he had to monitor the mother leopard's condition, leaving the rest of the work to Yin Li.

Fortunately, the leaders understood he couldn't be everywhere at once, and they were planning to provide him with two interns and volunteers to help.

With additional help, he would be able to make time to take special care of the patients.

After calming the lynx girl, he carried the prepared meat into the observation room.

The mother leopard had awakened, but lacked the strength to stand up. Still, it immediately exhaled loudly and coldly eyed the doorway.

"Awake?" Chen Ying put down the basin with the meat, stretched his hand out in front of the mother leopard for it to sniff, "Come, let me check you again, and then you can have dinner."

After confirming that the mother leopard had relaxed, Chen Ying checked the wound he had wrapped earlier.

Not bad, the mother leopard must really have been weak, for even though it struggled, it hadn't torn the stitches. If they had torn, he would have had to suture it again, causing it more harm.

He shoved the pills into the meat and fed them to the mother leopard, watching her gobble them down, Chen Ying felt much relieved.

Having the strength to eat was good, it dramatically increased her chance of survival.

The mother leopard's injuries were severe, clearly inflicted by other fierce beasts. But as a top predator, he couldn't understand what kind of wild animal could have caused her such trauma.

After the mother leopard finished eating and had drunk some water, Chen Ying pulled up a stool and sat down in front of the sickbed.

Her injuries were too severe to move her, so she had to be restrained with bands.

Chen Ying wiped her mouth while chatting with her.

"What were you thinking, with two little cubs to care for, picking fights with other beasts? Couldn't you run when things went south? You can climb trees, right? Just climb up with the cubs to hide. Lucky for you, you fell into a ditch this time and, by a twist of fate, saved your life. But you're not allowed to do this again, okay? Escaping isn't cowardly; revenge can wait ten years, just sneak back at him when you have the chance, got it?"

After cleaning the hair on the mother leopard's face and removing ear mites and sleep from her eyes, the leopard's face looked much clearer and cleaner.

Chen Ying took out his cell phone, snapped a close-up of the mother leopard, then put on his mask and took a selfie with her from a good angle.

Leopard Sister's beauty complimented by me.jpg

In the work group chat, jealousy swept through the screen.