Chapter 7: Does Jinya Have a Boyfriend?

The rescue station was situated on the mountainside; although small animals had occasionally visited in the past, the dark figure that appeared this time did not seem like an ordinary small animal.

"Ali, you're not in the office, pull up the surveillance cameras around the area. I just noticed something pass by the entrance."

The perimeter of the rescue station was fenced with iron railings, and the iron gate would be closed after ten o'clock at night.

The gaps in the fence allowed small animals, like rabbits, to enter; the largest visitor they had ever had was a fox.

Yin Li turned on the surveillance at the stair entrance and, sure enough, two minutes earlier, a dark shadow had flashed across the bottom right of the screen. Slowing it down, he noticed it was a black-brown lynx.

Yin Li sent a screenshot of the footage to Chen Ying as he rubbed his chin and let his imagination wander.

"Could it be Jin Ya's little boyfriend has come?"

"What are you talking about? Jin Ya is still an underage little sister. Could it be her siblings?"

"That's unlikely too. Lynxes of Jin Ya's age have already started living independently. Even if it's a sibling, why didn't it appear when Jin Ya was injured before?"

After cleaning up the tools in the Ingredient Room, and putting the remaining food in the fridge, he prepared warm water in advance for the two little leopards in case they needed to mix formula at any time.

Chen Ying appeared busy with his hands, but he was actually paying attention to the surveillance of the front and back of the yard with Yin Li.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, a small head poked out from the shadows in the lower left corner.

The image was very clear this time, showing the front face of the lynx.

It seemed larger than Jin Ya and had a more fierce demeanor.

"Brother Ying, do you think this could be Jin Ya's mother or father? Perhaps coming to visit their daughter and realizing she's trapped by humans?"

"…Read fewer novels," said Chen Ying, speechlessly, "It's not impossible that it's Mommy Jin Ya, but forget about the father. Male big cats hardly show any fatherly love."

The black-brown lynx, agile with fur on its ears fluttering in the night breeze, approached the iron gate and sniffed around for a while.

That was precisely where Jin Ya and Chen had been sitting and playing before.

The lynx made no noise, sniffed for a while, and then turned and left.

Chen Ying and Yin Li watched as it swiftly jumped over the wall and left, exchanging bewildered looks.

For safety, Chen Ying decided to continue resting in the observation room that night, while Yin Li opened up a cot in the office, keeping an eye on the surveillance.

At 3:30 a.m., Chen Ying got up to feed the little leopards and glanced at the surveillance video of the gate.

"What in the world is this?"

A lump of black something was sprawled at the gate.

Chen Ying woke Yin Li, and the two cautiously went to the gate, only to find three wild rabbits and a small wild boar.

Bloodied and piled together, they were likely to attract a fierce beast.

Yin Li, braver, told Chen to stay on alert as he went out fully armed, quickly dragging the dead animals back inside.

The fatal wounds on the small animals confirmed to Chen that a big cat was responsible.

While Chen analyzed the cause of death, Yin Li pulled up the surveillance playback.

"It was the black-brown lynx that did this. What is it planning to do?"

Watching the footage of the large lynx busily moving back and forth several times, leaving behind such a pile of prey and then disappearing, Chen Ying and Yin Li looked at each other.

"If this isn't love..."

"I believe in love again..."

Unable to hold back, the brothers laughed for a while, with Yin Li handling the aftermath and Chen feeding the little leopards.

The next morning's breakfast for Jin Ya consisted of a wild rabbit and half a small wild boar.

Leopard Mother benefited from Jinya's presence, too, and ate half a wild boar.

During the day, other people occasionally came to the rescue station to help, but Chen Ying didn't dare let Jinya leave the animal shed.

After four in the afternoon, when the helpers had all left and only he and Yin Li were left, they closed the big iron gate and Chen Ying called Yin Li over to try feeding Jinya.

Jinya was a bit picky, but still ate a rabbit that Yin Li gave it.

Its recovery ability was miraculous; despite such severe injuries, Chen Ying and the center's veterinarian had thought it would need to lie down for at least four or five days before it could move freely, but two days later, it could walk. It struggled a bit to jump, but its spirits were completely unlike those of an animal that had been severely injured.

After it had eaten and had its medication changed, Chen Ying tentatively let Jinya out of the animal shed to get some exercise.

Yin Li consciously hid in the office, watching from the window as Jinya wandered around in the yard.

The beautiful Jinya didn't engage in overly strenuous activities.

After moving around in the yard, it lay down by the steps, seemingly wanting to lick its wounds.

It had stitches in its hind leg, which were probably itchy during the recovery period.

Fearing infection in the wounds, Chen had shaved the hair around the stitched area and applied a dressing to protect it.

Previously, fearing it might chew the dressing, he had put an Elizabethan collar on it. Yesterday afternoon, after confirming that Jinya was obedient and would not lick the wound, he had removed it.

Jinya sniffed around, wanted to scratch but remembering Chen Ying's words didn't dare to, yet the itchiness was really bothersome.

While Chen Ying had let Jinya out to move freely, he was in the medical room preparing medicine for Jinya.

The Level 100 medical skill system included the preparation of animal medicine, among other recipes and techniques.

One of these recipes was to grind common medicinal ingredients into powder and mix them with water to form a medicated paste that could be applied to animal wounds to accelerate healing.

This recipe had notable effects, such as alleviating the itching and pain during wound healing, and also served anti-inflammatory and tissue-regeneration purposes.

Before making the medicated paste, Chen Ying had already shared the recipe with his teacher.

His teacher, Professor Bai, was one of the leading figures in domestic veterinary medicine. After reviewing the recipe, he found no issues and allowed him to try making it and to document the process in detail.

If all went well, this recipe could directly lead to a published paper.

In the system, promotion depended on both papers and proven performance.

With his teacher's approval, Chen Ying started a treatment record for both Lynx Jinya and Leopard Mother.

Today was the first day of medication, and he planned to use it on Jinya first to observe before applying it to Leopard Mother.

This wasn't about using Jinya as a test subject, but because Jinya's injuries were less severe than Leopard Mother's, and it was younger with stronger recovery abilities—not to mention that Leopard Mother was still nursing and thus relatively weaker.

Most importantly, Jinya communicated with Chen Ying more easily than Leopard Mother did.

The intimate interaction between Chen Ying and the female lynx astonished all the colleagues at the rescue center.

Carefully removing the previous dressing to let the wound breathe.

Besides some redness around the stitches, there was no sign of inflammation.

Jinya glanced at its hind leg and was so dismayed by the hairless spot that it instinctively wanted to roll around.

Chen Ying quickly held it to comfort it, assuring that the wound would heal soon and the fur would grow back in a few days, making it the prettiest lynx once again.

Jinya licked Chen Ying's hand in resignation, turned its face away, and signaled him to hurry up; it didn't want to be upset by the wound.

The process of Chen Ying changing Jinya's dressing was recorded by Yin Li, and once Chen Ying was free, this footage could be edited into a video and posted on the rescue station's account.

Initially, the brothers had considered live-streaming, but given the nature of their work, which differed from other places and couldn't be scheduled regularly, posting videos was a better option.

Naturally, they could occasionally do live streams, just not as other streamers who rely solely on live streaming for traffic.

After the new medicine was applied, it felt cool and soothing. Jinya instinctively wanted to scratch it off, but Chen Ying held back its paw to stop it.

Just when Jinya wanted to act coquettishly, a large lynx suddenly sprang at the gate, a dead fawn still in its mouth.