Chapter 12 Mendun'er is Coming Back

The day after Yin Li left, I thought about his breakfast.

At six in the morning, Chen Ying got up, pushed open the window, and stretched lazily facing the mountain breeze.

Now he was alone on the mountain, with heavy tasks and tight schedules, even breakfast was hastily dealt with a few bites.

Meng Yan's bamboo needed to be fresh, and the fruit had to be chopped into small pieces.

But Meng Yan was also the easiest cub to care for, requiring little attention as long as food and drink were provided.

Its leg bones had recovered very well.

One of Chen Ying's junior sisters specialized in Traditional Veterinary Medicine. It was said that acupuncture worked wonders for such injuries. She contacted him, wanting to come to the rescue station to help.

Actually, he felt her skills might be more useful in a beast hospital, but unfortunately, the southern petite lady, standing only five feet tall, preferred wild beasts towering at six feet.

Especially after seeing Jinya and Leopard Sister in a few new short videos from the rescue station, she relentlessly pestered their teacher for help.

The teacher couldn't do much, as the young junior sister was his only daughter.

After comforting Meng Yan, Jinya also returned from roaming around.

Today's prey was a plump bamboo rat.

The elegant and beautiful Jinya, eating in a way that was a bit disillusioning.

Next up were Leopard Sister and her two cubs.

Leopard Sister's recovery was quicker than Jinya's, perhaps because Leopard Sister's temperament was more stable, which allowed her to adhere better to Chen Ying's medical advice.

However, though the injury had healed, the scars on her skin could not be erased.

After all, the injuries had nearly cost Leopard Sister her life, so just having a few scars was quite fortunate.

The cubs had been weaning, recently starting to drink meat broth, and today he planned to feed them minced meat.

While Chen Ying was grinding the meat for the two cubs, Leopard Sister came over, lay down beside his feet, and curling her tail around his leg.

"Roar, when will you send that stinky cat away?"

Chen Ying looked down at Leopard Sister, his gaze filled with helplessness.

"You two don't have a deep hatred; besides, you're both patients, wasn't that necessary?"

"Roar, it smells, don't like."

"Howl, you're the smelly one, you old hag."

Jinya, who had been eating the bamboo rat, stopped eating upon hearing Leopard Sister's words and rushed over howling.

The two big cats instantly tumbled into a ball.

Chen Ying calmly stepped aside, picked up the two little ones, and sat in the courtyard to start feeding them.

The day before yesterday, he hadn't noticed that the bolt of Leopard Sister's animal shed hadn't been secured properly, and Jinya had managed to unlock it, nearly scaring him out of his wits.

Fortunately, the two sisters didn't really fight; instead, it was more like kindergarten kids playing—you scratch me, I kick you; it was more playing than fighting.

Seeing that Chen Ying ignored them, Jinya dropped Leopard Sister and ran over to rub Chen Ying's hand, whining and acting coy, saying it also wanted to eat the meat paste.

What else could he do with his own big cat except spoil it?

The bamboo rat was not very big and had been almost gnawed clean, leaving only a bit of bone and meat scraps which Chen Ying threw to the two leopard cubs to lick and play with.

They were pure wild animals and couldn't be fed like those raised in captivity.

Leopard Sister had not left the cage for a long time, and seeing that Chen Ying didn't rush her back, she quietly slipped out from the iron gate.

It was also because Yin Li was not around; if there had been outsiders, Chen Ying would never dare to let the two big cats out to play.

The rescue station's gates were locked, and colleagues coming to find him would call ahead of time. Even in the case of unexpected visits, the iron gate provided a lot of safety.

Yesterday, they had requested several live chickens from the center, specially to supplement Leopard Sister's diet.

Her injury no longer hindered her movement, but she still wasn't capable of hunting normally.

In order to keep Leopard Sister active without losing her wild instincts, feeding live poultry was essential.

Seeing the little leopard eat with delight, Chen Ying went around to the back of the chicken coop, grabbed a live chicken, and threw it into the yard.

Jinya moved quickly, trying to snatch it away but was held back by Chen Ying.

Leopard Sister sprinted a few steps to pin down the hen but pulled a muscle while running, which threw off her balance and she failed to catch the hen.

Jinya, initially angry and wanting to scratch Chen Ying, saw Leopard Sister's mishap and started rolling on the ground laughing.

Infuriated, Leopard Sister didn't even care about the chicken anymore and pounced fiercely at Jinya—both big cats rolled into a tangle again.

The chicken miraculously survived under the leopard's claws,

scurrying into a corner, trembling with its head and legs tucked in tightly.

The two little leopards licked their plates clean and ignored their mother and the next-door lynx auntie fighting, patterning straight to the corner, sticking out small paws to scratch the hen that had narrowly escaped death.

Under stress, the hen surrounded by the small leopards' scent and getting scratched, went berserk and started pecking aggressively at the little leopard.

"Meow owww~~"

The little leopard's cry for help almost floated into a wavy line, scrambling and rolling towards Leopard Sister.

Leopard Sister, who was tugging at Jinya's head, looked back and saw the old hen chasing her son. Anger surged from within, and she leapt up, pouncing fiercely and biting off the hen's neck.

Stunned by several pecks from the hen, the little leopard didn't even have time to call for mom before feeling a rush of hot blood and was utterly bewildered.

Jinya, shocked, lay still watching the scene unfold and upon seeing the little leopard doused with chicken blood, started laughing and slapping its paws...

"Jinya, enough is enough, watch out or Leopard Sister might get serious."

Chen Ying quickly covered Jinya's mouth, awkwardly facing towards Leopard Sister who was staring coldly while clutching the chicken.

At that moment, his phone rang.

"Director, I'm at the rescue station, yes, is the surgery completed?"

Chen Ying stood up excitedly.

Earlier, they had sent Giant Panda Mendun'er for a check-up where they discovered an abdominal tumor, and after thorough preparations, they successfully removed the tumor.

"Benign, that's good, then recovery will definitely be quick. What? Send it to the mountains to recover?"

Chen Ying frowned, not that he didn't want to take care of the giant panda, but being a national treasure and having undergone abdominal surgery, shouldn't it be placed in the conservation center for meticulous care?

"Little Chen, do you think we don't want to keep the giant panda at the conservation center? It reacted too strongly, only your voice can effectively soothe it. Now, you have two choices: one is that you are seconded to the center to take care of it until it recovers. The second, we send it to you and assign someone to help you there."

Chen Ying rolled his eyes, they had promised him an assistant a while back, and where did that end? An excuse of being short-staffed and he was dismissed, and now they were sweet-talking him again.

Was it that he didn't want to take care of the panda? He was worried that once he went, he wouldn't be able to return.

"Your teacher and Professor Luo also think you can take good care of it, so here's the deal, give me a response within a week. If we're to send the panda up, you'll still need some renovation work there, and that'll take at least half a month to arrange."

Actually, the rescue station had assisted a panda before.

Behind the two small buildings, there was a simple concrete room and a fenced hillside, which was where the rescued panda had lived.

Director Bai's idea, if Mendun'er were to come back for recovery, was likely to retrofit that animal shed and add some facilities needed for pandas.

This was also good, the system's tasks after Mendun'er had a CT scan were already completed, and he had acquired the advanced animal psychology skill. He was planning to write a paper on a related topic, and Mendun'er would be a perfect observation subject.

The video of Mendun'er calling for help edited a while ago, could also be released along with the good news of the successful surgery.

Animals actively seeking help from humans, wasn't that exactly in line with his research topic?