Chapter 16 In the night, he sprinted desperately

Chen Ying's phone popped up with a video call request; he hesitated for a moment, tapped to open it, and was met with a frontal assault.

After carefully discerning, he confirmed this was indeed Jinya's brother, that beautiful male lynx.

Jinya squeezed in from under Chen Ying's armpit, her big face almost touching the phone screen.

"Roar, where is brother, where is my brother?"

Chen Ying quickly pulled the phone back to ensure the small screen could capture Jinya's entire face.

Yin Li was also adjusting the distance, but Mr. Lepus wasn't as obedient as Jinya; when Yin Li moved away, it would let out a roar then step forward.

"Tell your brother to stop moving, lie down where he is, so Ali can help adjust the distance and you two can talk."

Jinya couldn't see clearly what was on screen, but she took in everything Chen Ying said.

"Roar, brother stop moving, the two-legged beast can adjust something for you; my two-legged beast said we can talk like this."

The large lynx was a smart kid; hearing his sister's words and glancing at Yin Li nervously waiting by his side, he obediently lay down.

But don't think its deterrent power was gone just because it lay down; the lynx's response was much quicker than humans. If Yin Li made any wrong moves, he would definitely be met with the sharp claws of the large lynx.

While Jinya and her brother were roaring and talking, Chen Ying assessed the siblings' features.

In terms of head shape, the large lynx's was rounder and bigger.

The fur on their ears was black for both siblings, but Jinya's had a few strands of golden hair mixed in.

Comparing the patterns, Jinya's was finer and prettier, and her fur color was brighter, but the large lynx's fur was luxury in subtlety; its color-changing under sunlight was something Chen Ying had never seen before.

Most importantly, the large lynx's body was stronger and sturdier than Jinya's, and the pressure exuded from its round pupils was not on the same level as Jinya's.

While the siblings were calling out to each other, on the other end, Chen Ying was also observing Jinya's brother perched atop the wooden post and the distressed Yin Li squatting behind him.

Yin Li was wearing a raincoat for easy movement, with a hat, so he wasn't in immediate danger of being soaked by the rain.

Yin Li had two phones, and he gestured to Chen Ying; the two of them contacted each other on a spare phone.

"Brother Ying, what should I do now? Should I wait until their call is done before I leave?"

Chen Ying thought further ahead; the large lynx didn't seem very aggressive towards humans at the moment. If he could take the opportunity to collect some biological samples, that would be even better.

Yin Li exhaled and looked at the large lynx, still majestic even lying down. He plucked up his courage and quickly grabbed a handful of fur from its behind.

The large lynx turned its head and bared its teeth, pupils narrowed to slits.

"Mr. Lepus, I was swatting mosquitoes for you; look, a mosquito."

Seeing the few strands of hair and a mosquito carcass in Yin Li's palm, Mr. Lepus retracted his anger but still used his tail to shoo Yin Li away.

It even attempted to climb the tree with the phone in its mouth, but since it wasn't dexterous with its lips, the video got cut off as soon as its mouth touched the phone.

"Roarrr, roarrr!" Unable to hear his sister's voice, the large lynx got up angrily and roared loudly at Yin Li.

Yin Li's eyes swiveled, and he randomly pressed the phone in front of the large lynx several times.

"The battery is dead, see, it's not working anymore."

He put on a sorrowful act in front of the large lynx, which, not having seen the wickedness of human's hearts, got frustrated for a bit but then could only quiet down.

Unhappily, it leapt onto the tree, lay on a high branch, and licked its paws—once, and giving Yin Li a look, scaring Yin Li so much that he didn't know whether to take the opportunity to leave or not.

Meng Yan and Mr. Lepus's story no longer preoccupied Chen Ying.

As dusk descended, Jinya showed no signs of leaving. Was she treating the rescue station as her own den?

If this were his own home, Jinya could stay as long as she liked without anyone objecting.

But this was the rescue station. If Jinya didn't leave, could someone accuse him of deliberately keeping her captive?

He stood with his hands on his hips, confronting Jinya for quite some time. The lynx turned her head away, refusing to look at him, casually twitching her tail on a Chinese honey locust tree in the yard, showing no inclination to depart.

In front of Jinya and the colleagues on the other side of the surveillance monitor, Chen Ying called Director Bai.

When in doubt, escalate to your superior!

Director Bai had many years of experience and had encountered many situations, but Jinya's case was unique to him, except for that nationally treasured Grandpa Gao, who advanced in rank on his own merit.

Jinya's situation differed from Grandpa Gao's, and after consulting with other leaders of the center, Director Bai instructed Chen Ying to let her be. If she wanted to come, let her; if she desired to leave, so be it, but in principle, do not provide her with food, lest she develops the habit of having meals served up to her.

They were wild animals, after all. They were there to protect the homes of these little elves, not to wear away their wild instincts and hunting abilities.

Having reported the situation, Chen Ying no longer agonized over it.

He still had to carry out a routine blood draw on Meng Yan today.

Observing Meng Yan over the past days, he felt that her bone healing might have exceeded expectations. If he could confirm early on that her bones were healing well, the cast could be removed ahead of time to help the little creature regain its mobility as soon as possible.

For an animal the size of a red panda, the healing period for fractures was six to eight weeks.

It had only been a maximum of three weeks since the injury, and Meng Yan's condition already appeared almost normal compared to that of a regular red panda.

Once the cast was removed, the bone healing would enable self-recovery of the body. Besides basic medication daily, there was no need for additional splinting or the like.

Of course, this was also because the activity level of red pandas is slower compared to other wild animals.

After two busy hours, the follow-up results for Meng Yan came in. All biochemical indicators were normal, and the plan was to remove her cast.

As was customary, he reported to the superior teacher for guidance and applied to remove the cast, attaching Meng Yan's check-up results. It wasn't long before the teacher in charge of small wildlife rescue agreed to the removal and asked Chen Ying to keep a detailed written and visual record.

Before removing Meng Yan's cast, he administered an injection to her.

She wasn't particularly fond of Chen Ying, mainly because he always carried the scent of Big Cats, making his approach akin to a nightmare for her.

The removal was swift. After a subsequent X-ray, the results showed a near-perfect recovery.

Now it was time to treat her with a special ointment from Chinese Veterinary Medicine.

He applied the ointment, then bandaged it to prevent Meng Yan from licking it off.

By the time everything was done, it was already 8 p.m.

In a rush to feed Leopard Sister and her two cubs, Chen Ying didn't even notice when Jinya had left.

He locked the small gate, closed and bolted the large iron gate, and after sorting out the animals' food and drink, he finally found time to cook himself a pack of instant noodles for dinner.

The mountain forest was tranquil at night, with the sound of insects and birds acting as the perfect lullaby.

After dinner, he cleaned up the animal shed, changed the water for Meng Yan and Leopard Sister, and yawned, ready to go to sleep.

He still had to get up in the middle of the night to check on the animals' excretory conditions. Plus, he had to prepare a midnight snack for the two leopard cubs, mixing formula with meat porridge.

The system-awarded puppy formula was almost depleted, and without having had the chance to exploit the system again, it was quite troubling.