Chapter 17 Helplessness, this is the cruel biological selection

The alarm was set for three in the morning, but it was the system's alarm that startled Chen Ying from her deep sleep at around two past ten.

"Host, please go to the mountain coordinates xx for the rescue of a musk deer with difficult labor as soon as possible. Upon completion of the task, you will be rewarded with a big gift package."

The forest musk deer is the smallest hoofed mammal in the Moschus genus of the Moschidae family, commonly called musk deer.

At present, it is endangered at the national level one.

The last time Mr. Lepus came to visit his sister Jinya, he caught a little musk deer, which had deeply concerned the staff at the center.

According to normal circumstances, the breeding season for the musk deer should have already passed, but nothing is absolute, and there are individual cases where some deer that mate later can give birth before the end of July.

Counting the days, this mother musk deer having difficulties must be a late bloomer.

Chen Ying shouldered her medical kit, changed into rainproof and scratch-proof clothing and shoes, locked the door of the rescue station, and ran quickly towards the designated coordinates while making a call to the colleague in charge of monitoring.

The colleague who received Chen Ying's call hadn't managed to react when she had already hung up.

Confused, he switched the surveillance of the mountain rescue station to his screen and poked his buddy on shift.

"Adjust the camera outside the rescue station on the mountain for me. Chen Ying goes into the mountain to save wild animals and has asked us to keep an eye on the surroundings for her."

"How does she know there are wild animals in danger this late at night?"

"I don't know. She said over the phone that she heard animal calls that didn't sound normal, so she went to check it out."

The two monitoring colleagues chatted briefly to stay alert, their eyes fixed on the display.

The place where the musk deer was giving birth was not far from the rescue station. It was about 50 meters up the mountain road from the entrance, and then you'd take a left into the woods and follow the slope for a little over 100 meters to get there.

It sounds easy, but people familiar with the mountains know—these protected old forests are dense with trees and undergrowth, and it's easy to lose your way if you're not careful.

In normal conditions, the 100 meters could be covered in less than a minute, but in the dense forest, if you could reach your destination within ten minutes, you were considered skilled.

It had rained heavily during the day, so the roads outside were okay—as the wind blew, they dried up quickly.

But it was different in the dense forest; stepping on the ground felt moist, and if you listened carefully, you could hear the sound of water burbling under the rotting leaves.

Chen Ying was familiar with the terrain of this piece of forest. Coupled with the guidance of the system, she arrived at the place where the musk deer was giving birth in just over ten minutes.

At night it was hard to make out the surroundings, but from memory, this wasn't within the forest musk deer's normal range of activity.

Chen Ying couldn't afford to ponder why the musk deer mother chose to give birth here; she only hoped her arrival wouldn't stress the mother musk deer.

She sprayed herself with a scent-eliminator she had mixed, mainly fearful that the musk scent of the two big cats she had contact with would frighten the mother musk deer having difficulties.

Perhaps the animal affinity bonus had its effect; after calling out twice, the musk deer in labor didn't struggle to leave. Instead, it raised its head to look at Chen Ying, sniffed, and drew slightly closer to him.

"That's right, don't be afraid, I'm here to help you."

With no one else around, Chen Ying directly used the animal common language, hoping not to scare the new mother.

The mother musikdeer in difficulty stretched out her head, rubbed Chen Ying's hand, took a bite of his clothes, looking very aggrieved.

She turned on the emergency light to illuminate the small area, put on her gloves, and disinfected her hands before starting to observe the musk deer mother's birthing situation.

Clearly, the new mother had a breech birth; the little musk deer's hind legs were coming out first.

She had been trying for quite some time and was nearly exhausted. Yet the little musk deer remained stuck in the birth canal.

Chen Ying hurriedly took out a snack the system had rewarded her with and offered it to the musk deer mother.

These were universal snack cubes, usually not for consumption by herbivores, but under special circumstances, they could quickly replenish an animal's strength.

"Come on, eat up. Then we can take a breather and try pushing again."

He stroked the forest musk deer mother's neck; her whole body was wet, and it was evident that she was running out of strength.

It was unfortunate that he had left in a hurry and hadn't brought anything nice for the forest musk deer mother to eat.

After some thought, he took out the milk bottle that the little leopard no longer needed, mixed a bottle of formula, and stuffed it into the forest musk deer mother's mouth.

The forest musk deer mother quickly finished a bottle of milk and regained a little energy.

Chen Ying stroked her belly, helping her adjust to the pressure of pushing.

This time, with Chen Ying's assistance, the difficult birth of the little musk deer was finally pulled through the birth canal.

The difficulty of the birth had taken its toll, and the newborn appeared much weaker than a normal little musk deer.

The forest musk deer mother did not despise the child for the agony it had caused her and diligently licked clean the mucus from its body.

Normally, forest musk deer fawns could stand and feed within ten to fifteen minutes, but this little one was nearing twenty minutes and still couldn't stand on its own strength.

The forest musk deer mother started a new round of pushing, clearly having more than one child this time.

After much consideration, Chen Ying finally decided to hand-rear the little musk deer that had a difficult birth.

The formula and water were ready.

The little musk deer lay in Chen Ying's arms, finally tasting the first milk of its life.

After it finished a bottle of milk, the forest musk deer mother had given birth to two slightly smaller babies.

Those two developed normally, one standing after twelve minutes, the other after sixteen, both successfully getting up and eagerly nursing from their mother.

After feeding the difficult birth, he placed it on the ground. It took a while before the little one shakily stood up, looking like it would fall with every couple of steps, causing the forest musk deer mother to instinctively avoid its approach.

Chen Ying felt a pang in his heart.

Such were the harsh laws of survival in the animal world.

The first-born little musk deer should have been the strongest, but due to a wrong birthing position and prolonged suffocation, it was unable to stand on its own when born.

In the wild, such a fawn would be destined to be abandoned.

Luckily, it had encountered its benefactor in this life, thereby receiving a chance to survive.

The forest musk deer mother licked her two children and then approached Chen Ying, licked his hand, and made soft cries before leading her two newborns slowly into the dense forest.

The little musk deer, held by Chen Ying, stumbled, attempting to follow, but it couldn't keep up with the movements of its mother and siblings, falling every two steps. By the time it steadied itself, the mother and her fawns had disappeared from sight.

The little musk deer whimpered a few times, filled with bewilderment and helplessness.

Chen Ying took off his T-shirt, wrapped the little musk deer snugly, and then wrapped it again inside his jacket.

The entire rescue operation had lasted over two hours, and by the time he returned to the rescue station, it was almost five o'clock.

While calling the center to report the situation, he took out a nursery box, which hadn't been used for quite some time, plugged it in, and set it up in his bedroom.

This nursery box was specially adapted for small hooved animals like deer and musk deer.

The forest musk deer was already small amongst hooved animals, and its fawns looked even tinier and pitiable.

Wrapped in Chen Ying's clothes, the little one lay down, feeling very sorry for itself, occasionally twitching its fine front hooves.

The call was made just before five o'clock, and the two female teachers responsible for wild animal cub rescue arrived at six-ten.

Initially bewildered as it lay in the incubator, the little one began to panic and struggle once it was moved onto the car.