Chapter 135

Chapter 135: It stared at the snowball bigger than its own head and fell into deep thought.

“Awoo?” The Arctic wolf tilted its head.

The snowball in Lin Qianyu’s hands was nearly finished. Seeing the wolf’s reaction, she tossed it over.

The wolves, who had been locked in a fierce scuffle, immediately let go of their opponents as the snowball flew toward them. The lead wolf moved the fastest, leaping out from among them.

Mid-air, the snowball was caught in the lead wolf’s mouth, held securely between its teeth.

It was just something casually shaped—not particularly solid—so when the lead wolf bit down without any guard, the snowball instantly shattered. Bits of snow crumbled inside its mouth, and what little was left quickly melted. Instinctively, the wolf chewed a little, and then… the last bit of snowball was completely eaten.

“Woo?!” The Arctic wolves, a step too late, gathered around. The snowball had already vanished in the lead wolf’s mouth.

They surrounded the lead wolf, nosing around, trying to pry open its mouth.

Sitting calmly in the center, the lead wolf showed no distress. When one of the wolves reached out a paw, it slapped it away without hesitation. Then, it licked its nose and remained still, unfazed.

“Don’t eat it all—make your own snowballs and throw them at me!” While the wolves had been fighting over snowballs, Lin Qianyu had already made a pile at her feet. She crouched down and lifted a snowball. “Incoming snowball!”

Hearing its name, the Arctic fox instantly poked its head out from the igloo. “Ying?!”

Lin Qianyu, holding a snowball in each hand, tossed one to the Arctic fox.

As the Arctic wolves charged in to snatch the snowballs, the Arctic fox—its head barely peeking out—got smacked directly in the face by one.

“Ying!” The snowball exploded across the fox’s face, fine snowflakes dusting its fur, making it look like it had just come back from digging a snow pit.

It blinked, shook its head, flung off the snow, perked up its tail, and toddled over. “Ying…!”

【Hahaha! Snowball: If Mom called me out only to hit me with stuff, I’m sure she has her reasons.】

【Awoo! Snowball is too cute, someone please pick it up and toss it like a real snowball.】

【The Arctic fox named “Snowball” was born for snowball fights.】

...

Lin Qianyu, crouched down, was pounced on by the Arctic fox. Even though she was prepared, she still got knocked over and landed on her back. Laughing, she curled up her legs and hugged the fox onto her lap. “Again!”

As she spoke, she took hold of the Arctic fox’s paws—those soft, fluffy paws—and helped it hold up another snowball.

The Arctic fox tilted its head up. “Woo?”

It didn’t understand what was happening, but it didn’t resist or struggle, simply going along with Lin Qianyu’s movement to raise its paws.

“Go!” Lin Qianyu helped the fox fling the snowball.

As the snowball flew through the air, the Arctic fox’s eyes slowly widened, its pupils shifting, then it dumbly lowered its head to look at its own paws.

“Awooo!”

The Arctic wolves rushed over.

Jostling and scrambling, they seemed more interested in eating the snowballs than actually fighting with them.

At some point, a wolf missed its bite and was knocked sideways, smacking its face into a snowball. As it turned its head and shook off the impact, its open mouth didn’t catch the snowball—but instead flung it back.

Lin Qianyu, still holding the confused Arctic fox, rolled across the snowy ground against her down jacket, dodging the flying snowball. “That’s it!”Snowball fights are always the most fun when they actually turn into a battle.

Amidst the flurry of snow, Lin Qianyu steadied herself and reached for the pre-made snowballs beside her, throwing two in a row and shouting loudly, “Let’s go again!”

The injured Arctic wolf reacted first, one leg furiously pawing at the ground.

The polar bear was happily munching on canned fruit when a snowball suddenly came flying and smacked it right between the eyes with a smack.

It paused mid-chew, then resumed eating like nothing had happened.

After a moment of thought, it cautiously raised a paw to shield the fruit bowl—smaller than its paw pad—from further attacks. Still feeling insecure, it sluggishly turned itself around to face the igloo, leaving only its back exposed.

Now it could eat its canned fruit in peace.

Crunching sounds came from the polar bear chewing on crisp peaches.

Outside the igloo, the Arctic wolves seemed to have figured out how this game worked.

Lin Qianyu was still half-seated on the ground, with flying snowflakes pelting her face, nearly as dense as a blizzard.

A sheet of snow came down like a net over her head.

Holding the Arctic fox in one arm, Lin Qianyu hurled snowballs with the other in retaliation.

In no time, all the Arctic wolves had joined the fight. Instead of eating the snowballs they caught, they turned and threw them right back.

“Ying!” The Arctic fox landed and began digging with its paws too. With its back to the wolves, it even started swiping all the snowballs Lin Qianyu had prepared—tossing every last one.

Snow flew through the air, scattered snowballs zipping around—making for a very lively snowball fight.

The Arctic wolf that usually clung to Lin Qianyu the most, reluctant to be separated for even a second, looked around, dodging incoming snowballs. Its paws scratched at the ground beneath it, seemingly digging for something.

Before long, it had drifted away from the center of the snowball fight.

Seeing things quiet down on that end, Lin Qianyu laughed and called out, “Haha! Xiao Nian, take this!”

“Woo!” A snowball exploded at the back of Xiao Nian’s head. The Arctic wolf shook its head and started digging even harder.

Lin Qianyu was curious what it was doing, but her attention was soon caught by the flurry of snow in the air, and she turned back to join the wolves in the fight again.

The little snow leopard flicked its tail, the fluffy thing clearing a small patch in front of it. All around was chaos from the ongoing snowball war.

Lin Qianyu managed both offense and defense at once. She even took the time to sweep snow around her with open arms, gathering it into a pile. Then, pulling her arms in, she forcefully packed a huge snowball, carefully sliding her hand under it to separate it from the ground.

In just that short while, her back was nearly buried in snow.

The Arctic wolves’ assault never let up.

Xiao Nian held in its mouth a fairly intact chunk of snow it had finally managed to dig out from the ground. Determined, it turned around with fierce resolve, ready to engage Lin Qianyu in an honorable snowball fight using its own “snowball”—

—only to stare at the snowball larger than its own head and fall into deep thought.

【Pfft—hahahaha that look on the Arctic wolf’s face is killing me.】

【Arctic wolf: Wait, wait… Mom, have you forgotten? You used to hold me in your arms.】

【One shot from that and the Arctic wolf’s account is going to get deactivated.】

【Arctic wolf: I think… maybe I can still salvage this.】With such a huge size difference between the snowballs on both sides—

Xiao Nian simply crunched up the snow in its mouth and ate it, then flopped onto the ground, belly up, front paws neatly folded over its chest. Its body twisted, and the tail lying on the ground swished rapidly back and forth.

It surrendered decisively, without the slightest resistance.

Lin Qianyu was so amused she could barely hold onto the snowball in her arms.

Turning to see that the other Arctic wolves were still focused on digging at the ground, Lin Qianyu didn’t hesitate. She hugged the snowball tighter and prepared for a close-range attack—this snowball really was a bit too big; throwing it from afar was not only tiring but also hard to aim.

“Charge!!!” Lin Qianyu shouted, charging forward with the snowball.

“Awoo-woo?!!”

The wolf pack scattered at once.

One Arctic wolf being chased and blocked at all sides bolted ahead, tail flailing, sprinted in a big circle around the house, and after getting cornered again, flopped onto the ground just like Xiao Nian, “Woo!”

Lin Qianyu chased after each of them with the giant snowball, not letting a single wide-eyed onlooker escape.

Xiao Nian, realizing what was happening, ran up to rub against her again.

With a dramatic wave of her hand, Lin Qianyu made a move—and Xiao Nian yelped repeatedly, “Aw! Awoo—!”

The last note almost broke out of pitch.

【Xiao Nian: Stop hitting me!!! It’s me!!!】

【I’m dying laughing—if it had hesitated even a second longer, it would've been buried alive by that snowball.】

“Sorry, hahaha…” Lin Qianyu couldn’t hold back a laugh seeing how panicked it looked.

As she spoke, she flipped her wrist and aimed her next attack at the head wolf.

Not far away, the head wolf, who was just pawing gently at a snowball, sharply sensed something. The moment Lin Qianyu rushed over, it flopped flat onto the ground.

Lin Qianyu had just lifted the snowball.

The head wolf rolled onto its back—it was clearly not used to doing this, a little stiff—and met Lin Qianyu’s gaze for a moment, then slowly and awkwardly wagged its tail.

Alright, that completed the motion.

Lin Qianyu hugged the big snowball again, chin resting on it. “I declare! In this unofficial snowball fight tournament, I have emerged victorious in this match!”

“Awooo!”

“Ying!”

Hovering above all this without ever joining the fight, the Arctic owl chose just this moment to descend.

Lin Qianyu raised the big snowball slightly. “Xiao Xiao, want to give it a try? It only looks big, it doesn’t hurt at all.”

The Arctic owl, mid-dive and just about to land on Lin Qianyu’s shoulder, abruptly changed course upon hearing that, lifting its head and veering sharply upward into the sky.

It never even extended its claws.

“Chirp—” came a faint response from afar.

Lin Qianyu patted the giant snowball, straightened up, hands on her waist, her eyes and brows full of bright laughter. “Xiao Xiao said it wants to fly a little longer.”【Low EQ: I’m not playing. High EQ: I haven’t flown enough yet.】

【Aaaaah Xiao Xiao is way too cute! Did you all see that just now? Its claws were out, but the moment Lin-jie spoke, they retracted with a swish.】

【Of course they retracted! Otherwise that snowball the size of its whole body would’ve smacked it in the face. Anyone would pull back.】

Lin Qianyu carefully set the big snowball down, a bit disappointed it didn’t get used. “Feels like all the little animals at home really like balls.”

When snowballs got tossed, they instinctively tried to catch them in their mouths. If it were some other kind of ball, they could probably toss it around for fun. Snowballs were just too easy to break.

“A couple toys would be great. Like a frisbee, or a laser pointer.” Lin Qianyu mused—more toys would really enrich the animals’ daily lives.

Otherwise, all they had was hunting, eating, and sleeping. That’d get boring over time.

“Right, a frisbee.” Lin Qianyu snapped her fingers, set the snowball down, hopped off the slope, and went back into the house to grab an axe and a piece of firewood.

She couldn’t make a laser light, but making a frisbee? That was easy.

This particular log had the widest diameter, perfect for a frisbee. The thickness was about the height of two finger joints.

Lin Qianyu used the axe to trim and round off the edges, shaved down the surface entirely, and naturally reduced the thickness in the process.

“No need to make it too thick. That way their jaws won’t get too tired if they bite it for a while.” Lin Qianyu blew away the wood shavings, held the wooden frisbee up to the light for a look. “This is just right. If I could add a protective coat, it’d be even better.”

But there was nothing available here for that.

So she settled for the next best thing—rubbing it repeatedly with snow, then took off her gloves and smoothed it out with her fingertips to ensure not a single wood splinter remained.

“Ahem!” Sitting where she was, Lin Qianyu gave a little cough to catch all the fluffballs’ attention. She patted the wood chips off her legs and raised the frisbee in one hand. “Let’s play a game. I’ll throw this frisbee, and you all bring it back to me.”

“Awoo…” Xiao Nian leaned right next to her hand, tilting its head up so its mouth could almost grab the frisbee already.

Lin Qianyu nudged Xiao Nian’s head with her elbow. “Wait till I say go.”

“Awoo?”

“Go!” The word had barely left her mouth when the frisbee launched from her hand in a clean, sharp throw.

Even sitting down, Lin Qianyu didn’t hold back on strength.

The head wolf reacted first, bolting ahead. The rest of the pack quickly followed. Even the injured Arctic wolf took off, bounding on three legs. Xiao Nian glanced left and right, still stunned the frisbee was already airborne.

By the time it realized what had happened, the tail fur of the last Arctic wolf had already vanished from sight.

It looked at Lin Qianyu’s now-empty hand. Xiao Nian: “Wu?”

Lin Qianyu pointed off into the distance. “That way…”

“Awoo? Awoo!” Xiao Nian’s ears flattened back, finally caught on, and scrambled up to chase after the others.

Author's note: Goodnight, sleep early, love every one of you.