Chapter 64

Chapter 64

[Hahaha, Little Cheetah: Don’t Grab!]

The livestream chat was practically bursting with laughter.

Lin Qianyu, leaning back against the cheetah, was also laughing uncontrollably.

The accident happened so fast that Nie Lingyang even got splashed in the face by the big fish flipping into the water.

He wiped his face expressionlessly, pretended to roll up nonexistent sleeves, and was ready to jump in to save the fish.

The fish was big but agile. It twisted once in the water and vanished without a trace—no chance to even give chase.

Nie Lingyang immediately grabbed the fishing rod. Normally, a piece of meat would be tied to the end as bait, but now he just whipped out a flourish like a sword trick, holding the branch high in a move that perfectly mimicked the scene of young Run Tu stabbing a hedgehog from sixth-grade Chinese textbooks.

Compared to the tranquil moments of fishing earlier, Nie Lingyang now radiated total madness—everything must die!

Lin Qianyu laughed so hard her stomach hurt, and as she propped herself up, her body tilted to the side. “Ow…”

The cheetah silently stepped forward and gently licked her cheek.

Lin Qianyu simply tilted her head back and collapsed entirely onto the cheetah.

“Jiu jiu!”

“Jiu——!”

Help!

Hearing the magpie’s tragic cries, Lin Qianyu paused mid-laughter, “What’s wrong?”

“Jiu!”

This one sounded a bit muffled.

Near the riverbank, the magpie’s head had already been swallowed by a big fish.

The fish had noticed the magpie at the water’s edge and leapt up to snatch it. Now it had the magpie in its mouth, tail swaying as it tried to return to the water.

Lin Qianyu smacked her palm down. The fish’s tailThere are indeed fish that can catch birds. The magpie couldn’t fly because its wings were still wrapped in a cloth strip. If it hadn’t been struggling inside the backpack the whole time, Lin Qianyu wouldn’t have let it out. She hadn’t expected that even after placing it far from the river to peck at bugs on its own, it still ended up running back here.

Hearing the laughter, the magpie raised its head aggressively, spread its wings, feathers fluffed all over, and kept screeching “jiu.”

The cheetah lowered its gaze and gave it a bland glance.

“Jiu—gah.” The magpie’s call took a sharp turn. It ruffled its feathers awkwardly and scratched at the ground with its wings.

The cheetah bared its teeth: “Hah…”

The magpie shivered, immediately turned its back, and when it saw the unconscious fish, it sneakily shuffled over and kicked it twice.

Lin Qianyu caught her breath, picked up the little cheetah and placed it on her stomach, pinching and squishing it with her fingertips. “You keep busy then. I’m heading out.”

Nie Lingyang was throwing long tree branches into the river like darts. When he heard her voice, he nodded and said, “Alright.”

Then he paused, “Sister Lin, I saw the comments say you're planning to make clothes. Can I trade supplies for some?”

“I’ll let you know once I’ve made them.” Lin Qianyu, thinking she only had a small bundle of wool yarn at the moment, said, “There’s too little yarn, might not be able to make more than one or two pieces.”

Nie Lingyang looked at his animal-skin skirt and let out a long sigh.

Good thing he was a behind-the-scenes worker. To write good scripts, he often immersed himself in the characters’ lives, so he didn’t really care about his appearance or image.

When Lin Qianyu left, she didn’t forget to grab the big carp and stuff it into the zebra-striped bag, then picked up her own backpack and asked, “Want to come in?”

The two little cheetahs were in the big bag. The magpie was still afraid of cheetahs and didn’t like sharing the same space with them, even if they were just cubs.

So when they went out today, the magpie stayed in the side pouch meant for a water bottle.

The magpie glanced at it,Lin Qianyu pulled the straw hat over her face. Even without direct sunlight, it was still pretty bright for sleeping with eyes closed—covering up with the hat was just right.

【It really does seem perfect for a nap.】

【A warm, slightly stuffy environment wrapped in a cool breeze, with soft fluff nearby—and it just happens to be nap time.】

The comments began to follow Lin Qianyu’s lead, immersing themselves in the thought, imagining what it would feel like to nap on the great grasslands.

At first, no one noticed anything off.

Some even started analyzing the pros and cons of sleeping on a grassland.

But gradually, fans started realizing something was strange.

Until Lin Qianyu’s breathing grew steady, the hand resting on her body stopped moving, and she didn’t speak again.

Comments: 【???】

【S-She fell asleep?!】

【I thought you were just demonstrating! Hello?! How are you actually enjoying this now?! I’m messaging Director Su to report you!】

【Sneaky streamer!】

Everyone was still chatting, and the next thing they knew, the streamer had dozed off. It was both exasperating and hilarious.

She must be condemned—absolutely condemned!

However, no matter how fast the chat scrolled, Lin Qianyu, now sound asleep, clearly couldn’t see any of it.

The cheetah lay sideways beside her, wriggled in under her arm, and as it lifted its head, Lin Qianyu’s hand slid down to the back of its neck.

It found a good spot to curl up at her side, then closed its eyes.

Its tail swished gently, helping drive away any nearby mosquitoes.

…

…

That nap—Lin Qianyu slept deeply.

Somewhere in the drifting edge of consciousness, she seemed to have a dream. She couldn’t quite remember what it was about, but vaguely felt it had something to do with "smashing stones on the chest." She felt so suffocated, like something heavy was pressing on her.

The surrounding temperature also seemed to be rising.

Lin Qianyu woke up from the heat.

She squinted, and the first thing she saw was a pair of bright, round little eyes.

“Good afternoon, little one.” Waking up to a furry creature always brightened the mood. Lin Qianyu tapped its forehead, “No wonder I dreamed of chest pressure.”

It was this little thing lying on her.

“Mii…” The little cheetah tilted its head up and licked her fingers, making a soft, babyish meow.

The cheetah cub next to it, hearing this, swatted it with a paw.

【Hahaha, Little Cheetah: Don’t squeeze!】【So you do know how to wake up—I thought you were going to sleep straight through till tomorrow’s stream!】

Lin Qianyu yawned, her voice still a bit hoarse from just waking up. “The atmosphere was too nice, I fell asleep without realizing.”

She set the little cheetah down and moved her wrist a bit. She was starting to feel hungry. All she had brought out with her were some wild fruits. She mused aloud, “What should I have for the afternoon?”

It was that in-between time—after lunch, before dinner—perfect for a simple afternoon snack.

Brushing her clothes off, Lin Qianyu noticed a lot of grass clinging to her from lying down. She casually patted it off and looked around—there wasn’t even a single fruit tree in sight.

Not really in the mood to hunt something big for meat, Lin Qianyu thought for a moment and said, “Let’s go take a look by the sea.”

She could grab some oysters or scallops to eat.

“And give that carp to Dabai for a taste.”

Let the deep-sea-dwelling fish try what freshwater fish tastes like.

Once she had the idea, she got to it. Before heading out to the sea, Lin Qianyu cleaned the big carp—scaling it and gutting it.

Even cleaned, the carp was still quite hefty. If it were just a small fish, it wouldn’t have had the guts to leap ashore and try to eat a magpie.

This one weighed at least ten jin.

Lin Qianyu strung the fish with a rope and lifted it up, swinging it a little in front of the livestream camera. “This fish should be big enough for Dabai to take a bite.”

As she spoke, she bit into a wild fruit and started walking toward the sea.

She already knew there were people by the seaside.

But compared to last time, what surprised her was the presence of several new tents.

And shelters made of palm leaves.

Lin Qianyu raised her eyebrows. So they were planning to stay here long-term.

“Qianyu-jie!” Not far away, in a little mound of sand, Hang Sisi was comfortably enjoying a sand bath. She grabbed the coconut beside her and took a sip. “Want to sunbathe together?”

Lin Qianyu shook her head. “It’s dangerous for you to be buried like that on the beach.”

“It’s fine, I’m far from the shore, the waves can’t reach me.” Hang Sisi patted the sand on her body. “I only covered myself with a thin layer.”

But since Lin Qianyu said so, Hang Sisi sat up and brushed off the rest of the sand. “Qianyu-jie, why aren’t you at home playing with the thylacine?”

As soon as she said this, other guests and staff scattered along the beach subtly glanced over.

The news that the thylacine had appeared at Lin Qianyu’s place had already spread.

Even so, no one left the beach.

And no one went to Lin Qianyu’s shelter to look for the thylacine.

First, it would look way too deliberate. Second, if they annoyed Lin Qianyu with that kind of behavior, wouldn’t that be indirectly offending her?

Only a fool would do something so unwise.

Better to wait it out here. Even if the thylacine didn’t show up, the view was still nice.

“The thylacine went back to its own place,” Lin Qianyu said, sitting down on the beach. “I just gave it something to eat. We’re still… not that close yet?”Strictly speaking, the thylacine hadn’t let down its guard yet—Lin Qianyu was still in some kind of trial phase?

Hang Sisi didn’t take this seriously at all. “You’re too modest, Qianyu-jie.”

Being the only person who had interacted with the thylacine up close—and even started feeding it—and still saying they weren’t close?

The little cheetah in Lin Qianyu’s arms bared its teeth at Hang Sisi. “Hah—!”

Lin Qianyu quickly covered its mouth. “Shh…”

The little cheetah looked up and blinked. “Mmm…”

There were too many people around, so the adult cheetah stayed hidden in the nearby bushes. The cubs, however, didn’t mind and ran around freely outside.

The orange-furred cub looked just like a soft little orange cat. Hang Sisi only needed a glance to fall head over heels for it.

Even when it bared its teeth, it still looked like it was being playful.

No matter how she looked at it, she just adored it.

But knowing that its mother was still watching from a hidden spot, Hang Sisi didn’t have the nerve to reach out her hand.

“Sigh, it’s so nice.” Hang Sisi’s eyes were full of envy. Previously, she had mostly felt fear around large predators, but when it came to cubs that looked like cats—tiny, toothless things that could at most give you a little bite—how could she resist the urge to grab it and give it a good rub?

Looking at that little paw resting on Lin Qianyu’s wrist, it seemed like the cub wanted to push her hand away and bare its teeth again.

Too cute.

Hang Sisi forced herself to tear her gaze away and changed the subject. “Right, Qianyu-jie, are you here at the beach to look for Dabai? The orca hasn’t shown up all day. Did the pod leave this area?”

“Probably not,” Lin Qianyu said, though she wasn’t too sure herself. “Maybe they’re busy, or off hunting.”

She took the fish meat in her hand, found a tree branch, and hung it up, simply sticking it into the sand. “I’m going to look for something to eat.”

Hang Sisi waved. “Alright. Be careful.”

After bringing the two little cheetahs back and handing them to Doudou, Lin Qianyu took off her jacket and draped it over the zebra. “Watch my clothes for me.”

The zebra was busy digging a hole. When it lifted its head, there was suddenly a jacket on its back. It looked around, then lowered its head and went back to digging.

Prepared to pry open oysters and abalone, Lin Qianyu grabbed a kitchen knife and headed into the sea. She figured even if she couldn’t use much strength underwater, she could still wedge the knife in and twist it open.

As Lin Qianyu sank beneath the surface, sighs filled the livestream chat.

【@Su Yuxing, when will we finally get underwater equipment?!】

【If I can’t see Lin-jie and the orca interacting underwater, I swear I’m going to cry.】

【Ahhh forget it, just throw the whole livestream gear into the sea. Someone, push it in already.】

While everyone was fiercely debating the lack of underwater footage, Lin Qianyu suddenly sat up and slowly surfaced again.

Chat: 【???】

Lin Qianyu: “……”

If not for her soaking wet hair, you wouldn’t even be able to tell she’d been in the water at all.

In the camera frame, a massive creature happily splashed the surface.The livestream equipment, which had lost track of Lin Qianyu when she entered the sea, now caught up.

Sitting on the orca’s back, Lin Qianyu herself hadn’t fully processed what was happening. She had just gone under when the orca lifted her up—she hadn’t even made it through the layer of bubbles in front of her eyes before feeling a force push her upward.

It was only when she took a breath of fresh air that Lin Qianyu snapped back to her senses. She poked the culprit who made her dizzy. “I thought you weren’t around.”

She had planned to feed the carp to Dabai first, then handle her own things. But after waiting on the shore for a while without seeing Dabai appear, she decided to go down and look. As soon as she got underwater, she saw Dabai swimming toward her.

Lin Qianyu patted the orca, hesitating whether to return to shore, and turned her head just in time to see the director coming out of the tent.

“Director Su!” Lin Qianyu cupped her hands around her mouth and called out loudly, “Help me toss down the fish that’s hanging from the tree!”

Su Yuxing paused in his steps, stunned for a moment before his assistant helped him locate the source of the voice.

“Alright!”

Responding with a shout, Su Yuxing grabbed the fish, swung the rope in circles a few times, and yelled, “Coming!”

With that, the carp flew out of his hand, drawing a perfect arc in mid-air.

Although the fish was heavy, with the help of momentum and Su Yuxing’s strength, it flew right in front of the orca.

Faced with the carp so close at hand, the orca—still facing the shore—silently watched it fall into the water.

Splash.

The orca didn’t move forward to eat it, and instead backed away with Lin Qianyu on its back.

Lin Qianyu patted its head, slid down, dove in, and retrieved the fish. She untied the rope, stuffed it into her shoulder bag, and held up the fish. “Come on, Dabai, open up—ahh—”

The orca obediently opened its mouth, and Lin Qianyu fed it the carp. “Try the taste of freshwater fish.”

In terms of flavor, seawater fish were definitely superior. But if you ate them all the time, a freshwater fish now and then might seem like a rare delicacy.

Orcas have fragile teeth that don’t regenerate, so they often go for softer or easy-to-swallow prey to protect them.

The carp was casually chewed a couple of times and swallowed.

To humans, that was a hefty fish—but to an orca, it was like an unsalted dried fish snack.

Whine!

Looked like it really liked it.

Lin Qianyu patted its head. “If you like it, I’ll bring you another one next time.”

The orca seemed in a great mood, swimming in circles around her, half its body leaping out of the water—it was the kind of motion they sometimes enjoyed, breaching and then diving back down.

But this time, Dabai just gave a short leap up, and then—almost like it remembered something—came back down the same way.

Lin Qianyu noticed the movement and smiled, resting her hands on its snout. Tilting her head, she looked into its eyes and asked, “Where are your friends? Why are you the only one here?”

She hadn’t seen any other orcas in the sea just now.

Whine— This time the orca called out several times in a row, the sounds lasting a while.

And this time, the meaning behind the sounds translated into a full sentence.

After piecing together the translation, Lin Qianyu roughly understood it as: “They didn’t like it here, so they left during the night.”

…Huh?

They left overnight?Those words didn’t seem wrong at first glance, but the more you thought about it, the weirder they sounded.

【Dabai wasn’t abandoned by the pod, was it?】

【Huh? I don’t want to see Dabai wandering the sea alone like that…】

Lin Qianyu gently tapped the orca’s back with her fingertip. “It wasn’t abandoned.” After a pause, she decided to share the orca’s translated message with the fans.

Orca pods usually don’t abandon their own.

Hearing that, the livestream chat went quiet for a moment, then one line slowly popped up:

【Are we sure there’s no missing subject? Like (I) didn’t like them here, so I (chased) them off overnight.】

【Hahaha I’m crying! I hereby declare you the grand master of Orca Speak!】

【Amazing. One orca exiling the whole pod—classic Dabai.】

Lin Qianyu: “……”

She pressed her lips together, a smile gradually rising in her eyes as she rubbed her forehead helplessly. As ridiculous as it sounded, it… kind of made sense?

Noticing her laughing, Dabai tilted its head—and since Lin Qianyu was leaning on its back, she tilted with it. Then Dabai gave its head a little twist and leveled them both again.

Lin Qianyu smiled, eyes curving. “I’m going to get some food. You play for a bit.”

Whine!

Securing the floating shoulder bag, Lin Qianyu held her breath and dove underwater.

Last time she was here collecting abalone, she had seen oysters too. But without the proper tools, even picking abalones was hard—oysters were out of the question.

Farm-raised oysters could be lifted whole and pried open directly; even if you couldn’t remove the shell, it didn’t matter.

But oysters soaked in seawater, embedded in the reefs, weren’t so easy. Some were blocked by jutting stones, making it hard to get the right leverage.

Lin Qianyu used the kitchen knife to work along the seam where the oyster shell met the reef, prying bit by bit.

She gathered half a bag’s worth before thinking… a machete would’ve been way more useful.

Her wrist sore, she was just about to surface for air when she caught a glimpse of something darting through a crack beneath the reef.

Even in the dim underwater light, she could make out a flash of blue.

A blue sea creature that could appear around here…?

Lin Qianyu quickly dove deeper and peered through the crack in the reef. As expected, she spotted a blue lobster.

Locking onto its location, she swam upward, looped over the top of the reef, and grabbed the flicking tail of the lobster in one swift motion, pulling it up with her as she broke through the surface.

As soon as they emerged, the lobster flailed its tail even harder, splashing water everywhere.

Lin Qianyu exhaled, held the blue lobster out at a distance, and seeing that the bag already held enough food, decided not to collect anything more.

Back on shore with her haul, she set down both the bag and the lobster on the sand, then went to collect firewood.

There were fewer people on the beach now than before. Only Su Yuxing remained, lounging under a beach umbrella in a deck chair; the other guests had gone off in groups to search for food.

“This lobster’s pretty plump,” Lin Qianyu said, fanning the fire with her hat. The embers flickered as the fire gradually caught.

To cook lobster, she could use the same method she used last time with the coconut crab—bury it in the earth and slow-bake it.But since Lin Qianyu was still hungry, she didn’t bother making it fancy. After prepping the lobster and rinsing it twice in the sea without it opening up, she tossed it straight into the fire to roast.

There were still plenty of oysters and sea urchins in the bag.

She’d picked up the sea urchins just because she saw them—they were everywhere on the seafloor, and each one was bigger than the last.

Spreading her fingers to measure, Lin Qianyu said, “These sea urchins are almost as big as Ezo bafun urchins, huh?”

Ezo bafun urchins are one of the largest sea urchin species, high in nutritional value and correspondingly pricey.

Just one can sell for 800.

While waiting for the lobster to cook, Lin Qianyu cracked open the sea urchins, cleaned out the insides, and set them aside. As she opened another one, she called out, “Doudou! Come eat sea urchin!”

There was no response from the leopard, but some nearby bushes rustled.

Sure enough, within seconds the leopard poked its head out, followed by the two cubs struggling through the branches.

“Here.” Lin Qianyu piled a few urchins into an empty shell and pushed it toward the leopard.

“……”

The leopard, who had been strolling over calmly, stopped in its tracks the moment it noticed the spiky black things.

Its usually expressionless face slightly slackened, mouth parting, pupils shifting a few times—clearly startled.

Still holding an urchin in her hand, Lin Qianyu raised her eyebrows at the sight. “Do all land-based fluffballs hate sea urchins?”

At least among the ones she knew—besides the red-tailed ground eagle who could tolerate them—every furry creature showed clear distaste at the sight of sea urchins.

Then again, red-tailed ground eagles counted as creatures of the sky, not land fluff.

Compared to the adult leopard, the cubs weren’t that bothered. They suddenly dropped into a crouch, lowering their front bodies and huffing at the sea urchins.

All their fur puffed up, turning them into two fluffy warm orange urchins themselves, issuing warnings toward the black spiky ones.

To prevent an actual fight—or more precisely, to avoid them getting hurt by the spines—Lin Qianyu picked the sea urchins back up and ate them herself.

“Magpie, do you want some—”

The magpie, upon hearing its name, turned and ran, flapping its wings with such desperation that it actually lifted off a little. But as soon as its feet left the ground, it plummeted with a thud, hit the dirt, scrambled upright, and dashed off again.

Its retreating figure radiated panic.

Lin Qianyu: “……”

【Hahahaha Lin-jie’s expression looks so defeated.】

【If they don’t want it, give it to me! I love sea urchin! If I had the money, I could down a hundred in one sitting.】

【Has anyone identified what kind of sea urchin that is yet? Never mind the island having everything—why does the sea here have everything too?!】

【Please drop me on this island. I adore this simple life of eating lobster and sea urchin like it’s rice.】

The leopard showed zero interest in seafood—not just sea urchins, but also other shellfish, which it refused to touch.

Considering how picky it was—only eating fresh meat—it made sense. It really was a pampered big cat.

Lin Qianyu cracked the shell of the blue lobster, blew on it, and took a big bite straight out of the thick claw meat. Using lobster meat like bread—just a little too hot.The lobster was big—just eating the meat alone was enough to fill her up, not to mention she’d already had quite a bit of oysters and abalone earlier.

After peeling most of the lobster meat, Lin Qianyu wrapped it in two banana leaves. It was a shame she didn’t bring a water bottle—this meal would’ve been perfect otherwise.

She got up and cracked open a coconut, and as she was breaking the shell, she heard movement from the sea.

Even though she didn’t see the orca, Lin Qianyu had a strong feeling it was Da Bai splashing the water. “Da Bai?”

“Eeng!” The orca surfaced, pushing and flinging something onto shore again.

Help!

“Help?” Help what?

As the waves rolled, the thing was fully revealed.

It was big, green, and quite solid. At first glance, Lin Qianyu thought it was a manhole cover covered in moss.

But when the waves pushed it onto the shore and the "manhole cover" slowly extended a tentative paw, she realized—it was a sea turtle.

“It’s still alive.” Lin Qianyu noticed that the turtle had tucked its head inside its shell, and there seemed to be something tangled around its neck—something messy, like string. She instinctively reached out to grab it, but the turtle shrank back further in alarm.

Her fingertips paused. “Don’t be afraid, I just want to help you take that thing off your neck.”

Judging by the material and thin strands, it looked like torn fishing net—or maybe a plastic bag, or some other type of marine debris.

There were people assigned to keep the island’s surrounding waters clean, so this likely wasn’t local trash. The fishing net must’ve been carried in from elsewhere.

After a while, the turtle slowly poked its head out, its eyes looking up at her, cautious and wary.

From the perspective of a small animal, humans—so different in appearance—can be very intimidating.

Lin Qianyu sat down. It was hard to maintain eye-level with the turtle, so she lowered herself as much as possible. “Don’t be scared. Let me see what this is.”

The turtle seemed to be struggling with itself, hesitant. When Lin Qianyu’s hand reached out, it instinctively shrank back, but then forced itself to lift its head again.

She glanced around, then pried open one of the uneaten oysters and offered a piece of meat. “Here, have a bite first.”

Trying to distract the turtle.

Still wary, the turtle bit down on the oyster instinctively—then froze.

Seizing the opportunity, Lin Qianyu used her fingertips to lift a thread from the edge and followed it inward. That’s when she saw the fishing net was wrapped around its neck multiple times, so tightly it had already started cutting into the turtle’s flesh.

It looked painful.

【Aaaah this is so pitiful. Something like that wrapped around its neck, and it has no way to remove it. And it's made of material that won’t decompose for hundreds of years.】

【If it hadn’t met Lin-jie, the turtle might’ve had to live with that for the rest of its life.】

【Damn it!!! People who throw garbage into the ocean should be ashamed!】

…

The sharpest tool Lin Qianyu had was her kitchen knife. But if she cut upward, the fishing net would tighten further on the turtle’s neck, and cutting downward was awkward and ineffective.

Just as she was trying to figure out the best angle to cut, there was a soft sound beside her—something had landed on the sand.

She glanced over and saw—a pair of scissors.Lin Qianyu suddenly looked up—Su Yuxing, not far away, waved at her. “You can borrow it for now, just return it when you're done.”

“Okay.” Lin Qianyu responded with a smile.

With a pair of scissors, things were much easier. It was a brand-new, unopened pair—very sharp, and cutting through the fishing net threads was effortless.

She snipped an opening but didn’t yank it off immediately. Instead, she held both ends and slowly pulled them apart to avoid scraping the wound.

“All done.” Lin Qianyu bundled up the fishing net and the scissors’ packaging, then checked the wound.

Fortunately, it wasn’t too serious.

She had seen similar news before—something had tangled around a turtle’s shell for so long that by the time it was discovered, the shell had caved in. The entanglement had restricted the turtle’s growth, and it was already too late by then.

The fishing net on this turtle’s neck would’ve kept digging deeper over time, eventually halting its growth.

Luckily, it was removed in time. With the turtle’s natural healing ability, even the slight indentation should recover fully in due course.

The turtle opened its mouth slightly, but no sound came out. It could definitely feel the restraint on its neck being lifted.

It seemed like it wanted to say something to Lin Qianyu, but as a reptile—and one of the quietest at that—it couldn’t utter a word even now.

Lin Qianyu picked off some seaweed that had hooked onto its shell. “If you ever run into trouble again, you can come here and find me—or... find Da Bai. Of course, I hope you’ll stay healthy and never get caught in something like this again.”

She gave it two more oysters and said softly, “Eat up. You need to recover.”

With its neck previously restricted, eating had been difficult. The turtle bit into the oyster and ate with large gulps.

To help it fully, Lin Qianyu even cleaned off the barnacles from its shell, and reminded viewers: “I don’t recommend untrained people to remove barnacles from sea turtles. But I’m trained—don’t try to imitate this at home.”

【You reminded me—has Linlin officially started her new job already?】

【Congrats, congrats!】

【Wait, why do humpbacks and turtles get barnacles but orcas don’t?】

【It’s like asking why green trains get stowaways but high-speed trains don’t—who dares jump on a high-speed one?】

In fact, some orcas do get barnacles, but far fewer than humpbacks. Some, like Da Bai, are too active—completely barnacle-free and squeaky clean.

Orcas also live in pods and will rub against each other to knock barnacles off.

For barnacles, water currents caused by the host’s movement are the biggest enemy, and orcas swim fast. With several unsuitable conditions stacked up, barnacles are more likely to choose humpbacks instead.

After cleaning the turtle up, Lin Qianyu said, “Alright, you can go back now.”

The turtle glanced back at the ocean, then slowly raised a front flipper and gently tapped the back of Lin Qianyu’s hand before turning to head toward the sea.

On land, sea turtles are much slower than in the water—barely 70 meters an hour at best.

Luckily, after just a few steps, a wave came up and swept it back into the sea like a free ride.

Lin Qianyu watched the turtle return to the ocean.

She sat down on the sand and massaged her calves, sore from squatting too long.

After staying by the sea for a while, her wet clothes from the dive had mostly dried.

Her hair draped over her shoulders, the tips still dripping. As she twisted the damp strands and looked up at the sky, she said, “Looks like it’s about time to go hunting. The temperature’s just right now.”Before the sun went down, there were still quite a lot of herbivores active outside.

Some were protected under Category II national protection, which she couldn’t touch, but aside from those, there were still plenty of huntable prey on the grasslands.

The wolf pack wouldn’t move to this area until tomorrow.

The weather in the afternoon was hot. If she hunted too many animals at once, there wouldn’t be enough leaves to wrap and store them properly—she’d end up stripping all the nearby trees bare.

Timing it right, going out now meant the temperature would only drop further later on. She could always wait until tomorrow to process the prey.

“Da Bai, I’m heading back now.” Lin Qianyu raised her hand and waved.

“Ying!”

Lin Qianyu wasn’t exactly sure how many wolves were in the pack, but judging by last time, there were at least a dozen.

A pack of that size was pretty big.

Which meant she’d need to prepare quite a bit of prey.

Estimating based on the food intake of a single wolf, she’d have to catch several animals. Plus, she was still short on wool, so… she set her sights on the sheep.

Then, her livestream viewers watched in real-time as Lin Qianyu went after the sheep.

She didn’t target any specific herd—her hunting was perfectly distributed and utterly fair, showing no favoritism. From every flock she found, she brought back one.

【Ah, this, I... 6, wow.】

【The rainforest has the water buffalo slayer, and the grassland has the sheep slayer. I'm dying.】

【Sheep are so cute, why eat sheep? Save me a couple of legs, and two ribs for soup, thanks.】

【I love this so much. Living off your own hands, providing for the fluffies at home... sigh, isn't this my dream life?】

…

Lin Qianyu was in a great mood, humming as she returned, only to see the grassland wolf squatting at the doorway.

“Little Wolf, you’re back.” She washed her hands by the lake, then came over and gave that furry head a good ruffle. “Hungry? I just caught a sheep.”

The grassland wolf licked her hand. “Woo.”

Not far away, a zebra lay on the ground—probably prey the little wolf had brought back.

She hugged the grassland wolf and patted its belly. Since it had clearly eaten already, she didn’t bother cutting up any meat. Instead, she bent down and kissed its ear, saying, “Let’s save it for later when we’re hungry.”

Including the zebra the little wolf brought, she stored all the prey inside the palm leaf shelter.

Lin Qianyu opened a compressed towel and freshened up a bit. “The aloe’s almost used up.”

She hadn’t found any soap pod trees yet—she’d have to go forage for more wild aloe if time allowed.

There were fewer trees here on the grassland, so whether there were any soap pod trees was uncertain.

Lin Qianyu shook out her washed clothes and hung them up to dry.

The grassland wolf came over and rubbed against her, affectionately circling around her legs.

“Good boy.” Lin Qianyu bent down and picked it up. Compared to before in the rainforest, it was getting a little heavier to carry now.Mainly, it was because today had been packed—both at sea and on land—busy with hunting, constantly on the move, so of course the physical toll was immense.

Fortunately, Little Wolf was very well-behaved. When being held, he stayed completely still, even his paws, which had nowhere to rest, were gently placed on her shoulder in a tentative way.

“Woo.”

Carrying Little Wolf back, she considered whether to boil some more water.

As she passed by a bush, her steps halted.

“Huh? Just now, was that...?”

Not knowing what she was talking about, the grassland wolf tilted his head.

“It’s nothing, I just thought I saw something.” Lin Qianyu felt uncertain. She set Little Wolf down and squatted to take a closer look. As expected, she found a wisp of pale yellow hidden among the tangled twigs and leaves. “So it was you. Why are you hiding in there again?”

The yellow thylacine-like creature liked being in environments like this. It seemed as though enclosed spaces gave it a sense of security.

Upon hearing her voice, not only did the thylacine not come out—it even backed up a few more steps.

After a while, perhaps hearing no more sound from outside, it curiously peeked out to take a look—only to meet Lin Qianyu’s gaze head-on.

Startled, it tried to shrink back again, but it looked like it had already reached the end—there was no more room to retreat.

“You’re not afraid of Little Wolf, but you’re afraid of me.” Lin Qianyu tilted her head to lean against the grassland wolf. It was a bit novel, actually. For a creature once considered a predator, the one it should logically find threatening would be the wolf, not her.

The thylacine-like creature stayed hidden without making a sound.

Lin Qianyu asked, “Really not coming out?”

“Alright then, wait a sec.” Lin Qianyu turned to go grab something.

The thylacine-like creature and the grassland wolf exchanged a glance. It opened its mouth slightly.

The grassland wolf spoke in a low growl: “Hrrr…”

The livestream equipment left behind faithfully recorded the entire scene.

【Are they… talking?】

【Animals of different species can communicate too, you know.】

【Well, yeah. She probably chats with sea creatures too at this point.】

【Am I the only one dying to know what they’re talking about? The thylacine looks super nervous and weird.】

...

When Lin Qianyu came back, she was carrying an entire lamb leg. “This is for you—it should be enough for all of you.”

Bullet comments: 【???】

Historically, thylacines were solitary animals. Since this thylacine-like creature resembled them so closely, it was assumed to be solitary too.

Lin Qianyu saying “enough for all of you” didn’t quite add up, especially after viewers did some research online.

But Lin Qianyu, focused on feeding the animal, didn’t rush to clarify. She simply held out the lamb leg and said, “Head back now, it’s going to get dark soon.”

With her gentle prompting, the thylacine came out. It didn’t even glance at the lamb leg—just stepped forward and gently rubbed against her wrist.This was a bit beyond Lin Qianyu’s expectations. She didn’t have time to react—her fingertips paused, and the thylacine-like creature’s movements also froze.

Seeing that Lin Qianyu didn’t respond, the thylacine-like creature slowly resumed rubbing against her, as if making some kind of resolve. It gently bit onto her sleeve. “Woo…”

Author’s note: Good night, sleep early, love every one of you.