Chapter 69

Chapter 69

Is This White Lion a Cub from a Normal Lion Pride?

【Aaaaah it’s a white lion!?】

【Help help help——! It’s way too beautiful! How did this lion grow straight into my heart like that?】

【This island is literally my dream paradise—how does it even have a white lion!?】

【Say no more. Let’s crowdfund a plane and air-drop ourselves onto the island. DM me if you're interested.】

…

The white lion was completely unaware of the gazes from the floor above and continued swaggering through the woods with the log in its mouth.

It was a full-length tree trunk, not too thick, a bit on the slim side. No one knew how the white lion had brought it down. Now it carried it in its mouth, with some roots still dangling from the lower end. On the way, the log had scraped against the ground and most of the soil had already rubbed off.

The lion held it very steadily, moving forward slowly. Every step carried the domineering air of a king surveying the world—as if it weren’t carrying a piece of wood but freshly caught prey.

Compared to the central part of the island, the trees here were more numerous and denser. But as a small woodland area, the spacing between each tree was still relatively generous.

As the white lion walked along, the log eventually got stuck between two trees. The moment it struck both trunks, the lion paused.

It took a few steps back and tried to push forward again.

But it was still firmly wedged between the two trees.

The white lion clenched the log harder in its jaws and rammed forward—but was bounced back a couple of steps by the solid trees.

“Grr…” A low warning growl rumbled from its throat. With the white lion’s natural intimidation, any animal capable of movement and hearing would’ve likely backed off instantly.

Unfortunately, it was just two big trees.

There was no way for them to respond.

So, the white lion bit down on the log again and rammed forward once more, pushing the trunk hard against the two trees.

After a brief standoff, the log in its mouth started making a brittle cracking sound. With a sharp “crack,” one end of the tree trunk broke off.

Now missing a chunk, the white lion stared blankly for a moment, then lowered the trunk to inspect it. After glancing around briefly, it picked up the log again and strode forward without a second thought. Now that the broken trunk was a more manageable size, it continued on without further obstruction.

Lin Qianyu: “……”

Bo Zhao: “?”

【???】

【Its brain might not bend, but it's got strength!】

Lin Qianyu couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle. It really was quite strong—and it could use that strength in a surprisingly versatile way.

She was upstairs, and her laugh was very light, but the white lion’s senses were sharp. Its ears twitched back slightly. It looked up, and upon seeing someone above, it awkwardly stepped back a couple of paces. Its tail swayed side to side behind it, and its paws scuffed at the ground a few times.

Lin Qianyu thought—it might be trying to find a crack to crawl into.

Seeing her laughing nonstop, the white lion seemed to let out a faint, almost inaudible humph, then turned away and left with the log in its mouth.

Bo Zhao: “Why… why did it pick that thing up?”

It was clearly an old, long-dead tree. The bark was far drier than that of any fresh tree.The tree bark didn’t really matter—the main thing was, the white lion didn’t eat wood or bark. And yet it went through all that trouble to carry the log away, which left people quite puzzled.

Lin Qianyu shook her head. She couldn’t guess either. “Maybe it’s useful for something.”

With the brief appearance and then departure of the white lion, the livestream chat was flooded with discussions about it.

Judging by the mane around its neck, this was a male white lion. But typically, people were more used to tawny-colored lions. Even when their coloring varied, it usually remained within shades of brown and yellow.

Even though people knew white lions existed in the world, seeing one so suddenly still felt rare and surprising.

Noticing the comments, Lin Qianyu explained, “What we’re seeing now isn’t a primitive species of lion, but rather a coat color variation caused by a rare genetic mutation—a kind of atavism.”

“Some research suggests that white lions are ancient breeds, and they didn’t live on the savannah. Long ago, they were native to regions like the Arctic, areas perpetually covered in ice and snow.”

“Because white fur was better suited for that kind of environment, helping them blend in for hunting. But as the ages changed, the era of white lion prides came to an end, and wild white lions disappeared.”

She paused and took a sip of water before continuing: “That said, the genes for white fur still exist in a small number of today’s tawny lions. The white lions we see nowadays are all born into ordinary lion prides—tawny lions giving birth to white cubs.”

“The probability is very low, but I’ve heard that there are specialized breeding centers for white lions overseas.”

However…

Lions now mainly live on the savannah, and the white coloring of these lions makes it much harder for them to hunt—they’re easier to spot.

White is the most conspicuous color in the wild. Many wild white lion cubs don’t receive proper care and fail to grow up.

Even if they grow up, they face real difficulties hunting effectively.

Something occurred to Lin Qianyu, and she turned to look at Bo Zhao with a teasing tone: “Is this white lion a cub from an ordinary pride? Or is it…”

A primitive species?

She knew perfectly well that was impossible. The existence of ancient white lion prides was still only speculative among experts.

And even if they did exist, they would have long become history—otherwise there’d definitely be international discussions surrounding white lions.

Her question was just a playful jab, considering how powerful the island owner seemed.

She was waiting for Bo Zhao to refute her, but instead, he rubbed his nose and didn’t answer directly.

“?”

Sometimes, the lack of a firm response was an answer.

Lin Qianyu’s smiling eyes gradually widened at Bo Zhao’s hesitation. Her lips parted slightly before she let out a drawn-out, “…Ah?”

Barrage comments:

【???】

【W-What’s going on?!】

【Is it what I think it is? Please don’t—don’t go there! If this keeps up I’m seriously going to come with a knife and interrogate the island owner about the whereabouts of dinosaurs.】

【I seriously suspect the island owner is secretly hiding a bunch of supposedly extinct animals.】

【Am I the only one really curious about the island owner’s background? Are foreign authorities really just this chill about all of this???】

…

As the barrage veered further and further off-topic—

“Ahem.” Bo Zhao composed his expression and laughed, “Of course it’s a white lion born from a normal pride due to a gene mutation. Look how scared you got.”Lin Qianyu was silent for a moment. She glanced at Bo Zhao but didn’t respond.

Bo Zhao, who had laughed to the end, gave a couple of dry coughs and then smiled at her, discreetly blinking.

What else was there for Lin Qianyu not to understand?

She set down her cup and changed the subject without a trace: “Do you know that white lion?”

Since it had come all the way to the rescue center to pick up a wooden stick, the white lion must be quite familiar with the area.

Wild animals don’t approach human habitats easily. Even if a human tent appears in their territory, they’re extremely cautious when getting close.

For a white lion, buildings like those at the rescue center would be enormous and dangerous structures.

For it to walk along the edge so casually—it clearly wasn’t its first time.

However, Bo Zhao shook his head. “It’s the first time I’ve seen it too. I only knew there was a white lion on the island, but its territory isn’t near here. That lion had already left its pride early on. Since I started working here, this is the first time I’ve seen it in person.”

Perhaps thinking that wasn’t a complete enough explanation, Bo Zhao added, “After leaving the pride, it rarely showed up on camera.”

So… why had the white lion suddenly appeared here, and done such odd things? It was certainly strange.

Lin Qianyu said, “Let’s keep observing. Maybe it’ll come back next time.”

While she had been looking out the window at the white lion, the elevator had already gone up and come back down.

“Let’s go, back to the ward.”

“Okay.”

Late at night.

Lin Qianyu wrapped her coat around herself and cradled the grey marsupial wolf that had just finished its IV treatment.

The wind was still strong at night. Maybe animals didn’t care about such things, but Lin Qianyu always felt that being sick meant you couldn’t afford to catch a chill.

The driver left after dropping them off.

Lin Qianyu brought the marsupial wolf back inside and placed it where it had rested the night before. “One more IV tomorrow—if everything looks fine, there won’t be a need for more.”

“Woo…” The grey marsupial wolf curled up in the corner, groggily opening its eyes just a sliver, rubbing its lower jaw against her palm.

It had slept a lot today, and it didn’t really want to sleep again now. But the medication was still making it drowsy, and it unknowingly dozed off in Lin Qianyu’s palm.

“You’ll get better soon. Just hang in there a bit more, okay?” Lin Qianyu could sense the marsupial wolf’s struggle. She sat down, cupping its head in her hand, gently smoothing over its head, her fingers softly massaging its ears.

The grey marsupial wolf kept its eyes closed, as if already asleep. After a long while, it let out a soft murmur.

So faint it was quickly drowned out by the wind outside.

But Lin Qianyu still caught it. She smiled, pulled the nearby blanket over to cover it, and carefully rested its little furry head on the yellow marsupial wolf.

Outside, the wolf cub and leopard cub were both awake. Their sleeping patterns were irregular—they didn’t need to hunt at night or sleep during the day.

At home, they slept when tired, ate when hungry, and napped again when worn out from playing. Without predators stalking them and no need to constantly hide and be cautious, life couldn’t be more carefree.

Still, they weren’t noisy.

Wild cubs learn early on that the louder they are, the more likely they’ll draw predators' attention.

Only when they saw Lin Qianyu would they come running with little howls, trying to climb onto her.But after all that effort, only two of the cheetah cubs would manage to succeed.

Having had the experience of standing on Lin Qianyu’s shoulders once before, they now climbed up with practiced ease, even skillfully avoiding her hanging hair.

But before they could steady themselves, Lin Qianyu plucked them off—one with each hand.

The adult cheetah had returned with prey and had just leapt onto a rock when it immediately saw the two cubs twisting around like pretzels in Lin Qianyu’s hands.

“You’re back.” Lin Qianyu tucked the cheetah cubs into her arms and brought them over. “The wolf cubs went out hunting. I’ve already skinned it, you can eat the meat first.”

The cheetah had brought back an antelope, smaller than itself in size.

But even the smallest hide still counted as hide—after all, enough scraps add up.

The small bits of fur could be used to line the baskets, and the cubs loved them. A few soft layers stacked inside made cozy bedding.

Lin Qianyu removed the innards and tossed them aside. Dou Dou didn’t like organs—it had always avoided them with previous prey. It clearly preferred leg meat.

Maybe it tasted better.

Lin Qianyu sliced off two strips from the leg and chopped the fallen meat into small pieces for the cubs.

Each of the cheetah and wolf cubs got their own share.

Smelling the scent of blood, the wolf cubs in the shallow pit perked up and started peeking out, little paws reaching up and scrabbling at the edge.

All the adult grassland wolves were out.

Lin Qianyu didn’t dare bring the cubs up—night was deep, and with their fur colors, it was hard to see clearly.

If even one cub slipped away while she wasn’t watching, it’d be nearly impossible to find again.

Leaving them in the shallow pit was the safest option.

“Come eat, shhh… keep it down, okay?” The marsupial wolves were still sleeping inside.

Lin Qianyu placed the meat along the edge of the courtyard, lining it up in a row so they wouldn’t knock over the bowls while crowding.

Though eager, the wolf cubs were very well-behaved. As Lin Qianyu set down the first, second, and eventually the last coconut bowl, the cubs only peeked over the sides, not eating yet.

Lin Qianyu called, “Alright, go ahead and eat.”

“Awooo!”

As soon as she said that, the wolf cubs surged forward all at once—bumping and pushing like a pile of little fluffy balls crowding around the bowls.

The marsupial wolves and the little wolf had already eaten back at the rescue center.

The grey marsupial wolf had eaten a specially prepared medicinal meal—meat treated through a special process and infused with medicine.

The wolf cub’s food was a blend of three types of fresh meat, including a whole chicken.

To keep the wolf cubs from dirtying their fur bedding while eating, Lin Qianyu had lined the bottom of the coconut bowls with thick palm leaves.

The meat portions were divided into several servings, so the cubs wouldn’t have to crowd.

Once everything was in place, Lin Qianyu clapped the dust from her hands. Seeing the blood on her fingertips in the dim light, she decided to head to the lake to wash up. “There are so many fish here.”

The wooden spike barrier she’d set in the water earlier had already trapped quite a few fish.The smell of blood in the air also caught the attention of the fish in the lake. They seemed to sense it and turned their heads but couldn’t locate any actual meat.

Lin Qianyu had only eaten wild fruits today. After getting busy in the afternoon, she hadn’t eaten anything else. Now, looking at the fish in the lake, she rolled up her sleeves higher, submerging half her arm into the water.

She was using the scent of blood on her hand to lure the fish over.

However... the fish underwater seemed a little slow-witted. Her hand was right there, but the fish just crowded around, pushing and bumping into each other, unable to pinpoint where exactly the scent was coming from.

【Pfft hahaha can these fish really be eaten? Won’t it affect your intelligence if you do?】

【This actually relates to a very interesting biological phenomenon. You know the Pythagorean Theorem, right? Yeah, this has nothing to do with that.】

【Good grief, listening to that was like… listening to nothing at all.】

In the middle of the night, Lin Qianyu didn’t have the patience to wait for a fish to bite.

With so many fish in the lake, she simply watched for one that surfaced and opened its mouth, then snatched it up just as it exhaled.

A single fish was lifted from the water, and the rest scattered instantly, tails flicking as they darted away from the lake’s edge.

Right by the lake, she cleaned the fish, rinsed it, then turned to skewer it on a branch for roasting.

The cheetah had only eaten a portion of the antelope it brought back. Surprisingly, the cheetah cub didn’t eat the bite-sized pieces of meat Lin Qianyu had prepared for it. Instead, it found a spot beside Dou Dou and began gnawing bit by bit on the whole antelope with its tiny teeth.

Lin Qianyu smiled. Gnawing more was good practice for building strong teeth.

She watched the cub take a big “rawr” bite with great effort, but from her angle, she couldn’t even see a tooth mark on the meat afterward.

The adult cheetah clearly noticed the cub’s struggle. It glanced at the coconut bowl nearby, licked its lips, then tore off a big chunk of meat and tossed it toward the cub.

Smack — the two little cheetahs trying so hard to eat got hit square on by the falling slab of meat.

“???”

The cubs were completely stunned.

Dou Dou was quite generous with food, and precisely because of that, the chunk it tore off was big enough to completely bury the two cubs underneath it.

“Ah rawr?”

One of the cubs licked the blood off its face, knocked over on its back by the impact, its paw still resting on the meat as it clamped down with its teeth.

Lin Qianyu, after placing the fish over the fire, came over to lift the meat off the two little cheetahs. Being so fresh, the meat had stained them with plenty of blood.

In the dim light, it was hard to tell their color clearly, but some tufts of fur on their bellies were visibly stringy and wet with blood.

Bathing them like that wasn’t going to be easy, so Lin Qianyu settled for wiping them down. The rest would be up to their own grooming.

While being wiped, the cubs were still enthusiastically gnawing on the meat.

It probably wasn’t hunger that drove them, but playfulness. After all, the meat in the bowls was already cut into small, chewable pieces. The cubs likely just enjoyed the sensation of biting something. So she let them chew away.

The fire crackled with the occasional pop and crack.

Sitting by the fire, Lin Qianyu bit into the fish’s back—crispy and flavorful, with tender meat. “I feel like whether it’s fish from the lake or the sea here, they all taste great. Might be due to the water quality?”

No matter how you cook it, just a bit of salt makes it delicious.

A fish didn’t have much meat anyway, and Lin Qianyu didn’t want a heavy dinner, so she didn’t bother pairing it with wild fruit tonight."The little wolves went out hunting—why aren't they back yet?" Lin Qianyu poked at the campfire, the light before her flickering.

She looked around. Having waited a while without seeing the pack return and hearing no animal calls nearby, she figured they must have gone hunting far away.

With the young wolves out for the night, Lin Qianyu sat for a while without feeling sleepy. She stood up, doused the fire, and set the fishbone-skewered stick onto the ashes.

She said, "Dou Dou, I'm going to look for the little wolves."

The cheetah had stopped eating. More than half of the antelope was gone, though a good amount of meat still remained.

It lay on its side grooming itself, occasionally glancing at the little cheetah cubs still wrestling with the meat. Hearing her speak, it paused mid-lick and gave a soft growl, "Mew-rawr!"

"Good boy." Lin Qianyu went over and gave its paw pad a squeeze. She filled a coconut bowl with some water—just a tilt of the head would be enough to drink, no need to walk to the lake. "I'm off."

"Whuu."

...

Lin Qianyu brought a flashlight and a backpack, spraying insect repellent on her clothes.

Insects at night were drawn to light. Without repellent, the flashlight would have been swarmed.

She dimmed the flashlight to its lowest setting, the beam casting only a soft glow ahead. She followed the path where the wolf pack had departed.

After only a few steps, she heard a noise behind her. Raising an eyebrow and turning her head, she spotted a zebra trying to nibble at the shrubs.

"Chasing Wind?" Lin Qianyu waved a leaf in front of its nose. "Do you know where the little wolves are? Can you track their scent?"

The zebra tilted its head. "Nnnhee?!"

Hmm… judging by that expression, it probably couldn’t track by scent.

"Alright then." Finding the wolves would be up to her.

Lin Qianyu flicked the flashlight under her chin and squinted. "Wanna come with?"

The upward glow cast eerie shadows across her face. The zebra immediately took a few steps back, startled—but it only lasted a moment. It rolled its eyes upward, then stepped forward again.

Lin Qianyu chuckled and caught up, giving its back a slap. "Did you just roll your eyes at me?"

The zebra haughtily raised its head and refused to look at her.

Lin Qianyu picked up her pace, placing a hand around its neck. She was just about to speak again when—

Chasing Wind suddenly recoiled, giving her a side-eyed look of alarm. "Nnhee!"

【Hahahahaha, Chasing Wind: I roll my eyes once and now you're gonna end me?!】

【Suddenly remembered when Sister Lin hunted the sheep. Trauma unlocked.】

【One moment: The zebra shall never be tamed! Next moment: Sis—Sister Lin, please, let’s talk this out.】

【Title: “Two-Faced”】

Author's note: 【All data and information regarding the white lion is sourced from the internet.】

This chapter is a bit short. There'll be another one during the day. No set time for that update—still asking for those precious nutrient fluids.

Good night, sleep early, love to every one of you.