Chapter 81

Chapter 81

【Look at the white lion’s eyes hahaha, so flustered.】

After wiping the white lion’s paws clean, Lin Qianyu washed and wrung out the towel and hung it on one side of the white lion’s wooden house wall, so it would be easy to use next time to wipe the paws.

Lin Qianyu stretched her limbs. “Alright… next is to make the yard.”

The green plants she planted last time beside the house had survived; the leaves on top were tender green, though a few at the bottom were withered yellow, which she would just pluck off when transplanting—no big problem.

Lin Qianyu held a short wooden board for fixing the boundary. “No need to dig pits for the white lion’s place.”

When she dug pits before, it was to raise the interior height of the house and because the cubs could be placed inside, and they wouldn’t run around if it was a bit elevated.

The white lion didn’t have such concerns at all.

If the white lion didn’t like the wooden house that was almost the same size as hers, Lin Qianyu thought the decorative yard was optional.

The wooden boards were cut from a whole log top to bottom, varying in thickness. Since it was cylindrical, the boards near the edges naturally got smaller.

But arranged from big to small in order, it looked pretty good.

“This yard is just for landscaping; the fence is just symbolic—just has to look nice.” Lin Qianyu picked up a wooden board, the lower part already cut into an inverted triangle shape, “Make it like this and just stick it directly into the soil so it won’t fall over.”

Starting beside the wooden house, she set the boundary of the yard and placed the next board.

Lin Qianyu hammered the boards deeper into the ground, watching the half-finished fence in front, “Actually, at this height, the prairie wolf cubs probably can’t jump out either.”

Just looking at the boards, she thought the fence would look much shorter after being buried, but when hammered in and fixed solidly, the boards sticking out were still a bit higher than her calves.

The prairie wolf cubs would have to stand on the edge and stretch their front paws to try to jump.

But at the same height, the white lion didn’t need to jump—just stepped over it directly.

The white lion lay inside, watching Lin Qianyu gradually fence it in with the wooden boards, without any sense of being confined. Instead, it leisurely stretched, rolled over with its belly up, and rested its front paws on the edge of the fence.

Right under Lin Qianyu’s eyes, her hand paused while knocking on the boards, then reached out to grab the furry white paw and gently rubbed it.

The white lion’s front paw instinctively curled around, as if holding a small flying animal, clutching Lin Qianyu’s hand, but not tightly.

Lin Qianyu leaned down and, when pulling back her hand, scratched behind the white lion’s neck. Looking up at her, the white lion’s neck was completely exposed.

Positions like the neck and belly—where attacks could be fatal—whether large beasts or small animals, are always carefully protected, never exposing these parts.

The white lion clearly made no defense against Lin Qianyu.

“Alright, you go play by yourself first. I’ll finish this and plant the green plants earlier.” Lin Qianyu touched the white lion’s brow with her fingertips. “You can eat all these plants—they help with hairballs.”

The white lion was so clean. When grooming itself, its barbed tongue probably dragged a lot of fur into its mouth.

But in the few times they met, Lin Qianyu never saw the white lion spit out hair, so it must eat this grass by itself.

Now that the plants were directly planted in the yard, the white lion could eat whenever it wanted by just stepping outside.

To avoid the boards tilting and misaligning during hammering, Lin Qianyu first stuck the boards into the ground to fix the position without pressing too firmly, then hammered them one by one.

“Should I tie a rope around it? Would it look better?” Lin Qianyu arranged them quite tightly with few gaps and just murmured to herself before giving up—the fence already looked good, and adding rope would be cumbersome.

“Woo…” The white lion rolled over, lay down, and licked its paw. Just then, a wooden board beside it suddenly fell.

One board fell, then the second, then a domino effect knocked down a whole row with clattering sounds.The white lion’s eyes widened a bit, its ears flattened back, and without a word, it stood up and rushed to the back, trying to lift the paw but only managed to support the last fallen board.

Then the board slipped from its paw, and even the last one fell.

White lion: “!!!”

“Woo!” The white lion’s mouth opened slightly, lowering its head to look at the boards and then at Lin Qianyu. It raised its paw and then put it down, signaling Lin Qianyu to look quickly.

【Look at the white lion’s eyes hahaha, so flustered.】

【It’s okay, baby, it’s all because it couldn’t stand steadily, nothing to do with you.】

【The anxious white lion almost spoke.】

“It’s fine.” Lin Qianyu smiled calmly, without any rush, first leisurely knocking the board in her hand properly, “Let’s just leave it like this for now. I’ll hammer it down again later.”

The white lion pawed slowly, propping the boards back up. After fixing one, it went to push another, but the one in front immediately fell. The white lion turned back to support the first one again, pressing a board with each paw, but that was all the paws it had.

Lin Qianyu finished hammering the part in her hand and saw the white lion rolling around in the sun off to the side. Looking up, she saw the white lion had pinned itself in place.

She stifled a laugh, got up, went over, and hammered the two boards the white lion was holding in to free it.

“It’s not your fault.” Lin Qianyu smoothed the white lion’s mane and rubbed it gently. “They’re just unstable themselves, a breeze can knock them over.”

Maybe when the white lion rolled earlier, it caused a gust that knocked down the already unstable boards one by one.

Lin Qianyu hammered all the remaining boards in, leaving a gap in the middle as a door, no need to make a wooden door to close it, just leave it open.

“This whole area will be planted with greenery.” Lin Qianyu dug up the green plants she had planted last time and replanted them in the yard near the fence edge. Soon a small patch grew.

The yard itself was just surrounded by grassland without digging pits, so the greenery matched naturally.

“All done.” Lin Qianyu clapped her hands with soil on them. “Just need a door.”

The white lion came over to sniff the plants.

Lin Qianyu raised her hand, resting her elbow on the white lion’s head. “I’ll go chop some wood to make the door.”

After saying this, she was about to get up, but the white lion bit the hem of her clothes first. “Woo!”

“Hm? You know where there’s suitable wood for a door?” The white lion acted like it wanted to lead her somewhere. Lin Qianyu followed a few steps toward that direction. “Alright, alright, I’ll go with you. Be good, let go of my clothes.”

That was all she had on.

The white lion let go of her clothes and ran a short distance, carrying out a low tree.

The branches and leaves on that tree hadn’t all fallen yet. The broken end felt dry, so it must have been gathered from somewhere else.

“Did you collect wood again?” Lin Qianyu picked up the low tree. It looked only slightly thicker than bamboo, about the thickness of an adult wrist, with jagged edges as if it had been broken by impact.

Lin Qianyu pulled out the low tree as if something was hanging on it and gave a strong tug, pulling out another tree.

Seeing this, she first put down the low tree in her hand and, holding a tree trunk with one hand, peeked inside, “...So many?”

Behind the tree were many low trees crisscrossed and stacked together. From the broken ends, they were all broken in the same way. Because of the branches and leaves, stacking them created height, making the quantity look quite large.

Pulling them out one by one, except for one very short one, there were seven trees of suitable length.

Lin Qianyu stretched her index finger and thumb across to measure the diameter of one tree. “If we only make one door, we won’t need this many.”“Ao!”

“Build a house? The house is already done.”

The white lion let out a low whimper.

“Another one? Build another wooden house?” Lin Qianyu smiled, poking the mane on the lion’s neck, her fingertips buried deep in it. “Yours is already enlarged, enough for you to roll around inside.”

The white lion lowered its head to lick, but couldn’t reach Lin Qianyu’s hand, so it gave up and instead rubbed against Lin Qianyu’s shoulder. “Woo…”

Together.

Lin Qianyu’s upward-curved lips paused, she was stunned for a moment before realizing, “You collected this wood again, wanting to build a wooden house for me too?”

【Me too?!!】

【Really? The white lion, before my best friend died, wanted to see me move into a wooden house on the grassland island, build me a house, and listen to our stories.】

【Look, look! Sister Lin is still hesitating about moving, but the white lion is already preparing building materials for you!】

【Woo woo... move, move, live together.】

The white lion was still enthusiastically carrying and pulling out trees.

Seeing this, Lin Qianyu picked a few and helped carry them, “Let’s first make the door; the rest can wait. Even if we move, the wooden house needs to be built first.”

The workload was still quite big, not something that could be settled quickly.

Since joining the variety show, Lin Qianyu had made many types of doors. With practice, tying ropes and making wooden walls became easy and almost took no time, only waiting for the outer layer of mud to dry was time-consuming.

“This door needs to be pushed carefully; it’s not very sturdy.” Lin Qianyu wiped the mud off the rope outside, leaving a small part movable. If it were fully sealed with mud, the door would be hard to open, and pushing it would cause mud to fall, which would be troublesome.

Lin Qianyu left the door half open, saying, “After the show ends, I’ll replace it with hinges, then use mud and cement to reinforce it, so you won’t need to be so careful.”

If she had the right tools, Lin Qianyu could easily build a two-story wooden house from scratch.

However, besides wood, other materials were just substitutes for building supplies, and from a safety perspective, Lin Qianyu didn’t have much room to fully show her skills.

After working for most of the day, Lin Qianyu sat down to rest and saw the white lion repeatedly carrying wood over, placing it in the yard’s open space.

Without asking, Lin Qianyu already knew what the white lion wanted to do, “There’s not enough wood to build another house. Don’t rush, take it slow. Come in and rest first, I’ll build it later.”

What she said was true — these trees were suitable for doors, but a bit too thin for building a house.

She reached out to pull the white lion closer, dropping the wood from its mouth. The white lion rolled over to sit up, but Lin Qianyu put her hand on its belly and rubbed it. Her fingertips curled and spread like a comb, stroking its fur rhythmically.

The white lion didn’t resist and lay down along with the stroking.

While stroking the fur, Lin Qianyu couldn’t help but bury herself in the pure white fur.

The white lion grew drowsy, feeling something fall on it. Once it noticed it was Lin Qianyu, it curled up, lifted a paw onto her leg, then continued to sleep.

Lin Qianyu wasn’t sleepy originally, but lying on the white lion like this, listening to its gentle breathing and the soft purring from its throat, she too gradually felt drowsy.

So she simply lay down, stroked the white lion’s fur, and rested her head on it to sleep.

For a while, the room was filled only with calm breathing and the faint breathing sounds from the white lion’s throat.

— They slept straight until evening.The temperature hadn’t dropped, it wasn’t too cold yet.

Especially with the warm heater nearby, Lin Qianyu even felt like she was waking up from the heat.

The white lion woke up too. Lin Qianyu stretched and said, “Mm… I should go back now.”

“Roar!”

The white lion refused.

Lin Qianyu curved her eyes and coaxed it in a familiar way: “There’s nothing here, I can’t live here. Once the house is built in a few days, I’ll bring the little wolves and the others to move over.”

The white lion stared at the grass beneath it, its pale blue beast eyes unblinking for a moment, lost in thought.

Lin Qianyu cupped the white lion’s head and rubbed it hard, forcibly pulling it out of its steady thoughts. “Wait until I pack up, once everything’s ready, then we’ll move.”

“Woo…”

Mm.

When she got up to leave, Lin Qianyu realized something was missing. “Eh, where’s my livestream equipment?”

She looked around, sticking her head out. It wasn’t floating in the air, nor hanging from the branches, nowhere in sight.

Lin Qianyu narrowed her eyes, trying to remember where she put the equipment before sleeping, but after thinking for a long time, she had no recollection. “Hm?”

The chat was filled with messages like “Help” and “Save me.”

No one mentioned where the livestream equipment was.

While Lin Qianyu was pondering whether her watch could rewind to check the livestream playback,

The white lion raised a paw and kicked something out.

The livestream device spun on the ground and hit Lin Qianyu’s foot.

【Anyone else confused? It was pitch dark when I logged in, I thought I was stuck again.】

【Be glad you didn’t get tackled by the white lion on camera.】

【Is this the perspective of prey targeted by the white lion… tense and thrilling, recommend cutting and replaying.】

“I thought I lost it. Is the battery dead? How did it fall?” Lin Qianyu picked up the livestream device and patted it. She often switched targets for tracking.

Earlier, when she came out, she didn’t see the livestream equipment and thought she might have set the target to another furry thing and forgot to switch back.

But when she turned it on, the battery was full, solar charging had never stopped.

So… Lin Qianyu glanced at the white lion and blinked.

The white lion stepped back and crouched. When their eyes met, it seemed it couldn’t read the meaning behind Lin Qianyu’s gaze, so it got up, shook its fur, and decisively jumped out of the fence.

It was already time to go hunting.

Lin Qianyu glanced down to check the camera, then looked up and saw the white lion had disappeared.

She chuckled and reset the livestream device to smart follow mode. “Alright, looks like the white lion doesn’t know what’s going on. Let’s go home.”

Zhuifeng lay under a nearby tree, in front of him a dangling broken branch on the tree, apparently asleep deeply.Lin Qianyu walked over. “Zhuifeng? He’s gone.”

The zebra blinked its eyes, having fallen asleep halfway through eating, with leaves still in its mouth.

Hearing Lin Qianyu was leaving, it stood up and shook its head. “Hui…” it called weakly.

Seeing this, Lin Qianyu couldn’t help but chuckle lightly and asked, “Are you tired from eating?”

By now Zhuifeng had recovered, snorted through his nose, and happily ran out.

Lin Qianyu had just woken up and didn’t feel like riding, so she just followed behind, walking slowly to wake up.

...

“Chiu!”

“Chiu chiu!”

The chaotic bird calls came, sharp and piercing, making Lin Qianyu pause. “What kind of bird is that?”

The call sounded so strange.

There was a bit of an unfamiliar feeling.

And the calls were urgent, as if calling out: “Is there any animal? Is there any animal?” Before seeing the birds themselves, she already heard their calls.

After a while, the continuously calling birds finally revealed themselves.

Lin Qianyu raised an eyebrow. “Honeyguide?”

【Class rep is here! It should be a kind of honeyguide (liè). Honeyguides is a general term, including four genera and fourteen species, gray-green in color, similar in size to swallows.】

【I remember these only exist in Africa, I think.】

【Wake up, sis, guess where the thylacine is found?】

...

“The honeyguide was mainly distributed in Africa and a few in South Asia. It was previously thought there was no such species in China, but later researchers found the yellow-waist honeyguide in Tibet, overturning that assumption.”

Lin Qianyu squinted. The dusk light wasn’t glaring, but she didn’t want to look directly at the sun, so she raised her hand to shield her eyes. “Honeyguides lead people to find beehives.”

“After they discover a beehive, they choose to cooperate with other animals, such as black bears and honey badgers. Once these animals break the hive and eat their fill, the honeyguides enjoy the leftover honey and hive.”

“Cooperation with humans works the same way. After people take the honey, they leave some for the honeyguide as thanks. In some primitive African tribes, honeyguides hold a high status.”

Lin Qianyu watched the honeyguides flying back and forth. “They must have found a beehive now and are looking for companions to help get the food.”

She thought about it—since the first variety show ended, she hadn’t really eaten much honey. Most of the sweet stuff at home was given to the little bears, including honey.

Since there were few seasonings, using honey as sugar wasn’t a bad idea.

Lin Qianyu said, “How about… we go take a look?”

She was just about to speak to the honeyguides when a honey badger suddenly darted out first. The bird calls paused briefly, it swooped down to peck at the badger, and before the badger could react, it turned and flew off into the distance.

The badger didn’t hesitate and chased after it.

Lin Qianyu raised her eyebrow. “Looks like there’s no honey left. Let’s go check out the commotion.”

It was a good chance to see where the honeyguides had found the honey. One hive could mean there might be another, and maybe they’d encounter more beehives.

The honey badger, known in the Guinness World Records as the “most fearless animal in the world,” noticed humans following and immediately stopped, drifting on one hind leg and spinning to face Lin Qianyu.

“On the way,” Lin Qianyu said, pointing ahead. “I mean you no harm, just want to take a look over there.”

The honey badger, nicknamed “Pingtouge,” could almost be described as “arrogant.”

It wasn’t afraid to confront lions and leopards on the grasslands. Although it couldn’t really defeat leopards or lions in a fight, it could hold its own against them for several hours.

Most small animals, following nature, have dark backs and light-colored bellies to hide from predators.

But the honey badger did the opposite — its back was usually silver-gray or gray-white, swaggering around without any disguise, boldly provoking enemies.

Hearing Lin Qianyu’s words, the honey badger’s eyes shifted as it cautiously observed her, glancing around to find who was speaking.

The honeyguide that had flown off returned, pecked the honey badger’s head while it hesitated.

The honey badger instantly lost interest in Lin Qianyu and turned to chase after the bird.

Lin Qianyu raised her hand to call Zhuifeng. “Be careful following behind, don’t get spotted.”

Zhuifeng opened his mouth, but Lin Qianyu quickly covered it. He stomped his foot but didn’t make a sound to cheer himself on and caught up with the fast-running honey badger.

With a small animal leading the way, Lin Qianyu realized this island was truly something else.

She thought she had nearly finished walking, but unexpectedly there was a patch of forest here much denser than near the rescue station villa.

The honeyguides stopped beside the palm trees inside.

At that moment, the honey badger also noticed the beehive hidden under the palm leaves.

To the honey badger, honey was the most delicious thing in the world, and this hive instantly captured all its attention.

Lin Qianyu dismounted early and found a hidden spot to hide.

Fortunately, the trees were thick here, so without careful observation, no one would notice her.

The honey badger had already started attacking the hive.

Its skin was thick, so bee stings were just a mild irritation. Its ears were sealed shut during the attack, preventing bees from entering its body, allowing it to enjoy the sweet honey without worry.

The honey badger ate its fill; the bees couldn’t harm it.

Eating the hive was like eating some dense, soft cake — holding a big sweet pie and eating it.

Zhuifeng sniffed; this scent was new and unfamiliar to him.

Zhuifeng had eaten many things he hadn’t seen before near Lin Qianyu, but honey still piqued his curiosity.

Lin Qianyu put her hand on Zhuifeng’s head and pressed him back when he tried to poke his face out. “If I get the chance, I’ll get some honey for you to try.”

She covered Zhuifeng’s mouth as she spoke.

If the bees couldn’t bother the honey badger but found her and the zebra hiding here, they might come at her directly.

One or two stings wouldn’t be fatal, but many could pose a serious threat to life.

Besides, even if the stings weren’t deadly, the swelling and pain would be very uncomfortable.Lin Qianyu didn’t want to try it, so she cut off the possibility of the bees discovering her and the zebra from the start.

【Pingtouge is eating so deliciously, is honeycomb honey really that tasty?】

【I’ve bought some online, tastes just so-so.】

【Wild honey is very nutritious; maybe this kind of pure wild honeycomb honey tastes really good.】

…

The honey badger ate quickly, and when it was almost done, it just left the rest on the ground without any intention of packing it up.

That was for the honeyguides.

After it finished and was cleaning its fur, Lin Qianyu quietly poked Zhuifeng, thumb pointing backward, signaling him to leave quietly.

The smart zebra immediately understood. While Lin Qianyu carefully crouched forward, Zhuifeng kept all four legs on the ground and crawled slowly in a not-so-awkward posture.

She glanced back and noticed Zhuifeng crawling seriously.

Zhuifeng was crawling hard when he noticed Lin Qianyu’s gaze, then raised his head to give her a reassuring look, then continued crawling with effort.

Lin Qianyu: “…”

Why don’t you just stand up and run?

For a moment, she couldn’t tell which was more embarrassing — being stung by bees or crawling like this.

Fortunately, after not crawling long, they got out of the honey badger’s range. Lin Qianyu stood up and smoothed the wrinkles in her clothes.

Zhuifeng still looked like he wasn’t done playing.

Lin Qianyu slowly raised her hand. Zhuifeng instantly stood up with a sharp glance, “Hui!”

Such a silly look.

“Let’s go.” Lin Qianyu sighed, “It’s already dark.”

Hearing this, Zhuifeng immediately turned and dashed off, the zebra speeding up in an instant, its tail swishing a blurred shadow in front of Lin Qianyu’s eyes.

Lin Qianyu: “???”

【Pfft— hahaha, Zhuifeng, do you want to turn back and see who you left behind!】

【This fool, when the little wolves can’t see Sister Lin back home, won’t they chase you all over the grassland?】

Author’s note: Seems like the limit is around 26-27 thousand words, hitting 30k daily is so hard. I’ll aim for second place or third. This chapter was posted late; the next chapter probably can’t be finished by midnight. I’ll stay up writing it; babes, read it when you wake up~ [Honeyguide and honey badger related content sourced online.]

Good night, sleep early, love you all.