Ever since he found out that the little female leopard was his sister, the clouded leopard abandoned his usual carefree ways, coming in to check in promptly each day, staying by the window night and day.
Little Jin felt sorry for him, and even offered up his own cat bed, allowing him to sleep beneath the loft, before waking to go upstairs to see his sister.
The three fluffy creatures lay side by side in the corridor, the clouded leopard in the middle, with Jinya and Little Jin on either side.
"Don't worry, your sister will definitely be alright. I was in such a bad state back then, and look at me now."
Little Jin comforted the clouded leopard, "How about we make some tasty food for your sister? The more she eats, the quicker she'll get better."
The clouded leopard suddenly stood up, "Yeah, my sister eats gruel every day, that won't do, I need to get her more."
As the clouded leopard rushed off in a panic, Jinya and Little Jin exchanged a look, unsure if they should follow.
"What are you standing there for?" Leopard Sister, who had appeared at some point, lay leisurely on a tree branch, her long tail dangling down, the tip slightly curled upwards.
"That guy might end up challenging some big game. If you aren't worried about him dying out there, you could just leave him be."
"That's such a curse, tsk tsk tsk," provoked by Leopard Sister, Jinya quickly stood up, "Little Jin, let's go!"
Watching the two cats run off, Leopard Sister snorted with laughter, lying down to watch the window.
Inside the observation room, two female leopards occupied the two upper cages, while an older male leopard resided below.
Leopard Sister lingered for a while, then climbed up the tree, dragging down her stash of food and throwing it on the ground floor platform.
Hearing Leopard Sister's call, Duanmu came out to see what it was and nearly tripped over the deer meat on the platform.
"Is this... from Leopard Sister?"
He inspected it and found that it was a quarter eaten, with the remaining meat being tender parts.
"Brother Ying, come quick, your Leopard Sister has fed the little leopards for you."
Without rejecting Leopard Sister's kindness, Little Sen freed up his hands to slice the deer meat into bite-sized pieces convenient for the clouded leopards to chew and began feeding them.
As for the clouded leopard in the ICU, currently, it could only eat gruel. Straining to chew would affect all the muscles in its body, which wasn't conducive to recovery.
The gruel had to be specially made, with medicine mixed in, and it couldn't be too stimulating for the taste buds.
Fresh meat was certainly better, but with their inconvenient location, they mostly had to rely on frozen meat or the fresh meat delivered daily.
As soon as he'd finished processing the deer meat, the three cats dragged back two small roe deer.
Chen Ying held Little Jin back, "That's enough, I won't let them starve. Eat this yourselves, don't bring any more back, I can't store it."
The clouded leopard, exhausted, crawled onto the wooden plank and lay down, his eyes on the little leopards inside.
After Chen Ying reassured Jinya and Little Jin, he came to the clouded leopard's side.
"Do you want to go see the other three of your kind?"
The observation room wasn't as strict as the ICU ward. They were all brought directly from the wild, not particularly clean, so letting the clouded leopard in to see them wasn't a problem.
"You can only look and sniff, no licking. They have injuries and medicine on their bodies."
Following behind Chen, the first to notice them entering the observation room was the old male clouded leopard below.
The other leopard tried to stand up but couldn't muster the strength and let out a low growl.
Chen went over to pet its head.
"Don't be tense, he's not here to hurt you all. The fresh meat you're eating, it was brought back for you by him and his buddies."
The clouded leopard hesitated for a moment then approached the old leopard and greeted him softly.
The Old Clouded Leopard looked at the young clouded leopard with a calm demeanor for quite a while, then changed its position and lay down.
Between the second level's iron cage and the first level's, there existed a retractable platform.
Chen Ying assembled the platform and gestured for the clouded leopard to come up from the side and greet the two young beauties.
The two female clouded leopards huddled cautiously in their cage, their eyes unblinkingly fixed on the young clouded leopard crouching outside.
Throughout the afternoon, the clouded leopards peacefully rested on their own.
It wasn't until the afternoon, when treatment was needed, that Chen Ying called the clouded leopard out.
Accustomed to lying on the second-level wooden platform, it continued to stare at its sister.
Across from them, Jinya was tearing at rabbit flesh with a bit of hesitation in her voice.
"This guy looks at little sisters the same way my brother does, no, even more intensely than Brother Ying."
Little Jin glanced over, thought for a moment, and nodded in agreement.
When Mr. Lepus was without a mate, he watched Jinya very closely, every gaze as sharp as if holding a little knife.
Now the scene was repeating, though the object of attention had changed. It's all good, all good.
After enjoying rabbit for afternoon tea, Jinya yawned and climbed into her tree nest to sleep.
Little Jin jumped up to the top of the cat nest and laid down for a nap.
This time, Chen Ying let Xiao Song lead Little Sen in giving the two female leopards acupuncture and fumigation treatment.
The young clouded leopard had a strong recovery ability, and in three more days, it could be moved to live inside the animal shed.
The recovery of the elderly male clouded leopard was much slower, and both its hind legs were fractured, with the right hind leg being the more severely broken.
The treatment had promising results, but the individual's recovery was slow, and it seemed its nerves were slightly affected, with sluggish reflexes.
Chen Ying personally took charge of treating the old clouded leopard, recording every step of each treatment in great detail, including both text and video.
During the last treatment of Little Jin, he had consulted with a renowned traditional Chinese medicine orthopedist; this time, he sought out that same doctor again and sent over the clouded leopards' fracture information for advice.
The doctor provided him with several guiding suggestions and also gave him an improved prescription.
With the doctor's guidance and his own medical skills, Chen Ying's confidence was substantial.
Apparently, getting wind of the situation, the veterinarians from the Wormhole contacted Chen Ying, wanting to know whether this clouded leopard would eventually be released back into the wild or kept in captivity.
Upon hearing this, Chen Ying knew what they were aiming for.
It was actually quite good; the Wormhole took great care of their animals and already had clouded leopards and Golden Cats, so they were not lacking in experience.
But, like the previous Little Golden Cat incident, he could only provide a report on the animal's condition; he didn't have the final say in its fate.
Beyond the Wormhole's request, the Wildlife Park in Dian Province also reached out to Chen Ying to inquire about the situation.
Since these four clouded leopards were originally rescued by their personnel, they felt that whether to release or keep the animals, post-recovery, should be their decision.
That consideration wasn't wrong, but again, decisions made by the leaders weren't his to question.
The person from Dian Province who called knew about Chen Ying's character and didn't press further. Instead, they gave him a heads-up.
"Director Song from your province's wildlife conservation is likely to retire early, and it seems his son-in-law wants to transfer to your current unit. Just a friendly tip: he knows about you taking the snake mongoose away."
Chen Ying's face changed at this; the message couldn't be clearer—that person was coming for him.
And what, being punished for a violation meant switching units?
After putting the phone down, Chen Ying furrowed his brow and thought for two minutes, then called his mentor for backup.
As if others didn't have their own backers!