Just when the situation was becoming awkward, One-eyed Beibei squeezed in.
Seeing Dao Meihua holding a phone in front of the pet villa, it was slightly startled, hesitated, paced back and forth a few steps, and then slowly approached the small platform where his son was.
Brother Leopard and Leopard Sister saw Beibei and immediately forgot about sons and grandsons.
Especially Leopard Sister, she squeezed Brother Leopard aside and meowed several times at Beibei.
Beibei, hearing the familiar voice, was completely stunned, then looked around, excitedly emitting a "grurrr" throat sound, but unfortunately, it couldn't see Leopard Sister on the phone.
Only hearing the sound but not seeing its foster mother made Beibei a bit lost, standing there bewildered, its throat sound turning into a wail.
Dao Meihua didn't understand the sounds, but having spent years with animals, she could somewhat grasp the emotions they expressed.
Fortunately, there was a projector on the villa's first floor. She decisively opened the door, cast the phone's screen to the display, and connected it to the speakers, showing the images of Brother Leopard and Leopard Sister on the wall.
Beibei leaped inside, nearly hitting the wall, it reached out with its paws to touch, but could only touch a cold, hard wall.
"Beibei, back off, back up a bit. It's a video, it's okay if you don't understand. Your parents can see you, and you can communicate through sound. Come on, back up a step and lie down."
Chen Ying's voice came through the speaker, guiding Beibei to find the best distance to lie down and communicate with Brother Leopard and Leopard Sister.
The three leopards exchanged low growls. Although they couldn't touch or feel each other, being able to hear the sound and see the image was quite nice.
Under the sound of leopard growls, Beibei gradually calmed down.
The little leopard cub listened for a while, then rolled and crawled into the house, climbed onto its mother's back, wanting to complain, but was pinned down by her paw, telling it to behave.
(Can't draw a one-eyed figure, anyway, Beibei has a fake eye, just treat it as having only one eye)
Behave? Impossible! Dad said, with no tigers in the mountains, they, the leopards, are kings!
The little leopard trotted out with a haughty air to find Big Beauty and the little cat to play.
Actually, Big Beauty was already an adult cat, but due to its small size, the leopard cub always felt they were about the same size and liked Big Beauty's fluffy long tail, always running after it, annoying the cat to death.
Big Beauty, impatient with the leopards chatting away, glanced at the sky, left the little cat and the leopard cub behind, and swiftly departed.
The leopard cub wanted to follow but looked back at the little cat. After thinking for a moment, it jumped up to pick up the little cat, preparing to shove it into its mother's arms for protection.
It wanted to venture into the forest, and the little pet at home needed to be taken care of.
The little cat, with a look of despair, was dragged off the platform by the leopard cub and finally was forcibly shoved into the big mother leopard's arms.
The big cats on and off the screen were all stunned, especially Brother Leopard and Leopard Sister, who thought the little cat was a snack the leopard cub brought for its mother.
"No, it's... its toy."
Beibei sighed with difficulty; being too close to where the two-legged beasts lived had its drawbacks, as its son was nearly losing its wild instincts.
When they lived in Jiamu Gully, although they stayed with the two-legged beasts, there weren't such fragile animals around. Most of those that ate vegetation became their food.
But in the leopard cub's environment, it preferred to mimic the nearby stray cats, being especially close to the two-legged beasts, otherwise, it wouldn't have taken the initiative to save those two runaway kids.
If it wasn't for it resting nearby with Little Baby, with the leopard cub's chubby body, it would have been lucky not to be torn apart by that group of monkeys.
Dao Meihua found a charging cable to set her phone down, letting the big cats chat on their own, and switched to another phone to call Chen Ying.
"Brother Ying, what do aunt and uncle like? I'll prepare in advance."
"No need, my mom doesn't like much. She prefers working, says it's more comfortable than staying home. As for my dad, he loves a little drink but is not greedy. He's more restrained as he's gotten older, drinking no more than two liang a day."
"That's good then, alright, I got it, I'll prepare myself."
The two of them chatted affectionately for a few minutes before switching to a professional topic.
"My sister-in-law's girlfriend gave her a Maine cat. Not sure if the climate doesn't suit it, but the cat hasn't been eating much lately. Since it's a gift from her friend, she's worried about the cat's health. She invited a professional veterinarian to check it, and the results were fine. The vet suspects the cat is stressed from the environment change."
Dao Meihua said, her sister-in-law loves animals, especially long-haired cats, adoring them like the apple of her eye.
"Her mom has a lot of cats at the manor abroad: Maine, Ragdoll, Norwegian Forest Cats, and even two servals."
In China, servals can't be privately raised, even if wealthy people can provide for their space and nutritional needs, the approval process is stringent, money alone doesn't guarantee ownership.
Sister-in-law Dao Meihua's family mainly deals in senior living properties, including senior apartments, high-end retirement resorts, and luxury nursing homes, covering the entire "sunset years" industry.
And it's not just seniors in this industry, many middle-class middle-aged people are willing to invest, providing homes for their parents now and planning for themselves post-retirement.
In their newly built cultural tourism city project, which focuses on health and children's education, they applied to build a small but upscale wildlife park as an auxiliary facility at the children's educational site.
Most of the animals there are rare domestically and are generally cute or have novelty appeal.