"Oh my, this is blowing up!"
The keeper accompanying Chen Ying to take care of the mother leopard cursed, "Brother Ying, latest news: Someone from the nearest village reported that their child is missing."
The young man was frantically checking messages in the group, constantly updating Chen Ying, "Those two kids were out to pick someone up, took a sled. At noon, the younger kid ran to the village’s police station to report illegal hunting in the old forest. His brother asked him to come back to call the police while he chased after those people. Now they can’t reach him by phone, and the police and villagers there are on the move."
"Damn, in this day and age, someone actually dares!"
The signal might not be great in the old forest, but there is signal around the forest farm. If anything happened, the village police station would team up and act. Run? Have they asked if they know about the surveillance net across the nation?
The problem now is not those people running away, but the fear they might harm the older kid from that family.
In this icy weather, outdoor temperatures are steady at minus ten to twenty degrees. If something happens, by the time they find him, he’d be frozen stiff.
This news made everyone anxious.
All afternoon, countless people were holding their phones, constantly checking.
Chen Ying was the same. While he was treating the leopard, he kept sending messages to Dao Meihua with tight lips and a furrowed brow, yet received no response.
The treatment took over forty minutes, and when it was done, the medicine took effect, and the leopard was drowsy.
It struggled to keep its eyes open, tapped Chen Ying’s hand, made a soft "ah ah" sound, and then fell deeply asleep.
This period when it slept was Chen Ying’s break time, with the keeper taking over until the leopard woke up.
On his way back to the dorm after leaving the treatment room, Chen Ying detoured to the office to ask about the situation.
Besides Dao Meihua, there were a few patrol team members. He believed if something really happened, those straightforward guys would prioritize protecting the female team members.
But when facing external threats, you can’t just rely on teammates’ protection. Besides, with Dao Meihua’s character, she’s not the type to comfortably accept others’ care.
At the office door, Chen Ying glanced inside, and only saw the clerk.
The clerk, Little Wang, saw Chen Ying and immediately told him there was still no news about Dao Meihua and the others, and that the director had already gone to the police station to wait.
"Brother Ying, don’t worry yet. I’ve heard they’ve deployed helicopters and drones for the search. Although our old forest area is large, it’s quite open, and their bright uniforms should stand out against the snow. Plus, they have rescue flares on the vehicle. I’ll let you know as soon as we have news."
Chen Ying nodded and walked away in silence.
Outside the dorm, he saw a group of sparrows pecking at the ground.
A thought suddenly struck Chen Ying.
He could communicate with birds, but due to their brain capacity, birds seem less intelligent compared to mammals. The communication could only yield very basic responses.
Larger birds are somewhat better than smaller ones, like the Little Owl and Golden Eagle he’d taken care of before. They could communicate more than birds as small as sparrows.
"Little Wang, do we have any larger birds of prey in our park? Like Red Kestrels or Sparrowhawks?"
"Red Kestrels are quite rare around here, but there has been a Gyrfalcon, or Hai Dongqing, spotted in the northeast corner of the park. Brother Ying, why do you ask?"
Chen Ying brushed off the question and, following Little Wang’s direction, took a car to the northeast corner of the park.
Little Wang said this Gyrfalcon was a rescued bird of prey. Normally, it should live in a canyon or forest area, but after being released, it seemed to enjoy living near humans.
It lingered on the roof of an old house in the northeast corner.
To improve its living conditions, the park even made a nest for it there.
When Chen Ying arrived, he saw the Gyrfalcon basking its wings outside the nest.
Upon seeing Chen Ying approach, the Gyrfalcon paused its wandering, tilted its head, and watched him.
Chen Ying came prepared, quickly winning over the aloof-looking big bird with half a rabbit.
"Qingqing, I’m counting on you."
Full from the offering, the Gyrfalcon raised its head and cried out before taking off into the sky.
The young man holding the ladder was a bit puzzled, "Brother Ying, even if it finds them, how will it deliver the message? And how does it know who you’re looking for?"
Even Chen Ying couldn’t answer that, but he just knew this beautiful big bird would find Dao Meihua. Perhaps it was the result of the connection between his and the animals’ minds. To others, it seems he speaks human language, while the big bird communicates through cries. The language systems are completely different, yet they understand each other.
Is there scientific evidence for this? No, right, so there’s no need to delve deeper. As long as the goal is achieved, that’s all that matters.
Chen Ying watched the beautiful big bird spread its wings and leave, waited for a while, then rode his bike back.
In the sky, the big bird circled for a while, rested on a large tree, then continued its search.
Meanwhile, a joint team from the forest farms in the west part of the park was heading to the old forest to conduct a comprehensive search.
The surveillance systems deployed at various transport nodes proved useful. After investigating, two tourists in their cars reported that they saw three off-road vehicles parked by the roadside in a certain area, with no one inside.
They even got out to check, fearing the people might be in danger.