Chapter 697: Chapter 559: Child, Fortune Follows Disaster (Part 2)

But this matter is not up to him, after all, giant pandas, no matter how important, are not more important than human lives.

When Jinya and Leopard Sister heard about this, they volunteered to help, and even complained about how slow humans were, not planning to bring Chen Ying along.

Leopard Sister’s disdainful words were deafening!

“Why are you going? Just stay with that white-furred one and watch the little cubs, this doesn’t concern you.”

“Why doesn’t it concern me? If someone gets injured, I can help treat them, right?”

Leopard Sister shot him a glance, too dismissive to say more to him, let out a low growl, and leaped out first. Then the cats in the camp followed suits, except for the not very useful Bai Bingyang who stayed behind innocently looking at him.

The little monkey baby and Little Taobao were playing on Bai Bingyang. Seeing the cuddly auntie watching the two-legged beast, they also turned their big watery eyes to look over and even let out squeaky, sugary sounds.

“Meow, you want to play with us too?”

Chen Ying extended a finger to poke Little Taobao on the forehead, “Go play with your silly fourth auntie.”

It’s a pity that Old Gao isn’t here these past two years, otherwise, we could have developed an “air force” to help scout. For this kind of matter, it’s more convenient to have wings.

Leopard Sister and the others were very fast, traveling through the night, and arrived at the collapsed epicenter in the early morning of the second day.

Half the mountain had slid down, destroying countless forests along the way, burying unknown numbers of animal homes and lives under the rocks.

“Aowl, Leopard Sister, how do we find them here?”

Jinya was astounded; all he saw was a dense cover of earth yellow. If they didn’t escape, digging them out would only yield a panda pie, right?

Leopard Sister moved closer, sniffed carefully, trying to distinguish the scents in the forest.

But the dust and soil were too overwhelming. Even with her strong sense of smell, she couldn’t detect anything.

“Let’s split up and search around; maybe they were lucky and weren’t buried underneath.”

Besides this collapsed mountain, trees and stones had also been felled and rolled down due to the earthquake on the opposite side, and danger could come at any moment.

“Be careful during your search, also those trees and stones could be loose, don’t jump on them unless necessary.”

“Roar, you be careful too.” Brother Leopard rubbed against his wife’s cheek before racing towards the most dangerous place.

Leopard Sister knew he was worried she might take risks, paused to watch for a moment, then trotted off in another direction.

Jinya and Little Jin exchanged a glance. Mimicking Brother Leopard’s tone, they lifted their paw and patted Little Jin’s paw back, “Be careful, don’t climb the trees, just wander around under them.”

Little Jin originally didn’t feel reassured about Jinya and wanted to act together, but seeing that Jinya probably wouldn’t agree, he nodded directly, “I’ll go check over there, leave this side to you.”

They spread out. Before long, Big Gold and Crazy Gun Gun, having been alerted, arrived as well.

Though they recognized each other, they weren’t familiar, so they didn’t exchange many words and picked a direction to start their search.

Indeed, it’s more suitable for cats to find cats.

Crazy Gun Gun soon detected the scent of a female panda at a large tree.

Though the smell was faint, it didn’t escape his nose.

Smiling broadly, Crazy Gun Gun left his own marker on that tree and continued tracking that scent.

As the saying goes, finding cats in the city relies on calicos, and finding cats in the mountains depends on flower-armed ones.

The ones called “flower-armed” in these mountains are naturally leopard cats.

These little ones are agile, responsive, and remarkably adaptable.

In earlier years, they were rarely seen in the mountains, but with good protection in recent years, they are not considered rare animals anymore.

Leopard Sister and Jinya thought along the same lines. While investigating carefully, they also kept an eye out for traces of leopard cats.

It was Jinya’s luck that was good, finding a plump and robust young leopard cat first.

“Black and white bear? Yes, I know. They should be fine, in a burrow on this side of the mountain. But that black and white bear has a cub, and they haven’t come out these past few days.”

One eats plants, the other hunts mice; with no competition between them, the flower-armed leopard cat generously led Jinya to find the black and white bear.

Arrived at the place, didn’t get too close, safe as long as they don’t get too close. Approaching too much would be asking for trouble.

Jinya didn’t get too close either, keeping a distance of ten or twenty meters, letting out a short call to ask if the black and white bear was still alive.

Asked several times without response, Jinya couldn’t resist moving forward a few meters, then hesitated and stepped back a few steps, shuffling back and forth for a while before finally deciding to go over and check.

Yet upon reaching, no mother panda was seen, only a medium-sized black and white bear lying in the burrow showing no signs of movement.

Jinya was terrified, letting out several short calls continuously, tentatively extending a paw to nudge it. The black and white bear’s body was soft, but it still showed no reaction.

Darn it!

Jinya instantly grew nervous, turning to look at the flower-armed leopard cat that hadn’t left.

“Little guy, please keep an eye here, I’ll go find a two-legged beast to save it.”

The flower-armed leopard cat moved closer, sneaking a peek, and was startled, “Oh my god, this one doesn’t even twitch, is it dead?”

Jinya was about to run back when he saw Little Jin and Leopard Sister approaching.

They heard Jinya’s call and hurried over, thinking something had happened.

“There’s a medium-sized cub here, no movement at all.” Jinya was truly panicked.

Little Jin leaned in for a closer look, then sniffed the medium-sized panda internally, confirmed it was unconscious from illness, and quickly stepped out.

“The two-legged beast must come, I’m faster, let me go back.”

Little Jin said and sprinted in the direction of home, leaving Jinya and Leopard Sister guarding the place.

They didn’t know where the mother panda had gone, nor if there were other predators around. If a carnivore found its way here, the little cubs might not survive.

Chen Ying and the others had quickly prepared after Jinya and Leopard Sister left, setting off early before dawn.

The team consisted of six people, along with makeshift stretchers and two robotic dogs.

Unexpectedly, it was time for the robotic dogs’ first real operation so swiftly.

To conserve energy, they planned not to deploy the robotic dogs until they neared the epicenter, where the dogs, equipped with detection equipment, would take the lead.

They climbed over a mountain and waded through a ravine, still five kilometers from the epicenter.

Chen Ying and the others sat on a dead tree by the riverbank to rest, solving their lunch in the process.

Just as he pulled out the rice balls, before he could eat, a golden-red shadow suddenly flew toward Chen Ying.

Before the others could say “watch out,” Chen Ying had already caught the breathless Little Jin.

“What happened?”

“Meow, meow meow~” Little Jin panted, crying out urgently, changing Chen Ying’s expression instantly.

“Stop eating, let’s go quickly, Little Jin and the others found an injured giant panda cub.”

Without a word, everyone quickly packed up their food and water, accelerating their pace.

Fortunately, the mountain path wasn’t too difficult, yet they still slipped and fell several times, covering themselves in mud.

Soon they were less than two hundred meters from the cave, but then a familiar call echoed, and Chen Ying and the leading old ranger exchanged glances, scrambling ahead.

The mother panda, finally returning home, looked filthy and disheveled but carried an air of determination. Opposite was Leopard Sister, calmly facing off, letting out low calls trying to calm it down.

But how could the mother panda be obedient? As a top predator, being cute is just for having food brought to it. In the wild, cuteness isn’t its foundation; only ferocity lets it roam free with its child.

“Stop, halt for now, the mother panda is in stress, approaching may provoke it.”

Chen Ying halted them, anxiously watching the upright mother panda that occasionally roared.

His mind spun, seeking a way to calm the mother panda or lure it away since every delayed moment endangered the panda cub in the cave.

Just when Chen Ying didn’t know what to do to safely retrieve the cub, another voice sounded, causing even the mother panda to freeze, nervously retreating and blocking the cave entrance before looking back.