Forest Ranger, starting from Picking Up a Lynx Girl
Chapter 382 - 380: How about lighting a Peace Lamp for it?

After a day's trek, everyone was quite tired, and by around ten o'clock, everyone had gone to sleep.

Two people to a tent, Chen Ying shared with Shu Nan.

At two in the morning, Chen Ying woke up, planning to relieve the person on night watch.

He got dressed, stepped out of the tent, and saw the young man on duty had fallen asleep against his backpack with his phone in hand.

Chen Ying added a couple of logs to the fire, patted the young man on the shoulder, and told him to go sleep in the tent.

The young man startled awake, his face red with embarrassment, and after moving around a bit, he refused to go in.

"Then I'll keep you company for a while, and you can go sleep at three."

The young man sheepishly nodded, sat down, and stared blankly at the fire.

It was almost two-forty when Chen Ying prepared to step away to relieve himself and told the young man to keep an eye on their surroundings.

He walked downhill a bit and was about to contribute his part to forest hydration when he heard an out-of-the-ordinary noise.

When they had set up camp, they had checked the area for signs of medium to large wildlife and found none.

Chen Ying shivered, pulled out his portable flashlight, adjusted the beam, and pointed it toward the source of the sound.

What he saw made him chuckle.

He quickly pulled out his phone and, illuminating the two little critters engaged in a shy interaction, captured the entire process on video.

The slow-reacting porcupines didn't notice they had an audience until their interaction was over, and the spines on the male porcupine flared out.

The smaller female followed suit and took on an aggressive defensive posture as well.

Seeing this, Chen Ying did not linger, dimmed the light, and quickly left.

Back at the camp, the person taking over the night shift was whispering to his predecessor, but both looked up inquiringly as Chen Ying returned.

Without a word, Chen Ying handed his phone to them to watch the video.

Having worked in the wilderness for a year or two, they were no rookies, but they had never seen such an expansive documentation of porcupine mating.

Sure enough, hanging around Brother Ying would always lead to witnessing some eye-opening events.

After watching the short video, Chen Ying urged the previous night guard to go sleep while he sat down for a while longer to edit the video before sending it to the County Forestry and Grass Bureau kid's WeChat. It was nearly four o'clock by the time he lay back down for a bit over an hour's rest.

After waking up, everyone packed up their tents and luggage, and the person in charge of cooking breakfast called them over to eat quickly.

As they ate, they talked about the "action film" Chen Ying had shot the previous night.

Except for Old Luo and Brother Su Ma, no one had seen an action movie starring porcupines and were all curious to see it, so Chen Ying simply sent the video to their work group chat.

"Geez, porcupines really suffer for love, huh."

"Actually, that's not necessarily true, animals usually try to avoid such situations. If you look closely at the female's spines, you'll see what I mean."

When the image was enlarged and still unclear, Chen Ying simply found a still photo online and shared it with them.

Comparing the two, everyone finally understood why the angle of the female porcupine's spines seemed a little abnormal.

After breakfast, once they had packed their things, the Forestry and Grassland Bureau kid called, asking if Chen Ying could share the video on their official account.

After all, the cameras they had set up hadn't caught the porcupine footage everyone wanted to see, and people online were accusing them of falsifying their claims.

Chen Ying's video, once shared, would prove that they indeed had porcupines in the area, and that not seeing them was just bad luck, not because they weren't there!

Chen Ying had no objections to this request; after all, he had sent the video intending for it to be shared at will.

He knew each department had their own KPIs to meet; he didn't need the attention and was happy to help out as a gesture of thanks for all the preparations they had made for him.

After hanging up the phone, he caught up with the main group, heading toward the west side of the mountain ridge. Once they descended this mountain and climbed the opposite ridge, they would officially enter the buffer zone.

If they continued directly westward, they would enter the core zone in roughly two days. However, their mission was to survey the growth distribution of forest resources, and their planned route led from the southeast to the northwest of the buffer zone before entering the core zone.

Before entering the core zone, they would resupply at the next protection station and switch guides.

Chen Ying's target area was on the border between the buffer and core zones. Before reaching the next protection station, they would split up.

At that time, he and Shu Nan would decide whether to resupply at the station or push directly to the meeting place agreed upon with Xiong Youming, who would provide them with further supplies.

For the first three days, they didn't discover any interesting animals or plants.

Their daily work was quite monotonous, but the team members were accustomed to the field research atmosphere and didn't find it too difficult.

By the fifth day, which was the day before they planned to split up, Su Ma's group found a spot to camp by noon, then started sorting their supplies to hand over the excess to Chen Ying.

They would reach the protection station to resupply in a day or two, while Chen Ying and Shu Nan would likely continue toward the core zone in search of giant panda traces.

Chen Ying didn't decline their offer, just as Su Ma had said; they might need to do a project in Jiamu Gully in the future, and then they would ask for Chen Ying's help.

After lunch, the group finished sorting their supplies and filled both Chen Ying and Shu Nan's large backpacks.

Shu Nan hadn't worked this hard since graduation, and these few days of wilderness living had truly exhausted him.

He spent the entire afternoon sleeping in the tent to recover his strength.

No one thought he was wrong; after all, everyone had gone through the same experience. For Shu Nan, a young office worker, to grit his teeth and follow the team in the field for so many days was already quite impressive.

Progress must be made step by step; you can't expect to devour a whole fat man in one bite, right?

Certainly, after this field research concludes, Shu Nan will emerge both tanner and stronger.

Dusk is the peak period for the activity of wild animals.

The camping spot they had chosen was deliberately away from where wild animals were active, they had even avoided water sources, all in an effort to have a disturbance-free, safe night.

But clearly, fate had other plans, as a light rain began to fall around seven in the evening.

The rain was light, just that drizzly kind of rain, that, when coupled with the mountain breeze, felt chilling to the bone.

Seeing this, the team member in charge of cooking promptly made a pot of ginger soup to help everyone ward off the cold and prevent catching colds.

Thanks to the conveniences of modern society, fieldwork no longer meant being unable to start a fire and only nibbling on dry rations when it rained; they were now sheltered by a tarpaulin.

Tents were arranged in a circle around the tarpaulin, leaving only an entrance and exit. Everyone sat in their tents, chatting with just a roll-up of the tent flaps.

Ghost stories paired best with a rainy night, and, feeling bored, the group began to share spooky tales.

At first, it was fine; the stories told by the first two team members were light tales from Pu Songling's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio that you could guess the endings to.

But as the evening wore on, the stories shared by a few other team members started to set the mood; unconsciously, the four female team members huddled together.

Chen Ying hadn't even gotten his turn to tell a story when a female team member heard a rustling noise.

At first, she thought she had misheard, or maybe it was the sound of some bird in the wild.

But after a little while, she sensed that something was off, turned her head to look, and screamed in terror, scrambling and dragging her companions out with her.

A few male team members sprang into action to protect them, with the braver ones grabbing flashlights and shining them behind the tent, where it seemed like something was rummaging.

Two tall and robust team members, along with Chen Ying, quickly went around to the back to investigate. The one with the faster feet shone their flashlight and let out a bizarre cry.

"Leopard, there's a leopard!"

Chen Ying quickly grabbed him and pulled him back, placing himself in front between them and the threat.

As the flashlight beam hit the leopard that had been pawing at the tent fabric, the animal lunged at him.

People nearby cried out, raising their flashlights to throw, but Chen Ying's courage flickered, and he shouted loudly, "Don't move, it's a tame leopard!"

A tame leopard, they had heard of familiar people and familiar situations, but never a tame leopard!

As the flustered crowd gathered to see, they exclaimed, what a scene of a large cat being affectionate!

The leopard clung to Chen Ying's arm, rubbing constantly against his chest and making pitiful whining noises, sounding utterly aggrieved.

Big Baby, weighing sixty to seventy kilograms, was crying as pitifully as a kitten.

"What's wrong? Didn't we release you back into the forest? Where's your sibling?"

Only one leopard was present; during the release, there were supposed to be two leopards released together because they were young adults who had just left their mother to fend for themselves. The Forestry and Grassland Bureau respected natural laws and let them go together. Once they matured enough to survive in the forest, they would naturally part ways to seek their own territories.

After whining for a while, the leopard seemed to understand Chen Ying asking about its sibling, bit his sleeve, and tried to drag him away.

Chen Ying frowned, worried that the other leopard's leg injury had worsened just days after they were released.

"Brother Ma, I'll be back shortly. No need to worry."

Taking his first-aid kit, Chen Ying followed the leopard deeper into the forest.

"Brother Ying will be all right, right?"

"He should be. He's an experienced outdoorsman; he's aware of what's at stake."

Though they said this, everyone was still worried. The mood for jesting had faded, and they didn't even feel like sleeping; they wanted to wait for Chen Ying to return.

It was Brother Su Ma who sternly herded everyone to rest.

Old Luo offered to go and look for him, but Su Ma did not agree.

If anyone should go, it should be him. The other team members were in the Core Zone for the first time and shouldn't leave the guide. He, on the other hand, had been here twice and could somewhat find his way to the Protection Station. Not to mention, he had more extensive wilderness survival experience than the younger team members.

Checking the time and seeing it was almost half-past ten, Su Ma decided that if Chen Ying wasn't back by eleven, he would go out and search.

Just as he was thinking this over, Chen Ying returned with his flashlight.

"How did it go? The other leopard is okay, right?"

"It's fine, it's just very unlucky; these two's independence is still lacking. Combined with unfamiliar terrain, it stepped into a hole on a hillside and injured itself again."

Honestly, the leopards of Jiamu Gully, including Leopard Sister's simple-minded brother, had never had such accidents. It was unclear whether this young leopard was just cursed with misfortune or genuinely had poor balance, as this was its second injury. Although there were no fractures, it likely had a bone fissure again.

After listening to Chen Ying's complaints, the veteran wild team members Old Luo and Su Ma fell silent together.

What could they say? It wasn't like they could send it to a zoo just because it kept getting injured.

Human care might be meticulous, but the vast nature was where the animals truly belonged.

"When I get back, I'll go to the temple and light a Peace Lamp for it, wishing it good luck."

Old Luo's suggestion was an entirely novel and unexpected one for Chen Ying.

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