Whether it was or wasn’t, the current situation left Ming Ruan with no room for choice whatsoever.
Just now, pressing his hand against the bubble wall had already caused the bubble encasing him to roll to the cliff edge. Ming Ruan didn’t know exactly what this thing was meant to do, or if it could protect him. Moreover, his current location was a narrow ledge halfway up the mountain face. Between rolling the bubble to find a way out and staying put, Ming Ruan ultimately chose to huddle safely in place, just like a quail.
Mainly, he had discovered a Space Button embedded within one facet of the bubble! Checking it, Ming Ruan found the Space Button held rows of nutrient solutions, enough to replenish water and energy, sufficient for him to survive safely for two days.
After grudgingly downing one tube of nutrient solution, spending the day constantly recalling and speculating about what on earth had happened, and awkwardly adjusting to life inside the bubble…
On the second day, while bored out of his mind, Ming Ruan spotted the snow leopard’s figure again.
This time, the snow leopard appeared on a lower fault line of the mountain body. That silver-gray silhouette was truly worthy of the name “elf of the snow.” It pursued a lone blue sheep, racing along the narrow fault with an aura of moving as if on level ground, unstoppable. It bounded up and down, hot on the heels of the blue sheep’s fleeing path. Finally, with a brilliant sideways sprint along the cliff face and a fierce pounce, it seized the blue sheep by the neck. Both animals plummeted from the cliff face together, landing on an even smaller platform below!
Ming Ruan’s heart had started pounding the moment he saw the snow leopard scaling the walls as if flying. When the two animals fell together, crashing heavily onto the ground, he was simultaneously shocked and worried, so anxious his lips parted and his hands clenched into fists braced against the ground, trying to get closer and see more clearly without causing the bubble to roll.
Thankfully, after just a few seconds, the blue sheep ceased its twitching on the ground. The snow leopard slowly straightened up and began to systematically enjoy its prey. It seemed the fall hadn’t affected it in the slightest.
“Good job, baby.” Ming Ruan let out a breath of relief, unable to resist praising it softly—even though he knew the snow leopard couldn’t hear him.
But at that moment, the snow leopard seemed to sense something. In the gap between bites, it looked up and glanced towards Ming Ruan’s direction. Human and leopard met gazes.
Ming Ruan: !
That instantaneous eye contact made Ming Ruan inexplicably excited. If the snow leopard discovered him and became interested…
But unfortunately, after just one brief meeting of eyes, the snow leopard buried its head back into its meal. It wasn’t until it finished eating and lay down to digest for a while that it made a turn, disappearing through some small path in the mountain, vanishing from Ming Ruan’s view. During this whole time, it didn’t spare Ming Ruan a second glance.
Ming Ruan’s excited heartbeat slowed a little.
He relaxed his body, letting himself float in mid-air, and pulled out a second tube of nutrient solution to drink.
If he was still in the Sanatorium Zone’s Simulated Alpine Belt, was this snow leopard really the one he was looking for? Yet, when it hunted just now, it was swift and agile, not looking like it was suffering from any illness at all.
Ming Ruan poked at his light brain again. The light brain remained on a blue screen. If this wasn’t the one, how else was he supposed to quickly contact others and continue searching for that snow leopard?
However, starting from that day, Ming Ruan actually saw that specific snow leopard every single day at specific times. This place seemed to be where the snow leopard often roamed and hunted.
In just a day or two of observation, Ming Ruan did indeed discover some anomalies. The snow leopard spent a great deal of effort hunting every day. It wasn’t just that hunting required hard work; rather, it performed many unnecessary actions while hunting. For example, driving and chasing prey across extremely steep locations, or using the method of falling from heights to kill its catch…
Even stranger, it hunted every single day, but after catching something, it would only eat a bite or two before leaving. It neither conserved its energy nor did it replenish its body’s energy as much as possible. This was completely inconsistent with the typical habits of animals in winter.
Ming Ruan almost felt a sense of déjà vu from this snow leopard, but it was blurry and unclear.
It wasn’t until the fourth day, when the snow leopard targeted a herd of mountain sheep, rushed in to scatter them, and picked out a sheep that was neither young nor old nor weak—but rather in its prime—to chase for a long time, that the leopard gradually slowed its pace and eventually stopped altogether, watching its prey flee far away. Ming Ruan figured it just wasn’t that hungry.
But on the fifth day, and the sixth day, the snow leopard still came by every day for a couple of laps. It lay on the high ground, watching the herd of sheep that foolishly passed by no matter how many times they were hunted, completely unmoved.
Two whole days without eating.
This situation made Ming Ruan feel very uneasy. Was it injured? Or too weak from eating so little the previous days? Or… did it simply not want to?
“Hey! Leopard baby! Pspsps~” For the first time, Ming Ruan slightly raised his voice and waved his arm, trying to attract the snow leopard’s attention.
The snow leopard didn’t deliberately ignore him. It looked over, just as Ming Ruan wished.
Ming Ruan took a tube of nutrient solution from the Space Button—the stock inside was also running low, with only three tubes left. He held the nutrient solution and waved it at the snow leopard: “I have food here! Let me figure out how to bring it to you, okay!”
Of course, Leopard Cub couldn’t understand human speech. But with animals, whether you’re calling them cute, scolding them as annoying, or cursing them as beasts, they actually understand the intent. Ming Ruan was just trying his best. If this method didn’t work, then he’d think of something else. He never expected that, after watching him for a moment, the snow leopard actually stood up. That elf of the snow, that overlord of the plateau, stretched its two front paws forward, and its powerful hind legs, muscles rippling, pressed down as it stretched lazily.
After straightening up again, the snow leopard shook its fluffy head, its tail swishing left and right behind it. It glanced at Ming Ruan one more time. Even from such a distance, Ming Ruan felt the snow leopard held a bit more shallow interest, much more vitality than the silent, listless state it had shown moments ago and over the past two days.
He watched it withdraw its gaze and suddenly begin sprinting rapidly along the narrow, encircling platform on the opposite mountain! Its speed grew faster and faster, until in one certain moment, it leaped into the air with a flying jump, its entire leopard body completely airborne, plummeting downwards!
Ming Ruan’s heart practically leaped into his throat!
Yet he saw the snow leopard, after dropping down to a V-shaped narrow crevice in the mountain, agilely bounced and rebounded several times between the two banks, dissipating the force. Then, just like that, as if shrugging off gravity entirely, it flew between the cliff walls, kicking off, soaring up, walking on the nearly 90-degree vertical mountain face as if it were flat ground!
Ming Ruan felt like he was witnessing a world-class parkour master’s grand performance, or an immense magic show. Every step of the snow leopard was perilous in the extreme, like walking a tightrope suspended above hell. The slightest, tiniest mistake, and the only thing awaiting it was the word ‘death.’ It was too dangerous. It was also too impactful, too shocking, too magnificent!
Ming Ruan watched, unblinking, until his eyes ached, when this godlike ‘performance’ finally neared its end.
The snow leopard made a great leap, bursting up from the cliff face beside Ming Ruan, suddenly appearing.
Very close. Very, very close.
Right before his eyes, the snow leopard panted heavily. It was about two sizes larger than snow leopards from Earth, with a sleek, well-proportioned frame. Its firm, powerful muscles were subtly defined, rising and falling with its breaths.
White mist puffed from the snow leopard’s muzzle. The series of extreme moves it had just performed hadn’t been entirely easy. It panted slightly for a moment, then lifted its paw and walked towards Ming Ruan.
Its fur wasn’t particularly sleek or smooth, looking somewhat weather-beaten and neglected. Yet that warm, fluffy chest, that thick, long tail—every single part made Ming Ruan’s heart flutter intensely.
The snow leopard, brimming with wildness, strength, and handsome charm just seconds ago, had appeared right before him. Ming Ruan unconsciously reached out his hand—
And touched the bubble wall.
The snow leopard slightly raised its eyes to glance at Ming Ruan’s hand, then its gaze fell back onto Ming Ruan’s face, as if wondering what this human was doing. Immediately after, its gaze shifted to the nutrient solution in Ming Ruan’s hand, as if determining whether Ming Ruan really was willing to give it to him.
Ming Ruan: … Oops.
Ming Ruan shyly withdrew his hand and held out the promised nutrient solution. “It’s right here! Wait while I figure out how to pass it to you!”
He hadn’t expected the nutrient solution’s allure to be so strong for interstellar animals.
The moment those words left his mouth, the snow leopard nodded in a very human-like manner, then reached out a black, plum-blossom-shaped paw and pushed against the transparent bubble housing Ming Ruan.
The bubble rolled a whole section uncontrollably. Ming Ruan squeezed his eyes shut in fright. “Wait, you can’t play with this!” Floating inside the bubble, he actually couldn’t feel any vibration or jolting. When he opened his eyes again, he found the snow leopard had already rolled him some distance away. Around a turn, a relatively wide, flat clearing appeared ahead.
Ming Ruan’s attitude did a smooth 180-degree turn. “Wow, Leopard Cub is the best!”
The bubble, containing the young man who looked like a little golden-haired elf, wobbled to a stop in the middle of the clearing, safely away from the dangerous cliff. But the snow leopard didn’t step forward further to ask for the nutrient solution.
Jin Qianyu recognized the young man before him. This was Ming Ruan—his fiancé, the one he had a marriage contract with.
The Ming Family was one of the rare families that combined capital with nobility, and whose internal relationships were harmonious. The initial marriage agreement with Ming Ruan had been made with the Jin Family’s development at that time in mind.
However, the other party—Ming Ruan—had initially agreed wholeheartedly, even actively pushing it forward, yet reneged at the last moment. His act caused the Ming Family not only to apologize and make amends multiple times but also to concede a full ten percent of their interests in the partnership.
Later, it was said that the Ming Family had some real vs. fake young master drama during that period. Thinking about it now, perhaps Ming Ruan’s reneging back then stemmed from his fear that it was a ploy by the Ming Family to push him out.
Before the engagement matter could reach any conclusion, Jin Qianyu had already entered the Sanatorium Zone due to his beastman transformation.
He’d never expected that after that massive avalanche two days ago, he would see this ‘fiancé’ of his, sealed within a Protective Device, appearing before him. The young man, for some reason, never opened the Protective Device to contact the outside world. After his initial surprise, Jin Qianyu didn’t want to get involved with these troublesome matters anymore.
He hadn’t expected that today, Ming Ruan would proactively greet him and offer him a nutrient solution.
Why? Because he’d seen that he hadn’t eaten these past few days?
The snow leopard fixed its gaze on Ming Ruan. He could roughly estimate that Ming Ruan didn’t have many nutrient solutions left, either. Jin Qianyu had never directly interacted with Ming Ruan before; this could even be considered their first time. And just these few days of coexisting across a mountain cliff had made Jin Qianyu find Ming Ruan somewhat inscrutable.
He seemed… different from what he’d heard: selfish, short-sighted, full of schemes…
Mostly because of this difference, Jin Qianyu had answered Ming Ruan’s call and given him a hand, bringing him to a relatively safe open space.
But that was all.
Jin Qianyu remained unmoved by Ming Ruan’s cries of ‘Leopard Cub, Leopard Cub.’ He turned around and, without a shred of hesitation, once again presented Ming Ruan with his departing back.
And Ming Ruan.
Ming Ruan, trapped inside the bubble, helplessly watched the snow leopard’s retreating figure. How had the leopard slipped right through his fingers again?
