Chapter 48: A Surprise for Ruanruan

Jin Qianyu had no idea about the little schemes running through Ming Ruan’s mind. For him, since he had decided to associate with Ming Ruan, whether as a close friend or a casual acquaintance, bringing a friend with nowhere to go back to his own home was basic human decency.

Jin Qianyu was never one for particular fussiness, and his cave had no special decorations. Normally, he never felt there was anything wrong with it. But when he actually saw the delicate-skinned Ming Ruan carefully pushing aside the shrubs and walking in, he realized that this might not really be a suitable place to host a guest.

But it didn’t matter. His goodwill had been shown. If Ming Ruan minded, he could always find another place. The tip of the snow leopard’s tail tapped lightly on the ground before him as he secretly observed Ming Ruan.

The young man was only restrained for a brief moment before he started moving around the cave with considerable curiosity, touching the rock walls here and there, eventually walking over to his bed.

Ming Ruan pointed at the large, smooth stone. “Can I touch this, Leopard Cub?”

The snow leopard still had his back to Ming Ruan. Hearing this, he turned his head, his gaze moving between Ming Ruan and the large stone. His tail swung over and tapped twice.

That meant yes!

Ming Ruan cherished the moment, running his finger across the stone slab—a dark, muted green, with a texture like jade! So beautiful!

Ming Ruan’s appreciation and admiration were written all over his face.

The snow leopard twitched his whiskers, his tense tail softening, swaying easily from side to side.

He actually thought that stone slab was quite beautiful too—and the feeling of being in accord with someone else was also very good.

Ming Ruan was like a little animal that had been carried into a new home. After circling around to familiarize himself with his new territory, his gaze targeted the large silver-gray cat in the cave once more.

Seeing the snow leopard’s current cheerful mood, Ming Ruan planned to strike while the iron was hot.

He took a step forward, but a loud growl—’grrrrrrowl’—suddenly echoed through the cave.

Both their gazes immediately turned toward Ming Ruan’s stomach.

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing.” Ming Ruan rubbed his belly vigorously. For the past two days, he had been rationing a single nutrient solution to last three days, eating only some berries at other times. He could barely keep himself full, and today he had literally eaten nothing yet.

Ming Ruan was about to say something else, but the snow leopard had already gotten up decisively and headed for the cave entrance.

Only when half his body had already pushed through the shrubs did he suddenly back up, turn his head, as if he had something to tell Ming Ruan.

At that moment, Ming Ruan’s ability to interpret small animal behavior activated at full speed. He immediately understood the snow leopard’s meaning. He responded, “I’ll only eat a little! Thank you, Leopard Cub! If you don’t find any prey before dark, just come back first. I still have a few berries in my pocket! I’ll wait for you here!”

Jin Qianyu had no light brain, and in his beast form, he couldn’t speak. He had just been wondering how to tell Ming Ruan he was going out to hunt, but Ming Ruan understood his meaning without any difficulty whatsoever.

He had to admit, this kind of unspoken understanding was something Jin Qianyu found very comfortable. He never liked having to explain too much to people.

The snow leopard’s tail lifted a little higher. He nodded at Ming Ruan, and with a whoosh, vanished behind the shrubs.

After the snow leopard left, Ming Ruan had just found a clean spot to sit down. His backside hadn’t even warmed up when he heard the leaves of the shrubs rustle again. The snow leopard ducked back in, a leaf-wrapped bundle in his mouth.

“That was fast!” Ming Ruan exclaimed with heartfelt sincerity. This snow leopard’s adaptability to the wild was clearly leagues ahead of the few Fluffballs back at his house.

At the strange compliment, the snow leopard slanted a glance at Ming Ruan and dropped the leaf bundle on the ground. The wrapping unfurled, revealing something that looked like butchered rabbit meat, already processed, along with a few small stone shards.

Ming Ruan picked up the small stones and examined them carefully. “These…”

These were stones that could be used to start a fire, and once lit, they would burn for a very long time. But because technology was so advanced, aside from zero-tech retro enthusiasts, very few people paid attention to such little things.

Jin Qianyu figured that Ming Ruan needed to eat cooked food and probably hadn’t brought a food processor with him, so he had gone to find some of these to bring back.

But now, how to teach Ming Ruan to use them was another issue.

As Jin Qianyu pondered, he saw Ming Ruan expertly set the small stone shards on the ground. He picked up two of them, struck them swiftly, and tossed them back into the pile of shards! A thin flame instantly covered the pile of small stones, then burned brighter and brighter.

“All done!” Ming Ruan clapped his hands, a feat executed in one fluid motion. Then he got up, broke a few branches at the cave entrance, and set up the rabbit meat over the fire on a makeshift spit.

Ming Ruan was, after all, not a native of the interstellar era. Living in a place like the sanatorium zone, he wasn’t actually that dependent on technology. He had figured out things like this in his spare time during Forest Patrol duties.

Watching the primitive barbecue take shape effortlessly before him, the snow leopard’s round pupils dilated slightly. He even opened his mouth a little, the tip of his tongue peeking out.

Flames danced in the snow leopard’s eyes.

He had only spent a short day with Ming Ruan, yet he never imagined Ming Ruan could bring him so many… surprises.

Ming Ruan didn’t have a temper spoiled since childhood. He lacked those troublesome airs. Instead, in every way, every single way, he was so perfectly in tune with him!

A strange feeling arose in Jin Qianyu, like meeting a soulmate on the road, a regret that they had not met sooner.

The snow leopard’s long tail moved, suppressing its excitement and swaying with restraint between him and Ming Ruan.

Unbeknownst to him, as Ming Ruan watched over the rabbits on the fire, his peripheral vision secretly tracked that tail from time to time. He occasionally gripped a branch tightly—also exercising restraint, restraining the itch in his hands.

One man, one leopard, each harboring their own ‘hidden desires,’ finished this small meal.

After eating, Ming Ruan finally stretched out his sinful hand toward the snow leopard tentatively.

They were already so familiar now; surely just a little pet was okay!

The snow leopard lay on his side under the moonlight, watching his fiancé not only refuse to shy away from his beast form but actually press closer and closer.

When those hands landed on his head, Jin Qianyu did not refuse.

Only, originally, Jin Qianyu had thought that after his therianthropy, he might perhaps gain another bosom friend who shared his hobbies.

At this moment, under the young man’s gentle stroking, that expectation slightly veered off course, drifting into some indescribable, undefined reveries.

—

Ming Ruan was seizing every possible chance to deepen his bond with the snow leopard. Outside this High Mountain Zone, the sanatorium zone and even the entire StarNet had long been thrown into utter chaos.

The special joint investigation team, formed by the sanatorium and the Research Institute for the Plateau Region avalanche, was incredibly busy, scrambling to find their bearings. They were simultaneously confirming the situation with all parties while fending off various prominent figures who had somehow patched their communications directly into the sanatorium. Ever since the avalanche and Ming Ruan’s loss of contact, everyone had been under immense pressure.

“Yes, today we will publicly disclose all the information we’ve gathered and our future objectives.”

“That’s correct, it will be in the form of a live broadcast.”

“Please do not worry, the situation is positive—please follow the upcoming live stream, thank you!”

The researcher finished speaking in one breath, slammed the communication shut, and rushed into the meeting room right behind his colleague, carrying a light brain full of materials.

Inside the meeting room, Lion, Wolf, Fox, and—the Adjudicator—all turned their gazes toward him in unison.

And the countless live-stream cameras floating within the meeting room all aimed at him at the same time.

The pressure was so low it nearly suffocated him.

Researcher: “…”

The researcher took a breath and stepped onto the platform.

On StarNet:

“I just want to know what reason could cause a loss of contact?? What year is it on the Stellar Calendar, and you’re telling me a light brain lost contact? I’m not scolding you, but don’t you think that’s absurd yourselves?”

“I just want to know how Ruanruan is doing! If he’s fine, is it so hard to just give us a definite answer?!!!”

“It’s clearly just an avalanche. If the connection hadn’t been lost, it would’ve been a ten-minute fix. Now look at this mess.”

“What about Jin Qianyu? Without Ming Ruan, who’s responsible for his problems?”

“I remember protective devices are only loaded with ten nutrient solutions at most. It’s been so many days now! What do you want Ruanruan to do!!!”

“I can’t listen anymore, I’ve cried so many times already.”

Luckily, the Research Institute had indeed only convened this press conference after thoroughly investigating everything.

They got straight to the point: “Please rest assured. Through detection by multiple underground instruments within the sanatorium zone, Ming Ruan’s life signal has been located, and his vital signs are at normal levels.”

Normal levels meant no illness, no excessive hunger, and no other abnormal conditions.

That single sentence visibly eased the frozen atmosphere.

“Great, great, great, great, great!!”

“I immediately did a sit-up, sob, sob, sob!!”

In countless live broadcast rooms, the negative comments that had been flooding the screen were instantly swept away, replaced by a screen full of jubilation.

They were satisfied with just that?

The researcher saw these comments, suppressed his emotions, and tried to deliver the next topic of public concern as calmly as possible: “And through repeated verification, it is known that the condition of the snow leopard Beastman, Jin Qianyu, has already risen back above the warning line—data analysis indicates that the snow leopard has already rendezvoused with District 12 Executor, Ming Ruan.”

What?

Xie Gewen and the others, who were present at the meeting, hadn’t known this either. Their first reaction was to look at Su Yuyun’s expression.

Apart from the night of the avalanche, when Su Yuyun had risked exposure by transforming into his human form to try and prevent Ming Ruan from being swept away, during all these days that Ming Ruan had been missing, he had been like a cosmic black hole—low pressure, yet terrifyingly calm, making people afraid to approach him.

With Ming Ruan gone, Su Yuyun seemed to have shed that relatively amiable facade, reverting to the high-and-mighty, emotionless deity who adjudicated life and death, someone even Fuxi wouldn’t rashly get close to.

Perhaps the highest authority of this sanatorium zone had known all this long ago, which was why he was so calm.

Unlike them, who had been scouring the High Mountain Zone for two or three days before being forcibly dragged back.

Each of them recalled the past few days. The fox and the gray wolf had stayed on the snow mountain for a long time, refusing to leave, while the lion had nearly gone over Su Yuyun’s head to directly dispatch mecha soldiers from the Clarence family to join the search.

Those memories, soaked in the bone-chilling snow mountain, were not good ones—being frozen stiff, paws and noses bleeding from ceaseless sniffing and digging, stand-offs between factions… none of that mattered. Only that terror of losing Ming Ruan was something none of them wanted to recall.

Though.

Upon second thought.

Right when they had been burning with anxiety, that snow leopard had actually happened to run into Ming Ruan!

Shi Huai chewed his own claw, grinding his teeth. Judging by the snow leopard’s recovery data, the past couple of days must have been absolute bliss for him!

And on StarNet, the public never imagined that Ming Ruan, besides keeping himself perfectly safe, would bring them yet another such surprise.

“??? Meaning! Not only is Ming Ruan fine! He also found the snow leopard! And calmed him down!!”

“Can this really be done! Is this the power of an Ancient Earthling?”

“If this isn’t a miracle!!”

“What a surprise, really, such a huge surprise.”

“And then? Then what? What happens next?”

The netizens’ mood swung from despair to elation. They spread the news far and wide, so much so that when the Research Institute later explained that ‘Ming Ruan’s light brain disconnection was caused by a logic conflict between the Information Shackle and the Outdoor Zone Information Shielding System,’ the relevant technical department didn’t even receive much scolding.

“Then when can we get Ruanruan back?!!”

“Within three days, we will re-establish contact with District 12 Executor, Ming Ruan.”