36 Looking for trouble

◎The first thing he saw when he came out was a huge lion lying under a tree.◎

Because of this play with the little lions, the cubs recognized this sister and always stayed around to play with her when their mother went hunting again.

It just so happened that Qiao Jinnian also wanted to practice hunting skills. The fighting between the little lions was not just play, but a way to practice hunting.

She had no canine teeth or sharp claws, so she wanted to break through with her skills.

However, the cubs are only three months old now, so she has to be careful. She follows the cubs' behavior, lies on the ground, and bites them in a ball.

She was very careful not to hurt the cubs, but they were only three months old and had no way of controlling their strength. After a while, they scratched her body and left many bloody marks.

The lion father was already upset that his cubs were playing with other cubs instead of with him, and now he was even angrier. He made a gurgling warning sound in his throat, but did not roar again to avoid scaring a few more cubs to sit on the ground.

Now Ryan could only make that kind of sound in anger while lowering his head to silently lick Qiao Jinnian's wounds.

Seeing that the lion father was angry, Qiao Jinnian leaned on him, stretched out her arms, and let him lick her slowly and rub his big head.

In fact, these wounds are not serious. They are mainly caused by the little lions not retracting their claws.

However, to survive on such a primitive grassland, one must get used to these little fights. Her skin is still too delicate. She does not have the thick fur of wild animals, nor the hard shell.

The lion's saliva should have anti-inflammatory effects. Qiao Jinnian was not afraid of inflammation and fell asleep while lying on the lion father.

Later, the cubs seemed to realize that they had made a mistake. They looked at their sister's sleeping face timidly. Every time they wanted to approach the big lion, they would be scared back by Ryan's sharp eyes and play obediently on the nearby grass.

Ryan is responsible for taking care of the cubs. This job seems to require no technical skills, but if there was no male lion staying on this grassland, the cubs would have been eaten by passing carnivores long ago.

Although it was the dry season and food was scarce, Qiao Jinnian did not forget to find her new stone pot. After all, she couldn't live without a pot now because she had to cook a lot of things, such as meat and vegetable porridge and salt.

Because Sister Sa and Brother Lion were hunting, she didn't need to hunt for the time being, so she had time to start studying cotton.

The things she called cotton had been drying by the river for several days, and it was time to try and make clothes out of them.

The little lions saw their sister sitting there alone, not knowing what she was busy with, so they squatted on either side, two of them, and watched, forgetting about playing.

Qiao Jinnian didn't know how cotton was turned into cotton thread, but according to common sense, it should be dried in the sun first and then rubbed. Unfortunately, there was no spinning machine, so he could only rub it one by one by hand.

However, she didn't know whether the cotton here was too different from the cotton she knew, because the cotton fluff always fell off when rubbed.

Perhaps this is the legendary coarse-staple cotton. Qiao Jinnian doesn’t know much about it and has not paid special attention to related content.

Obviously, these cottons cannot be used to twist into cotton thread, but it doesn’t matter. She plans to stuff the cotton directly into a bag made of hemp rope. In this way, won’t it become a thick quilt?

You can also make some soft cushions or thick clothes. In short, this cotton will definitely be very useful.

Qiao Jinnian did it as soon as she thought of it. While drying the cotton, she soaked the hemp rope and prepared to sew a quilt for herself by hand.

The lion father’s embrace is very warm, but she will have to grow up one day. She can’t always sleep in her father’s long mane when she is an adult. That would be weird.

So, Qiao Jinnian started working again, and she is now a glorious textile worker.

During breaks at work, she would play with the lion father, train hunting skills with the cubs, and cook a meal for herself every day. When she has plenty of time, she would stew a pot of meat. When she doesn't have enough time, she would roast a lot of dried meat for easy carrying.

Now, even Sister Sa and the little lions have gotten used to this strange cub often tinkering with these weird things.

On this day, Sister Sa and Reiner went out hunting again, and Ryan lazily took a nap under a big tree to enjoy the cool air.

However, there was a rustling sound coming from the bushes behind him.

When Qiao Jinnian heard the sound, she looked over curiously. Ryan's ears twitched in the direction of the sound, obviously having heard the sound a long time ago. Even the little lions beside him looked over at the same time.

As a result, after waiting for a long time, they actually saw a cheetah coming out of the bushes with a small gray-fur animal in its mouth.

Now, the first thing he saw when he came out was the huge lion lying under the tree.

There was no reaction here. The cheetah's eyes were evasive, and he seemed to be doing a very complicated math problem in his mind. Finally, he could only bear the pain and put the prey in his mouth where it was. Then, he turned around and dived into the bushes, disappearing from the grassland at an extremely fast speed.

Qiao Jinnian: "..."

So, he felt that this was Ryan's territory and the prey could not be taken away casually, so in order to survive, he had to return the prey that he had caught with great difficulty?

Qiao Jinnian felt that animals were easy to understand, but such small prey was too small for the lion's appetite.

Therefore, Ryan was too lazy to move at all. Only Qiao Jinnian thought that in times of drought, no matter how small the prey was, it was still meat, so it would be better to give it to the little lions to sharpen their teeth.

The cheetah was scared away and certainly didn't dare to go back and take the prey, and she didn't know how to get it to come back.

Ryan would not tolerate any top predator appearing in his territory.

The little lions already had teeth and could eat meat. They were very happy to see their sister throw the prey directly to them. They wagged their tails, lay in front of the prey, and bit the prey with their sharp teeth.

This small prey seemed to be a mongoose, very small, just enough for the little lion to eat.

After eating and feeding, Sister Sa will also take the initiative to teach the little lions hunting skills.

However, Qiao Jinnian discovered something strange, that is, Sister Sa was particularly tolerant towards two of the little lions, letting them eat first, but was more strict with the other two.

One day, Qiao Jinnian was really curious, so she picked up the little lions and went to see whether they were male or female. As a result, she found that the two that were treated better by Sister Sa, and the two that grew bigger because of the different treatment, were actually males!

Wait, Qiao Jin thought for a long time before realizing that, that's right, because male lions will be driven out of the tribe to live independently when they are three years old, but female lions will always stay in the lion group, so Sister Sa is giving them preferential treatment so that the male lions can survive better.

Alas, when Qiao Jinnian thought of this reason, she inexplicably felt sorry for the two lion brothers. They only had three years to stay here temporarily, and she didn't know whether they could pass the cruel test and survive successfully in the future.

In order to prevent them from being too weak when living independently, Qiao Jinnian also joined the team to train them in hunting skills. When Sister Sa was not around, she took them to catch rabbits.

What's more, the five cubs actually caught a rabbit on their own!

Qiao Jinnian named her two younger brothers Sa Dadan and Sa Duanlian, and her two younger sisters Sa Xiaomei and Sa Zhua Zhua. She distinguished them based on their features. Sa Dadan was the bravest brother who was yelled at by Ryan. Sa Duanlian's face was shorter than the other three, while Sa Xiaomei was like a cute kitten. Sa Zhua Zhua's paws were very distinctive, round and fleshy.

After giving them names, Qiao Jinnian would call them by their names from time to time, allowing them to gradually adapt to their unique names.

It’s true that lions have very high IQs. After being called a few times, they showed some reactions, especially Little Sister Sa. When you call her, she will respond with an “Awooo”.

Life was plain and warm. My younger brothers and sisters changed every day. Even in the dry season, they grew up very fast. This was mainly because they had a very strong mother who was especially good at cooking.

In contrast, Qiao Jinnian grew very slowly, especially when she was lying on the ground, sometimes she would be knocked over by Sa Dadan's pounce.

At this time, Qiao Jinnian would suddenly stand up, with a look of fear on her face, wondering why her sister had suddenly grown so big? How scary!

Qiao Jinnian didn't know what Sister Sa was up to. Would she form a Lion Alliance with their family of three in the future? So, would Sister Sa's family of five also go back to their home in the south with them during the rainy season?

This was not something she should worry about. After all, the head of the family didn't worry at all. All he did all day was look after the children and sleep under a tree. Of course, as for what he did in the middle of the night, Qiao Jinnian didn't know, because she herself was still a child and slept very soundly at night, always sleeping until dawn.

On this day, it was a rare occasion that Sister Sa and Reiner were both at home. All eight members of the lion group, not one missing, lay down neatly by the river to drink water, and then lay together under a tree to enjoy the cool air.

However, in the distance, a strange lion roar was heard from the edge of the territory.

This was an uninvited guest, and the voice sounded particularly fierce. Even Qiao Jinnian could tell that a fierce battle was about to take place.

Ryan, who was about to fall asleep with his eyes closed, stood up with a fierce look on his face. He looked at Reiner and Sister Sa and growled in a low voice: "Roar——"

No one knew what they communicated about. Reiner stayed to take care of the five cubs, while Ryan and Sister Sa went to fight the enemy.

But how could Qiao Jinnian just hide in the back? What if Father Lion and Sister Sa were in danger? Would she become an orphan?

So she took the four little ones and asked Reiner to take them to the battlefield ahead to take a peek.

Reiner was helpless, and he knew that his sister was very ambitious, so he took them to follow from a distance. Finally, they chose a very high slope, and they hid on the slope, looking at the grassland in the distance.

There were two huge lions standing on the grassland. One had a very short tail, as if it had been bitten off by other animals. The other had a lot of hair, but its hairstyle was particularly messy, as if it had been rolling in the mud all year round, with its hair tangled together and not combed well.