Chapter 271 Bringing Back a Child

It's no wonder they were shocked. They grew up in the mountains and had seen many people bitten by clouded leopards since they were young. In their minds, although clouded leopards are not large, they are very fierce wild beasts.

But what is this thing right in front of me now?

It's as well-behaved as a pet cat.

Its tail wags like a propeller, all in an attempt to beg for a bite to eat.

Its appearance was so adorable that Qin Suisui couldn't resist and boldly reached out to stroke the clouded leopard's fluffy head. The clouded leopard seemed to thoroughly enjoy the touch and comfortably closed its eyes.

After eating three eggs fed to it by Qin Suisui and being gently "stroked" by her, the clouded leopard's expression became docile. It plopped down and continued to stare longingly at Qin Suisui.

Is this... more food?

Qin Suisui was a little embarrassed. When she left home in the morning, Aunt Zhang packed two eggs for each of them. She had already given away her two eggs and also gave one to Jia Zhenzhen. Even if she had many more in her space, she couldn't just conjure them up out of thin air in front of so many people.

Fortunately, the clouded leopard's gaze was so blatant that not only Qin Suisui but everyone else noticed it.

Jia Zhenzhen couldn't help but burst into laughter. She imitated Qin Suisui and reached out to pat Yunbao's head. Yunbao wanted to get angry and even took a step back subconsciously, but after glancing at Qin Suisui, he reluctantly "made up" for the step he had taken back.

"Little guy, you've got two faces!" Jia Zhenzhen gently stroked the clouded leopard's head while taking the last egg from her basket: "Here, have some!"

She thought that she and the clouded leopard had already reached a point where they could "get physical" with each other, and that since she had even given up her lunch, it should at least be kind enough to have a bite.

Unexpectedly, all of this was just her "presumption." The clouded leopard simply stuck out its head to sniff the egg in Jia Zhenzhen's hand, then immediately turned its head away haughtily, even showing a look of disgust.

"Hey, you brat!" Jia Zhenzhen didn't believe it and stretched the egg forward again. Unexpectedly, the clouded leopard got angry and opened its mouth wide, letting out a "roar," which startled Jia Zhenzhen so much that she shrank back and dropped the egg.

Li Laosan prided himself on having dealt with wild animals a lot since childhood and believed he had a good "connection with animals." So he took the initiative to step forward, took out two eggs from his pocket, put them in his hand, and gave the clouded leopard what he thought was a very friendly smile: "Come on, young man, have my eggs."

The clouded leopard glanced at him sideways, then lowered its noble head, sniffed the two eggs in his hand, and turned its head away again. It even let out a low growl at the others, meaning that they should stop trying to fool it with "fake eggs".

Li Laosan was startled, and the eggs rolled to the ground. When he came to his senses, he felt his pride had been hurt: "What happened? They're both eggs, but Comrade Qin's eggs smelled extra good?"

"How about... we feed all the eggs to Comrade Qin?" Li Lao Er spoke up at the right moment, mainly because this little guy in front of them seemed determined not to let them leave until he was full. The clouded leopard was fast; if it came to running away, probably no one present could outrun it.

“I think so.” Hu Jue was the first to agree with Li Lao Er’s words. He valued his life very much. No matter how cute the clouded leopard in front of him was, he had no intention of trying to pet or feed it. His life was very precious. He still needed to save his life to find his beloved eldest daughter.

So everyone present gave all the eggs they had brought to Qin Suisui. Qin Suisui took them and pretended to put them in her bag to feed them one by one, but in reality, she replaced them all with eggs from her spatial storage.

The three men had six eggs, plus the one Jia Zhenzhen had left, making a total of seven eggs. Yunbao ate them one after another without even lifting his head.

Li Laosan poked his brother's waist from the side: "Brother, don't you think it's hard to choke on?"

Li Lao Er glanced at him sideways: "What? Go and give it some water?"

"Hehe, no, no..." That "roar" from the clouded leopard almost scared him to death. Seeing the clouded leopard's sharp teeth up close was terrifying!

Hearing Li Laosan's mutterings and seeing Yunbao's still expectant look, Qin Suisui thought for a moment, took out a water bottle from her basket, and waved it at Yunbao: "You've eaten all the eggs, there aren't any left for now. How about I give you some water?"

As she spoke, she opened the lid of her military water bottle and brought it close to the clouded leopard's nose so it could smell it.

The clouded leopard was initially a little disappointed when she said there were no more eggs, but it perked up immediately upon smelling the water.

Qin Suisui sighed inwardly. Fortunately, she had several military water bottles in her space. She had taken them out of her space, which were actually filled with water from the stream inside, under the cover of the basket.

Seeing that the clouded leopard really wanted to drink water, Li Laosan diligently took out a clean, large-mouthed bamboo cup from his basket. He had been saving it to fill with spring water on the mountain, and now it was perfect for the clouded leopard to drink.

Qin Suisui poured the water in, and Yunbao eagerly drank it all in one gulp.

After eating and drinking its fill, the little guy's expression finally improved a lot. Qin Suisui squatted down and asked it, "Little guy, do you know where there are lantern flowers on the mountain?" The reason she thought of asking the cloud leopard was because the lantern flowers were no longer in bloom, and Li Lao Er and Li Lao San only knew the general location and still needed to go and find them.

Seeing the clouded leopard's confused look, Qin Suisui added, "It's that kind of small flower with blue-purple petals and yellow stamens."

Whether it was because it had spent the night with Big Yellow and Big Black or for some other reason, the clouded leopard miraculously understood Qin Suisui's words. It wagged its tail, stood up, and led the group up the mountain.

"Wow, it didn't actually understand, did it? Comrade Qin, you're amazing!" Li Laosan's face showed both surprise and envy.

Qin Suisui smiled somewhat embarrassedly; she had also relied entirely on the spatial cheat!

The clouded leopard led the group through the mountains for more than half an hour, finally stopping when they passed through a pine forest. Without its signal, Qin Suisui and the others saw the scattered dots on the slope ahead—these were lantern flowers.

"We actually found it!" Li Laosan exclaimed, running to the flower field and waving excitedly at Qin Suisui and the others: "It really is a lantern flower!"

Qin Suisui was also very happy. She had come all this way just for this little flower.

She crouched down and carefully dug up a plant by the roots with a hoe. The purple petals, still glistening with dew, resembled delicate shards of porcelain in the sunlight. Exactly the same as the one she and Jia Zhenzhen had dreamt of that night!

Qin Suisui remembered when she was little, going up the mountain with her grandmother to collect herbs. Her grandmother would always remind her, "Leave the roots when you collect herbs, they'll grow again next year." So she developed the habit of always carefully avoiding the main root when collecting herbs, only taking part of the plant. (Except for certain herbs that need to be transplanted whole into the space.)

As the sun rose higher, with the combined efforts of several people, they had harvested enough lantern flowers.

The group sat on the rocks to catch their breath and took out their lunch from their cloth bags: buckwheat cakes mixed with cornmeal that Aunt Zhang had brought them, a piece of salted wild boar meat for each person, and local sun-dried green tea.

Qin Suisui also contributed all the dry food that the villagers had given her when she went up the mountain that morning.

Just as everyone was having lunch in high spirits, the clouded leopard that had slipped away earlier returned, bringing back a child with a broken leg!