Chapter 37 Wagging Tail: Wild Snow Leopards Are Safe...

The first blizzard came unexpectedly.

Xu Nian was walking back with Los when suddenly the snow started to get heavier. Before, Xu Nian thought that the so-called blizzard should not be much different from the previous snow. After all, the previous snow was also very heavy. As long as he lay outside for a while, a small pile of snow would gather on his body.

But he obviously underestimated the horror of nature. When snowflakes fell one after another and the road ahead was almost invisible, Xu Nian looked at the fluttering snow and felt an inexplicable fear of a wild beast before a natural disaster.

Los became even more aware of this, so he stopped and the marmot in his mouth had stopped struggling.

Two snow leopards stood at the foot of a towering snow-capped mountain, looking up at the approaching blizzard. Los was the first to react, whispering, "Let's go back to our den."

"Okay." Xu Nian was not as familiar with dealing with such situations as Los. When he saw Los become serious, he knew that the thing Los was worried about had come. He immediately followed Los without saying a word and walked towards the mountain.

Blizzards are often accompanied by biting cold winds, which are somewhat biting. Xu Nian's pace is slower than usual because he is walking against the wind. Fortunately, Los in front of him is not walking fast either. He keeps walking and stopping, and looks back at Xu Nian from time to time.

"Keep your body down and climb up." Los still held the marmot in his mouth, his furry ears slightly erect. Listening to the howling wind, he turned his head to look at Xu Nian and said, "Just follow me, don't be afraid."

Xu Nian raised his furry paws and climbed over the mountain wall with difficulty. His hind paws stepped on the rocks. He propped himself up slightly and looked at the steep slope. In the cold wind, some movements that were easier in the past became sluggish.

This time the climb seemed particularly difficult, and it was different from the previous time when Xu Nian was not very good at climbing rock walls. This time it was because the wind was too strong and the snow fell quickly and rapidly. Even if Xu Nian wanted to step firmly on the rock, the place where his paw pads touched would still slip slightly. But this was very dangerous for a snow leopard that was climbing.

The rapidly falling new snow covered the rock wall, blocking the existing cracks, so that Xu Nian almost slipped. Fortunately, he was no longer the clumsy snow leopard he used to be. He quickly grabbed on with his front paws, and only a few small stones fell off.

Seeing this, Los simply jumped onto the rock above, and then said to Xu Nian: "You go ahead."

Xu Nian didn't know what Los was going to do, but he was very obedient. He continued to take steps and climb slowly, trying to take every step steadily. Then he found that Los was following him closely to prevent him from falling.

Xu Nian couldn't describe the feeling in his heart. Whether as a human or a snow leopard, it was the first time he felt protected.

"Let's go." Los still had to hold the marmot in his mouth, but even so, every step he took was very steady, as if the heavy snow and wind falling on his body was very light and there was no resistance at all.

Its fur was blown into a mess. When it looked at Xu Nian, Los, holding the prey in his mouth, had a wild look in his eyes, which made Xu Nian inexplicably feel a sense of security.

After finally returning to the den and putting down the prey, Los immediately checked Xu Nian's body. He said in a low voice, "Your sense of smell has been damaged since you fell on your head. You must not fall on it again."

Xu Nian nodded obediently and let Los sniff all over his body. He had slept for such a long time anyway, so what was the big deal if he sniffed a little?

"It's snowing so heavily." Xu Nian had never seen such heavy snow and was a little amazed. He raised his paw and soon there was a layer of snow on the back of his paw. It looked like the snow curtain fell directly from the sky and it was impossible to see more than three meters away.

"Don't worry about it." Los licked Xu Nian gently, and then said: "You go sleep inside. If it continues to snow tomorrow, we won't go out."

Xu Nian nodded. He didn’t understand why Los was so worried about the blizzard before, but now he completely understood.

The two snow leopards squeezed into a slightly narrow den. Xu Nian Hou leaned against the stone wall. He might have eaten a lot recently, and his belly seemed to be slightly bulging. The whole snow leopard looked like a particularly furry ball.

He lowered his head and tried to comb his fur, only to notice that he had garlic hairs. He had heard that wild animals would have garlic hairs when they were well-fed, but he never thought that one day he would have them too.

"What are you looking at?" Los came closer, twitching his nose slightly, then lying down on his side, his tail resting lightly on Xu Nian's body, and whispered, "It's snowing. We can't go anywhere for the time being. Get some rest."

Its tone revealed a very calm feeling, which was completely opposite to its usual unstable appearance, but it was the same snow leopard. Xu Nian raised his head and looked at Los. Their eyes met, and Xu Nian's ears twitched slightly twice.

"Go to sleep." Los stiffly turned his gaze away, raised his paw, and forced Xu Nian to go to sleep.

Xu Nian sighed, it was indeed the emotionally unstable snow leopard again.

*

The blizzard came suddenly, but fortunately it did not last too long. However, it still allowed Xu Nian to witness the power of the blizzard. Early the next morning, Xu Nian felt that there used to be some noise outside, but now it was very quiet outside, even silent.

When Los turned sideways, it casually shook off the snow on its back. It had been shielding itself from the wind and snow like this all night. When Xu Nian saw this and was about to come over, he was given a sideways look by Los, so he had to lie down obediently.

"Is it still snowing?" Xu Nian could only squeeze out, his furry head resting against Los's side. He looked outside and saw that everything was indeed silent. He whispered, "What a thick layer of snow."

It was just one night, but the snow looked so thick that it could probably cover its waist and abdomen. Xu Nian was a little amazed.

"It's not snowing anymore." Los stepped out with his paws out. The marmot he hunted yesterday had frozen solid. He dug the marmot out of the snow, tore open its body with his fangs, sniffed it gently, and then heard an eagle's cry in the distance. Los subconsciously looked towards the source of the sound.

The vulture spread its wings and flew past. Because it was flying relatively low, its wings lifted a thin layer of snow mist from the snow. With a clear whistle, it flew into the sky again.

The wolves in the distance seemed to wake up at this time and began to howl. It was not until this time that Xu Nian found the familiar feeling and came back to his senses from the feeling of almost silence just now.

A large piece of marmot meat was pushed in front of him. Xu Nian subconsciously raised his head and looked at Los, but the other party did not look back at him. He just kept tearing the marmot apart, and gently shook his tail from time to time.

After everything was done, Los realized that Xu Nian hadn't eaten yet. He tilted his head in confusion and asked, "Don't you like it?"

However, before Xu Nian could answer, it explained to itself, "It's frozen hard, so the taste is a bit off. I'll try to catch some more later."

"No need." Xu Nian immediately picked up the marmot. He moved closer to Los, rubbed him hard, and whispered, "It's not that I don't want to eat it, I just want to eat it with you."

The meat of a marmot is not much. If it were spring, Los could hunt a lot of them and bring them back for Xu Nian to eat. But in this season, let alone marmots, even rabbits are hard to come by. They have to compete for food with various predators. Indeed, even the weaker snow leopards find it difficult to survive such a difficult winter.

Los was still looking outside. After hearing this, he turned his head and glanced at Xu Nian. He paused for a moment, raised his paw and stuffed the marmot meat directly into Xu Nian's arms. He flicked his tail and said, "Eat it. I'll catch more."

What a joke, it can’t catch a marmot?!

Things got to this point, and Xu Nian was almost hit on the nose by a marmot. He had no choice but to hold the marmot in his mouth and go to the side to eat it alone. Here, Los looked at the tail dragging behind the other party, and then looked at Xu Nian eating in the snow, and was very satisfied.

When Xu Nian came out from Luo Yin, he was skinny and his whole body was supported by fur. He was nothing like now. It was obvious to the naked eye that he was well-fed. His fur was shiny and smooth, his paws were clean and tidy, his face was furry, and there was no worry in his beautiful eyes.

These are all the battle records of Ta Luos, which are much better than Luo Yin!

"Waste." Ross couldn't help but sneer.

"Hmm?" Hearing these two words inexplicably, Xu Nian, who was chewing on the marmot, subconsciously stopped, turned his head to look at Los, tilted his head slightly, and asked; "Me?"

"...Not you." Los didn't hide his disdain for Luo Yin at all. He raised his chin slightly and said, "Eat as much as you want. I'll go hunting after you finish. Luo Yin can't hunt prey, so you need to save food. It's him who's useless."

Xu Nian thought about it. If he remembered correctly, Los had said before that prey would be hard to find after the blizzard. If there were two more blizzards, even they would probably need to move to another place.

But now Los was in a good mood. After thinking about it, he decided that it would be better to just eat the marmot.

"Actually, I didn't save any money over there either." Xu Nian, who was almost done with his marmot, thought for a moment. After struggling for a while, he finally had a bit of conscience and tried to salvage Luo Yin's already precarious reputation. He explained guiltily, "I only lost weight after I lost contact with Luo Yin during the snowstorm. I was actually fine before that."

To be precise, when he first became a snow leopard, he was not yet skin and bones. Unfortunately, he had just become a snow leopard and was not familiar with hunting, so he almost starved to death.

Los half-closed his eyes, then stood up and walked towards Xu Nian. Xu Nian thought that the other party wanted to rub against him again. After all, Los liked to sniff and rub against him during this period, which made him feel that they should be good friends.

Then Xu Nian saw Los pick up the remaining marmot meat with an expressionless face, swing his tail back to the edge of the cliff, and continue lying there.

"Actually..." Xu Nian squatted on the ground, licked his fangs, then lowered his head to lick his paws, and said casually: "This is the first time I've been raised so well. Look at this fur, how smooth it is."

As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Nian saw the tip of Los's tail curled up, although Los continued to look at the scenery, not looking at him, but only facing him with the back of his furry head.

"When Luo Yin and I lived together, we usually lived in two nests, and no one would shelter me from the wind and snow." Xu Nian said as he observed Los's tail. Sure enough, he saw that not only did the other's tail tremble a few times, but even his ears stood up and shook slightly.

But the snow leopard still lay very calmly on the snow and refused to look back, except that its tail was a little uneasy.

"It's obviously a very troublesome thing to teach me how to hunt." Xu Nian said in a low voice, "But it seems that there are snow leopards that are particularly powerful. Not only can they give me prey, but they can also teach me how to hunt."

"The snow leopard's name is Los." Xu Nian continued.

Sure enough, the snow leopard, which was originally lying steadily on the snow, could not help it and immediately turned its head to look at Xu Nian. It looked at Xu Nian very attentively, then stood up and walked to Xu Nian's side, looking down at Xu Nian who was squatting on the ground, lowered its head slightly, sniffed, and then licked Xu Nian's side.

The big cat's barbed tongue licked the thick fur, and it didn't hurt, it even felt a little itchy.

"That idiot has no idea that a snow leopard that can't hunt can't survive." Los's voice sounded a little low. There was a hint of nostalgia in his eyes that he himself hadn't noticed. He nudged Xu Nian and said, "I'm better than him. Don't think about him anymore."

Perhaps it was because when they first met, it did not drive Xu Nian away, but instead allowed him to apologize to its tail.

From then on, Los's preference was given to Xu Nian.

…

Kai'e hadn't found any prey for two consecutive days. He returned to his den halfway up the mountain, licking his hungry belly, wondering whether to go south or north, but was afraid of encountering Luo Yin or a pack of wolves.

Just as it was about to sigh, it heard some subtle noises. It got up vigilantly and looked outside, only to see Los and Xu Nian walking one after the other, holding their tails in their mouths.

The thick snow had a significant impact on Kaie's hunting, not to mention Xu Nian. He searched everywhere but couldn't find even half a rabbit nest, and now he couldn't smell anything, which made the situation even worse.

"Not finding prey is one thing, having it snatched away is another." Los saw what Xu Nian was thinking at a glance. He raised his head slightly and looked at the two vultures that had stopped on the rock wall behind him at some point. These two vultures were obviously following them from a distance, waiting to eat carrion.

Xu Nian followed Los's gaze and saw the vulture, which was being stared at by two snow leopards, thought for a moment, took two steps back with its big claws, and spread its wings and flapped them casually twice.

"Compared to vultures, wolves are more difficult to deal with." Los turned his head and looked in the direction of the forest. That was the wolf's territory. Generally speaking, it was best to avoid conflicts, but when it came to fighting for food, everyone would bite each other for their lives.

Wolves are very good at group fighting and have strong tactics. In comparison, snow leopards, who like to travel alone, suffer a lot.

"I saw bloodstains in the cave you took me to before. It seems to have been there a long time ago." Xu Nian thought for a moment and asked in a low voice, "Is it yours?"

"..." Los, who was walking in front, stopped and looked back at Xu Nian. He snorted coldly and said, "It's not mine."

"Whose is that?" Xu Nian was a little surprised.

"...Don't ask." Los frowned, obviously a little unhappy. His tail suddenly dropped down and dragged behind him. After thinking for two seconds, he held the tail in his mouth and continued walking.

However, after walking a few steps forward, Los stopped again and looked at Xu Nian who was struggling to catch up. He let go of the tail in his mouth, flicked it lightly, and said vigilantly with half-closed eyes: "Don't tell other leopards about that."

Xu Nian nodded obediently, but he suddenly remembered that day when he met Kaie, and hesitantly said: "But Kaie..."

"It's useless. It's useless to know." Los didn't take Kaie seriously at all. He corrected his statement and warned, "Don't tell Luo Yin."

Xu Nian breathed a sigh of relief and nodded heavily, "I definitely won't tell!"

Xu Nian didn't even want to meet Luo Yin. He knew too well what nonsense he had said. The day they met would be the end of his life!

Xu Nian couldn't help but shiver when he thought of this.

"Are you cold?" Los saw Xu Nian shivering and came over to ask, "Come next to me."

"Okay." Xu Nian did not deny it. He followed Los obediently with his tail in his mouth. The oncoming wind and snow were blocked by Los. He subconsciously turned his head to look at the wild snow leopard beside him. The other party's eyes were firm, although it was only a snow leopard over two years old.