Chapter 43 That panda looked only a few...
The panda looked to be only a few months old, its round body resembling a fluffy rice ball. Just seeing it made one want to reach out and knead it a few times. Its pair of oval-shaped black eye patches gave it a strange, melancholic air, making it a very distinctive panda cub.
"Crunch... crunch..." In fact, they couldn't hear the panda chewing from their position, but seeing the panda holding the bamboo and chewing, Xiao Yanhui subconsciously added the sound effects in her mind.
The little guy ate with great effort and focus, his chubby body rising and falling slightly with each chew, his round bottom even wiggling along with it, as if he were using all his strength to eat. His adorable appearance instantly touched the softest spot in Xiao Yan Hui's heart.
"Wow!" Looking at the panda's movements not far away, Xiao Yan subconsciously exclaimed "Wow!" and then cupped her face. When people see cute creatures, they seem to easily make some cute movements as well.
Her gaze was almost entirely fixed on the panda cub, and her eyes were sparkling with a pure, childlike joy.
"You really like it." Qin Ji looked at her like this, a sense of satisfaction welled up in his heart, and his voice also carried a little pride: "There is another one, but that one is more careful and shy. It will hide if it senses something is wrong. I have only touched it a few times."
“Qin Ji…” Xiao Yan turned her head and stared at him.
"Hmm?" Qin Ji smiled, her eyes filled with complete innocence.
"Are you sure you're not just bragging when you say that?!" He's so shy, he only touched her a few times—this guy's bragging instincts are practically bursting.
"Pfft." Qin Ji chuckled. "This one's pretty brave. You can feed it some goat milk and fruit later, and petting it a few times shouldn't be a problem. It's just that it's still small, otherwise I really wouldn't dare let you touch it directly."
After all, no matter how cute this creature is, it's still a bear.
Although there wasn't much of a commotion here, quite a few people were still standing around. Even though the panda cubs had been well-fed and cared for for a while, they still retained the keenness and caution typical of wild animals.
It must have heard the noise, because the glutinous panda stopped eating bamboo and turned around.
However, judging from its slow movements and its pair of dark, curious, and bewildered eyes, it may not have retained much of the keenness of a wild animal.
"Hmm...hmm!" Although those eyes were not very noticeable because they were hidden in dark circles, Xiao Yan was certain that she had made eye contact with the cute creature just now, and that they had some kind of mysterious communication through their eyes.
Then the panda cub let out a few soft, babyish whimpers, as if greeting the two-legged creatures standing not far away watching it, or perhaps expressing its slight dissatisfaction at being disturbed from its meal.
"It looked at me, it was calling out to me, 'Basket milk,' so I had to give it a bowl of milk!" This eye contact and the baby's soft whimpering completely shattered Xiao Yan's defenses!
Xiao Yan grabbed Qin Ji's sleeve and tugged at it several times, signaling him to quickly provide her with the goat milk and fruit she had mentioned earlier. She wanted to use the food to increase his favorability with her, and then go up and pet that fluffy, cute creature.
Right now! Immediately!
"Cough cough..." Zhang Mama, who was following behind, coughed heavily several times. Only then did Xiao Yan realize that she had been somewhat indulgent and out of control.
While spending time with Qin Ji, who also came from the modern world, and being overwhelmed by the cuteness of the creatures, she almost completely forgot that she was in an unfamiliar ancient world in that short period of time.
Qin Ji glanced at the old woman behind him, a hint of displeasure in his eyes. However, he quickly looked away. When his gaze returned to Xiao Yan Hui, he felt a sense of longing, regret, and loss rising from her. His gaze also became somewhat distant.
Her current emotions reminded Qin Ji of his early days when he first arrived. Back then, there were moments when he felt like he had returned to his roots, only to be jolted back to reality and forced to confront it again.
"Hu Min, bring the milk and fruit over," Qin Ji instructed the middle-aged man responsible for feeding the two pandas.
“We’ll approach slowly, let it feel your presence first. If it doesn’t resist, we can get closer. Then we’ll feed it some milk and fruit, and then…” Qin Ji raised an eyebrow.
"Then I waited for my chance to strike." Xiao Yan immediately replied, while making a gesture of scratching her chin and stroking her fur with her fingers.
Upon hearing that she would be going to have a formal encounter with pandas, her initial feelings of loss were instantly replaced by excitement.
Qin Ji nodded with a look of satisfaction, as if he were a promising student.
The two walked forward, and Qin Ji waved his hand to stop the maids and servants behind them from following: "No need to follow, don't startle it."
Zhang Mama felt a little uneasy after being glanced at by the prospective son-in-law. It was strange, even though Qin Langjun hadn't said anything and his expression had remained gentle, she still felt a bit scared and didn't dare to speak anymore.
With Qin Ji by her side, Xiao Yan slowly approached the little guy, little by little.
It stopped eating and instead stared curiously into its bright black eyes at the two approaching two-legged creatures.
One was familiar to it, and there was always good food when it saw it. The other was unfamiliar, but the little cub judged from its meager wild experience that this strange two-legged creature had a gentle aura and didn't seem to have much fighting power. It wasn't afraid and didn't need to run away.
When the panda cub saw the two-legged creature holding something sweet, it not only stopped running away, but it slowly stood up and, with its signature, somewhat clumsy, pigeon-toed gait, cautiously moved towards Xiao Yan and the other person.
Because of the bowls of milk and fruit, she quickly became acquainted with this daring little foodie.
Finally, she not only fed him and petted him, but even let the little guy gently lick her fingertip!
When that warm, slightly barbed, tingling sensation spread like an electric current throughout Xiao Yan Hui's body, she couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"It licked me! Qin Ji, it licked me!" Excitedly looking at Qin Ji beside her, Xiao Yan Hui suddenly felt that Qin Ji, who had brought her to see the adorable pandas today, was really, really handsome.
"Yes, it likes you," Qin Ji whispered.
Watching the two of them interacting happily, Qin Ji suddenly felt that a lot of pent-up frustration that had been weighing on his heart for many years had dissipated by half at that moment.
Actually, the two pandas he keeps now are not the first pair of pandas he has ever seen in the world.
He first saw pandas in this era when he attended his first royal banquet after moving out of the cold palace, at which time he thought everything was going in a good direction. Then, quite coincidentally, he saw a pair of pandas presented as tribute by local officials at the banquet.
That was a national treasure of the world when he came here. At the time, Qin Ji even felt that the panda might be some kind of revelation of fate—telling him that everything would turn around.
And then... that was it.
A few days later, he casually went to the animal park, trying to see the pandas again, and perhaps touch them if he had the chance.
But he was told that the pair of pandas had died because a nobleman found their black and white fur very interesting and asked the emperor for it to skin them for decoration.
Later, the second prince even invited him to see the tanned and healed panda pelts.
"I saw Ninth Brother's eyes light up when he saw this thing at the banquet, so he must really like it. It just so happens that I like it too, so I peeled it off and hung it on the wall so I can see it every day. Little brother, you can come and see it often if you like, hahaha..."
......
The reason he bought the two cubs from the hunter that day was perhaps to make up for his resentment and helplessness back then. But even though the pandas were well cared for, the anger in his heart did not subside at all.
Even today, watching this person interact with the panda and hearing her occasionally utter familiar yet unfamiliar words, I can still feel a sense of wonder.
In this era that did not belong to them, she was the only one who could share with them this unique joy and longing from their distant homeland.
A gentle breeze, carrying the fragrance of bamboo leaves and the moist scent of grass, brushed against her slightly damp temples. Qin Ji stood beside her without saying a word.
Only after the panda cub had eaten its fill and become drowsy did Qin Ji say, "There's also a small horse farm in this villa. Would you like to go take a look? Or perhaps we could go back to the front yard to rest for a while and then have lunch?"
He raised his hand and pointed to the mountain not far from the villa: "Fuhu Mountain has some very good wild delicacies this season. The villa's chef is very good at cooking them. Some of his dishes are very flavorful. I'm sure you'll like them."
"You even have a horse farm here?" When Xiao Yan first arrived, she felt that this villa was quite large, but now that Qin Ji said this, she realized that it might be even larger than she had imagined.
"I used to travel all over the country, and I would buy some fine horses whenever I came across them. Gradually, I couldn't keep them all at home, so I moved them here." In reality, it wasn't something I bought casually. The value of fine horses is immeasurable. The horses kept here are not all of them, but just some to cover up the truth.
"There are even horses! Just how many animals do you keep on this estate? I think this shouldn't be called an estate, it's more like a ranch." With that exclamation, Xiao Yan decided to follow Qin Ji's arrangements and go to his horse farm first, and then have the delicious lunch he described.
But their trip to the pony farm never materialized.
Just as they stepped out of the bamboo forest breeding ground specially prepared for pandas, they encountered the villa manager.
The steward quickly walked to Qin Ji's side, bowed, and whispered, "Young master, a group of people have arrived outside the manor. They say that while traveling, their carriages didn't notice the stones on the road, and two carriages have broken their wheels and can't move forward. The leaders are that young master Su from the capital and young master Liang Zhao from the prefect's family. They want to... borrow the manor's carriages, and they also said that because they have female relatives with them, they would like to borrow a few better carriages. Furthermore, it is almost noon now, and they would like to rest briefly at the manor."
"There are quite a few conditions," Xiao Yan thought to herself as she listened to the butler's words.
But Su Mingyue and Liang Zhao are traveling together? Could it be that they're going to attend some elegant gathering that my second sister mentioned before, where wine cups float on a winding stream?
Could her second older sister be among those people?
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Author's Note: Just letting my dear readers know, from now on, the morning updates will likely be just me checking for typos, not actual updates. [Pigeon]
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