Chapter 11 Encountering Xu Nian: I want it, I can
It snowed for two days in a row, and some exposed areas on the rock wall were now covered with a layer of snow.
A rabbit stretched out its head, looked around, moved its nose slightly, and was about to continue looking for food when it suddenly noticed a slight sound coming from behind it. It felt something was wrong and immediately wanted to escape, but it was too late.
The snow leopard's claws pressed directly on its body. It didn't even have time to struggle before its fangs pierced its body and it was easily killed.
The rabbit's blood splattered on the snow. The snowy owl landed on a branch, tilted its head, looked at the tragedy, and then watched the snow leopard carry the rabbit's corpse and leave with its long tail hooked.
But this snow leopard is not Los, but Xu Nian.
After two days of hard training, Xu Nian was finally able to improve his success rate in hunting rabbits. He was very happy. Although he had not yet achieved the expected results, the future was promising!
When he turned around with his tail in his mouth to show Los, every hair on his body showed joy.
Suddenly, he stopped and turned his head to look behind him. He seemed to have heard some sound, but when he looked back, he saw nothing. He was a little confused for a moment, but he took a few steps back more cautiously with the rabbit in his mouth, and looked around.
As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but him, a snow leopard.
Xu Nian felt a little scared. He raised his paw and took a few steps back. Then he turned around suddenly, holding the rabbit in his mouth and rushed into the snow pile without looking back. He disappeared in a short while.
He ran all the way to Los. Los said that his tail had not healed yet, so Xu Nian had been hunting for the past two days. However, this way, at least Xu Nian's hunting skills have indeed improved by leaps and bounds.
"What's wrong?" Los seemed to always enjoy standing on the mountain peak and looking down. The wind blew his fur a little outside. After hearing Xu Nian's voice, he turned his head to look at him and said, "Why do you look like someone is chasing you? What happened to you?"
"...I don't know." Xu Nian put down the rabbit in his mouth, shook his head and said, "I felt like I heard something, but when I turned around, I didn't see it, so I ran back quickly."
Hearing this, Los nodded slightly and replied, "It might be a bird. You only looked at the one on the ground, not the one on the branch."
After hearing what Los said, Xu Nian felt that it made sense. He was indeed a little nervous. This place full of dangers was not very good for him. Xu Nian dragged his tail and squatted beside his prey.
There was blood on the rabbit's fur, and it was not dead yet. Its hind legs twitched twice. Xu Nian took a look and went up to bite it again.
"One rabbit is not enough to eat, I'll go find another one." Xu Nian said.
He stood up and prepared to continue searching. In fact, prey was not easy to find. He had to search everywhere to find this one. He would run around here every day, but he didn't dare to run too far. After all, no one could do anything to the snow leopard on the cliff, but once he went down the mountain, there were either wolves or bears, neither of which Xu Nian could defeat.
Los didn't answer, but the tip of his tail twitched casually in agreement.
This arrogant and cold look continued until Xu Nian's figure disappeared from sight. It moved its claws, then stood up and glanced at the rabbit on the ground, put it in a crack in the rock wall, and after making sure that the vulture could not catch it, it silently followed the place where Xu Nian's figure disappeared.
Sure enough, rabbits are hard to find. Maybe rabbits of the same kind would tell each other. In short, Xu Nian searched around until his paws were sore, but he didn't find any trace of rabbits.
He licked the rabbit fur on his paws. He had just dug out an empty rabbit nest. There was nothing inside but rabbit fur.
"It's snowing again?" Xu Nian looked at the snowflakes falling on him and was stunned for a moment. It had been snowing frequently recently and the temperature had dropped. Even though he didn't understand much about the lives of animals, he instinctively felt a sense of crisis.
He walked with his big furry tail hooked up, which was not very convenient, so he simply turned his head, picked up his tail, and stepped on the new snow that had just covered the ground with his big paws. He could hear the "squeaking" sound of snowflakes in his ears.
Just as Los said, the snowy owl stood on the branch, spread its wings and flapped the snowflakes on its wings, turned its head and pecked its feathers twice, and then continued to look at a snow leopard with its tail in its mouth walking under the tree.
But the snowy owl soon discovered that there was another snow leopard walking below. This snow leopard also walked with its tail in its mouth, but its steps were obviously much slower, and it stepped on the snow very skillfully. It even stopped for a moment when passing under a tree, turned its head and looked at the snowy owl on the branch with indifference.
The snowy owl opened its mouth, called twice, and then flapped its wings and flew away.
Los sneered, turned around and continued to follow Xu Nian slowly. Seeing how cautious he was along the way, he started to wonder again how lucky this snow leopard was to have grown up so well, without losing any limbs, or dying of starvation or falling.
Although it is still a little thin, if it is well cared for and its fur becomes fluffy, it will look more pleasing to the eye.
The snowy owl was flying a little low and passed in front of Xu Nian. A small cluster of snow on the tree branch fell and hit Xu Nian's head. He subconsciously shook his furry head and scratched his ears a few times with his claws. When he was about to move forward, he suddenly heard that soft and subtle sound again, and his body stiffened slightly.
He did not turn back immediately, but pretended not to notice and continued walking forward. Then he suddenly turned his head and roared fiercely behind him, trying to scare the other party away with his snow leopard roar.
After all, he is still the king of the snow mountain.
However, when he saw who was behind him, his voice suddenly got stuck and he felt a little embarrassed. Los, who was following behind him, also felt a little embarrassed.
Los never thought that one day he would be roared at like this by another snow leopard, and this snow leopard was Xu Nian.
If it were any other snow leopard, it would have shown the other party the difference in strength long ago.
"I'm sorry." Xu Nian immediately admitted his mistake. Before Los could lose his temper, he quickly revealed a timid and obedient expression. He knew the right balance very well and quickly assumed a standard leopard pose, faster than a hunting stance. He squatted on the ground and admitted his mistake, "I didn't see you, otherwise I wouldn't be like this. Believe me, I'm not usually like this."
Los's expression changed slightly. In fact, after the first word "I'm sorry" came out, he stopped and stood still.
It felt that this was the Snowy Owl's fault, not Xu Nian's.
"But why did you follow me without telling me?" Xu Nian wanted to prevent Los from dwelling on the fact that he had yelled at him. After all, he had stepped on Los's tail before, eaten Los's prey, and followed Los to learn hunting. Now yelling at him again would be unreasonable. So he quickly asked, "Did you come to see how my hunting skills are going?"
Xu Nian only saw the shadow of Los, a snow leopard. Los saw him looking for rabbits everywhere, making his already messy fur even more messy and covered with some grass debris. He turned his head and said, "I'm glad to know."
After saying that, it flicked its tail and turned away neatly.
Xu Nian breathed a sigh of relief. He raised his paw, held the tail in his mouth and followed behind Los. The other's tail was slightly raised. It can be seen that Los has a strong control over his body. His tail was lightly hooked and curled up slightly from time to time.
He didn't know what the wagging of the snow leopard's tail meant, but he could feel that Los was not angry, and was even in a good mood.
Because Xu Nian said he would take care of Los until his tail healed, he gave all the rabbits to Los. He looked at Los lowering his head to sniff the rabbits, and then he lay down beside him and licked his paws obediently.
He tried to clean his face. After scratching the fur on his face with his big claws, he heard Los's voice. It asked, "What are you doing?"
Xu Nian froze for a moment. He maintained the posture and said seriously, "My face seems a little dirty. I...I want to clean it."
He saw that Los would use his paws to groom his fur and lick his body to make his fur cleaner and tidier.
"...You can't get it clean even if you scrape at it all day." Ross said, "Just rub it in the snow."
Xu Nian immediately nodded in understanding and lay down obediently in the snow. In order to wipe off the blood stains on his face, he lay on his side. Los was in a position where he could see Xu Nian's abdomen, which was obviously rising and falling after he lay down.
However, this is not the end. Xu Nian followed Los's instructions and rubbed his face against the snow pile seriously. Sure enough, this method worked very well. Xu Nian felt that his face seemed to be much cleaner and he felt much more comfortable. He lay down comfortably, revealing his soft belly, then tried to pupate a few times, and his tail swept uncontrollably in the snow.
No wonder he had seen many animals in documentaries like to roll on the ground. This posture is indeed comfortable and releases their nature.
When he got up, he found that the cliff where Los usually stayed was empty. The wind was so cold that it made Xu Nian's fur turn outward. He shook his head and looked at the rabbit on the ground that he had taken two bites of. He guessed that Los didn't want to eat it anymore, so he just took it away.
He has been exercising too much these days and is always hungry, but he can also feel that he is getting better and better. The fur on his tail is obviously smoother than before, and it is long, fluffy, and beautiful.
In fact, Los did not go far, he just went to a higher place. He looked down at the snow leopard who was happy alone, and then sat alone on the top of the mountain, silent.
It was thinking, and always felt that there was something wrong with letting Xu Nian live with it in its territory, but it couldn't tell what was wrong.
Its tail was swinging behind it, which was a bit inconsistent with its silence. It seemed to realize it, turned its head to look at its slightly excited tail, and simply raised its paw to press down its tail, continuing to be the proud king of the snow mountain.
Before meeting Los, Xu Nian had never really come into contact with this wild and lonely animal, but the snow leopard that smashed the camera did leave a deep impression on him.
He will always remember the vigilance and disdain in the eyes of the young snow leopard as it looked towards the camera lens.
But he never thought that he would have the chance to lie on a snowy mountain with the other person.
"Want to come up?" Los noticed Xu Nian's gaze. It was a wild animal, different from Xu Nian, the novice snow leopard in the People's Education Edition. When Xu Nian was looking at it, it actually noticed that Xu Nian's eyes were always on it.
It waited for Xu Nian to speak, but the other party remained silent.
It looked down at Xu Nian condescendingly, tilted its head slightly, and kept its paws on its tail, so that only the tip of its tail was a little disobedient and always curled up.
Xu Nian quickly shook his head. He was a little afraid of heights, and the edge of the cliff was very scary to him. He didn't want to cause himself trouble.
But Los didn't think so. He stood up and walked towards Xu Nian, with his hind paws on the edge of the rock wall and his front paws pointing downwards. His whole body seemed to stop as he was walking down. He said to Xu Nian, "Come up. No snow leopard is afraid of heights. Only high mountain rock walls are the most suitable places for us to hunt."
Every animal has its own natural advantages, and hunting on rock walls is the natural advantage of snow leopards. On rock walls, no other beast can compare with them.
Xu Nian hesitated for a moment. He didn't want to go, but since Los said so, he couldn't refuse. He could only stand up, carefully raised his claws to grab the rock wall, trying to climb up.
Los was at the steepest part of the entire snowy mountain. Xu Nian had just taken a few steps when his hind paws instinctively trembled, even though he had tried hard to control himself. Finally, he gave up, jumped down two steps, and returned to where he had been lying before, saying with a wry smile, "I'm fine here too."
Los seemed to have noticed something. He narrowed his eyes slightly and looked Xu Nian over from head to toe. Then he sneered and came down the cliff very decisively with slow steps. For him, it seemed easy to go up and down this almost vertical cliff without any effort.
Sure enough, for a snow leopard, any place with a slight inclination is a good place to place its claws.
"You're actually afraid of heights." Los moved closer to Xu Nian. This was the first time in such a long time that he had sniffed Xu Nian's body. Xu Nian's back stiffened suddenly, and he tried hard not to move away. Los simply sniffed him and took a step back. He walked past Xu Nian, his tone much colder than before: "If you can't learn to walk between the mountain walls and chase prey, you won't survive this cold winter. No snow leopard is afraid of heights. You're too timid."
"I can walk, but it's too high and too steep..." Xu Nian struggled cautiously.
"Xunian, listen to this." Los's face was tense, looking incredibly feral. He spoke word for word, "There are only two outcomes to hunting. If you catch it, you'll have food. If you don't, you'll starve to death. Once you've got your prey, don't let go. It might be the only food you'll find in this icy world. Don't let go even if you die."
"By the way, blue sheep are not easy to catch. If they find out you're afraid of heights, believe me, they'll kick you right off the cliff." Los added, "Then you'll be the first snow leopard to be kicked off a cliff by a blue sheep and die."
There are cases of snow leopards falling to their death. When Los was hunting, he once saw a snow leopard biting a blue sheep, and the leopard fell off a cliff with the blue sheep, and both died at the foot of the mountain.
If you don't want to starve to death, you must work hard to learn skills. If you don't want to fall to death, you must learn how to protect yourself when falling from a high altitude. But the premise is that you cannot be afraid of heights. Snow leopards belong to the mountains, and here they should be able to do well.
Xu Nian knew that Los was not joking. Although this snow leopard was sometimes easy to fool, it was always serious when it came to matters related to survival.
He nodded immediately, and after thinking for a while, he said, "I can try my best to overcome it. Give me some more time."
Xu Nian's tail, which had been swinging from side to side because of his happy mood, now hung on the ground, allowing him to be dragged away. As if he could not muster up the energy, Los did not answer, but just lay on the cliff and closed his eyes to rest.
It heard sparse sounds coming from where Xu Nian was, half-closed its eyes to take a look, then continued to close its eyes to rest, but its ears subconsciously stood up.
From that day on, Xu Nian was busier than usual. He had to learn hunting and catch prey during the day, and at night he had to try to control his fear of heights and walk towards higher cliffs little by little.
He is working hard to improve his survival ability bit by bit, and every hair on his head shows the word "hard work".
"Bang--" After so many days of practice, Xu Nian has greatly improved his hunting success rate. As usual, he holds the rabbit in his mouth and looks happily in the direction of Los.
He stood in the snow, with snowflakes falling on his body, and soon a thin layer covered his fur on his back. However, the way he held the rabbit in his mouth and his tail swung happily behind him revealed his incomparable vitality.
He wants to live, become a snow leopard, and strive to live!
"Starting tomorrow." Xu Nian stood in front of Los. He looked up at the snow leopard standing on the top of the mountain and said seriously, "I will try my best to climb up. I can overcome my fear before the snow closes the mountain!"
His beautiful eyes revealed a desire for life and trust and dependence on Los. His long tail was raised high. The whole snow leopard stood in the cold wind. Although his fur was blown messy, his face showed the words "high spirits".
Ross was about to nod, but suddenly seemed to remember something, frowned, and turned his head to look at his tail.
It remembered that it was Xu Nian who had said that he would take care of his tail until it healed, so how did it become that it was the one who taught him how to hunt...
"Don't worry, I will definitely take responsibility for your tail until the end." Xu Nian immediately added with a sincere look in his eyes: "Until it forgives me."
When Los heard this, his tail moved slightly. Los felt that his tail had not yet healed and it would take some time.
This is the slowest wound healing ever for this snow leopard!
…
When night fell, Xu Nian prepared to go back with the prey in his mouth. As the weather was getting colder, the snow leopard consumed more and more energy, so it needed to eat more prey. Usually, Xu Nian would bring back rabbits or marmots, while Los liked to hunt large prey such as blue sheep directly.
Los said that when Xu Nian is no longer afraid of cliffs, he can teach Xu Nian how to hunt blue sheep on the cliff.
Xu Nian is no longer the embarrassed novice snow leopard. When he walks in the snow with prey in his mouth, his tail is slightly raised behind him. If he does not have prey in his mouth, he usually walks with his long tail in his mouth.
"I don't know where Los has gone." Xu Nian didn't dare to go too far. He only hunted within Los' territory and rarely even went to the bottom of the mountain. Most of the time he wandered halfway up the mountain.
It snowed heavily last night, so Los went out to look for blue sheep early in the morning. However, it is so icy and snowy now that it is difficult to see blue sheep.
Just as Xu Nian was walking over a rock with the rabbit in his mouth, he suddenly heard a sound. The sound was very small, but Xu Nian's ears moved slightly and he still caught it.
He thought it was Los, and just as he was about to turn around, he heard a sound of breaking wind behind him. Xu Nian immediately realized that something was wrong, and he instinctively jumped to the side, trying to avoid the collision.
But the opponent was obviously well prepared and hit Xu Nian's back hard, leaving him no chance to escape. Because they were on a rock wall halfway up the mountain, the opponent bit his back and threw him heavily off the rock wall.
Xu Nian had no power to resist, and when he wanted to bite back, he fell down. Fortunately, the place was not very high, only halfway up the mountain. But even so, he rolled all the way down, and his back hit the rock heavily. The pain made Xu Nian collapse all of a sudden, and the whole snow leopard curled up subconsciously.
"Is this your territory?" A voice sounded from above Xu Nian's head. He struggled to get up and looked towards the place where the voice came from. He saw a snow leopard jumping lightly from the rock wall not far away and landing steadily in front of Xu Nian.
They are both snow leopards, but this one is obviously a wild snow leopard like Los.
Xu Nian's heart trembled and he secretly groaned. The one in front of him was obviously not Los, but a strange snow leopard that he didn't recognize at all.
"Very good, I smell your scent here, so this looks like your territory." The strange snow leopard hopped onto a high rock, squatted down, licked its paws, and said casually, its tail swinging casually behind it, "From today on, this is my territory."
As it said this, it looked at Xu Nian again with a warning look in its eyes, as if if Xu Nian dared not agree, it would completely kill this snow leopard that could only hunt rabbits here and for all.
Xu Nian was about to stand up and confront the leopard when his eyes suddenly fell on the back of the snow leopard. He asked in surprise, "Los?"
Seeing Xu Nian's performance, the strange snow leopard subconsciously turned its head vigilantly, but found that there was nothing behind it. When it turned back again to teach Xu Nian a lesson, it found that Xu Nian, who was supposed to be lying down, was no longer there.
This snow leopard is not good at hunting, but it is very good at escaping, and it has pushed its speed to the extreme!
I've said it before, among the thirty-six strategies, running away is the best one!
"Looking for death." After realizing that it had been fooled, the strange snow leopard suddenly became furious and immediately chased in the direction Xu Nian escaped.
However, at this moment, Los, who was carrying the mountain goat in his mouth, suddenly stopped. His ears twitched slightly, as if he heard some sound. His face instantly turned cold. He dropped the mountain goat in his mouth and immediately ran towards the place where the sound came from.
The snow leopard flew down from the rock wall at an extremely fast speed, scaring the vultures that had landed on the rock to rest and they flapped their wings and flew away again.
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