Being a Dad in the Animal World
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Bai Yi only knew to run for his life and never imagined how the poachers would meet their end; they might overcome the lion pride or be defeated by the lions.
He heard several gunshots before silence took over, turning the once noisy night into an eerily calm one.
He stared in that direction for a while, never mustering the courage to go back and take a look.
If the lion pride prevailed, the four poachers would surely be left with no remains.
On the other hand, if the poachers won, the lion pride would suffer a grim fate.
No matter what happened, he was terrified.
A wave of guilt also washed over him, for when faced with danger, the instinct to survive is all-consuming.
He, like anyone else, only wished to stay alive.
He circled away from the lion pride’s territory and then sprinted for over an hour to return and find Jason and the three cubs, only to discover that they were long gone from the bushes.
Once again, they had become lost, leaving Bai Yi feeling both frustrated and worried.
With the cubs out of his sight, he was prone to panic.
He had contemplated abandoning them several times before; however, as time passed, he found that his attachment to them only grew stronger.
They were like Bai Yi’s own family; even if they eventually had to part ways, he did not want them to be lost like this.
Sure enough, fate had made him a constant struggler; being an animal living an exceptionally hard life, he could not bear to see others suffer.
Bai Yi sighed quietly to himself before embarking once more on the quest to find the cubs.
He realized that ever since he became a lion, he was either searching for the cubs or on the way to find them, making this lion life both peculiar and beyond description.
Bai Yi moved at such a speed that even the documentary crew could not catch up; they could only monitor his progress on the tracking system as he ran about.
The poachers were torn apart by the lion pride in a scene that was both brutally violent and bloody.
The host did not dare show this to the viewers and only informed them that Bai Yi was now out of danger, that they were tracking him, and that a live broadcast during the day would update everyone on the status of Bai Yi’s family.
The viewers erupted in cheers once they heard that the poachers were dead.
After explaining everything to the audience, the host ended the broadcast.
Meanwhile, late at night, Bai Yi continued to search for any sign of Jason and the three cubs.
However, Jason was clever as well, leaving his scent along the route they had taken when departing.
That scent came either from his urine or his excrement; Bai Yi imagined a scene of Jason walking while taking care of his needs.
Bai Yi: "……"
Thank goodness, he found his own imagination rather repulsive.
Relying on his acute sense of smell, Bai Yi followed the trail in the direction they had departed.
However, halfway through his pursuit the scent vanished. He lingered in place, sniffing for a long time, only to realize that it was truly gone.
Bai Yi then became bewildered once more.
He wandered in place for a while, uncertain of which direction to take next.
Having not found Jason and the three cubs along the edge where the scent had faded, Bai Yi, after looking around in confusion, chose a direction that he felt was right and continued onward.
However, Jason had already led the three cubs farther and farther away from Bai Yi, and they were growing increasingly anxious.
Especially the three cubs; when Bai Yi was not nearby, they grew particularly frantic, their cries filled with panic.
Night holds many hidden dangers, and Jason could not guarantee the cubs’ safety.
He had planned to leave his scent so that his brother could follow it, but instead he was targeted by a pack of mottled wolves that hunt at night.
He could only run forward with the cubs, and as a result, Wangcai was bitten on the hind leg by the mottled wolves.
Had they not run through a herd of hippos, the mottled wolves would not have been obstructed by the large hippos, and perhaps the lion family would have met an even worse fate.
Not having Bai Yi by his side made him feel anxious and fearful; surviving on his own was simply too difficult.
Wangcai’s slow pace proved very dangerous for them.
He thought for a long time about abandoning Wangcai and leaving with Goudan and Isa, but Wangcai’s pitiful, helpless cries left him no choice but to continue on while waiting for him to catch up.
Under normal circumstances, not only male lions but even lionesses can be very ruthless with their cubs.
Once a cub is found to be weak or sickly, a lioness will choose to abandon it—especially if it is injured—never allowing it to burden the healthy cubs; all hope is reserved for the strong ones.
Jason had similar thoughts, yet he seemed to have been influenced by Bai Yi; after Goudan got lost last time, Bai Yi had searched for him more than once, leaving a deep impact on Jason.
He subconsciously believed that if he lost Wangcai, his older brother would beat him to death.
Therefore, he dared not leave the injured cub behind and could only press on while waiting for him to catch up.
Wangcai’s will to survive was strong; even though his injury pained him, he never stopped following.
Perhaps he knew that if he stopped, he would die, so he had to keep up with his brother’s pace.
He whimpered pitifully, sounding like a small, abandoned creature.
Perhaps life is just that tenacious.
Jason could discern scents and knew to head toward safer areas, yet becoming separated from Bai Yi once again left him feeling bewildered.
Eventually, he found another patch of bushes. The cubs were exhausted, and after Jason sniffed around and detected no sign of danger, he stopped within the bushes.
Goudan and Isa soon curled up by his side for warmth, while Wangcai continued to follow behind.
After losing Jason three times, Wangcai finally managed to catch up tenaciously.
Eventually, he collapsed by Jason’s side as Jason licked his wounds, and the cub cried out in waves of pain.
Such cries at night would attract hunters, so Jason, while tending to the wound, emitted low warning growls from his throat.
The threatening growl silenced Wangcai, who then whimpered softly.
They spent a dangerous night in an unfamiliar place, and when they woke up the next day, they continued on their journey.
However, Wangcai still moved very slowly and fell behind once more.
Without Bai Yi by his side, the burden of hunting fell on Jason. By midday the cubs were crying hungrily, and having nothing to eat made Jason very frustrated.
He attempted to hunt several times, all ending in failure, until he and the cubs encountered a stray subadult male lion.
That male lion was larger than Jason because his mane had just begun to form, nearly reaching an impressive state; he was probably nearly four years old.
He had hunted a high-horned antelope on his own and was enjoying his lunch.
Jason targeted the prey of that subadult male lion.
He crouched in the grass, concealing his scent, and watched every move of the male lion.
Only after the male lion began eating and relaxed his vigilance did Jason cautiously move closer.
He had observed his brother hunting; every time, his brother would snatch the prey and run, and Jason had learned the technique, succeeding several times.
He approached cautiously and then pounced suddenly, startling the male lion considerably; however, the male lion clamped down on the prey fiercely and started growling in a threatening manner to defend its meal.
Jason grabbed the high-horned antelope’s leg and tore at it forcefully, refusing to release his grip.
At that moment, since no one wanted to relinquish the food, the male lion began roaring angrily.
It intended to attack Jason but feared that the food would be taken away, so it continued to hold the food in its mouth without releasing it.
Jason also refused to let go, and the two male lions engaged in a standoff for a while.
Eventually, Jason let go because his strength was inferior to that of the male lion. Seizing the moment while the lion was eating, he tore off one leg of the prey and then dashed away.
The male lion glanced at Jason and resumed eating.
Clearly, one leg was hardly enough to feed the cubs; Wangcai, who was following behind, received even less. Jason merely nibbled at the bones, and they still had to continue looking for Bai Yi.
Coincidentally, they appeared to be traveling in the same direction as the stray young male lion, for they encountered him more than once.
Perhaps having become somewhat familiar, Jason proactively went over to greet him. Initially, the male lion rejected Jason, preventing him from coming near.
After Jason persistently took the initiative several times, the other lion seemed to tacitly allow Jason to follow his lead.
Even accepted the three cubs that Jason brought along.
This made things easier. Before he found his older brother, he had formed an alliance with a male lion, which undoubtedly solved the cubs’ feeding problem.
Jason began to hunt alongside his older brother, who believed he now had an assistant and no longer needed to venture out alone as a solitary lion.
It was not until Jason demonstrated an extraordinary hunting maneuver in front of him that the older brother was left bewildered.
Bolstered by his own courage, this little brother possessed extraordinary boldness; he dared to snatch prey right from the lion pride’s jaws.
After snatching it, he ran off, leaving the older brother to deal with the aftermath as the lion pride relentlessly chased and attacked him.
Had he not been so fast, his life would have been lost because of the little brother.
It seemed that his idea of hunting and the little brother’s approach were not the same.
The older brother began to question the life of a lion; it was the first time he felt that the food in his mouth had lost its flavor.
Later, the older brother no longer allowed Jason to join him on hunts. He began to act alone, reasoning that if he managed to secure food, they would all share it, and if he failed, they would all go hungry.
It was not until he encountered another adult male lion that the older brother realized who had taught the little brother those skills.
Bai Yi spent two days searching and finally found Jason and the three cubs by relying on his exceptional intelligence and keen sense of smell. However, there was now an additional young-looking male lion with them.
His mane was still fresh, and his nose retained a slight pink tint, leading to the preliminary judgment that he was a male lion on the verge of adulthood.
At the very least, he was larger than Jason, and he got along well with him, which greatly pleased Bai Yi.
Jason was gradually growing up. In the past, he did not understand the value of forming alliances with other male lions, but this time he had found a partner to back him and the three cubs up—a commendable development.
However, he noticed that this partner’s gaze toward Jason seemed rather off.
Was it filled with contempt? Disdain? Or perhaps exasperation?
Bai Yi: "Little brother, what is wrong with you?"
Since he was Jason's ally, he did not drive him away.
This brother seemed to know that Jason had found his family and intended to leave on his own.
Bai Yi still thought that having another alliance meant an extra path, and since the other lion was only a subadult male, it was fine to let him stay.
Male lion never expected Jason to turn hostile faster than one can flip through a book.
Before they found Bai Yi, Jason had actively sought to join the male lion alliance by rubbing against and staying close to them; he was cute, obedient, and well-behaved.
As soon as Bai Yi found them, Jason showed hostility toward this male lion.
He started roaring at the other lion, trying to drive them away.
Bai Yi was completely shocked by his behavior, once again confirming that Jason was ungrateful!
It was no surprise that Jason got beaten by Bai Yi once more.
Bai Yi beat the child so badly that he screamed, and it seemed to please the subadult male lion, who then behaved in a friendly manner toward Bai Yi.
He began sticking close to Bai Yi, rubbing against him, and licking him.
It was as if he were saying "Thank you for helping me teach that idiot a lesson."
Bai Yi did not refuse either, thinking that the lions in this world were nothing like Dilai and that there would never be another lion as weird as Dilai.
It was as if he were saying "Thank you for helping me teach that idiot a lesson."
Bai Yi did not refuse, thinking that the lions in this world were not like Dilai; there would certainly not be another lion as perverse as Dilai.
Moreover, his cub was nearly an adult, and he would undoubtedly go to contest territory with the lion pride.
By aligning with him, his chance to enjoy a free meal seemed to be secured once again.
After calculating in his mind, Bai Yi thought it was worthwhile.
However, he never could have imagined that on this dark and windy night, something would occur that left him utterly speechless.
It shattered his values so completely that they could never be pieced together again.
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