Chapter 87 p1
That night, a fire broke out at the zoo.
The little red panda, with a little bird in her mouth, ran desperately along the strange streets.
She was afraid that if she paused, she would be caught.
But under the long-term harsh treatment at the zoo, the little red panda’s body was already weak. She soon had a sore waist and weak paws, and she stopped on the quiet roadside, panting.
Where to go?
The little red panda stood in the deep black night, for a moment lost in confusion.
Before entering the zoo, she seemed to have been looking for something.
But now, her brain was a foggy mess, accompanied by a sharp pain that was like a current, and the chaotic blankness made the little red panda panic.
She released the little bird from her mouth and gently placed it on the ground.
The little bird was wet from being held in her mouth, and it fell onto its bottom and shook its feathers.
She lightly shook the two brocade bags in her paw. “Sister Rong, what’s this?”
The little red panda said, “I don’t know either.”
She raised her two thin paws and pulled open the two dusty brocade bags.
—In one brocade bag was a trauma ointment and a little tree bracelet, and in the other was a beautiful hairpin.
The little red panda unconsciously held her breath and looked at them in a daze.
A faint, sharp pain in her heart, and she suddenly felt a bone-deep loneliness.
Wasn’t she just a red panda who had been abandoned by her own kind at birth, had wandered around aimlessly, and had later accidentally ended up in a zoo?
As such a little red panda, she should have been very used to loneliness. Why did she suddenly want to cry so much?
After a moment of silence, she carefully put away the brocade bags.
She stuck out her tongue and licked the fur on her cheeks, which was soaked with tears.
…
After that, the little red panda and the bird wandered aimlessly in the suburbs for many days.
They traveled during the day and climbed trees at night.
When they were hungry, they would randomly gnaw on wild fruits and green grass, and they would see stars.
It was autumn, and the wild fruits on the roadside were all overripe. A single bite was a strong taste of alcohol.
The little red panda and the bird would sometimes get drunk from eating wild fruits and would melt into a soft and limp pile of fluff, and when they woke up, they would feel that their bodies had been hollowed out.
In addition, gnawing on green grass also had its risks.
“Hahahaha…”
That day, the little fluffy bird suddenly burst into laughter, its two paws flailing.
The little red panda tilted her head slightly. “Nian Qiu, what are you laughing at?”
Nian Qiu was rolling on the ground with laughter. “Hahahaha…”
The little red panda shook her head helplessly.
What a childish bird. Can’t she be half as calm and mature as me, a little panda?
The next second, she followed suit and took a bite of grass, and suddenly she was laughing so hard that her whole body trembled, and her four paws were flailing.
“What on earth is this grass…”
Later, the little red panda, who was exhausted from laughing and had also been throwing up and had diarrhea for several days, carefully remembered what the grass looked like and decided never to eat this kind of grass again.
She had thrown up until she was exhausted, and the little red panda was extremely tired and had slept for a long, long time.
When she woke up, she did not know what day it was.
She raised her paws, rubbed her sleepy eyes, and habitually called out, “Nian Qiu—”
No bird answered.
“…Nian Qiu?”
The little red panda opened her eyes and became a little more awake.
The next second, her heart was suddenly shocked, and her whole body shot up, and she searched the entire grassy area, and then she searched along the street for a long, long time.
Nian Qiu was gone.
…
The wandering journey of a little red panda and a bird was left with only one little red panda.
Her good friend was missing, and the little red panda wandered alone with her two brocade bags, dazed and at a loss.
She did not know where to go, or what the end of her wandering was.
At night, she would randomly find a tree to sleep in.
The little red panda actually did not like those trees.
They were not clean enough, not fragrant enough, and could not give her the slightest sense of peace.
She vaguely felt that she had a tree.
That tree was straight and clean, with a clear and subtle fragrance, gentle and tolerant, and it would let her, a little panda, wantonly climb and roll on it.
…It was a tree that belonged to her, one single red panda.
Where was that tree?
She looked down at the two brocade bags hanging around her neck and was dazed for a long, long time.
Then she shook her head, having found nothing, and hugged her large tail pillow, and made do and fell asleep in the strange branches.
…
Autumn turned to winter, and the spring forest began to bloom.
That day, the long-wandering little red panda unintentionally stumbled into a strange lake area.
On the huge sign at the entrance, three characters were engraved: Yuqi Lake.
In spring, Yuqi Lake was a vast expanse of turquoise, rippling finely in the gentle breeze. The shoreline was wide and boundless, the mountains and water complementing each other, a breathtaking sight.
By the lake was a large, continuous bamboo forest, lush and green.
The little red panda’s paws stepped on the soft grass, and for some reason, she felt an endless sense of familiarity and comfort, as if her soul had returned to its resting place, relaxed and at peace.
She explored at will and found that there were large bamboo forests and apple groves here—
Clearly, the Yuqi Lake area was a place that would make a red panda happily roll around, full and content, and it even seemed to have been born for a red panda.
The little red panda settled down in the Yuqi Lake area.
Every day, she would contentedly roll around in it, full of fruit and leaves. Her fur, which had been dry and sparse from malnutrition, was becoming more and more glossy, and was dense and soft.
Her long-emaciated and weak body was also becoming more and more full and healthy.
But these happy days did not last too long—
The little red panda was nourished and no longer had to wander.
She could clearly live in this rich and fertile land until the end of her life.
But, her mood gradually became empty, and she was so lonely that even eating fruit was not sweet.
That night, the red panda was spread out like a fluffy pancake, lying alone in the grass, looking at the night sky.
The sky was a deep blue, and a bright shooting star suddenly streaked across it.
The tip of her heart suddenly trembled, and her gaze was for a moment scattered.
She vaguely remembered that she had once made a devout wish to a shooting star—
—hoping to find… to find…
Find what?
She couldn’t remember.
That wish seemed to have long since fallen with the shooting star of that year.
Realizing this, the red panda was suddenly filled with sorrow, and she was so sad she couldn’t help it.
She curled up in the empty grass and hugged her large tail and began to cry.
Later, her tears ran dry.
As she slowly licked her fur, she made a brave decision.
If she settled for pleasure and continued to roll around here forever… she would never be able to retrieve that forgotten wish.
The next day.
The red panda, with a few fruits in her pocket, left the Yuqi Lake area and began to wander again.
…
“So many star fruits, so sweet…”
In a deep sleep, the little red panda let out a soft “ying,” and contentedly licked the tip of her teeth.
“Don’t run!”
A human’s voice suddenly came from under the tree.
The little red panda’s furry ears instantly perked up, and she groggily opened her eyes.
Her paws clung to a branch, and she peeked down from between the dense leaves—
She saw a bleeding calico cat under the tree, warily confronting a boy.
She seemed to have nowhere to retreat.
Her ears were flattened into airplane ears, and a weak hiss faintly came from her throat, and she was trembling in the grass by the foot of the tree.
The little red panda looked closely, and the grass was very familiar.
And the boy in front, with a small knife in his hand, was approaching step by step.
“They all bully me,” the boy said with hatred. “You can bully me a little too.”
Seeing the boy squat down and, with a small knife, seem to be about to bully the calico cat, the little red panda’s eyes widened.
She was so anxious that, without thinking, she tumbled down from the tree.
She pounced on the little boy and was accidentally scratched by the small knife on her left paw.
In the midst of the heart-wrenching sharp pain, she for some reason transformed into her human form.
And this just so happened to make it convenient for her to pull up a few blades of grass from the grass and forcefully stuff them into the boy’s mouth.
The sudden turn of events left the boy unable to react.
In his fright, he subconsciously swallowed the grass.
A few seconds later, he began to roll on the ground with laughter, curled into a ball, and his small knife haphazardly scratched himself.
And the red panda took the opportunity to pick up the calico cat and run away.
…
“Is that calico cat Bai Shuang?” Ye Qingyu asked the red panda in her arms.
Pei the Little Able Cat lay peacefully on her own little tree and shook her fluffy head.
“That’s an old calico cat. She can also speak human language.”
At that time, the red panda had held the injured calico cat and had hastily fled, and had run to a remote and deserted grassy area nearby.
“Th…”
The calico cat’s voice was old and hoarse. In her old and injured state, she was too weak to speak.
“Don’t talk! Don’t worry, I’ll save you.”
The little red panda took out the trauma ointment she had bought for who knows who from her brocade bag and anxiously applied it to the calico cat.
The medicine was very effective.
After a few days of careful care, the wounds on the calico cat’s body gradually healed.
But the little red panda, who had transformed into a human and could not climb a tree to sleep, was growing more and more haggard.
After a few dazed days, the old calico cat’s spirits had improved a little, and she said in a hoarse voice:
“Little red panda girl, could I trouble you to take me to the forestry bureau? That’s my master’s home, and it should be nearby.”
And so, the little red panda asked for directions all the way and, after walking for half a day, finally found the forestry bureau.
The calico cat’s master was an eighty-year-old woman with white hair, named Meng Zhao, and she was the former director of the forestry bureau.
Seeing the calico cat who had been missing for several days, she immediately burst into tears.
Her wrinkled hands held the cat tightly, and her breath trembled, and a hoarse sob escaped her throat.
“This calico cat has been with me for half my life and is like my own daughter. Thank you for saving her, little girl.”
The little red panda blinked her inexperienced peach blossom eyes and smiled with pleasure.
She said her goodbyes and was about to turn and leave, but was called back by Meng Zhao.
Having learned of the little red panda’s difficult situation from the calico cat, Meng Zhao said in a gentle tone:
“There is a clean and empty room at home. If you don’t mind, you can stay with us.”
The little red panda had a place of refuge and stayed with a heart full of gratitude.
Meng Zhao and the old cat were both old and had many inconveniences.
