Chapter 45: Jingle Bell Grab

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Lu Yao’s fingertip pressed gently against the snow leopard’s nose. His pink nose was soft and damp, and warm breath streamed along his finger into the palm of his hand. The pheromone molecules accelerated with the rising temperature, drifting into the snow leopard’s nostrils. His eyelids twitched. 

Lu Yao’s fingertip pressed on the nose again. It tickled, and he couldn’t resist sticking out his tongue to lick it. The rough surface of the leopard’s tongue rolled over his finger. He tried to pull back, but the snow leopard chased him, licking relentlessly. The catnip scent made it seem dazed and entranced. Lu Yao lifted his hand and wiped his finger with a tissue. “Bad kitty, don’t lick me.”

The snow leopard turned His head and started rubbing against Lu Yao’s elbow. The more he tried to pull back, the more determined he became, even lifting his front paw to step onto the bed. With the wall behind him, Lu Yao had nowhere to escape this excited big cat. He rolled to the other side of the bed, turning his back to the snow leopard.

“Ugh…” the snow leopard’s low, throaty whine grew closer.

The soft mattress sank beneath him. When Lu Yao glanced over, he realized his roll had been a strategic failure—he had completely exposed the space at the edge of the bed and his back to the snow leopard.

The snow leopard had already leapt onto the bed and strode toward him with fierce momentum. But before he could reach him, he collapsed at Lu Yao’s pillow, burying his head in the crook of his neck and rubbing vigorously. The sweet catnip scent made his engine-like breathing louder. He rubbed and rolled back and forth on the bed, utterly lost in the intoxicating haze.

Lu Yao nearly fell off the bed. It was both itchy and funny, but he couldn’t blame anyone—he’d started this. He just had to watch as his bed became a flurry of snow-colored leopard fur.

He tried to sit up, only to be pinned again by the snow leopard. His large, round paws pressed against him with considerable strength, but the claws were carefully retracted to avoid scratching him. His long tail whipped back and forth, striking his legs like a heavy, plush whip. It didn’t hurt.

The snow leopard rubbed and licked at his collarbone and shoulders. He was dizzy from the catnip and Lu Yao’s unguarded reactions, yet he still hadn’t dared lick the glands at his neck.

“All right, all right, no more,” Lu Yao said. His shoulders were scratched red by the rough tongue, and with a hundred-plus-pound cat pressing down on him, he couldn’t push him off.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the black velvet gift box nearby, the one holding the new collars Zhou Yunchen had given him. The snow leopard was right in front of him. Lu Yao reached for the collars, running his fingers through the thick, long fur at his neck as he swapped the old one for a new one.

“Who hurt your neck before? A provoking enemy, or a struggling prey?” he murmured softly, so close that the words were almost a whisper, calm and gentle. Click—the leather strap of the collar fastened.

“Awooo…” the snow leopard stopped licking frantically, pressing his forehead against Lu Yao’s chin instead. Lu Yao smiled. The warm light and his smile made the exhaustion feel like a fleeting, homely warmth. Under the snow leopard’s unblinking gaze, he took a new ring from the box and slid it onto his finger, inch by inch, until it reached the knuckle.

He retrieved the smaller collar from the box and beckoned Torque at the foot of the bed, fitting it with one as well.

“All right, time for bed,” Lu Yao said, patting the snow leopard. But he didn’t want to get down. His head dropped, resting on his chest.

“Ah, you clingy little thing… now you’ve learned to suck, too, huh?” Lu Yao muttered. He used the AI to turn off the lights and carefully rolled the snow leopard to the side, lest he risk suffocating under him during sleep.

He brushed off the leopard fur from his nose and buried his hands in the soft fur at the snow leopard’s neck. “Sleep now, baby.”

The next morning, Lu Yao was awakened early by a chorus of hoarse leopard calls, still half an hour before his normal wake-up time. He frowned and reached across the bed. The snow leopard was gone; only Torque remained, snoring at his pillow.

The AI, noticing he was awake, “thoughtfully” opened the blackout panels. Morning sunlight streamed across the bed.

“Today’s temperature: 69⁰ F – 80⁰ F ¹. Humidity: 67%. Clear turning partly cloudy…” The AI even began dutifully reporting traffic conditions on New Blue Star.

“Awooo—awooo—”

The synthetic voice and the wild, natural howls of the snow leopard outside mixed in an oddly amusing duet.

Lu Yao, now fully awake, sat up, massaging his temples. “D, where’s the snow leopard?”

“Mr. Lu, your pet is in the southeast corner of the courtyard.”

“Is he okay?”

“Except for a higher-than-average frequency of howls, the snow leopard’s status is normal.”

Lu Yao took a deep breath, got out of bed, dressed, washed up, and gave himself a suppressant injection. Twenty minutes passed, and the snow leopard was still howling.

Following the sound, Lu Yao went into the courtyard. From a distance, he could see the silver-white, patterned back of the snow leopard as it howled toward the horizon. Outside the courtyard were only calm woods and the distant sky—no enemies, no prey.

“Awooo—”

“Awooo—”

The snow leopard’s howl split the morning air, a voice somewhere between a tiger and a cat—loud, yet hoarse.

“What’s wrong, my baby?” Lu Yao approached him. The snow leopard paused mid-howl, turned his head, and looked at Lu Yao with a lingering, almost sorrowful gaze. For a fleeting moment, Lu Yao felt the weight of grievance in those eyes. Lu Yao tilted his head, unsure. He reached out and stroked the snow leopard’s head, trying to make sense of what had happened over the past few days.

Food? Already fed. Upset? Torque couldn’t have beaten the snow leopard. Separation anxiety? Everything had been normal last night. Lu Yao rubbed the snow leopard’s ears vigorously. “Baby, I have to go to work today. Stay home and behave. I’ll have D give you an extra meal.”

The snow leopard tilted his head to nuzzle his hand, then, again mesmerized by the lingering catnip, flopped to the ground, trembling and rolling. Lu Yao brushed his fur for a while before leaving.

Tomorrow, the review meeting would finally begin. Lu Yao wouldn’t head to the R&D base today; instead, he went to the Mecha Research Institute to discuss speaking points with the heads of the second and third R&D bases.

Besides the NTL mecha concept draft, all the standard budget proposals from the R&D bases were to be resubmitted for review. These documents had been written the same way for years, rarely causing problems. Revisions seldom produced anything groundbreaking. In the end, the only work left was polishing the presenter’s speech.

The other two engineers were both over a hundred years old, much older than Lu Yao. Seeing his icy expression, one said gently, “The anomalous beast wave is surging. No matter how much the Mecha Research Institute’s funding gets cut, it won’t be too extreme. Otherwise, the front-line corps won’t approve if weapons are lacking.”

“The team studying starships at the Academy just got a large influx of funds and placed huge orders with several energy companies. Our situation won’t be much worse,” the other added. Lu Yao nodded silently and focused on Mo Feng, who had rehearsed his speech ten times. By the end, Mo Feng looked ready to cry. “I think my throat will be hoarse by the time I step on stage tomorrow.”

Lu Yao tossed him a few mint candies and suddenly remembered: his snow leopard had been howling all morning too. His throat might be sore—maybe he should get something to soothe it. When he returned home, stepping out of the elevator, he immediately heard the snow leopard’s hoarse roar.

“D, is the snow leopard in the courtyard?”

“Yes, Mr. Lu.”

“He’s been howling all day?”

“Statistically, the snow leopard emits a ten-minute howl every thirty minutes on average.”

What on earth was going on? Crossing the living room, Lu Yao noticed the carpet had been shredded into countless tears over thirty centimeters long. Torque, the small kitten, wasn’t capable of this kind of destruction—the culprit had to be the snow leopard.

“Has he eaten anything unusual? Is he sick?”

“No,” the AI replied. “The snow leopard only consumes provided food, with a compliance rate exceeding 98% for trained refusal behavior.”

“So this is…”

“Mr. Lu, based on cross-referenced analysis in my newly integrated animal behavior database, there is a 78% probability your snow leopard has entered a rut.”

Lu Yao blinked. “It’s summer now,” he said.

“That is also a concern for many environmental organizations. The planetary climate control system maintains human-habitable zones, and scenic seasons are artificially created according to population preferences. Non-natural seasonal changes can disrupt the behavior of flora and fauna that rely on natural cues.”

“Since the snow leopard lived entirely inside the starship, in a perfectly temperature- and humidity-controlled environment, his physiological regulation system may have malfunctioned.”

Lu Yao stood in the corridor, listening to the distant cries of the snow leopard. When he approached, he still nuzzled his palms, though he no longer howled. With a complicated expression, he pinched his ears, then led him back to the room. As usual, he cooked meat for him and refilled Torque’s food bowl.

Torque, who had been grooming his belly, bolted when he heard the food hitting the bowl. Torque was a young tomcat, neutered before his first birthday. Lu Yao had never worried about his rut issues.

But the snow leopard… Lu Yao remembered that among the files Zhao Minghe had given him, there was no neutering certificate. The snow leopard had long, thick fur and a bushy tail, and his rear was always obscured. Lu Yao had never seen it clearly.

He carried the food bowl to the sofa. The snow leopard followed closely, brushing against his legs. Lu Yao set the food bowl on the floor and settled onto the sofa. This way, the snow leopard would crouch in front of him, burying his head in the meat.

His hind legs tucked near Lu Yao’s feet, tail swaying with his mood. As usual, Lu Yao scratched along the snow leopard’s back and pinched his long tail. The tail twitched under his touch but didn’t lash away. The snow leopard had grown used to his playful handling and had relaxed his guard. When Lu Yao’s palm traced further down, the snow leopard didn’t notice anything amiss.

After rubbing against the thick, plush fur for a while, Lu Yao’s hand grew slightly warm. He combed and parted the fur at the base of the tail until the snow leopard had fully relaxed. Then the human hand moved beneath the tail…

Mmm… Lu Yao pinched gently. Soft and springy, the long fur wasn’t a solid color. Patches of leopard spots blended perfectly with the fur, making the large bell almost invisible. Warm to the touch, each roughly half the size of Lu Yao’s palm.

He squeezed it a couple of times—and suddenly felt the long, silvery-gray fur in front of him go completely still. Not even a hint of breath. Lu Yao looked up and met the snow leopard’s gaze. His head had turned, eyes wide and round, pale gray, filled with shock.

Author’s Note:

Zhou Yunchen: Who am I? Where am I? What just happened? Is this allowed?

 

 

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