The System Mistook Me for a Cat

Qiula's solo hunt had failed again.

Perhaps he had been driven away by Michelle's wolf pack last night and was injured.

Maybe he had chosen the wrong prey, but that might have been his best option.

After being chased away by the yaks, he took one last look at his former companions in the valley before limping away from the stream.

White stared in the direction Qiula had gone for a while, then mused, "Perhaps we should fit Qiula with a satellite tracker."

— The kind that animals often wear around their necks in documentaries.

But satellite trackers are only installed on certain star animals. Humans usually sedate the animals during health checks or necessary rescue operations to fit them with these collars.

Michelle should have had one too, but she was too clever and too alert. In the end, humans only managed to fit a tracker on the current wolf king, Michelle's grandchild.

Qiula had been just an ordinary male wolf in the valley pack. Before the valley packs merged, he was a pup of one of the pack's alpha wolves. Of course, being an alpha's pup didn't grant him any special status - he still had to join hunts and work for his food. After the packs merged into the valley pack, he became even more ordinary.

He wasn't even an Omega wolf.

But his departure surprised everyone on the team. After checking that the infrared cameras at several locations were intact and retrieving the footage, they returned to camp to try to understand why Qiula had left.

Lian was responsible for picking out videos featuring Qiula, with Chu Tingwu helping to review them. Finally, White deduced what had happened:

"It was a status change."

Each wolf pack typically has two Omega wolves, one male and one female. They often serve as punching bags during pack games and must act submissively to ease tension when the pack atmosphere becomes tense.

The original male Omega wolf had gradually advanced in rank and built good relationships with the Beta wolves. The day before Chu Tingwu arrived, he decided to leave his Omega position, and the next in line to become an Omega wolf was Qiula.

Qiula didn't accept this.

The young grey wolf paced anxiously outside the den, argued with the Betas, and finally fought with the Omega.

Qiula sustained several wounds, and the cameras didn't capture the final outcome, but the next day, he left.

The Omega wolf remained the Omega wolf, but Qiula could no longer return to the pack.

Without any preparation, he began his solo adventure.

Freckles posted this story online, where netizens expressed both concern and curiosity. Someone asked, "What about that wild wolf? Is he still around?"

— They were referring to the wild wolf that White had been tracking, who had ventured into the central territory of the three major wolf packs. His fate had garnered equal attention.

Chu Tingwu discovered traces of that wild wolf the next morning while washing up.

Hunters often have very keen senses of smell. After waking up, she could distinguish the scents in the air and determine how many successful hunts had occurred the previous night based on the smell of blood and decay.

One large prey carried the scent of multiple wolves, suggesting it was taken down by group hunting.

For now, she hadn't detected any "messages" of successful solo hunts.

White called Freckles to bring the equipment and asked Lian to join them, while Chu Tingwu stayed behind with the ranger responsible for communications.

After everyone else had left, the ranger called out to her, "Wu, is there any food you'd like me to buy?"

Chu Tingwu only cooked once a day, and since nobody was used to eating rice (she actually preferred meat herself), she had won everyone's favor with her cooking skills.

The ranger seemed eager for the chef to provide some variety in their meals.

Chu Tingwu requested some seasonings and flour, along with some meat better suited for eating fresh, and finally added, "Could you bring some metal components? I'll have someone buy them in advance; you'd just need to bring them in."

The ranger frowned and asked for a list. Finding nothing dangerous, he shrugged and agreed.

Chu Tingwu told him these were supplementary components needed for filming equipment.

— Indeed, she had decided to assemble another drone.

She couldn't bring her original one abroad, so she had left it with Three-Five-Five.

After making arrangements, Chu Tingwu climbed to the top of the camp's perimeter fence and raised her camera.

The ranger poked his head out of the car and saw her standing steadily — though it wasn't the first time he'd seen it, watching Chu Tingwu stand motionless on a railing barely half a palm's width in the blowing wind made him unconsciously fall back on stereotypes about Chinese people.

...Though perhaps it wasn't really a stereotype? After all, this young woman completely lived up to those impressions!

When White and the others returned, Chu Tingwu had already prepared dinner.

They hadn't had much luck today, not encountering any wolves. They only saw the decaying skeleton of a large red deer, and while vultures were feeding, they took some samples.

The reserve regularly takes samples from deceased animals to check for infectious diseases. Large-scale animal infections must be prevented early; otherwise, it could lead to a situation like the one several years ago when numerous reserve animals died in succession, devastating tourism in Stardusk State.

However, when Freckles returned to his room, Chu Tingwu called him over and shared several photos: "I took these today."

Freckles: "...Oh, thank you."

But he had only been polite yesterday; this child didn't need to help with photos every day—

"!???"

"Are these valley wolves? Where did you take these? Did you really not leave camp?!"

The three photos Chu Tingwu gave him showed two alpha wolves from the valley pack with the wolf pup Hope. The three wolves were lying on rocks, with the alpha female and male touching heads while Hope rolled on the ground. In one photo, he tilted his head toward the camera, appearing either lost in thought or making eye contact with humans. The image quality was excellent. In another photo, the alpha female had turned her head, her golden eyes gazing softly toward the camera.

Of course, Chu Tingwu hadn't left the camp. The wolves were close enough that she could easily determine their location without leaving, and all she needed to do was use her photography equipment and adjust the focus.

She waved dismissively and went to her room to rest.

Freckles was left pondering for a while before sighing and going to knock on White's door.

The next day, White enthusiastically invited Chu Tingwu into the car and introduced her to another professor: "Wu is really skilled at finding these lovely animals. I believe she not only has good luck but also a very keen intuition!"

This time Freckles and Lian were also present, while one of the professor's students had some business and left the reserve with the ranger.

The two professors took their three "students" out. Without a ranger in the car this time, when they reached a fork in the road, White asked Chu Tingwu, "Should we keep driving forward?"

Chu Tingwu had already caught the scent ahead: "Yes."

Freckles silently drove on.

Then, Chu Tingwu tapped his shoulder: "You can stop now."

Just as he braked, a grey wolf head emerged from the grass, carrying a rabbit in its mouth.

"It's Qiula," White said directly this time. "Good boy, he's changed his hunting targets."

An adult male wolf needs to eat several pounds of meat per day, and one rabbit certainly isn't enough — they had thought Qiula would hunt a deer or scavenge leftovers from other wolf packs.

Of course, as a lone wolf, he couldn't even protect scavenged food and would have to compete quickly with scavenging birds that came to share the meal.

Since they had already decided to fit Qiula with a satellite tracker and begin recording his story, White didn't drive away this time. Instead, they mounted cameras on the car's roof rack and installed cameras on the vehicle itself.

If Qiula showed no obvious resistance, they would follow him by car, trailing him until they reached a point where vehicles could no longer proceed.

Freckles: "So, we might not return to camp tonight."

No wonder they brought such a large vehicle this time, with camping tents stored in the trunk.

Chu Tingwu: "Did we bring tranquilizer guns?"

Another professor responded: "We brought them, but now isn't the right time to tranquilize Qiula."

—They would choose to use tranquilizers in two situations.

First, if Qiula was severely injured but had escaped capture, after assessing the situation and determining that his injuries were beyond self-healing capabilities, they might tranquilize and transport him.

However, typically, only star animals received such treatment, and most of the time, they didn't interfere with animals' own conflicts.

The second situation would be when Qiula was sound asleep, and the timing was right, they would administer a small dose of tranquilizer to install the satellite tracker.

However, some wild animals strongly resist satellite trackers—

A small number of clever ones deliberately try to damage it (although it's difficult), while others might exhibit abnormal behavior, jumping and howling continuously, extremely averse to having this foreign object on their bodies.

Humans would then have no choice but to remove the trackers for them.

They decided to follow and film Qiula for a while longer, waiting to see if an opportunity for installation would arise.

Chu Tingwu thought for a moment, consulted with White, and then turned on her livestream camera.

She pointed the camera at Qiula as the vehicle slowly moved forward. The wolf in the distance seemed to have noticed the human vehicle—wolves' sense of smell is hundreds of times more sensitive than humans', but to wolves, humans and vehicles are considered one entity, and no matter how confused they might be, they wouldn't hunt such a large creature.

Thus, both parties coexisted peacefully, and when viewers entered the livestream, they saw the wolf in the center of the frame.

[When I first clicked in, I thought Master Chu was showing a documentary, took me two seconds to realize—wait, this is live!]

[Went to check Red Rock Camp's account updates! Is this the wolf called Qiula?]

[When I first followed you, I never imagined you'd come this far...]

Chu Tingwu: That last comment doesn't sound very complimentary ==

The fans didn't react at first, but now they were all getting excited.

If they were watching a foreign blogger who specialized in wild animal content streaming, it probably wouldn't seem so thrilling, but they had "watched Chu Tingwu grow up"—from streaming cat food preparation to now following wild wolves in the protection zone, they felt—

[Your internet connection is really amazing!]

Indeed.

Theoretically, streaming wasn't possible within the protection zone, but Chu Tingwu's network connection obviously went through the system's channels, allowing smooth streaming from any corner of the world, and even satellite connectivity when streaming wasn't possible (according to the system).

Because she was the only one streaming now, soon after the broadcast began, the stream was flooded with people... who were watching through AI translation.

These were the gray wolf fans who had found Chu Tingwu's account through the camp team's account and discovered she was streaming.

However, accessing the stream through Fenghua Network resulted in unstable connections, even worse than Chu Tingwu's stream itself. After numerous complaints from these fans, Fenghua Network staff messaged Chu Tingwu, asking if she could synchronize her stream to "Fenghua Network-Overseas Platform."

Fenghua Video Network had been operating this overseas platform for some time, but traffic had been mediocre. Recently, only a certain lifestyle content creator had attracted a significant following, becoming the platform's top female creator.

Besides lifestyle content, other popular categories were food and fitness, but currently, Fenghua Network's overseas platform lacked any signature video creators. The staff couldn't understand why some creators who were hugely popular domestically failed to make waves when their videos were posted on the overseas platform.

After the system informed Chu Tingwu, she agreed and let the system take over her overseas platform account's screen design.

With the system in place, more precise multilingual translation could be implemented directly, eliminating the need for viewers to use their own translation tools.

Also, seeing the effectiveness of Chu Tingwu's current stream, the staff took a bold step and gave her the most prominent featured position on the overseas platform.

An hour into Chu Tingwu's stream, while domestic account traffic slightly decreased, the overseas platform's numbers steadily rose.

People who came across the stream title were initially surprised, wondering "Does Red Rock Protection Zone have streaming signals now?" Most assumed Chu Tingwu was just a tourist, but upon seeing the wolf in the frame and reading the interface description, they were shocked to discover—

The streamer was actually in the core area of the protection zone!

Qiula drank some water by the river, caught a mouse, and ate while vigilantly looking around.

As for the following vehicle, he simply treated it as a non-meat-eating large animal.

But the people in the car were also eating meat, as it was mealtime.

While Chu Tingwu was eating, White, aware of the livestream, greeted the fans in the frame and briefed them on the current situation.

Many fans recognized White, who was also a renowned expert in wolf behavior observation.

Meanwhile, Chu Tingwu quietly continued eating.

White finished speaking, and she was still eating.

Lian finished, and Chu Tingwu was still working on opening a can.

Freckles was cleaning up, getting ready to drive, while Chu Tingwu was dipping bread in the can's sauce.

[Did the streamer not eat before leaving?]

[She seems to be really enjoying it, but I checked the brand of that can, ugh, I've had that brand too many times and just the sight makes me want to throw up. Are we eating different things?]

[This kid's a bit picky, ate all the meat but barely touched the fruit, though she did drink a lot of water.]

Perhaps because Qiula was dozing off in the frame, overseas viewers oddly began focusing on Chu Tingwu's eating, with some even having an extra bowl of food along with her.

However, just as she finished clearing her plate, Chu Tingwu looked toward the back of the vehicle.

White: "Did you notice something?"

Comments—

[?]

[Is he asking the streamer?]

Chu Tingwu: "There's an injured wolf over there."

As she finished speaking, another split-screen camera also moved in that direction.

Fans could only see distant trees and crouching grass, with shadows cast by the moving sun, but as for the wolf... where was it?

However, after Chu Tingwu adjusted the camera, a stream of question marks floated across the comments.

[Wait, that's not a rock! That's a wolf?]

When Chu Tingwu spotted it, Qiula seemed to notice too.

Viewers watching both screens noticed Qiula stop tearing at his food, gaze toward the forest, and then release a long howl.

After a moment, a howl responded from the other side.

Then people watched as that wolf emerged from behind the trees.

White excitedly slapped his thigh: "It's him!"

It was the wild wolf he had been tracking from the beginning!

Fans who had been following the camp account from the start also realized this and were extremely excited—

[Oh my God! Are we discovering him together with White?]

[I thought I'd have to keep waiting for account updates, anxiously waiting for news about this guy, but we actually get to see it live... and we even saw him before White!?]

[No no, the young lady spotted him first, then us!]

[Thank you, blogger! Didn't White say last time that if this guy hadn't left the valley area, he'd give him a name when they saw him again?]

Wolves in the protection zone usually have their names collected from fan submissions, and since the camp discovered this wolf first, they defaulted to collecting name suggestions from the camp account's followers—unless he was actually from another pack and already had a name.

White also glanced at the comments, acknowledging that was indeed the case, but since they were outside now, they couldn't post a new blog post for fans to name through likes—

Chu Tingwu: "How about on my livestream?"

Freckles, sitting in the driver's seat: "=="

There was a nervous feeling of one's work being taken away.

No, they were supposed to take turns managing the account anyway, this wasn't his job!

Fans were suggesting names, but some were throwing cold water on the idea—

[But Qiula and the young wolf have met, they're both injured, they both need food, and they're both male wolves? Is now really the time to be naming them?]

When two injured male wolves meet, if prey appears at that moment, bloodshed could likely occur.

But it's also possible they would cautiously eye each other, then silently part ways.

Qiula didn't move, with the shallow creek behind him, and he called out once more.

The nameless wolf suddenly started trotting toward Qiula's direction.

Two cameras filmed from different angles, finally merging into one shot.

Qiula and the wolf were just a sprint's distance apart.

The fans held their breath for them.

Although Qiula wasn't a celebrity wolf, and the male wolf was just a stray from outside—humans seem naturally inclined to hope for more perfect outcomes, disliking the sight of bloodshed.

This wolf was injured, perhaps having worked hard to hunt his food for the day, with his stomach finally feeling full and his healing wound feeling itchy. He hoped to be accepted by a pack, or to form a new family with a female wolf.

—And on the other side, one exactly the same.

The wolves stared at each other from a moderate distance, until finally, the nameless wolf pounced.

White drew in a sharp breath.

But what happened next was different from what he imagined. After knocking Qiula down, the nameless wolf pinned him to the ground, then licked his mouth. Qiula struggled symbolically for a moment before letting out a short howl.

The wolf released his front paws, and Qiula stood up. The two wolves brought their heads together.

They nuzzled each other for a while, and White noticed that the "young one's" wounds had almost completely healed!

While Qiula's wounds still somewhat affected his movement—in a fight, Qiula would definitely be at a disadvantage.

But they didn't fight. They stood side by side, watched the creek for a while, then crossed it and walked away together toward more distant places.

"They..." White murmured, "they might have decided to form a temporary alliance, to hunt together."

[Oh my goodness...]

[We're witnessing a rare situation. Usually, male and female wolves form families before accepting same-sex wolves from outside (and often only after having cubs), because male wolves could threaten his position. But leaving the pack without finding a female wolf, and instead finding a companion first, perhaps because they were both injured!]

This was an extremely coincidental situation.

The injured wolf realized he couldn't hunt alone to feed himself, and the other wolf he met was similarly injured and without a pack.

Until they fully recovered, this temporary alliance between the male wolves would likely hold.

After they had gone some distance, White finally let Freckles drive the car across the creek.

But as the car bumped along in the creek water, White was still talking excitedly: "I rarely encounter situations like this, but seeing this moment makes me very excited—wolves are the most humanized animals with small societies that I've seen so far, and individual behaviors make me feel like I understand them a bit more... but I still feel eternally unsatisfied!"

Dedicating all his energy to studying another species, each time he uncovered a secret behind their actions brought a satisfying fullness to his heart.

For White, North American gray wolves were an extremely fascinating species.

White: "So child, why did you come to study them?"

Chu Tingwu: "=="

Chu Tingwu: "Because you invited me."

White: "Haha, but you didn't reply until almost June, I think there's more reason than just my invitation."

Chu Tingwu: "...I heard it's rare to see Michelle in person, I was curious about this grandmother, so I wanted to come see."

White nodded continuously: "That's enough, whether it's curiosity or deep love, reasons don't have hierarchies of nobility! And I think you'll come to love them eventually."

You're very confident.

Chu Tingwu rested her chin in her hand, watching the grass and trees bend down outside the window. The sun's golden light illuminated the dewdrops hidden between the leaves, the air vibrating imperceptibly to humans. Her intuition told her it would rain soon.

The rain wouldn't last long, and she wasn't looking through the camera lens—she only needed her eyes to see Qiula and that male wolf plotting how to hunt a red deer fawn.

The fawn was tucked under its mother's belly, while the adult red deer vigilantly surveyed its surroundings.

Oh right, they shouldn't call him "that male wolf" anymore. After seeing the comments section, White said: "His name is Shane now."

A kind wolf, and therefore somewhat endearing.

Qiula and Shane's hunt began!

Adult red deer are actually larger than gray wolves, which is why they targeted the fawn.

But they also had to be wary of the mother deer's resistance—her hooves could easily make their hunt unsuccessful.

As the two wolves drew closer, the mother deer seemed to sense something. She called out twice, summoning her fawn, ready to move elsewhere.

Shane made his move.

He ran faster than when he'd met Qiula, like a gray-black shadow chasing after the two deer. The mother deer kept bouncing around, trying to circle around this wolf.

But Chu Tingwu noticed she seemed to realize this was just one wolf, not a hunting pack.

The fawn obviously couldn't run fast, and in one instant, the mother deer suddenly turned her head, raised her hooves toward Shane, and struck forcefully.

She hid her fawn behind her, but at this moment, while Shane and the mother deer were entangled, Qiula suddenly appeared and bit the fawn's neck.

When the fawn screamed, the mother deer was clearly affected. She turned to save her fawn, but Shane bit her hard.

The mother deer's hooves scraped the soil, seeming to hesitate for half a second, but when both wolves looked at her, she cried out in grief and abandoned her fawn, running away.

After running some distance, she seemed to regret it, wanting to turn back to rescue her fawn, but Shane blocked her path while Qiula dragged the fawn by its neck, blood slowly flowing from the wound.

When Shane made a charging motion toward the mother deer, she finally gave up.

Her figure disappeared behind the rocks.

The livestream cameras captured the entire process, with the "audience" behind the cameras and across the internet holding their breath as they watched.

This wasn't a scene from a documentary; this was happening right now.

They witnessed a life passing before their eyes, while two other lives survived on its flesh. Wild animals often hunt for survival, and even after surviving, their lives are destined to be shorter than those of zoo animals.

But is such hunting meaningless?

Perhaps this question is the riddle that nature has set for humans.

And besides amazement, there were several different emotions among the on-site observers.

Like Chu Tingwu.

When the hunt began, her fingers resting by the car window couldn't help but tighten, leaving a slight foggy print on the glass.

She could feel an urge rising from deep within her genes—in the dream classroom, she had always fought with larger, stronger beasts, and perhaps due to "minor age restrictions" or something similar, those animals wouldn't even bleed.

Now, watching this real "practical teaching" before her eyes, Chu Tingwu finally understood why the system wanted her to find a mother to guide her.

Because seeing something in person was completely different from watching it in videos or simulations.

She could smell the blood, hear the gray wolves' breathing, and even the sound of heartbeats during each bite. She could hear the friction between the wolves' paws and the ground when they exerted force, and her mind instinctively created a more vivid picture.

Then, Chu Tingwu put herself into the scene.

If she were a wolf, what would she do?

But she wasn't a wolf - she would use a cat's method, or rather, the method of a larger feline.

And since she wasn't a cat either, she wouldn't use her teeth, but with the right tools, she believed she could also complete this hunt.

A strange ambition rose in her heart, but Chu Tingwu eventually suppressed it:

Beasts hunt for survival, while if she were to "hunt," it would just be for fun.

...How cat-like of her.

The system was also experiencing mixed emotions—

System: "(Sobbing)"

Chu Tingwu: "..."

System: "The cub..."

Chu Tingwu: "This can't be helped."

Humans don't interfere with such natural hunting.

System: "No, not this red deer cub—I'm thinking about you, my little one. What if you get hurt and I can't help you, just like this mother deer... (sobbing)"

Chu Tingwu: "..."

So you're identifying with the mother deer, and I'm that cub who can only be protected by its mother?!

She was perfectly capable of fighting! Open your eyes and look - your cub is very strong!

With a mix of mild disdain and embarrassment, Chu Tingwu dismissed the system, and heard White say: "Let's choose a camping spot that's some distance away from Shane and Qiula."

Although the sun hadn't set yet, those experienced in outdoor camping knew that setting up camp should be done early.

They usually chose higher ground, sprinkled insect repellent powder, and set up camp next to their vehicle.

Today they had discovered Shane, successfully named him, and seen his current situation. White was very satisfied. He looked at the map and asked Freckles to drive west, but just as the vehicle was turning around, Chu Tingwu suddenly said: "Stop for a moment."

Before White could speak, Freckles had already hit the brakes.

White: "?"

Although he was indeed planning to listen to Chu Tingwu, something felt odd.

Chu Tingwu: "There are wolves... no, a wolf pack."

White and the other professor instinctively held their breath, using their eyes to ask which direction the wolves were in. The livestream was still on, and fans immediately became excited, asking Chu Tingwu for details—

[God, tell us which wolf pack it is?]

[How can you ask so much of God? Any pack with more than three wolves would be fine. Maybe there's a pack hunting, God, just tell us the direction!]

Chu Tingwu's eye twitched as she accidentally caught sight of the comments: everyone seemed completely unconcerned about how she knew, but were very excited to have her as a wolf radar.

But she did know which pack it was...

Currently, perhaps only one wolf pack would deploy so many wolves for a single hunt.

The first to appear in the camera were the running yaks, and among the yak herd were gray, white, and pure black shadows. When these three colors of wolves appeared together, there was only one possibility!

Freckles: "Michelle!"

Michelle wasn't visible in the frame yet - that white wolf was Michelle's great-granddaughter, the black wolf in front was the pack's alpha female, and the gray wolf leading at the very front was the pack's alpha male.

Their targets were an adult yak and the yak calf beside it.

More wolves followed behind, encircling and separating their prey from the herd, continuously biting at it until the alpha female at the rear delivered the final strike.

White was somewhat surprised: "Michelle must be looking after the cubs in the den?"

Otherwise, the alpha female wouldn't usually join the hunt while the cubs were still young.

As experts who had observed this wolf pack for a long time, they could easily count the number of wolves in the pack and name each one.

Chu Tingwu listened to White's introduction while matching each wolf, continuously adjusting the camera as the vehicle slowly backed up.

The wolves were on the upslope while they were below. Although the chances of these wolves suddenly deciding to attack the vehicle were very low, it was better to stay out of their sight.

Just as Freckles was checking the rearview mirror while backing up, he suddenly heard Chu Tingwu say:

"Michelle."

Chu Tingwu's way of speaking was different from his exclamations... Although they had only known each other for a few days, Freckles hadn't realized that through her consistently truthful way of speaking, Chu Tingwu had won an inexplicable respect among the camp members. Even without giving reasons, without relevant academic credentials, and with no prior experience in wolf observation, her words would be taken seriously.

He immediately looked up—

Then a flash of white appeared in his field of vision.

The wolf pack had already taken down two yaks and begun tearing at them, occasionally looking up while ripping off strips of meat. When that familiar white figure appeared in their field of vision, the alpha wolf raised its head and let out a long howl.

Michelle responded with a howl from the hillside.

She indeed looked aged now, her fur less lustrous than her descendants', and despite relatively abundant food, she was still thinner than the pack wolves.

She raised her head, her golden pupils seeming to look past the slope to the vehicle below.

Wolves have good memories, and she seemed to recognize the humans driving the vehicle: "Awoo—"

Then, Michelle leaped forward to join the feeding group.

Ravens following the wolf pack for opportunities rose and fell at the hilltop, circling in the air like black wind.

-

The team finally found a place to settle.

They were on a hilltop separated by a deep ravine from where Michelle's pack was hunting.

Despite being so close to the wolves, everyone felt not tension but rather an unspoken excitement.

White was discussing with the other professor, Freckles was staring blankly at the food, while only Chu Tingwu and Lian were seriously eating.

Chu Tingwu had wanted to end the livestream, but fans kept leaving messages and donations, pleading:

[God, we can watch you eat too, we're fine with an eating broadcast, please let us watch a bit longer!]

What exactly did they want to see? She wasn't using an infrared camera for the livestream, so they wouldn't be able to see anything once it got dark.

Chu Tingwu ate silently, but she noticed Lian looking up at her several times.

Finally, Lian's gaze settled on Chu Tingwu's lunchbox.

She still maintained her habit of cooking one meal in the evening, simply reheating the previously prepared food after setting up camp.

And her lunchbox had the most meat.

Lian: "Could I have a little bit?"

She clasped her hands together at Chu Tingwu—probably knowing about Chu Tingwu's appetite, Lian seemed embarrassed asking this, so she added:

"Meow?"

Chu Tingwu: "..."

"Meow..."

Chu Tingwu: "Here."

If you want to eat, just say so... you really don't need to call me mom!