Chapter 277: Hyenas Surround the Cheetah, Qin Yun Behind

No words were spoken through the night; Qin Yun woke at around seven the next morning.

This dry shelter was comfortable to sleep in; though he got up several times to add firewood, overall it was much better than the previous night.

With the last baobab fruit and honey, Qin Yun had a fairly decent breakfast, then prepared to set off.

When he opened his livestream, countless viewers flooded in at once, and the stream's popularity skyrocketed to number one. Some Douyin streamers slapped their foreheads and knew instantly: Qin Yun had gone live—no one else could affect so many livestreams at once.

Although Douyin's scale was enormous, Qin Yun's single livestream monopolized tens of millions of viewers; broken down, every other livestream was inevitably affected to some degree.

Aside from a few livestreams focused on silver-haired economy, the viewer counts of nearly all others dropped visibly.

One streamer sighed: "Fuck, we've got to endure this for another twenty-plus days."

"Hello everyone, I'm Qin Yun. I'm currently in the Serengeti Plains of Africa. Today is my third day live, and it's eight a. m. local time."

"On day one, I arrived at Ndutu Lake. From there, I was lucky enough to find a baobab tree and spotted a young male lion, witnessing a battle between a lion and a spotted hyena. At the critical moment, I couldn't bear to see the lion killed by the hyenas, so I interfered rashly, disrupting this natural selection."

"After a night in the wild, on day two I luckily encountered African honeybees. Following them, I found their hive and successfully obtained my 'liquid gold.'"

Qin Yun patted the several containers hanging on his body and laughed: "With this liquid gold, I don't have to worry much about malnutrition—energetically, these honey stores equal half a month's rations. Plus, it's a natural medicine: antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, treats diarrhea, detoxifies. I can even use it to roast meat or preserve food—it's incredibly useful."

After his opening remarks, Qin Yun extinguished the surrounding fire and set off again.

"This time difference is annoying—I stayed up late watching yesterday, and I'm still sleepy, especially now that summer's here."

"Yeah, I'm dead tired."

"Qin Ye, you've got so much energy—I'm jealous."

"I'm stuck in a cubicle working like a beast, while Qin Ye roams freely across the grassland—how can human differences be so vast?"

"Don't even talk—I almost cried. My boss yelled at me for dozing off just now. Fuck these capitalist bastards."

"We're all born from the same parents—why am I so miserable?"

Qin Yun looked at these comments and laughed: "We're all screws in society's machine—no one needs to envy another. If you're willing, nothing can stop you."

"Easy to say—but how many people are like you?"

"Yeah, 'escaping suffering' sounds simple, but we're all forced by survival. Lose this job, and who knows if the next one even exists."

"I've been unemployed for three years. Let me share a little-known fact: our country's greatest welfare is that no one starves to death—it lets you lie down."

Qin Yun looked ahead—the sun shone brightly, the weather clear.

But to the grassland, this was just another ordinary day in the dry season.

"If you envy my life, maybe next time I'll randomly select a few lucky viewers to join me in surviving the wilderness."

Qin Yun had meant this as a casual joke.

But to the countless viewers in the livestream, it instantly sparked interest.

"Great idea! Didn't TV stations once bring De Ye and Bei Ye to do survival shows with celebrities?"

"Haha, you call that survival?"

"I'm from the TV station—I'll show you how it's done."

"I'm the first to support Qin Ye's suggestion—but the survival location can't be too harsh; we're all ordinary people, can't handle extreme conditions."

"Yeah, yeah—forests or deserted islands would be doable."

Netizens grew more excited; ideas poured out one after another.

Qin Yun watched this scene, smiled, and considered internally: the idea wasn't impossible to implement. But if he truly did it, safety had to be the absolute priority—no problems whatsoever. Otherwise, if anything went wrong, his entire career could be ruined.

Walking into the sunlight for about an hour and a half, around 9:30 a. m., Qin Yun suddenly spotted five small silver-gray shapes amid tall grass. He halted, his eyes brightening.

"Everyone, look—what's this?"

Viewers in the livestream immediately peered—through the drone's zoom, the small creatures slowly came into view within the grass.

"Holy shit, kittens?"

"Wow, what is this? So cute."

"So fluffy—is it a wild cat or something?"

"They look a bit like yesterday's honey badgers."

Qin Yun smiled: "These are cheetah cubs. Furry, they look like little hedgehogs."

As he moved closer, the five cubs in the grass finally showed signs of unease.

"Jiji… jiji…" cries rang out continuously, like tiny kittens—soft and pitiful.

"So adorable."

"I want to raise one."

"Qin Ye, take a few back."

"Cute!"

Qin Yun scanned around but saw no trace of the mother cheetah—she could be anywhere. But since the cubs were here, the mother couldn't be far; otherwise, she couldn't rescue them in time if danger came.

He opened his containers and poured some honey onto the ground. Instantly, the cubs, like cats drawn by fish smell, rushed forward without hesitation and began frantically licking the honey.

Even when Qin Yun gently patted their heads, they paid no attention—completely absorbed in the sweetness of the honey.

He rose, stepped over the cubs, and continued forward.

"Adorable as they are, they won't stay cute when they grow up—I'll keep moving."

He walked for another ten minutes, then saw a cheetah dragging a blackbuck, surrounded by three spotted hyenas.

"Damn, there are way too many spotted hyenas on this grassland."

"It's over—this cheetah's probably done for."

"Qin Ye said cheetahs are super fast—why doesn't it just run? Those hyenas can't catch it."

Qin Yun watched from afar, calmly saying: "Unless something unexpected happens, this cheetah is the mother of those cubs. She could escape easily—but the scent of the cubs is clear to these hyenas. If she flees, the cubs are dead."

"So unless it's certain death, she'll stall—only when she can't hold out will she abandon the kill and flee, then return to carry off the cubs. How many she can take with her? Uncertain."

Qin Yun's tone was calm, yet brutally so—and this was the most bloody, yet normal, reality of the grassland.

Compared to hyenas, cheetahs are much smaller in build; even one-on-one, they're no match, let alone being attacked by three at once.

Finally, amid the hyenas' roars, the cheetah dropped the black-gazelle in its mouth, then leapt forward, swiftly escaping the three hyenas' encirclement—so fast it vanished in the blink of an eye, heading precisely toward the cheetah cubs' location.

Qin Yun hid in the grass, not rising.

After the cheetah left, the three hyenas pounced on the black-gazelle and began frenziedly tearing at it; soon, the sizable gazelle was torn apart by the three hyenas.

Seeing this, Qin Yun turned and walked away.

"I need to go back and check if the cheetah mother took all her cubs—if any were left behind, I might as well lend a hand. Mainly, I'm a looks-based person; those little cheetah cubs are so cute, I can't bear to see them die in the mouths of those ugly, repulsive hyenas."

"Hyenas: Are you being polite?"

"Thanks a lot—we're just ugly, is that really so unforgivable?"

"Hahaha, Master Qin is so pragmatic."

Soon, Qin Yun returned to the spot where he'd first found the cheetah cubs, and discovered only two remained—the other three had vanished. By examining the flattened grass and vegetation, Qin Yun realized the cheetah mother had indeed made the choice he'd suspected.

The two cubs chirped pitifully, terrified; their fear intensified at Qin Yun's appearance.

Qin Yun didn't hesitate—he scooped up the two cubs, shoved them into his arms, and immediately changed direction, planning to detour around any area where hyenas might appear. He wasn't afraid himself, but hyenas never showed up alone—they came in packs of forty or fifty; if that happened, no matter how strong he was, he'd be helpless.

Watching Qin Yun take the cheetah cubs, the livestream viewers grew envious.

After hiking for over half an hour, Qin Yun reluctantly realized he'd been surrounded—in front were the three hyenas, behind him stood the cheetah mother; both regarded him with hostile stares.

The hyenas clearly saw him as both prey and a rival thief of food; the cheetah saw him as a villain stealing her cubs.

In short, at this moment, he had become the villain!

"Hahaha, Master Qin went too far."

"Attacked from front and back—Master Qin is loving this."

"Damn, he's even driving a car now—what a mess."

……

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