’This is tough...’

Yang Qi sighed to himself.

A male leopard that met Hua Hua’s "tall, rich, and handsome" standards was extremely rare in a captive environment like a zoo.

The wild instincts, physique, and hunting skills of captive animals tended to degenerate over generations in a comfortable environment, making it difficult for them to match their wild counterparts.

Hua Hua’s demands sounded more like she was describing a wild male leopard in his prime—a dominant leader at the top of his territory.

The problem was, how could a captive zoo leopard and a wild leopard possibly mate?

Even more difficult!

Despite his thoughts, Yang Qi’s expression remained unchanged. He simply replied to Hua Hua through his consciousness, "Alright, I’ll remember your requirements. If I ever get the chance to meet a strong and handsome male leopard, I’ll be sure to contact you."

Thanks.

Hua Hua seemed satisfied with Yang Qi’s promise. She lifted a forepaw and gently tapped the heavy iron door, making a soft CLANK. A low, urging growl rumbled in her throat.

You’d better be quick.

I can’t wait to have my cubs.

"Alright, I’ll go see if I can get some people to help look,"

Yang Qi said placatingly, then politely excused himself and withdrew the mental link from his Basic Spirit Communication Technique.

Hua Hua watched Yang Qi go, a flicker of hope in her eyes. She spun around twice before finally turning to leave.

"How did it go? Did you find anything out?"

The moment she saw Yang Qi stop communicating, Zhou Jing rushed over to ask.

Sun Dawei followed close behind, his face a mask of curiosity.

"Let’s talk outside."

Yang Qi gestured toward the exit.

The three of them walked to a relatively quiet corner outside the Leopard Hall.

"I’ve figured it out."

Yang Qi smiled and explained, "It’s not that Hua Hua doesn’t want to breed. On the contrary, she’s very eager to have her own cubs."

"Huh?" Zhou Jing froze, confused. "Then why is she..."

"Because her standards are too high. She looks down on all the male leopards currently in the zoo."

Yang Qi picked up the thread. "To put it simply, Hua Hua is looking for a ’tall, rich, and handsome’ male leopard."

"A ’tall, rich, and handsome’ male leopard?"

Zhou Jing repeated the phrase, baffled. "Is that some kind of... secret leopard lingo?"

"Does it mean an exceptionally handsome and strong male leopard?" Sun Dawei, standing beside them, was quicker on the uptake and offered his interpretation.

"Yes, that’s exactly it."

Yang Qi affirmed with a smile. "Handsome, strong, and a skilled hunter. In Hua Hua’s own words, he has to be more impressive than any male leopard she’s ever seen. She feels the current males at the zoo are ’unworthy’ of her, so she ignores them completely."

"That... Those standards are way too high!"

Zhou Jing couldn’t help but press a hand to her forehead. "How could a captive-bred and -raised male leopard possibly meet the standards of a top wild specimen? With requirements like that, I’m afraid only a wild male leopard occupying prime territory and at the peak of his physical condition would qualify, right?"

"And therein lies the problem."

Yang Qi spread his hands. "Hua Hua would rather have nothing than settle for less. If she can’t find a mate who meets her standards, she’d rather stay single. This is beyond what behavioral correction or conventional breeding methods can solve."

"The rest depends on whether your zoo has the capability—or perhaps the willingness—to try and find or breed a ’perfect partner’ who comes close to her standards."

Sun Dawei opened his mouth, as if to say, ’How is that even possible?’ but he glanced at Zhou Jing and swallowed his words.

’He knew perfectly well what that would entail,’ he thought. ’Finding a wild adult male leopard to play matchmaker with?’

’Setting aside the incredibly difficult and risky procedures of capture, quarantine, and acclimation to a zoo environment, even if they managed all that, the animal would be wild and untamable. Would it even hit it off with the captive-bred Hua Hua?’

’Conflict, or even injury and death, was the more likely outcome.’

’It was a fundamentally unsolvable problem.’

Zhou Jing understood the difficulties as well. A look of resignation crossed her face. "Well... at least we know the reason now. We don’t have to keep trying to pair them up blindly. Ugh, Hua Hua’s queenly attitude is really something else..."

Yang Qi nodded silently.

All he could do was help pinpoint the root of the problem.

As for how to solve it, that was a professional decision for the Red Star Zoo to make after weighing their resources, technology, and the inherent risks.

Afterward, Yang Qi followed Zhou Jing on a tour of a few other special exhibits at the Red Star Zoo until closing time.

「After dinner.」

The Red Star Zoo staff arranged a room for Yang Qi at a nearby hotel and had a car take him there.

After checking into his hotel room, Yang Qi had just put down his backpack and was about to wash up when his phone began vibrating nonstop.

He pulled it out and saw it was the private group chat for Donghua Zoo employees that Chen Ze had added him to.

Messages were flying by in the chat, with several people @ing him.

Yang Qi opened the chat. Sure enough, it was about what had happened back at Donghua—the plan to have someone else walk the giant panda that evening had failed.

"Brother Qi, you’ve gotta see this! So-and-so totally made a fool of himself!"

"LMAO, Tuantuan was incredible today."

"@Yang Qi, Brother Qi, it’s a shame you weren’t here."

"Tsk tsk, some people just had to try their luck. And look what happened."

...

Yang Qi quickly scanned the chat history and got the gist of what had happened.

Then he typed a reply.

"Is the guy okay?"

Chen Ze replied almost instantly.

"He’s fine, he’s fine! He just got scared and fell on his ass. Nothing happened to him."

Others immediately chimed in, adding details from all sides and making the messages scroll even faster.

"Brother Qi, you should’ve seen it! Tuantuan was on another level this evening. Usually, he comes right out as soon as you get there. But today, he waited until it was almost dark. He probably figured you weren’t coming, so he just ambled out of his enclosure by himself, took a short stroll on the path, and then ambled right back in. He totally ignored the dude waiting at the gate with an apple in his hand."

"Yeah, exactly! And the guy wouldn’t give up. He probably thought he was doing it wrong, so he tried to copy you, Brother Qi. He got closer to pat Tuantuan’s shoulder and tried to pet his head to get friendly... But before his hand even made contact, Tuantuan suddenly whipped his head around and let out a loud BARK right at him!"

"The guy froze on the spot, completely terrified. His legs gave out, and he plopped right down on his butt."

[Photo] [Photo]

"Hehe, I heard he was so scared he pissed his pants."

"Really? Did he? I couldn’t see clearly, but when he scrambled up, the back of his pants looked kinda wet..."

"Hehe~"

"Hehehe."

"Hahaha!"

...

The group chat erupted in gleeful laughter.

Yang Qi couldn’t help but chuckle as he read along.

’That Tuantuan,’ he thought. ’He usually looks so lazy and good-natured, but when he actually gets mad, the intimidating power of an ursine is no joke.’

’Do people really think a giant panda is just a big cat?’

"This just goes to show, anyone else who thinks they can replace Brother Qi is dreaming!"

Chen Ze summarized, his tone filled with the triumphant satisfaction of being proven right.

"That’s right! It has to be Brother Qi or no one!"