Forest Ranger, starting from Picking Up a Lynx Girl

Jinya returned with her prey to feed her offspring and saw Little Grey White. She put down the prey, called out to Little Lynx, and then placed the fresh catch she had brought back onto the feeding platform that Chen Ying had set up especially for them.

Constructed of concrete, the platform had grooves around it so that when the stone was washed, water would flow directly out of the room following those grooves.

Jinya jumped onto the iron cage, adeptly opened the door, carried Little Lynx in her mouth, and hopped down, placing it on the stone platform before signaling Little Grey White to join them for the meal.

She was the picture of a tender mother in the human world, inviting her child's little friend over.

Little Grey White was indeed a bit hungry, but it had never eaten food offered by other adult animals before. When called over, Little Grey White looked a bit bewildered.

At that moment, its mother also came in, mouth clamped around a fat mouse rabbit.

The tiny amount of meat wouldn't be enough to fill an adult lynx, but it was a nice treat for a youngster.

Following Jinya's example, Lady Lynx tossed the mouse rabbit onto the stone platform, called to Little Grey White, and then followed Jinya out.

Next up was the ladies' parenting salon time.

Chen Ying dropped by to take a quick look and then didn't interfere any further. He'd received a notification from the Forestry and Grassland Bureau that a pastoralist had found a dead Horse Musk Deer in the experimental area on the border of the buffer zone in the high mountain meadow region.

It was common for animals to die in the wild. The pastoralist was simply curious and went to take a look, wanting to know what kind of animal had killed the adult male Horse Musk Deer.

However, upon arriving, he found that the death of the musk deer seemed to be a bit unusual.

"The pastoralist couldn't tell whether it was caused by human attack or wildlife. He just felt that the cause of death was not ordinary, so the people at the Forestry and Grassland Bureau want me and the police comrades to go take a look. That area falls under the jurisdiction of another Protection Bureau, so I need to first meet up with the police comrades at that station."

Uncle Tashi snorted in disdain. What do you mean by "unusual"? If it's not by humans, then it's by wild beasts. Could there be a third party responsible for the accidental death of the Horse Musk Deer?

Please respect science!

Chen Ying had seen Forest Musk Deer, but he had never actually encountered a Horse Musk Deer.

(Black musk deer, a vegetarian little cutie with long canine teeth)

There are many types of musk deer, with Forest Musk Deer being the most common in Jiamu Gully, whereas Black Musk Deer and Horse Musk Deer were seen by pastoralists in the high mountain canyons near River Source over twenty years ago.

But due to humans' overgrazing and hunting of musk deer for their musk, Black Musk Deer and Horse Musk Deer have become quite rare.

Especially the Black Musk Deer, which, apart from the high mountain regions of Southeast Tibet and neighboring countries, is almost never seen elsewhere.

Dao Meihua stayed at the emergency camp, waiting for the next opportunity to enter the uninhabited area in search of Tanggu Rhodiola.

Yin Li mentioned that the next major mountain patrol was scheduled for the following month. They would pass through two areas where Red Rhodiola grew, and Dao Meihua could go with them. If they didn't find it this time, they would have to wait until next year.

With urgent prodding from the other side, Chen Ying handed over his duties to Uncle Tashi and Sun Qihai and set off.

It was not until he was quite a distance away that he realized Black Gold had somehow sneaked onto the vehicle.

After stopping the car to check and confirming with Uncle Tashi via phone that only Black Gold was in the car, Chen Ying reluctantly undertook the journey with Black Gold in tow.

Fortunately, there was a mini-fridge in the car, so they could buy some meat to freeze when they passed through Pastoral Village.

They left in the morning and only reached their destination at 4 p.m.

After meeting up with the police, they didn't have time for much talk and directly headed towards the location of the Horse Musk Deer's death.

"We have colleagues who have been over there already, and they sent us plenty of photos. From what we can see, it's not a natural death, and moreover, the musk gland is missing."

Wild animals don't kill musk deer for their scent. This indicates that it is almost certain that someone has been illegally poaching.

"The problem now is we can't figure out how this Horse Musk Deer died. The pastoralist who found it said there were no scars on its body and no other animals or birds had pecked at it. Initially, he thought the musk deer was still alive but injured. After realizing it hadn't moved for a long time, he approached and confirmed it was already dead."

Out of caution, that pastoralist also took a lot of photos.

Chen Ying left his car at the police station next to the Protection Station and rode in the police car with Black Gold. On the way, he checked the photos and videos sent by the police officer and indeed, not a single scratch could be seen.

However, in some of the photos, Chen Ying noticed something odd about the Horse Musk Deer's leg bones—it looked like they had been broken.

Who would be so bored and so daring to use a Horse Musk Deer for orthopedic practice? This is a first-class protected species. Do they really want an all-inclusive prison stay?

When they arrived at the scene, two police officers and one worker from the Protection Station were already there, guarding the site. Two men dressed as pastoralists were engaged in an animated discussion with the worker, gesticulating time and again.

Chen Ying, not altogether clear on the local dialect, donned gloves and a mask and began to inspect the Horse Musk Deer.

Little Black Gold followed him, sniffing around the corpse of the musk deer for quite some time.

"We've checked both sides; there are no signs of injuries left by poaching."

When they saw the sachet was missing, they immediately suspected poaching.

But the problem is there are Musk Farms specifically breeding Forest Musk Deer nowadays, and their live scent-extraction technique is very mature. After the extraction, they can continue to raise them, allowing the musk deer to produce more scent. There's simply no need to kill a musk deer for a small amount of scent.

Solving cases isn't Chen Ying's specialty; he's here to uncover the mystery behind the Horse Musk Deer's death.

Half an hour later, Chen Ying stood up, removed his gloves and mask, and disposed of them in the medical waste garbage bag.

"This musk deer died from human-induced starvation."

"Ah, starvation?"

"Yes, the leg bones of this Horse Musk Deer were fractured, likely caused by being struck. After it died, the scene was tampered with to appear natural. Perhaps the person thought that after the musk deer died, the body would be consumed completely by the animals on the grassland. Then, even if the scattered bones raised suspicions later, nobody would be able to trace it back."