Forest Ranger, starting from Picking Up a Lynx Girl-Chapter 56 If we’re drinking tea, we must invite Brother Ying too

Jinya didn't move, even going so far as to close her eyes and yawn.

The Big Spirit Cat Mother waited a while, and seeing that Jinya made no move, quickly darted out and grabbed the mountain rat in her mouth, devouring it greedily while keeping a watchful eye on Jinya.

Jinya didn't mean to scare the Big Spirit Cat; she sneakily peeked through a slit in her eye to observe the Big Spirit Cat Mother.

She had seen many mothers with their pups, but this was the first time she encountered one who abandoned her child.

Had it not been for Chen Ying's apparent affection for this litter of raccoon dogs, she couldn't have been bothered to care.

Having eaten a mouse earlier and more than half of another, the Big Spirit Cat Mother felt a bit too full to continue eating, yet she couldn't bear to throw the rest away. In her haste, she paced back and forth beside her den, looking for a place to hide it.

That's when Jinya finally jumped down, startling the Big Spirit Cat Mother who quickly darted into the back of the den. Jinya picked up the half-eaten rat and finished it off quickly.

Subsequently, she left swiftly, waving her paw and leaving the scent of the rat behind.

From that day forth, Jinya would feed the Big Spirit Cat Mother every two or three days, even standing guard over the Spiritual Cat cubs when their mother went out hunting.

The Big Spirit Cat Mother evolved from her initial jitteriness to a later attitude of calm resignation.

Seeing as she could neither beat Jinya nor escape from her, she adopted an attitude of "whatever happens, happens".

This morning, Jinya and Chen Ying woke up at the same time.

It was Chen Ying's turn to cook breakfast. After the meal, Master Yi and Little Sen, who were on the night shift, came to eat. Once finished, they would catch up on sleep and the rest of the team would carry on with their scheduled work.

Chen Ying didn't have much to do today. He planned to go to the center to bring back the approval document for reconstructing the Forest Observation Station, and to follow up on the funding for the project.

He also meant to check on the Big Spirit Cat cubs.

During his rest day the day before, he had met with the designer in town. The designer still had some unfinished work, and they arranged to meet on the mountain the following Monday to take actual measurements together.

Initially, he had reported the construction of a Forest Emergency Station.

After he submitted the report, Director Bai made some revisions, integrating the needs of the bird observation department by adding a bird observation station on top of the emergency station.

Moreover, the existing rescue station would be upgraded to a basic Protection Station. This meant that the Forest Emergency Station would serve both observation and emergency functions, essentially becoming a new monitoring and rescue station shared by wild animals and rare birds.

With Director Bai's oversight and Professor Bai smoothing out relations, the report was approved smoothly.

However, the approved construction funds were not going to be entirely used for building the Forest Cabin.

Based on market prices, a three-story light steel structure would cost approximately 1800 yuan per square meter.

Though they had no requirements for decoration and received substantial discounts, the cost of materials transportation and the labor to bring them into the forest meant that the total cost for a three-story building with an area around 180 square meters had already exceeded four hundred thousand yuan.

This chapter is updated by freēwēbnovel.com.

The bureau allocated two hundred thousand yuan, the center allocated one hundred thousand yuan, and the research project funds contributed another hundred thousand yuan, which would basically be enough to erect the building.

But that was not the end of it.

The equipment for the top-level bird observation station had to be supplied by their department, while Chen Ying was responsible for the equipment and project materials he required.

That small project had actually only received two hundred thousand yuan in research funding, but as it was well-known, the cost of just one piece of surgical equipment could exceed this amount.

Professor Bai had promised to help him find second-hand equipment, and with the existing equipment at the center, the emergency station could barely begin operating.

He didn't expect he would have to contribute much of his own money, at least not as much as he initially anticipated.

At that time, he was so determined to build it, even if it meant funding it himself, that Xia Sen and Duanmu had already thought of excuses to support him financially.

After breakfast, as was customary, Chen Ying went to check on the Golden Cat, which was now able to stand steadily. Before he could even sit down, Duanmu's call came through.

"Brother Ying, hurry over, the egg is about to hatch!"

After nearly a month, if the egg didn't hatch soon, he was about to believe that it was Nezha hiding inside.

Everyone in the station who had nothing to do rushed to Duanmu's office to witness the rare sight of an egg hatching.

Chen Ying's heart was pounding uncontrollably.

After all, this was an egg provided by the "system," and who knows what breed it was. If it happened to be something that wasn't supposed to be local, how could he explain?

He had never felt this nervous, not even during his college entrance exams.

Under the eager gazes of everyone present, the movement inside one of the eggs grew slightly more intense.

A crack appeared, followed by a small beak and little claws taking turns pushing forth, and soon a fuzzy feathered chick with flight feathers emerged.

Given the long incubation period, everyone had already guessed that these birds were precocial, but since they were not ornithologists, no one knew exactly what species these little ones were.

Little Sen acted quickly, snapping a photo and searching the internet, to no avail.

Chen Ying glanced at Little Sen's phone, took a photo himself, but rather than searching online, he sent it directly to Sister Dai, asking her to forward it to a bird expert.

Leave the professional questions to the professionals.

Three minutes later, a phone rang.

Seeing an unfamiliar number, Chen Ying was initially reluctant to answer, but thinking of the photo he had sent, he hurried outside to the yard to take the call.

"Dr. Chen? My name is Song Halu, I study birds. I'd like to ask where you took the photo you sent?"

"Uh, right here in the office. We found a clutch of eggs earlier, didn't recognize the species, so we brought them back to incubate ourselves. Is there a problem?"

He asked the other party cautiously.

"Big problem!"

Expert Song's voice rose several pitches, "Turn on your video, I need a good look. You know, this is a big issue, theoretically, this bird should not appear within the range of your rescue station."

What a bunch of weeds!

In a panic, Chen Ying disconnected the call, then dialed back with video, positioning his phone for the best observation, and looked up to see his colleagues with worried expressions.

"It's nothing. Expert Song probably knows what bird it is, he's just a little worried that we can't take care of it properly..."

"Not a little worried, extremely worried! Do you know what bird this is? White-tailed rainbow pheasant, national class one, endangered species!"

"Darn it!" Duanmu was shaking.

The clutch had been in his office for nearly a month, and nobody had really paid it much attention.

Duanmu's accusing gaze turned to Chen Ying; if he were to be called in for questioning, he surely had to bring Brother Ying along!

Chen Ying felt the sweat trickle down his spine as well; who would have known it was this creature?

At most, he had guessed it might be a green-tailed rainbow pheasant since there had been sightings of them in Snow Mountain.

But the white-tailed rainbow pheasant was a species currently only recorded in Gao Ligon Mountain domestically.

How was he supposed to explain finding a clutch of eggs in a place where the white-tailed rainbow pheasant had never been spotted before?

Cold sweat slowly soaked into the waistband of his trousers.

Just as his mind was about to spiral into mush, the remaining three eggs started to crack.

Everyone's gaze on these eggs had changed now, intense and almost trying to help the little chicks break out with their stares.

(No chick photos found, so here's one of an adult. With its oil painting-like feathers, it truly deserves the name of rainbow pheasant.)