hsntnovel Chapter 28
Chapter 28
They neither approached again, nor did they leave.
The night wind turned from the north, carrying the scent of the three lions together and pushing it southward.
The left side moves first, slowly loosening its lowered body, changing its hind leg from a starting position to a normal squatting position, and changing its ear from being pressed back to being upright to the side. This is a typical sign of decreased stress response.
The head with the old injury moved as well, tilting its head to the side, shifting its gaze from Chen Fei to the grass beside it, pausing for two seconds, and then looking back.
This action of shifting one's gaze has a specific meaning in the male lion's contact behavior; it is not avoidance, but a confirmation signal that "I am not considering you a threat for the time being."
Over the next three minutes, the breathing rate at both ends gradually decreased, the suppressed components lessened, and it became a natural nighttime breathing rhythm, steady, with a touch of fatigue.
Chen Fei sat on the sand for a while, then stood up and walked back without looking back.
He mentally rated this encounter.
A preliminary coexistence agreement has been reached.
There was no physical conflict, and no olfactory assertion.
Both sides are aware that the other is in this area and have temporarily accepted this fact.
This is the first step, not the last.
On his way back to the low-lying area, he casually turned his ear to the north. The two breathing rhythms remained unchanged; they hadn't followed or run away. They were still there.
Passed.
The low-lying area was quiet at night. Sel was still in the same spot when she heard Chen Fei's approaching footsteps. Her ears twitched, but she didn't look up. She relaxed again, as if confirming something she already knew.
Chen Fei walked inside and stopped when he passed Da Tou.
Big Head wasn't asleep.
He squatted on a flat piece of land on the east side of the low-lying area, his body low to the ground, his right foreleg slightly raised and suspended in mid-air, his foot bent, mimicking some kind of walking movement.
He didn't notice Chen Fei returning. He focused on pushing his right front leg forward, landing lightly, then slowly shifting his weight to test the stability of his right leg under load, before pulling his leg back and repeating the process.
Chen Fei stood behind him for about seven seconds.
At the eighth second, Da Tou sensed something, turned his head back, met Chen Fei's eyes, and froze for a full two seconds.
Then, with an extremely fluid movement, he lay down on his side, closed his eyes, adjusted his breathing to a sleeping rhythm, and rested his tail on the ground, completely still.
Chen Fei saw that he was pretending to be asleep, but did not expose him, and continued to walk inside.
He passed by Meimei's spot. Meimei was awake, lying on her side with her head resting on her front leg, her eyes slightly open, looking at him in the moonlight. She didn't say anything, she just looked.
Chen Fei's gaze lingered on her face for a second.
Meimei shifted her gaze to the grass opposite the low-lying area. Her ears twitched slightly, as if she were listening for a sound, but there was nothing of interest to hear in the low-lying area.
Chen Fei found a place to sit down.
[Host: Chen Fei]
[Identity: Sub-adult male lion]
[Energy Points: 524↑]
The Lion King was still sitting on the right side of the low-lying area, but his posture had changed. His head was raised higher than before, and his nose was tilted towards Chen Fei, as he was taking a sample.
Chen Fei carried the scents of two unfamiliar male lions, which had faded somewhat after being processed by the night wind, but had not disappeared, enough for an experienced adult male lion to detect.
The lion king smelled the aroma through his nostrils, and his eyes changed focus.
He shifted from a relaxed state of nighttime vigilance to something more focused, his gaze fixed on Chen Fei for a longer time than usual before moving away, but his ears remained alert, still listening in Chen Fei's direction.
The grassland quieted down again at night, and the chirping of insects returned from all directions, filling the silence that had just passed.
...
The temperature is lowest in the last hour before dawn.
Chen Fei was not asleep.
It's not that he can't sleep, it's that his nose won't let him sleep—
Starting at midnight, the scent wafting from the east began to slowly change.
Like a pot of soup that's been kept on a low flame, by dawn the aroma has become so strong that he can no longer pretend he didn't smell it.
The dark brown mane marked again last night.
It's not on the eastern arc, but further inward than yesterday.
Chen Fei turned over in the grass in the low-lying area, facing east, and carefully analyzed the information contained in the scent.
The markings on dark brown bristles have a specific hierarchical structure.
The outer ring is the basic scent of territorial declaration, subdued and strong;
The inner ring was covered with a layer of fresh glandular secretions, which had just been left no more than three hours ago;
There was another layer on top that he hadn't noticed before, a slight trace, like the residue of some emotion—not anger, not anxiety, but a state he had seen in the human world.
determination.
He went over the word in his mind.
It wasn't a test, it wasn't pressure, it was a notification.
The marking behavior of the dark brown mane last night was telling the whole old territory: I have made my decision.
The two giants are entering the final stage of their battle, and the logic behind the inward extrapolation of the marked lines is as follows—
The outer ring is marked "I am in this area".
The center circle indicates "I am approaching".
The inner circle sign reads, "I'm already at your door."
Yesterday it was still the center circle.
Today it has become the inner circle.
This shift means one thing: the window for the decisive battle has arrived earlier than Chen Fei predicted.
Not within a day.
But today!
[Host: Chen Fei]
[Identity: Sub-adult male lion]
[Energy Points: 525↑]
He stood up and shook his limbs.
A warm current flowed down from his shoulders and down his four legs, and his senses returned to full alertness in an instant.
The others in the low-lying area are still asleep, or pretending to be asleep.
Sel lay on her side, breathing steadily, but the angle of her ear betrayed her—an angle that only an awake person would maintain in an alert posture.
Meimei was curled up on Sel's right side, her eyes closed, her tail tip sweeping the ground rhythmically, once, once, with such even intervals, that she was also awake.
The lion sat on the right side of the low-lying area, not asleep. He had been in the same position for the past few days. It was easier to get up whenever he wanted to sleep sitting up than lying down. The old male lion, who was injured, was a light sleeper and any slight movement was enough to make him jump up.
Chen Fei shifted his gaze away from the Lion King.
There's something I need to do now.
He mentally reviewed the available combat forces on his side. It wasn't the first time he'd done so, but the conclusion was always the same: it wasn't good.
With 525 points and full coverage of heat flow in all four limbs, he is the most powerful unit on his team.
The lion king has 60% of his strength and is experienced, but his right hind leg is lame, which is a variable in a fierce conflict;
Sel and Meimei are lionesses; they possess speed, teamwork, and good stamina.
Big Head's right foreleg has basically recovered and he can run, but he has almost zero combat experience and is actually a hindrance.
Even excluding myself, the combined score of these four is still significantly lower than the 2800 points for Dark Brown Mane.
Four against one is not enough.
Then our side will also be affected in 1v1.
The two wandering individuals are currently the only bargaining chip we can add to our side.
He walked towards the north side of the low-lying area, keeping his steps light so as not to disturb others.
As he reached the edge, he pushed his breath northward, not as a suppression, not as a declaration, but as a signal he had established the previous night—"It is me."
After waiting for about three minutes, about half a kilometer to the northwest, the two breathing rates switched from sleep rhythms to wakefulness rhythms.
He walked in that direction.
The two stray animals were still in the same spot as last night, on the leeward side of the tall grass. The one on the right with old injuries had already half-risen, while the one on the left was still observing.
Chen Fei stopped at the edge of the sandy area, not sitting down, but standing, because the nature of today's contact was different from last night's; it wasn't observation, but negotiating terms.
Standing conveys more information than sitting. This signaling system is very simple: I have something to say today.
He paused his gaze on the two stray lions for two seconds each, then turned around, took ten steps toward the northeast corner, stopped, and looked back.
This gesture means: Follow me, I'll take you somewhere.
The one with the old wound hesitated for a moment.