Why is This Clingy Snow Leopard Acting So Innocent? - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Past — Don’t You Want to Know About My Love Life?

“Is it good?”

Su Wen hummed in response and looked over.

Yun Shu was leaning on one side, propping his head up with one hand as he watched him. The posture made him look incredibly relaxed.

“It’s good,” Su Wen replied. As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt he shouldn’t be so cold, so he added, “Why aren’t you eating? Don’t you like it?”

“I do,” Yun Shu said, stabbing a piece of fruit and popping it into his mouth. “But I don’t eat it often.”

Tropical fruits were indeed rare in the snowy mountains, so Su Wen offered a casual remark: “I see.”

“The first time I ate it, I didn’t even know what it was.”

“A surprise from your parents?”

Yun Shu’s expression flickered. He looked at Su Wen and suddenly laughed. “It was a surprise, but not from my parents.”

“Oh,” Su Wen didn’t seem particularly interested. He slowly swallowed before following up with, “Then who gave it to you?”

“Someone I liked.”

“That’s nice.”

Yun Shu tilted his head. “Aren’t you going to ask who it was?”

Su Wen shrugged and took a random guess. “A girlfriend?”

Yun Shu chuckled softly. “The person I liked was a man.”

“A boyfriend, then.”

“I’ve never been in a relationship.”

“Oh.”

“But maybe I’ll be in one soon.”

“Mhm.”

“Don’t you want to get to know me?”

Su Wen looked over at the sudden question. Yun Shu, still propping his head up, blinked at him.

Su Wen let out a soft laugh and looked away, asking provocatively, “What exactly do you want me to know about you?”

“Emmm,” after some deep thought, Yun Shu pressed his palms together under his chin and said quite seriously, “For example, my love life.”

It sounded like flirting, but his innocent expression kept it from feeling greasy.

Su Wen wasn’t actually interested, but because of the mango, he played along: “Oh? How many people have you dated?”

“I’ve never dated anyone.”

The credibility of that statement was low. Su Wen raised an eyebrow, ate another piece of mango, and looked back at him after finishing it.

Yun Shu leaned his head back slightly, his upturned grey-green eyes meeting Su Wen’s gaze.

After a two-second standoff, Su Wen curled his lips into a laugh. “You look like the type who is constantly looking for a partner, but never looking for a long-term partner,” he teased.

Yun Shu froze for a moment. “Is that… an insult?”

“I’m complimenting your looks.”

Yun Shu tilted his head again. “Is that how people usually compliment someone’s looks?”

“Only someone handsome and popular has the luxury of constantly looking for a partner, don’t they?”

Yun Shu smiled, revealing two sharp canine teeth that looked unexpectedly cute. However, his words weren’t quite as cute: “What about you, Ge? Are you looking for a partner?”

“I’m busy with work.”

Yun Shu pressed further. “What about before? How many have you had in the past?”

Su Wen glanced at him, stabbed two pieces of mango at once, ate them, and said tonelessly, “Never had one.”

“Ge.”

“Yeah?”

“You look like a handsome man who is constantly looking for a partner, but never looking for a long-term partner.”

Su Wen was stunned, the plastic fork slipping from his hand.

He found it inexplicably funny. Picking up the fork from the edge of the plate, he shoved another mango piece into his mouth. “Is this your ‘retaliation’?”

“Not really,” Yun Shu, despite being nearly 1.9 meters tall, looked like a child. “It’s because you’re good-looking.”

Su Wen paused for two seconds, reached out, and ruffled Yun Shu’s hair. “Thanks.”

Yun Shu looked up, watching him withdraw his hand. He touched his own hair and asked, “Right now, are you treating me as a ‘younger brother’ or as a man?”

“Aren’t you the one calling me ‘Ge’?”

Yun Shu paused. After a few seconds, he asked, “We aren’t ‘strangers’ anymore, right?”

Su Wen choked for a moment, then gave a casual “Mhm.” The filming wouldn’t last long anyway; whether they were strangers didn’t really matter.

Yun Shu fell silent. After a long time, he whispered to himself, “…Then we’re friends…”

“Hm? Did you say something?” Su Wen didn’t hear him and instinctively asked.

Yun Shu flashed a bright smile. “Nothing.”

Su Wen stood up to leave.

“Su Wen-ge.”

He stopped and turned. “What is it?”

“Take the mango inside. It won’t be fresh if it sits out too long.”

“Aren’t you eating?”

“I’m full.”

“Thanks.”

Yun Shu stood up and handed over the remaining plate of mangoes. “No need to be so polite with me.”

Su Wen took them. The man in front of him, who was half a head taller, was looking at him with an unreadable smile.

A strange feeling welled up in Su Wen’s heart, but he didn’t dwell on it. He patted Yun Shu’s shoulder twice and turned to enter his room.

Closing the door, he set the mangoes on the table, pulled his windbreaker back on, and opened the window just a crack.

Then, he sat cross-legged on the floor by the bed, facing the window.

He didn’t check his phone or eat. He just sat there in the silence, his mind a blank, thinking that the snow leopard’s visit yesterday couldn’t have been an accident.

One minute, two minutes, ten minutes… With the “click” of a door closing, the subtle rustling sounds outside the room abruptly stopped.

Some time later, a faint “tap-tap-tap” sounded just outside the window—the sound of gravel being displaced, just like yesterday.

It was here.

Su Wen’s eyes fixed on the window. As the window creaked open, a fluffy, large head poked through the thermal curtain. Because the curtain blocked its eyes, it shook its head back and forth, unable to shake it off.

Su Wen sprang up and helped move the curtain aside.

Once its vision was clear, the snow leopard leaped inside as gracefully as the night before. It sniffed around the room, bit its own tail as it swung in front of its chest, and sat down directly in front of him.

Looking up with those grey-green eyes, its pupils dilated. It looked silly and incredibly cute, like a giant cat begging for pets.

Su Wen leaned down and, just like yesterday, took the large head in his hands and gave it a thorough rubbing.

Even though his voice was low, it overflowed with joy: “I thought you’d only come once!”

The snow leopard gave a soft “ow-woo” in response.

Su Wen held its face, looking into its eyes. He truly felt it could understand him.

Even though there are biological barriers between humans and animals, hasn’t there always been the saying that some animals are “human-like” in their intelligence?

He didn’t know why this snow leopard had come so far to find him. Perhaps, like in ancient legends, they shared a “fated bond”?

“Will you keep coming back?”

What he really wanted to ask was: “Can you stay and let me take care of you?”

But this was a wild animal. The snowy mountains were its home. He wasn’t selfish enough to make it give up its home.

The snow leopard let out a few small “ow-woos” like a kitten, then pressed its fluffy head into his chest.

The force pushed Su Wen backward until he thudded onto the floor.

He simply stayed there, sitting on the ground, and pulled the snow leopard into his arms to groom it.

The leopard purred with delight, its large body wriggling until it flipped over, four paws in the air, exposing its belly.

Su Wen dazed for a moment before reaching out to ruffle the fur. Regardless of whether it understood, he scolded it like a child: “You’re a wild animal, and a…”

His mind filled with facts from white papers and documentaries.

“…and a fierce beast! A hunter that can stalk cliffs! The King of the Snowy Mountains!”

He rubbed its belly a few more times. It was soft and warm—he wasn’t sure if it was just high body temperature or because it had been inside for a while.

He gently patted its head. “Is this what the King of the Snowy Mountains should be doing?”

The snow leopard squirmed and nuzzled into his stomach again. Based on his experience with cats and dogs, it was definitely acting spoiled.

A fierce beast, acting spoiled. It was better at it than the cats in a cat café.

“Are you like this with everyone?”

He began to suspect the leopard had been trained—perhaps a secret “guest service” to lure tourists back. After all, its fur was fluffy; it wasn’t fat, but it didn’t look like it was struggling to survive in the wild.

The leopard seemed to understand. it flipped over, let out a low “wu-wu” growl, dropped its tail, and bit onto Su Wen’s clothes, shaking its head back and forth.

Su Wen was stunned for a moment. Then it clicked: it was angry.

Can it really understand human speech?

Su Wen rubbed its head to calm it down. Once it stopped, he decided to test its comprehension.

The snow leopard sat upright before him.

Su Wen remembered the training methods his sister used for cats. He held out his hand. “Shake.”

The leopard placed its paw in his hand.

Holy crap! He cheered internally. He let go and tried again. “Spin.”

The leopard stood up, spun in a circle, and sat back down.

Su Wen picked up a piece of mango with the fork. The leopard carefully took it from the fork, avoiding his hand, and ate it.

The thought solidified: this leopard had been trained by humans.

He immediately searched online: Is there a snow leopard training base in the mountains? Can snow leopards understand human speech? Can snow leopards be domesticated? Do snow leopards approach humans?

Finally: Why would a snow leopard proactively approach a human?

Every answer was “No.”

Except for the last one, which suggested emotional dependency and trust—either because the animal was injured or had been rescued by humans in the past.

Piecing it together, this leopard seemed to know him.

Su Wen’s mind was a mess. He stared at the leopard, trying to dig through his memories, but he hit a thin, impenetrable barrier.

That horrific car accident five years ago had severed him from his past. His life had become a nonsensical loop.

Aside from acting, he could see nothing. There was only failure after failure, the desperate desire to start over, and more failure—until no one wanted to hire him anymore.

The legendary “Golden Dragon Best Actor” who found fame at a young age was now just that: a legend.

Su Wen lowered his head. The snow leopard approached again, rubbing its head against his body, then his neck, and finally nuzzling his face as if to comfort him.

Su Wen wrapped his arms around it. Whether his memories were clear or blurred, at least the snow leopard wouldn’t lie.

He held it, burying his face in its fur.

The snow leopard couldn’t speak, so it just let out a few “ow-woos” and continued to nuzzle him with its fluffy head.