Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System

”At the same time, this thing is very intelligent, ranking among the top in all bird species.”

”Is it severely injured?”

Li Younan nodded: ”Quite seriously, I’ve already set it in place.”

Only then did Liu Li notice that the owl’s wing was actually splinted.

However, this owl didn’t look particularly large.

Li Younan added, ”This owl is probably less than three months old. It has just finished the fledgling stage and is now a sub-adult. You see the paler color of its feathers, and its iris color hasn’t fully settled yet, still yellow, and it’s not very good at hunting.”

”So what should we do now?”

Li Younan thought for a moment: ”If we leave this little thing here, it will definitely die. Let’s take it with us for now.”

Liu Li immediately became excited: ”That’s exactly what I was thinking!”

She hesitated a bit, ”Can I touch it?”

”It’s best not to. It’s not familiar with us yet, and touching it suddenly might trigger a stress reaction. Although it’s not fully grown, don’t be fooled by its cute and silly appearance.”

”Then why doesn’t it peck you?”

Li Younan chuckled softly, glancing casually at the owl.

The little creature instinctively sensed a predator’s aura from him and fluffed up nervously.

Li Younan smiled, and the aura seemed to vanish immediately.

The owl dared not look into Li Younan’s eyes and lowered its head to eat snake meat.

...

”Can we possibly keep this little owl as a pet? It reminds me of Harry Potter when I see it.”

”Legally, it’s not allowed. To keep an owl like this requires complicated procedures that individuals usually can’t manage.”

”But I don’t think you’re just anyone.”

Li Younan looked at Liu Li with a bit of amusement: ”Do you really want to keep it?”

”I think it’s very cute.”

”This is a true bird of prey, usually not allowed in cities, so it would be very troublesome.”

”Isn’t there any way at all?”

Li Younan didn’t respond.

At this time, the owl had eaten a whole snake and wasn’t hungry anymore, and its mood was much calmer.

Perhaps it sensed that Li Younan wouldn’t harm it, and partly because it had only recently left the fledgling stage and lacked experience. Its hunting skills were crude, and it wasn’t very alert to other animals. In essence, it hadn’t fallen into many traps yet.

At this moment, Li Younan made a simple small cage out of wood and hung it on the side of the backpack.

The little owl could firmly grip the horizontal bar at the bottom of the cage with its claws, so it stayed quiet inside.

In truth, the best way to handle encountering such a protected animal in China is to call the relevant department and let professional staff take the owl away.

But currently, there was no signal, and it was impossible for Li Younan to contact the outside police station with a satellite phone and let the staff deploy forces into the forest for an owl. That would be a very foolish thing to do.

So Li Younan’s plan was to temporarily take the little owl with them.

If the average person encountered such a situation, it would be hard to properly care for the little owl.

But Li Younan was different.

With his vast knowledge of animals and extreme wilderness survival skills, finding enough food for an owl was relatively easy.

In this primeval forest, rodents, squirrels, rabbits, and snakes were widely distributed—especially squirrels, which could be seen every few dozen meters.

In these circumstances, a little legal loophole could be leveraged.

For example, if a squirrel was killed and eaten by the owl, who could say the squirrel wasn’t caught by the owl itself?

After all, no one saw it.

Now that the owl had left the fledgling stage, it didn’t need many meals a day—just enough meat the size of a squirrel for an entire day’s energy.

It would eat a bit more when fully grown, but not excessively more than now.

In size, the owl in this stage wasn’t much smaller than it would be as an adult.

However, Liu Li was curious about how Li Younan hunted, because on this trip, Li Younan hadn’t brought his hunting bow—especially with that snake found earlier—how did he manage to catch it?

She was still puzzled, but she would soon know.

That day’s journey didn’t get them out of the forest, but by the afternoon, they had arrived at the forest’s edge, and beyond lay the glacier.

It was time to rest again, so they simply emerged from the forest, reaching the area where the glacier and forest met.

The place was visibly more barren, but the view was much wider.

At the edge of sight, the glacier was already close at hand, and Liu Li felt an impatient urge to go and see it.

After setting up camp, Li Younan took Liu Li to find food for the owl.

At this moment, Li Younan pulled out a... slingshot.

Liu Li widened her eyes at the slingshot: ”Is this what you used to hit the snake?”

Li Younan nodded.

In fact, this was a skill he recently discovered: a hidden talent in archery that allowed him to almost pinpoint targets within several dozen meters with a slingshot.

While staying at his grandfather’s house, the countryside had many mice, which were a bit of a nuisance.