Chapter 5: Misunderstanding

Ning Zexi could not bring himself to abandon Xu Ying. Furthermore, based on their brief time together, he felt that such a capable and spirited young woman would certainly not lose her wits in a crisis; there must be a reason she had stopped.

Summoning his courage, he closed his eyes and stepped in front of Xu Ying.

Many viewers in the livestream were fuming.

"Is the streamer brain-dead? Watching this is giving me high blood pressure. Unsubscribing!"

"I can't bear to watch anymore. I feel like these two idiots are going to be torn to shreds by the bears in the next second."

"This first-person perspective is too terrifying! Just hearing the bears' roars is giving me goosebumps!"

"Roar—"

The agitated Gobi bears rushed toward Xu Ying, swiping their claws.

Xu Ying, who had unlocked the "Bear Language Fluency" skill, understood exactly what the Gobi bears were saying.

[Bad human! You hurt our companion and still want to run!]

[I’m going to swat you to death!]

Xu Ying was stunned. With a nimble dodge, she evaded the bear paw and hurriedly pulled out her staff ID: "Wait a moment! Is there some kind of misunderstanding?"

The fennec foxes she had been protecting also squeaked at the bears, signaling that Sister Xu meant no harm and was not a bad person.

"I am an animal rescue worker from the Huaxia 032 Desert Rescue Station. My duty is to rescue injured animals."

"How could I possibly have hurt you? That is illegal; you would go to jail for that!"

When the audience in Ning Zexi's livestream heard Xu Ying trying to reason with the bears, they nearly fainted.

"You really are a talent. Even with a gun, Logger Vick couldn't get the bears to listen to him. Do you really expect these three angry bears to listen to you while you're empty-handed?"

"My god, she’s such a martyr. If she doesn't pull out a weapon now, she deserves to be mauled."

"If she can subdue these bears just by flapping her lips, I’ll eat my hat!"

However, the very next second, the swiping bear claws stopped dead in mid-air.

The slap in the face was loud and clear.

The livestream chat went silent.

The Gobi bears realized that Xu Ying could understand them, and the fennec foxes by her side were emitting signals of safety. They paused their attack, though they remained huffy.

[You can understand our language?]

[Then why did those two companions of yours attack us indiscriminately in the no-man's-land earlier?]

The largest bear, the leader, saw the ID in Xu Ying's hand and grew even angrier, swatting it to the ground.

[It was your two companions wearing these same badges! They hurt me and terrified the fetus in my mate's womb!]

[Where are they? Where did you hide them? I’m going to show them the might of the bear clan today!]

Xu Ying pieced together the situation: her two despicable colleagues had caused trouble again, injuring a pair of Gobi bears, and now the relatives had come for revenge.

No wonder these bears, usually more docile than other species, were attacking in such a large group!

Xu Ying pinched her thigh hard. A moment later, her eyes filled with tears, and she wailed, "Those two are not my companions! They are from the 028 Rescue Station. We were just assigned to the mission together—it wasn't my choice!"

Xu Ying’s voice was pitiful, and she curled into a ball, hugging her arms. "They always bullied me because I'm young, stealing my supplies and leaving all the dirty, exhausting work for me!"

"This time, they got scared by the bear pack, abandoned me in the desert, and even stole my motorcycle and water. I almost died in the no-man's-land!"

The bear paw she expected to hit her face never arrived. Hearing only the continuous grunting of bears, Ning Zexi opened his eyes in surprise to see the young woman beside him wiping away tears and sobbing.

He hadn't realized that the girl had been through so much in the desert before meeting him.

"I barely managed to escape, but my motorcycle ran out of fuel, and now you’ve mistaken me for an accomplice who hurts animals!"

The more Xu Ying talked, the more aggrieved she felt. She sat on the ground and burst into loud, heartbroken tears. "I just graduated less than three months ago. What kind of karma did I commit to deserve this? Wuwuwu."

The viewers in the livestream felt a burning sensation on their faces, and their hearts ached.

My god, what had they just said? They had attacked such a young girl who had endured so much hardship with such malice.

"Wait, why are the bears actually listening to her? This is too absurd! How is she doing this?"

"Why else would she be a station head at such a young age? Where are all those 'experts' who were calling her brain-dead earlier?"

"Those two colleagues are too much! They caused the trouble, made the girl take the fall, stole her things, and left her in the desert. That's attempted murder!"

"Don't cry, little Ying, my heart breaks for you. If I imagine my own daughter just starting her first job and running into such selfish, trashy colleagues, I would honestly want to take a knife to them."

Xu Ying cried so pitifully that the fennec fox pups finally understood why she had been lying in the desert. Heartbroken, they leaped onto her, using their fluffy tails to wipe away her tears.

[Don't cry, Sister!]

[Those two hateful humans! When my teeth grow in, I'll bite them to death!]

[Sister, I’m very popular in this desert. I’ll call all my friends, and we’ll beat those two bad guys up together!]

Xu Ying had originally just wanted to play the victim to make the bears trust her, but the pups' sweet, high-pitched comfort made her tears fall even faster, like beads from a broken string.

Hearing the girl’s plight and seeing her cry so hard, the once-menacing Gobi bears immediately calmed down, their aggressive postures turning clumsy.

They looked at the red-eyed Xu Ying, feeling uneasy and scratching their heads in confusion.

[Uh... little lady, please don't cry. We were the ones who misunderstood you.]

The three bears looked at each other, nudging one another.

[The girl is crying, you two idiots, do something!]

[Big Brother, weren't you the one yelling the loudest? You even swatted her ID away.]

The lead bear gave the other two a smack, then tentatively crouched down in front of Xu Ying.

[Don't cry, little sister. We didn't know you had it so rough.]

The bear twisted its paws anxiously, its rough voice intentionally softened to sound as gentle as possible.

[Where do you live? It doesn't matter that your motorcycle is out of gas! We brothers will carry you back!]

Xu Ying’s eyes lit up. She looked up at the Gobi bear and sniffled, "Really?"

Her next destination was the 028 Rescue Station to settle the score with those two despicable colleagues. If she had these three bear brothers as her bodyguards...