Li Rong, a cheetah born and raised on the African savanna, is penniless after turning into a human.
He only knows how to hunt, but can't eat raw meat, so he's often hungry. His tattered clothes have been washed until they faded, and all he has left is a small wooden cabin that a mysterious benefactor left behind, where he can rest.
Until the cabin's owner returns and catches Li Rong red-handed, mistaking him for a burglar.
The rope tying him up is the same one Li Rong used to drag away gazelles he'd caught and sell them.
Afraid he'll be sold too, Li Rong is about to turn into a cheetah and escape, when he realizes the person before him is the mysterious man who left after filming wrapped.
Teng Lin traveled to Tanzania to film a wildlife documentary. He befriended the cheetahs in the reserve, successfully joined their group, and became a sort of guardian to the young cheetahs.
When Teng Lin returned to the filming location, he thought he was simply bringing a cheetah back to the cabin, but he had underestimated how serious things were.
The little cheetah grew up and turned into a human: golden-haired, amber-eyed, handsome, long-legged, clever and spirited, but very innocent.
In Teng Lin's suspicious eyes, however, Li Rong's innocent, harmless nature and the fact that he had eyes only for Teng Lin were all points in his favor.
But in the eyes of the little cheetah, who was raised by his mother alone, Teng Lin had barged into his childhood, saved him from a lion, and taken him home when he was destitute. He was practically a human father to him.
After developing feelings for Li Rong, Teng Lin tries to reshape Li Rong's view of love, scarred by past trauma, only to accidentally discover that he's become a dad.
After witnessing too many people leave home for overseas work and make new lives there, Li Rong leaves without hesitation, treating romance like a scourge.
Bad news: Li Rong doesn't want to fall in love and is afraid of romance.
Good news: Li Rong can't bear to be apart from him.
Teng Lin is sweating buckets. Changing Li Rong's ideas about love is a long and difficult road.
Years later, Teng Lin is no longer a professional wildlife photographer. When asked why the characters in his documentaries share names with his lover, he replies:
Teng Lin: It's just a coincidence.
Li Rong: It's part of the play.
Bonus scene:
Cheetahs evolved bodies built for speed rather than strength, and Li Rong naturally inherited that physique, tall and slender.
"Why can't I build abs?" Li Rong had always envied the lions' imposing size.
One was the ruler of the savanna, while the other was the savanna's punching bag. Perhaps it had already become an obsession.
Teng Lin, who used to run across the savanna carrying a camera every day, never had that problem. "From today on, exercise with me every day. Maybe you'll build some muscle."
Li Rong didn't catch the implication and looked forward to it like an idiot.
This kind of "exercise" wasn't that kind of exercise. Li Rong was skeptical, but after a few days of "working out," his body hadn't gotten stronger. Instead, he was more fragile, and sleep deprivation had left him listless.
Teng Lin, by contrast, seemed to have gotten even "stronger."
Theme: Protect endangered animals.
