HLM – Chapter 165 Come to My Castle

By the time Wang Bo was ready to leave, night had already fallen deep, and a fine, misty rain still drizzled from the sky. Since winter had arrived, the rain accompanied by chilly winds made everything miserable. The command center dispatched personnel to disperse the volunteers—now that the official rescue teams had arrived, any remaining scattered volunteers would only complicate matters.

Although the earthquake affected a large area, the surrounding regions weren’t densely populated. It was mainly the town of Wanderer Town that had been hit hard—but even so, it had only about a thousand households, which wasn’t too serious.

That entire afternoon and early evening, the able-bodied men had combed through the rubble almost completely. There was nothing left for them to do, so when someone came to ask them to leave, Wang Bo gathered Charlie and the others and drove back to the castle.

As soon as they entered the castle, he immediately carried the barely breathing baby liger to the Heart of the Nest.

The little creature was now receiving proper treatment: a surgeon had stabilized and bandaged its two severed hind legs; it had been administered some medications; and an oxygen tube was even inserted into its nostril—so in a way, it was better off than when they’d first dug it out.

The moment the team arrived, Little Bartier rushed over excitedly. He exclaimed, “Uncle Wang, look, look—what’s new here? Huh? A liger cub! A baby liger!”

Wang Bo was startled—this kid had instantly recognized the tiny creature. The cub looked more like a tiger than a lion: no mane yet, fur marked with tiger stripes, much like a small tiger. He gently set the liger down and asked casually, “What’s changed here? I didn’t notice anything.”

Once Little Bartier spotted the cub, his original question drifted away. He fixed his gaze on the baby and said, “The crane eggs are gone. Both chicks have hatched, and the mother crane took them away.”

Wang Bo suddenly realized—he truly hadn’t noticed that the pair of crane eggs on the nest had disappeared.

When the earthquake happened, the two crane eggs were actually about to hatch. During the rescue operation earlier, he’d thought the eggs had just been jostled by the quake—but that wasn’t it. It was merely a coincidence.

Charlie frowned upon hearing the news. He muttered, “I checked the records—it’s said that if the White Crane hatches, it’s a sacred omen. Why did their hatching coincide with an earthquake?”

Upon hearing this, Wang Bo couldn’t help rolling his eyes and scolding, “Dude, it’s a coincidence, okay? How could White Crane hatching trigger an earthquake?”

By the time the baby liger was placed in the nest’s heart region, its condition immediately improved a bit. After about half an hour, it slowly opened its eyes, revealing beautiful pupils.

Its eyes weren’t the usual tawny brown of a liger—they were a rare amber color, though right now dull and without luster, its gaze weak and dim.

Seeing the cub open its eyes, Wang Bo breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, he had used his Pet Heart essence on the Queen earlier; had he used it on the liger, it might have helped its recovery even more.

As if on cue, the Queen—along with her cubs—came running over. Seeing the baby liger, she froze like the Zhuang Ding had initially, stepping back in surprise with eyes wide, muscles tensed. Then she opened her mouth and let out a loud roar.

The princelings, young calves imitating their mother’s behaviour, started crying as well—high-pitched and crisp: “Woof, woof, woof…”

Wang Bo glared at them, waving at the Queen and pointing to the cub: “This is going to be your new little friend from now on, understand? No shouting at it—be kind to it, got that?”

But the princelings didn’t care. They seemed to find their own barking hilarious and continued, heads held high, barking happily, louder and louder.

The little liger showed none of the fierce presence of a lion or tiger—it appeared timid and small. The sight of a few young pups staring and barking at it made it blink its big eyes; it even began to weep in a pitiful way—though it might have been from fright…

Wang Bo was shocked!

Puppies present had already accepted the liger; one even ran forward and licked the cub, who was about the same size yet so mentally fragile.

But its little companion was terrified. The liger tried to retreat, but it couldn’t move—utterly limp—so it trembled and cried even harder.

Wang Bo was at a loss for words. During the drive back, he’d done some research and found out that ligers were indeed simple-minded and inherently not very intelligent. But he hadn’t expected this cub to be so timid—it really shattered his expectations!

Still, the cub had a good appearance: roughly the size of Zhuang Ding, its limbs as thick as pillars. Its coat was short and tawny-yellow with black tiger stripes; there was even a black pattern shaped like the number eight on its forehead. Very striking.

Charlie leaned over to watch, looking puzzled. “Are we really going to make a specimen out of it? It seems to have gained some energy—shouldn’t it have a chance of surviving?”

Wang Bo affectionately stroked the tiny creature’s head. “If it recovers, we’ll keep it. If it doesn’t, we’ll kill it and make a specimen.”

Whether it understood those words—or felt the killing intent behind them—the cub cried even more heartbreakingly.

The night was late. Everyone in the castle followed a disciplined schedule. After the high-intensity rescue work in the afternoon, they ate, washed up and were dead tired.

Wang Bo told them to go rest while he stayed in the hall. Bowen asked why he wasn’t going back, and Wang Bo said he needed to tend to the liger and brew some medicinal tea to see if it could still be saved.

Charlie asked in surprise, “You can actually treat injured animals? But this one is in such bad shape… are you sure it’ll help?”

Wang Bo went to his room and came out with some shepherd’s purse seeds mixed with wolfberries. He pretended to be mysterious: “This is our hometown herbal remedy for healing livestock. I think it’ll help the liger, too.”

No one questioned it. They yawned and headed back to their rooms. Wang Bo, of course, didn’t actually go to brew any medicine—he settled into a recliner, clutching Commander and Zhuang Ding, and started playing on his phone.

His phone had died that afternoon, but now it was charged—several missed calls from Eva popped up.

He dialed her back. The line connected quickly, and Eva’s crisp, anxious voice came through: “Hi, Wang. I’m so sorry I couldn’t reach you earlier. I tried several times… oh my god, I don’t know what happened…”

Hearing the worried, fluttering concern from the beautiful teacher made Wang Bo feel inexplicably warm. He first explained about the rescue efforts in Wanderer Town this afternoon, then asked, “How are things over there? Eva, if you don’t mind, you could bring Dale to my castle—you know, the mountain castle is relatively safe.”