TFBAT – Chapter 13

When they set out, Chi Yuyang borrowed three bamboo baskets from Yang Yi to carry fruit.

Before coming to the Sheep Tribe settlement, she hadn’t expected bartering to be the norm here, so she had left her plastic bags back in the stone house.

Now, sitting on the tiger’s back, Chi Yuyang had to hold the baskets in her arms.

The hard bamboo edges dug into her arms until they ached. She had to admit, compared to these baskets, modern plastic bags were far more convenient.

And from now on, she would have to survive in this backward, primitive world.

At that thought, Chi Yuyang instinctively tightened her grip on the fur on Hu Jin’s back.

“Wife, are you unhappy?” Hu Jin held one of her hands with his own, while carrying two baskets with the other.

The last basket was still in Chi Yuyang’s hand.

Unlike the places they had been before, Hu Jin had taken her to an entirely new area.

From the smell of the air, he guessed that this was not the territory of any tribe.

Yet, as they walked through the silent forest, Chi Yuyang suddenly realized that ever since arriving in this world, the thing she had seen most often was forest.

Judging from all signs, she strongly suspected that she was the only human in this land.

“Hu Jin.” She turned her head to look at the youth whose eyes were full of tenderness, hesitating for a moment.

Chi Yuyang considered herself someone who could adapt to circumstances.

Even though she knew Hu Jin treated her very well, in her heart there was still a hurdle she could not cross.

The memory of him in his cub form was etched too deeply; she simply could not match that little white tiger with the person walking beside her now.

And what worried her more was whether humans and beastmen might have strange issues like reproductive incompatibility.

“I’m not unhappy.” Chi Yuyang glanced sideways at Hu Jin.

It was just that she still couldn’t get used to beastmen as a species.

Though, truthfully, she was the one who should be considered the foreign species on this continent.

“I’ll be good to you.” Hu Jin lightly tapped her free hand with the tip of his tail. “So, next winter… will you mate with me?”

Chi Yuyang froze at his words.

“Why next winter?” She caught onto the key point.

“You… just went into heat not long ago…” Hu Jin’s eyes dimmed suddenly. Unfortunately, back then he had still been unable to take on human form.

“Heat?” Chi Yuyang rolled the word around in her mind.

Her gaze, for some reason, drifted to his lower body before she quickly realized what he meant.  Could it be… when he said ‘heat,’ he was actually talking about her period?

As far as she knew, menstrual blood had a different scent from normal blood.

Could it be that to animals, that meant being in heat?

From the way beastmen lived, it seemed their habits leaned closer to beasts.

If that was really the case, should she tell him that… she would have this every single month?

No, better to wait until her next period and see first.

Maybe she was misunderstanding.

To avoid the awkward atmosphere, Chi Yuyang lowered her head and pretended to search for fruit.

Hu Jin, however, took it as her silent agreement.

“Wife, I knew you were the best!”

But after wandering this area for almost half an hour, they still hadn’t found anything.

“Why can’t we find even a single fruit around here?” Chi Yuyang frowned slightly.

The plants looked very similar to the ones near the cave.

Hu Jin, whose mind had been entirely on Chi Yuyang, only noticed now that indeed none of the surrounding trees bore fruit.

“Hu Jin, have you been here before?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“But this is the forest closest to the Sheep Tribe. Maybe the Sheep Tribe or other herbivore beastmen already picked the fruit nearby.”

“Then should we go a little farther?”

Just as Chi Yuyang finished speaking, Hu Jin’s ears twitched.

He immediately pulled her into his arms and hid with her in a clump of grass.

Through the gaps in the foliage, Chi Yuyang caught sight of a group of “people” passing by in a large crowd.

Were they beastmen too?

But their bodies showed no obvious animal ears or tails.

Could they be humans…?

Doubt flashed through Chi Yuyang’s mind, but Hu Jin held her tightly, leaving her no chance to step forward and ask.

Still, she could hear fragments of their conversation drifting over.

“The Tiger Tribe… how is it?”

“… almost… strongest…”

“… victory… Ape Tribe…”

Chi Yuyang’s hearing wasn’t sharp enough to catch the full sentences, but Hu Jin heard every word clearly.

His fists clenched unconsciously.

Those beastmen… they meant to destroy the Tiger Tribe.

Only after the group moved on did Chi Yuyang pat the dirt off her clothes and stand up quickly.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, noticing Hu Jin still crouched there, his gaze dark and fixed in the distance.

“Wife, were those people… your kind?” Hu Jin’s voice carried a faint, hard-to-detect fear. “I heard them say they were Ape Tribe beastmen.”

Chi Yuyang had once introduced herself as an Ape Tribe beastman when they were in the Sheep Tribe. Yet she had also said she was human.

If they truly were her kind… Hu Jin dared not finish that thought.

“Ape Tribe beastmen?” Chi Yuyang hadn’t expected that the Ape Tribe she had casually made up really existed in this world. She explained, “I’m human. Essentially, that’s still different from the Ape Tribe.”

With Hu Jin, there was no need for her to lie.

“I didn’t know if humans existed here, so I told Yang Yi I was from the Ape Tribe.”

Seeing Hu Jin’s ears droop slightly, Chi Yuyang felt a pang in her heart.

“What’s wrong? What did they say?”

Hu Jin hesitated, then told her the truth: “They want to destroy the entire Tiger Tribe.”

Most likely, the injuries he had suffered before were also related to them.

Chi Yuyang’s hand trembled, nearly dropping the basket.

“Destroy the entire Tiger Tribe? But… shouldn’t the Ape Tribe be no match for the Tigers?”

In the animal world, tigers have no natural enemies.

Rarely would any creature dare provoke a tiger.

So Chi Yuyang believed that in this world of beastmen, the tiger clan also stood at the top of the food chain.

Although beastmen did not eat one another, the way the sheep tribe reacted to Hu Jin was proof enough of the other tribes’ fear of tigers.

And now, Hu Jin said that the ape tribe intended to destroy the tigers?

“I heard the ape tribe is very clever. They live on the edges of the forest, their numbers vast, but they never step into the territories of any carnivorous beastmen. At the same time, they maintain good relations with the herbivorous beastmen.” Hu Jin repeated, word for word, what the clan leader had once told him.

To be honest, Hu Jin didn’t feel too much affection for most of the tigers in the clan.

But the clan leader had always treated him well, so he couldn’t bear to see the leader’s hard work ruined.

Before this leader took charge, most tiger beastmen lived alone, having little to no contact with their kin.

After the new clan leader succeeded, though the tigers still largely remained in their own territories, at least bonds between them began to form.

Moreover, the leader took in cubs who had lost their parents or were abandoned, raising them until they could fend for themselves.

Hu Jin was one of those cubs.

“Hu Jin…” For the first time, Chi Yuyang saw such a heavy expression on his face. She comforted him softly, “I’ll think of a way with you.”

Chi Yuyang didn’t know how clever the ape tribe beastmen might be, but she had confidence in her own wits.

“By the way, you said the ape tribe is on good terms with the herbivores—then maybe we can test the waters through the sheep tribe.” Chi Yuyang squeezed Hu Jin’s hand, trying to lift his spirits.

No wonder that when she had claimed to be an ape beastman earlier, the sheep had immediately relaxed.

Thinking back on it, Chi Yuyang guessed the sheep tribe probably didn’t know about the apes’ schemes. Toward Hu Jin, their caution was only natural.

Otherwise, Yang Yi definitely wouldn’t have opened the door that time.

And since it was called a conspiracy, the apes wouldn’t be broadcasting it to other tribes so easily.

Still, that was just speculation. To know for sure, they’d have to ask.

“Wife, then let’s hurry and pick the fruit, and head back to the sheep tribe.” Hu Jin shifted back into beast form, carrying Chi Yuyang in the opposite direction of where the apes had gone.

Chi Yuyang knew that picking fruit was no trouble at all for him.

Even in human form, all he did was casually slap a few trees, and fruit rained down in heaps.

He didn’t even need to climb.

In no time, the three bamboo baskets were full.

“Hu Jin, you… was that magic?” Ever since meeting him, Chi Yuyang had harbored such a ridiculous suspicion.

“What’s magic?” Hu Jin countered.

His wife always blurted out strange words.

“I mean, what you just did when you slapped the tree.” Chi Yuyang struggled to describe it.

It couldn’t just be brute force, could it?

“That’s my strength.” Hu Jin proudly flicked his tail. “I’m a fourth-rank beastman now. For me, this is nothing.”

Hearing that, Chi Yuyang stared in shock at the boy’s still-youthful face.

He seemed so powerful.

No—he really was powerful!

“Hu Jin, you’re amazing!”

Seeing her dazed expression, Hu Jin found her unbearably cute.

He stepped forward and wrapped her in a tiger hug.

“Wife, I want a reward.”

“…” Chi Yuyang immediately regretted her earlier words.

Yes, he was impressive, but that didn’t change his childish nature.

For some reason, at that moment, the image of Hu Jin’s hurt expression when he overheard the apes earlier flashed through her mind.

She gritted her teeth, turned her head, and then rose onto tiptoe.

She brushed a light kiss against his jaw.

Hu Jin froze. Then his mismatched eyes suddenly widened.

Chi Yuyang saw two reflections of herself—

Before they disappeared as Hu Jin lowered his head.

The moment his eyes closed, his lips pressed against hers.

As their lips met, Chi Yuyang trembled instinctively, wanting to escape his embrace.

But Hu Jin had no intention of letting her go. His tail coiled around her waist, pulling her forcefully against him.

So close together, Chi Yuyang instinctively wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Mmm…” His kiss was inexperienced, yet carried an overwhelming intensity.

After a long moment, Hu Jin finally released her—only to instantly transform back into his tiger form.

“Hu Jin!” Chi Yuyang called his name, her voice full of shy reproach.

He could change into a beast to hide, but what about her?

Her face was definitely flushed red—so red it showed through the pale of her skin.

“Awoo!”

—

The girl and the tiger returned to the sheep tribe.

Most of the redness had faded from Chi Yuyang’s cheeks, but Hu Jin still refused to change back into human form.

“Can we trade now?” Chi Yuyang placed the three full bamboo baskets in front of Yang Yi’s small hut.

“Yes, yes!” Seeing the colorful fruits, Yang Yi nodded eagerly. “I spoke with the clan leader—he said if you want to trade for more grain, you can use fruit as well.”

After saying this, he paused, then added, “Our clan leader also wishes to meet you, since I can’t really decide how much grain this much fruit is worth.”

That was exactly what Chi Yuyang had been hoping for—an excuse to sound out the clan leader.

“Alright.” She agreed without hesitation.

“Then wait in my house for a bit. I’ll go bring the clan leader.” Yang Yi nodded gratefully to them, then went out.

After Yang Yi left, Chi Yuyang turned her head to pat the white tiger’s head, only to see him avoiding her gaze.

Seeing this, Chi Yuyang’s shyness from earlier disappeared at once, and she laughed.

Clearly, he was the one who “stole the kiss,” yet he was even shyer than the one who was “kissed.”

“Hu Jin, hurry up and turn back into your human form, or I’ll ignore you,” Chi Yuyang tried to “threaten.”

“Ao wu!”

No!

The white tiger nudged Chi Yuyang’s hand with his paw, the mismatched colors of his eyes glimmering with faint light.

“Then I’ll close my eyes and count to three. You’d better turn back into a human. One…”

“Wife!”

Hearing the deep voice, Chi Yuyang opened her eyes with a smile.

What she saw was a young man’s overly fair face, now tinged with a conspicuous blush.