TFBAT – Chapter 15

Chi Yuyang let out a deep sigh.

“Hu Jin, how old are you?”

Why is his mind filled only with thoughts of mating?

Hu Jin had explained to her before: when they first met, he had been seriously injured, which caused him to revert to his cub form.

As she later witnessed, his normal form was that of a full-grown white tiger.

“I’m already an adult!” Hu Jin replied.

“I mean, how many years old are you?”

Because of Hu Jin’s baby face, it was impossible for her to judge his actual age.

But in return, she was only met with a confused expression.

Seeing this, Chi Yuyang froze for a moment.

“Beasts don’t have ages?”

“Our tiger clan has childhood, adulthood, middle age, and old age,” Hu Jin paused before continuing, “For the tiger clan, the mark of adulthood is the ability to transform into human form.”

Hearing this, Chi Yuyang felt it was very necessary to explain to Hu Jin what needed to be done before becoming mates.

“Hu Jin, I can be your wife, but before becoming partners, we have to date first.”

“Date?” Hu Jin repeated after her, his eyes filled with puzzlement. “Then… what am I supposed to do?”

“Ahem, in short, it means we first need to build feelings,” Chi Yuyang said. She herself had never dated before, but she believed a foundation of emotions was important.

“Feelings? What is that?” Once again, Hu Jin wore a blank expression.

Looking at him at this moment, Chi Yuyang suddenly felt a deep sense of frustration—like talking to a tiger who couldn’t understand human words.

“When there are feelings between us, you’ll know. At that time, I’ll agree to mate with you.” Chi Yuyang bit her lip and finally forced out the most embarrassing sentence of her life.

At those words, Hu Jin’s eyes widened even more.

And once again, Chi Yuyang saw her own reflection in his eyes.

“Then let’s start building feelings right now!”

The next moment, Chi Yuyang was knocked to the ground by Hu Jin in his beast form.

In order to protect her from getting hurt, Hu Jin deliberately used his tiger body to half-support her, preventing her from touching the ground.

“Hu Jin, get off me!” Chi Yuyang pressed her hands against the white tiger’s head as it inched closer and closer.

At the same time, a thought flashed across her mind.

So far, it seemed Hu Jin was more accustomed to using his beast form.

If they really were to mate… could it be that…

—

“Wifey, what do you want bamboo for?” Hu Jin turned to Chi Yuyang.

At that moment, they were standing in front of a bamboo grove.

She said it was to distract a certain tiger’s attention, but in truth, it was more so she could finally eat rice.

Chi Yuyang had asked Hu Jin to take her to find bamboo.

Although most of the plants she had seen so far didn’t quite resemble the ones on Earth, after repeatedly seeing bamboo-made doors and baskets, she was certain bamboo grew here too.

“I want to cook rice.” Chi Yuyang’s eyes practically shone.

Today, she would finally be able to eat proper rice.

But since she didn’t have a knife at hand, she once again had to ask Hu Jin for help.

“Hu Jin, do you have a way to… snap some bamboo down?” After a moment of thought, Chi Yuyang finally chose the verb snap.

With Hu Jin’s strength, he should be able to break them down.

“Wifey, step back a little.”

“Okay.” Chi Yuyang nodded and quickly moved to what she thought was a safe distance, though still within Hu Jin’s line of sight.

As she walked, she thought that even though Hu Jin was extremely strong, having a knife would still be much more convenient.

However, just as she settled into place, a series of loud thud-thud-thuds sounded.

It was the noise of bamboo falling to the ground.

When she turned back, the thick grove of bamboo she had seen just moments earlier had been reduced to only a few lonely stalks still standing.

Then, with a single sweep of Hu Jin’s arm, the last few toppled as well.

Throughout it all, he hadn’t even touched the bamboo.

Chi Yuyang rubbed her eyes in disbelief.

What had she just seen?

“Wifey! Is this enough?” Hu Jin casually picked up one stalk of bamboo and waved at her.

…She had forgotten to tell him she only needed two or three.

Walking back to his side, Chi Yuyang glanced a few more times at his arm. “Hu Jin, what was that you just used?”

That wasn’t mere brute strength.

“This is my power.” Hu Jin’s answer hadn’t changed from when she asked a similar question earlier.

Hearing this, Chi Yuyang didn’t know how to respond. But at this point, she felt having a knife wasn’t all that important anymore.

—

Chi Yuyang planned to make bamboo tube rice.

It was only when she saw the bamboo that the idea struck her.

She had never tried making it herself before.

But given how scarce their supplies were now, she didn’t have much choice.

“Wifey, will it taste good like that?” Hu Jin asked curiously as he watched her stuff rice into bamboo tubes and set them over the fire.

“I’m not sure either.” Chi Yuyang focused on the bamboo segments lined up on a lotus-like leaf over the fire.

She also realized that this lotus-like plant was surprisingly heat resistant.

Seeing her so busy, Hu Jin thought he should do something as well.

While she had gone to fetch water earlier, he had hunted a wild boar.

Now, he went to one side, tore off chunks of the boar’s meat, and, imitating Chi Yuyang’s earlier actions, roasted them over another fire.

Before long, the fragrance of rice wafted through the air—mixed with the smell of roasting meat.

But she hadn’t added any meat to the rice.

The wild boar Hu Jin caught should still be in the house.

She turned around, intending to roast it as well, only to find Hu Jin had already beaten her to it.

“Wifey, I already tried this meat—it’s edible!” Hu Jin announced happily when he caught her gaze, lifting the roasted meat off the fire.

Before handing it to her, he even mimicked her earlier gesture—blowing on the meat first.

Once sure it had cooled, he handed it over.

Chi Yuyang froze.

Leaving aside his remarkable ability to learn so quickly, everything Hu Jin did was for her.

To make her happy.

“Wifey!” Hu Jin was still calling out to her.

“Mm.” Chi Yuyang responded softly.

Only then did she realize—because Hu Jin was here, she had never once felt that being stranded in another world was something miserable.

“Does it taste good?” Hu Jin couldn’t hold back his question when he saw her eating so slowly.

After all, it was his first time roasting meat.

“It’s good.” Chi Yuyang replied with her head lowered.

—

Hu Jin’s roasted meat turned out a great success, and so did Chi Yuyang’s bamboo tube rice.

At last, having eaten rice as she wished, Chi Yuyang felt that no matter how great the hardship ahead, she could face it calmly.

Unfortunately, the world was unpredictable, and this one wasn’t the world she knew.

After the meal, Chi Yuyang curled up in Hu Jin’s arms as usual, chatting with him.

“What?” Chi Yuyang couldn’t believe what Hu Jin just said. “You’re saying that when winter comes, the nearby streams will most likely all freeze over?”

Hu Jin nodded.

“Then… how do you all bathe?” Chi Yuyang immediately thought of the most troublesome problem.

Even though she knew felines only needed to bathe once or twice a month, winter lasted a full three months.

“Normally, we wait until spring. If it’s really necessary, we break the ice.”

“Wait until spring?” Chi Yuyang frowned.

“Hu Jin, I’m going out for a bit.” Not far from their stone house was a stream. Though the sun had already set, she felt she had to wash her whole body once before winter truly arrived.

Today was warmer than the past few days—barely tolerable enough for a cold bath.

“I’ll go with you.” Hu Jin’s tail swayed.

“You can, but… I’m going to bathe, so don’t come too close.” After some thought, Chi Yuyang agreed to let him come along.

Even though she hadn’t seen any other beastmen near their stone house lately, she still felt it was better to be cautious.

After arriving at the stream, Chi Yuyang told Hu Jin to stand a little further away.

It was already late, so Hu Jin shouldn’t be able to see her bathing clearly.

However, once Chi Yuyang stepped into the water, the icy coldness wrapped around her body, and her mind instantly sobered.

A sudden thought struck her—tigers were nocturnal animals.

Chi Yuyang lifted her head and saw a pair of vertical pupils glowing faintly in the darkness.