TFBAT – Chapter 2

It was an animal.

Chi Yuyang grabbed the blunt scissors and assumed a defensive stance.

“Awwoo…” The sound outside the cave was growing weaker and weaker.

After a while, the sound finally ceased.

Still, Chi Yuyang didn’t dare take deep breaths, afraid the beast outside might suddenly break in.

Time passed quietly. When she noticed there was no longer any movement outside, she guessed that the beast had perhaps left.

At this moment, her legs were so weak that she could barely stand.

Continuing to hide in the cave wasn’t a solution either, especially since she also faced the problem of finding water.

She had originally planned to go to the creek to check if the water there was drinkable.

So, supporting herself against the cave wall, and relying on sheer willpower, she slowly made her way to the entrance.

She tried poking her head out.

A heavy stench of blood immediately hit her face.

Frightened, Chi Yuyang quickly pulled her head back inside.

As a veterinarian, she instinctively sensed that the animal outside must be injured.

Judging from the sound earlier, it shouldn’t even have reached adulthood yet.

Or perhaps its injuries were too severe, making its cries far weaker than usual.

All in all, it likely posed no immediate threat to her.

After hesitating for a moment, her professional instincts ultimately overcame her caution.

She picked up her toolbox and tiptoed toward the cave entrance.

With the help of the faint sunlight, even before she stepped out, she could already see a white ball of fur lying on the ground.

Its coat was as white as snow, from afar resembling a Persian cat.

The difference was that this ball of fur also had a few black stripes.

A vague guess formed in her heart.

When she got close enough, just a few steps away, her suspicion was confirmed.

It was a tiger cub.

From its appearance, it seemed to be a Bengal white tiger—an animal listed under Class I national protection.

Chi Yuyang naturally knew how rare wild white tigers were.

She had no time to dwell on it and immediately went forward to check its wounds.

Up close, she realized the cub had already lost consciousness.

The most obvious injury was a long gash across its abdomen.

Blood had spread from there, carrying a pungent metallic smell.

She looked around carefully, but aside from the spot where the cub lay, she saw no traces of blood anywhere else.

Her brows furrowed as a faint doubt flickered in her mind.

Where had this cub come from, and how had it left no trail behind?

But the cub’s injuries were severe, and she couldn’t spare time to think further.

If the wound wasn’t treated in time, in such a wild environment, infection would be all too easy.

At this moment, Chi Yuyang felt grateful she hadn’t discarded her toolbox along the way.

She had also encountered several cases of injured cats at the pet hospital and had personally treated them more than once.

So—cleaning the wound, disinfecting, applying medicine, and bandaging—she completed the whole process smoothly.

When she finished, the little furball still remained motionless.

Fortunately, it was unconscious; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to treat it so easily.

After all, she didn’t have anesthetics in her kit.

With effort, Chi Yuyang carried the cub in her arms, grabbed her toolbox, and returned to the cave.

She spread her coat on the ground and laid the cub on top.

Looking at the tiny creature before her, even though she knew tigers were inherently ferocious, Chi Yuyang still couldn’t resist stroking its fluffy little head a few times.

Anyway, it hadn’t woken yet.

Taking advantage of its deep sleep, she ran her hands from head to tail, not sparing a single spot.

After all, chances to touch a tiger cub—especially a rare white tiger—were almost nonexistent.

Gazing at the little white bundle, Chi Yuyang decided to name it Tuantuan (“Fluffy Dumpling”).

Although she had just checked and found it was male, if one ignored the black stripes, it really did look like a larger version of a glutinous rice ball.

Once she calmed down, Chi Yuyang noticed Tuantuan seemed slightly different from the Bengal white tigers she knew.

It had very few stripes—so few that, at first glance, she had almost overlooked them entirely.

Aside from the black “王” (king) mark on its forehead, its head was pure white.

Its body carried only four black stripes.

Since white tigers were a genetic mutation of Bengal tigers, perhaps the number of stripes was also just another result of mutation.

Chi Yuyang muttered to herself, trying to explain away the strange feeling.

Meanwhile, Tuantuan’s breathing had grown much steadier than before.

With a bit of free time, she picked up the biscuits placed to the side and began munching on them.

Even after finishing the biscuits quickly, Chi Yuyang still felt hungry. She reached into the plastic bag and pulled out some bread.

Actually, if she hadn’t just used up so much energy saving Tuantuan, a box of biscuits would have been more than enough for her—someone who never had much of an appetite—to last a while.

She could only comfort herself with the thought that bread didn’t keep long anyway; eating it later would just mean wasting it.

Seeing that Tuantuan showed no signs of waking anytime soon, Chi Yuyang once again headed out of the cave.

First, she cleaned up the trail of blood Tuantuan had left behind, then went to fetch some water by the stream.

The lotus-leaf-like plants she’d seen earlier turned out to be useful for carrying water—

that was, assuming they weren’t poisonous.

Chi Yuyang still had no clue about her current circumstances, so she forced herself to stay completely alert.

Compared to the human traces she had found before, wild beasts posed a far greater danger.

And after doing a bit of mental math, she realized that no matter how frugally she ate, the snacks in her plastic bag would only last her about five days.

Food… now that was going to be a real problem.

Only then did Chi Yuyang belatedly notice that there weren’t any fish swimming in this little stream.

Just what was going on in this place?

While she was gone, the ball of fur inside the cave slowly opened its eyes.

What Chi Yuyang thought was unconsciousness was, in fact, just it conserving energy.

At this time, she still didn’t know that she had stumbled into a continent of beastmen.

And that this little ball of fur wasn’t just an ordinary tiger cub—

but a tiger beastman, named Hu Jin.

This was his beast form.

Strictly speaking, it was because he had failed to transcend his tribulation. The residual power left in his body wasn’t enough to maintain his adult form, and so he had reverted into a cub.

When Chi Yuyang returned to the cave, she saw the tiger cub she had saved sniffing at the plastic bag where she kept cat food.

“Tuantuan, you’re awake!” Chi Yuyang exclaimed in excitement.

Tuantuan? Is she… calling me?

Hu Jin knew this female had saved him, but that didn’t mean she had the right to name him at will.

He let out a few low growls, trying to tell her his real name.

Chi Yuyang only came over and rubbed the little ball of fur on the head. “Tuantuan, are you hungry?”

The cub only stared at her with its round, glassy eyes, then shot her a sideways glance.

Hu Jin didn’t like anyone touching his head. But since the female had saved him, he would let it go—for now.

Still, it was obvious she didn’t understand the tiger tribe’s language. She must be of another race.

But this was his territory—how had an outsider female managed to enter?

While Hu Jin was still observing Chi Yuyang, she suddenly noticed the cub had a pair of breathtaking heterochromatic eyes.

One was as clear and blue as the sky, the other as deep and green as jade.

They looked almost exactly like a Persian cat’s.

To Chi Yuyang, however, his gaze seemed more adorable than intimidating.

Just then, Hu Jin noticed the stream water she had brought back.

He was indeed thirsty. After giving a couple of symbolic growls toward her, he stretched out his paw and reached for the lotus leaf.

Chi Yuyang instinctively wanted to stop him, warning that the plant might be poisonous—

but on second thought, this tiger lived here. Surely, he knew better than she did which plants were poisonous or not.

Watching Tuantuan gulp the water down noisily made her throat feel parched too. She quickly pulled out a bottled water and downed it in one go.

Well, at least the water source problem was solved.

The stream was fresh water, and judging from how eagerly Tuantuan was drinking, it was clearly safe.

Hu Jin then turned his head and spotted the oval, transparent container in the female’s hand. He had never seen such a thing before.

Chi Yuyang, meanwhile, noticed that Tuantuan kept staring at her bottle after finishing his water, and assumed he was still thirsty.

“Tuantuan, I’ll go fetch more water from the stream later. For now, eat something to regain your strength.”

She pulled out some cat food from the plastic bag.

After all, tigers were still part of the cat family, so surely cat food would work too.

In Chi Yuyang’s view, the area around them was too barren. Since she herself would have trouble finding food, she could only let Tuantuan rely on cat food for the time being.

She tore open the cat food bag, scooped up a handful, and held it out in her palm toward Tuantuan.

The cub sniffed it, hesitated for a moment, but didn’t eat.

Hu Jin had never seen such food before, but he could tell it was edible—

and it did smell rather tempting.

But the way the female presented it to him, as though feeding him, made his whole body bristle.

Hu Jin, one of the tiger tribe’s most outstanding beastmen, firmly believed that even when injured, a male must uphold his dignity.

He would never accept food directly from a female’s hand.

Seeing Tuantuan’s refusal, Chi Yuyang blinked her innocent eyes.

Could it be that tigers really didn’t eat cat food?

But according to her knowledge, they could.

And besides, this brand was a good one.

Hu Jin was just about to continue holding his head high when, at that very moment, his stomach betrayed him with a loud growl.

Chi Yuyang couldn’t help laughing when she heard the tiger cub’s belly rumbling.

She scooped him up into her arms with one hand, while bringing the food close to his mouth with the other.

“Go on, eat. Your belly’s already complaining. Eating will help you recover faster too.”

Hu Jin bristled at the female’s overfamiliar gesture and wanted to resist, but his body had no strength left.

Hmph. I’ll accept this female’s food only so I can recover quickly.

At worst, I’ll just catch a few more prey later to repay her.

Looking at her small, frail figure, she probably had a hard time finding food anyway.

With that thought to comfort himself, Hu Jin finally began to eat in peace.

He opened his mouth wide, signaling for Chi Yuyang to pour the cat food directly into it.

What a lazy tiger.

Although Chi Yuyang complained inwardly, in the end she still gave in to Tuantuan’s will and poured the cat food into his mouth.

Her original plan was to let Tuantuan lick it himself.

But considering the barbs on a tiger’s tongue—even though this little cub hadn’t shown any threatening behavior toward her—she still felt it was necessary to be cautious.

Even so, Chi Yuyang’s instinct as a veterinarian told her that Tuantuan wouldn’t hurt her.

Seeing how much Tuantuan enjoyed the cat food, Chi Yuyang grabbed another big handful, spread it over her coat, and then placed the cub back on the ground. She was preparing to fetch some more creek water.

Hu Jin suddenly left Chi Yuyang’s embrace, feeling a strange sense of loss. He raised his head and let out a cry.

Whether Chi Yuyang understood his meaning or not didn’t matter.

“I’ll go get some more water,” Chi Yuyang said. She didn’t understand beast language, but she had the feeling that this cub was very intelligent, as if he could actually understand her.

“Aw-aw.” Then hurry back.

When Hu Jin realized that Chi Yuyang had something to do, that fleeting emotion in his heart quickly dispersed, and he continued enjoying the feast before him.

This stuff was unexpectedly delicious.

Before leaving, Chi Yuyang didn’t forget to smooth out Tuantuan’s fur.

“You were just squished a bit—let me smooth it out for you.”

The cub let out a cry in response.

It carried an inexplicable sense of enjoyment.