TFBAT – Chapter 7

In the morning, when Chi Yuyang woke up, she felt an itch around her nose and mouth. She absentmindedly reached out to brush it, only to touch a few strands of soft, snow-white fur.

When she opened her eyes, she realized she had been lying sideways with her head resting against Tuantuan’s neck, her face almost completely buried in its thick, silky coat.

The scene caught Chi Yuyang completely off guard, and she sat up in a hurry.

With her sudden movement, a few more strands of white fur floated down from somewhere, landing on her clothes.

At the same time, the white tiger lying beside her blinked its round eyes open. It stood up even before she did and gave its head a good shake.

At once, Chi Yuyang saw several tufts of fur scatter with Tuantuan’s movement, drifting down like falling snowflakes.

She couldn’t help but sigh inwardly—tigers truly deserved to be part of the feline family; their shedding instincts were no different from ordinary cats.

Now that Tuantuan had grown into its adult form, its body was much larger, and the amount of fur it shed had multiplied accordingly.

Thinking back to the warmth she had felt from Tuantuan’s body earlier, Chi Yuyang mused that if she collected enough of this tiger’s fur, she might actually be able to make herself a coat.

Just as she was pondering over how to solve her clothing problem, the white tiger padded over and brought back its spoils from last night, carrying them carefully in its mouth from the corner.

“Awwoo.” Tuantuan rubbed its head affectionately against Chi Yuyang, trying to get her attention.

Its ear brushed lightly against her arm, and the touch reminded Chi Yuyang strongly of her favorite plush toy.

The only difference was that her plush toy had been a completely white cat, while Tuantuan was now a fully grown white tiger. Chi Yuyang honestly couldn’t tell anymore which of them resembled the other’s toy more.

She steadied herself and lifted her head to see what Tuantuan was holding in its mouth.

“Tuantuan, are these… animal hides?” Chi Yuyang froze.

“Awroo!” Chi Yuyang felt that there was a trace of pride in Tuantuan’s roar.

This was just too much of a coincidence! Yesterday, she had been mumbling about wanting animal hides, and today Tuantuan had made her wish come true.

Come to think of it, the venison had also been because she had previously mentioned food to Tuantuan.

Even the fact that Tuantuan had grown up matched her fanciful imagination.

Chi Yuyang didn’t know how to describe her current feelings. She knew Tuantuan could understand humans, but this was simply unbelievable.

“Tuantuan, you—”

Before Chi Yuyang could finish speaking, the white tiger turned its head and walked out of the cave.

“Awroo, awroo!” Wife, hurry and come!

Seeing Tuantuan look back at her every few steps, Chi Yuyang had no choice but to suppress her questions and follow along.

Tuantuan walked all the way to the stream.

Chi Yuyang, curious about Tuantuan’s behavior, kept her gaze fixed on it—so much so that she completely overlooked the creatures swimming in the water.

“Awroo!” Although Hu Jin was enjoying this moment, he had something more important to do. He lifted his front paw and pointed toward the stream.

Now that Hu Jin’s heavenly tribulation had passed, the animals had gradually returned to their original habitats.

Following Tuantuan’s gesture, Chi Yuyang looked over and was astonished to see several fish of different colors swimming about.

She instinctively covered her mouth to stifle a scream.

Heavens! Was Tuantuan a magical tiger? Could it be that he had conjured these fish out of thin air?!

Thinking back on all the strange things before, Chi Yuyang began to reasonably suspect that Tuantuan might possess some kind of magical power.

Hu Jin, however, had no idea what Chi Yuyang was thinking. What he cared about was which fish she wanted to eat.

“Awroo, awroo, awroo!” he growled urgently. Chi Yuyang hadn’t eaten since waking up today, and he worried his mate might go hungry.

But Chi Yuyang misunderstood, thinking Tuantuan wanted her to catch the fish herself.

She also wanted to taste fish, but the awkward part was that she was on her period and couldn’t conveniently go into the water.

Seeing her hesitation, the white tiger decided he would catch the fish first and let her choose afterward.

“Tuantuan!” Chi Yuyang gasped as she watched the white tiger leap into the water without any warning.

Every cat she had encountered before was deathly afraid of water. Naturally, her first reaction was to worry for its safety.

But when she saw Tuantuan standing in the stream, with half its body still above the surface, she realized her fears were unnecessary.

This was only a small stream, and besides, Tuantuan was a tiger—it should know how to swim.

“Tuantuan, be careful!” Still, Chi Yuyang couldn’t resist reminding it to be safe.

“Awroo!” Hu Jin heard the obvious worry in his wife’s voice and flicked his tail.

With a heavy slap, his tail struck the water’s surface, sending ripples spreading outward.

Startled by the sudden disturbance, the fish darted upstream and squeezed themselves into cracks between the rocks.

At that very moment, Hu Jin stretched out his paw into the crevice and successfully hooked out a fish.

Then, clamping the fish between his jaws, he slowly swam back to shore.

Watching the whole process, Chi Yuyang’s heart skipped. Tuantuan’s fishing method was so practiced—it was hard to imagine that just a few days ago he had been a cub.

But this wasn’t the time to dwell on that. Seeing the fish still flapping in Tuantuan’s mouth, and realizing she had no basket or container nearby, Chi Yuyang quickly made a decision.

“Tuantuan, wait! I’ll get a plastic bag!” She shouted as she dashed back toward the cave.

Chi Yuyang felt like she was running at the speed of her middle school 800-meter exam, just so she could return to Tuantuan as quickly as possible.

When she got back to the stream, the white tiger was still holding the fish just as before. Without thinking, she reached out and grabbed the fish from its mouth.

As she slipped the fish into the plastic bag, she heard Tuantuan let out another “Awroo.”

Wait… what had she just done? She had so casually taken food straight from a tiger’s mouth?!

But Tuantuan showed no displeasure. Instead, it immediately turned back into the water and soon returned with a second fish.

This repeated again and again, until the bag in Chi Yuyang’s hands grew heavier and heavier, almost too full to hold more. Only then did Tuantuan stop fishing.

“Awroo!” The white tiger shook itself vigorously on shore, sending droplets flying as though to fling off the water.

It stood a little farther from Chi Yuyang, as if worried the spray would splash her.

“Shall we head back now?” Chi Yuyang worried Tuantuan might catch a chill and wanted to bring it back to dry by the fire.

If the two of them could have communicated at that moment, they would have realized they were each worrying unnecessarily.

Chi Yuyang was not a delicate woman. If it weren’t for her inconvenient situation, she could have gone into the water to catch fish herself.

And Hu Jin was a powerful beastman. On this continent, there weren’t many things capable of harming him.

Still, concern for the other is never wasted.

Back inside the cave, when Chi Yuyang saw Tuantuan obediently chewing cat food at the side, she suddenly remembered—tigers generally didn’t eat fish.

So then, the fish Tuantuan caught…

She sighed, glancing at the white tiger still dripping wet, a strange emotion welling up inside her.

Yes, she had saved Tuantuan, but its later recovery had gone far beyond her expectations.

And now, it seemed she was the one relying on him.

There was so little she could actually do for him.

With that thought, Chi Yuyang quickly lit a fire.

“Tuantuan, come here.”

Hu Jin turned his head. Seeing that although Chi Yuyang had lit the fire, she hadn’t started roasting the fish, he assumed she needed his help. So he hurried over to her side.

But because his fur was still wet, he kept a little distance from her.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he stopped, Chi Yuyang reached out her hand and gently stroked his head.

Chi Yuyang realized that the place she touched was no longer the familiar softness, but instead an icy, cold sensation without warmth.

Looking closer, she saw that wherever Tuantuan had run, a trail of water had been left behind.

At that moment, Chi Yuyang really wished she had a hair dryer at hand.

“Tuantuan, dry yourself off first.” With that, she picked up the bag of cat food along with the plastic bag of snacks.

“Awuu?” Tuantuan’s cry seemed to carry a trace of confusion.

“Otherwise, it won’t be good for your body. I’ll grill the fish later.” Chi Yuyang felt as if she understood what Tuantuan wanted to say. “Dry yourself off first.”

She repeated the instruction once again.

After speaking, she took out a box of biscuits from another plastic bag, tore open the package, and began eating her breakfast.

Her intention had been to eat together with Tuantuan, but the white tiger beside her remained still.

Chi Yuyang felt puzzled. When she picked up the cat food earlier, judging by its weight, it seemed Tuantuan hadn’t eaten much yet. It was impossible that he was already full.

“Tuantuan?”

Hearing her voice, Tuantuan finally turned his head to look at her.

Perhaps it was because of the firelight, but at that moment, Chi Yuyang felt that Tuantuan’s eyes carried an unusual gleam.

Seeing the white tiger motionless, crouched in place, Chi Yuyang simply assumed he was warming himself by the fire.

After a while, once most of the water on his body had evaporated, the white tiger quietly shifted closer to her, then began eating the cat food again.

With the fire’s help, Tuantuan’s fur soon returned to its usual fluffy softness.

Chi Yuyang carefully ran her hand over Tuantuan’s body, only beginning to grill the fish after making sure he was fully dry.

When her hand left his tiger body, though she felt reluctant, she forced herself to stay calm outwardly.

Then she turned to fetch the plastic bag of fish. At that very moment, she happened to miss the fleeting trace of disappointment flashing through Tuantuan’s eyes.

“Tuantuan, try my grilled fish.” As the aroma spread throughout the cave, Chi Yuyang’s attention shifted entirely to the food.

Although tigers didn’t particularly like eating fish, that didn’t mean they couldn’t.

Besides, Tuantuan had caught twenty of them in one go—there was no way she could eat them all by herself.

Just like yesterday, once she finished grilling the first fish, Chi Yuyang’s instinctive reaction was to share it with Tuantuan.

And this time, Hu Jin no longer refused. He accepted his wife’s feeding with peace of mind.

In the end, out of the twenty-odd fish, more than half ended up in Hu Jin’s stomach.

After breakfast, Chi Yuyang went to the stream to change into the animal skins Tuantuan had brought back.

It was the third day of her period. She had just noticed that her bleeding had suddenly increased—perhaps due to the earlier intense exertion—but fortunately, it hadn’t caused any cramps.

She rinsed herself clean with water before returning to the cave.

But just before she stepped inside, the white tiger suddenly pounced on her.

“Tuantuan, stop it, that tickles…”

However, unlike usual, Tuantuan didn’t obediently stop. He continued rubbing his head against her.

Moments later, Hu Jin finally confirmed one thing.

His wife was currently in heat.