Chapter 530: Starving Tiger

Zhu Hanwen scrunched up his little face and stared at his prey. He slowly pulled back the bow in his hands and placed an arrow on the string; he was about to shoot...

Suddenly, the badger raised its head up alertly and its tiny eyes quickly looked around it. Its fur stood up and it scampered into the nearby bushes at a surprising speed, disappearing into the forest.

"Darn it!" Zhu Hanwen lowered his bow and went a couple step forwards in the direction that the badger had disappeared. He stamped his feet in annoyance, "An animal's perception of danger is too strong ah! This prince was so far away but I still ended up scaring it..."

Yu Xiaocao smiled and was about to say a few words in comfort when the smile congealed on her face. A sense of crisis blossomed in her heart, stifling her completely. There was something wrong! The area around them was too quiet, as if they were in a pool of stagnant water. She wasn't sure when the birds stopped chirping but even the crickets singing in the bushes had gone silent. She could smell a faint fishy scent in the air. Danger was approaching them!!

"Imperial Highness, there's something wrong with this area, let's..." She was just about to call the imperial prince back to leave when she suddenly saw the fierce eyes of a starving tiger appear right behind Zhu Hanwen.

"What's the matter? That silly look on your face is not enough to scare me!" The eldest imperial prince hadn't seemed to have sensed that danger was here. He grinned happily at Xiaocao and made a funny face at her.

"Eldest Imperial Prince, please do not move and do not look back!" Yu Xiaocao was very clear that making any sudden or frantic movements would only provoke the animal at this point and cause it to attack. At this moment, that tiger seemed to be fixedly watching the imperial prince, as if it was trying to calculate the best timing to spring its attack on its prey.

Yu Xiaocao couldn't be bothered to wonder why a fierce tiger had suddenly appeared in the safest area in the hunting grounds. Right now, she was entirely preoccupied with trying to figure out how to save the eldest imperial prince's life. She had been ordered to protect him. If the eldest imperial prince encountered any misfortune, then her head was forfeit too!

She silently ground her teeth and gave a pointed look at the imperial prince, who was starting to look nervous. Then she waved a hand at the giant tiger behind him and screeched, "Evil beast! If you have the skills, come for me! This young maiden is not afraid of you ah!"

It was obvious that the tiger had been starving for a long time. Its belly was deflated and shriveled looking and the fur on its body had long lost its usual glorious l.u.s.ter. Its pair of fierce looking eyes were full of bloodl.u.s.t. Prey that was moving around was naturally more interesting than something that wasn't. The blood-shot eyes of the hungry tiger moved from the prince to Xiaocao. However, it seemed not to be very interested in the thin and small Xiaocao and started to turn its attention back to the plump and sturdy prince again.

Yu Xiaocao bent down to pick up a rock and flung it at the large tiger. She had used her inner focus for this throw and accurately hit the starving animal on its head. Yu Xiaocao then deliberately jumped a few times in a provoking manner and screamed at it, "Stinky tiger, come here ah! Come bite me ah!!"

That tiger was truly infuriated now. It leapt up like lightning and sped over towards her. Under the clear signal from Xiaocao, the eldest imperial prince let his bow fall to the ground and fell down with his hands on his head. He could feel the tiger barely brush over him and the scent of the beast's odor hit him straight in the nose. He stared at the rampaging beast and was so scared that his teeth immediately started to chatter.

A tiger! A giant tiger! Although this tiger was quite thin, it was still at least two meters long in length. Just its tail alone had to be one meter long and its head was as large as a millstone! Zhu Hanwen felt his body tremble involuntarily. A few times, he attempted to pick up his bow from the ground to save Official Yu but his hands didn't seem to want to listen to him and hung stiffly by his side.

Zhu Hanwen started to cry in frustration. What should he do? Official Yu had lured the tiger away to save him. If it wasn't for Official Yu deliberately provoking the animal, he would have long become a finished snack in the tiger's jaws. He couldn't just do nothing and run away, leaving Official Yu to die. That was the conduct of a coward. He didn't want to be tormented by his cowardly actions for the rest of his life.

"Someone come ah!" Someone come ah! Save us——save us ah——" Zhu Hanwen realized that using his toy-like bow alone was not enough to fight against a fierce tiger. He could only hope that his two bodyguards weren't too far away and could come back in time.

As for Yu Xiaocao, when she saw the tiger had taken the bait to follow her, she was hurriedly running in a direction away from the eldest imperial prince. She was hoping that the prince would be smart and find a safe place to hide while she led the animal away. There wasn't enough time for him to find reinforcements! She could only pray that she would survive this!

[Lie down!!] The little divine stone's voice echoed in her mind and she immediately fell onto the ground. The tiger just barely missed scratching her head as it leapt towards her previous position. Before her mind could realize what was happening, her body had already reacted and she was climbing up from the ground to charge in another direction. She had never known that her body had this strength inside it and that she could run so fast when she needed to.

However, no matter how fast she ran, she was no match for a tiger with four sturdy legs. The angry howls of the tiger were close behind her and she could smell the rotten fishy scent of its breath. She knew that the tiger's jaws were only seconds away from her. So screwed! The bushes in front of her were blocking her way and the danger behind her was quickly approaching. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place now and she could feel the God of Death just waiting for her.

Was this the end of her? Was the purpose of her transmigrating over to this world to use her life to save the life of a little brat? It must really hurt to be bitten to death by a tiger right? She could only hope the tiger would kill her in one blow so she wouldn't have to experience the suffering of being torn apart alive.

Would Zhu Junyang fall into a frenzy when he saw her ravaged corpse? Then who would stop him then? Sir Su seemed like a very skilled expert but she wasn't sure if he'd be able to subdue Zhu Junyang.

It looked like her plans on creating a super farm were going to end abruptly. She had wanted to become the second Yuan Longping[1] and improve the rice paddy seeds. Sigh...she wasn't sure whether she would be able to transmigrate back to the modern world after she died here. Didn't the novels all write it like that ah? All sorts of thoughts came up in her mind during this one moment.

[What are you standing there stupidly for? Why don't you quickly call those two weak wolves over?! If outsiders see this divine stone's spiritual powers, it'd be hard to explain! Those two had been raised on this divine stone's bathing water since young, so isn't it just a small job for them to clean up this insignificant tiger?] The pain she had expected didn't manifest, and, instead, the sound of the little divine stone's voice appeared in her mind again.

A bit confused, she raised her head and almost peed her pants when she saw the open and raging jaws of the tiger in front of her. After looking carefully around her, she discovered that she had been surrounded by a golden light that had protective qualities. It kept the tiger on the outside, away from her.

The pitiful tiger had no clue what was going on. Its prey was clearly right in front of it, but no matter how it tried to bite or claw at it, it wasn't able to touch one hair. There was an alluring smell coming off of the prey which caused its stomach to pulse with renewed hunger pains. These damned humans had used some sort of drug to ensnare it and had closed it in a cage for a long time before finally letting it out. It was quite angry about this and wanted to eat all the humans it could get its claws on to vent its hatred.

Animals had a one track mind. Although it clearly had no way to get at Yu Xiaocao, that didn't stop it from continuing to try. It continued to bite and claw at the protective golden screen in an attempt to get at its hated prey.

After Yu Xiaocao sent out a call to bring Little Black and Little White over, she tried to use the mystic-stone water to lure the beast into tameness. However, she failed in the end. She was quite puzzled by this. Big Gray was also a fierce beast and he couldn't resist the lure of the mystic-stone water. How come this tiger, on the other hand, wasn't interested in it at all?

Her intuition told her that this tiger regarded her as an abject enemy, as if she had slaughtered its father, so it stubbornly clung to the idea of ripping her to death. Furthermore, there shouldn't be any fierce beasts appearing in the dozen or so hunting areas in this area. Why did she and the eldest imperial prince have such rotten luck to encounter a tiger here?

The situation wasn't as simple as it seemed! Yu Xiaocao, who had read many novels about palace schemes in her past life, smelled the sour notes of a conspiracy. She was only a tiny sixth-ranked official. Other than having talent in agriculture, there wasn't much else she could bring to the table. Thus, it was unlikely that anyone would deliberately target her here.

Perhaps...this unknown person was targeting the eldest imperial prince? Yu Xiaocao felt like she had suddenly been drawn into a palace drama. However, the emperor didn't have many children currently and the only imperial prince from his bloodline was the eldest imperial prince. Killing the eldest prince to gain the position of the heir seemed a bit far-fetched right now.

Could it be the plot from the remnants of the previous dynasty? It wasn't easy to hurt the emperor so instead they decided to try for his heir instead? That was definitely more likely. Furthermore, didn't Royal Prince Yang lead troops to the border areas to put down a rebellion? Was it someone who escaped then trying to cause trouble now? Yu Xiaocao's thoughts flitted to and fro and she began to think that she was getting closer and closer to the 'truth'.

If a random person stumbled upon this scene now, they absolutely would not be able to believe their eyes. There was a young lady, who resembled a fairy, sitting cross-legged on a carpet of golden leaves. Her entire body seemed to emit a pure golden light and a majestic tiger was 'frolicking' around her in a dance...

Yu Xiaocao: 'Frolicking? Does this look like frolicking to you?!! Are you blind ah? Can't you see that the tiger wants to open its jaws wide and swallow me instantly?!'

At this time, the tiger suddenly stopped its attacks at Yu Xiaocao. It wasn't that it was giving up. Instead, it had sensed some other fierce beasts coming over. That tiger let out a loud roar of warning and Xiaocao felt her ears echo afterwards. The deafening sound made her feel quite dizzy.

The tiger had originally thought its warning snarl would cause the other animals to retreat. It didn't expect the other beasts to, in fact, increase their speed and approach faster. It couldn't be bothered to continue to attempt to harm Yu Xiaocao and turned around in preparation for another battle.

When Yu Xiaocao saw Little Black and Little White's figures, her heart finally settled down and relaxed. She complained, "Why did it take you guys this long to arrive? If I relied on you two, I'd already be a dead, white skeleton on the ground!"

Little Black and Little White didn't even bother to give any attention to the extremely thin tiger. They guiltily headed over to their master. The tiger believed that the two reckless wolves were trying to snatch away its food and immediately exploded in fury. The tiger believed that it was powerful but why were the two wolves acting as if it was Hello Kitty ah?! How could the King of the Forest possibly put up with the provocations of two tiny shrimp?

Unfortunately, it had underestimated the prowess of Little Black and Little White and ended up having a tragic ending. The two wolves played with it like two cats teasing a mouse. The tiger was fighting a dead-end battle. In fact, if it weren't for their master telling them to 'try to keep the tiger pelt free of scratches', that tiger would have ended up ripped to ribbons before its final death.

When the tiger sensed that things weren't going its way, it attempted to flee but it was too late. The two wolves outflanked it and kept the tiger easily within their control. Its final ending was to die in exhaustion after getting its throat ripped open. Even in death it couldn't understand why the two wolves, which were animals as well, would listen to the orders of a weak and little human and protect her so closely.

[1] Yuan Longping - Chinese agronomist, known for developing the first hybrid rice varieties in the 1970s. For his contributions, Yuan is always called the "Father of Hybrid Rice" by the Chinese media.