Chapter 244
Chapter 244
Ji Si pulled Jiang Yunsui back, but her upper clothes were soaked through, and her half-dry hair had returned to its previous wet state.
“Cough, cough!”
Holding her by the ankles, Ji Si lifted her upside down while she coughed.
He quickly turned her right side up.
Soaked from head to toe, Little Mushroom looked like a tiny female ghost. Her eyes were slightly red from choking.
She and Ji Si stared at each other.
Jiang Yunsui pouted and spat out a mouthful of water-straight onto Ji Si.
She blinked innocently and handed him the fish still clutched in her hand.
“Si Si.”
The corner of Ji Si’s mouth twitched.
He carried her away to change.
The valley’s air and environment were astonishingly good.
Its wild animals were all plump and thriving.
Once the restless outsider had changed, dried her hair, and tied it up again, she relied on her abilities to wander everywhere.
Naturally, trouble followed.
“Roar!”
A tiger’s roar startled everyone.
“This is bad. Where’s Jiang Yunsui?”
Shen Qingzhu turned and searched. The child who appeared docile and obedient-but was neither-had vanished.
Even Ji Si had not noticed when she left.
There was only one possible conclusion: she had reduced her presence and slipped away.
They dropped their work and ran toward the roar.
Jiang Yunsui was indeed there.
“I didn’t steal your baby!”
“Can you be reasonable? Your cub rolled down the hill, and I caught it!”
Holding a tiger cub, Jiang Yunsui ran desperately, her short legs pumping so fast they nearly smoked.
It had begun when she wandered into tiger territory and found two adults fighting. A male tiger was being pinned down and slapped repeatedly by a tigress.
Jiang Yunsui loved a spectacle. Unable to resist, she found a place to squat and cracked melon seeds while watching.
Then something rolled down a nearby slope.
It was furry, squeaking, and tiny-a baby tiger.
The cub had rolled directly to her feet. Wouldn’t it have been a terrible waste not to pet it?
It was adorable, plump, and warm.
Jiang Yunsui became carried away, squeezing its paws and kissing its soft belly.
The cub enjoyed the attention, especially because she fed it tasty things.
Unfortunately, Little Mushroom was so absorbed that she did not notice when the two adults stopped fighting.
The cub cried out. When Jiang Yunsui finally sensed killing intent behind her and turned around, she came face-to-face with an enormous furry tiger head.
That was how she ended up fleeing with someone else’s baby.
“Stop chasing me! I’ll give it back!”
“Roar!”
“How can I stop while you’re chasing me?”
The tigress eventually pounced and knocked Jiang Yunsui down. With incredible speed, Jiang Yunsui placed the cub on top of her own face.
“Here’s your baby.”
She cautiously peered out, swallowed at the sight of the tiger’s enormous mouth, and offered food.
“Eat this. If you eat Imperial Flowing Essence, you can’t eat me.”
When Shen Qingzhu and the others arrived, they found Jiang Yunsui pinned beneath the tigress.
Their expressions changed. Ji Si had already readied the concealed bolt in his sleeve.
“Wait.”
Narrowing his eyes, Shen Qingzhu stopped them.
“Little Yunsui is fine. Don’t move. If we anger the tiger, she’ll be in greater danger.”
The tigress had eaten something beneficial, and Jiang Yunsui possessed great affinity with animals.
It had no intention of biting her. But Jiang Yunsui had carried off its cub, so naturally, the mother had to frighten her.
With the cub in its mouth, the tigress finally lifted its paw from Jiang Yunsui.
Jiang Yunsui sighed in relief. Her first act after climbing up was not to escape, but to take a Beauty Mushroom from her bag and crunch into it.
She needed to calm her nerves.
Hm? Something was watching her.
She turned. Both the tigress and cub stared at her.
Jiang Yunsui hesitated. “Want one?”
The tigress took a bite, and its round ears perked higher.
The flavor was good.
It swallowed the whole mushroom in one bite and looked unsatisfied.
The cub also cried and slowly gnawed its share, apparently enjoying it.
Jiang Yunsui smacked her lips and took out another for herself.
Everyone observing from hiding fell silent.
“Does this girl truly not understand fear?” Ji Lu muttered.
“Why isn’t she running? Is she waiting to become emergency rations?”
They all knew Jiang Yunsui thought strangely and possessed astonishing courage, but this was excessive even for her.
Ji Si flicked a small stone that struck her.
Jiang Yunsui looked up, scratched the bottom he had hit, and ignored it.
“You want more?”
“I only have a few.”
After eating two more, the tigress rose and prepared to leave with the cub in its mouth.
The hidden observers had just begun to relax when it looked back at Jiang Yunsui, growled, and jerked its head forward.
Jiang Yunsui pointed at herself. “You want me to follow you?”
When the tigress nodded, Jiang Yunsui did not hesitate. She brushed grass and dirt off her clothes and happily followed.
Shen Qingzhu closed his eyes in despair and rubbed his forehead.
His head genuinely hurt.
Everyone else was speechless too.
Ji Lu sounded incredulous. “She simply followed a tiger?”
Black gloom radiated from Ji Si.
“She deserves a beating.”
For once, he truly believed Jiang Yunsui needed a lesson.
Shen Qingzhu inhaled deeply. “Ji Si, Ji Lu, your concealment and lightness skills are best. Follow them. The rest of us should stay. Too many people may be discovered and anger the tiger, placing her in danger.”
At least the tigress currently showed no desire to kill her.
Ji Si and Ji Lu followed.
They found Jiang Yunsui not merely unafraid, but fluttering happily like a butterfly, even picking wildflowers beside the path.
The cub struggled in its mother’s mouth, crying to be put down.
The tigress glanced at Jiang Yunsui and released it.
The cub immediately trotted over on its four short legs.
Jiang Yunsui held out the flower she had picked.
“Look. Isn’t it pretty? It smells good too.”
She leaned close and inhaled.
The cub watched with round eyes, then imitated her and moved its nose toward the flower.
“Achoo!”
Its enormous sneeze knocked it backward in a somersault.
“Hahaha! You’re so silly!”
Jiang Yunsui began playing with the cub.
The mother occasionally looked back and growled at the two little ones.
“Coming!”
Jiang Yunsui scampered after her, with the round-headed cub crying and trotting alongside.