Chapter 170 - 162: The Inexplicable Man
Chapter 170: Chapter 162: The Inexplicable Man
Once they had put some distance between them, Meng Nan hurriedly asked, "What on earth happened? What’s gotten into that thing?"
The Jin guard then recounted what had happened. Meng Nan’s eyes widened as he listened, and he stared at Bai Zhi in disbelief. "Zhi, is what the Jin guard said true? Did you really throw a stone at that huge tiger?"
Bai Zhi nodded. "I did. Also, it’s called a White-striped Tiger. Remember its name."
Meng Nan felt a cramp in his calf again. ’This girl... she really has no fear of death!’
"Zhi, weren’t you afraid of a tiger that big? And you still dared to throw a stone at it!"
Bai Zhi shrugged. "Of course I was afraid. With a tiger that big, I doubt anyone wouldn’t be. But what good would being afraid do? Could you have outrun it? We have two legs, it has four. Since we couldn’t escape, the only option was to fight for our lives. I don’t have the ability to fight it head-on, so I could only do what I could when the time was right. I wasn’t thinking about much else. I just did what I had to do to survive." ’Saving Hu Feng’s life meant saving my own.’
The Jin guard silently gave her a thumbs-up, but Meng Nan wore a pensive expression. He fell silent and asked no more questions.
Bai Zhi asked in return, "Lord Meng, why are you so afraid of tigers? You even fainted. Isn’t that a bit much? If Hu Feng and the Jin guard hadn’t been here today, you would have been the tiger’s dinner."
The Jin guard shook his head at Bai Zhi, trying to signal for her to stop, but she didn’t see him and had already blurted out the question.
If anyone had asked him this question before, Meng Nan certainly wouldn’t have answered. At most, he would have laughed it off and changed the subject, never offering an explanation.
But today, Meng Nan felt the urge to speak. He wanted to tell them.
"When I was little, my older brother and I snuck out to go riding. I don’t know what got into the horse, but as soon as we were out, it bolted. It galloped all the way out of the city and into the woods, where it bucked us both off. The horse ran away, and it was getting dark. My brother and I were lost."
"I was only seven at the time and didn’t even know what fear was. I just ran along behind my big brother, not scared at all. I thought it was fun... until the tiger appeared."
"My brother was only ten. Even though he’d had a few days of martial arts training, how could he have been a match for a tiger? He had a chance to escape. There was only one tiger. If he had run, it would have eaten me and wouldn’t have gone after him."
Pain filled his eyes and his hands trembled uncontrollably. It was as if time had rewound to that very moment.
"But my brother didn’t run. He stayed. He fought the tiger with his bare hands. He told me to run, to not look back, to just keep running and find our parents to come save him."
"I was so scared. I listened to my brother and just ran and ran, without looking back. When I heard my brother’s agonized screams, I still didn’t turn around. I didn’t dare. I was too afraid... Later, I fell and passed out. When I woke up, my family had already found me, and I was back home."
"I asked what happened to my brother, but no one would answer me. They just cried and cried. I didn’t dare to ask again after that. I never asked again."
So that was it. A shadow from his childhood. His own brother had been eaten by a tiger while protecting him. No wonder he paled at the mere mention of one.
The Jin guard was astonished. ’I never knew the young lord had a brother. To think he went through something like that when he was seven... I even used to tease him about tigers. Thinking back on it now, I really shouldn’t have.’