Chapter 61 - Jealousy, Stimulus
Chapter 61: Jealousy, Stimulus
Roar~!
“Shut up!”
A cold shout with a sense of domineering might thundered so loudly that Wang Hu felt like even his fur was shaking.
Big Treasure and Little Treasure tightened their little paws’ hold around their father’s legs, revealing only their round little heads with hats perched atop them. They blinked with their big eyes as they watched their mother, though they weren’t really scared. Rather, this was a kind of caution unique to children where they knew that they mustn’t make contact with Mommy at the moment.
Apart from being alarmed and frightened, Su Ling was also utterly confused and perplexed. Had she said something wrong? Or had done something wrong?
As she trembled, she couldn’t help but look at the demon lord. Suddenly, she felt like that demon lord might be a little more dependable instead.
As though this was none of his business at all, Wang Hu acted as if he didn’t notice her gaze and completely ignored it. Instead, he secretly peeked at Silly Girl out of the corner of his eye with curiosity and great interest.
‘Your Majesty’! ‘Your Majesty, the Queen’!
Tsk, tsk. What wonderful terms of address these were. Here’s hoping that Silly Girl can accept it soon.
When Di Baijun saw that the fox actually still dared to look at the jerk at this point, her inexplicable fury burned even fiercer.
Roar~!
“I’ll tear you into a million pieces if you dare to utter the four words ‘Your Majesty, the Queen’ again.”
Blatant, unconcealed ice-cold killing intent rushed toward Su Ling.
With the mortal-enemy-like existence bearing down on her, Su Ling felt the urge to pass out at once, and she hurriedly nodded again and again. Her mind was totally blank, and she couldn’t think at all.
The next moment, Di Baijun’s gaze shifted to Wang Hu.
Roar~!
“Where did you catch this piece of food?”
Wang Hu naturally picked up the hostility in her voice, but having gotten accustomed to it a long time ago, it didn’t affect him. A smiling Wang Hu gently replied to her.
Roar~!
“This is the maid and servant that I got you, Baijun. How is it? Not bad, right?”
As if she was eager to indicate her position as a maid and servant, Su Ling—who was sitting limply on the ground—immediately nodded repeatedly again.
The sight rather pleased Wang Hu. It looked like Silly Girl’s act of showing her who the boss was had been more or less already sufficient.
That’s right, apart from wanting to see how Silly Girl would react, the reason why he hadn’t corrected Su Ling in advance about the terms of address that she had used… was that he deliberately wanted to let Silly Girl establish her position.
It had achieved a wonderful result.
Toward that white fox who was extremely timid yet obviously harbored her own little ideas, it was only by constantly keeping her in a fearful state would they be able to suppress her and make her behave.
Di Baijun cocked an eyebrow slightly. Her anger and inexplicable displeasure lessened a little, though her voice remained ice-cold as she spoke.
Roar~!
“The Foxes are but cowardly and treacherous creatures… and even frequently rely on us Tigers for protection[1]. What’s the point in having her here?”
Wang Hu glanced at Silly Girl. Was she putting on a two-man show with him? Or was she really averse to the idea?
She was likely putting on a two-man show with him, though. Silly Girl wasn’t that silly that she would reject such a useful servant.
“Your Majesty!”
Su Ling was so frightened that she immediately looked at Wang Hu and called out to him in a voice full of pleading.
She didn’t notice that the look of balefulness in Di Baijun’s eyes had immediately become a lot stronger at the sight.
That little vixen[2] actually dared to seek help from that jerk in front of me!
Do you think I can’t do anything about you just because that jerk is protecting you?
Wang Hu didn’t think too deeply into this. Upon seeing that Su Ling had been more or less appropriately intimidated, he spoke up gently again.
Roar~!
“Baijun, this white fox has only just broken through to the Transformation Realm. There’s not much use to eating it. Why don’t we give her a chance and let her do the household chores, hunt, and the laundry? There’s no harm in eating her afterward, when she proves that she can’t even be a good servant.”
His words made Su Ling feel incredibly aggrieved. Nevertheless, she still felt like someone had given her a helping hand in her time of need. Full of gratitude, she nodded hopefully and said in a panic, “Yes, yes, I can do everything.”
Upon hearing their words, Di Baijun gave that jerk a good long look out of the corner of her eye. Suddenly, she somewhat understood that the jerk might really just be looking for a servant.
Naturally, her fury and displeasure subsided significantly right away, and she mused about it for a brief moment. Given their current state, it seemed like a pretty good idea to get a servant.
With her chin lifted, she looked down loftily at Su Ling from above and spoke haughtily and bossily.
Roar~!
“Fine, I’ll give you a chance. If you do well, you’ll be rewarded. But if you don’t… hmph.”
A shiver ran through Su Ling again right away, and she said fearfully, “Yes, yes. I’ll definitely work hard and repay Your Majesty and Your Majesty, the Q—”
She stopped herself before she uttered the last word. She was in such a panic that for a moment, she didn’t know how she should be addressing Di Baijun. She could only lift her head and look carefully at the shrew who was even scarier than the demon lord.
Di Baijun glared at the jerk huffily before she snorted lightly.
Roar~!
“Address him as ‘my lord’ and me as ‘Your Majesty’ in the future.”
Su Ling was startled the moment she said that. Rather puzzled, she cautiously lifted her head and looked at the demon lord.
Wang Hu, who wasn’t bothered about it at all, spoke calmly.
Roar~!
“We’ll go with that.”
“Yes, yes. Su Ling will definitely work hard to repay my lord and Your Majesty’s kindness,” said Su Ling as sincerely as she could while enduring the aggrieved feelings in her heart.
Di Baijun watched the sight coldly and aloofly, but she found it rather an eyesore nonetheless. It was especially so when she caught sight of the jerk standing at the side.
Roar~!
She said grumpily, “Hurry up and go and do the chores.”
“Yes.” Frightened, Su Ling supported herself with her limp limbs and got up. Then, she walked to the side and started to look for places to tidy up.
Big Treasure and Little Treasure looked over at her curiously.
Roar~!
“Big Treasure, Little Treasure. Go and watch your television shows,” said Wang Hu softly.
At once, the two little fellows skipped off.
Di Baijun and Wang Hu were the only ones left now. Wang Hu took a couple of steps forward and said softly, “Baijun, since that white fox has only just come, she definitely still has her own little ideas in her head. You must keep a tight watch over her.”
Di Baijun, who currently only felt like that jerk was an eyesore, barked coldly without bothering to conceal anything.
Roar~!
“If she dares to do anything inappropriate, I’ll destroy her such that even her soul scatters into pieces.”
A short distance away, Su Ling—who heard very clearly what Di Baijun said—found herself going limp again as alarm and fear filled her.
Wang Hu blinked. Suddenly, he realized that something wasn’t quite right.
That hostile look in her eyes as she looked at him…
It seemed like that Silly Girl really wasn’t that happy about gaining a servant!
It made him somewhat pensive, but because he hadn’t completely understood what was going on either, he chose to give a noncommittal verbal reply first.
Roar~!
“Yeah, that’s right. Just leave everything to her in the future. She just dares to run… hah, it’ll depend on how far she can run, then.”
As he spoke, he also cast a glance at the nearby Su Ling—who was tidying up the area on the surface but, in truth, secretly eavesdropping on them.
Di Baijun kept her chin raised as she spoke coldly.
Roar~!
“I will naturally discipline her properly. You don’t need to overly concern yourself with it.”
Then, she turned and left.
In that split-second, it was as if Wang Hu had a eureka moment. He thought of something, and his eyes lit up. As he stared at Silly Girl from the back, the more he thought about it, the more he found it likely.
Roar~!
He suppressed his joy and said, “Alright, I’ll go and tell her what she should do first.”
Silly Girl didn’t object to it and gave her tacit approval. The only thing she did was that she paused in her tracks as if she wanted to turn and look at him, but she ultimately curbed the urge to do so and continued to walk forward haughtily as if she didn’t care about such trivial matters at all.
At the sight, Wang Hu became even more convinced of his conjecture, and he burst out laughing inwardly.
That Silly Girl must have instinctively been ‘jealous’.
This jealousy wasn’t the normal jealousy that humans referred to. Rather, it was founded upon a strong sense of possessiveness and narrow-mindedness like how one’s territory was supposed to be inviolable.
Upon seeing him bring a female home and perhaps also because Silly Girl knew more about the foxes, she had instinctively felt uncomfortable.
A woman’s narrow-mindedness, especially a tigress’, had been exhibited to its fullest in this case.
‘I can reject and dislike something, but it’s still not something that a puny little Fox like you can take. No way at all.’
Perhaps this was Silly Girl’s thoughts in its truest form at the depths of her heart that even she herself didn’t realize.
Wang Hu was naturally delighted about this, of course. Regardless of whether the jealousy stemmed from love or not, it was still jealousy nonetheless, wasn’t it?
This symbolized the success of his efforts and his way of the simp over all these years.
He calmed himself down and quickly started to think about whether he could do anything about it or gain anything from it.
Silly Girl is jealous… jealous…
Had the relationship between the two of them been that of a normal married couple’s, of course, he wouldn’t dare—no, he wouldn’t have all these extra thoughts. After all, he was a good tiger that couldn’t be found anywhere else. He would have stayed away from the white fox as much as possible to prevent Silly Girl from forming any misunderstandings.
However, they weren’t a normal married couple at the moment.
Wang Hu was terribly stubborn. During the last one and a half years, no matter how he put the way of the simp’s third stage into action, it simply couldn’t shatter that concept of divinity and worldliness at all.
They had merely inadvertently become a bit closer during their day-to-day life.
Recently, he had been thinking about what he should do in the fourth stage, and in this instant, he had formed a clear train of thought—should he give Silly Girl some kind of stimulus?
When internal relations reach a point where it was impossible to advance any further, the appearance of external relations would usually provide a stimulus to advance the internal relations.
He should provoke Silly Girl’s jealousy and pettiness more often. As long as he kept a good grasp on the degree and extent of his actions, even if Silly Girl were to get angry, the majority of it would still be directed at Su Ling.
He would only need to bear a small part of her anger. On top of that, he might gain extraordinarily good results.
This was a very good deal.
After a few seconds of hesitation, he made up his mind to go ahead with it.
As he mused, he went over to Su Ling who was in the midst of carefully tidying up various bits and bobs.
“My lord.”
Su Ling immediately lowered her head and greeted him.
Wang Hu grunted in response while watching the nearby Silly Girl closely out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t know whether this was just his illusion because he had already formed the concept, but he just felt that Silly Girl must be currently looking at them.
To him, this was perfect.
Roar~!
He said unhurriedly, “You don’t have many tasks to do. Listen up now. From now on, you’re in charge of all the household chores in here and outside the cave. You are to collect the parcels, play cartoons for Big Treasure and Little Treasure, hunt, and give massages. Understand?”
Su Ling was crying inwardly, but she could only nod enthusiastically on the surface and reply respectfully, “Yes, I understand.”
Roar~!
“Alright. I’ll go with you during your first hunting and parcel-collecting trips. After that, I’ll leave them to you.”
“Understood.”
Wang Hu pretended to nod indifferently. Then, he turned to Silly Girl and let out a soft roar.
Roar~!
“Baijun, I’ll bring her out to hunt and collect parcels.”
Di Baijun instantly retracted her line of vision and ignored him, staying as haughty as ever and acting as if she didn’t care at all.
Wang Hu secretly laughed. Then, he gave Su Ling a look and stepped out first.
[1] This refers to a Chinese idiom that literally means ‘the fox borrows the tiger’s fierceness’. The idiom is used to describe someone that bullies others by virtue of someone else’s power or authority.
[2] ‘Fox spirit’ is also a colloquial derogatory term for a woman that seduces men, usually married.