Chapter 76

Yun Pianpian’s tiger eyes widened sharply.
Killing tigers was Xiao Changyuan’s instinct!
Xiao Changyuan would kill her!
Terrified, Yun Pianpian turned and fled, scrambling up the iron cage on all fours as nimbly and agilely as a cat. Fearing that Xiao Changyuan might follow her up, she climbed all the way to the top of the cage, her four tiger paws gripping the iron bars tightly, her tiger body trembling uncontrollably, a pitiful sight of extreme fright.
The young eunuchs were all dumbfounded.
After a long pause, they began whispering among themselves.
“A tiger can actually climb a cage…”
“Cats can climb trees, and tigers are big cats, so they should be able to climb cages…”
“Why is this tiger so terrified?”
“It must be that the young prince has too much blood on his hands, having killed too many tigers, leaving behind the aura of dead tigers. That’s why this sick tiger dares not approach him…”
“Could it be scared to death by the young prince?”
“In the past three years, tigers in the Mo Kingdom have almost gone extinct. We finally managed to find this one in Qingcheng County. If it dies just like that and His Majesty blames us, we probably won’t survive either.”
Yun Pianpian clung tightly to the iron bars with her tiger paws, terrified that Xiao Changyuan might slash her with his sword at any moment, ending her brief life as a tiger. But after waiting for a long time, the expected pain never came. Cautiously, she lowered her tiger head and timidly glanced at the young Changyuan.
The young Changyuan was staring at her.
His dark, icy eyes were like frozen pools, covered in a layer of blood, red killing intent.
Sinister and ruthless.
Yun Pianpian was so frightened that she squeezed her eyes shut, her tiger paws clutching the iron bars even tighter.
Her tail curled up and hung from the cage.
Her body trembled uncontrollably and her heart ached with such grievance that she wanted to cry.
She should have been nestled in the tyrant Changyuan’s embrace, acting spoiled and yielding, why did fate have to send her to this terrifying place to be menaced by the young Changyuan…
The young Changyuan looked truly terrifying.
o(╥﹏╥)o
Yun Pianpian couldn’t hold back her tears.
She began to miss the warm embrace of the tyrant Changyuan.
The eunuchs observed the tiger from outside the iron cage for a long time. Seeing that the tiger wouldn’t be frightened to death by the young prince anytime soon, they collectively breathed a sigh of relief, their heads were safe for now.
The eunuchs gradually dispersed from the courtyard.
It was the tail end of autumn, just before winter.
The autumn scenery was bleak and desolate, it mirrored Yun Pianpian’s desolate state of mind.
The iron cage was placed in the empty courtyard.
Looking up, one could see the deep blue autumn sky.
The cage was drafty and exposed on all sides, empty and bitterly cold.
She trembled as she clung to the top of the iron cage. She had been hanging there for nearly two hours, her limbs stiff and numb, on the verge of falling at any moment.
The sun slanted westward, dusk approaching at the edge of the sky.
Yun Pianpian’s emotions surged and subsided, experiencing a series of changes: fear, panic, despair, grievance, resentment, numbness, and finally, calm…
By the time the sun set over the Abyss, Yun Pianpian even dared to open her eyes, calmly admiring the sunset before her.
The iron tiger cage was about three zhang high. Hanging at the top, she had an extremely broad view, her gaze passing over the deep palace walls and landing on the distant clouds.
The evening glow at the horizon was dazzling, radiant and brilliant.
Yun Pianpian stared intently at the clouds, so absorbed that she didn’t even notice her tail slipping from the cage. She even unconsciously flicked her tail in the air.
The young Yuan lifted his cold, frosty eyelashes.
He glanced at her.
The brilliant evening light fell upon the tiger, gilding her with a golden edge, making her appear exceptionally gentle and soft.
The young Yuan followed the tiger’s gaze into the distance, but there was nothing there, only the golden clouds filling the sky.
So, she was watching the sunset?
A flicker of surprise crossed the young Yuan’s dark eyes.
A tiger admiring the clouds?
How ridiculous…
The young Yuan slowly tightened his grip on the cold sword in his hand.
He despised this absurd world.
Night fell, and Yun Pianpian had unknowingly hung on the tiger cage for nearly three hours.
The starry sky was filled with a blanket of stars.
Yun Pianpian was utterly exhausted, swaying precariously.
She knew her strength had reached its limit, and she could fall at any moment. Once she dropped, the young Yuan would cruelly kill her.
At the beginning of the Hai hour, the night was deep and silent.
The imperial palace was brilliantly lit.
This remote courtyard was desolate and cold, with few palace attendants passing by. Only a dim lantern hung under the eaves of the palace.
The faint lamplight cast hazy shadows of the trees.
Yun Pianpian wanted to take one last look at the stars in the night sky before she died.
At least she would die with a beautiful image in her mind, otherwise, she would die with regrets.
Yun Pianpian lifted her head to gaze at the stars, her limbs weak.
With a thud, she fell to the ground, awaiting death.
But the death she imagined did not come.
Yun Pianpian couldn’t believe that he had actually spared her.
She cautiously turned her head.
The young Yuan tightened his grip on the cold sword.
His icy, bloodthirsty dark eyes stared coldly at her.
She clearly saw the warning in his eyes.
If you dare move even a little, I will kill you.
Yun Pianpian, terrified, hugged her tiger head, burying it tightly in her paws, her body trembling uncontrollably.
She didn’t dare move a muscle, struggling to play dead.
As a result, she lay there so still that she actually fell asleep.
By the time Yun Pianpian woke up again, it was already daytime. The young Yuan was no longer in the iron cage, he had likely gone to the death squad camp.
The eunuchs carried buckets of fresh pork to feed the tiger. Too afraid to approach the cage, they used wooden sticks to extend the bloody meat through the iron bars toward the tiger. After offering several pieces and seeing that she refused to eat, they grew anxious.
“Why isn't this tiger eating the meat?”
“Could it be frightened sick?”
“Who would have thought the young prince spared this sick tiger last night instead of killing it?”
“We went through so much trouble to find this tiger. If it doesn't die by the young prince's hand but starves to death under our care, His Majesty will surely blame us.”
“What should we do?”
“For three years, the young prince has hunted all the tigers in Mo Kingdom to extinction. There's no way to find a new one to send. If this continues, we're all doomed.”
The young eunuchs turned pale with fear, diligently pushing all the fresh meat into the cage with their sticks, even attempting to place it right at the tiger's mouth.
Yun Pianpian caught the scent of the bloody meat, her stomach churning with nausea. She swiped a paw fiercely, knocking away the piece of flesh offered to her lips, and roared in fury.
“Roarrrrrr!”
I refuse to eat raw meat!
Hearing the enraged tiger's roar, the young eunuchs scattered in panic. Though the tiger had seemed weak and listless, its roar was full of vigor. Relieved, they concluded that this sick tiger wouldn't starve to death anytime soon.
Yun Pianpian used her paw to push all the bloody meat out of the cage, her face full of disdain, then plucked two blades of grass from the ground and chewed them.
She had gone hungry the entire day.
By late afternoon, the young Yuan walked in, covered in wounds. It seemed he had encountered a formidable opponent today; his exquisitely handsome face was marred with injuries.
A bruise marked his brow, and his lips were cut.
His skin was pale as frost, making the blue and purple bruises on his face stand out starkly. He resembled a jade figure tarnished with dirt, utterly disheveled.
He looked especially pitiful.
In the original story, Xiao Changyuan was an emperor raised in a tiger cage. His childhood and youth were spent within its confines. From age six to seventeen, Xiao Changyuan was imprisoned in the tiger cage by Emperor Zhaoyan. By day, he fought to the death with assassins in the training camp; by night, he returned to the cage to battle ferocious tigers.
For eleven long years, he lived amidst bloodshed and turmoil. Later, at seventeen, Xiao Changyuan went to war and, in less than two years, conquered the world, unifying the five kingdoms.
Later, he ascended the throne at nineteen, becoming the ruler of the land, only to lose his memory and end up in Jiangjia Village at twenty.
His life had been one of constant upheaval, but now, the young Yuan was only nine years old.
Yun Pianpian felt a pang of heartache deep inside.
She wanted to hug and comfort him, but her current body was the very thing he despised most. So, Yun Pianpian suppressed the ache in her heart, huddled in the corner of the tiger cage, wrapped her tiger paws around the iron bars, curled her tail, and lay on the ground with her back to the young Yuan.
Yun Pianpian’s stomach growled with hunger but she didn’t dare look back at him, afraid he might kill her with his own hands.
That night, the two of them passed the time peacefully.
Over the next few days, the eunuchs brought meat and water to her every day. Occasionally, she would drink water, but she refused to eat raw meat. The eunuchs then began offering fresh chicken, duck, and beef in various ways, fearing she might starve.
But she ate none of it, she even stopped drinking water.
Yun Pianpian was tired of being a tiger. She didn’t want to linger in this world in a tiger’s body any longer. She wanted to return to the side of the tyrant Yuan. Optimistically, she guessed that perhaps if she died here, she could go back.
So Yun Pianpian decided to starve herself to death, fully intent on ending her life.
She knew that the young Yuan had been watching her from the shadows all this time. She could feel his cold gaze fixed on her tiger form. Since she was going to die anyway, she was no longer afraid of the young Yuan.
She gazed up at the sky without a care.
That night, Yun Pianpian lay on the ground, her tiger paws clutching the cage bars, her tiger head raised as she looked at the stars.
The night was hauntingly beautiful, the stars brilliant.
Yun Pianpian stared unblinkingly at the sky.
Suddenly, the young Yuan’s cool voice came from behind.
“Are the stars beautiful?”
Yun Pianpian instinctively nodded.
“Roar, roar…” Yes, they are.
Abruptly, Yun Pianpian’s tiger body stiffened.
He was testing her!
She turned her head stiffly, her eyes wide with panic and fear as she looked at him.
The young Yuan rested a cold sword beside Yun Pianpian’s tiger head, his icy gaze frozen like frost.
“You really are a monster.”
Yun Pianpian trembled with fear, shaking her head like a rattle drum: “Roar, roar, roar, roar.” I’m not a monster.
Afraid the young Yuan wouldn’t understand her tiger speech, Yun Pianpian extended a tiger paw and carefully wrote on the ground: “I am not a monster.” She paused, then brazenly added: “I am a little fairy.”
The ground was paved with bluestone.
Her tiger claws scratched two lines of characters into the stone.
The young Yuan frowned slightly, using his cold sword to lift Yun Pianpian’s tiger head, staring into her eyes.
In those youthful, icy pupils, a flicker of unmistakable disdain slowly surfaced.
“So all you fairies are this weak?”
Yun Pianpian felt utterly humiliated, so she buried her head and continued writing a story with her tiger paw: “I am currently in the mortal world to undergo trials, so I’ve lost my powers. Once I complete my trials, I will become incredibly powerful, the most powerful in the world.”
She wrote a long string of characters with her paw.
But the young Yuan only sneered coldly.
“You?”
Yun Pianpian saw the contempt in his eyes, her heart felt wounded by a thousand cuts.
The little tyrant was so annoying when he was young!
She wanted to shut herself away.
Yun Pianpian turned her tiger head away in a sulk.
The young Yuan tapped her tiger head with his cold sword.
“Little fairy, what’s your name?”