Chapter 57: Five Billion
When w.a.n.g Hu noticed Silly Girl walking back coldly and continuing to ignore him without even looking at him once, he remained unaffected.
He had already gotten used to it. He knew that this was Silly Girl’s outwardly stuck-up nature that made her sensitive and stubbornly proud. While it seemed like she was distancing herself from him and loathed him, in truth, she had developed deeper feelings for him.
It was just that those feelings still weren’t romantic.
He went off to take a bath on his own after that. Everything was as per usual.
In the afternoon, he suddenly received a call from Li Tong.
w.a.n.g Hu became serious at once. After a wait of three days, the call had finally come.
Soon, they changed to communicating via text messages instead. The reason for this was very simple: while w.a.n.g Hu understood what the other party was saying and was also fluent in Mandarin, he couldn’t speak it. Communicating via telepathy didn’t work over the phone.
Li Tong said: “Your Excellency, may I know if you have some spare time during the next two days? I, as well as one of the Chinese leaders, would like to pay you a visit to thank you for your kindness in rendering us a.s.sistance that day.”
When w.a.n.g Hu saw how he had used a more respectful version of the word ‘you’, as well as the mention of the Chinese leader, his obscure sense of worry disappeared by a large half.
From the looks of things, China’s national leaders indeed weren’t that foolish.
“Alright. You can come over tomorrow morning.”
Li Tong replied: “Sure. We’ll call you at 9 a.m. sharp tomorrow morning. Sorry to disturb Your Excellency and family.”
w.a.n.g Hu didn’t reply any further. He switched the cell phone screen back to the cartoons for the two little fellows and sank into silent contemplation.
Beside him, Di Baijun—who was ignoring the jerk next to her—was also deep in musing.
Roar~!
“What do you think, Baijun?”
w.a.n.g Hu seized the opportunity and asked.
Di Baijun glared at him but still replied nevertheless. After all, this concerned them all.
Roar~!
“So be it if the Chinese humans want to come over. We still need them to thoroughly explore that alternate world anyway.”
w.a.n.g Hu nodded. Although Silly Girl had a flawed personality—hot-tempered, rash, petty, fussy, took things too seriously, and was—emotion-wise—a blank slate possibly due to lack of experience; she wasn’t stupid.
She had already realized one of the two most important problems—that alternate world was a threat. It was too near where they were, making the place very unsafe for them.
Yet to give up the place—unless he was really left with no other choice, even he was absolutely unwilling to, let alone Silly Girl.
Thus, they could only leave the matter of scouting and defending against that alternate world to the Chinese humans.
Suddenly, Di Baijun spoke coldly and aloofly again.
Roar~!
“Also, don’t think that you don’t need to keep your guard up against the Chinese humans just because you’ve helped them. Absolute trust doesn’t exist between different species, no matter which.”
w.a.n.g Hu couldn’t help but smile inwardly. She had also realized the other important problem. As expected, Silly Girl—who had occupied a distinguished position in the past—was no fool or bimbo indeed.
As for having a sweet[1] disposition, they would just have to forget about it. There was no way one could say that that temper of hers was sweet.
It would do as long as she wasn’t a foolish bimbo. At the end of it, she did understand these fundamental principles.
At the same time, he was also relieved that he had been pretty lucky.
Fortunately, he had met Silly Girl before she’d regained her human intelligence and that Big Treasure and Little Treasure had been born before that.
It was also fortunate that Silly Girl had, from the beginning, merely regarded him as a mortal tiger that had gained human intelligence but didn’t know much due to being socially inexperienced. That was the only reason why he had managed to get away with acting stupid and pretending to be naive.
Thanks to these various reasons, it had given him the opportunity to form closer and closer ties with Silly Girl one step at a time. By now, even when Silly Girl occasionally did probably see through his act of acting stupid and naive, she chose to overlook it instead.
Luck was simply too amazing a thing.
As he thought about it, he also replied to Di Baijun.
Roar~!
“You’re right, Baijun. I definitely won’t let down my guard.”
Di Baijun said no more and walked off after giving him another icy snort.
Evidently, she hadn’t forgotten the morning’s events yet.
The next day at 9 a.m. sharp…
A series of booms from an aerial vehicle shattered the silence of the area.
w.a.n.g Hu paused his cultivation and looked up toward the source of the sounds while Di Baijun brought Big Treasure and Little Treasure with her and went into the cave.
A few minutes later, the helicopter landed, and two men—Li Tong and an elderly man—disembarked from it.
From the looks of it, he was probably one of the Chinese national leaders.
When they made eye contact, Li Aimin—one of the cabinet deputy leaders and current Multi-Species Department Deputy Chief—gave w.a.n.g Hu a warm and friendly smile. Then, he stepped forward and walked over to w.a.n.g Hu.
His behavior satisfied w.a.n.g Hu—the other party was showing their sincerity after all. He glanced at the precipitous mountain path, and after a moment’s thought, he leaped forward a few times and came to a spot about 100 meters away from the pair.
“Your Excellency, I’ve heard so much about you, but it’s only upon meeting you today that I’ve come to realize that knowing a man by repute cannot compare to meeting them in person. Li Aimin apologizes for intruding upon you,” said Li Aimin with an amicable smile.
w.a.n.g Hu spoke straightforwardly in a relatively cold and distant manner.
Roar~!
“Chinese human, tell me your intentions for coming here. I don’t wish for you to disturb us if there’s no need to.”
Neither Li Aimin nor Li Tong took his seemingly unfriendly words to heart. This was a very normal reaction to them; they had expected just as much before coming here.
Li Aimin’s expression turned a little more serious, and he bowed and said, “We have no intentions of disturbing you. Our purpose in coming here today is mainly to express our grat.i.tude to Your Excellency, the Tiger King, for your kindness in taking action that day. On behalf of China, Li Aimin hereby thanks Your Excellency.”
Beside him, Li Tong also followed suit and bowed.
w.a.n.g Hu accepted the salute without any change in his expression. No matter what, he ultimately wasn’t human anymore so it was entirely fine for him to accept the salute.
However, he should still adopt his character setting as a tiger nonetheless.
Roar~!
“I just didn’t like that monster, that’s all.”
This character setting as a tiger—somewhat cold and haughty, reluctant to interact too much with humans, and only concerned about his family—was the att.i.tude that w.a.n.g Hu had decided to adopt when dealing with humans.
To be honest, this was also more or less his actual thoughts.
While it seemed like such an att.i.tude would cause the humans to see him as a difficult person to deal with, this was actually what the norm should be. Being normal was what his true character setting as a tiger was.
As expected, Li Aimin wasn’t surprised, and he shook his head and said sincerely, “No matter what, we should still express our thanks.”
Upon noticing w.a.n.g Hu’s silence, the amicable smile returned to his countenance, and he said, “Your Excellency, may I know if there’s anything you need? Feel free to let us know.”
w.a.n.g Hu mused for a moment before he replied.
Roar~!
“What is that alternate world like? How many of those ugly monsters are there?”
As expected, Li Aimin thought to himself, the Tiger King is also very concerned about that alternate world.
His expression sobered up, and he replied, “Your Excellency, we’ve also been trying to think of ways to scout out the alternate world during the last three days. However, we haven’t had much success. We could only force some information out of the monster that Your Excellency defeated.”
He paused for a moment at this point. w.a.n.g Hu listened to him seriously. That day, he had ruthlessly vented his frustrations and stabbed so many b.l.o.o.d.y holes into that ugly monster that he couldn’t keep count anymore.
However, he hadn’t given it the finis.h.i.+ng blow that would really take its life because he was considering the possibility of obtaining information about the alternate world from it.
This was something that China had to be the one to do, of course. Besides, given the extent of that monster’s injuries at that time, it could only hold on for a short while at the most by its own strength. He had no way of extending it. China was the only one that could do it.
True enough, China didn’t disappoint.
Li Aimin went on and said, “In that alternate world, that monster’s species call themselves the Huis[2], and they mostly live by themselves. That’s why there wasn’t a large-scale invasion on China by the Huis that day.
“The Huis are very strong. The one that invaded us at that time can only be considered mid-grade in terms of strength. They have to reach the Third Realm to be considered high-grade. The Hui that failed to enter China that day was a Third Realm one.
“Aside from the Huis, there are also several other powerful species—no weaker than the Huis—in the alternate world. As for how strong they are specifically, the Hui that we interrogated wasn’t sure either.
“We’ll send all the detailed information to you later, Your Excellency.”
A musing w.a.n.g Hu nodded in agreement.
The alternate world indeed posed an extremely huge risk.
There was probably no lack of Third Realm cultivators there.
Li Aimin continued and said, “Your Excellency, we’ve already completely surrounded the entrance to the alternate world to prevent the Huis from invading China again. I ask for Your Excellency and family’s understanding if any sounds of battle break out.”
Roar~!
“Of course,” replied w.a.n.g Hu dispa.s.sionately.
After a moment of hesitation, Li Aimin said, “Your Excellency, according to China’s deductions, if the spiritual energy density level within China continues to increase normally like what it’s doing now, Third Realm experts will be able to enter China in four years at the most. This duration will only ever decrease but will never increase.
“Thus, we’re very likely going to have to face Third Realm Huis from the alternate world when that happens. When it does, it’ll be hard for us to predict the residual impact and range of the battles. Thus, I hope Your Excellency can make due preparations that it may spill over into this area.”
w.a.n.g Hu’s heart sank. He nodded and stayed silent.
Four years—no, it was four years at the maximum.
This wouldn’t do. He had to get a clear idea of how strong exactly a Third Realm expert was as soon as possible.
Roar~!
“Anything else?”
After making up his mind and getting an understanding of what he wanted to know, w.a.n.g Hu didn’t want to converse with the two humans anymore.
Li Aimin smiled at w.a.n.g Hu’s obvious intentions of showing them out the door. Not bothered in the least, he said, “Your Excellency, there are indeed two other matters. The first is that the Hui that you defeated is already dead. Do you need its carca.s.s? If so, we can process it and deliver it over.”
w.a.n.g Hu was completely unmoved. It was just food.
However, he really did want peak-level Transformation Realm food. Had he not needed China to interrogate it that day, he would already have directly taken it.
Roar~!
“Sure.”
Li Aimin nodded. They had already expected that the Tiger King would want it.
He said amicably, “Understood. We’ll deliver it straight here at this time tomorrow.
“The next thing is… perhaps Your Excellency doesn’t need it, but we, China, have prepared a small token of our appreciation nevertheless. We’ve topped up five billion Chinese yuan into the TreasurePay[3] account in the Tiger King’s cell phone.
“Your Excellency can use this money to buy some of China’s little trinkets online. The delivery address has been set to where the guards are stationed.
“Your Excellency can either choose to pick up the goods yourself or have them delivered it. Please accept our token of appreciation.”
w.a.n.g Hu was mildly taken aback. Five billion yuan?
Although he didn’t need any money now—neither did he see it as anything particularly important, he couldn’t help but think nevertheless…
…how awesome would it have been if I had five billion yuan in my past life?!
Roar~!
“Okay.”
He gave an aloof reply on the surface and didn’t say much.
Li Aimin, who understood, then smiled and said, “I won’t intrude upon Your Excellency and family anymore, then. Goodbye.”
w.a.n.g Hu nodded and watched as they left.
The helicopter disappeared very quickly. When w.a.n.g Hu returned to the mouth of the cave, Di Baijun also brought the two little fellows out.
After settling down the two little fellows, w.a.n.g Hu spoke to Silly Girl.
Roar~!
“You heard all that right, Baijun? What do you think?”
[1] The term is commonly used as a set that describes a girl as being naive, pretty, and sweet. The previous paragraph used only the characters for ‘naive’ and ‘pretty’—no fool or bimbo—and omitted the character for ‘sweet’.
[2] The name is likely inspired by the Yemaeks, an ancient ethnic group of Manchuria and Korea, and precursors of the Korean Goguryeo kingdom. The character used for the name comes from ‘Hui Mo’, the Chinese term for Yemaeks.
[3] This is a reference to Alipay, a Chinese e-wallet platform.