Chapter 22: Bringing a Tiger to Find the Heroine

The two of them went back and forth, and before they knew it, they had exchanged another dozen barbs. In the end, it was Zhang Huilan who came off worse. She had forgotten exactly what she wanted to say, and at the back of the line, Great-Aunt Xiao saw another opportunity to infiltrate the ranks of the eldest branch of the family.

"What is going on with you, sister-in-law?"
"I have my own reasons!"
"I will have people keep a closer eye on Fubao from now on."
"Then I shall trouble you with that."

Having dealt with each other for over twenty years, they understood one another perfectly. A brief conversation was enough to convey the gravity of the situation. Xiao stepped aside to wait for her own kin, and then, the message was passed from one household to the next. By the time they reached the wooden shacks on the hillside, Bai Mianmian had become the primary focus of the entire wood-cutting brigade. They had shifted their efforts from watching Zhang Huilan to keeping a close watch on her—a crystallization of the collective wisdom of the group. After all, one can guard against a thief for a thousand days, but one cannot guard against a thief for a thousand days without vigilance.

"Where are you going?" asked the boy who had been helping her, as Bai Mianmian picked up her wood-cutting knife and began to climb toward an empty slope.
"To pee," she said quite unceremoniously.

The boy, who had been following close behind, immediately stepped back. He was Zhang Xing, Zhang Huilan’s cousin and the second son of the eldest branch, a year older than Huilan. Xiao had spoken to him privately earlier, and the lad was clever enough to know how to keep a close eye on someone without drawing too much attention.

"Give me the knife; I’ll keep cutting," he said.

Bai Mianmian paused for two seconds before tossing the blade over. In this world, not only were cotton and spices expensive, but iron was, too. For farming folk, their tools were their lifeblood. With so many people in the Zhang family, and even though they were relatively well-off, they only had two wood-cutting knives. The others used sickles and merely helped with trimming branches and other minor tasks.

'Tell me, system, will the heroine run into a silly roe deer today?'

Having taken care of her personal needs, she stood on the slope and looked toward the area where the sounds of activity were concentrated. In the novel, during this wood-cutting excursion, the heroine luckily stumbled upon a foolish roe deer. The creature was truly dim-witted; hearing the commotion, it had curiously wandered over to have a look, only to be startled by the heroine as she stood up from relieving herself. It had turned, bolted, and slammed straight into a tree trunk, ending itself right there. The only reason she hadn't been hounding the heroine was to see if she could still get a taste of that meat. The heroine's family was generous; they hadn't sold the venison but had instead shared it with the families who had been wood-cutting that day.

'The system cannot access post-alteration plotlines,' the system replied, seemingly in a good mood.

Bai Mianmian hadn't expected a useful answer; the system was mostly useless, and anything it said was a waste of breath. She stood quietly for a moment, then walked deeper into the forest. A bundle of firewood was worth about a hundred catties, fetching only eight or nine copper coins. She didn't have the leisure time to chop wood. She had come along solely for the chance to provoke the heroine further and for the sake of physical exercise. The original body was severely neglected, and all the various ailments in the latter half of the novel stemmed from the hardships and exhaustion of her childhood.

"Hah!"

She reached the mountainside in one breath, but instead of stopping to catch her breath, she chose a slightly gentler incline and continued upward. Having experienced how all things naturally parted ways for her, Bai Mianmian was caught off guard. When she looked up and found herself face-to-face with a pair of oily yellow eyes, she didn't even react at first, taking a few more steps before her feet finally froze.

'System.'
She didn't run; instead, she called out to the system the moment she regained her composure.
'The host would be best advised to be careful,' the system warned.
Bai Mianmian was stunned: 'What do you mean?'
'This was not arranged by the system.'
'...'

If it wasn't arranged by the system but still appeared before her, there was only one answer: the Heavenly Dao was interfering. Would the Heavenly Dao, which governed this world, ever let a villainous female lead have an easy time? Even with her big toe, she knew that was impossible. She glanced to the left while turning to the right. In that instant, Bai Mianmian synchronized with the tiger. The tiger, however, was tricked into lunging left while she sprinted right. A burst of explosive speed allowed her to put a little distance between herself and the tiger.

'Does the host not wish to sell a tiger pelt?' the system asked, surprised.
Bai Mianmian sneered, 'I’m not drunk.'

She had nothing in her hands and her body was weak and limp. Engaging in a tooth-and-nail fight would cost her at least half her health bar! She wasn't that stupid. One part of her didn't want to take the risk, and the other part wanted to see exactly how much the heroine—the darling daughter of the Heavenly Dao—would be favored by her "father."

She sprinted toward the logging area like a bolt of lightning. It was a true dash; for any difficult, steep slopes, she used leaping strides. The tiger, rolling and tumbling, couldn't keep up.

"Tiger! There's a tiger!" she shouted at the top of her lungs as she neared the others.

Many heard her, but recognizing her voice, they simply buried their heads and continued working. When the figure of a girl and a tiger appeared, the Zhang family fell into utter chaos.

"A tiger!"
"There's a tiger!"
"Ah! The tiger is here!"

Some were paralyzed with fear, others shrieked until their voices cracked, and some simply fled. In those few seconds, the full spectrum of human nature was on display. The tiger, seeing so many people at the bottom of the slope, was also bewildered, yet it stubbornly continued to chase after Bai Mianmian.

"Where is Fubao?" she asked.

Zhang Yuan, who was clutching his wood-cutting knife, instinctively looked toward his niece. When the girl and the tiger blurred past, his expression changed drastically, and he gave chase. Zhang Huilan, who had been hiding behind some bushes taking care of her own needs, heard the panicked screams about a tiger and curled her lip in disdain. But then, hearing the cries of her mother and grandmother mixed in, she panicked. As she heard the rustling of grass, she hastily pulled up her trousers.

"Roar!"
Zhang Huilan: "!!!"

The little chubby girl was stunned. Her heart went from pounding violently to a sudden, strange calm. She had actually startled the tiger into a shiver. Even more incredible, the beast turned and leaped, landing on a broken tree. Its neck collided with a branch, and it had effectively hung itself!

Zhang Yuan, who had been hot on the tiger's tail, witnessed this ridiculous scene. He didn't laugh, however, but instead charged forward, hacking down with his wood-cutting knife. Zhang Qiang and Zhang Chao, who were following him, joined in immediately.

"Hah!"

Using the momentum to pull herself around a small tree, Bai Mianmian watched the Zhang brothers work together to finish off the tiger, then used the remaining force to pull herself up. She approached slowly. The saying "to compare oneself to others is to court frustration" had never been so vivid. She, the villainous female lead, had been chased until she was a disheveled mess, while the heroine could simply stand up and scare a tiger into hanging itself. As she looked at the tiny, steep, jagged slope that seemed to exist only so the tiger could meet a convenient end, her feelings were complex. It was truly precise to the point that even a fraction of an inch would have changed the outcome!

"That's enough, you'll drain all the blood if you keep hacking," she said.

The Zhang brothers were blinded by their fervor, and her words had no effect.

*Thwack.*

A clod of dirt the size of a fist hit Zhang Yuan on the back. He whirled around, clutching his knife, looking as if he were ready to fight a shadow.

"It's already dead."
Zhang Yuan: "..."
"If you keep hacking, it won't be worth anything," Bai Mianmian said, keeping her patience.

She was thirsty, and every word felt like a knife scraping her throat. "Please, bring me some water."

Zhang Yuan was speechless. Was this really the time to be demanding service? No, the real question was how she had the gall to ask him for water, especially after she had tried to harm his precious niece without a moment’s hesitation.

"What exactly does my Fubao owe you that makes you hate her so much? Do you have any idea? If that branch hadn't happened to be there, my Fubao would have met a terrible fate!"

Bai Mianmian propped up her head.