Chapter 28: In Hot Pursuit

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Nian Tu’s entire body stiffened.

After gazing at each other for a long while, Lu Zhan did not ask her for compensation. Instead, he asked softly, “Where would you like to go?”

This retreating maneuver, advancing by yielding, was remarkably effective.

Nian Tu had originally planned to send Xiang off and then return home to lie around and rest. Somehow, she found herself nodding and agreeing to take a walk with Lu Zhan.

By the time she came to her senses, her hand was already clasped in Lu Zhan’s palm.

The largest garden plaza on Central Star lay outside the imperial palace. It had once been a royal garden, but was later opened to the public and greatly expanded. Flowers of every color favored by females bloomed there throughout the year, making it the sacred grounds of romance in the eyes of the beastfolk.

Females were difficult to please and even less likely to accept a male’s invitation to a date. Any beastfolk who came here for a stroll, whether or not they were in the throes of passionate love, were surely at the height of tender intimacy.

Lu Zhan had brought Nian Tu here with ulterior motives.

Since crossing into this world, Nian Tu had never before seen so many young couples.

She had originally felt too embarrassed to watch other people in love, but her eyes and ears kept being drawn toward all sorts of commotion.

Nearby, a female was loudly berating her partner because the sunlight was too harsh.

Elsewhere, another female had just slapped her partner simply because the drink was not to her liking.

Nian Tu was startled.

Though she had long known that this world revered females and looked down upon males, only now did she gain a truly clear understanding of it.

In her eyes, these people did not look like young couples out enjoying themselves. They looked more like princesses taking their slaves on an outing. The females were imperious and arrogant, while the males were obsequious and deferential.

Nian Tu secretly observed the others, unaware that they were observing her at the same time.

The lovely little female, with features as exquisite as a painting, obediently walked hand in hand with a male through the garden, drawing countless sidelong glances from passersby.

Whenever she encountered a plant species she had never seen on Earth, Nian Tu would stop and listen to Lu Zhan introduce it.

As they continued along, she became increasingly impressed by the breadth of Lu Zhan’s knowledge. He was not even a plant specialist, yet he knew so much. She gazed up at him with undisguised admiration.

Those around them could hardly believe that such a look could appear in a female’s eyes.

A female’s gaze was supposed to be contemptuous, disgusted, and condescending. At most, there might occasionally be a trace of tenderness, but it usually vanished in an instant.

Yet this little female wore a smile from beginning to end, and treated her male with such gentleness…

As the happiest male in the entire garden plaza—without exception—Lu Zhan was the object of frenzied envy among his fellow males.

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He kept his eyes straight ahead, yet the delight radiating from him was impossible to conceal.

Nian Tu breathed in the fresh air, her spirits lifting as well. She secretly resolved that she must come out for walks more often in the future.

She lowered her head to look at a cluster of fluffy pink-and-blue flowers. A breeze passed through, making their petals nod and tremble. Entranced, she crouched down, intending to use her communicator to take several photographs from different angles and preserve the moment.

Then, from the corner of her eye, she suddenly caught sight of a white shape in the bushes not far away.

Nian Tu turned sharply toward it.

The bushes there were a species unknown on Earth. They grew in a dense, lush expanse, tall and exceedingly vigorous.

There was no sign of anything white.

She rubbed her eyes and thought no more of it.

The garden plaza was so vast that even after wandering for some time, they had not covered a tenth of it, yet Nian Tu had already begun to feel tired.

Once she sat down on a bench, Nian Tu melted into a limp little salted fish. She was just about to close her eyes and doze for a moment when a large, scorching hand suddenly closed around her calf.

Her whole body shuddered. She instinctively pulled her leg away and abruptly sat upright, staring in shock at Lu Zhan, who was kneeling before her.

Lu Zhan looked perfectly composed. He spread his hands slightly, indicating that he had merely wanted to massage her and relax the stiff muscles in her lower leg.

Noticing her evasive reaction, Lu Zhan’s eyes dimmed faintly, but they soon returned to normal. His tone remained calm. “If you ever want to try it, you can come to me anytime.”

His technique was highly professional, not merely because he had studied medicine, but because he had recently learned massage especially for Nian Tu.

As a male, he was required to master countless ways of pleasing females. He had fallen behind in far too many areas before and was now hastily making up for lost ground.

In the bushes at the southwestern corner, a pair of predatory eyes watched them intently, unnoticed by either of them.

After resting for a few minutes, Lu Zhan took a small aircraft from his spatial device. Their date had come to an end, and they prepared to head home.

A gust of wind swept past. Several fallen leaves spiraled into the air. Nian Tu instinctively glanced over, and once again a white shape flashed across her field of vision.

This time, she saw it somewhat more clearly. It seemed to be an animal with white fur, though she could not tell what kind. Its movements were simply too fast, beyond the speed her eyes could capture.

Nian Tu blinked hard and looked around, but she could no longer find any trace of it.

Nian Tu: “…”

She tugged at Lu Zhan’s sleeve. “Did you see a small animal? A white one.”

Lu Zhan immediately raised his eyes and began searching.

Male beastfolk possessed exceptionally keen senses, and Lu Zhan was among the very best. His powers of observation surpassed Nian Tu’s by an unknown margin. Yet after a while, he shook his head. “No.”

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Perhaps it had been there before, but it had certainly left by now and was no longer anywhere near them.

There was also one exceedingly unlikely possibility: that the creature was more powerful than he was, powerful enough even to evade his senses.

Whether such an animal existed somewhere in the universe could not be determined with certainty. But there was certainly none on Central Star, nor anywhere in the empire. No animal was more powerful than an S-rank male.

Unless it was the beast form of an SS-rank male.

But there were only a handful of SS-rank beastfolk in the empire, every one of them a powerful figure occupying a position of great authority. How could one possibly appear here in beast form?

After hearing Lu Zhan say this, Nian Tu rubbed the space between her brows and decided that she had most likely imagined it.

She was hardly so confident as to believe her powers of observation surpassed Lu Zhan’s.

But she overlooked one possibility—

She was the only one who could see it because it had deliberately allowed itself to be seen by her.

After the two of them departed in the aircraft, the other visitors to the garden plaza also began leaving one after another.

It was nearly lunchtime. No male wanted to be an incompetent partner and allow his wife-lord to go hungry.

As the crowds dispersed, the bushes rustled. It seemed to be the wind, yet it also sounded as though something were lurking within.

A white tiger emerged soundlessly among the trees.

Even in daylight, its form was as elusive as a ghost, capable of making any pursuer dance upon its palm.

Its crystalline, ice-cold blue eyes remained fixed on the direction in which Nian Tu’s aircraft had departed.

The white tiger slowly stepped out.

Its massive body loomed like a towering mountain. The markings on its coat differed slightly from those of ordinary tigers, lending it an even more mysterious and commanding presence that complemented the distinct character on its forehead.

It lowered its head and repeatedly sniffed the bench where Nian Tu had lingered. Its predatory eyes narrowed. It raised one paw, hesitated, then lowered it again. Instead, it rubbed its head against the bench, leaving behind its own scent while gathering traces of the fragrance Nian Tu had left behind.

Before long, it locked onto her direction and made up its mind. Transforming into a hazy white blur, it sped after the departing aircraft.

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