Chapter 37 part 1

Kong Bi had no idea the extent to which her actions had caused the big cat to misunderstand. The force with which she rubbed the big cat was definitely not light, but for a tiger, such force was no different from a tickle, and its comfort level was even slightly greater than being licked.

After venting the frustration in her heart, Kong Bi accepted the fact that her newly bought clothes were ruined. Fortunately, when she bought the clothes, she had specifically bought one of each color, so there were replacements, and she wasn’t too heartbroken.

She stroked the top of the big cat’s head and said, “Why are you so clingy?”

The big cat nudged Kong Bi’s palm and began to purr enthusiastically again.

“Okay, okay, I’ll go eat first, and come to see you later, okay?” Kong Bi moved tentatively towards the door.

“Roar?”

The big cat shook its tail. It seemed to have understood that Kong Bi didn’t intend to leave it when she went out, but might have gone out hunting?

Although the other party didn’t bring prey when she came back, maybe her hunting skills were not up to standard?

But she clearly brought a lot of food yesterday!

The big cat couldn’t understand the complex human society, but it was enough to know that Kong Bi would come back. Seeing that she seemed to be planning to go out, the big cat returned to the sleeping place and lay down, watching her with beautiful amber eyes.

Seeing this, Kong Bi finally walked out with peace of mind.

Although being clung to by a big cat was a very novel experience, if she had to stay with the big cat twenty-four hours a day, then forget it. Even a demon king needed personal space.

Coming out of the tiger enclosure, Kong Bi went straight into the cafeteria. Today’s breakfast was egg pancakes. Kong Bi felt the taste was a bit bland, and the pancakes were a bit burnt, perhaps because Aunt Jiang was a little absent-minded while making them.

“Director, it’s so good that you’re okay!”

“Sorry for making you worry. The big cat was too noisy last night and I didn’t sleep well, so I woke up a little late,” Kong Bi explained.

Everyone was speechless. Just how fearless^[1]虎” in Chinese has a double meaning here—it can mean “tiger” literally but also implies “reckless” or “bold” in slang. So I use the word … Continue reading do you have to be to sleep so soundly next to a tiger?  

Quan Xiangsong sat opposite Kong Bi, not planning to spend much time on this matter. He had already gotten used to the unreasonable things that happened to Kong Bi, and asked the question he was concerned about: “Xiao Kong, do you think this South China tiger has any health problems?”

“Judging from its mental state, there shouldn’t be any major problems. It’s probably a bit thin because it hasn’t been eating well outside. However, it’s best to do a prenatal check-up, and it probably only has a few days left before giving birth,” Kong Bi thought for a moment before replying.

The breeding season for tigers usually falls between November and February of the following year. The gestation period after successful conception is over a hundred days. Because food sources are relatively abundant in spring, this timing allows the tigress to hunt enough food while raising her cubs. Therefore, judging by the time, the big cat is clearly in the late stages of pregnancy.

Quan Xiangsong smiled wryly upon hearing this, “This is simply impossible.”

Everyone had witnessed the South China tiger’s attitude towards Kong Bi, so they also held a certain expectation of being able to approach it. After all, this indicated that it didn’t seem to be so wary of humans, which is why they sent Li Da this morning.

Among the crowd, women can make the other party feel that they are not threatening. However, the female security guards are not short and have just retired from the army, so they are not suitable. Although Wang Ling is a veterinarian, she is from the north, tall and big-boned; Jiang Xiuli is even worse. Few chefs are thin. After all, if their arms are not thick, they can’t even shake the spoon steadily.

So, after much deliberation, they finally chose Li Da.

Li Da wasn’t tall, and was thin and short. Height wasn’t a strong suit in his family, and as a child, he was a picky eater with poor nutrition, which resulted in him not growing much after puberty. Even in the south, he was considered quite short. Coupled with the boldness of youth, he simply volunteered before the professors even considered going themselves.

After all, if Kong Bi had really had an accident at that time, it wouldn’t have made much difference whether he or someone else went.

At that time, Li Da chose to approach in a semi-crouched position to avoid his height putting pressure on the tiger, and he also avoided direct eye contact, relying entirely on the camera to see his way. Despite this, the South China tiger didn’t even cautiously observe him first, but directly roared to deter Li Da. If it hadn’t been for the iron gate, it might have even charged over and attacked him directly.

Pregnant female tigers have bad tempers, especially when they are about to give birth. They simply cannot slowly cultivate trust between the two sides to examine each other.

Unless anesthesia.

Seeing this, Kong Bi was also helpless. She didn’t agree with anesthesia. After all, the two tiger cubs inside the big cat were maintaining a fragile balance. Anesthesia could very likely provoke the little demon tigers’ instinctive resistance, breaking the current precarious balance. As for her leading the big cat for an examination, even if she dared to, others wouldn’t feel at ease!

Someone had a flash of inspiration: “Why don’t we give the equipment to Director Kong and direct her to do it?”

“Huh?” Kong Bi was taken aback. “I don’t know how!”

In Kong Bi’s eyes, using those sophisticated instruments was something an outsider like her couldn’t possibly participate in. After all, if it were that simple, what would be the point of having professionals?

“Not appropriate,” Quan Xiangsong immediately said, “Who knows if the South China tiger will have a stress reaction then? Wouldn’t that be pushing Xiao Kong into a fire pit?”

To do B-ultrasound on animals, hair must be shaved, and blood draws also require hair shaving. This operation is risky even on pet cats and dogs, not to mention on a tiger.

They can’t ignore the potential risks just because the tiger is currently docile to Kong Bi.

Although Kong Bi herself didn’t seem to care about these risks…

Generally speaking, the larger the creature, the more stable its temperament tends to be, while the smaller it is, the less stable it will be. This is very evident between large and small dogs, and this rule roughly applies to tigers as well. The smaller Sumatran tiger is almost the most temperamental, and among tigers, the South China tiger is only a medium-sized tiger, so its temper is really not good.

The person who made the suggestion immediately smiled awkwardly, and so everyone tacitly rejected the proposal. After much discussion, they finally decided to wait and see. If any real risks arose on the day the South China tiger gave birth, it wouldn’t be too late to directly anesthetize it and help.

After all, it’s generally rare for tigers to encounter complications like difficult labor in the wild. Nature works in fascinating ways—if food sources nearby are scarce, a tigress may give birth to only one or two cubs per litter, whereas in more abundant conditions, she might have three or four. Moreover, difficult labor is seldom an issue for tigers. As solitary apex predators, if childbirth complications—which could endanger both mother and cubs—were common, it would contradict their solitary survival strategy.  

Thus, under normal circumstances, the survival of cubs does not significantly impact the mother. Either the embryos fail early in development, allowing the tigress to resume estrus and conceive again without issue, or the cubs die shortly after birth—the only form of “repayment” they can offer their mother.  

It was also based on this prerequisite that everyone was not urgently demanding a physical examination for the South China tiger.

What makes them even more excited is that the appearance of a pregnant female tiger shows that they are not extinct in the wild, but have not been discovered by people.

Although there were still many mysteries they couldn’t solve for the time being.

Tigers have a very large range, at least twenty-odd square kilometers. Covering such a large area is necessary to ensure a single tiger’s food supply. Considering the situation in the Shiwan Mountains, it was truly bizarre that no trace of the South China tiger had been captured even once across such a vast area. Furthermore, tigers’ primary food source in the wild is ungulates. Although the ecological environment of the Shiwan Mountains National Nature Reserve was being diligently maintained, the ungulate population was clearly insufficient to feed the tigers.

Could it be that they had stopped relying on ungulates as their primary food source and expanded their diet in order to survive?

At this time, the image of rabbits could not help but appear in everyone’s mind.

“Could it be that they choose hares as their staple food?”

“Rabbits reproduce quickly, and if there are a lot of them, they may be able to barely supply them.”

“But rabbits are difficult to hunt, and they are small in size. It is not cost-effective for the South China tiger to spend half a day to catch one, right?”

“It couldn’t possibly be wild boars, could it? The number of wild boars in the Shiwan Mountains has always been low, and they haven’t come down the mountains for over a decade.”

“Maybe they’ve been eaten down to this few?”

“I feel like rabbits are more likely. After all, they’re the ones that can ‘cover the grasslands in three years’.”

“Shouldn’t we apply to release some ungulates into the Shiwan Mountains?”

The thought that there might still be one or two, or even more, South China tigers in the Shiwan Mountains immediately ignited everyone’s enthusiasm. To prevent them from going extinct due to lack of food, directly releasing food into the area was deemed necessary, even if these animals that have not undergone wild training may only survive one in ten in the wild.

However, the biggest advantage of herbivores is that food is easy to obtain. Although they may die due to lack of vigilance, as long as they are placed in the right place, they can quickly reunite with the tribe and have a relatively high chance of survival.

The most important thing is that they can relieve tigers’ food anxiety.

Who would be willing to eat rabbits when they can hunt wild deer, bison or wild boar?

Someone suddenly came up with a bold idea: “Could it be that the green peacocks chose to migrate because their territory was threatened by the South China tiger?”

This brain-opening speculation made everyone stunned.

In fact, everyone has always been very confused about why the green peacocks chose to leave. After all, the green peacocks in Shiwan mountains are not as threatened as their neighbors in Caiyun Province, and their territory is closer to humans.

The developed area of the Shiwan Mountains has been limited since ancient times, and the green peacocks do not live outside the Shiwan Mountains. Logically speaking, the livable environment and stable food source are enough for them to reproduce from generation to generation without moving. There is no reason to run to the Shiwan Mountains, where there is not as much food as inside.

Now that this speculation came out, they suddenly felt that they seemed to have found the truth, which was much more credible than other statements.

Kong Bi blinked. If she didn’t know the truth, she would have believed this “reasonable” speculation.