"Brother Arden, you have to help me!"
Halfway through strolling the bird, Ju Fufu suddenly hugged Arden's arm and started acting coquettish.
"Uh… what's wrong?"
Arden found it a bit strange. Although Ju Fufu acting cute was normal, she would never do it for no reason—especially out on a public street like this.
"Brother Arden, have you ever heard the saying 'one mountain cannot house two tigers'?"
Ju Fufu pulled Arden into a narrow alley, leaned close to his ear, and spoke in a mysterious whisper.
"How could I not know?"
Arden felt even more puzzled. He reached out and tapped Ju Fufu on the forehead. "Did you forget? Aren't all the idioms you know taught by me?"
Back when the two of them depended on each other to survive, they had to complete commissions every day just to scrape by and pay rent. There was neither time nor spare money for school.
Arden didn't have much of a problem—after all, he had been a college student before transmigrating—but Ju Fufu was another story. Not wanting her to grow up illiterate, Arden personally took on the role of teacher.
[AN:Yunkui Summit also has cultural classes. Ju Fufu often fails subjects she's bad at—like math—so Arden and Yixuan Shifu have to tutor her every now and then.]
"Aiya, that's not what I mean."
"Then what do you mean?"
"As a Tiger Thiren, I've always worried about something like this happening… um, in my dreams!"
Ju Fufu explained. "And now, that kind of crisis has finally happened to me."
"Oh?"
Arden immediately understood what she was getting at. "You're saying there's another Tiger Thiren here?"
"Mm… there isn't another Tiger Thiren."
Ju Fufu shook her head, then nodded again. "But I discovered that the feline animals of Failume Heights seem to be ruled by a new 'king.'"
Before joining Yunkui Summit, Ju Fufu had been the 'king' of all feline animals across the entire Waifei Peninsula, including Failume Heights. However, after entering Yunkui Summit, her time spent in Failume Heights greatly decreased, and things naturally changed.
"A new king… of feline animals?"
Obviously, this wasn't a big deal, but Arden was still interested. He wanted to see what kind of existence could replace Ju Fufu as the new king.
Could it be a Lion Thiren? A Leopard Thiren? Or maybe… a mythical creature?
With ghosts and succubi already exists in New Eridu, a 'Phantasmal Thiren' wouldn't be all that surprising.
"Mm… it's a bit complicated to explain. Why don't you see it with your own eyes? I'll take you there."
"Alright."
...
Failume Heights.
Ju Fufu and Arden hid at the corner of the street, quietly observing.
"Shh~~ Brother Arden, look!"
Ju Fufu raised one hand to her lips in a silencing gesture, while pointing across the street at a small platform.
"…."
Arden looked over and saw a proud, imposing tabby cat issuing commands to her 'subjects.'
"Meow—!!"
The subjects below responded respectfully.
"Meow meow~!"
"Mew…"
"Woof woof! Wuu—woof woof!"
"…."
A tabby cat as king is one thing, but why is there a dog among the 'subjects'?
Arden complained mercilessly in his heart.
"Ju Fufu, when you were king before, did you have dogs among your subjects too?"
"Seems like… not?"
It was clear that Ju Fufu hadn't taken her role as 'king' very seriously back then. "Brother Arden, don't underestimate tabby cats… look how fat she is. Her food must be really good… slurp—!"
Ju Fufu swallowed reflexively, then realized she had exposed herself.
"Ahem! Even though tabby cats aren't tigers, and I'm not a tabby cat, we're still all felines!"
Ju Fufu unhesitatingly grouped herself into the same category as the tabby cat.
While that wasn't technically wrong—humans, Thirens, tigers, and cats were all animals—Arden still found it oddly unsettling to hear.
"Based on my observations over the past few days, and the intel I got from Sister Sweety…"
Hey! Observing for several days is one thing, but don't increase Sweety's workload.
Between managing Yum Cha Sin, handling residents' commissions, and running Suibian Film & Media, Sweety was already extremely busy.
Arden forcibly suppressed his urge to complain and continued listening.
"…all the feline animals in Failume Heights seem to obey her orders. She's a very terrifying opponent!"
Ju Fufu wore the expression of someone who had finally met a worthy rival—and it didn't look fake at all.
"Uh… I think it's not just felines."
Arden counted. Among the tabby cat king's subjects were a Siamese cat, a tuxedo cat, a shorthair cat, and a Shiba Inu.
"Hmph! Doesn't that just prove how powerful she is?!"
"Ah~~ yes, yes, absolutely."
Arden went along with Ju Fufu's reasoning.
"Speaking of which, as the senior sister of Yunkui Summit and a tiger—the king of all beasts—I absolutely cannot tolerate another feline usurping my throne!"
As she spoke, Ju Fufu puffed out her completely flat chest. "After all, one mountain cannot house two 'tigers.' Brother Arden, that's exactly why I came to ask for your help."
"Alright then."
Arden indulgently rubbed Ju Fufu's tiger head. As long as Ju Fufu didn't go too far, he would always stand on her side. "So, how exactly am I supposed to help you reclaim that… that feline king's position?"
"Brother Arden need not worry! I've already devised a detailed and meticulous plan to usurp—no, to reclaim—the throne of kingship!"
Ju Fufu declared confidently. "The momentum of a king comes down to nothing more than power, popular support, and authority!"
Naturally, all of these concepts had also been learned from Arden.
"Power goes without saying. As the senior sister of Yunkui Summit, the king of Waifei Peninsula's feline animals, and with Brother Arden—the number one fierce general of the era—by my side, we can be said to hold power over the world!"
"Uh… number one fierce general of the era?"
Arden pointed at himself.
"Is there a problem?"
"N-No… no problem. If you say so, then so be it."
Arden gave up resisting. He didn't share a surname with Lü Bu, nor did he acknowledge any godfather—if she wanted to call him the number one fierce general, then so be it.
"Excellent!"
Ju Fufu nodded in satisfaction. "Next, we seize the hearts of the people!"
"The hearts of the people? Or… the hearts of cats?"
"Exactly! The Art of War says: 'The highest form of warfare is to attack strategy, next to attack alliances, and the lowest is to attack cities!'"
These were also teachings from Arden, now applied with flexible creativity. "The path of kingship is the same as military strategy—winning hearts comes first!"
Hearing this, Arden nodded with heartfelt relief. His years of painstaking teaching hadn't been wasted.
Even if it wasn't used in quite the right place, it was still being used.
"Once they disperse, we'll defeat them one by one…"
"Alright!"
===BREAK===
Like the story and want more chapters?
Join and support me by joining my Patreon!
[email protected]/SiRoasa