Back when Li Jun first woke up, he found himself floating in the lake's water, completely naked, but every scar he ever had had disappeared, and for someone who got beat up more often than not as a child, it's safe to say that the considerable number of scars he accumulated over the years had painted most of his body, so for them to disappear so suddenly left him dumbstruck. What's more chocking is that not even a trace of his recent gruesome injury was left. He even suspected that it wasn't his own body he was looking at and spent a good hour staring at his reflection on the water's surface to confirm that it was indeed him; his skin became as clear and as smooth as a baby's buttock and a beautiful healthy rosiness tinted his cheeks. Li Jun was baffled at how nice his skin felt and how beautiful he looked.
Pushing aside his confused and disoriented thoughts, he trailed out of the lake and started looking around in all of his naked glory. he was surrounded with nothing but trees with never-seen-before fruits, weird shaped herbs and flowers in vibrant colors swaying gently in the refreshing...breeze? But...there's no breeze! OH MY GOD, they're moving on their own!
Scared shitless of this ghost forest, Li Jun started running in hopes of finding a road or a town somewhere, basically anywhere that doesn't have haunted flowers dancing like some intoxicated drunkards!
Not long after, a nauseating stench seeped to his nose and seemed to get worse the with each step, until he came across a very gory scene; two copses, a huge one and a comparatively small one, motionlessly lying on the ground covered in dried up blood that seemed to even splatter the surroundings creating a very eerie atmosphere, as if the whole scene came out of a horror film. Li Jun stood still unable to shake off the fear that trickled down to his very core. It took a long time for his shaking to subside and after making sure that everything seemed to be still and no dangers lurked around, he moved forward to take a closer look.
The first huge corpse, to the utter shock of Li Jun turned out to be a gigantic white tiger! It even had wings!
Out of fear, he wisely chose not to get too close to the unscientific thing, and moved to take a look at the other corpse which to his relief turned out to be a human. The relief is naturally for finally confirming that he wasn't completely alone in this place. Although this person died, there must be other people around right? But the attire is a bit...unusual?
The man was wearing traditional robes, he looked precisely like an old scholar, and even though the corpse was already decomposing, Li Jun could tell that he looked to be around his fifties.
At the time Li Jun, suspected that went back in time.
Resisting the urge to vomit, the youth steeled his heart and started searching the corpse for money or any valuables, he of all people knows that survival is the most important thing and doesn't mind steeping as low as to take a dead man's belongings to ensure his own, someone else might take them even if he didn't anyway.
To his disappointment though, all he found was an antique green jade ring on his index finger which of course he took for himself in hopes to sell it or trade it for food and clothes. He even seriously considered stripping the man out of his garments and washing the blood off of it in the lake but decide it against it out of respect to the dead. He could just weave a grass skirt later.
Li Jun wanted to give the man a proper burial but had no shovel to dig the ground and couldn't just do it with his own hands. For now, he decided to move the corpse and hide it somewhere so that it won't get eaten by any other weird animals this place might have.
Just as he was reaching for the legs to start dragging the dead man away, he heard some shuffling followed by muffled, barely audible moan. His hands stilled and started shaking in fear, his breath hitched and body trembled at the thought of the big tiger being alive. He slowly turned around, warily eying the beast, ready to turn on his heals at the slightest movement. After what felt like ages, and nothing happened he slowly started walking towards it to have a better look. The tiger wasn't breathing. It was dead. But if you paid attention you can notice its wing that was spread over its side slightly moving, up and down, as if it's breathing on its own.
At close proximity, Li Jun could tell that a living, breathing little thing was underneath the huge wing and could fairly guess what it is. He cautiously lifted the heavy wing, and there lies a limply, shallowly breathing, on the brink of death little white tiger cub. He looked incredibly emaciated and his pitiful weak state was heartbreaking. Without a second thought, Li Jun picked it up as gently as he could and ran straight back to the lake, scooped a mouthful of water and tried his best to pour it down the little cub's throat. Unfortunately, it kept spilling everywhere and the small tiger was too weak to fully open his mouth and drink properly.
Li Jun stood up, hastily looked around for a while until he spotted a tall plant with humongous leaves. He picked up one of the leaves, rolled it into a cone, ran back to the lake and filled it with water then carefully put the apex into the cub's mouth. He slightly relaxed his grip on the leave to allow a small opening in the apex where the water could easily flow out of, straight into the tiger's mouth. The make-do baby bottle worked well, after two more feedings, the tiger opened his eyes and it looked as if his vitality was restored. Li Jun was surprised at the results, for some water to rejuvenate someone who was just minutes ago at death's door is truly unbelievable.
The lake's miraculous healing effect, the swaying herbs, the winged tiger; he'd be a fool not to notice that this place is very peculiar, very special.
He now started to seriously entertain the idea of his transmigration to a magical world, well, magical forest for now, but he hopes there's more to this place than freaky plants and huge winged beasts.
The little fur ball in his hands looked at him with wide, unblinking sapphire eyes filled with curiosity. Li Jun felt his heart melt into a puddle at the cute tiger in his arms.
"It's been hard on you" said the youth in gentle voice, heart still aching at the thought of the cub witnessing his mother's death, and almost losing his life out of hunger. It looks like it hadn't been born long ago, and was stuck under the big tigress' huge wing. Feeling relieve that the tiger seemed well at last, he stood up and went to start figuring out where the heck did he land into.
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The whole scene of meeting Bai Hu for the first time lingered in Li Jun's memory vividly, and while lying on his bed next to the tiger, he reached over to caress its soft fur feeling warm and grateful to have it with him.
Bai Hu was his guardian angel, it helped him get over his grief over losing his grandfather. It kept him company during the darkest, loneliest moments of his life. Meeting Bai Hu was his only blessing coming to this strange world, and he is certain that if it weren't for it, he would've gone insane by now.
Tomorrow they'll be leaving this place at last.
As he closed his eyes and drifted to sleep, the supposedly asleep tiger opened his eyes, looked adoringly at him, shuffled closer and closed its eyes with a satisfied grin.
Li Jun doesn't know that he means to the tiger as much as it means to him.
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