Chapter 2044 — Now This Is a Tragedy

"Ha, I knew you were a spineless thing!" Fan Ganhe's spirits soared the moment he saw how cowardly the lion was. His earlier remark had been nothing but a test, and he had not dared to stand too close while asking it. But now that he had discovered the lion truly had no fighting power at all, he was overjoyed.

"Mmmph..." Scolded, the Lion King could only give a faint, resentful hum to voice its displeasure.

"Haha, just as I thought! Zhang, come look at this lion—it's a regular jellyfish!" Fan Ganhe strode over and gave the mane on the lion's head a hard yank, pulling even the skin of its face up taut. And after such rough treatment, the lion still gave no reaction at all, only moaning and whining.

"Wei Zhao, you got yourself a lion with no bite at all—and you still dare boast of your courage?" Zhang Duopan was still smarting all over from being chased by the tigers. Now that he could push the lion around, he was hardly going to hold back; he jumped down from the vehicle at once.

"Wei Zhao, what kind of courage is this? If this counts as courage, then I'm a regular hero!" Fan Ganhe dealt the lion a smug punch.

And seeing that the lion did not resist in the least, Zhang Duopan went over and seized it by the ears. "Just as I thought—this lion really is tame. Meiyue, look how brave I am, daring to take on a lion!"

"You two idiots—it's Arrowbrand the lion's afraid of, all right? You really think it's afraid of you?" Shen Yushu rolled her eyes at Zhang Duopan and Fan Ganhe with open contempt.

"Ha? Who's going to believe that?" Fan Ganhe looked at Shen Yushu with naked mockery. "Do you take me for a fool, or Zhang for one? This lion, afraid of Wei Zhao?"

"Exactly—that's the funniest joke I've ever heard. You think a lion's a person, able to understand what you say? What an idiot!" Zhang Duopan was just as disbelieving.

"Fine. Since you won't believe it, Arrowbrand, let's get back in the car and leave these two to die here!" Shen Yushu shook her head and sighed.

"All right!" Wei Zhao nodded, and without another word he climbed back into the vehicle with Shen Yushu.

"How about that? Your lie falls apart on its own, doesn't it?" Fan Ganhe reached smugly for the lion's ears again—but the very next moment, he sensed something was wrong. The lion's eyes had suddenly turned sharp and fierce.

"ROAR!" The Lion King lunged and bit down on Fan Ganhe's arm, tearing straight through his sleeve and ripping a strip of skin from his wrist. What Shen Yushu had told it was this: while Wei Zhao was here, it was to behave itself; but when Wei Zhao was gone, it was free to teach Fan Ganhe and Zhang Duopan a lesson.

"Aaaah—" Fan Ganhe let out a wretched scream. He had never imagined the lion could change its face so suddenly, go from docile to biting in an instant, without the slightest warning.

But when Zhang Duopan saw Fan Ganhe bitten, he tried to flee—and it was already too late, for he was the lion's next target.

After biting Fan Ganhe, the lion turned straight on Zhang Duopan and sank its teeth into his backside, not only tearing his trousers but taking a chunk of flesh from his rump as well. The pain set him howling, tears springing to his eyes.

Yet the searing pain also cleared both their heads in an instant. Forgetting the agony, they scrambled frantically back into the vehicle, their faces dead white.

"Ai, I told you—it's Arrowbrand the lion's afraid of. You wouldn't believe me, you just had to go down and play the hero, and look how that turned out?" Shen Yushu said, wearing an expression of pure gloating.

"..." Everyone in the vehicle was speechless, yet no one could quite work out what was really going on. What Shen Yushu said did sound as though it had some sense to it—but that the lion should fear Wei Zhao and not Zhang Duopan or Fan Ganhe was a little too incredible to swallow.

Could a lion really tell who was the stronger? And besides, Wei Zhao had not even traded a single blow with the lion after getting out of the car—so on what grounds would the lion fear him? It made no sense at all.

"You... you played dirty!" Zhang Duopan's tears were nearly spilling from the pain, but he knew that if he wept now, He Meiyue would certainly look down on him. So he fought down the agony and accused them: "Did you do that on purpose?"

"On purpose? Are you brain-dead? I warned you plainly enough—it's Arrowbrand the lion's afraid of. If you didn't believe me, you were welcome to stand there and get yourselves killed. But you wouldn't believe me, so whose fault is that?" Shen Yushu said, all innocence.

"You..." Zhang Duopan wanted to say more, but on reflection, what Shen Yushu said was true enough—it really had been he and Fan Ganhe who refused to believe.

Yet the more carefully Zhang Duopan thought it over, the more something felt off. Why would the lion fear Wei Zhao? That hardly seemed possible. A lion was not a man—how could it fear a mere tourist? And it was not even scientific.

So Zhang Duopan's mind raced on. It was probably not that the lion feared Wei Zhao, but that Wei Zhao and Shen Yushu had somehow grasped its pattern of behavior. Yes—that had to be it!

Earlier, they had been provoking the lion all along. But since that lion was the Lion King, it surely had its limits. Perhaps it had simply not deigned to take their earlier provocations seriously, disdaining to stoop to the level of Wei Zhao and Shen Yushu.

And then, as everyone joined in tormenting and offending it, the lion had been provoked past a certain point. Even a Lion King could endure only so much—and at last it had exploded.

But before it exploded, Wei Zhao and Shen Yushu must have noticed something, and so they had gotten into the vehicle first, then deliberately said things like the lion being afraid of Wei Zhao. As a result, he and Fan Ganhe had failed to catch on in time and suffered for it!

That had to be it! Otherwise, why would the lion have taken only a single chunk of flesh from each of them? If it had wanted to kill them outright, that would have taken a matter of seconds—but the Lion King had not done so, which proved that it was a proud beast, with no wish to lower itself to quarrel with creatures as harmless as they were. Only when pushed to the limit had it bitten out to give them a good scare.

At this thought, Zhang Duopan felt he too had grasped the pattern. Unwilling to be the only one to suffer, he said to Wei Zhao and Shen Yushu: "Didn't you say the lion's afraid of Wei Zhao? I dare you—why don't you get out of the car now and try it?"

"And why should we get out? You tell us to get out and we get out? Getting in and out of the car is exhausting!" Shen Yushu said scornfully.

"Ha, you're scared now, aren't you? The lion's on the rampage now, and of course you're too scared to get out!" Fan Ganhe jeered. "Didn't you say Wang Xinyan likes brave men? Wei Zhao, if you dare get out of the car right now, then I'll admit you're a brave man!"