Chapter 165: A Leader that Says Nice Things and Curries Favor
More than twenty minutes later, w.a.n.g Hu was hugging Big Treasure and Little Treasure and watching Cardcaptor Sakura with them in their room.
Even after having watched Cardcaptor Sakura for quite a few years, Little Treasure still only had eyes for this cartoon.
Even though Big Treasure wanted to watch other cartoons, he was nevertheless still willing to quiet down and watch Cardcaptor Sakura.
As w.a.n.g Hu watched, he also circulated gentle divine power through the two little fellows to nourish their bodies.
Not only was this beneficial to their bodies, but it also felt very comfortable.
Sweet, comfortable smiles even formed on the two little fellows’ faces despite their dissatisfaction with the trinkets that their father had taken out. They rested in their father’s arms, unwilling to even budge an inch.
After another few minutes, the two little fellows’ eyes still ended up becoming unfocused.
Big Treasure fell asleep, while Little Treasure also started to nod off. In spite of that, she continued to stubbornly watch Sakura battle a card[1].
Two minutes later, the card lost, and Sakura finally successfully sealed it.
An adorable smile also formed on Little Treasure’s face, and she mumbled, “Daddy, Sakura’s won.”
Then, her head dropped to the side, and she fell asleep.
w.a.n.g Hu looked at Little Treasure and then at Big Treasure. Then, the corners of his lips curled upward in a fairly smug manner.
These two rascals without a conscience. Do you think I can’t handle the two of you?
He carefully carried the two little fellows to the bed before placing them down. Then, he slowly reined in his divine power and switched off the large cell phone.
After that, he took a few steps back and transformed into golden light, instantly vanis.h.i.+ng from sight.
As though a flash of lightning, he raced into the neighboring room.
“Baijun, the two little fellows have fallen asleep.”
By the time his voice rang out, w.a.n.g Hu was already on the big and s.p.a.cious bed.
There, Di Baijun was sitting cross-legged and cultivating as though she hadn’t heard him at all.
Unaffected, w.a.n.g Hu smiled. With a wave, divine power enveloped the room and isolated all the sounds in the room from the outside.
Then, he let down the canopy at the top, leaned over to Silly Girl, and kissed her.
Di Baijun still didn’t react, except for the crimson flush surfacing at her delicate neck.
A few seconds later, Di Baijun couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Hey, don’t be so rough.”
…
A night of intimacy and tender pa.s.sion pa.s.sed.
The next day, a relaxed w.a.n.g Hu got out of bed and prepared for his upcoming meeting with Russia.
The first thing he did was summon Old Second and Jun Wen. He informed them of the part of the territory he wanted and also instructed them to calculate how many tigers it could house and to come up with all the relevant plans.
Around 10 o’clock, he received a call from Bay, the leader of Russia.
“Your Excellency, we’ve made all necessary preparations. We can begin honoring our agreements anytime.”
As though he was speaking with his closest friend, his voice was filled with pa.s.sion and sincerity and was seemingly devoid of any resentment from being ripped off or from how asking w.a.n.g Hu to help hadn’t been effective.
He sounded completely, sincerely, genuinely, and incredibly grateful.
Even though w.a.n.g Hu was aware of the truth, Bay was a grown-up after all. On top of that, he was even the leader of a big country.
Unless absolutely necessary, who would be willing to grovel and curry favor with anyone so subserviently?
Bay was naturally doing this to build a good relations.h.i.+p with him, so that he could ask w.a.n.g Hu for help again when they met with danger.
He certainly had ulterior motives, but when all the words that one said were pleasing to the ear, anyone would be willing to listen to them.
w.a.n.g Hu was no exception either. It was just that his demeanor remained as cool as ever. He said dispa.s.sionately, “Mr. Bay, I’ll let you know about the territory and do the handover within three months.
“As for the matter about gathering all the tigers in the world, you can already start on it.
“I’m not sure when the handover will be. You can deduct all the expenses they incur before the handover from the 200 billion yuan.”
The moment Bay heard w.a.n.g Hu’s words, he immediately said seriously, “Your Excellency, we can do the territory handover with you anytime.
“As for gathering the tigers, we’ve already started on it and are ready whenever you let us know.
“Additionally, please give Russia a chance to express our grat.i.tude and let us handle all the tigers’ related expenses instead. We definitely won’t let Your Excellency down.”
“It’s fine. This is a fair transaction between you and me. It’s not necessary,” said a distant and aloof w.a.n.g Hu.
“No, no, no.” Bay immediately shook his head. He said sincerely, “Your Excellency, Russia is a country that loves making friends and knows the meaning of the Chinese proverb ‘the kindness of a drop of water shall be repaid with a gus.h.i.+ng spring’ very well.
“Your Excellency has saved our entire country, our whole nation, and all of our families. You’re our benefactor. All of those things previously mentioned are things that we ought to give you.
“This is just a token of our appreciation. Please, allow us to express a little of our appreciation.”
The corner of w.a.n.g Hu’s eye couldn’t help but twitch a little upon hearing his emotional response.
Had it not been the truth, he wouldn’t even believe that these were things that the Russian leader would say.
The corners of his lips curled upward, and he secretly shook his head somewhat.
That foreigner’s resources were simply too limited, resulting in him flattering and currying favor with w.a.n.g Hu. The things he said were making even w.a.n.g Hu rather awkward.
Compared to wily old foxes like Dong Pingtao, Li Aimin, Chen Jianguo, and Zhang Jianye; he was nowhere near.
Those wily old foxes’ words were more capable of making him secretly feel good, yet also honestly accepting instead.
As though rain soundlessly nouris.h.i.+ng all in the world, their words gave him a favorable impression of them.
However, the Russians had always been rough people. Their leader, Bay, was even notorious for being tough and harsh. The fact that he could bring himself to say such shameless things was already pretty impressive.
He was indeed being sincere.
Despite his thoughts, w.a.n.g Hu’s words remained cold, distant, and devoid of any intimacy. “I’m just doing what I should. You don’t owe me anything. Neither do I owe you anything. Deduct all expenses related to the tigers from those funds.”
In his office in the capital of Russia, Bay was rather disappointed. This was the first time he was flattering and currying favor with someone ever since he had become Russia’s leader, yet it had actually failed.
Seeing how firm w.a.n.g Hu was, he had no other choice either. He could only sigh and say, “Alright, then. We’ll go according to everything that Your Excellency says.
“However, Your Excellency, please remember that no matter what it is, as long as it’s something that’s within our means, the whole of Russia will definitely do our absolute best to achieve it. Even if it isn’t, we’ll still try our best, come h.e.l.l or high water.”
w.a.n.g Hu didn’t say anything. That man was certainly using Chinese proverbs pretty well, but things like that should just be taken with a pinch of salt.
They would naturally say such things when they had something to ask of him.
When he became of no use to Russia someday, who knew if things would still be the same?
“Goodbye.”
w.a.n.g Hu hung up after aloofly uttering one word.
A resigned Bay put the phone down. He wasn’t angry, though. The current Russia wasn’t qualified to be angry at the frighteningly powerful Tiger King.
They might just need him to protect their country someday.
Under such circ.u.mstances, how would he possibly get mad?
His mind was filled only with thoughts of how he could befriend the other party at the moment.
His brows drew together as he thought of the conversation just now. It looked like it was indeed difficult to build a good relations.h.i.+p with the Tiger King.
How did China manage it?
After blinking a couple of times, he made a decision.
“Form a new department at once. Their mission is to think of ways to befriend the Tiger King.
“Everything aside, our relations.h.i.+p with the Tiger King mustn’t be any worse than China’s.”
…
In Tiger King’s Cave, w.a.n.g Hu hung up. He didn’t take the conversation just now to heart.
As long as he remained frighteningly strong and as long as the world remained as perilous as ever, he would only encounter more and more of such ingratiating behavior in the future.
The reason why he hadn’t encountered that much yet was entirely because he was displaying an unapproachable att.i.tude.
More importantly, it was because there were no suitable opportunities yet. That was why the other countries’ leaders hadn’t attempted to ingratiate themselves with him at all.
Were he to display a willingness to give them the opportunity to do so, it wouldn’t even take a day for a whole row of leaders from various countries to stand in line at the entrance of Tiger King’s Cave to flatter and curry favor with him.
This wasn’t anything unfathomable. This was exactly reality itself, and a situation compelled by the perils in the world.
They could receive protection just by saying a few nice things.
None of the leaders would reject something like that. They would only be thrilled.
This was exactly what a grown-up’s world was like.
Therefore, Bay’s words should just be taken with a pinch of salt. It was enough to just let his words humor w.a.n.g Hu a little. w.a.n.g Hu wouldn’t really take them seriously.
When the time came for him to rip them off, he definitely wouldn’t show them any mercy.
As for the reason why he hadn’t allowed the other party to pay for his expenses, it still went back to the same old thing—it was best not to take things for free.
…unless the other party was dead.
It was only when the party from whom he was taking things was dead would w.a.n.g Hu not feel any psychological burden.
Unfortunately, Russia wasn’t going to be destroyed in the near future, and neither were they allowed to be destroyed.
In that case, it was naturally impossible for them to form a relations.h.i.+p with him simply just by using such insignificant kindnesses and favors.
w.a.n.g Hu contemplated quietly for a while and mentally went over the whole situation. Then, his gaze s.h.i.+fted to the north, and a faint glow flashed across his eyes.
A few days later, the six demon generals led 10,000 demon soldiers to w.a.n.g Hu’s territory.
w.a.n.g Hu stationed them at a plot of land that had been prepared in advance. Without his orders, they were forbidden from taking even a step out of the plot of land.
Then, he brought 5,000 demon soldier dead bodies back to the Tiger King’s Cave and left the remaining 5,000 dead bodies to the demons.
He placed the dead bodies in the iced grounds that had been prepared in advance. These were the tigers’ surplus resources at the moment.
The next day, w.a.n.g Hu dragged Silly Girl with him and summoned Old Second, Jun Wen, Old Third, Ling Shuang, Jun Yong, and the cowardly fox.
He got Old Second to tell them about the deal he had made with Russia first. At once, apart from Ling Shuang who remained the same as ever, everyone else was overjoyed.
“Alright.” After letting them rejoice for a while, w.a.n.g Hu raised his hand and got them to quiet down. An even more imposing aura than before surfaced around him, and he said fairly seriously, “The tigers will gain more members very soon. However, our current territory is still far from being enough. There isn’t much land in our new territory that’s suitable for the tigers to live in.
“I don’t have any plans to use what Russia has promised us yet. Therefore, it’s time that we expand the tigers’ territory.”
A shrewd glint—which looked like excitement stemming from something that had constantly been on his mind was finally about to happen—instantly surfaced in Jun Wen’s eyes.
Right on the heels of it, w.a.n.g Liang also reacted. With some astonishment and elation, he said, “My lord, are you saying that we should take over other places in the northern borders of China?”
The moment he said that, all the others understood.
w.a.n.g Shan became utterly excited, and he looked antic.i.p.atively at his eldest brother.
A hint of surprise flashed across Di Baijun’s eyes. She hadn’t known about this beforehand either. However, she wasn’t bothered.
w.a.n.g Hu nodded slightly.
Roar~!
w.a.n.g Shan let out a loud roar of excitement. Apart from Ling Shuang, everyone else in the cave also smiled, including even the cowardly fox—or at least, she didn’t dare to not show elation in her current environment either.
“Big Brother, where should we invade? I’ll definitely be the first to charge forward,” said w.a.n.g Shan loudly, his battle spirit surging.
w.a.n.g Hu’s imposing gaze s.h.i.+fted to him. At once, it was as though a hand had forcibly suppressed w.a.n.g Shan’s battle spirit, and he lowered his gaze somewhat fearfully.
w.a.n.g Hu said seriously, “This matter is of great importance. You must listen to orders at all times. Understand?”
With Silly Girl and the others around, he mustn’t embarra.s.s Old Third.
They were about to start a war to fight for territory soon. He had to give that boor a warning.
“Yes, my lord,” replied a well-behaved w.a.n.g Shan after he realized the severity of the matter.
w.a.n.g Hu then looked away. He glanced at Old Second and Jun Wen. Then, his voice turned serious. “w.a.n.g Liang, Jun Wen. I’ll leave the matter of the tigers’ territory expansion this time to the two of you. Our target is a 2,000-kilometer-long stretch in the northern borders of China. I want to see the plan within a day.”
“Understood,” w.a.n.g Liang and Jun Wen answered at the same time.
After a moment’s hesitation, w.a.n.g Liang asked cautiously, “My lord, should we give China a heads-up about this?”
Seemingly reluctant to do so, Jun Wen frowned at his question.
Di Baijun’s brows also furrowed. The others didn’t think much about it, however.
w.a.n.g Hu thought of something, and he gave the few of them a long, hard look with a thoughtful expression on his face.
Without batting an eyelid, he asked, “What do all of you think?”
w.a.n.g Liang was the first to answer. He said, “My lord, my Queen, I feel that our target is pretty big this time. To avoid trouble in the future, we should inform China about it, lest it causes some kind of trouble.”
“My lord, my Queen, we’ll do exactly as the two of you say,” said w.a.n.g Shan at once, his att.i.tude firm and resolute yet also carrying a sense of indifference.
His firm and resolute att.i.tude was toward what he had said, whereas his indifference was toward the matter at hand.
Before Jun Wen could reply, looks of agreement also appeared on the others’ countenances.
Only then did w.a.n.g Hu look at Jun Wen who hadn’t given his opinion yet.
With a stern look on his face, Jun Wen lowered his head to express deference. He said respectfully, “My lord, my Queen, I feel that this only concerns the tigers. We don’t need to tell China anything.
“Back then, when China made a deal with the animals and got them to migrate to the borders, they made it very obvious that they don’t intend to care about the fighting among the various animal species. Therefore, there’s no need to say anything to China now.
“We, beings of Mother Nature, uphold the principle that the strong are revered. Animals fighting for territory is none of China’s business. We can just inform them when we’re done instead.”
[1] In Cardcaptor Sakura, the lead character fights spirits previously sealed in cards to reseal them.