She's skilled in medicine, martial arts, and even understands animal language—the abandoned dau

Shen Man was startled. No wonder she hadn't seen Hu Xiaoliu come down the mountain these days; it turned out that its family member was seriously ill.

She looked at Tiger Boss and asked softly, "Where are you staying now? Take me there quickly."

Tiger Boss understood her words, turned around and slowly led the way.

Judging from its gait, Shen Man could tell that it was also ill.

Although she was a descendant of a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in her previous life, she had never treated animals and did not know if she could help them.

But the thought that her adorable Tiger Xiao Liu might die from illness made her heart ache.

Seeing that Shen Man was about to leave with the tiger without saying a word, Lanxiang quickly grabbed her and said worriedly, "Man'er, it's too dangerous to go up the mountain at this time. Let's go home first and talk about it tomorrow when it's light."

Shen Man shook her head. "They need my help right now. If we don't treat them quickly, it might be too late. Mother, Tiger Six is ​​my friend. If I don't go see it, I won't have peace of mind even after I go home."

Shen Man had previously told Lan Xiang that she was able to come to Xiaoyao Village thanks to Tiger Xiao Liu's mother. Without her, she might have died in the forest long ago.

Lanxiang knew that Shen Man's decision was difficult to change, so she had no choice but to accompany her. Thus, the two followed the tiger into the depths of the forest.

After walking for a long time, they finally arrived at a cave. A foul odor filled the cave, causing Lanxiang to cover her nose.

Seeing this, Shen Man immediately said to Lanxiang, "Mother, if you can't stand this smell, why don't you wait for me at the cave entrance? I'll go in and see what's going on."

Lanxiang didn't insist, nodded to her, and then stood at the cave entrance waiting for it.

Shen Man followed the tiger deeper into the cave, where she saw several large tigers lying on the ground, their breaths weak. Tiger Xiao Liu was among them.

Shen Man approached and examined them, finding no wounds on their bodies, indicating that they were not sick due to external injuries.

"Xiao Liu, are you alright? What happened to you guys?"

When Hu Xiaoliu heard her question, he weakly opened his eyes. He seemed very excited to see her, but he didn't say anything.

Just as Shen Man was at a loss, the tiger mother suddenly pooped out a large string of watery, runny stools.

Shen Man realized something was wrong and turned to look at the other tigers, only to find that they also had diarrhea. She remembered hearing from the elders in the village that animals get diarrhea because they ate something bad.

She made a quick decision to find them some clean water to drink first. Just as humans easily become dehydrated from excessive bowel movements, animals would likely experience the same.

Fortunately, there was a stream not far from the cave. Shen Man called Lan Xiang, and the two of them ran over quickly, picked a few large leaves from a tree, used them to fetch some water, and slowly fed it to the tigers.

"Have you guys eaten something bad lately? Why are you all getting diarrhea?" Shen Man asked Old Tiger.

"We haven't eaten anything bad! Lately, we've been eating even better than before. For some reason, small animals have been dying bloodied and gruesome outside our cave these days, so we don't even have to go out to find food!" Tiger Boss replied, puzzled.

"What? Dead animals are being delivered to my door? That's so strange! What time of day do those animals usually appear?" Shen Man had a feeling that the problem lay with these animals that were being delivered to her door.

"It should be about time. I'll go out and take a look!" Tiger said, then got up and swayed his body as he walked out of the cave.

Sure enough, a moment later, he walked in with a plump wild rabbit in his mouth.

"Don't eat it yet! Put it at the entrance of the hole, let me check it."

The sun had already set, and the light inside the cave was growing dimmer. Worried that she wouldn't be able to see clearly, Shen Man had it place the dead rabbit outside the cave.

Tiger Boss didn't say anything and obediently threw the rabbit on the ground outside the hole.

Shen Man quickly came out of the hole. She picked up the rabbit and examined it several times, discovering that its wounds and mouth were stuffed with a grayish-black powder.

Shen Man dipped her finger in the powder, smelled it, and discovered it was croton powder.

Shen Man's expression turned serious. It seemed that someone had deliberately poisoned these animals, perhaps with the aim of killing these tigers.

"These prey delivered to your door are poisonous, you must not eat them!" Shen Man turned around and said seriously to Tiger Boss.

"Ah, how could it be poisonous? These past few days, because Mother has been sick, I've been feeding her the game I brought back every day. I never imagined it would harm her!"

Tiger Boss, after hearing Shen Man's words, realized the seriousness of the situation and said with frustration.

Because all the other tigers had fallen ill, and it was the least sick, the task of finding prey fell to it. In order to take care of its parents and younger siblings, it always ate the least of the prey when it was given a share, so it was the least poisoned.

"Don't worry, although this poison is potent, it's not incurable. Luckily, I have some herbs at home that can counteract it. I'll brew them into a decoction for them to drink tomorrow. It's getting late, we should go home!"

"Thank you, young lady." Tiger Boss sincerely thanked Shen Man.

"No need to be polite, I'm just curious, who exactly would do such a terrible thing to you?"

"It must be those hunters down the mountain. They've been trying to hunt us for a long time. A few years ago, when they attacked us, one of our companions fell into a trap they had set and died. They blamed us for it and have been trying to kill us to vent their anger ever since," Tiger Boss said angrily.

Shen Man nodded, seemingly lost in thought. Seeing the sky gradually darkening, Shen Man didn't hesitate any longer and hurried home with Lan Xiang.

The next morning, Shen Man got up early and used the Coptis chinensis and Acorus calamus that she had picked up while gathering herbs some time ago to brew an antidote. She then put it in a large jar, had Lanxiang carry it for her, and went to the cave again.

"You should drink this medicine quickly, you'll get better soon." Shen Man used a small bowl to feed the antidote to each tiger.

"You can't eat out anymore," Shen Man told Tiger Elder before leaving. "I'm still clearing land in the same spot as yesterday. If you need anything, you can find me there."

After saying that, Shen Man followed Lan Xiang away. However, when the mother and daughter had walked about a mile from the cave entrance, they saw a group of men hurrying towards them.

Shen Man was startled and quickly pulled Lan Xiang into the bushes nearby.

The group of people were carrying bows and arrows on their backs and knives and clubs in their hands.

The leader, a man with a fierce face, said menacingly, "Those tigers have been eating our prey for over ten days now, they shouldn't have the strength to fight us anymore. This time, we must catch them all, skin them alive, and sell them for a good price!"

The group of people behind him echoed his sentiments.

One of them asked, "Third Brother, I heard that tiger skin clothes are very warm. After we kill those tigers, can I have a tiger skin?"

"Haha, you know your stuff, kid. As the saying goes, ten taels of gold and a hundred taels of silver are not worth a tiger's skin. Tiger skin is something that the rich people in the city can't wait to get. A good tiger skin can sell for hundreds or even thousands of taels of silver!" The man called Third Brother laughed smugly.

"Third Brother, I heard that tiger tendons are also a good thing, is that true?" another person asked curiously.

"Yes, tiger tendons can be used to make medicinal wine. It's said that when we men drink wine made with tiger tendons, we can go all night without even breaking a sweat!" Third Brother replied, a lewd smile on his face.

Then came the lewd laughter of the men, echoing through the forest.

From their words, Shen Man learned that these people were the hunters who poisoned Hu Xiaoliu's family.

When Shen Man heard that they were going to capture and kill Tiger Xiao Liu and the others, skin them alive, she was furious. She couldn't let them harm the tiger family.

She whispered to Lanxiang, "Mother, they want to kill Hu Xiaoliu's family. I can't let them succeed."

However, Shen Man had never met these people before, but Lan Xiang did. They were from the neighboring Dahe Village and were relatives of her former husband's family.

Her husband died when he fell into a trap while hunting with them in the mountains.