Chapter 35 part 1

A deep, powerful voice, like a sudden clap of thunder, instantly reverberated throughout the entire zoo, startling nearby creatures awake. The transition from silence to ‘lively’ chaos happened in the blink of an eye.

Birds startled into flight, rats scurried, and frogs croaked loudly.

Chen Rui and Yang He stared at the ferocious beast illuminated by the flashlight, their entire backs already soaked with sweat.

Because only a small area of the zoo was currently in use, but the resident population wasn’t small, Shi Zhuo had arranged for a total of eight night patrol personnel, working in pairs. This made it easier to have assistance or call for help promptly if something happened.

However, although Peacock Mountain was the closest inhabited place to the Shiwan Mountains, it still maintained a certain distance. Moreover, Peacock Mountain’s ecosystem was only suitable for small animals. Even when there were frequent reports of wild boars coming down from the mountains in some areas, no traces of large creatures had ever been found here.

Therefore, although night patrols were quite tiring, they were actually very safe. Patrolling Peacock Mountain usually only involved occasionally hearing sounds from some unknown small animals, and there were basically no special situations encountered.

After all, Wang Tianba’s undisguised demonic aura, the noise generated by the construction team during the day, and the crowds of people coming and going on Peacock Mountain were enough to make wary animals avoid this place. They had been at Peacock Mountain for so long that they hadn’t even seen a single stray snake!

You know, with the good ecological environment near Peacock Mountain, it is impossible that there are no creatures like snakes.

All these situations made Chen Rui and Yang He very relaxed even though they did not relax to the point of chatting casually during patrol.

Until tonight, when they walked to the edge of the zoo as usual for patrolling, they habitually took a strong flashlight to sweep outside, and immediately illuminated the orange-yellow fur of a large beast and two eyes that glowed with a faint green light at night.

Because the zoo was recently renovated, the old fence had been almost demolished by the construction team, and a pile of waste bricks and stones were scattered on the ground. In order to prevent people from approaching, a telescopic fence was specially placed.

However, this kind of fence is used to prevent people, not animals. Basically, animals with good jumping ability can jump in. Even if it is used to prevent people, it is to prevent gentlemen but not villains.

Because of the peacefulness of Peacock Mountain, the group hadn’t bothered much with concealment around the original fence. After all, in such a desolate and uninhabited place, no one would approach. Chen Rui and Yang He’s main patrol duty was to prevent the construction team’s materials from being stolen, not a matter of safety.

Who knew that instead of catching a thief, they inadvertently caught a tiger.

Although this was a zoo, the feeling was completely different from seeing a tiger behind iron bars. It felt as if the next second the tiger, not having eaten enough outside, would lunge in.

This was no longer a question of excitement, but a question of whether they could survive.

“How could there be a tiger here?!” Yang He felt a little overwhelmed. Although he knew nothing about the zoo before coming here, through casual conversations with the many professionals at the zoo, he had learned that in the south, there were no tigers outside of zoos, not even in the Shiwan Mountains. Leopards and jackals had been found living there by scientific expeditions, but they all lived deep within the Shiwan Mountains. Unless the Shiwan Mountains experienced a wildfire that couldn’t be extinguished quickly, like in some foreign countries, they would never easily leave their territory.

After all, leaving their own territory to explore the unknown meant they could very likely go hungry due to being unable to hunt enough food.

“Maybe some zoo didn’t close their cage properly and it ran out,” Chen Rui said with a dry, unfunny joke, trying to relax himself. But in fact, he not only didn’t relax, he became even more nervous.

What zoo tiger has eyes this ferocious?!

Chen Rui had seen tigers in zoos before, but this one was clearly wild. During a past mission, Chen Rui had gone deep into the jungle with his teammates and faced wild beasts from a distance in the wild. That wild gaze had left an unforgettable impression on him for life, and the eyes of this tiger now were even fiercer and more aggressive than what he had seen then.

It was hard to describe exactly what kind of gaze it was: cold, sharp, cruel, and full of killing intent.

However, back then he at least had a gun in his hand, but now he only had an electric baton.

Chen Rui’s face twitched violently. During their conversations, he had heard the experts say that when wild beasts see creatures they haven’t encountered before, they are actually afraid. Otherwise, if they truly considered them prey, the beasts wouldn’t give them a chance to discover them at all, and the moment they were discovered would likely be the very moment the beast successfully hunted them.

A mature predator deeply understands from what position it can lie in wait to keep its prey completely unaware.

Therefore, the reason the creature was currently standing still was because it was also wary of Chen Rui and Yang He, not yet discerning whether they were strong or weak, whether it was worth the risk of attacking, and whether it might get injured.

Both sides were actually very afraid.

Chen Rui spread his arms wide, trying to make himself look bigger. This was new knowledge he had recently learned. When peacocks encounter danger, they spread their tail feathers; when red pandas raise their front paws, it’s for the same purpose. In the understanding of wild beasts, the larger the animal, the less it’s worth their risk, and the greater the possibility of them retreating.

Of course, at times like this, it would actually be better to accompany the gesture with a roar. Animals are more sensitive to emotions and aura. As long as you aren’t afraid of it, it will give you the ‘due’ respect.

But Chen Rui didn’t dare to yell, both afraid that making a sound would reveal his fear, and also afraid that the noise would instead provoke the tiger and make it charge over to attack directly.

Life was precious, and unless absolutely necessary, no one dared to risk their own life.

The tiger let out a low growl in response to Chen Rui’s movement. Its powerful body paced back and forth on the spot, its orange-red fur resembling a fiercely burning flame in the night. It was somewhat agitated, but it didn’t want to just leave like that.

“Rui-zi, what do we do? Should we slowly back away?” Yang He’s voice trembled slightly.

When facing criminals, he dared to charge straight forward, but when facing the king of beasts – he didn’t want to go up and become an extra meal for it.

“We can’t retreat,” Chen Rui gritted his teeth and said, “If we retreat, it will think it has scared us off and will come in. It has to retreat first. Its roar was so loud just now, the others must have heard it. When they come with tranquilizers, we’ll be saved.”

After so many days of preparation, the zoo’s hospital was no longer just for show. After all, both green peacock and Spot-Bellied Eagle-Owl were extremely rare species, so the supply of tranquilizers was naturally very sufficient. As long as they tranquilized the tiger, or the sound of a car horn scared it, it would be a much higher chance of escape than if they retreated themselves.

Anyway, they were both gambling with their lives; it just depended on which gamble had a higher chance of success.

Of course, the prerequisite was that the tiger had the patience to wait until then…

“Roar! —”

Clearly, this king of beasts didn’t seem to have that patience. After pacing in place for a moment, its mood became even more agitated, and it began to try moving closer.

“Back off——!”

Chen Rui roared loudly, his voice cracking and almost heart-rending. It startled the tiger, which bared its teeth at him, its sharp fangs gleaming with a chilling light under the flashlight, and let out a low, terrifying growl, equally warning the other party.

I want to go in this way, you better leave quickly, or don’t blame me for being impolite!

Its thick, broad forelimbs shifted slightly forward, and its wide paws left no doubt about the terrible tragedy that would occur if they landed on a person.

The tiger’s eyes widened, and it adopted an attacking posture.

Chen Rui felt his vision blurring slightly, and large beads of sweat ran down his forehead into his eyes, but he didn’t even dare to blink. His expression looked somewhat ferocious.

Just then, the tiger suddenly turned its head and charged in another direction.

Chen Rui’s facial muscles twitched violently twice, and he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, only for his expression to quickly change drastically. He subconsciously rushed forward, the shaky beam of the flashlight illuminating the tiger’s powerful limbs, full of wild beauty. Its target, however, was a young woman still wearing slippers and pink pajamas with a strawberry pattern.

“Director!”

The tiger showed no sign of stopping upon hearing the voice, instead accelerating its charge. In the blink of an eye, it was only a few short meters away from Kong Bi. Not only did it not stop, but it increased its speed even further.

For a tiger, the success rate of a hunt is often directly proportional to the distance between it and its prey. At a distance of two body lengths, the success rate can be as high as eighty to ninety percent, and the current distance was already sufficient.

“Awoo—”

The tiger let out a deep, resonant call, its broad paws kicking up a cloud of dust from the ground, enveloping the surroundings in a hazy ‘yellow veil’. It slid across the ground in a perfect arc, as if drifting, and smoothly braked to a stop right in front of Kong Bi.

However, as soon as the tiger charged towards her, the muscles in Kong Bi’s legs had instinctively tensed. When the tiger slide-tackled, she had already leaped high into the air. She was just about to kick out when she realized something was wrong, stopping her force mid-air and landing precariously close to the side of the tiger’s face, kicking up a cloud of dust and leaving a small crater.

The slide-tackle had failed!

The tiger flattened its ears, its entire body tensing up, looking very wary. But it suppressed this instinct, looked up at Kong Bi, and gently rubbed its furry cheek against Kong Bi’s calf.

Kong Bi: “……?”

“D-Director?……”

Chen Rui rubbed his eyes, feeling like he might not have gone out on duty tonight, but was instead sleeping in the dormitory, diligently patrolling in his dreams.

Otherwise, who could tell him what this magical realism was?

Why wasn’t the tiger biting anyone?

The tiger warily glanced at Chen Rui and let out a low growl.

“You two stay right there!” Kong Bi said quickly.

As the king of beasts, the tiger naturally held immense deterrence for humans. Therefore, even though Kong Bi knew intellectually that with her current strength, she could stop the tiger before it attacked, she still couldn’t avoid feeling nervous when it charged towards her, and was even more afraid that a moment of carelessness on her part would lead to casualties.

Although after the Huājiāo incident, Kong Bi had long anticipated that the animals coming to “seek refuge” wouldn’t follow conventional paths, she never expected that one of them would be a tiger!

This was a tiger, for goodness sake!