Tiger, I rejected the iron rice bowl.

The moment the phone rang, Wang Yuyu's ears perked up instantly. He forgot to chew the jerky in his mouth and rushed to Tang Li's side in a few quick steps. His large body covered half of Tang Li's body, and his amber eyes were fixed on the phone screen, like a boss catching his employees slacking off.

Inside the command vehicle, Fan Zhengcheng watched the surveillance footage, his shoulders shaking as he tried to suppress his laughter: "This tiger treats Xiao Tang like his own possession, even watching him when he looks at his phone."

Wang Weiguo rubbed his temples, but couldn't help but smile.

This tiger is even more alert than the park's security guards.

The two looked at the human and tiger with their heads huddled together in the surveillance footage, feeling both helpless and intrigued.

Tang Li opened the message, which was from Wang Weiguo: "Xiao Tang, try to communicate with it and ask it what it wants to do, whether it wants to stay in the park. We can negotiate."

She turned her phone screen towards Wang Yuyu and said irritably, "See? The principal is asking for your opinion, not arresting you!"

"Stop monitoring me like a prisoner! I've even lost my freedom to chat!"

The light from the phone screen reflected in Wang Yuyu's eyes. He leaned in very close, as if checking the message word by word.

After confirming that there were no words like "anesthesia" or "arrest," he breathed a sigh of relief, let out a soft hum, and brushed his tail against Tang Li's hand as if to "forgive" her. He then turned around and plunged back into the iron basin to eat rice, chewing the jerky with a crunching sound.

Tang Li put away her phone, walked to his side, and reached out to pat his tiger head.

"A secure job," her voice softened slightly, "what exactly do you want by barging in here time and time again? It can't just be for a few free meals, can it?"

Wang Yuyu, who was holding a piece of jerky in his mouth, suddenly raised his head upon hearing this. His paw, still covered in meat scraps, pointed precisely at the jerky in the iron basin, and he made a soft "gurgling" sound in his throat, as if to say, "What else?"

"Did you come here because you couldn't catch any prey in the wild and were starving?"

Looking at his round belly, Tang Li couldn't help but complain, "You're so big, yet you can't even catch prey. You're such a waste!"

These words struck a nerve with Wang Yuyu.

He suddenly raised his head, his tiger eyes wide open, and let out a low growl, his teeth grinding together, as if to retort, "You're the useless one!"

He shook his head, then took a big bite of jerky, as if to prove himself through his actions.

"Oh? You mean you can catch prey?" Tang Li's eyes lit up. She squatted down to look him in the eye. "Then why are you leaving the beautiful forest to come to our zoo? The meat here isn't any better than the wild meat."

"Roar!" Wang Yu put down the dried meat, patted the iron basin with his paw, and pointed to his belly, his amber eyes full of self-righteousness.

Hunting your own prey means enduring wind and sun, and having to compete with other wild animals for territory. How can it compare to the delicious meat readily available here?

With plenty of food every day and no effort required, only a fool would go back to the mountains!

Tang Li stared at his movements and suddenly remembered a video she had seen online, in which injured or lazy wild animals would voluntarily run to human settlements to "beg for adoption".

Looking at Wang Yuyu's "give me meat and I'll stay" expression, her eyes instantly changed, from doubt to understanding, and finally tinged with disdain: "So... you've come to our zoo looking for adoption?"

Wang Yuyu's eyes lit up instantly!

His enormous tiger head was nodding vigorously, like he was pounding garlic, and there was still some meat scraps stuck to the corners of his mouth.

To make Tang Li understand better, he even leaned forward and gently rubbed his head against her arm, his manner full of affection.

"Alright! You lazybones!"

Tang Li was amused by his appearance, raised her hand and gave him a sharp rap on the head, then grabbed his earlobe and scolded, "All that muscle you have is just for freeloading! I think you're not a 'secure job,' you're a 'lazybones'!"

Wang Yu shook her head to shake off her hand and swept up the last bit of dried meat in the basin.

He licked his paws, then his gaze settled on the sink where the seafood had completely thawed, and the fishy smell wafted over.

He yelled at Tang Li, "Awoo!"

"Self-reliance leads to abundance."

Tang Li stood with her arms crossed, deliberately not moving. "You're not without claws, don't expect me to serve you, you lazy bum."

Wang Yuyu's temper also flared up.

He stared at the unmoved Tang Li, then looked at the seafood so close at hand, walked over, raised his right claw, and slammed it down on the stainless steel tank.

With a muffled thud, the sink trembled violently as it was struck by the tiger's claws. A dent the size of a bowl instantly appeared where the tiger's claws had hit it, and the four supporting legs creaked and tilted to one side.

The murky water gushed down the depression, leaving a wet patch on the floor, and even splashed water on the tips of Tang Li's shoes.

"A guaranteed job?! You're crazy!"

Tang Li was so angry she jumped up and down, backing away from the water, pointing at Wang Yuyu's nose and yelling, "This sink costs several hundred yuan! Can you afford to pay for it?"

Wang Yuyu, however, remained calm.

He gave a soft snort and precisely blocked the water outlet of the sink with his tiger claws. His furry claws pressed down on the leak, stopping most of the water flow.

In no time, only a shallow layer of water remained in the tank, revealing all the fresh seafood.

He stuck his head into the sink, picked up a plump sea fish, and deliberately shook his head in Tang Li's direction before swallowing it in one gulp. Water droplets dripped down his whiskers from the corner of his mouth, full of provocation.

Tang Li stood at a distance, clenching her fists, her cheeks puffed out, and roared, "You just wait! Even if I adopt you, you'll still have to work for me! You'll stay in the garden as a prostitute, selling yourself to pay for the water tank!"

Wang Yu buried himself in his rice, completely ignoring her roaring.

What's wrong with "selling yourself for money"?

With meat to eat and a place to live, he's determined to keep this "iron rice bowl"!

Wang Yuyu chewed up the last piece of sea fish and swallowed it before slowly getting up, swaying her round belly.

He glanced at the mess in the kitchen, twitched his nose, and walked straight toward the pile of junk in the corner.

There were some towels piled up there.

He pawed at it a couple of times with his tiger paws, then picked up a slightly worn white towel with some flour still stuck to the edge. It was the cleanest thing in the pile.

The sound of footsteps stopped in front of Tang Li. She had just finished cleaning up some frozen meat on the ground when she saw a tiger's paw stuffing a towel into her arms.

Tang Li was stunned for a moment, took the towel, and then looked at the tiger head that Wang Yuyu had brought closer. Water droplets still clung to the tiger's whiskers, and there were bits of meat stuck to the corners of its mouth. It was staring at her expectantly.

"A secure job, what are you doing..." Before she could finish speaking, Wang Yuyu shook his head, water droplets dripping from the tiger's fur onto the floor.

"Oh! So you're here to wipe your mouth!"

Tang Li reacted instantly, crumpled the towel into a ball, and slapped it on Wang Yuyu's tiger-like face with a "smack," the force not too light or too heavy, like wiping the moisture off a freshly steamed bun, rubbing it back and forth vigorously.

"I didn't expect you to at least wipe your mouth after eating. You care about appearances, yet you have no sense of propriety at all!"

"Why don't you take more baths? Your fur is practically matted together!"