Tiger, I rejected the iron rice bowl.

But as soon as they reached the cage where the tigers were kept, the tigers that had been lying on the ground sunbathing suddenly stood up abruptly, their ears pressed back, and they let out low growls. They pawed at the ground with their front paws and adopted an attack posture.

Even Snowball, who is usually very attached to her, bared its teeth at her through the iron cage, its eyes full of vigilance.

Tang Li was stunned for three seconds, then suddenly realized what was happening.

She raised her hand to her nose, and a strong smell instantly filled her nostrils.

That was Wang Yuyu's scent, which had stained her clothes, pungent and unpleasant.

"Ugh!" Tang Li leaned against the wall, her stomach churning, and she almost threw up.

She wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth and angrily cursed towards the back mountain, "Iron rice bowl, you're not finished with me! If I see you again, I'll rub you in the snow eight hundred times!"

Despite the scolding, she still ran back to her dormitory.

At that moment, she had only one thought in her mind: take a bath! She had to take a scalding hot bath! Otherwise, let alone the tiger, she herself would be overwhelmed by the smell.

The hot water in the bathroom was flowing, and Tang Li scrubbed herself again and again, using up more than half a bottle of shower gel, until her skin was red and she could no longer smell the "tiger smell".

She sat on the edge of the bed wrapped in a bath towel, watching the sky outside the window gradually darken. There were some dried meats on the bedside table, which she used to tease the little tiger!

Tang Li picked up a piece of dried meat, and her eyes reddened again.

Suddenly, she burst out laughing.

I remember Wang Yuyu's aggrieved look when she called him "lazy tiger," his domineering way of slapping the water trough with his tiger claws, and the tip of his tail swishing as he ran away.

"Never mind," she said, putting the jerky away. "If you really dare to come back, you can have it."

Meanwhile, Wang Yuyu, having eaten her fill, crunched softly on the snow with her four paws.

The image of Tang Li chasing after him with a megaphone would occasionally flash through my mind, but it was quickly suppressed by the feeling of fullness in my stomach.

For him now, nothing is more important than the laziness after a good meal.

The aroma of meat still lingered on my teeth, along with the faint fragrance of Tang Li mixed with the scent of perilla, all contributing to the aftertaste of this "adventure".

He slowed his escape, changing from a whirlwind sprint to a leisurely stroll.

When you're full and have plenty of water, you'll feel sleepy. This applies to humans, but it's an even more ironclad rule for a Siberian tiger weighing over 400 kilograms.

The tiger's thick claws trod across the snow, leaving deep, plum blossom-shaped hoofprints, each step exuding the mountain king's steadiness.

This forest, stretching for a thousand square kilometers, was originally his territory.

The Linhai City Central Zoo was merely a "human outpost" on the edge of his territory; his previous intrusion was purely for organizational purposes.

Standing on familiar ground, his tense muscles gradually relaxed, and even his tail relaxed from its tense state, occasionally sweeping across the bushes beside him and knocking off a patch of snow.

After walking for about an hour, I suddenly caught a familiar scent.

Those were the scent marks he left during his previous patrols, faint yet clear in the cold wind.

Wang Yu stopped, a hint of relief flashing in her amber eyes, as if a wanderer had finally stepped onto his own doorstep.

He shook his head, dispelling the sense of death from the real guns in the zoo from his mind, and with a slight exertion of his four paws, his body straightened up a bit more.

"roar!"

A tiger's roar suddenly burst from its throat, exploding through the forest like rolling thunder.

This was not the roar of frustration he had in the kitchen, but a declaration from the mountain lord, powerful and resonant, carrying an awe-inspiring pressure that shook all things.

Where the sound waves swept, the pine branches trembled, and a sudden commotion erupted in the distant woods.

The snow hare darted into its burrow on its short legs, the roe deer herd fled in panic, and even the squirrels hiding in tree holes clung tightly to their pine cones in fright. The entire forest was instantly awakened by the howl, only to quickly fall into an even deeper silence.

Wang Yu stood there, listening to the commotion gradually subsiding in the distance, and a smile involuntarily spread across his face.

The embarrassment of being forced back by a real gun and the frustration of pretending to be cowardly in front of Tang Li all vanished at this moment.

He is still the king of this forest, a being who can make all beasts submit with a single roar. The fright from humans is nothing more than a minor incident.

With renewed confidence, Wang Yuyu continued forward with steady steps, the snow being crushed into a solid path beneath his feet.

After walking for about half an hour, a cave hidden under the shade of pine trees came into view.

This is one of his many "temporary caves," dry and sheltered from the wind, and covered with a thick layer of pine needles that he had brought earlier.

He stopped at the cave entrance and brought his nose close to take a careful sniff.

A mixture of smells wafted from the cave: the pungent odor of foxes, the earthy smell of wild boars, and the scent of bird feathers, but all were so faint as to be almost undetectable.

This is normal; his territory is so vast that a complete inspection would take half a month.

After he left, animals would always come to clean up the remains of his prey, but they were always there for food and never dared to linger.

After all, his aura is the most conspicuous "forbidden zone" marker.

After confirming that it was safe, Wang Yuyu yawned widely, her pink tongue licking her sharp canine teeth, with a lazy air as if she had just woken up.

He slowly walked into the cave, stepped onto the soft bed of pine needles, and like a human adjusting a pillow, he nudged the thickest pile of pine needles with his tiger head, then twisted his round body, finally finding the most comfortable position.

Its front paws were curled up in front of its chest, and its tail covered its nose, just enough to block the cold wind blowing in from outside the cave.

In his hazy state of consciousness, he seemed to smell that familiar aroma of perilla beef jerky again, and the image of Tang Li standing with her hands on her hips, scolding him as a "lazy tiger," flashed before his eyes.

Wang Yu clicked her tongue and buried her head even deeper into the pine needles.

Outside the cave, snowflakes continued to fall silently, covering the tiger's claw marks and calming the commotion in the forest.

The entire forest fell into an ancient silence, even the wind slowed its pace, as if afraid to disturb the sleeping mountain king in the cave, and the endless string of dried meat in his dream.

…………

A few days later, Wang Yuyu dragged her heavy limbs through the snow, sinking into the ankle-deep snow with every step. Her 400-kilogram body had become a deadly burden.

Its daily energy consumption is nearly twice that of an ordinary Siberian tiger, but the living creatures in the forest have long since hidden deep in their dens, and even a slightly fat rabbit is hard to find.

"Damn it, if I don't eat meat soon, all this tiger meat of mine will be digested by myself!"

Wang Yuyu's stomach rumbled louder than the distant mountain wind.

His eyes were sunken, and his amber pupils, shrunken into slits from hunger, gleamed with a fierce, almost green light.

He searched the entire territory, but found neither deer nor even leftover animal bones, let alone any herds of deer.

That big meal at the zoo last time is now a distant memory.

The salty aroma of dried meat and the freshness of seafood swirled in his mind, making him lick his lips involuntarily, the lingering taste still clinging to his canine teeth.