Tiger, I rejected the iron rice bowl.

The mountain roads were bumpy and difficult to navigate in the depths of winter, and the vehicle was covered in mud and snow, clearly indicating that it had been speeding all the way.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Fan Zhengcheng frowned, his eyes scanning the village scenery outside the car window with vigilance.

As soon as he reached the village entrance, his gaze was immediately drawn to the dark red mark on the ground. His pupils contracted sharply, and he slammed his hand on the driver's seat: "Stop the car! Stop the car now!"

The driver reacted very quickly, slamming on the brakes. The car slid a short distance on the snow before coming to a stop.

Before the car had come to a complete stop, Fan Zhengcheng pushed open the door and jumped out. Ignoring the slippery road, he rushed to the bloodstain, squatted down, and examined it carefully.

Dark red bloodstains mixed with melted snow water stretched from the village into the distant forest, the marks clear and glaring.

"Something's happened!" Fan Zhengcheng's face instantly darkened. He turned around and growled at the three policemen in the car, "Grab your weapons! Stay alert, come with me inside and take a look!"

"Yes, Captain Fan!" The three policemen didn't dare to delay. They quickly grabbed the equipment they were carrying and jumped out of the car, following Fan Zhengcheng into the village with solemn expressions.

Looking at the winding trail of blood on the ground, the horrific image of a tiger attacking people instantly flashed through their minds.

In the deep mountains and forests, a wild Siberian tiger attacking a person is no small matter.

Just then, a rapid engine sound came from inside, and Liu Huanjun hurriedly drove his patrol car to the village entrance.

Upon seeing Fan Zhengcheng and his group, his face instantly lit up with a smile. He parked the car and hurried over through the snow, calling out from afar, "Hey, Captain Fan, we've been waiting for you! You've made a wasted trip, the tiger's already gone back to the mountain!"

Fan Zhengcheng was filled with anxiety, and his anger surged up instantly when he was interrupted.

He shoved away Liu Huanjun's outstretched hand, pointed to the bloodstains on the ground, and demanded in an icy tone, "Village Chief Liu, explain yourself clearly, what's with this blood on the ground?! Did a tiger attack someone?"

Only then did Liu Huanjun notice the grim expressions on Fan Zhengcheng and the others' faces. Following his finger to the bloodstains on the ground, he immediately understood and hurriedly waved his hands, explaining, "Oh! Captain Fan, don't misunderstand! Don't misunderstand! This isn't human blood, it's pig's blood! Pure pig's blood!"

"Pig's blood?" Fan Zhengcheng frowned even more, his eyes full of suspicion. "Village Chief Liu, this is no joke!"

"If anyone dies, you must report it truthfully immediately! Once it's confirmed to be a killer tiger, we must deal with it as quickly as possible and leave no hidden dangers!"

"How could I possibly joke with you like that!"

Liu Huanjun stamped his feet anxiously, his tone earnest, "This really is pig's blood! I watched with my own eyes as the tiger carried away my aunt's New Year's pig, and no one was hurt the entire time!"

"If you don't believe me, I'll take you to my aunt's house right now. The door to the pigsty is still broken!"

Fan Zhengcheng stared at him for a few seconds. Seeing that he looked frank and didn't seem to be lying, he suppressed his anger slightly and nodded: "Okay, we'll go with you to take a look."

"Okay! Follow me!" Liu Huanjun readily agreed and warmly invited Fan Zhengcheng to get into his patrol car. The two cars drove one after the other into the depths of the village.

As soon as he sat in the passenger seat, Fan Zhengcheng eagerly asked, "Village Chief Liu, tell me in detail what happened. How big was that tiger? How did it get into the village?"

At the mention of the tiger, Liu Huanjun instantly perked up. His previously slightly reserved demeanor relaxed, and he began describing it with exaggerated gestures, spittle almost splashing onto the car window: "Captain Fan, let me tell you, that tiger was terrifying! So majestic! It was enormous!"

"Judging by my eyes, that guy must weigh at least 300 pounds! His fur, a mix of yellow and black, was so shiny and glossy; he looked like a small mountain standing there!"

"I've lived this long and I've never seen such a big Siberian tiger!"

"You didn't see what happened!"

He gripped the steering wheel with one hand, and with the other, he excitedly pointed out the Eagle's Beak Rock halfway up the mountainside. "That huge guy stands on Eagle's Beak Rock, and when he roars, the whole valley vibrates!"

"The village's chickens, ducks, and dogs instantly erupted into chaos, a cacophony of sounds filling the air, it was so noisy I was terrified!"

"But you know what, this tiger is actually quite clever!"

Liu Huanjun then changed the subject, his tone becoming more admiring, "After it roared, it didn't rush down the mountain. Instead, it squatted on the top of the rock, staring at the village, as if waiting for us to take care of it."

"I used the loudspeaker to call the villagers to come inside and take shelter, while keeping an eye on its movements."

"Once the village was completely quiet and silent, it let out another howl, as if to say, 'I'm coming,' and then rushed down the mountain like a gust of wind!"

"It was incredibly fast, kicking up huge gusts of snow. I didn't even blink before it rushed into the village!"

"At first, it jumped into the yard of the house at the entrance of the village, but it jumped out again in less than a minute, probably because it couldn't find any food."

"Then it went straight to my aunt's house, slammed open the pigpen door with one paw, and carried away the New Year's pig!"

Fan Zhengcheng sat to the side, and the more he listened, the more a sense of familiarity welled up in his heart.

This tiger's actions—warning first, then observing, with a clear target and no indiscriminate harm—are exactly the same as those "iron rice bowl" tigers in the zoo that have become sentient.

Just as he was about to ask for more details, Liu Huanjun slammed on the brakes, and the car came to a steady stop outside a farmhouse.

"Captain Fan, we've arrived! This is my aunt's house!"

Liu Huanjun pointed to the two large iron gates hanging crookedly on their hinges at the entrance of the courtyard, his tone a mix of lingering fear and excitement, "Look at these two large iron gates, they were smashed like this by that tiger!"

Fan Zhengcheng looked up and saw that the two iron doors were severely deformed and the latches were completely broken, obviously caused by a huge impact.

He waved to Zhang Fan, the police officer who was walking behind him: "Zhang, go over and examine the area carefully, and collect some traces."

"Yes, Captain Fan!" Zhang Fan immediately responded, took out gloves from his equipment bag and put them on, squatted down to carefully examine the damage to the iron gate, and even took out his camera to take pictures of the claw marks and impact points for record-keeping.

Liu Huanjun led Fan Zhengcheng quickly into the yard, and their first stop was the pigsty.

"Look at this! That tiger did this too!" He pointed to the battered iron gate of the pigsty, his tone exaggerated. "That tiger was incredibly strong; it smashed it open with a single slap!"

The bolt on the iron gate was broken in two, and a clear tiger claw print was imprinted on the gate, with a few yellow and black tiger hairs still hanging from the edge.

Then he dragged Fan Zhengcheng to the side wall of the pigsty, pointed to a noticeable dent and some remaining tiger fur on the wall, and exclaimed with admiration, "That tiger is clever! It didn't want to go directly into the pigsty because it was dirty and smelly, but instead came here to bang its head against the wall, scaring the pigs out of their wits, and they rushed out of the pen on their own!"