Tiger, I rejected the iron rice bowl.

Tang Li looked down at the guy slumped on her lap, then looked at the whole process recorded on her phone, and couldn't help but laugh out loud. She gently scratched his belly, her eyes full of doting affection: This proud and clingy guy is just too cute no matter how you look at him!

But after touching her for a short while, her legs went numb from the weight of Wang Yuyu, who weighed several hundred pounds.

She stopped what she was doing and gently patted Wang Yuyu's belly. "Get up, my legs are numb from all the pressure. If you keep pressing down, I won't be able to stand up."

Upon hearing this, Wang Yuyu, whose body had been limp like a tiger pancake, instantly and nimbly turned over and stood up steadily, her amber eyes showing a hint of reluctance.

He tilted his head and looked around for a moment, carefully adjusting his position. He finally chose to lie down next to Tang Li's legs, so that Tang Li could easily reach out and touch his belly, and could also clearly see the movie in the distance.

Tang Li glanced at his head, which was practically touching the phone screen, shook her head helplessly, reached out and grabbed one of his furry front paws, gently pulling it back.

"Lie back a bit. You're so close to the screen, are you trying to blind yourself?"

"Don't blame me for not warning you if you can't see clearly later."

Wang Yu immediately followed her lead and shrank back, her small body moving slowly from Tang Li's feet to her buttocks, getting much further away from the phone screen.

After shrinking back, he raised his head and glared fiercely at Tang Li, his eyes clearly saying, "Are you satisfied now? From this distance, I can barely see the picture."

Tang Li glanced down at his contradictory expression and couldn't help but laugh. She nodded in satisfaction and gently scratched his neck.

Wang Yuyu, who had been pretending to be fierce, softened instantly, and all her little emotions vanished.

"Ah, that feels so good...it feels so good..."

Wang Yu squinted her eyes comfortably, her head swaying gently under Tang Li's touch, a low, satisfied purr escaping her throat. Her body fur all relaxed, a picture of utter contentment on her face. She thought to herself, "This is wonderful!"

"This is the life I should be enjoying!"

"What a miserable life we ​​had in the wild! We had to endure wind and rain, hunt for ourselves, and it was nothing like how good it is now. We have food and drink, and someone even rubs my stomach and scratches my neck!"

"I wish I could live in the zoo forever and never have to suffer in the wild again!"

Tang Li looked at his blissful expression and a gentle smile unconsciously appeared on her lips. She gently stroked his soft, fluffy tiger fur, the warm touch and delicate downy fur feeling exceptionally comfortable to the touch.

She couldn't help but mutter to herself, "Ah, so comfortable! It has to be real tiger skin. The feel, the warmth, it's better than any doll. It feels so good to touch!"

A man and a tiger, one being comfortably petted, the other enjoying being petted, both with satisfied expressions.

It's hard to say who benefited whom.

Meanwhile, the scene at the back gate of the zoo is completely different.

Wang Weiguo, Ji Yongjun, and Fan Zhengcheng squatted on the ground, staring at a pile of things scattered in front of them: various kinds of lassos, three neatly folded and sturdy nets, and several gleaming animal traps.

The three of them had ashen faces, and the atmosphere around them was frighteningly tense.

Wang Weiguo turned to Fan Zhengcheng and asked in a heavy tone, "Captain Fan, haven't you found any trace of those poachers?"

Fan Zhengcheng shook his head and said in a deep voice, "These poachers are definitely veterans with extremely strong counter-surveillance capabilities. If their attack fails, they'll flee thousands of miles away!"

"My men searched two kilometers into the forest following these trails, but found no trace of them."

"We have checked the surveillance footage of all the roads around the reserve one by one, and found no suspicious outside vehicles or personnel. It's as if they appeared out of thin air and disappeared into thin air."

Ji Yongjun, who was standing nearby, quickly added, "I've checked the monitoring system inside our reserve and the patrol records of the forest rangers, and there was nothing there either."

"The forest rangers patrol in shifts 24 hours a day and all say they haven't seen any suspicious people entering the mountains or noticed any unusual activity."

"In my opinion, this group of poachers probably took a detour from other cities, bypassing all surveillance and checkpoints, to enter our protected area."

"Then we drove through a dense forest and quietly arrived at the zoo."

After listening to their conversation, Wang Weiguo remained silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed: "Looks like this is a group of reckless thugs?"

"In this freezing weather, they dare to traverse this vast protected area; aren't they afraid of dying in the forest?"

Upon hearing this, Fan Zhengcheng smiled faintly: "That's a million-dollar bounty. As long as you can get the bounty, you can basically live a life free from worries about food and drink for the rest of your life."

"People die for wealth, birds die for food; faced with such a great temptation, there will always be some people who are willing to take risks and disregard their lives."

"Hahaha..." The three of them burst into laughter.

They laughed for a while, then the laughter gradually faded away.

Wang Weiguo's smile faded, his brow furrowing slightly as he asked with a hint of doubt, "By the way, there's something else I haven't asked you. The zoo suddenly lost power last night. What happened?"

"The power outage just happened to coincide with the poachers' move; it's too much of a coincidence."

Upon hearing this, Fan Zhengcheng waved his hand, his tone full of mockery: "Coincidence, it's all just a coincidence!"

"Last night, a drunk man drove carelessly and crashed into the main power pole in your area. Not only the zoo, but several nearby villages also lost power, and it wasn't until dawn that it was fixed."

He paused, then couldn't help but laugh again, his eyes full of schadenfreude: "Those poachers are probably hiding in the woods cursing their mothers right now!"

"I meticulously planned everything, but an unexpected incident ruined it all. The prize I was about to win just flew away!"

Wang Weiguo and Ji Yongjun exchanged a glance, their faces filled with surprise.

They never expected things to turn out this way; a power outage caused by a drunkard inadvertently thwarted the poachers' plot.

Wang Weiguo didn't dwell on the coincidence any further. He turned to Ji Yongjun and asked seriously, "What are your plans for that little guy, Iron Rice Bowl? Are you going to take him back to the research base to care for him?"

Ji Yongjun shook his head. "No need. The iron rice bowl is recovering much faster than we expected. Judging from its current condition, it will be fully recovered in about twenty days."

"Your place is right next to the edge of its territory. If you leave it in your zoo, it can return to its territory once it recovers, saving you the trouble of moving it back and forth."