"Are you okay?"

Chen Chao’s face was also deathly pale.

Shen Xin shook his head. Looking in the rearview mirror, he saw the middle-aged man who’d called it in practically scrambling into the police car on all fours.

"Where’d it go?" Chen Chao asked, gripping his pistol.

Shen Xin shook his head again, took a deep breath to steady his nerves, and then started the car.

’It’s safer in the car.’

As he drove forward, they both turned to look.

There was no sign of the tiger behind the wall.

"Go around," Chen Chao said, pointing ahead.

Shen Xin drove around, turned right, and hadn’t gone thirty meters before he slammed on the brakes.

To their right, in a small alley, half of the tiger’s body was visible behind a car parked in front of a house.

Its hearing must have been very sharp; the sound of the car’s engine had already alerted it.

It glanced over its shoulder, then immediately bolted.

Its running form was truly full of power, and with a single bound, it disappeared behind a courtyard wall.

Shen Xin quickly drove forward.

They could see its agile form running between the rows of houses.

Soon, it hit a dead end, stopped short, and turned to run back.

Shen Xin wanted to reverse, but Sun Jingyi’s car was blocking the way behind them.

"Don’t chase it," Chen Chao said, quickly stopping Shen Xin. "The more we chase it, the more it’ll run. It’s already past six. People will be waking up soon. We can’t risk startling it, or something terrible could happen."

Shen Xin stopped.

’He’s right, but we can’t just ignore it, can we?’

Just as Chen Chao had said, it was past six o’clock, and the village had many elderly residents who woke up early.

My god, if someone pushed open their gate to find a tiger outside, it would be a death sentence.

Chen Chao scratched his head hard and changed his tune. "Alright, just drive slowly then."

As he spoke, he rolled down the window and shouted to Sun Jingyi and the others behind them.

He told them to spread out, stop following, and block the intersections of the village’s main roads.

He also told Wang Xin to hurry up the backup from the Houxia Police Station. Once they arrived, they needed to find a way to notify the villagers to stay inside and not go out for the time being.

Or if there was a village group chat or something, to send a notification there too.

Only then did he tell Shen Xin to drive slowly and search for any sign of the tiger.

Sun Jingyi and his team reversed and drove off. Shen Xin also turned the car around and drove slowly, scanning the area for the tiger.

Some courtyards had walls, some didn’t.

The ones without were fine, as the doors were shut tight.

He was worried about the ones with courtyards. A two-meter-high wall, honestly, was something the tiger could leap over with ease.

Shen Xin thought of his ability.

’It worked on that vicious crocodile, building up affinity. What about a tiger?’

’It should work, right?’

’I could just sit in the car and toss it some food. Maybe that would calm it down.’

But the thought of food made Shen Xin’s heart skip a beat.

’The tiger’s been loose for six hours now. It must be hungry.’

Just as he was thinking this, the tiger shot out onto the road ahead with a WHOOSH.

"Over here!"

Chen Chao pointed urgently, then grabbed the car’s walkie-talkie and yelled, "Xiaosun, the tiger is heading your way!"

Shen Xin drove to the intersection and saw the tiger running down the village road.

At the end of the road was the police car driven by Sun Jingyi.

This created a pincer formation.

Perhaps in an attempt to stop the tiger, Sun Jingyi chose to sound the siren.

The tiger stopped abruptly, turned, and ran.

But as soon as it turned, it saw Shen Xin’s police car.

It whipped its head around and leaped into the farmland on the left.

In the morning light, it was as agile as if it had wings, running freely across the fields. The scene was almost beautiful, but Shen Xin’s heart sank.

’How are we supposed to chase it now?’

"Turn around," Chen Chao said urgently, pointing behind them. They had to take the main road to catch up.

But just as they reached the village entrance, several police cars arrived.

The backup from the Houxia Police Station was here.

Chen Chao leaned out and gestured for them to follow, then sped off along the main road in pursuit.

But they were too far away, and the tiger quickly vanished from sight.

Chen Chao checked a map, trying to figure out where to continue the chase.

They scrambled around like this until the main reinforcements arrived.

Fire trucks, ambulances, and the SWAT team.

And it wasn’t just the sub-bureau’s SWAT team; the municipal detachment had come too.

Lv Youwei and Sun Zhao were here, and even their top boss, Zhao Hongjie, had arrived.

The sky was completely bright now.

On an unnamed road between Qi Ba Village and Daijiatang, Zhao Hongjie questioned Chen Chao about the situation with a grave expression.

He didn’t have time to assign blame.

No one could have predicted that a circus tiger would accidentally escape.

"Deploy the drones, and pull the surveillance footage from the area. Find it!"

"Also, block off the main intersections nearby. Form a perimeter first."

"And contact the village committees for Daijiatang and the other villages here. Have them find a way to reach the villagers and tell them not to go outside for now."

Zhao Hongjie calmly issued his commands.

First, find the tiger. Then they could talk about how to deal with it.

After giving his orders, he had someone urge the experts from the Forestry Bureau and the zoo to hurry over with their tranquilizer guns.

Ding Yuwei had also come as support. She found Shen Xin and asked him nervously how he was.

"Don’t even ask. I’m drenched in a cold sweat."

Shen Xin thought back to the factory gate. If the tiger had really been startled and charged them...

...at human speed, there would have been no escape.

Zhao Tianxing was there too, grimacing. "If that thing curls up in some corner, it’ll be impossible to find. Even police dogs wouldn’t work, would they?"

He remembered reading online that tigers have some kind of ’bloodline suppression’ over dogs.

’Using police dogs to chase a tiger... Forget ’bloodline suppression,’ even if they did catch up, they’d just be a free meal.’

The SWAT detachment brought two drones and began searching the area around Daijiatang and Qi Ba Village.

More support continued to arrive, including people from the Forestry Bureau and the zoo.

They had tranquilizer guns, but the problem now was finding the tiger first.

After about ten minutes of flight, they found it.

It was still in Daijiatang.

To the north of Daijiatang, there was a river ditch, a fairly wide one, three or four meters across.

The drone had now spotted something along this ditch, to the northeast of Daijiatang: what looked like a duck farm.

It was a decent size, enclosed by walls on all four sides. To the north were large sheds for the ducks, a bathing pool was in the middle, the entrance was to the southeast, and a row of single-story houses, likely the residential area, ran along the eastern wall.

And now, the tiger had just leaped over the wall.

Instantly, all hell broke loose.

One side of the duck shed must have been semi-open, as the tiger dove right in.

It was like it had broken into an all-you-can-eat buffet. They could vaguely see ducks scattering in every direction.

"Go, go, go!"

Zhao Hongjie didn’t have time for a closer look and ordered everyone to move out immediately.

The crowd of officers sped off.

Shen Xin drove, with Ding Yuwei and Zhao Tianxing in his car.

In the car, Zhao Tianxing was still joking around, saying they should let the tiger eat a few ducks. Once it was stuffed, it probably wouldn’t attack people.

It must not have been fed enough at the circus, which is why it ran off to find food.

Shen Xin thought to himself, ’If only it were that simple.’

’It’s obvious that people live at this duck farm.’

’With all this commotion, what if someone comes out and gets hurt?’

’But with the top brass here now, it’s not my place to worry about it.’

Shen Xin just hoped this whole affair could be resolved perfectly, with no one—and no tiger—getting hurt.

It was only a few minutes’ drive. One after another, police cars screeched to a halt on the road outside the duck farm.

The moment Shen Xin got out of the car, he heard the roar of the tiger and the QUACK, QUACK, QUACK of ducks.

Most importantly, he also heard someone shouting, screaming for help!

Whatever you fear most is sure to come true. Something had really gone wrong.