It was already past eight in the morning by the time they returned to Sanbao Temple.

The entire street was filled with stalls and bustling with people.

A large crowd of onlookers had gathered around the circus.

Word had long since spread that the circus’s tiger had escaped and that SWAT had been dispatched to capture it.

On top of that, someone at the circus had died, and the scene was cordoned off with police tape.

As Shen Xin squeezed through the crowd, he overheard someone confidently proclaiming that the tiger had burst into a private residence.

’Poor guy,’ the man was saying. ’There was just one old man left in the house.’

"And guess what?"

He said, like a crosstalk comedian, "The old man was a cripple, washing his face in his wheelchair. He wipes his face with a towel, opens his eyes, and BAM! A giant tiger!"

"And you think the old man was so scared his legs were cured, and he jumped out of his wheelchair and ran?"

"Let me tell you, no way! That tiger’s too fast. It pinned the old man to the ground in a flash. I don’t even need to tell you the rest, you can imagine. Anyway, I heard that by the time the police got there, only half a leg was left."

"Why was a leg missing?"

"What a question! There’s a lot of meat on a leg, and it’s tasty. Why else do you think you like chicken legs so much?"

The people around him looked on in amazement, whispering and tsk-tsking amongst themselves.

Shen Xin silently rolled his eyes and directed the crowd to disperse so the SWAT vehicle could drive in.

The tiger was being returned to the circus after all.

The zoo didn’t really want it.

But now a new problem arose: how to get the tiger out of the vehicle.

Kuang Guorong peered through the window for a look.

The tiger was sleeping soundly. Two hundred kilograms wasn’t impossible to lift.

But who the hell knew if it was just taking a nap after a full meal or if the tranquilizer had actually kicked in.

The memory of the tiger leaping two meters into the air with two tranquilizer darts sticking out of it was still fresh in his mind.

If it was the former, and it suddenly woke up while they were huffing and puffing to carry it out, it would scare them to death.

He somewhat regretted letting the zoo staff leave so soon.

’They should have given it a couple more shots, at least.’

After some consideration, they decided to tie its paws while it was sleeping. Then, several people went up, and with a combined effort, they managed to roll it onto a wooden plank used for the stage and carry it back to its cage.

Only then was the matter truly finished.

"Shen Xin, you’re incredible." Unsurprisingly, Kuang Guorong gave Shen Xin a thumbs-up. "I hear you also have a cat that can do reconnaissance. We’ll have to talk more about that later."

He added Shen Xin on WeChat and left with his team.

The tiger situation was resolved, but the case still needed to be solved.

While they were dealing with the tiger, the on-site work had been completed. Du Xin Kai and his team were getting ready to leave.

They were just waiting for Lu Wenxue.

Tian Haoming was his maternal uncle, and he was the only relative.

They needed to ask for his consent for an autopsy to confirm the true cause of death.

On the way back, Chen Chao had already asked his opinion, and he had agreed to it.

His exact words were that he had no idea his uncle had a heart condition.

That statement was a bit strange.

’Their circus traveled all over the country. They were together day and night. It was his own uncle—how could he not know if he was sick?’

"Xiaoshen, I heard you played the part of a Beast Tamer for a bit? Impressive!"

Du Xin Kai zipped up the body bag and looked up to ask.

The chubby, game-playing Kang Bin joked, "Old Du, what do you know? In his past life, Shen Xin was definitely a Druid."

Yu Xiaoping, who was assisting, curiously asked Shen Xin if he had been scared.

"What kind of question is that? Of course I wasn’t scared."

Shen Xin lifted his head slightly and struck a pose.

All he was missing was a chair.

"At such a critical moment, when the lives of the people were in imminent danger, I ask you, could you just stand by and watch? If you did, would you be worthy of the uniform we wear?"

Zhao Tianxing played along, immediately applauding and cheering.

Everyone else joined in the applause.

"Alright, you. Let’s get to work."

Ding Yuwei came over and dragged Shen Xin away.

The two of them followed Chen Chao to inspect Tian Haoming’s living quarters.

They hadn’t had a chance to check it earlier, having been interrupted by the tiger.

However, they had left someone to guard it when they left, so everything was as it was.

Tian Haoming truly made the circus his home.

According to Lu Wenxue, whenever they performed somewhere, the troupe members would stay in a hotel, but Tian Haoming always stayed behind to watch over the equipment.

In his own words, he didn’t trust anyone else to watch over things, especially with so many animals. He was afraid others would be careless and not take proper care of them.

"From that description, Tian Haoming seems like a very responsible person. Logically, he wouldn’t make a mistake like forgetting to lock the cage and letting the tiger escape," Ding Yuwei said.

Several troupe members confirmed that Tian Haoming was very responsible.

On the other hand, Lu Wenxue, the vice-head and the head’s own nephew, was a bit of a klutz and not very reliable.

Tian Haoming lived in a truck.

One of the cargo trucks was pulling a shipping container that was normally used as the troupe’s dressing room.

Deeper inside, there were piles of performance costumes, props, and other such things.

In the very back was a bed with a desk next to it.

This was where Tian Haoming slept.

It was very crude.

Shen Xin lifted the bedding and several blister packs of medicine fell out from under the pillow.

There were several different kinds.

"Captain Chen, look. Tian Haoming really did have a heart condition," Shen Xin said, showing them to Chen Chao.

Aspirin, isosorbide mononitrate capsules... The latter in particular was medication for treating heart conditions.

Chen Chao nodded slightly.

In that case, it was indeed strange that Lu Wenxue, his own nephew, didn’t know about Tian Haoming’s illness.

He said, "Keep looking."

Just then, Ding Yuwei confirmed with Lu Wenxue and used a small key from the keychain to open the locked desk drawer.

Inside was just some miscellaneous stuff. There was cash, but not much, only a few hundred yuan.

Then there were some circus documents, permits, and so on.

There was also a thick, black leather-bound ledger.

It was old, its edges frayed. Ding Yuwei picked it up and opened it, but a letter slid out from within.

It wasn’t sealed. Ding Yuwei quickly handed it to Chen Chao.

Chen Chao held it up to the light of a hanging lightbulb before opening it. Inside were two sheets of letter paper.

The three of them read it together under the light.

It was addressed to his nephew, Lu Wenxue.

Not many people wrote letters these days.

Tian Haoming’s handwriting wasn’t very good, and his writing style was the sort that just jotted down thoughts as they came.

But between the lines, his sincere feelings shone through.

It was a letter to put his affairs in order.

In the letter, he said that he had been running the circus for nearly twenty years, working from dawn till dusk. It started as a small team of a few people performing at weddings and funerals, and at its peak, the troupe had about twenty members.

Then, the business got harder and harder. Not only did he not make any money, but his own life wasn’t very good either.

He had traveled all over, married a wife who later divorced him, and didn’t even have a single child.

He also felt he had let Lu Wenxue down.

Lu Wenxue had a refined-sounding name, but his studies were a complete mess. He wanted to drop out before even finishing elementary school.

He had no father, and his mother couldn’t make a decision. It was Tian Haoming himself who, thinking the circus was quick money, got carried away. In a moment of foolishness, he brought Lu Wenxue along with him instead of insisting he stay in school.

As a result, business got tougher over the years. He could barely support the people and animals, and he had dragged Lu Wenxue down into a life of accomplishing nothing. He was in his late twenties, and his attempts to find a wife had all fallen through.

Then, last October, he was diagnosed with coronary heart disease.

He needed bypass surgery, which would cost a lot of money.

That’s when he first had the idea of retiring and handing the circus over to his nephew.

But he could never make up his mind. He was afraid it would be too tiring for Lu Wenxue. After all, it was a hard, itinerant life that took a heavy toll.

He also felt the future was bleak and that the business wouldn’t last much longer. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

But after thinking it over and over, he felt the circus was his life’s work, and he couldn’t bear to just disband it.

Besides, so many people were following him, depending on him.

And the animals—he didn’t know what to do with so many animals.

So, in the end, he still hoped Lu Wenxue would take over and do a good job. But he also said that if it really didn’t work out, if he couldn’t keep it going, it was okay to disband it.

But he had to find a way to settle the people properly; they were old partners who had followed him for many years.

And the animals, he’d raised them for so many years and had grown attached.

He rambled on again about how life wasn’t easy for his sister, a widow with a fatherless son, and how he always felt he had let Lu Wenxue down.