PCJ – Chapter 235 The King Returns to the Mountains

“It’s not that I won’t open the door, but I really can’t. You saw that those tigers lost control today. If I open the door and they escape, with so many people outside, who can take responsibility? You saw earlier that the tigers didn’t harm the child. So, we’ll wait until our people have tranquilized the tigers before opening the door,” the trainer said with a forced smile.

“But what if the tigers attack the child? Should a child bear the consequences of your mistake?” Xia Guoxi understood the trainer’s reasoning, but he couldn’t stand by and watch Zhang Jiaohua get hurt without doing anything.

“Open the door! Jiaohua, Jiaohua, what should we do?” Zhang Manyin grabbed the iron gate and shook it desperately.

Zhang Jiaohua ran to the gate, not at all nervous, and tried to comfort his grandfather. “Grandpa, don’t worry. These tigers won’t bite me. Didn’t you see them circling around me earlier? Uncle Xia, tell them not to shoot the tigers; they won’t hurt anyone.”

Zhang Jiaohua saw the trainers holding guns and thought they were going to kill the tigers.

“Don’t worry, they’re holding tranquilizer guns. They won’t kill the tigers,” Xia Guoxi smiled bitterly. The child didn’t realize the danger he was in and was more worried about the tigers.

“Then tell them not to use the tranquilizer guns. I can make the tigers listen,” Zhang Jiaohua felt sorry for the tigers. Even though he knew the tranquilizer guns wouldn’t harm them, he didn’t want them to get hurt because of him. Zhang Jiaohua didn’t understand big principles; he only knew that these tigers had shown him friendliness, and he didn’t want them to be hurt. Though he couldn’t take them from the zoo, he hoped they wouldn’t be injured.

“Okay, I’ll talk to them,” Xia Guoxi said.

The trainer, standing nearby, heard Zhang Jiaohua and Xia Guoxi’s conversation clearly.

“I heard you. I can agree to that. If he can lead the tigers into that cage over there, we won’t need to use the tranquilizer guns, which are a hassle anyway,” the trainer said.

“Okay, I’ll get them to go over,” Zhang Jiaohua said.

Although there was some doubt about whether Zhang Jiaohua could do it, his earlier performance had already surprised everyone. A person alone in the training area with five tigers for so long without being harmed was extraordinary. The trainers now wanted to see if Zhang Jiaohua could indeed lead the tigers into the cage.

Zhang Jiaohua beckoned to the tigers, and they immediately ran over joyfully, wagging their tails and rubbing their heads against him. The tiger cubs vied for his attention, seemingly drawn to some scent on him.

“What does this kid do?” the trainer couldn’t help but ask Xia Guoxi.

“He’s from the countryside. Maybe he has a scent that these tigers like,” Xia Guoxi, though unhappy with the trainer’s previous actions, replied.

“Strange. Could he be hiding something?” the trainer muttered.

“You’ve been at the zoo for years, yet do you have anything that makes these tigers listen to you like this? Without your tricks and sticks, you can’t control these animals at all,” Xia Guoxi said disdainfully.

Zhang Manyin remained very nervous, gripping the iron gate tightly, his veins bulging.

Zhang Jiaohua walked leisurely towards the cage. The tigers, indeed very intelligent and worthy of being called kings of the beasts, followed him. He thought it would be amazing to raise a few tigers, even wolves would avoid him, but it was just a thought.

“Go into the cage. Otherwise, they’ll shoot you. You were once kings of the beasts, but here you have to listen to them. I can’t take you away. Live well, and I’ll come see you next time I’m in the city,” Zhang Jiaohua opened the cage, and the tigers reluctantly went in one by one. He closed the cage.

Seeing the cage closed, the trainers outside the training area opened the iron gate and rushed in, quickly securing the cage with locks.

“Kid, you’re something else, staying with tigers for so long. Can you tell me how you made them listen?” the trainer asked.

Zhang Jiaohua, not liking the trainer for hitting the tigers, replied bluntly, “You won’t learn my way, and I won’t teach you.”

His straightforward answer made the trainer feel awkward.

As Zhang Jiaohua prepared to leave, the tigers became agitated, clawing at the cage.

Zhang Manyin and Xia Guoxi quickly followed, with Zhang Manyin holding Zhang Jiaohua and heading out. “You little rascal, you scared me to death today. What if something happened to you? Let’s go back quickly. Staying here another minute keeps my heart in my throat.”

Zhang Jiaohua kept looking back at the tigers, feeling an attachment he couldn’t shake. The tigers’ clawing and the loud noise they made could be heard clearly even from a distance.

Because of the zoo incident, Xia Guoxi didn’t dare to keep Zhang Manyin and Zhang Jiaohua longer and bought them tickets to return in the afternoon. He sent them on a bus back to Gezhu Ping Town that afternoon.

Unexpectedly, a few days later, the five tigers that had been behaving well suddenly chewed through the zoo’s wire fence and escaped. By the next morning, the tigers were nowhere to be found. Many citizens of Sanxiang City reported seeing large animals resembling tigers the previous night.

The escape of the five tigers alarmed the entire city. The military and police conducted a city-wide search but couldn’t find the tigers. A few days later, traces of the tigers were found in the nearby mountains.

No one connected the tigers’ escape to Zhang Jiaohua’s encounter with them at the zoo. In reality, the tigers couldn’t possibly follow Zhang Jiaohua’s scent over such a great distance.

Zhang Jiaohua didn’t know what happened in Sanxiang City after he left. If he did, he might have been happy for the tigers. Returning to the mountains was the rightful place for the king of beasts.