"Ahhhh—Ah Qing, there's a lizard!" At around 6:30 in the morning, a woman's scream pierced through the hazy morning mist in the mountains, spreading to the surroundings outside the house.
"Ah!?"
Ah Qing, who had slept for less than four hours, was startled awake upon hearing someone call her name in her sleep, bewilderedly surveying her surroundings.
"What the heck! Such a big lizard!"
Before Ah Qing could come to her senses, Lingren's voice, filled with shock, echoed from outside the dormitory door, followed closely by a series of knocks. Tang You said:
"Ah Qing, wake up! There's going to be chaos in the bathroom!"
"What's happening?"
Ah Qing paused for a moment, quickly flung off the blanket, and dashed toward the dormitory door.
Tang You, too, had no time to explain, hurriedly pulling Ah Qing's arm and running toward the first floor.
"Huh?"
Ansheng yawned, stretching his whole fox body to the limit, then rolled off the bed, looking weary as he murmured:
"What's the noise about early in the morning? Just a lizard, do you really need Ah Qing?"
"I could cover it with a cup, shake it a bit, and even the mighty Jin Long would turn into a guardian... What the heck! A big lizard!"
Ansheng grumbled in dissatisfaction, stepped out of the door, and looked towards the first-floor bathroom from the open glass railing, ready to scold them for disturbing his sweet dreams. From the second-floor railing, he happened to see the spot in front of the bathroom door.
A bewildered tiger was pawing open the bathroom's exhaust fan, its upper body poking inside, but getting stuck on the wall due to its chubbiness.
The girl who had been using the toilet was now sitting on the bathroom floor, unable to pull up her pants in time.
Ansheng was astonished by the sight.
Does Qinling... have tigers?
"Lingling, don't be scared. There are many of us!" Even Ah Qing couldn't help but gasp upon seeing the so-called "lizard" and comforted her classmate.
"Roar...."
The bewildered tiger roared at Ah Qing in an intimidating manner upon seeing her.
"Oh! I get it...."
"You're stuck, unable to move, and your legs are shaking!"
The opposite tiger was cursing rather crudely, but its roar was filled with guilt. Ah Qing even felt that if she stomped the ground forcefully, the tiger might wet itself in fear.
"I can help you out, but you can't bite me." Ah Qing thought for a moment and conveyed to the tiger.
As Ah Qing spoke, the image transmitted into the tiger's mind.
In a comic strip, Ah Qing was pulling its leg, successfully rescuing it.
But instead of gratitude, the tiger pushed Ah Qing down.
Ah Qing cried loudly, and all around the hostel area, terrifying upright apes came out, driving buses to crash into the tiger's butt, rolling back and forth over it.
Afterward, they set the mountains on fire, caught its parents to claim the corpse, and sent them to jail.
"Hiss—"
The violated tiger let out a sharp intake of breath, retracting its claws.
"Meow—"
The over 200-pound tiger whimpered pitifully in a low tone.
Seeing it promise not to hurt anyone, Ah Qing ran outside the hostel in her pajamas, seeing the lizard standing on the central air-conditioning unit and squeezing into the exhaust fan hole.
Ah Qing thought for a moment, patted its butt, and gently reassured the lizard, saying she was about to exert force.
The lizard carefully retracted its claws, fearing it might accidentally hurt Ah Qing.
Then.
Ah Qing climbed onto the air-conditioning unit, grabbed the tiger's neck with one hand, and its butt with the other, pulling it hard, saving the stuck tiger out.
"Alright! It's fine now. You promised not to hurt anyone just now, okay!"
Standing on the air-conditioning unit, Ah Qing held onto the tiger and spoke.
"Roar?"
Feeling a bit of strain on its scalp, the tiger couldn't see the ground below with its neck being held. Instinctively, it stretched out its forelegs to probe, but found nothing.
The tiger looked at Ah Qing, confused.
"You can't eat the fox inside the house either."
Holding the tiger, Ah Qing jumped to the ground, placed the tiger down, but still held its neck for fear it might hurt someone, walking forward.
The tiger tried to relax its forelegs.
It was being dragged forward.
It even stopped using its hind legs.
Yet it continued moving forward.
Tiger: "......"
It felt like it was experiencing the long-lost feeling of being carried by its mom as an adult.
...
The incident of Ah Qing wrestling a tiger didn't cause much of a stir at the Agricultural Research Institute; everyone reacted with a fairly indifferent expression. Ah Qing, who could even subdue a frenzied elephant, what was so strange about a mere tiger?
However, when the news reached the School of Animal Science.
The entire faculty and students were in an uproar.
Professors hurriedly moved, traversing through the mountains, rushing towards the hostel area.
There are no tigers in Qinling.
Should a tiger appear, it must be the Xia Nan Tiger, which the academic community listed as 'functionally extinct' in the wild.
The professors didn't bother making the dried and baked high-marinated meat snacks for the Lord Fox and scrambled back in haste.
"Orange-yellow, short stripes, petite and exquisite, it really is a Xia Nan Tiger extinct in the wild!"
Seeing the relatively small body and vividly orange-yellow fur of the tiger, the School of Animal Science professors were shocked.
The Xia Nan Tiger has very distinctive features, being one of the smallest tigers.
Its fur is all orange-yellow, with a vibrancy far exceeding any tiger, with saturation maxed out.
"Meow?"
The Xia Nan Tiger looked at Ah Qing, full of tension, wondering why everyone was gathering around when it didn't hurt anyone just now!
"Although, why does its voice sound peculiar....." With Ah Qing keeping things under control, all the School of Animal Science professors were gathered around the Xia Nan Tiger, meticulously observing without worrying it might suddenly attack.
Ah Qing's ability to tame beasts had long been recognized by all students and teachers at the School of Animal Science.
"Ah Qing, come over here....."
One of the professors from the Agricultural Research Institute waved at Ah Qing, signaling her to come over and to not get too close to those old scholars.
"After breakfast, there's a fungus collection task for your group. Let other professors handle the tiger. It's not our business..."
The Snake Woman rushed over.
The Xia Nan Tiger felt like a baby again.
...
The class time arrived.
"Pssst—"
The sound of a can of iced cola opening echoed as Ansheng sat in the hostel, turned on the TV, and retrieved his hidden and turned-off phone from between the sofa cushions.
"Hello? Is this Wang Ya?"
"Could you send some people over? I found three Grade II Qinling red foxes over here."
Ansheng took a sip of iced cola, speaking to Wang Ya on the other end of the call.
The Fox Kingdom is certified to adopt all foxes.
"Alright, Lord Fox, I'm coming over now. By the way, did Housekeeper Lin tell you what's happening?" Hearing that Lord Fox wanted to have a meetup, Wang Ya, sitting at the dining table, immediately brightened up and initiated a conversation topic.
"I know all about it." Ansheng replied, glancing at the clock on the wall: "The Security Bureau will come over this evening to fetch me; we'll resolve this together."
"Okay."
Upon receiving his reply, Wang Ya tossed her things aside, picked up the fennec fox with a floral scarf, and hastily headed towards the Southern Slope Region to start her appointment with the Lord.
"What???"
When Ah Qing returned after class, she immediately noticed an unfamiliar woman around her age petting her little fox, even kissing Xiao An's belly warmly.
"Hold on a second!"
"That little fox has an owner! It's not a wild fox! Don't you go picking up my Xiao An!"
While giving the Lord Fox a sunbathing massage, Wang Ya, upon hearing Ah Qing's voice, looked over with a clear hint of jealousy in her eyes.
"Oh ho! Your backyard is on fire!" The fennec fox sarcastically teased the Lord Fox:
"Wang Ya's 'sickness' is contagious, be careful she doesn't brainwash your owner!"
"Shut up, Little Flower!"
Ansheng glanced lazily at the fennec fox wearing an Elizabethan collar and mocked it with a chuckle.
"Woof—"
The fennec fox's fur bristled immediately upon hearing it.