Landlord in the Arctic

But tigers are tigers, after all. Their title as the King of Beasts isn’t just for show.

Even if they’ve been hand-reared since birth, they’re still carnivores. No one can predict when their innate wildness might surface.

So, while the crowd wasn’t as frightened as before, they still hesitated to approach.

While the crowd was still looking on hesitantly,

A group of children, like runaway ponies, shot past the adults. Led by Fiona and Liu Lan, they chattered excitedly as they rushed toward the tigers.

"Don’t get too..." a nearby adult started to shout, having just realized what was happening.

Feng Shan raised a hand to stop him. "It’s fine," he said calmly. "These tigers are even better behaved than Fiona."

Before he even finished speaking, the children had already charged into the Tiger Pack like a flock of cheerful birds.

Far from resisting, the tigers were incredibly docile, letting the children pet and scratch them all over.

The even bolder Liu Lan and Fiona clambered right onto the tigers’ backs and began to play, riding them like horses.

Seeing this,

The last wisp of doubt in everyone’s minds vanished completely. They now fully believed what Feng Shan had said.

These tigers really were harmless.

And so, everyone mustered their courage and stepped forward to join in on getting up close and personal with the tigers.

After all, for most people, the chance to get this close to a tiger with no barriers was an opportunity no one wanted to miss.

"Feng, there are so many people here... stop... touching me!" Suddenly, Jenny felt something strange against her chest. A blush crept across her face as she whispered shyly.

But after her whispered reminder, she felt the hand continue its restless exploration inside her coat.

Jenny looked up, about to remind him again, only to see Feng Shan with both hands held high, signaling for the crowd not to swarm the tigers all at once.

’Feng’s hands are busy.’

’So whose hand is that in my coat?’

Puzzled, Jenny quickly looked down.

She saw a Santa hat wriggling around inside her coat. Surprised and curious, Jenny reached in, snatched off the hat, and a strange, bald bird’s head suddenly popped into view.

SQUAWK!

Tu’Er had been enjoying himself, and when his beloved hat was suddenly snatched away, he threw his head back indignantly. He opened his beak at Jenny and let out a shrill, grating cry.

"AH!!"

Jenny’s face went pale with fright. She violently pulled away from Feng Shan and stumbled backward.

She pointed a trembling finger at the bizarre bird, her voice shaking as she stammered,

"Wh-what is that thing?"

Feng Shan looked down and saw that Tu’Er had, at some point, chewed open his backpack’s zipper.

He had stuck his long neck out, and his bald head now wore an aggrieved expression. His small eyes stared pitifully at the Santa hat in Jenny’s hand.

"A Zuoshan Diao?"

Four old men from the crowd strode forward, quickly surrounding Feng Shan with looks of utter astonishment.

All eyes were fixed on Tu’Er, whose head was sticking out of the backpack.

The two ears on the bunny-ear hat Zhang Kai was wearing suddenly perked up. He looked at Feng Shan and asked quizzically,

"Xiaofengzi, how in the world is there a Zuoshan Diao in Alaska? Where’d you get it?"

"Get one? Why don’t you try getting one yourself," Feng Shan retorted crankily. He then set down his backpack and let Tu’Er out.

The moment he was free, Tu’Er took off in a series of quick, tiny steps, waddling over to Jenny.

He reached Jenny and began to circle her relentlessly, squawking all the while. His cries were particularly piercing above the noise of the crowd.

"Feng!" Jenny cried out, alarmed. It was the first time in her life she had ever seen a vulture, and she couldn’t help but be frightened by the strange-looking bird.

"Don’t be afraid," Feng Shan explained calmly, a smile on his face. "You took his hat. He’s just asking for it back."

Hearing this, Jenny quickly held up the Santa hat.

Tu’Er’s little eyes instantly lit up. He stretched his neck out stiffly, swiveling his head from side to side in a way that was both comical and cute.

"You want me to put it on for you?" Jenny couldn’t help but laugh, amused by Tu’Er’s endearingly clumsy antics. Her fear vanished completely.

She gently placed the Santa hat on the strange bird’s head.

With his Santa hat back on, Tu’Er was overjoyed and immediately spread his wings.

A full two-meter wingspan unfurled with a great WHOOSH, casting a massive shadow over the crowd and drawing another round of astonished gasps.

"Xiaofengzi, you still haven’t told us where you got this Zuoshan Diao. That’s a Class-I protected species," Old Li said, his face stern. His brow was tightly furrowed, and his eyes held a hint of scrutiny.

Back when he was working on a construction site in the Northwest, a worker with nothing better to do had used a homemade slingshot to shoot a Zuoshan Diao. He even had the gall to claim it was to "improve their meals."

In the end, that worker was sentenced to five years in prison. His meals really did improve for five years—in the prison cafeteria.

Old Li knew full well that in a place like Alaska, there were definitely no Zuoshan Diao.

For a bird like this to show up here, there were only two possibilities: either it was legally acquired by a zoo, or it had been smuggled in illegally.

Of course, the Zuoshan Diao wasn’t exclusive to his home country; they could be found in many nations.

But Alaska’s ecosystem and native species meant that a Zuoshan Diao would absolutely not appear here out of the blue.

"Relax. He’s adopted, and I have the official papers," Feng Shan said, calmly pulling a document from his coat. He waved it in the air and raised his voice. "He, along with the tigers and the parrots, were all legally adopted from an animal rescue. Everything’s above board."