The howl of a wolf immediately tightened Ajing and Mazi's nerves; they stopped in their tracks, afraid to even breathe.
After a moment, Mazi finally spoke up, his voice dry, "This wolf howl... why do I feel something ominous? Should we just call it off today and come back another time?"
Ajing's desire for money overcame his unease, and with a smack, he cursed, "We've come all this way, what the f*ck are you afraid of?"
Mazi thought it over, a wolf howling a couple of times at night in a zoo seemed normal enough; maybe he was just getting too nervous!
They continued on, arriving at the base of the office building, which was completely dark in the night.
Even the main door wasn't locked—it opened with a push, saving them the trouble of breaking in.
Ajing was elated, "See, what kind of security could a rundown zoo like this have?"
Mazi got excited too, "Go grab the little White Tiger quickly. I'll keep a lookout for you outside. It's on the second floor, in the furthest room!"
"Got it!"
Ajing, carrying a crowbar, crept up the stairs.
Upon reaching the furthest room on the second floor, he shone his phone on the doorplate, which indeed read "Nursery."
Trying the handle, the door swung open.
Ajing found it so easy he could hardly believe it!
But as he stepped into the room and his phone's light swept around, he didn't find any trace of the little White Tiger.
In an instant, Ajing's mind went "boom," feeling as if struck by thunder. Could it be that the little White Tiger wasn't here at night?
"F*ck!"
Feeling like his lungs were about to explode, he flipped on the light and started frantically searching the room with bloodshot eyes.
Not on the floor! Not on the bed! Not under the desk either!
Bang!!!
Suddenly, a violent kick against a door, like an explosion, shattered the silence of the night!
Ajing shuddered and turned to look. The door of the opposite room was hanging askew on its hinges, and a Terminator-like muscle man emerged from the dust, expressionless and staring right at him.
With a clang, the crowbar slipped from his hand to the floor.
There was also a skinny guy, holding up a phone and seemingly recording, loudly shouting something he couldn't understand, "FBI, open the door!"
Ajing gulped hard.
What to do? Big brother, listen to me, I'm not a thief. I'm just an ordinary tourist with a bit of a special hobby, who likes to visit at night, right?
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the open window, and a spark of inspiration struck.
Climbing out the window and jumping to the ground was done in one fluid motion!
Thump!
Theft was common, but stealing a tiger was quite rare.
Especially when they learned that the target of the tiger thieves was one of the fewer than one hundred rare white tigers in the world, they took it very seriously.
Mazi and Ajing, encircled by Meng Shi's two burly arms around their waists, looked downcast and grumbled in a dialect that others couldn't understand, "I had a feeling something was off before. Hey, I said we should come another day, but you wouldn't listen.
Why would anyone be lying in wait for us? What went wrong? Ajing, how did you get caught?"
Ajing looked vacant, as if he had broken down, and kept muttering something quietly to himself.
"Hey, hey, let's get our story straight. When the police arrive, we must firmly deny that we are the white tiger thieves."
"White Tiger..."
Upon hearing the words 'White Tiger', Ajing suddenly became agitated and glared at Mazi, "The White Tiger Star Lord has spared me, and yet you sorcerer still want to harm me!"
He swung a furious punch at Mazi's face.
Mazi was both shocked and anxious, "Have you f*cking lost your mind?"
"Today I'm going to show you why the flowers are so red!"
"I%@¥..."
Meng Shi separated the two like he was picking up chickens, "Are you really acting like I don't exist?"
After reporting to the police, Fang Ye was startled by the sight of the two men with their faces beaten black and blue.
You guys just got caught and are still fighting amongst yourselves, quite energetic, huh.
Twenty minutes later, two police cars arrived at the entrance of the zoo.
In addition to the two tiger thieves, others also needed to accompany them to the police station to give a statement.
Fang Ye thought about it and decided to send He Yifei and Wang Jun with them.
The original suspicion of the tiger thieves began with Wang Jun, and last night, while on the move, He Yifei captured the scene of Ajing carrying a crowbar in the nursery room on his phone, which should also be useful evidence.
...
He Yifei and Wang Jun returned just in time for breakfast.
Fang Ye called them over to eat, asking, "How did it go?"
He Yifei looked amazed, "One of the tiger thieves started confessing before even being asked! But he was outlandish, saying that last night the White Tiger Star Lord, along with the Greedy Wolf Star Lord and the Bear Star Lord, came to catch him, and that he was only there to steal the white tiger because the sorcerer had coerced him."
"Pfft, what the hell is the Bear Star Lord," Lan Li covered her mouth, shaking with laughter, "Could he be referring to Meng Shi?"
Fang Ye shook his head and commented, "That's the disadvantage of being uneducated! Did the police say anything else?"
"The police also said that we were lucky this time for catching them early. Now that the zoo has such a precious white tiger, we should enhance security and install surveillance cameras as soon as possible. If needed, they can send someone over to instruct us. This is a veteran police officer's WeChat he gave me, and he also made me follow their official WeChat account..."
"Oh, they're really considerate."
Fang Ye remembered that they had been rewarded with an Intelligent Monitoring System for completing the task, which would be perfect to install.