What the hell is a surprise?
This is what the hell a surprise is!
Staring at the massive, striped tiger emerging from the lush jungle, everyone present froze solid.
In an instant, a torrent of thoughts raced through their minds.
“Why is this tiger here?”
“What about the security guards who went into the mountains to catch it earlier?”
“Did they lose its trail? Or did they find it, but it managed to slip away in the chaos?”
Their thoughts were a tangled mess. They couldn’t figure it out, no matter how hard they tried.
And right in the middle of their frantic pondering—
Thump!
“You wretched beast! How many times have I told you along the way?”
“Don’t you dare howl for no reason.”
“Don’t you ever learn?”
A dull thud rang out, followed closely by a man’s scolding voice.
Hearing this, everyone was stunned. Because they all saw it—behind the tiger, a large, calloused palm reached out and landed a heavy smack right on the tiger’s head.
“???”
At the sight, everyone’s eyes went wide with disbelief.
But what baffled them even more was that, after taking that slap, the fiercely intimidating tiger didn’t get angry at all. Instead, it shrank its head back and obediently shut its mouth.
At the same time, their gazes traveled up the tiger’s body—and there, sitting on its back, were a man and a woman. The man was in front, the woman behind, clutching his waist tightly as if terrified of falling off.
“Jiang Nian?! Chen Qiao’en?!”
Yang Rong recognized them and blurted out in shock.
Hearing his name, Jiang Nian turned to look. When he saw Yang Rong and the others, he broke into a grin. “Yo, everyone’s here! Did you know I was coming back and come out specially to welcome me?”
Seeing such thoughtfulness, Jiang Nian naturally wouldn’t ignore it. So he gave a light squeeze with his legs.
“Go!”
He uttered a soft command, and the tigress immediately understood. She strode forward toward where Yang Rong and the others stood.
Jiang Nian’s intentions were good. After all, since they’d all come out to greet him, it would be far too arrogant of him to stay put and not go over.
But to his surprise, upon seeing this, Yang Rong and the others all changed expressions. Pushing aside their confusion, they hurriedly called out to Jiang Nian, “Don’t come over! Don’t come over!”
Jiang Nian grabbed the tigress by the scruff of her neck, making her stop.
Then he looked at the group. “What’s wrong? Not happy to see me?”
Everyone shook their heads frantically. “Of course we’re happy! But Teacher Jiang… what the hell is going on here?”
They stared at the tiger beneath him, their faces a picture of utter bewilderment.
Hold on—you go out for a while, and you come back with a tiger? And this tiger seems to listen to you like a well-trained pet?
How is that even remotely reasonable?
They couldn’t process it, and they were deeply shaken.
Jiang Nian, however, looked completely at ease as he patted the tiger. “Ah, I just beat it into submission, and it turned out like this. Pretty docile, actually. Want to give it a pet?”
Yang Rong and the others twitched at the corners of their mouths.
They glanced at the tigress, who was now glaring at them with clear hostility after Jiang Nian’s words.
Pet this thing?
Sure, for a split second, they’d actually been a little tempted. But reason quickly won out over impulse. One lick from this beast, and they’d probably lose a layer of skin!
Everyone shook their heads frantically, like bobbleheads.
“No, no, thank you for the offer!”
“I’m allergic to cat fur. Maybe next time.”
“Same here.”
“…”
They scrambled for every excuse and reason they could think of.
Seeing how resistant they were, Jiang Nian chuckled and didn’t tease them further. Instead, he scooped up Chen Qiao’en, who had been sitting behind him, and looked at her agent. “If I remember right, you’re the Sect Master’s agent, yeah? The Sect Master’s injured—feels like a few broken ribs. Take her to the hospital right now.”
“Huh? Oh! Oh, right!”
The agent snapped out of her daze at Jiang Nian’s words. Upon learning that Chen Qiao’en had actual fractures, her concern for her client suddenly outweighed her fear of the tiger. She walked straight over and took Chen Qiao’en from Jiang Nian’s arms.
Feeling the heavy weight in her arms, the agent finally broke down. Tears streamed down her face. She sniffled, “Qiao’en, you scared me to death, you know that? When I heard you’d been carried off by a tiger, I nearly lost my mind! If something had really happened to you, how could I ever face your parents?!”
Chen Qiao’en understood perfectly well how much worry today’s ordeal had caused her agent. So she forced a weak smile. “But I’m fine, aren’t I? There, there, don’t worry anymore. It’s all over now.”
“Mm.”
The agent sniffled and nodded. Then she wiped the tears from her eyes and turned to Jiang Nian with immense gratitude. “Mr. Jiang, thank you! If it weren’t for you, our Qiao’en might have…”
“Alright, alright, save the pleasantries for later. Take her to the hospital now.”
Seeing that the agent was about to ramble on, Jiang Nian cut her off immediately. Now wasn’t the time for chit-chat—she really needed to get her priorities straight.
The agent nodded and quickly pulled out her phone to contact the hospital. After that, she carefully carried Chen Qiao’en to the side, gently set her down, and then hovered over her without taking her eyes off her for a second.
Today’s events had scared her half to death. At the very least, for the foreseeable future, she wasn’t letting Chen Qiao’en out of her sight.
Everyone understood how she felt. After all, even just watching from the sidelines today had been nerve-wracking enough. They could only imagine how much worse it would have been to actually be carried off by a tiger. Their reactions would probably have been even more extreme than the agent’s.
And speaking of that…
People couldn’t help but look up at Jiang Nian, who was still riding the tigress and had rescued Chen Qiao’en.
Deng Sha’s eyes sparkled with curiosity, and she couldn’t help asking, “Lord Jiang, what exactly happened?”
“What do you mean, what happened?”
Jiang Nian stroked the tigress’s silky fur and asked in return.
“I mean this tiger—how did you tame it?”
Deng Sha asked. She remembered Jiang Nian had mentioned earlier that he’d just beaten it into submission, and it had become like this. She was dying to know the details.
At that, the others also turned to look at him. Clearly, they were just as curious about what had gone down.
Jiang Nian didn’t hold back—after all, if people were practically begging him to show off, why not enjoy it? So he sat on the tiger’s back and regaled them with the story of what had just happened.
To be fair, when it came to spinning a good yarn, Jiang Nian—being from Dongbei—definitely had a knack for it. In reality, he’d barely used any effort to subdue the tigress; it had been a complete one-sided beatdown. But when he told the story, he made it sound like an epic, fate-driven showdown.
His audience listened with rapt attention, gasping and exclaiming in awe.
“As expected of Lord Jiang—truly amazing! Even a tiger is no match for you!”
“No kidding! A tiger this huge, and he took it down with just a few punches and slaps, then tamed it into a mount!”
“Hey, speaking of riding tigers, it reminds me of an ancient military unit—the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry. I remember they were super elite, each soldier worth ten men, but even they never actually rode real tigers!”
“That’s exactly why Teacher Jiang is so incredible! Going head-to-head with a tiger—his combat skills are insane!”
“For real, Teacher Jiang, are you sure you’re not some kind of monster?”
People asked in shock, and no one suspected that Jiang Nian might be exaggerating. After all, the proof was right there in front of them. No matter how much he embellished, how far could he really go? It wasn’t like he’d just one-shot the tigress, right?
They brushed it off, unaware that the very thing they thought impossible was actually the plain truth. It just showed that Jiang Nian had been considerate enough to tone it down for their sake. Otherwise, who knew what expressions Huo Jianhua and the others would be making right now?
He really did care, I swear!
The crowd was buzzing with excitement.
And among them, the one most worked up—without a doubt—was Huang Junwen, the director of The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. In fact, strictly speaking, he wasn’t just excited—he was on the verge of losing his mind!
Huang Junwen gazed at Jiang Nian with devout reverence and clasped his hand tightly.
Like many directors in the industry, Huang Junwen was a firm believer in the divine. But until now, he’d never had a clear concept of what a “god” actually was. He only knew that a god would descend from the heavens in times of crisis and save him from despair.
That was why, after Chen Qiao’en was taken by the tiger, he’d been praying silently for a miracle.
But God hadn’t answered him.
Instead, Jiang Nian had!
This tall, handsome man had single-handedly not only saved The Smiling, Proud Wanderer crew, but also salvaged Huang Junwen’s crumbling career!
Looking at him, Huang Junwen couldn’t contain himself.
Thump!
A dull thud rang out. Jiang Nian looked down and saw Huang Junwen kneeling on the ground.
Jiang Nian was taken aback.
What the hell was this?
New Year’s was coming up, and this guy was already begging for red envelopes? He wasn’t even married yet—no way was he giving any!
Jiang Nian grabbed Huang Junwen’s hands. “Director Huang, what are you doing? Get up!”
“No, I need to do this. Teacher Jiang, without you, my whole life would be ruined!”
Huang Junwen said with utter devotion. Without waiting for a reply, he bowed his head to the ground and performed a full kowtow to Jiang Nian.
Jiang Nian: “…”
Come on, man. Are my so-called “three melons and two dates” really that tempting?
Are you just going to keep going?
