Chapter 540

Chapter 540

Alice never would have imagined that just by casually remarking how beautiful the tiger was, Arabella would say something like that.

And judging by her tone, she most likely wasn't joking.

At this, Alice immediately looked at Arabella, finding it both amusing and helpless. "No need, Grandma, that's way too much."

After today's events, she had truly witnessed just how over-the-top these wealthy people could be.

Not just Dana's schedule arrangements, but also Arabella's excessively carefree attitude.

Hearing Alice call her excessive, Arabella smiled and turned her gaze toward the center stage. "Not excessive at all. It's just keeping an animal, nothing more than spending a bit of money each month."

At that moment, the tiger had already been released by the animal trainer.

It walked slowly as the trainer cracked his whip and shouted commands that were hard to understand.

The tiger swayed its head as it walked, following the trainer's commands and jumping onto a cylindrical platform that had been prepared.

"Oliver also kept a tiger like this when he was little. Beautiful thing, looked almost exactly like this one." After watching for a while, Arabella smiled and pointed at the animal on stage.

Hearing this, Alice blinked and immediately looked in the direction she was pointing. She really hadn't expected that Oliver had kept a tiger when he was young.

"Is that tiger still alive?" She remembered that in captivity, tigers could live up to twenty-five years.

Oliver was exactly twenty-four now, so that tiger might still be alive.

"Of course it's alive, but it's kept in Novaria." Arabella nodded, and seeing her interest, was naturally willing to say more. "Back then, to let him keep it, we specially bought a small villa in Novaria."

Alice listened, nodding slightly, then couldn't help looking again at the tiger performing tricks on stage.

This tiger appeared to be in its prime, with a well-proportioned and beautiful body. Its overall coat was a slightly deep orange-red color, with smooth and beautiful black stripes flowing across it. Its fur was glossy and sleek—clearly well cared for by its owner.

"That tiger was bought from someone from Astoria. It's a beautiful Astoria tiger." Arabella continued talking.

At that moment, the tiger on stage was performing a jump through an iron hoop suspended in mid-air.

It was now on a platform, eyes fixed intently on the hoop, ready to pounce.

But just then, the clown rode out from behind the curtain on a unicycle, whistling through his mouth and holding a colored smoke bottle in his hand.

This scene immediately made all the audience gasp, but when they saw the clown successfully ride around the venue in a circle and spread colored smoke across the entire stage, they all applauded.

Everyone thought this was part of the circus performance.

But Alice, in a spot where the smoke hadn't yet risen, saw the animal trainer cracking his whip with an angry expression, talking to the clown.

They were far away, and with people screaming and whistling around them, Alice couldn't make out what they were saying at all.

The smoke rose very quickly. In just a few seconds, the people and beast on stage were completely covered by the smoke.

People heard the tiger's roar again.

Hearing it, Alice felt a panic in her heart, her brow furrowing slightly.

And Oliver, sitting on the other side, also straightened up in that instant.

His expression became serious immediately. "Something's wrong with that tiger!"

The surrounding audience didn't hear Oliver's words—only Molly and a bodyguard sitting right next to them heard.

This bodyguard was from Lumaria.

He immediately looked at Oliver. "What do you mean?"

"Do you have a tranquilizer gun?" But Oliver didn't answer, instead asking immediately.

The bodyguard showed him the tranquilizer pistol strapped to the outside of his thigh.

Oliver's mind settled, then he immediately turned to look at Molly. "Go tell Grandma and them to leave here immediately. That tiger is on the edge of going wild."

Molly had originally been puzzled about why Oliver was suddenly so tense, but hearing these words, she instantly became nervous too.

She practically jumped up from her seat, and without bothering to ask why, walked in a few steps to the space between Arabella and Alice.

"What's wrong, Molly?" Alice had been waiting for the performance after the smoke cleared. Seeing Molly suddenly come over, she was startled, then noticing the panic on her face, immediately asked.

At this moment, the commotion behind them also caught Liam's attention. He turned to look, but before he could figure out what was happening, a bodyguard came to stand in front of him.

"Mr. Reyes." Liam immediately looked over. The bodyguard speaking to him was the one who had been sitting next to Oliver.

"What's wrong?" Liam roughly guessed there was a situation on Oliver's side, glancing over there from the corner of his eye as he asked.

Behind him, Molly had already repeated what Oliver had said.

Hearing this, everyone was stunned.

Before they could react, Liam, who had been sitting silently in the front row, waved his hand forcefully and commanded the bodyguards beside him in a stern voice. "Everyone, load your tranquilizer guns, and if necessary, take out your pistols and shoot!"

His voice was very loud—loud enough that the audience members in the surrounding circle all turned to look.

But this was only a small portion of the audience in the venue. At this moment, the vast majority of people were still watching the smoke on stage.

The animal trainer's voice suddenly grew louder, even taking on a hint of panic.

But the cheers in the venue rose and fell continuously, and no one heard that the trainer's voice had already changed.

"No, Jessica! Sit down!"

It wasn't until the smoke gradually cleared and the cheering gradually died down that people finally heard the emotion revealed in the trainer's suddenly much higher voice.

At this moment, Alice and the others had already left through the back door under the bodyguards' escort. Even Oliver had been carried out of the circus venue by a bodyguard.

The remaining bodyguards held tranquilizer guns and gradually moved closer to the stage.

The colored smoke on stage had completely dissipated. The tiger Jessica bared her teeth, low growls coming from her throat, while the trainer slowly backed away as the beast approached.

The audience finally realized something was wrong.

The audience sitting in the front immediately stood up and ran toward the higher areas in the back.

The trainer had now been backed up to the edge of the stage.

He heard the commotion behind him and, seeing the bodyguards approaching with guns raised, quickly raised his hand to stop them. "No! Jessica is just not feeling well! She's already trying hard to control herself!"

During the trainer's explanation, Jessica roared again.

This tiger's roar was deafening, containing anger, and bore almost no resemblance to the roar when she first appeared.