Chapter 115: A Day Trip to the Zoo Part 1 (Extra 6)
May 1st was the official opening day of the Yue City Wildlife Zoo. All three thousand tickets sold on the official website were completely sold out, a result far better than Lin Jiangye and his team had expected.
Although Lin Jiangye had promoted the zoo through his livestreams, it was still a brand-new zoo after all. No one knew whether the fans would truly support it.
After discussing with the deputy director, Lin Jiangye decided to sell all Labor Day tickets at half price.
In addition, he prepared a small gift for the first batch of visitors. Anyone entering the park could receive it from the staff.
Lin Zhou was a small pet content creator and also a fan of Lin Jiangye.
When he learned that today was the zoo’s opening day, he bought a train ticket early and came specially to Yue City to see it.
He first learned about Lin Jiangye from the case involving dog thieves at a highway service station. After discovering that Lin Jiangye could locate “witnesses” among animals near crime scenes and even organize stray animals to help capture criminals, Lin Zhou’s understanding of animals completely changed.
For the first time, he realized that the animals living in a city could participate in human life—not as pets, but in their own way.
After arriving in Yue City, the first thing he noticed was that the animals here seemed unusually active.
Not only were they unafraid of people, sometimes they even approached on their own. And it wasn’t always for food.
According to Lin Jiangye, it simply meant the animal had taken a liking to a certain human and wanted to get close.
Lin Zhou saw a chubby little bird sleeping in a young woman’s hands, curled up like a tiny dumpling.
It looked so soft that he felt like if he poked it, the dumpling might even have filling inside.
Still, he couldn’t help worrying whether Yue City residents might find this annoying. After all, not everyone liked animals.
But as he observed along the way, even people who disliked animals simply frowned and waved them away impatiently, signaling them not to come closer. They didn’t do anything else.
He sighed with admiration in the taxi.
The driver in front laughed.
“Of course! Don’t forget who lives in Yue City—Advisor Lin! With him and those animals around, how long has it been since we’ve had any major cases?”
Not to mention that many police stations now kept stray animals and birds, which even helped catch petty thieves.
The people of Yue City weren’t ungrateful. The peaceful environment they enjoyed today came from the combined efforts of Lin Jiangye, the police, and the animals.
“How many stray animals are there now?” Lin Zhou asked curiously.
As a pet blogger, he sometimes rescued stray animals or worked with pet hospitals to help them find new homes.
Since stray animals in Yue City could get food and shelter from police stations, would more people irresponsibly abandon their pets?
The taxi driver suddenly laughed.
“Did you forget Advisor Lin’s ability?”
Lin Zhou paused, not quite understanding.
“Advisor Lin can talk to animals. If they were abandoned, do you think he wouldn’t know who abandoned them?”
Although there was no law forbidding such behavior, once the animals knew someone had abandoned a pet, they would never help that person if something happened.
And don’t talk about ‘the bigger picture.’ Animals were just animals.
Even humans wouldn’t help someone who had wronged them first.
“Bah!”
Lin Zhou burst out laughing in the back seat. Judging from the driver’s confident tone, something like that must have happened before.
When he arrived at the zoo, he couldn’t help taking a photo of the huge heads displayed on the main gate.
When he watched the livestream earlier, he had only seen a tiger head and thought it represented Tiger Mom.
But now he realized there were four heads on the gate—tiger, crow, tabby cat, and German shepherd.
The meanings were easy to guess.
The tiger was definitely Tiger Mom.
The tabby cat had to be Zangao.
The German shepherd represented the police dog.
As for the crow… was it Bixi or Opal?
Lin Zhou sent the photo to his fan group, and everyone immediately began guessing which crow it represented.
“I hope I meet Advisor Lin today,” Lin Zhou sighed. “Then I can ask him directly.”
After silently praying that fate would let two people with the same surname meet, he walked toward the entrance.
The opening ticket price was cheap—only 38 yuan.
While checking his ticket, a staff member told him some good news.
“The first group of visitors can collect a small gift at the visitor guide station according to their ticket information.”
A gift?
Lin Zhou hadn’t known this when he bought the ticket. It must be a surprise prepared by Advisor Lin.
He quickly went to the guide station.
Inside the small booth stood many visitors, each receiving a plush toy from the staff. And every toy was different.
Lin Zhou’s was a plush golden snub-nosed monkey, clearly a baby monkey with wide innocent eyes.
His heart melted instantly.
The toy was about the size of an adult’s palm. It was produced by the zoo itself and had very good quality—its fur was soft and smooth.
On the base of the tail he even found a label with the toy’s corresponding animal name.
“Xingxing.”
“Ah! Xingxing!” Lin Zhou exclaimed.
It was the little golden snub-nosed monkey that had once been found in Min Province.
Lin Zhou knew quite a bit about it.
The baby monkey had lost its mother and had fallen into a withdrawn, almost autistic state.
According to Advisor Lin’s guess, the baby monkey might have witnessed its mother being killed by poachers.
That trauma had caused its strange behavior.
But under Lin Jiangye’s careful care, the monkey gradually recovered and became lively again.
The plush toy reminded Lin Zhou of a livestream scene where the little monkey was caught stealing food.
Just like the toy, it had stared at everyone with big innocent eyes.
Thinking of that moment, Lin Zhou laughed and rubbed the toy in his hands.
“Little Xingxing~ so cute~ hehehe!”
He sounded almost like a creep.
Fortunately, he remembered he was in public—otherwise he might already be hugging the toy and kissing it repeatedly.
Even so, his strange laughter made the people nearby feel slightly uneasy.
He clipped the toy to his backpack and happily began exploring the zoo with the little monkey.
Lin Zhou had watched Lin Jiangye’s livestream tour before, so he wisely rented a scooter and followed the same route.
He clearly remembered “Brother Wei.”
Sure enough, when he arrived near the monkey mountain, he heard many visitors shouting “Brother Wei! Brother Wei!” through the glass barrier.
Brother Wei looked helpless and slightly annoyed.
Covering one ear, he slipped into the pavilion to escape the noise.
This human-like reaction fascinated many visitors.
But even in such a harmonious scene, someone always had to cause trouble.
In most zoos, warning signs clearly tell visitors not to feed the animals.
This zoo had them too—more than one.
Especially near the entrance, there was a huge sign clearly stating ‘NO FEEDING’ in large letters.
As long as someone wasn’t blind, they would definitely see it.
Yet despite that, someone still took out snacks and threw them toward the monkey mountain.
A small piece of bread was tossed into the monkey mountain.
To everyone’s surprise, none of the monkeys rushed to grab it. Instead, they quietly remained where they were, calmly staring at the person who had thrown it.
Then Brother Wei pressed a button near the entrance of the monkey enclosure.
A burst of music played, and the keeper inside walked over scratching his head in confusion. “What’s wrong, Brother Wei?”
Brother Wei didn’t say anything. He simply pointed at the bread on the ground. After the keeper noticed it, the monkey walked up to the person who had thrown the bread and tapped the glass door in front of him.
Clearly, he was reporting the matter to the keeper.
Everyone was amazed at Brother Wei’s intelligence. They knew monkeys were smart, but intelligence at this level was still rare.
They were also curious how the monkeys managed to resist eating the snack. Was it because the bread was still in packaging and they couldn’t smell it?
Seeing the bread on the ground, the keeper immediately became furious.
“Feeding animals is prohibited in the zoo! Snacks or fruit—everything is forbidden!”
Lin Zhou’s eyes widened. It was the first time he had seen such a tough keeper. Wasn’t he afraid of being reported?
Sure enough, the visitor being scolded instantly became angry out of embarrassment. He began shouting at the keeper and threatened to file a complaint.
But the keeper became even more assertive. He walked forward and pointed at the name badge on his chest.
“Go ahead and complain! There are cameras everywhere here. What happened will be perfectly clear. The director already told us—if it’s not our fault, we won’t bear any responsibility even if someone complains!”
Especially for something explicitly forbidden. They had repeated countless times: no feeding, no feeding. Yet people still ignored it.
Seeing the keeper’s attitude, the man froze. He clearly hadn’t expected complaints to be useless here.
“You… what kind of service attitude is this? I’ll report you to the Consumer Association!” the man shouted, though his tone was already losing confidence.
Lin Zhou frowned instinctively, worried about the keeper.
However, the first one to react to the man’s words was not the keeper—but Brother Wei.
Brother Wei quickly climbed onto the keeper’s body and in a few moves sat on top of his head, baring his teeth and roaring at the red-faced man.
[Get out! Get out! Get out!!!]
At that moment, Lin Jiangye happened to be patrolling nearby with the little golden snub-nosed monkey on his head. He heard the familiar angry roar from a distance.
When he approached, he saw Brother Wei completely furious.
But before figuring out what had happened, Lin Jiangye rushed into the monkey enclosure and pried open Brother Wei’s arms.
“Let go! You’re going to suffocate him!”
“Cough… cough…!” the keeper gasped for air, nearly feeling like he had just survived an assassination by a monkey.
Once Brother Wei calmed down, he saw the keeper clutching his neck and breathing heavily. Guilt immediately appeared on the monkey’s face.
He instantly forgot about the bad human and looked around before climbing up a nearby tree.
Lin Jiangye ignored him for the moment and asked what had happened.
The keeper angrily explained the entire situation. When the visitor learned that the young man with the golden monkey on his head was the zoo director, he suddenly became bold again.
“So you’re the director?”
The glass wall was sturdy but didn’t block sound very well. Fortunately, the area wasn’t too crowded.
Lin Jiangye looked at him calmly and nodded.
“Yes, I am. What’s the matter?”
His tone didn’t sound like someone preparing to apologize.
Not only Lin Zhou felt this way—everyone else sensed the same thing.
Although they believed the zoo had done nothing wrong.
“Your staff completely disrespects visitors! I only accidentally dropped a snack, and your employee scolded me! I demand he apologize immediately! And compensate me for emotional damages!”
As soon as he said that, everyone around him looked at him strangely.
Demanding an apology could barely be explained, but the second request was clearly extortion.
Besides, he had obviously thrown the bread himself. What did he mean by “accidentally dropped”? Did he think the surrounding visitors were blind?
The keeper’s face turned pale.
Lin Jiangye glanced at him meaningfully, then pointed toward the upper-left corner.
“Sir, do you know there’s a camera there?”
The man’s body stiffened. He knew zoos had cameras, but he didn’t expect one to be so close.
“Everything that just happened has already been clearly recorded. If you think the keeper did something wrong, I support you in filing a lawsuit. I’ll provide the surveillance footage in court. Let the judge decide who’s right.”
Lin Jiangye didn’t directly accuse him of extortion.
But the implication of his words was obvious.
Lin Zhou lowered his head and chuckled secretly, then lifted his phone and snapped a photo of Lin Jiangye.
At that exact moment, the baby golden snub-nosed monkey on Lin Jiangye’s head turned around, its innocent eyes staring straight into the camera.
Lin Zhou was instantly overwhelmed by cuteness. His finger kept pressing the shutter.
Click, click, click.
The sound made the little monkey curious.
[That person also has a Xingxing!]
The baby monkey sitting on Lin Jiangye’s head tugged gently at his hair and pointed toward Lin Zhou.
Lin Jiangye glanced over and noticed the Xingxing plush toy hanging from Lin Zhou’s backpack. A small smile appeared on his lips.
The man, repeatedly embarrassed and surrounded by people pointing and whispering, finally couldn’t endure it anymore. He quickly grabbed his child and left.
The keeper sighed with relief.
Then suddenly a flower appeared in front of him—a beautiful pink cherry blossom branch.
He froze and followed the branch upward.
Brother Wei was sitting on his back, holding the flower out toward him.
“It’s not ‘like.’ He really brought that flower for you,” Lin Jiangye said with amusement.
Brother Wei actually looked a little shy.
The monkey king… shy?
The keeper blinked, surprised but deeply touched.
He had worked as a keeper for many years, but this was the first time one of his animals had given him a flower.
Brother Wei made a soft gurgling sound.
The keeper didn’t understand and looked at Lin Jiangye for translation.
Lin Jiangye smiled.
“He’s apologizing to you. When he grabbed your neck earlier, he didn’t mean to.”
The keeper accepted the cherry blossom branch, his eyes moist.
“It’s okay. You were just defending me.”
Brother Wei looked at the sky and ground but refused to meet his eyes.
Yet he still didn’t jump down from the keeper’s back.
Lin Jiangye clenched his teeth to stop himself from laughing.
The poor soundproofing of the glass door now became useful.
After hearing Lin Jiangye’s translation and watching the monkey king’s behavior, the visitors outside smiled knowingly.
Lin Zhou couldn’t believe that on his very first visit he had already witnessed so many classic moments—Monkey King being shy, apologizing, and acting tsundere.
Too cute.
Before leaving, Lin Jiangye reminded the visitors again.
“The zoo will never underfeed the animals. Please don’t feed them. I’ve also told the animals—food from anyone except the staff must not be eaten.”
This explained why the monkeys had ignored the bread earlier.
Everyone nodded, promising they wouldn’t behave so poorly.
After speaking, Lin Jiangye tapped on the glass window near Lin Zhou.
“Please wait a moment.”
Lin Zhou froze, confused why he had been called.
As Lin Jiangye walked toward him, Lin Zhou suddenly felt nervous—like a student unexpectedly meeting the school dean.
“You actually got Xingxing’s plush toy! You’re really lucky!”
Lin Zhou blinked.
“Wait… isn’t everyone getting one?”
He had assumed all three thousand visitors received plush toys based on the zoo’s animals.
Lin Jiangye shook his finger.
“No. Each baby animal only had two plush toys made, based on their cutest moments. The rest are other animals in the zoo.”
That meant among three thousand toys, fewer than fifty were of the baby animals.
Lin Zhou quickly calculated the odds.
His eyes lit up.
“Wow! I’m so lucky! Actually, I’m your fan. When I entered earlier I even prayed I’d meet you!”
And now his wish had come true.
At that moment, Xingxing jumped from Lin Jiangye’s head onto Lin Zhou’s head, then climbed down to his backpack and grabbed the plush toy that looked exactly like himself.
The golden monkey landing on him made Lin Zhou freeze completely.
He didn’t dare move at all, afraid of dropping the monkey.
“Chi chi!”
[That’s me!]
“Yes, that’s you. The version caught stealing food,” Lin Jiangye replied immediately.
Xingxing dropped the toy, squeaked quickly, and ran back into Lin Jiangye’s arms, hiding.
Lin Zhou smiled warmly at the small tuft of golden fur peeking out.
“Since you’re my fan, how about I show you around personally?”
Lin Zhou gasped and nodded rapidly.
“Yes yes yes! But… won’t that delay your work?”
Lin Jiangye waved casually.
“It’s fine. I’m just patrolling anyway.”
Seeing Lin Jiangye walk ahead, Lin Zhou hurried after him.
Having the director personally accompany him made Lin Zhou feel like his trip’s enjoyment had skyrocketed.
Lin Jiangye knew every animal in the park and remembered each one’s personality and preferences.
When they reached the bear enclosure, he pointed at a black bear.
“This is a black bear rescued from Wenyang City. He looks fierce, but he’s actually very insecure and loves sticking to his keeper.”
Lin Zhou nodded. He remembered seeing this bear in earlier livestreams.
Other visitors looked doubtful. The bear was the largest and strongest in the enclosure—it was hard to associate it with insecurity.
But when the keeper walked out and the bear rushed forward to rub against her affectionately, everyone believed it.
The keeper was a petite woman, but she and the bear had formed an instant bond.
“Okay, okay, stop being clingy! I’m getting hot!” she laughed.
Even though it was only May, the temperature was rising. Hugging a thick-furred bear felt like wearing a fur coat.
The bear whimpered softly but obediently let go.
Then it noticed Lin Jiangye outside the glass.
“AWOO!”
[Director! I missed you!]
The black bear ran over excitedly, howling like a wolf.
Lin Jiangye’s smile instantly froze.
Making a bear howl like a wolf was definitely not his idea.
By the time he realized the wolves had influenced the bear, it was already too late—the habit had formed.
Later he had to move the bear far away from the wolf enclosure.
His gaze shifted to another bear nearby, hoping it might correct the behavior.
But the moment the second bear saw him, it also ran forward howling.
Lin Jiangye: ???
“Wait—how did all of you bears end up learning wolf howls from one bear?!”
