Chapter 32: A Wild Safari Park?
After promising Sang Biao that in a couple of days he’d take him to the hospital to visit that human, Lin Jiangye went home.
The moment he got back, he found his house had practically been swallowed by crows—on the roof, in the yard, a black mass of at least a hundred crows stood packed together.
Jiang Xin was completely stunned, yet even while staring in disbelief, he was still in the kitchen, working like crazy to cook food for the crows.
Such a huge commotion even drew the villa estate manager over. Looking at the dense crowd of crows, he felt his scalp go numb.
When he saw Lin Jiangye appear, he hurried over and asked in a low voice whether Lin Jiangye had done something to make the crows hold a grudge against him.
“A grudge? No, no, no. They helped me a lot, so I’m treating them to a meal.” He just hadn’t expected so many to show up at once—Jiang Xin didn’t even have time to call him.
The manager looked bewildered. What did it mean, crows helped a lot? What “big help” could crows possibly give?
But whether it was a grudge or not, there was something he had to remind him. “Mr. Lin, we usually don’t interfere with what homeowners do in their own homes, but… if you keep it like this, it will affect other owners.”
Lin Jiangye looked up at his villa. The crows were chattering—yes, it was a bit noisy.
But—
“I remember each villa in this community is separated by over a hundred meters. From that far, can they really hear it?” It wasn’t that Lin Jiangye was being unreasonable. The crows knew this was a human residential area, and their voices weren’t loud—they were clearly holding their volume down.
And besides, this was the first time more than a hundred crows had appeared at once here. In the past, it was at most thirty.
The manager’s smile stiffened a little. This young man looked gentle and good-tempered, but he was actually quite stubborn.
He hesitated, then finally sighed helplessly and whispered in Lin Jiangye’s ear, “Actually… some homeowners complained that crows appearing around the place is ‘unlucky.’ They’ve complained several times. We don’t really have a solution.”
Lin Jiangye’s gaze turned cold instantly.
If it were only a noise issue, he could apologize. But this involved “luck” and superstitions—
“Crows have been auspicious symbols in our country since ancient times. Where does this ‘unlucky’ talk even come from?”
The manager met his eyes with helplessness. Whether crows were lucky or not wasn’t up to him—if people insisted on being superstitious, there was nothing he could do. (:??)_
Honestly, if he had to say it, he felt these crows were easier to deal with than those homeowners.
When the crows showed up, they stayed quiet. They didn’t randomly perch in public spaces to cause trouble for workers like him, and they certainly didn’t suddenly fly into other people’s houses.
And besides, he didn’t know if it was just his imagination, but ever since the crows started appearing around here, there seemed to be far fewer bugs and snakes in the community’s green belts!
Lin Jiangye didn’t take his displeasure out on an innocent person. He only gave the manager one message:
“If those people have problems again, tell them to come talk to me directly.”
He suspected they didn’t know who he really was, so they didn’t dare show their faces in front of him.
The manager’s eyes lit up immediately. He didn’t say another word—he turned and left at once.
After the manager disappeared, Lin Jiangye couldn’t help clicking his tongue.
“Good thing I was already thinking of moving. They think crows are unlucky—well, I think they’re unlucky.” Back at home, Lin Jiangye complained to Jiang Xin, annoyed.
Jiang Xin looked at the crows with a particularly gentle gaze. To him, crows weren’t “just crows.” They were his lifesavers.
Now his lifesavers were being called an unlucky omen—of course he was angry too.
“Don’t get angry in front of the kids.” But he also understood: human conflicts should never drag innocent animals into it.
Lin Jiangye paused, then rubbed his face hard. After forcing the hostility back down, he carried out another tray of food and stepped out of the kitchen.
“Dinner time!”
Jiang Xin was right. If he spoke those words out loud, the crows might actually get angry and retaliate. Then things would only blow up bigger.
If it reached the internet or government offices, they wouldn’t care how much the crows had helped the police. They’d only see “animals threatening human safety.”
But he was still furious!
That night, before sleeping, the German Shepherd sneaked onto the bed. When Lin Jiangye hugged it, the dog whispered into his ear:
[Why were you angry today?]
A dog’s nose was sharp—it could smell human emotions.
Lin Jiangye’s breath caught. Then he collapsed onto the German Shepherd, burying his face in the fluffy belly and taking a deep, deep inhale.
“It’s fine. This is a human matter. I can handle it.”
Worry filled the German Shepherd’s brown eyes, making Lin Jiangye’s heart soften. But he still didn’t tell it the details.
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the German Shepherd—he just felt Jiang Xin was right: human conflicts shouldn’t involve innocent living beings.
The next day, he deliberately went back to the squad alone, without bringing any of the kids, and explained the situation to ask for their opinions.
“Huh? What? Unlucky? How are crows unlucky?” Yan Keke reacted the most intensely.
“In ancient times, crows were seen as symbols of filial piety! If he says crows are unlucky, does that mean he thinks filial piety is unlucky too? And in The Classic of Mountains and Seas there’s the Golden Crow—sure, it’s not the same species as modern crows, but it’s enough to prove crows aren’t some evil omen!” Crows weren’t unlucky—they were auspicious!
The more Yan Keke talked, the angrier she got, until she was slapping the table and yelling.
Everyone else also found that superstition absurd and began offering Lin Jiangye ideas.
Qi Gaoyang rolled his eyes hard and said bluntly, “They’re just testing you. If Consultant Lin were the world’s richest man, forget crows—even cockroaches, they’d shut their eyes and call them auspicious.”
Lin Jiangye’s mouth twitched. The example was vivid… but please don’t use that example again.
Just then, Shang Fuyan came out of the bureau chief’s office. After hearing the discussion, he let out a soft laugh. “This is easy.”
Everyone looked at him. Shang Fuyan set the case-closing report on the table and tapped it with a long finger. “Isn’t this the perfect opportunity?”
Lin Jiangye looked up blankly, but the others all looked like they suddenly understood.
Sure, it was a bit self-serving—but the crows really had helped Wen’an District a lot, and they would help even more in the future. If anyone wanted these crows to “disappear,” the first to object would probably be the entire Criminal Investigation Squad.
“Not just us—have Director Zhou help too. Ask her to repost it, mention what the crows did in those special missing-person cases before. After that, nobody will dare call them ‘unlucky’ again.”
If a small district bureau didn’t carry enough weight, what about the entire Yue City Public Security Bureau?
And Director Zhou would absolutely be willing to give Lin Jiangye that face.
Sure enough, after hearing the full story, Director Zhou said she was happy to help. “This isn’t ‘giving face.’ This is telling the truth. The crows really did help us a lot back then—otherwise how could we have found those traffickers so quickly?”
So, when Wen’an District bureau posted a public notice stating they had apprehended the serial murder suspect “Zhang,” they deliberately bolded a line below the notice thanking Special Consultant Lin Jiangye and his animals.
Right after that, Yue City’s Public Security Bureau reposted the notice and openly asked whether the crows in their city also contributed.
And Wen’an District replied with a big thumbs-up: “Crows are criminals’ natural enemies!”
This oddly specific exchange left passersby completely confused. What did crows have to do with any of this?
But speaking of crows, plenty of netizens posted photos they’d taken outside the bureau—black swarms of crows lining the area. It really was spectacular.
Just as everyone wondered what those crows were doing there, Wen’an District bureau responded:
“Consultant Lin directed the crows to quickly locate the doctor Zhang murdered, which confirmed the source of the sevoflurane.”
Huh??? What did they just read?
Directing crows? Was that real? Was Consultant Lin some kind of circus animal trainer?
But when they clicked the account, it really was the bureau’s official account. They couldn’t possibly be joking with the public, right?
Yet when people kept asking what exactly happened, the bureau went quiet again—leaving a sea of confused netizens below, scratching their heads in frustration.
Lin Jiangye saw the exchange between the district bureau and the city bureau too. He asked Shang Fuyan, puzzled, “That’s it? That works?”
Shang Fuyan sent back a sticker of a husky holding a rose and making an OK sign—looking dumb, weird, and kind of funny.
But either way, after that, no one complained about the crows again. Even when Lin Jiangye asked the manager, the man said those few homeowners had suddenly gone quiet.
Lin Jiangye told the squad about it. Qi Gaoyang explained, “You said it yourself—they were testing you. Now not only the district bureau stepped in, even headquarters stepped in. If they still want to test you, they’d better think about Director Zhou’s personality.”
Director Zhou was a tough, hardline female leader. Face, favors, human feelings—none of that worked with her.
“Her stepping in is also a message to everyone: you’re under her protection. As long as you don’t cross the bottom line, she can keep you safe.” Shang Fuyan lightly patted Lin Jiangye’s back.
And there was one more thing Shang Fuyan didn’t say: anyone protected by Director Zhou was, by definition, someone with exceptional ability. People would watch such a person—they wouldn’t easily offend them.
Lin Jiangye finally understood. He hadn’t expected he could borrow Director Zhou’s “shadow” to intimidate others.
Shang Fuyan’s mouth twitched. That didn’t really count as “borrowing a tiger’s power to bully others,” okay?
Either way, the complaints were solved. If those people were superstitious to the core and truly believed a swarm of crows was ominous, then they could move elsewhere themselves.
“Still, I want to move.” It wasn’t that Lin Jiangye was afraid of them—he just felt the villa the system gave him was… kind of small.
He looked up at Shang Fuyan with pleading eyes. Shang Fuyan had mentioned a place that suited him—had he found available land now?
Coincidentally, Shang Fuyan was just about to bring it up.
“There is land available. It’s just… a bit big. Depends on what you need.” Now that the case was closed, everyone in the squad had three days off. Shang Fuyan could take Lin Jiangye to see it.
The place he brought him wasn’t in Wen’an District, but between Wen’an and Tangfeng District.
Tangfeng District was Yue City’s administrative center—an older core district. This place was next to a scenic resort area, with mountains and water.
“There’s a residential development here?” Lin Jiangye looked at the houses that resembled countryside courtyard homes. He’d thought they were homestays.
Shang Fuyan pressed his lips downward, holding back a smile. “No. This place is basically not sold to outsiders. And these houses are already ten or twenty years old. The people who used to live here were retired senior cadres.”
Lin Jiangye paused, then turned to stare at Shang Fuyan in shock.
Shang Fuyan nodded seriously and continued, “Why are you surprised? You’re not asking them for anything. Treat them like ordinary elderly people.”
Lin Jiangye looked at Shang Fuyan with growing helplessness. Even if he said that, Lin Jiangye couldn’t possibly treat those people as “ordinary”…
He’d only been in another world for a few years. He wasn’t stupid.
“It’s really fine. I guarantee.”
Shang Fuyan drove him farther in, all the way to the innermost gate. He stopped and said, “When I said it’s big, it’s because this last property includes half a mountain.”
The living area was halfway up the mountain. Driving from the gate at the foot of the mountain took ten to fifteen minutes.
Lin Jiangye stared at the gate and tilted his head blankly. “That big?”
Shang Fuyan spread his hands helplessly. “The owner originally wanted to plant fruit trees on the half-mountain, but after buying it, he realized the soil wasn’t suitable.”
Later he grew more and more unhappy living here. And since his children no longer worked in Yue City, he moved away too—leaving behind an empty, abandoned stretch of land.
“Ah…”
Lin Jiangye scratched his cheek, hesitated for a moment, then still walked inside. “Let’s see how big it is first.”
He suddenly remembered his earlier “private zoo” idea. If the land was large enough, could he turn this place into a zoo?
“No,” Shang Fuyan said, as if he’d heard Lin Jiangye’s inner mumbling. He rejected it immediately. “If you want to make it into a zoo, you’d have to buy the other half of the mountain too.”
“Why? Because it’s too close to where people live?” From the gate at the foot of the mountain to the nearest other residence was a full kilometer, but for animals that distance was still too close.
If an animal escaped over the wall, it could quickly end up in someone else’s home.
If it were only crows, cats, dogs—fine, you could explain and apologize. But for the large predators Lin Jiangye wanted? If they escaped, people wouldn’t ask whether it was a private zoo—they’d call the police and shoot them on sight.
Shang Fuyan nodded solemnly, his face not joking at all.
“Alright… I understand.” Animals mattered deeply to him, but to others, they might not.
They drove to the hillside living area. The previous owner had left behind a courtyard-style compound with more than a dozen bedrooms. Not only could Lin Jiangye and Jiang Xin live here—if the entire squad came, there would still be enough rooms.
“Here.” Shang Fuyan led him around to the back door. The moment he opened it, a vast, lush forest spread out—far larger than the front mountain.
With land like this, forget a private zoo—building a large-scale safari park would be more than possible.
Lin Jiangye stared at the mountain land in front of him, falling into deep thought.
The area behind was far beyond what he’d imagined. Just by eyesight alone, it looked like five hundred mu…
If he bought five hundred mu of mountain land, how much would it cost?
And buying something that huge just to keep tigers, lions, cheetahs, wolves… wasn’t that a bit wasteful?
But Shang Fuyan suddenly said, “Mountain land is cheaper.”
“Hm?”
“If you have enough money, you can buy it first. Otherwise, I’m worried someone else will take a liking to it later.” With a rustle, Shang Fuyan pulled out a topographic map.
Actually, there weren’t just one mountain—there were three mountains in total, large and small, totaling a thousand mu.
He drew a circle around an area—exactly the land Lin Jiangye had been looking at. “This section is 512 mu. No one’s using it. If you buy it all now, they can give you a better price.”
Lin Jiangye turned his head and looked at Shang Fuyan with a complicated expression. “Are you selling me something?”
Shang Fuyan wasn’t embarrassed at being called out. He smiled and nodded. “More or less. I know an elder who lives here. His kid happens to be in charge of this land, and he’s been worrying about these abandoned mountains for ages.”
If Lin Jiangye bought it and developed it into a safari park, that kid’s performance metrics would be solved—and Lin Jiangye’s needs would be solved too.
Lin Jiangye was still a little dazed. After hesitating, he refused anyway. “I don’t actually need that big of a place…”
But Shang Fuyan’s voice slid into his ear like a devil’s whisper. “Only if you build a safari park will it be convenient for you to take in rare protected animals in the future. Are you sure you’ll never be tempted by protected wildlife?”
“Golden, glowing golden monkeys, chubby pandas, majestic Siberian tigers, cute and nimble wild sika deer…” These were all top-level protected animals. “Do you really not want them?”
To most people, a normal zoo would be enough.
But for Lin Jiangye—would he really be willing to lock them in cages?
For animals, the closer their living environment was to nature, the more comfortable they were.
Lin Jiangye understood that logic perfectly.
“So—are you going to give them up?”
Of course not!!!
Lin Jiangye once had a raptor companion similar to a golden eagle. That companion was gone now, but he could keep a golden eagle to satisfy the craving.
But if he wanted a golden eagle, a normal zoo couldn’t meet his needs—let alone a tiny private zoo.
“You can do it like this.” Shang Fuyan explained. “This land is huge. You can split it into two parts. One part is where you live, plus an area for your older animals—basically the private zoo you originally imagined.” That section would be private; no one could enter without permission.
And farther back on the mountain, you could build a safari park to meet Lin Jiangye’s future needs.
“And one more thing…” Shang Fuyan draped an arm over Lin Jiangye’s shoulder, like a caring big brother planning the future with him.
“Didn’t you ask me before what you could invest in? I think opening a safari park is pretty good too. Yue City has a zoo—but it doesn’t have a safari park.”
For an ordinary person, if they said they wanted to open a safari park, Shang Fuyan would immediately suspect they’d end up losing money. But Lin Jiangye was different—Shang Fuyan didn’t think he would lose.
“Look—when normal people open a safari park, they run into a few big problems: money, land, and where the animals come from. But for you, are any of those really problems?” Shang Fuyan’s words threw Lin Jiangye back into deep thought.
Money—he had it. A hundred billion was sitting in the bank and he had no idea what to do with it.
Land—the thousand mu of land right in front of him wasn’t it just waiting for him to buy it?
As for the animal sources… ordinary ones were easy enough. Rare ones…
“Rare animals aren’t an issue either. Right now you’re only famous inside Yue City’s police system. Once you crack a few more cases, the Forestry Bureau will be crying for you to come help. By then, if you say you want to build a safari park—as long as your conditions meet requirements, they definitely won’t block you. In fact, if there are wild animals that get injured and can’t be released back into the wild, your park will be one of the first places they consider.”
And once the safari park was successfully established, Lin Jiangye could simply sit back and let money make money.
He didn’t understand management? He could hire professionals. All he needed to do was make sure the animals lived well in there.
And that part—wasn’t it just a casual round of “chatting” for Lin Jiangye, who could understand animal speech?
Damn it. After Shang Fuyan put it that way, Lin Jiangye suddenly felt like not opening a safari park would be hard to justify.
“I didn’t come to you just to help a friend,” Shang Fuyan said. As he spoke, he suddenly became a little cautious. “It’s just that your needs happened to match my friend’s work, so I thought I’d ask what you thought.”
Lin Jiangye stayed silent for a long time—so long that Shang Fuyan couldn’t tell whether he was willing or unwilling.
Shang Fuyan had said a lot—so much that he even gave numbers. It was enough to prove he wasn’t speaking offhand, nor was he simply trying to boost a friend’s performance by dragging Lin Jiangye into it.
But the suggestion really did exceed Lin Jiangye’s expectations.
Still, Lin Jiangye had to admit the truth: it hit him right in the softest part of his heart.
When he was a kid in the orphanage, he’d imagined that if he ever had money, he’d buy a huge villa and raise a whole bunch of cats and dogs to keep him company.
Later, after he went to that other world and saw all kinds of animals, he’d even thought about leasing an entire mountain and bringing all the animals he liked up there to live together—unfortunately, back then he still had missions to complete.
Now that he was back in reality, his first wish had already come true. And his heart had only grown greedier—he wasn’t satisfied with ordinary animals anymore.
Before, when he joked about raising a tiger “to protect Jiang Xin,” that was only part of it. Mostly… he wanted a tiger for himself.
He’d already enjoyed burying his face in a cat’s belly.
But he’d never enjoyed burying his face in a tiger’s belly!
Thinking like that, Shang Fuyan’s suggestion really was the best one—it even conveniently solved the pet hospital and adoption issues!
People who came to a safari park were basically animal lovers. By then, he could keep some adoptable animals at the clinic; if someone was suitable, they could take them home directly.
And besides—if he ran a zoo, then no matter how many crows he raised in the future, nobody would be chirping and complaining. 🙂
“I’ll… think it over carefully.” Lin Jiangye was tempted, but reason still held the upper hand.
This wasn’t the same as casually opening a pet clinic. Even if a clinic lost money, he wouldn’t care. But a safari park was a massive project—he had to inspect and evaluate properly.
Shang Fuyan nodded, agreeing. “That’s something you need to think through. But what about the house—are you satisfied?”
Of course he was satisfied. The previous owner had cherished the courtyard home. The wood used was all top grade.
“You can buy the house first. The land can wait. I’ll have my friend hold it for you for now.” Even if he never built a safari park, it didn’t matter—today’s main goal had already been achieved.
Lin Jiangye felt Shang Fuyan had a point, so he decisively bought the house the very same day.
That level of efficiency even shocked Shang Fuyan.
Jiang Xin—who’d been staying in the villa all day—was so shocked he couldn’t speak. How did Lin Jiangye go out once and come back saying they’d be moving in a few days?
“Oh right. I also need to get you a car.”
Jiang Xin was about to refuse, but Lin Jiangye added, “From the gate at the foot of the mountain to the front door, it’s more than ten minutes by car.”
Jiang Xin swallowed his refusal back down immediately. If driving took ten-plus minutes, then with his leg, walking would take at least half an hour—maybe an hour.
“The location is by the resort area, and there’s even a farm nearby. It’ll be convenient to buy things—closer and fresher!” A new home close to nature would definitely be more loved by the little ones. Maybe it would even attract wild animals over.
He wasn’t allowed to keep wild animals privately, but no one said animals couldn’t choose to settle on the mountain themselves, hehe!
Jiang Xin smiled as he watched Lin Jiangye. Whatever scheme Lin Jiangye was plotting was basically written all over his face.
“But if we move there, we’ll need to hire help,” Jiang Xin said. If Lin Jiangye was talking about that courtyard home, its area was even bigger than the villa. The cleaning workload couldn’t be handled by machines alone.
The moment “hire help” came up, Lin Jiangye’s smile dropped by half.
He didn’t like letting strangers into his territory. Even living in the villa, he only hired weekly cleaning—he didn’t keep live-in staff.
But if they moved…
Lin Jiangye let out a long sigh and flopped backward, lying on the German Shepherd’s fluffy belly. The tabby wiggled its butt, charged forward, and slammed into his arms—only to be caught and subjected to a ruthless belly-sniff.
“I’ll ask Captain Shang later and see if he knows any reputable housekeeping companies.”
But before looking for housekeeping, Lin Jiangye took Sang Biao to the hospital first to visit the man they’d rescued at the Wutong Villa District last time.
The man’s eye was ultimately saved, but he couldn’t overuse it anymore, or he risked going blind.
When he saw Sang Biao show up, the man was thrilled. “Mimi!”
Lin Jiangye: ???
Tabby & Tourmaline: ???
Sang Biao: …
“Pfft!” Lin Jiangye couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing.
Sure enough—every cat named Sang Biao ends up having a nickname like “Mimi.” Good thing he didn’t shout it in front of the other underlings, otherwise…
[Sang Biao? Why is this human calling you Mimi?] The tabby was genuinely confused.
Before it even finished speaking, Tourmaline also cackled loudly, and the whole hospital room filled with “joyful laughter” (not).
As for Sang Biao—the cat in question—its face was so dark it looked like ink was about to drip off it.
What Mimi?! I’m Sang Biao! Damn annoying human!
