Fan Haiping was holding her phone, extremely angry, and shouted at her husband, "Look, look at your son. How long has it been since he was well-behaved? He's fighting with his classmates again. The teacher called him out in the WeChat group. This is so embarrassing."

Zhao Zhengyi peeked over to look. "Let me see."

Sure enough, the homeroom teacher stated in the WeChat group that student Zhao Bo had argued with his deskmate during class, was made to stand as punishment, and she hoped the parents would discipline him more.

The couple discussed their son's education problems, feeling a great headache.

Fan Haiping had been watching TV, but now she couldn't focus on it. In a flash, she saw someone in the WeChat group share a link, titled something like: "The Adorable Peacock Trending All Over Donghai Appears on Cape Mountain! It Knows How to Act Cute and Unfurl Its Tail!"

Fan Haiping saw so many internet memes every day. Because this peacock was local, and her son was in that GIF at the time, she remembered it quite clearly. She clicked on the link to take a look.

It started with a recap of the GIF that had recently gone viral in local social media circles, then mentioned that the author had found out about the place and went to see the peacocks. Unexpectedly, they were even cuter than imagined.

Following that were two more GIFs. One was of two peacocks unfurling their tails one after another, looking extremely dazzling. The other was of them frantically rubbing against a keeper, begging to be fed. Their actions were very cute, almost human-like.

Fan Haiping's attention was immediately captured. It seemed the behavior in the previous GIF wasn't a coincidence; these peacocks really had a lot of personality.

Fan Haiping read on with great interest. The article started with the peacocks and went on to introduce Lingyou Zoo, featuring many GIFs and fluffy close-ups of the animals. Before, Fan Haiping had only heard a few words from her son and thought it was a child's exaggeration, but now she saw it really wasn't.

The article actually said that the peacocks at Lingyou Zoo loved to unfurl their tails, didn't live separately, and lived with other birds, like a big family.

The reporter had even experienced it firsthand, letting a half-grown Zebra Finch land on his shoulder. The Zebra Finch then pressed its body against the reporter's head, its fluffy body against his cheek, and the little bird's eyes were closed. It looked especially cute.

Because the reporter's clothing on his shoulder was quite slippery, it lost its grip and tumbled down. But it didn't fall flat on its face; it immediately flapped its wings and flew back up. Fan Haiping couldn't help but laugh as she watched. "This bird is really interesting."

Besides the interaction between humans and birds, there was also interaction between the birds themselves. Although they were different species, they looked especially harmonious. Just as advertised, these birds were one big family. A parrot preening a Goldfinch, a Myna dozing on a peacock's back...

The environment was also completely different from her impression of Lingyou Zoo's predecessor, Cape Zoo. It had natural, ecological decor; the aviary was planted with many plants to imitate the feel of a forest, and there were glass walls. One look and you could tell it was high-class.

The article also mentioned that the zoo was about to open soon, and after opening, it would randomly select lucky visitors to be accompanied by the little birds throughout their tour, enjoying the pleasure of close contact with them.

This was the same treatment Zhao Bo and the others had enjoyed. However, Fan Haiping wasn't very interested in this point. What if the birds just pooped anywhere?

Although the zoo didn't have many species, the author's promotional focus was on quality over quantity, explaining that the operator ran the zoo with love, and every animal was especially cute and full of spirit.

Later, there were various pictures, such as a lion asking a keeper for pats and a monkey imitating the reporter's actions. There was also a lively scene of the students from Tongxin Elementary School visiting together, which was from before the renovations.

It looked quite lively. Fan Haiping thought, 'Going to the zoo is better than going to an arcade. I should make a deal with my son. If he behaves well enough, I'll take him and his cousin to this zoo again. That would also stop him from nagging about it every day.'

......

Wang Weiwei opened her Moments and, as usual, saw a news link shared by her mother. Her mother worked at the City TV Station, so she often shared news produced by her workplace.

Normally, Wang Weiwei wouldn't click to watch, but today she was extremely bored, so she clicked on it casually.

The headline of this news story was: Amazing! A 23-Year-Old Man from Donghai Founds a Zoo for Love.

The female anchor reported in a very serious tone that a young man in the city, a recent graduate, had loved animals since he was a child. After graduating, instead of choosing a job in his field of study, he started a zoo by himself at the foot of Cape Mountain, eating and sleeping with the animals...

Wang Weiwei watched with a blank expression, completely unmoved.

Soon, the camera cut to the scene, in front of the gate with "Lingyou Zoo" written on it. The female reporter introduced the 23-year-old man.

Perhaps because of the simple language used in the news, Wang Weiwei had initially imagined a dusty, skinny man. To her surprise, when he appeared on screen, she realized this young zoo director was very handsome!

The moment she saw a handsome guy, Wang Weiwei perked up a bit.

This handsome zoo director showed the female reporter around his zoo. The exhibits were quite well-designed, and the equipment was very advanced. He even demonstrated the equipment, while a voiceover said that the director had spent all his savings on it.

Up to this point, it was all rather boring. Who knows how many similar news stories there were.

Next, as was typical, it showed his interactions with the animals. The narration also mentioned two peacocks among them, which had recently become a little famous on the local internet.

Wang Weiwei had seen that GIF and recalled it after a moment. She hadn't expected it to be from this zoo.

Seeing the peacocks unfurl their tails and the interactions among the birds, Wang Weiwei started to feel a bit amazed. Then when she saw the lion acting cute towards the director, she was even more charmed. It was just like a house cat. Her attitude had already changed. Holding her phone, she tore open a bag of potato chips and watched while eating.

The news report used a lot of footage of the director interacting with the animals. There were some small highlights in between, for example, a wild bird the director had rescued still followed him around. It looked quite fierce, but it listened to the director. It was also the only bird that didn't interact with other keepers or the reporter, as if it only trusted the director.

For the first time, Wang Weiwei felt the news headline was very genuine. It really was full of love!

There was no deliberate sensationalism or staged shots. The interviewee was also very natural, with few lines. It mostly used visuals to present the story, which made it feel especially sincere.

For the first time, Wang Weiwei had the thought of sharing a news story from the City TV Station. She felt the content was really well-done; on one hand, it was sincere and down-to-earth, and on the other hand, it had a feeling of being full of dreams.

She was about the same age as this zoo director, but if she were asked to bet everything on a passion project, she wasn't sure she would have that kind of courage.

So, Wang Weiwei really did share the news to her Moments, and even attached a few words of her own thoughts.

......

---

"...No, I'm really not, I'm not lying to you! Look, I'll send you a news article. A reporter even came to interview me." Duan Jiaze was on the phone with his university classmates.

His classmate was speechless. "You really went and opened a zoo? I thought you were joking!"

"It's true... Can you help me out?" Duan Jiaze said.

He had already commissioned a recruitment company to hire a few more employees, both full-time and part-time. This was based on the premise that he could turn a profit after opening—anyway, if the visitor traffic wasn't enough, he'd be struck by lightning, so he might as well hire them first.

Most would be part-time, only needing to work during peak periods like weekends and holidays, but there certainly had to be full-time staff as well. For example, if the first week's task was completed, he would get a visitor service center, which would definitely need employees.

Previously, Lingyou Zoo's storefront was rather small and simple, and the ticket office also doubled as a small shop.

However, it might not be possible to hire all these people at once. Just in case, Duan Jiaze called his university classmates and asked them to come help out on the weekend.

Few people knew about Duan Jiaze being tricked into opening the zoo. He was busy with things here every day and hadn't contacted his classmates. Now that he brought it up, many classmates even thought he was lying. They had never heard that he liked animals before.

He was busy looking for a job around graduation time, so how did he suddenly go and open a zoo? Even saying he was setting up a stall to sell rabbits on a commercial street would have been more believable, right?

Luckily, the TV news and online news had already been released by this time. Duan Jiaze had no choice but to send them the news to prove himself.

When his classmates saw it, they realized it was actually true. Setting aside how to tease Duan Jiaze, all who were free agreed to come and help. Only then did Duan Jiaze breathe a sigh of relief.

At this time, the second dispatched animal was still on its way. Duan Jiaze couldn't help but worry, sighing, "What if this new animal is very ferocious? Wouldn't I be screwed?"

Duan Jiaze was even pondering whether he should give these big shots from the lower realms some on-the-job training first, so they could understand the common sense of modern human society and not resort to fighting and killing at the drop of a hat.

Behind him, Luya heard Duan Jiaze's words and said proudly, "With me here, who would dare to be impudent?"

Duan Jiaze fell silent for a moment, then muttered to himself, "What if this new animal is also very ferocious? Wouldn't I be even more screwed..."

Luya: "..."