As was customary, Duan Jiaze took a look at Xiong Siqian's animal form. He specifically reminded Xiong Siqian to pay attention to controlling his size.

"Zoo Director, please rest assured." Xiong Siqian crouched down and transformed into a large black bear over two meters tall, just a little bigger than an ordinary black bear, still within an acceptable range.

Duan Jiaze: "This is fine."

Xiong Siqian said shyly, "Zoo Director, this humble one has a request, I'm not sure if I should say it or not."

Duan Jiaze said warily, "What request? Tell me first. Our conditions aren't that great, you know."

Just before, Luya had been clamoring to cover his office in gold leaf. He was used to being a nouveau riche. What if Xiong Siqian also missed his old environment and asked to place a golden statue of Guanyin next to him...

After being taught a lesson by Luya, Xiong Siqian couldn't have been more polite to Duan Jiaze. He quickly said, "It's nothing, it won't cost much money. It's just that I enjoy reading, and wanted to ask if I could have a few books placed in my cage to read while on duty in the future."

Duan Jiaze: "..."

...This guy was an expert at joking. Placing a book? Why not just give him a kasaya to wear? If that were the case, Bai Suzhen should be prescribing medicine from her cage, and Yousu should be playing with and counting her tails. Was he afraid the tourists wouldn't know he wasn't normal?

Duan Jiaze: "No way. Ordinary bears in our Human Realm aren't that smart."

Xiong Siqian was extremely regretful and said sorrowfully, "In that case, the daytime will be so dull. What a waste of precious time."

Xiong Siqian was so studious that it made Duan Jiaze feel a little bad. He said hesitantly, "Reading books is out of the question. How about this, I'll install a TV on the opposite wall for you to watch some videos?"

Yousu and Luya both had TVs in their rooms, so adding one more for Xiong Siqian wasn't a big deal. Besides, if it was installed outside, they could broadcast some public service announcements about civility from time to time, which wouldn't arouse suspicion.

"That would be excellent!" Xiong Siqian was overjoyed. "Then please trouble yourself to fix it on the news channel. This humble one is very concerned about national affairs and the state of the world."

Duan Jiaze: "............Alright."

......

Also as was customary, after everyone got off work in the evening, Duan Jiaze took Xiong Siqian to meet the others.

As Guanyin's henchman, Xiong Siqian could be considered worldly and experienced. Among these people, he knew both Luya and Yousu, but his seniority was not as deep as theirs. Yousu was one thing, but in front of Luya, he could only nod. On the other hand, he was old acquaintances with Bai Suzhen and Xiao Qing, and could chat and laugh with them.

The duo of Qing and Bai hadn't seen Xiong Siqian for some time, and Xiong Siqian had no idea that the present Xiao Qing was now a man.

Xiong Siqian looked at Xiao Qing and tutted, "How did Miss Xiao Qing change gender? I should call you Brother Qing now."

Xiao Qing: "The marriage nagging was too annoying."

Xiong Siqian nodded in understanding. A moment later, he said something shocking: "Then what would you do if you fell for a man like this?"

'Little Bear has found the crux of the matter,' Duan Jiaze thought. 'If a man were to fall for Xiao Qing, that man's sexual orientation would definitely be off. And we don't know what Xiao Qing's orientation is, or whether he could accept a same-sex relationship psychologically.'

Of course, there was another situation to consider. After all, modern society was different from the past...

Xiao Qing: "What do you know! Nowadays, even men and men hold hands and walk down the street."

Xiong Siqian was greatly shocked. "There's such a thing? Aiya, this bear's understanding of the world below is still insufficient. In that case, Brother Qing can rest assured."

Duan Jiaze broke into a sweat, wanting to say, 'Xiao Qing, your Sichuan accent is slipping out.' But just then, someone called for Duan Jiaze.

At this hour, all the employees were off work. The one calling for Duan Jiaze was the person in charge of the construction site next door. Duan Jiaze let the person in. "What is it?"

The person in charge said: "I wanted to discuss with you how to handle the landscaping. What kind of trees should we plant? I need to prepare for procurement."

For these dozens of acres of land, the landscaped area was not small.

Duan Jiaze: "Let's just do it like before, a uniform style."

"Wait," Xiong Siqian called out to stop them. "Planting trees? Perfect timing. This bear has some seeds here. They're from something I used to love to eat, and I brought them down specially. Why don't we plant them?"

Black bears should be omnivores, they eat many plants. If it was suitable, it wouldn't matter if they planted it.

Duan Jiaze was relatively easy to talk to. As long as the animals cooperated, he would try his best to satisfy their requests within his ability. After all, life wasn't easy for anyone.

Duan Jiaze asked: "What plant?"

Xiong Siqian: "Purple Bamboo."

Duan Jiaze: "..."

Duan Jiaze took a deep breath: "Is it the one I'm thinking of...?"

Xiong Siqian: "Yes."

Very good. Even when being punished with community service, he didn't forget to pack some bamboo. This had style, seeds from the Purple Bamboo forest of Guanyin's home. Now their zoo's landscaping would also become high-end and classy. Duan Jiaze waved his hand and said decisively, "Plant them, plant them all!"

Yousu said: "Purple Bamboo is good, but it takes too long to grow."

Xiong Siqian patted his chest and said embarrassedly, "Before I came, I also 'took' a few drops of Guanyin's Willow Branch Nectar..."

Everyone: "..."

Duan Jiaze: 'Why didn't Guanyin beat you up? You totally deserved to be sent down!!'

......

The construction team's progress was actually already very fast, but for now, it was only a rudimentary form. Duan Jiaze thought of planting the bamboo after they finished construction, otherwise, the flying dust and sand over there wouldn't be good.

But Xiong Siqian said: "If we wait until construction is finished to plant, wouldn't this humble one have to crave it for a long time? It's fine, how could this Purple Bamboo be affected by such a little pollution."

Duan Jiaze thought about it and agreed. The quality of this species was guaranteed. So he gave the construction team a day off and took Xiong Siqian to the site where the cement paths hadn't been laid yet. The areas for landscaping had already been planned out.

"Did you bring enough bamboo?" Duan Jiaze asked.

Xiong Siqian: "Planting enough to fill all forty acres for you is a piece of cake..."

Duan Jiaze: "..."

He suddenly felt as if Xiong Siqian had come prepared to be punished for several hundred years.

Xiong Siqian scattered the bamboo seeds everywhere, then diluted the Willow Branch Nectar and irrigated the land with it.

Duan Jiaze watched with wide eyes as bamboo shoots broke through the soil, and then as if someone had pressed fast-forward, they grew a new section in the blink of an eye, shooting upwards. After reaching a certain height, they began to sprout lush branches and leaves, dripping with verdant green.

Finally, clumps of Purple Bamboo as thick as the mouth of a bowl took shape. And at this time, the effect of the Willow Branch Nectar hadn't been completely used up; it was still slowly nourishing the Purple Bamboo, and from time to time, a few more bamboo shoots would pop out of the ground with a 'phut'.

At first glance, this Purple Bamboo didn't seem much different from the bamboo of the Human Realm, but when the wind blew, the rustling of the bamboo leaves actually made one feel peaceful and calm involuntarily, as if bathed in sacred chanting...

Xiong Siqian pulled up a bamboo shoot, peeled off its sheath, and began to munch on it with a 'kaka' sound.

Duan Jiaze: "..."

While eating, Xiong Siqian said to Duan Jiaze: "Zoo Director, there's something you don't know. Back when I left my homeland and first arrived at Mount Luojia, I was in complete despair. It was this Purple Bamboo forest that comforted me."

Duan Jiaze: "............"

With one hand behind his back and the other holding a bamboo shoot, Xiong Siqian munched away while emotionally reciting to the sound of the wind: "Having eaten all the world's finest shoots, only after tasting Purple Bamboo does one know true freshness."

Duan Jiaze: ??

Reciting poetry all of a sudden was a bit awkward...

Duan Jiaze clapped dryly a couple of times. "Good poem, good poem."

He couldn't come up with a matching couplet. Instead, seeing how heartily Xiong Siqian was eating made him a little hungry. He silently squatted down, dug up two shoots, and held them in his hand, thinking about making stir-fried bamboo shoots with sliced pork tomorrow.

......

As a "newly introduced" animal, the large black bear was driven over by Hu Dawei, pretending to be a delivery.

—Hu Dawei was on the verge of tears. He had lived for several hundred years and had never encountered something so bizarre. It was one thing for a few great gods to be animals at the zoo, but they kept coming one after another. Now, another great senior had arrived.

Because Duan Jiaze had been researching animal introductions recently, it wasn't surprising for him to suddenly bring in a new animal. Huang Qi even said the Zoo Director's connections were solid, managing to complete all the procedures without making a sound.

And this time, it was once again paid for out of his own pocket.

This was one of Lingyou's rare large animals. The employees all came to watch. Xiao Su held up her phone, taking all sorts of pictures, preparing to publish an article telling the citizens to come see the new animal.

Xiao Su: "Here, look this way, bear baby."

Great King Heifeng: "?? "

Xiao Su: "Sigh, the black bear is pitch-black all over. It looks like a lump of charcoal in photos."

Duan Jiaze: "I'll get you a DSLR later..."

Xiao Su said seriously, "I think it's the bear's fault. By the way, Zoo Director, when I passed by the construction site, I noticed a lot of bamboo had been transplanted over there?"

Duan Jiaze: "Hm? Ah, yes, they were transplanted."

"They're quite pretty, and the bamboo shoots can be fed to the bear," Xiao Su said, cupping her face and fantasizing, "What if we make it big in the future, we could even introduce pandas... But I heard pandas are pickier than regular black bears. The bamboo they eat is carefully selected and has quality requirements. Any zoo that introduces pandas has to specially procure bamboo that meets the criteria."

Duan Jiaze was silent for a good while. "It's good for people to have dreams, but I think the quality of our transplanted bamboo is quite good..."

A zoo without pandas, can it even be called an awesome zoo?

Although raising pandas was a bit of a distant dream, Duan Jiaze could guarantee that there was probably no bear, including pandas, whose bamboo could compare to Comrade Little Bear's!

......

After taking enough photos, Xiao Su suddenly called out to Duan Jiaze again, "Zoo Director, isn't this in our zoo?"

Duan Jiaze craned his neck to look. It was a Weibo post being reposted by many people, containing works that had just won an international photography award. The first place winner was a piece by a Chinese journalist titled "Taiji". In the photo, amidst a play of light and shadow, a young Daoist boy and a male lion stared at each other through a glass wall. The boy was silent, the lion was roaring, and the image was full of tension.

"It really is!" Duan Jiaze said in amazement. He still remembered this scene. When Luo Wuzhou came to scout things out, he had passed by Lele's enclosure. He had even taken a picture with his phone at the time, but it was nowhere near as good as a professional's work. Moreover, he didn't remember anyone else at the scene taking a picture with a camera at all.

Xiao Su sighed in admiration, "This was shot so well! Let's repost it and claim it."

"Sure," Duan Jiaze said. "Hey, can you find the contact information for the creator? This photo is really well done. It would be great if we could get it developed and hang it in the zoo. It even won an award."

"Let me see," Xiao Su searched using the name and actually found the creator's Weibo, which was verified with a journalist identity. Under Duan Jiaze's instruction, she sent a private message to the creator, explaining that they were from the zoo and hoped to purchase a copy of the photo.

When the journalist saw they were from the zoo, he happily agreed, asked what size they wanted, and said he would develop one and mail it to them.

This photo was then hung by Duan Jiaze inside Lele's exhibit, with a small note added.

Xiao Su later reposted the Weibo as well, explaining that the lion in the picture was from Lingyou Zoo, and the Daoist was from Linshui Temple.

The comments were all along the lines of how the Daoist really knew how to live, visiting a zoo in his free time.

Someone else said, this Daoist doesn't look very old; maybe the temple organized a trip for the underage Daoists...

That did it. An informed netizen jumped out and said: You guys are too naive. The relationship between this zoo and Linshui Temple is not ordinary at all; they're like brother organizations. Oh, saying brother organizations might not be quite right, but they are at least cousin organizations. These two places even sell joint tickets!

The netizen even posted a photo of the ticket stub, and the onlookers were all flabbergasted.

Due to several trending Weibo posts and Luya being a hot topic a few days ago, the number of followers on Lingyou's official Weibo had risen to one hundred thousand. It had a decent following. Many were not locals and had never been to Donghai City, so they were just now finding out about this.

"You see something new every day. A zoo can even sell joint tickets with a Daoist temple..."

"Although the law doesn't forbid this, it's too damn weird!"

"Amazing, my Lingyou! Do the Daoists also believe in the Great Immortal White Fox?"

"Hahahahahahaha right, there's also the Great Immortal. Daoist Masters, has the Great Immortal really become an immortal?"

At this moment, someone also @'d Linshui Temple's official Weibo account.

In this day and age, even religious organizations had official Weibo and WeChat accounts, especially a tourist destination like Linshui Temple.

However, Linshui Temple's official Weibo was not very active and didn't interact much with followers. After all, it was managed by Daoists, and it was a temple's official account. Besides posting about Daoist culture, it usually posted about leaders coming for inspections, the Linshui Temple Management Committee holding meetings in response to some spirit or other, or reminding devotees and tourists to be civilized... It never replied to comments requesting online fortune-telling.

In other words, Linshui Temple didn't really do online interactions.

Now that they were @'d, the Daoist managing the official Weibo was stunned for a long time after seeing it, and even ran to ask Shao Wuxing for instructions.

Shao Wuxing hesitated for a moment, then said, "Repost it..."

So, after some consideration, he reposted the Weibo. He didn't say anything; it was just a gesture of acknowledging that they did indeed sell joint tickets with Lingyou.

Xiao Su, on the other hand, was very lively and reposted Linshui Temple's post, "That's right, my great Lingyou has a cooperative relationship with the one on the right, a powerful alliance [blushing face]. Everyone is welcome to visit us in Donghai!"

As the netizens watched, they commented:

"This mix-and-match feeling is surprisingly and subtly cute..."

"I've already imagined so many stories!"

"Shivering, the Great Immortal White Fox must be real. I must persist in my superstitions."

......

"I'm adding a dish for you guys today." Duan Jiaze brought a plate of stir-fried bamboo shoots with sliced pork and placed it on Xu Chenggong's table, a slice of bamboo shoot still in his own mouth.

The pork was from the Human Realm, but the taste of this bamboo shoot was truly... amazing!!

At first, the employees didn't think much of it, but after one bite, they also started howling like ghosts and wolves.

"This bamboo shoot is too fresh, isn't it? My god, I've never eaten such delicious bamboo shoots!"

"No, no, I think it has surpassed the category of bamboo shoots... It can be compared to my most beloved braised pork belly."

"Zoo Director, where did this come from?"

"Why the sudden delicious treat... Isn't this usually Brother Lu's special treatment? Zoo Director, did you have a fight with Brother Lu?"

The moment it was mentioned that this dish might be Luya's food, everyone's chopsticks paused. It was a little difficult to continue. To be honest, Luya hadn't left them with any trauma, but his whole demeanor just screamed 'don't mess with me'.

"It's from the ones planted on the construction site over there. There's still a lot," Duan Jiaze said while eating. "It's not Luya's. Luya doesn't eat bamboo shoots."

Luya was disdainful of things like vegetables and bamboo shoots. And because there was more than enough, Xiong Siqian wouldn't and wouldn't dare to complain, so Duan Jiaze boldly added the dish.

Once the others heard it had nothing to do with Luya, they happily continued to eat.

I wonder if the great Guanyin knows that her own bamboo shoots are this delicious... Or perhaps, she planted them in her sacred place precisely because they were so delicious?

Duan Jiaze let his imagination run wild and felt it was quite possible.

......

In the afternoon, Duan Jiaze went to the reptile exhibit to clean Luya's enclosure.

This job wasn't originally his, but for some reason, the tourists just loved to watch him interact with Luya. It was probably because there were no performances, and Luya wasn't housed with other birds. They couldn't interact with him themselves and didn't really dare to, so they passionately loved watching the Zoo Director feed the bird.

Duan Jiaze strolled in and pretended to clean. In reality, it wasn't dirty at all. Luya was no ordinary bird.

Only this time, Duan Jiaze saw two red feathers on the ground and casually picked them up. He then discovered that the feathers were actually still warm. Duan Jiaze was quite surprised. After thinking for a moment, he didn't throw them away but put them in his pocket.

Later after work, Duan Jiaze was cornered by Luya, who had transformed back into his human form. "Don't think I didn't see you! I was concerned about the tourists outside so I didn't say anything, but I saw you steal my feathers!"

Duan Jiaze: "..."

Duan Jiaze: "I p-picked them up!"

Making it sound so nasty, calling it stealing. He wasn't even hiding. He was openly and honorably picking up bird feathers. They'd fallen on the ground, so wasn't anyone allowed to pick them up? Of course, if Luya had his own use for them, that was another matter; he would just give them back.

Luya said indignantly, "That's not allowed either. Who knows what you plan to do with them after picking them up?"

As he spoke, his face inexplicably turned a little red.

Duan Jiaze: "?? "

Duan Jiaze said slowly: "Could you give me a hint? I don't know what you Three-legged Golden Crows usually do with collected feathers... But as for me, I just wanted to collect them. Maybe in a few years, I can make a self-heating cushion."

Luya: "..."