Chapter 35.2

 

In the small space, even though he sat outside, he could still hear the sound coming from within.

 

It was Mu Ling’s voice.

 

Moonlight had never been particularly sensitive to sound before, so his guess was correct. Moonlight’s change was also because of Mu Ling.

 

Xiang Bie lowered his head again, looking at the photo album. His gaze fell on the picture he had just taken.

 

The young woman wore stain-resistant work clothes and sat directly on the open ground, her face beaming with a smile. In her arms, she held an adorably clumsy little wolf, tilting her head back affectionately to kiss its forehead.

 

Xiang Bie’s eyes lingered on the photo for a long time, seemingly lost in deep thought.

 

It wasn’t until he heard a sound outside that he snapped out of his reverie—Mu Ling had returned with the beasts.

 

Xiang Bie closed his light brain and looked up towards the door.

 

“Alright, you’ve been wild for an hour, that’s enough. Everyone must go back to their cages now,” Mu Ling said as she entered, noticing Xiang Bie sitting on the sofa. She greeted him, then led the group of furry creatures into the room like a kindergarten teacher.

 

In ward A4, the Silver Snow bear, previously relaxed and listening to a story, suddenly became alert upon hearing footsteps.

 

Mu Ling glanced at Moonlight. She first returned Qilin and others to their cages, performed mental health assessments on them, and administered their medications. Only then did she crouch outside the Silver Snow bear’s cage, looked at the speaker on the ceiling, and tentatively call out, “Moonlight.”

 

Her voice was so unnaturally high-pitched that it gave even her goosebumps.

 

Moonlight indeed looked at her.

 

Mu Ling persisted, “Moonlight, can big sister give you your medicine? Will you bite big sister?”

 

The bear sat motionless in the corner, as if it hadn’t heard.

 

Mu Ling thought for a moment, then opened her light brain program and turned off the small speaker.

 

With the speaker suddenly silent, the bear became uneasy. It kept looking at the ceiling and started scratching its fur.

 

Mu Ling spoke again, “Moonlight, shall I tell you a story? Once upon a time, there was a little pig who really didn’t like taking baths, so it always smelled bad…”

 

Mu Ling slowly told a story the speaker hadn’t played before. As her voice gradually overlapped with the voice from the speaker in the bear’s mind, the Silver Snow bear started looking at Mu Ling more frequently.

 

Mu Ling cautiously reached out her hand, “Moonlight, come here.”

 

The bear turned its head away, facing the corner with its bottom and injured back towards Mu Ling.

 

Mu Ling was speechless.

 

She had coaxed for nearly twenty minutes, her throat almost dry, but the bear remained unmoved.

 

In the end, Mu Ling gave up. She turned the small speaker back on and went outside. 

 

Seeing Xiang Bie still there, she threw up her hands in resignation and said, “I’ve never seen such a stubborn bear. Moonlight refuses offline meet-ups; it only accepts online voice chats. The moment it sees my human form, its entire body screams rejection. But what can I do? Born human, I apologize. Next life, I’ll try my hardest to be reincarnated as a speaker.”

 

Xiang Bie was speechless.

 

Seeing Mu Ling’s frustration, Xiang Bie offered comfort, “It needs time.”

 

Mu Ling sighed, “Well, at least there’s some progress. I managed to trick it into taking its medicine tonight. We’ll try changing the skin medication tomorrow. Time to get some sleep.”

 

As she spoke, Mu Ling glanced at the sofa where Xiang Bie sat.

 

Xiang Bie paused, frowning, “You’re planning to sleep here again tonight?”

 

Mu Ling replied resignedly, “Yes, in case Moonlight has any issues during the night.”

 

Xiang Bie said, “I’ll keep watch. You go sleep.”

 

Mu Ling was taken aback, but then graciously thanked Brother Xiang and returned to her upstairs dormitory.

 

The next day was Monday. At seven in the morning, people from the capsule house company arrived.

 

When Mu Ling came downstairs, she saw Lin Xuan and brought her along to greet the capsule house company representatives.

 

The company had brought three trucks and over a dozen workers. Mu Ling shook hands with their manager, expressing gratitude while leading them to the construction site.

 

The specific details and blueprints had been discussed and reviewed when placing the order yesterday. Today was purely about starting the actual construction.

 

Afterward, Mu Ling took Sister Lin to get drinks for the workers, then asked her to oversee the construction. Mu Ling herself had to begin the second round of recruitment interviews at nine o’clock.

 

Mu Ling had posted the job openings on recruitment websites a few days ago. Given the current popularity of Bi Ke Zoo and the large fan bases of Qilin, Lightning, and Qingjiao, she had used hidden recruitment to avoid fans applying for fun and wasting everyone’s time. This meant her job postings were only visible to those in relevant professions or with zoo-related work experience, as verified by the recruitment website’s backend.

 

Even with these precautions, Mu Ling had received over a hundred resumes in just a few days.

 

After careful screening, she had selected thirty candidates for today’s interviews.

 

At 8:10 AM, the first applicant arrived.

 

Mu Ling spotted someone standing at the zoo entrance from afar. Thinking it wouldn’t matter to start a bit early, she went out to invite them in. However, as soon as she stepped out, she was surprised, “Oh, it’s you.”

 

Fas, a former keeper from Happy Valley Zoo, bowed to Mu Ling, “Director Mu, we meet again.”

 

This was one of the four Happy Valley employees who had brought Pimi last time.

 

Mu Ling smiled, “Why are you applying here? Weren’t you happy at Happy Valley? Wait, that’s strange—I didn’t see anything about Happy Valley in your resume.”

 

Fas explained, “Yes, that’s right. I’ve worked at two zoos in total. I spent a year at Happy Valley and three years at another wildlife park. Since Bi Ke Zoo is also a wildlife park, I focused on detailing my wildlife park experience.”

 

Mu Ling nodded in understanding, “Oh, I see. That’s why I invited you for an interview after seeing your wildlife park experience. Come in, let’s talk inside.”

 

Throughout the entire Federation, there were many interstellar wildlife parks, but most featured plain environments, with few having mountain forests.

 

Bi Ke Zoo was unique in this aspect. The Four Bay Star Wildlife Park where Fas had previously worked was a typical plains zoo, spanning over a million square kilometers with endless grasslands and numerous animal species. It was the classic type where visitors could drive their own vehicles through the park freely.

 

This was exactly the kind of zoo Mu Ling envied most.

 

Plains were so much better—mountain forests were exhausting. Just going up and down the mountain was a challenge, and the abundance of trees made it difficult for vehicles to pass. Not to mention the steep terrain. In short, it was nothing but trouble.

 

When they reached the cafeteria, Mu Ling gestured for Fas to sit down. Looking at the documents in her hand, she smiled and asked her first question, “May I ask why you want to apply for a position at our Bi Ke Zoo?”

 

Then the normal recruitment process began.

 

By noon, Mu Ling had successfully interviewed all thirty applicants. After seeing everyone off, during lunch, others asked, “Director, how were the candidates?”

 

Mu Ling shook her head, “We’ve signed immediate contracts for ticket sellers, supermarket cashiers, stockers, and restaurant servers—they can all start training tomorrow. But we only hired three out of six needed animal keepers, none of the two mountain patrollers, and the restaurant chef wasn’t suitable since they can’t cook local Shenwang Star cuisine. I’ve contacted another thirty applicants to come for interviews tomorrow. We’ll see if we can fill all the positions then.”

 

Wei Li stressed, “We can’t be careless with animal keepers and mountain patrollers. They must be professional and have combat ability, otherwise they could easily get hurt in the mountains.”

 

“Speaking of injuries,” Mu Ling added, “We should also hire a veterinarian. However, it’s difficult to find a skilled senior vet, and I’m not impressed by young interns. We’ll have to keep looking for that position.”

 

As they discussed, the workers at other tables had finished eating and resumed the afternoon’s capsule house construction.

 

Mu Ling quickly finished her soup, put down her chopsticks, and continued, “Also, about the vaccines—today is the 13th. We have four days until the official opening. During these four days, we must vaccinate all the animals in the zoo. Starting today, we’ll work in pairs this afternoon. Brother Wei, you’ll go with Sister Lin; Brother Xiang with Uncle Li. Brother Zhao needs to protect the fence workers, so he can’t join us. I’ll go with Lightning. Everyone knows how to administer vaccines, right?”

 

Wei Li nodded, “Brother Xiang and I definitely know how. Once we teach Xiao Lin and Uncle Li, they should be able to do it themselves. Most animals are easy to vaccinate, except for the war beasts. For difficult animals, we can use vaccine guns. Everyone’s marksmanship is decent—”

 

At this point, Wei Li suddenly paused and looked at Mu Ling.

 

Mu Ling: “…”

 

Mu Ling smacked her lips, “My marksmanship is poor, right?”

 

Wei Li chuckled, “Of course the Director doesn’t need to worry about that. The Director has such a good relationship with the little animals.”

 

Mu Ling stood up, “Alright then, let’s all get ready. I’ll go call Lightning and apply Moonlight’s skin medication while I’m at it.”

 

Mu Ling entered the veterinary station, mixed sedatives into canned fish meat, then carried the food bowl to the Silver Snow bear’s cage door.

 

In the ward, Moonlight was listening to a story. The moment it saw a human appear, its alarm bells went off. It turned around, skillfully presenting its bottom to Mu Ling.

 

Mu Ling wasn’t upset. She slid the food bowl in at an angle, then went outside to open the monitor and change the voice recording.

 

“Moonlight, Moonlight, time for food~”

 

Hearing the familiar mealtime call, the bear indeed turned its head to look at the food bowl behind it. After making sure the human had left, it slowly crawled to the door, bottom first, and lowered its head to lick up the food.

 

After finishing its meal, it picked up the bowl with its mouth and showed it to the “sister” in the sky again.

 

Seeing this, Mu Ling switched the voice recording back to children’s stories.

 

Due to the sedatives, the bear obediently fell asleep soon after.

 

Mu Ling waited a while longer until she was sure the Silver Snow bear was sound asleep. Then she entered with her medical kit to apply medication to the bear’s back.

 

However, after treating its back, she couldn’t reach its chest as the bear was lying on it.

 

As Mu Ling was debating whether to call Brother Wei and the others for help, suddenly, an idea struck her. She brought her mouth close to the Silver Snow bear’s ear and said in a soft voice, “Moonlight, can you roll over? Roll towards sister.”

 

The word “roll” seemed to be something Moonlight could understand.

 

The sleeping Silver Snow bear shook its chubby legs, moved its head forward a bit, then rolled its fat body over, lying on its back with its belly exposed.

 

Mu Ling: “…”

 

It actually worked!

 

Indeed, as long as it couldn’t see the real person, all fantasies were beautiful.

 

Mu Ling intentionally asked, “Moonlight, do you like sister?”

 

The Silver Snow bear scratched its belly with its black paw, tilted its head back, and from its huge mouth came a soft “gurgle.”

 

This was the sound animals make when they’re comfortable.

 

“Pfft.” Mu Ling laughed out loud. She rubbed the Silver Snow bear’s head fur and said, “Then I’ll take that as you liking sister. Good, you’ll be the first to get vaccinated.”

 

With that, she mercilessly jabbed the vaccine needle into the Silver Snow bear’s skin.