Chapter 19.1

Xiang Bie returned at 7:30 in the evening. Upon hearing from Wei Li about the wolf pack descending from the mountains, he frowned and asked, “Was anyone injured?”

Wei Li shook his head. “No, but I think the wolf problem is resolved now. Can the workers resume their normal work in the mountains tomorrow?”

After some thought, Xiang Bie responded, “To be safe, let’s inspect another area first.”

He then asked, “Are we still going ahead with the trial opening?”

Wei Li nodded and pointed to a dormitory window upstairs, speaking in a low voice. “The Director’s been in her room all afternoon. She says she’s working on a brand-new, customized tourism plan. But honestly, we have nothing here. How can we even do a trial opening? If we’re going to open, shouldn’t we at least stock up the supermarket first? I told her this, but she said there’s no rush. I feel like she just doesn’t want to buy stock. But without stock, how can we open?”

Xiang Bie didn’t say it aloud, but he thought, ‘It’s probably not that she doesn’t want to stock up—she likely can’t afford it.’

He glanced upstairs and said, “We’ll discuss it during the meeting.”

After dinner, the protective fence workers went upstairs to rest.

Mu Ling stayed behind with Xiang Bie and Wei Li. After putting down her chopsticks, she stood up at the dining table and began addressing her only two employees. “First, let’s talk about welcoming the guests.”

With a serious expression, Mu Ling said, “We have a hundred-person tour group coming. We need to make them feel at home. We can’t just let them take a taxi after getting off the starship—that would make us look unprofessional! So, we need to arrange transportation. I’ve calculated that we’ll need at least four buses to fit everyone. I’ve already contacted Sister Zhou from the Forestry Bureau, and she knows someone who can give us a discount. Renting a bus for a day costs 800 star coins, or 1,000 with a driver. I opted for the driver-included package.”

Wei Li chewed his rice.

Xiang Bie took a sip of his drink.

The two of them simply watched Mu Ling, waiting for her to continue.

Mu Ling then calculated for them, “So, the total bus rental will cost 4,000 star coins. But don’t worry—we won’t lose money. Director Wang said we don’t need to offer discounts for the trial opening. Tickets are usually 299 star coins, but with the discount, they go for 239. Without the discount, we make an extra 60 star coins per ticket. For 100 people, that’s 6,000 star coins. Even after deducting the bus rental cost, we’ll still have 2,000 star coins left.”

Mu Ling smiled and dramatically produced a stack of papers from behind her back, spreading them on the table. “Now, I don’t plan to keep these 2,000 coins. Since it’s extra, I thought we could use it to prepare nice gifts for the tourists. I’ve already designed them—take a look.”

Mu Ling distributed the sketches. “We’ll make custom small boxes with our zoo’s logo. Inside, there’ll be a scented postcard featuring photos of our animals—which I’ll take myself over the next couple of days. The back will have some well-wishes. Each box will also include a small pin with cartoon animal designs that I’ve drawn. We don’t need to buy any copyrights, which saves us a lot.”

Wei Li leaned over to examine the designs, which were really beautiful. He gave a thumbs up. “Wow, Director, you’re so talented. Impressive!”

Mu Ling chuckled and continued, “I also asked Brother Chen from the Forestry Bureau this afternoon. He knows people at a gift processing factory. They made the gift boxes for the botanical garden down the mountain, so the quality is guaranteed. He said if we don’t need too many, they can even squeeze us into the production schedule. We can get 100 gift sets in half a day, and they’ll give us a friendly price.”

Wei Li continued with his flattery. “It’s all thanks to our Director. Without you, our zoo would definitely fall apart. Director, you’re our guiding light!”

Mu Ling felt a bit embarrassed by the excessive praise and redirected the conversation to Xiang Bie and Wei Li. “So, I’ve solved the reception and gift issues. What about the lunch problem? The ticket includes lunch. Brother Wei, Brother Xiang?”

Wei Li immediately surrendered. “Director, with my cooking skills, I can only make sure the food is cooked through.”

Mu Ling nodded. “I’ve tasted your cooking, Brother Wei. It’s indeed not quite suitable for guests.”

Wei Li: “…”

Mu Ling then looked at Xiang Bie.

Wei Li also looked at Xiang Bie.

Xiang Bie: “…”

Xiang Bie put down the design sketches in his hand and nodded slightly. “I’ll do it.”

“Yes!” Mu Ling cheered, then reached out to Wei Li. Wei Li gave her a high five with a loud “smack.” The two had a look of being in cahoots, clearly having planned this to deliberately hook Xiang Bie.

Xiang Bie: “…”

With the transportation, gifts, and lunch sorted, they spent the next few hours discussing the rest of the itinerary. Their meeting dragged on until 10:30 p.m. As they were about to wrap up, Wei Li asked another question, “Director, should we hire temporary workers? With just the three of us, how can we host 100 people? And our supermarket is too empty. We should at least stock up a bit, right? Otherwise, if guests want to buy a bottle of water, they’d have to go down the mountain.”

Mu Ling waved her hand dismissively, clearly unconcerned. “I already have a plan for this. Don’t worry, everything will be ready by then.”

And she wouldn’t spend a single coin.

*

Thursday, 11:00 a.m.

Inside the T99S starship.

As the starship broadcast announced the landing, Yan Yin was woken up by his colleague beside him. “Teacher Yan, we’ve arrived.”

Yan Yin opened his eyes groggily to see colleagues in front and behind preparing to disembark.

They had reached Shenwang Star.

He also packed up his things and followed the others out. After disembarking, the group of 100 people walked somewhat scattered, stretching out over quite a distance.

Those in front were leading the way, while those behind followed. As they walked, suddenly those in front stopped.

“Huh, what’s wrong? Why aren’t we entering the passageway?” asked a male colleague walking with Yan Yin, confused.

Professor Zhou, who was in charge of this team-building trip, had already done research beforehand. They were supposed to exit the passageway into the starship hall, leave through the north gate, walk 300 meters to see the bus stop, take the No. 87 ground car to Gujiang Road Station, then transfer to the No. 11 hovering car to Bi Ke Avenue Botanical Garden. From there, it would be about a 20-minute walk to Bi Ke Zoo.

As for their luggage, they had paid extra during check-in to have the starship center deliver it directly to their hotel.

“Looks like we’re being redirected,” said a female colleague in front, standing on tiptoes to see ahead.

Soon enough, someone came back to relay the message, “Teachers, the ground staff asked us to take another passageway. They said it’s closer.”

“Oh, then let’s switch,” someone said.

It’s just changing passageways, what’s the big deal?

However, after all 100 people exited through the other passageway, they realized this wasn’t the starship hall at all, but the parking lot.

“What’s going on? How is this closer? We’re not locals, we’re not familiar with this parking lot. Why make us exit through the parking lot? We don’t even know the roads here!”

Professor Zhou, in charge of the team-building trip, was also a bit flustered. He held up his light brain, about to open the map navigation to see how the exits were distributed here. Just then, a middle-aged man in a driver’s uniform approached. He was holding a sign and asked, “Excuse me, are you the 100-person travel group from the Logistics and Technical Department of Capital Star?”

Professor Zhou looked at the sign the man was holding, which actually had his name written on it. He asked suspiciously, “We are. And you are…?”

The middle-aged driver smiled and said, “We’re here to pick you up. The transport is this way. We’ve prepared four buses, which should be enough to seat everyone.”

Professor Zhou looked ahead in astonishment and saw that there were indeed four buses parked not far away. In front of each bus’s windshield was a sign that read “Bi Ke Zoo Tour Group Reception Transport.”

A technician exclaimed in surprise, “You’re drivers from Bi Ke Zoo specially sent to pick us up?”

The middle-aged driver said, “Director Mu asked us to come pick you up. Didn’t she communicate this with you?”

Everyone immediately looked at Professor Zhou.

Professor Zhou: “…”

Professor Zhou was a bit dazed, “She, she did say she would send someone to pick us up. I thought she just meant sending someone to guide us…”

How could he have known that Bi Ke Zoo would actually send special transport to pick them up, and four buses at that? Their tickets didn’t even include this.

Professor Zhou hurriedly said, “I, I’ll give her a call.”

The group of 100 people was quite large. Several colleagues around Yan Yin were still complaining about how confusing the parking lot was, saying it was bound to get people lost. Just then, a professor’s assistant came over and said to them, “Teachers, teachers, the four buses in front are our special transport. Please board any of them, let’s get on the buses first.”

“Wow, we don’t have to take public transport? We have private buses?”

“Professor Zhou rented buses for us? Haha, long live Professor Zhou!”

This professor’s assistant had overheard Professor Zhou’s conversation with Director Mu earlier. He said somewhat sheepishly, “Actually, Professor Zhou didn’t rent the cars. Bi Ke Zoo arranged them for us. They said considering we have 100 people and it might be inconvenient to move around, and worried that we might lose someone, they sent four free special buses for us.”

“Wow, they’re even free?”

“Ah ah ah, my wife loves me so much!”

Professor’s assistant: “…”

Everyone else: “…”

Suddenly, everyone’s gaze turned to a female researcher in the middle of the crowd.

After blurting out that sentence, the female researcher had already realized something was wrong. She quickly covered her mouth, but it was too late. She had already embarrassed herself socially.