Chapter 31.2

“You’ve got a point—the other animals at Bi Ke Zoo are adorable too. But I’m still dying to see Qilin. I wonder when wifey will show it again. And Lightning! I really want to see Lightning in her videos. I swear she’s teasing us on purpose. She knows exactly what we want to see but won’t show us. Classic hunger marketing, that’s what it is!”

“Hahaha, totally! Hey, are you going to Bi Ke Zoo’s grand opening? My dad said he’ll take me if I score 90 on my midterms.”

The girls wandered off, their voices fading. Xu Wenshuang glanced at them before continuing on her way.

Xu Wenshuang had a secret: she shared the same “wife” with those two students.

Yes, that’s right—she was also a die-hard fan of Bi Ke Zoo. From the moment she watched the first video, she had fallen hopelessly into the fandom.

She was so dedicated that she’d already requested time off work half a month in advance. When Bi Ke Zoo opened, she had to be among the first visitors.

She wouldn’t just see Qilin and Lightning—she planned to see every animal that had appeared in wifey’s videos. Worried that one day wouldn’t be enough, she’d specifically taken three days off. Combined with the weekend, she had five full days to explore every corner of the zoo.

Daydreaming about her upcoming vacation, Xu Wenshuang returned to her office and immediately opened her light-brain. As always, she checked Bi Ke Zoo’s account first.

Though she’d just heard from those girls that the zoo hadn’t posted any videos for two days, she needed to see it with her own eyes to believe it.

And yes—no new videos.

Feeling a bit disappointed, she was about to rewatch some older videos when suddenly, the interface refreshed itself. A new video appeared instantly at the top of the feed.

“Ah!” Xu Wenshuang let out an excited gasp, then quickly covered her mouth, glancing around nervously.

Thankfully, the office was empty.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she clicked on the video. To her surprise, today’s video was unusually long—a full ten minutes!

The comments were already flooding in.

「First!」

「First!」

「Ahhh, first!」

Dozens of “first” comments scrolled past; it was impossible to tell who had actually claimed the spot.

「Ten minutes!」

「Now that’s a good length!」

「Is this making up for the two days without updates? Not enough—give us another ten minutes, wife!」

Finding the flood of comments distracting, Xu Wenshuang turned them off to focus on the video itself. That’s when she realized—today’s star was Qingjiao.

Wait, what? Hadn’t Qingjiao tried to attack wifey before? Why were they suddenly on such good terms?

And now Qingjiao was even letting her give it a bath?

Incredible—this was actually a video of Qingjiao’s bath time!

Xu Wenshuang’s excitement soared, her eyes glued to the screen, unwilling to miss even a second.

Then she noticed something else—the video included the wolf cub too.

While wifey was busy bathing Qingjiao, the little wolf sat nearby, contentedly chewing on a plastic yellow duck.

It didn’t damage the duck though. After gnawing for a while, it started gently licking the duck’s head, treating it like a small friend. When some bathwater splashed over, the cub stood up, carefully picked up the duck by its head, and carried it to a safer spot. There it lay down again, continuing to tenderly lick the duck’s head.

As it kept licking, drowsiness began to set in. The cub wrapped the yellow duck in its paws, gave its own whiskers a few sleepy licks, and drifted off to sleep.

Xu Wenshuang felt her heart melting—baby animals were simply impossible to resist!

She’d been so captivated by the wolf cub that she’d missed part of Qingjiao’s bath scene. Quickly, she rewound the video by a minute.

The video moved at a brisk pace, clearly condensing what must have been a much longer bath. Within minutes, Qingjiao transformed from looking like a scraggly beggar to a glamorous beauty.

That fur was so silky it could star in a shampoo commercial!

And wifey’s grooming technique was masterful—like a skilled stylist creating a celebrity transformation.

Just as Qingjiao’s bath finished, Xu Wenshuang thought the video might be ending. It felt like she’d barely started watching!

But wait—

A careful look showed the video was only halfway through. There was more to come!

Eagerly, Xu Wenshuang turned her attention back to the screen. The scene had shifted—now a large bathtub held a sleek black panther.

“Lightning!” Xu Wenshuang gasped.

Lightning was in the video too!

Her excitement doubled. She watched as Lightning obediently lay down in the bath, allowing the warm water to cascade over its glossy black fur under wifey’s gentle guidance.

A soothing female voice then chimed in from the video, «Oh my goodness, bathing Qingjiao and bathing Lightning are like two completely different worlds. You have no idea how easy Lightning is to wash.»

Xu Wenshuang couldn’t imagine it. She could never have dreamed of getting the chance to wash Lightning herself.

The cheerful voice went on, «Qingjiao’s fur is so long and tangled, it was a nightmare to brush out. Took me an hour and a half! But look at Lightning—a short-haired pmther is the best. Not a single knot! What a heavenly angel of a panther, truly repaying kindness.»

As she spoke, the woman energetically scrubbed the panther’s back with a massage brush, then cleaned its neck and rump. The entire time, the cooperative Lightning followed instructions, lifting its paws when asked and standing up when directed—nothing like the fearsome retired war beast it was.

Lightning’s bath went by quickly, just three minutes, because its fur was so easy to care for, already healthy and lustrous.

Just as Xu Wenshuang was hoping the video would go on longer, it continued.

The scene shifted again, this time to an indoor setting.

A slender woman in a rough zoo uniform was seated at a desk in the veterinary station, seemingly occupied with some kind of work.

The camera captured only her back, not her face. Xu Wenshuang was curious, but then noticed the wide angle showed other parts of the room as well.

Over on a sofa bed, a golden-furred tiger wrapped in bandages lay resting with eyes closed. In front of it sat the freshly bathed Lightning, gently licking the tiger’s ear.

Meanwhile, on the floor nearby, a fluffy Dark Snow Wolf, its coat gleaming from its own recent bath, had curled up and fallen fast asleep.

Not far from the sleeping wolf, the wolf cub was still running around, the yellow duck’s head clamped in its jaws. It would periodically drop the duck, nudge it with its nose, then pick the duck back up again, as if trying to get it to run too.

Just as Xu Wenshuang was immersed in this fluffy scene, the camera shifted, slowly moving forward until it focused on the woman’s shoulder.

Through the lens, Xu Wenshuang finally saw what her “wife” was doing.

She was crafting.

In front of her was a large basin filled with freshly cleaned wolf fur. She was carefully sorting through it, saying, «From this batch of fur, I should be able to pick out three good tufts to make calligraphy brushes. While traditional wolf-hair brushes use weasel tail fur, we’ll be using our own Dark Snow Wolf fur. I plan to make three brushes and give them away in an upcoming livestream. Make sure you all tune in!»

«As for the rest of the fur that can’t be used for brushes, I won’t let it go to waste. I’m thinking of making some Qingjiao plush toys out of it. If they turn out well, I’ll give those away too in a lottery. And if they don’t… well, pretend I never mentioned it, haha!»

The woman chuckled, checked the time, and concluded, «That’s it for today’s video. See you next time!»

The screen went black, leaving the office in silence. Xu Wenshuang stared at the blank screen for a moment before hurrying to the comments section.

Just as expected, it had erupted.

In a mere thirteen minutes, over nine thousand comments had flooded in, filled with excited exclamations.

Especially at the end, when Qilin, Lightning, Qingjiao, and the wolf cub had all appeared, the comments descended into chaos as fans of each animal fought for attention, ranking their favorites.

「Qingjiao’s long, gorgeous hair and glamorous transformation makes her the top star today!」

「Lightning, our sweet black panther, is a close second.」

「As for the elegant Qilin princess, she’s just a special guest appearance.」

「The wolf cub takes third place, a rising child star, and the yellow duck wins best supporting role!」

Of course, amidst the flurry of animal fans, there were also plenty swooning over the zookeeper herself.

Regardless of age or gender, countless comments begged, “Wife, pick me! I desperately need one of those wolf-hair brushes!”

Xu Wenshuang chuckled as she added her own comment to the mix.

Unsurprisingly, Bi Ke Zoo had once again rocketed to the top of the interstellar hot search, and the buzz continued well into the next day.

While fans debated why the zookeeper was so skilled at crafting, Mu Ling, fully armed with Lightning and Qingjiao flanking her, climbed into a shuttle car, ready to embark on a secret mission…

As Mu Ling settled into the shuttle car, Lightning on one side and Qingjiao on the other, Xiang Bie looked back at her curiously. “Are you sure we should be going to find Moonlight?”

Mu Ling let out a huff. “We have to find Moonlight. It’s been sent to our zoo now, so whether it lives or dies, it’s our responsibility. It’s sick, and if I don’t take care of it, who will? We’ll just quietly tranquilize it and check on its condition. It’ll be fine – I’ve got two bodyguards with me, so it can’t hurt me.”

Xiang Bie wasn’t worried about Moonlight hurting Mu Ling. He was more concerned that they’d spend all day searching the mountains without even catching a glimpse of the elusive bear.

Pursing his lips, Xiang Bie started the shuttle car, which quickly headed towards the mountain entrance.