Chapter 42.2 

 

“Secondly, there’s the transportation issue. The mountain roads are difficult to traverse, taking several hours to go up and down. Although we’ve installed public restrooms along the way, visitors inevitably face inconveniences. I’ve actually seen Bi Ke Zoo’s initial design plans, which clearly divided the Bi Ke jungle into ten sections, each with its own small service area. So after earning our first bucket of gold, I plan to start preparing for the construction of our park’s second transit service area.”

 

“Lastly, there’s the issue of the war beasts. Director Wang, our Bi Ke Zoo currently has quite a few war beasts, but simply letting them roam freely on the mountain is not feasible. Take Silver Snow Bear Moonlight and Ferry Eagle Tayun for example – they’re both S-class retired war beasts in our zoo. We came very close, just a hair’s breadth away, from them dying silently on the mountain. We were lucky to discover it in time, but what if we hadn’t? How would we explain their deaths to the government? So once we have more staff, we need to implement unified management of the war beasts, including regular health check-ups and one-on-one specialized care.”

 

As Mu Ling spoke, she became increasingly worried. In fact, if it weren’t for her lack of funds and inability to support all the animals in the park, she wouldn’t have rushed to reopen in just half a month. In Mu Ling’s view, Bi Ke Zoo in its current state was basically still a half-finished product. It would need several major renovations to bring all the equipment and facilities up to standard.

 

Director Wang, seeing Mu Ling’s clear plans, smiled. However, when she mentioned the war beasts, he thought of something else. “So, how exactly did you manage to calm down all these war beasts emotionally?”

 

Mu Ling was taken aback and looked at Director Wang. “Of course, by giving them medication.”

 

Director Wang shook his head. “I’ve seen all your videos. Even before you gave them medication, they were already particularly obedient to you.”

 

Mu Ling blinked. “Director Wang, I think this is a misunderstanding. You think the animals become docile when they see me, but they’re inherently gentle creatures. They’re war beasts, raised by humans. They’re naturally close to humans. They just occasionally have mental instability, but they’re not constantly mentally unstable. As long as humans patiently comfort them, they will naturally recover.”

 

Director Wang stared deeply at Mu Ling for a moment. Then, he pointed his index finger in the air. “You have a secret.”

 

Mu Ling was surprised. “Huh?”

 

Director Wang said, “You definitely have a secret. You have a special animal taming technique, but you’re not willing to share it.”

 

Mu Ling didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Sir, I really don’t.”

 

Director Wang waved his hand. “Fine, if you don’t want to say it, that’s alright. You might not tell me today, but sooner or later, others will come to ask you. It’s okay if you brush me off, but think about how you’ll handle them.”

 

Just then, Director Fang suddenly called out, “Old Wang.”

 

Director Wang smiled, raised his hand slightly, and said to Mu Ling, “Go ahead and get busy. You don’t need to entertain us anymore.”

 

As Director Wang left, Mu Ling watched his retreating figure and gently pursed her lips.

 

It seems I’ll have to think of some other excuses in the future…

 

*

 

Around 5:30 in the evening, all the shuttle buses from the mountain had returned. The last batch of visitors had also gathered near the animal dormitory. Mu Ling checked the time and, feeling it was about right, asked Xiao Zhao and the others to bring out the raffle items.

 

Their activity quickly caught the attention of the visitors. Some who had been watching Qilin and the others for a long time came over and asked the staff, “What’s going on here?”

 

The one asked was Fas. He smiled and said, “We’re holding a raffle.”

 

Just then, the rotating prize board was pushed out, and the audience saw that in addition to the raffle box, there was also a spinning wheel prepared. The wheel had twelve prizes written on it, including “9,999 cash”, “One-year free admission to Bi Ke Zoo”, “A box of premium milk”, “Hug a wolf cub once”, “Feed any S-class retired war beast once”, “One ‘plushie’ toy”, “One self-drive tour in the park’s mountain area”.

 

Twelve prizes, some practical, some unique. Tonight, two lucky visitors would be drawn, and they would spin the wheel to determine their prize. As soon as the specific prizes were revealed, more visitors gathered around. Clearly, everyone was interested in the prize content.

 

Soon, 6 o’clock arrived, and Mu Ling called out with a megaphone, “It’s raffle time! It’s raffle time! To all friends who support our Bi Ke Zoo and love our little animals, today’s raffle ceremony is now beginning!”

 

With Mu Ling’s call, the visitors who hadn’t come over yet all walked over. Upon seeing the prize content, they started exclaiming one after another. Some asked if they could feed Qilin, some asked if there were really any ‘plushie’ toys left, some asked if the one-year free admission ticket could be used anytime and if it was only for one person.

 

Mu Ling answered all their questions one by one. At the same time, exciting music started playing over the loudspeakers. Accompanying the music, a large light brain display screen above showed a countdown in progress.

 

“Ten seconds to the first draw! Ten, nine, eight…”

 

The ten seconds passed in a flash. Mu Ling pointed to a visitor and said, “You, sir, come up and draw the first lucky winner.”

 

The visitor pointed to was Xiao Wei, who had squeezed to the very front. Xiao Wei was suddenly flattered and hurriedly went up to randomly draw a piece of paper from the raffle box.

 

Mu Ling read out the number on the paper. Immediately, someone in the crowd exclaimed, “Me! Me! I won!”

 

That visitor came up, and after Mu Ling confirmed his ticket number, she let him spin the wheel while smiling and asking, “What do you hope to win?”

 

The visitor immediately said, “I want the one-year admission ticket. Your zoo’s tickets are too hard to get!”

 

“Hahaha.” A burst of laughter erupted from below.

 

But unfortunately, this visitor didn’t win the one-year free admission. He got the self-drive tour in the mountain area once. The mountain self-drive tour seemed like quite a fresh experience too, so the visitor went down satisfied.

 

Then came the second winner, who spun the wheel and got a box of milk. He was extremely disappointed, and there was a chorus of groans from below, feeling sorry for him.

 

The next winner spun and got the ‘plushie’ toy. This winner was delighted. Mu Ling explained that the ‘plushie’ toy would be mailed to his home within seven working days and asked him to leave his address.

 

There was no choice; Mu Ling didn’t have any ready-made ‘plushie’ toys here. She still needed to pluck more of Qingjiao’s fur in the next couple of days. Fortunately, with the change from summer to autumn, Qingjiao was indeed shedding a bit.

 

After the raffle ended, at 6:30, the zoo was about to close. Many visitors were reluctant to leave, wanting to go to the glass house to take more photos of the war beasts, but the war beasts’ viewing time was from 2 to 6 o’clock. Now it was 6:30, and the glass house was already closed, so they couldn’t see inside anymore.

 

Those visitors could only leave disappointedly. However, when passing the main gate, Mu Ling personally led people to hand out small gifts to them. Today, all visitors would receive a free small gift.

 

Some opened them to look: it was the small Qilin-shaped ornament mentioned earlier, along with a postcard. The postcard featured animals from Bi Ke Zoo, and immediately some people started exchanging postcards, wanting to get the postcard with their favorite animal.

 

*

 

It wasn’t until nearly 7 o’clock that the main gate was finally closed, and today’s business day finally ended. Afterward came the long process of cleaning up.

 

After dinner, and after administering the war beasts’ medication and feeding them, Mu Ling was doing calculations outside the veterinary station.

 

Today’s supermarket turnover: 34,539 star coins.

 

Today’s restaurant turnover: 21,345 star coins.

 

Today’s total ticket revenue: 249,034 star coins.

 

Profits and taxes still needed to be calculated separately, but overall, the profit from a thousand visitors exceeded her previous expectations. Looking at the strings of numbers on the draft paper, Mu Ling felt for a moment that all of today’s hard work was worth it.

 

Finally managed to make money from the zoo!

 

“Knock knock.” Just then, there was a knocking sound from behind.

 

Mu Ling turned to look and saw it was Xiang Bie. She smiled and said, “Brother Xiang, come quick, look how much we earned today!”

 

Xiang Bie walked in carrying milk, looked at the data in the notebook, and nodded. “Not bad.”

 

Saying this, he put the milk in front of Mu Ling.

 

Mu Ling looked at that cup of milk.

 

Xiang Bie said, “Drink this before bed; it’ll help you sleep better since you’ve been so busy these past few days.”

 

Mu Ling held the cup and took a sip, smiling as she said, “I’m not too busy; how busy can one thousand visitors make? There will be even busier times ahead! Once our visitor numbers increase further…”

 

She began dreaming big about future profits as she continued: “…that revenue will double—no—triple! I’ve seen data from other zoos where caged animal parks can attract over twenty thousand visitors daily while wildlife parks can also reach similar numbers! If we aim for top-tier service accommodating twenty thousand visitors then many facilities should start being planned right away!”

 

As she spoke, she started drawing up plans for herself. Xiang Bie noticed a stack of plan drawings beside Mu Ling. He picked them up and flipped through them, raising an eyebrow. “The second transit service area won’t be easy to build. It could easily cost millions in funds.”

 

Mu Ling: “…”

 

Her grand ambitions from a second ago instantly turned into cardiac arrest upon hearing “millions”. “Does… does it need that much?”

 

Xiang Bie put down the drawings and said, “There’s no rush for this. Use the money to buy animals first.”

 

Mu Ling thought about how the scarcest resource in the zoo right now was indeed animals, and she felt a bit of a headache. “Animals are expensive too. What do you think we should buy first? What’s the cheapest?”

 

Xiang Bie thought for a moment. “Second-level protected animals are cheaper than first-level ones.”

 

Mu Ling immediately started using her light brain to search for what second-level protected animals there were. She had only searched halfway when her communication device rang. It was an unfamiliar number.

 

Mu Ling answered, “Hello, who is this?”

 

A cheerful middle-aged man’s voice came through: “Director Mu? It’s me—Director Liu from the Land Planning Bureau.”

 

Mu Ling was startled. Even though the other party couldn’t see her, she immediately stood up, standing very respectfully. “Oh, Director Liu, hello.”

 

On the other end, Director Liu said, “It’s like this. I got your contact number from Director Wang. I hope it’s not too presumptuous.”

 

Mu Ling hurriedly said, “Not at all, not at all. Please, go ahead.”

 

Director Liu said, “Actually, it’s a bit embarrassing to say. The reason I visited your Bi Ke Zoo today was actually at the request of a friend. He’s a Beast Tamer Army Commander, and he has a war beast that’s about to retire. He’s currently looking for a suitable place to send it.”

 

Mu Ling immediately understood. “You mean…”

 

Director Liu laughed and said, “His war beast is called Magic. It’s a…”

 

“Elephant.”