Chapter 66.1

“As the eight poachers were being taken away, the rebel base had already been destroyed.

‘What did you say? All of them were caught?’ Puya’s face darkened as he listened to his light brain. Gritting his teeth, he immediately ordered: ‘Eliminate them all, no matter what method you use. Eight people – not a single one can be left alive for the garrison troops!’

After hanging up, he turned to instruct his subordinates: ‘Notify everyone to evacuate. We’re abandoning this base!’

With one command from above, everyone below sprang into action.

Luo’en, who had been confined in isolation, suddenly saw the protective door open. A rebel soldier hurriedly entered, saluted him, and said: ‘Captain Luo’en, something has happened outside. We need to evacuate immediately!’

Luo’en stood up from the ground expressionlessly and followed.

Outside, everyone was moving equipment. None of the instruments could be abandoned, nor could the experimental samples – these data were the most valuable assets of this experimental base.

The entire evacuation took less than twenty minutes. Over fifty rebels split into thirty different vehicles and quickly dispersed into various streets throughout the city.”

The irritable man in the white coat and three other colleagues were assigned to the same vehicle as Luo’en. They had worked together on Four Bay Star before. Except for the irritable man who held a grudge against Luo’en, the others generally followed his orders.

The irritable man started grumbling again: “I felt uneasy during yesterday’s meeting. We spent a month doing reconnaissance and preparation work before daring to enter Changshan Zoo. How could those idiots just decide to go to Bi Ke Zoo overnight? Where did they get the courage? Now look what happened – their recklessness got us all running for our lives. This is ridiculous!”

A colleague nodded: “Puya was really too impulsive this time.”

Another colleague glanced at Luo’en and said, “Puya was clearly eager to establish merit. Our base on Shenwang Star only has two leaders – Puya and Captain Luo’en. Since Captain Luo’en’s recent operation failed, if Puya had succeeded, he would have been promoted immediately.”

The irritable man shouted: “But he didn’t succeed! It’s a complete failure!”

That colleague continued observing Luo’en: “Indeed. Puya is usually quite cautious. How did he make such a big mistake this time? Allowing those eight people to act overnight wasn’t normal to begin with. Did someone provoke him?”

The irritable man sneered: “What provocation? He simply underestimated Bi Ke Zoo. They even said Bi Ke Zoo had no security at all. They brought guns – if they couldn’t steal, they’d just take by force. They never considered failure could happen, and now look at the result!”

The colleague glared at the irritable man: “Can you talk less?”

The irritable man was stunned and about to retort when others quickly held him back, trying to calm him down.

That colleague looked at Luo’en again: “Puya will definitely be criticized for this. It’s good if he steps down. From now on, we’ll follow Captain Luo’en’s orders. Captain Luo’en, what do you think – can we still stay on Shenwang Star?”

With these words, the vehicle suddenly fell silent.

Luo’en had been resting with his eyes closed in the corner. Hearing this, he lifted his eyelids slightly to look at them: “How would I know?”

That colleague smiled: “What’s your guess?”

“Can’t guess. I’ll wait for orders from above.” After speaking, Luo’en closed his eyes again, unwilling to say more.

The vehicle continued forward, and gradually everyone inside fell quiet.

Except for the silent Luo’en and the naive irritable man in the white coat, the three colleagues exchanged glances, secretly signaling to each other.

Who benefits most from Puya’s people getting into trouble?

Naturally, it would be Luo’en, who had just made a mistake and was being punished. Compared to Puya’s situation now, Luo’en’s mistake seemed trivial – at least he had cleaned up thoroughly afterward.

If the Shenwang Star base was compromised by Puya’s actions, then they could reasonably withdraw. And who wanted to withdraw from Shenwang Star the most?

Again, it was Luo’en. At the exchange meeting on Four Bay Star, he had fled overnight after being frightened by that white fox. Who knew if he wanted to run away again now that the white fox had followed them back to Shenwang Star?

In any case, this incident seemed quite suspicious.

This Luo’en was a defector after all. If he could betray the Federation Army, who could guarantee he wouldn’t betray the rebels? Such people shouldn’t be trusted with important positions.

*

Because Lightning was injured, Mu Ling had been extremely protective of it these past two days. Whenever there were no visitors, she took Lightning everywhere with her, even eating meals together.

Wei Li watched the director feeding chicken breast to Lightning outside the cafeteria and sidled up to Xiang Bie to ask: “Brother Xiang, didn’t you get hurt too?”

Everyone at the table immediately perked up their ears, all looking their way.

They already knew that poachers had broken into the park two nights ago. Fortunately, Brother Xiang was skilled and led the war beasts to take them all down. They wanted to know more details, but the surveillance footage had been taken away, leaving them with no way to learn more.

“Yeah, Brother Xiang, they were poachers with guns – you really weren’t injured?”

Xiang Bie picked up some food with his chopsticks, took a bite, and casually replied, “I wasn’t really the one fighting. It was Qilin and the others. I just hid in the back and fired a few shots. Luckily I wasn’t hurt.”

Everyone was amazed: “Our zoo’s war beasts are just as capable as active-duty ones, not retired at all! We really need to learn from Director Mu – she’s amazing at raising war beasts!”

“Aren’t we learning now? I have to shovel ten buckets of waste from the animal dormitory every day.”

“We’re eating here, watch what you’re saying!”

“It’s not just waste management. I can now identify whose droppings are whose by smell alone with my eyes closed.”

“Hey hey hey!”

“And the feed – Magic only eats the lushest grass. Won’t touch anything slightly wilted. Every day, a lot of hay is left over. Then the director makes me write reports analyzing which market grass is best, which has the highest nutritional value, and research what kind of grass was best in Magic’s previous service location, its old diet and such. Says once I analyze it thoroughly and write a 10,000-word thesis, I can graduate. So far I’ve only written the words ‘thesis paper’.”

“You’re just picking grass, how hard can that be? Plus the director said you’ll graduate once you finish writing. My situation is worse – I have to imitate Little Wolf every day. I don’t even know if I’m Ji Xiang’s keeper or Little Wolf’s anymore. The director even bought me a Little Wolf cosplay outfit, telling me to start wearing it tomorrow to get used to it. I have no idea if I can graduate after getting used to it…”

“You’re complaining about wearing clothes? Do you know how hard it is to help Pimi rehabilitate? You all keep saying I’m always wearing headphones listening to music while eating and sleeping? Look for yourselves what I’m listening to – ‘108 Ways to Stretch Animals’, ‘Sports Injury Anatomy’, ‘Precise Massage’. I don’t even know if getting an animal massage certification will let me graduate…”

The dining table suddenly became gloomy. Some zookeepers who had been learning from Mu Ling before, and some who were recently assigned to the daycare project, suddenly seemed to lose their spirit.

With that, they lost their appetite. The thesis writer went back to writing, the animal learner went to watch Little Wolf videos, and those listening to professional books continued listening.

After everyone at the table had dispersed, Wei Li sipped his soup while watching Brother Xiang suddenly start rotating his wrist, and asked, “Brother Xiang, what’s wrong?”

Brother Xiang shook his head, put down his chopsticks, and walked out.

Wei Li stared at Brother Xiang’s back, seeing him stop in front of the director after leaving the cafeteria, saying something while rotating his wrist again.

Is Brother Xiang’s hand uncomfortable? Wei Li quickly finished his soup and hurried out, wanting to ask Brother Xiang what was wrong. He arrived just in time to hear the director ask, “Brother Xiang, what’s wrong with your hand?”

Xiang Bie looked at the girl who was tearing up chicken breast and feeding it piece by piece to Lightning, then glanced at Lightning’s wounds that were almost impossible to find now, and said flatly: “Nothing much. Maybe it got twisted during the fight with the poachers that night.”

“What?” Mu Ling immediately raised her head. She put down the chicken breast and quickly stepped forward, taking Brother Xiang’s hand and turning it, asking, “Does this hurt?”

Brother Xiang frowned slightly: “A little.”

Mu Ling’s face turned serious: “Those might have been rebels. How did they twist your hand? Besides the pain, do you feel anything else? The bone isn’t cracked, is it?”

As she spoke, she felt Brother Xiang’s wrist skin: “At least it’s not swollen.”

Xiang Bie paused and quickly withdrew his hand. He held his wrist and said, “It’s fine, just a twist. It’s already better than the past two days.”

“Why didn’t you say anything these past two days? You said you weren’t hurt.” Mu Ling glared at Brother Xiang, sighing: “We need to get an X-ray. Come on, let’s go to the veterinary station.”

Xiang Bie explained: “Really, it’s just a twist.”

“Still needs to be checked thoroughly.” As Mu Ling spoke, she pushed Brother Xiang, herding him toward the veterinary station.

Just then, Wei Li also came out, asking, “Brother Xiang, your hand is hurt? Let me see!”

Xiang Bie frowned and pulled his hand back, asking, “Weren’t you eating?”

Wei Li said, “I finished eating.”

“You finished so quickly?”

Wei Li froze, looked back at the cafeteria: “Ah, many people finished eating.”

Xiang Bie: “…Oh.”

Wei Li: “…?”

Seeing them still chatting idly, Mu Ling simply pushed both of them together to the veterinary station.

Ten minutes later, after confirming the bone wasn’t injured, Mu Ling stood beside Wei Li, directing: “Right, just like that, rub it with this medicinal wine. It helps sprains heal faster.”

Wei Li was all smiles as he rubbed Brother Xiang’s hand, asking: “Brother Xiang, how does it feel?”

Xiang Bie: “…”

Xiang Bie expressionlessly said, “I feel I’m already better.”

As he tried to pull his hand back, Mu Ling quickly stopped him. “It’s not better yet. Sprains need at least three days of rubbing. Brother Wei, from now on, give Brother Xiang half an hour of rubbing at this time every day.”

Wei Li immediately agreed: “No problem, I’ll definitely help Brother Xiang’s hand heal! Brother Xiang, what do you want to eat tomorrow? This counts as a work injury, right? You can have special patient meals now.”

Mu Ling immediately said, “Yes, you can have patient meals. Brother Xiang, tell Ailin whatever you want to eat, she’ll get the ingredients and have Chef Danton make it. Just say I approved it!”

Wei Li instantly got excited and leaned toward Brother Xiang: “That’s great, Brother Xiang! Now you’ll get the same treatment as Lightning!”

“…” Xiang Bie gave Wei Li a deep look, then said to Mu Ling: “Thank you, Director.”

Seeing that Brother Xiang was fine now, Mu Ling let them continue with the rubbing while she took Lightning back to the animal dormitory.

As soon as Mu Ling arrived at the animal dormitory, she saw several staff members still busy – some sweeping the floor, others changing toys. When the war beasts saw strangers come in to clean, they would consciously move aside. Now most keepers didn’t need to wear protective suits and could freely enter and exit the animal dormitory.

This showed that building familiarity really worked. Even Pimi now accepted the massage keeper and Dr. Burey approaching.

Currently, the animals’ emotions in the dormitory were mostly stable, except for a few in the veterinary station that were still uncertain.

Mu Ling planned to try letting Lingren and Moonlight move to the animal dormitory tomorrow.

Lingren and Moonlight could now accept regular keepers feeding them, which was the first step in overcoming psychological barriers.

Moonlight no longer retreated to corners to face the wall or bang against walls, and Lingren wasn’t constantly on guard, always looking to escape.

Overall, they had become much more relaxed in the enclosure environment, similar to how Qilin and the others were when first housed together.

Plus, after watching that night’s surveillance footage, Mu Ling saw that Moonlight and Lingren could actually coordinate with Magic and the others, showing they could accept each other – they just needed communication.

While calculating future work content in her mind, when Mu Ling returned to the veterinary station, she saw Wei Li was gone and Brother Xiang was washing his hands.

Mu Ling smiled and asked, “All done with the rubbing?”

Xiang Bie was creating soap bubbles on his wrist, looking down as he said: “Mm.”

Mu Ling added: “Still, you should rest more when injured. Brother Xiang, don’t drive the shuttle for the next few days. Let Brother Wei fill in. You can help me keep an eye on the daycare construction site. Oh right, tomorrow night I plan to try moving Moonlight and Lingren to the animal dormitory.”

Xiang Bie dried his hands with a towel, his tone flat: “Mm.”

Seeing Brother Xiang seemed low in spirits, Mu Ling was about to ask more when suddenly her light-brain rang.