Chapter 2624: Magical Creatures in the Garden 31

Outside the window was lush greenery, a breeze blowing in.

Inside the house, two men sat facing each other across the dining table, eyes full of feeling.

Bai Rendong looked at Jin Chen, unprecedented seriousness and tenderness: "Not unfamiliar, but liking."

"So... Bao Bao, may I pursue you?"

He handed the choice over to Jin Chen.

Jin Chen: "..." Huh?

He raised an eyebrow, swallowing his confession back.

"Yes."

The atmosphere was just right, the ambiguity heating up.

Bai Rendong couldn't help but feel a rising uncertainty, hesitated, then still confirmed: "You should know what 'pursuing you' means, right?"

Jin Chen couldn't help laughing, went around the table, walked to Bai Rendong's side and sat down without asking, pulling the still somewhat dazed Bai Rendong into his embrace.

He rested his chin on Bai Rendong's shoulder, turned his head, breath brushing Bai Rendong's ear: "I know."

Of course I know.

I know your feelings, and I know my own.

Bai Rendong was tightly embraced by him, first stunned, then also laughed, his eyes brimming with overflowing tender affection.

The liking in his heart was like savage waterweeds growing, unreasonable.

——

During these days of trial operation at Zhenyang Zoo, the popularity continued to ferment, online reputation so good it seemed somewhat "unreal".

Various videos and photos about the human-understanding white lion Xiao Bai, the hedgehog convoy that queues for walks, the spectacle of a hundred birds facing the lion, and the proactive "bumping" for adoption by first- and second-tier nationals spread, attracting large numbers of visitors and netizens.

With nearly zero negative reviews and the animals' extremely high interactivity, Zhenyang Zoo has become a newly risen "check-in holy land".

And the internet never lacks people who want to ride the traffic, creating topics.

Zhou Huairen is one such representative figure.

He has hundreds of thousands of followers on a short-video platform, calling himself "the net's most daring truth-teller, the scenic-area debunker"; his livestream content consists of seeking out viral tourist spots online, then deliberately manufacturing conflict, magnifying flaws, even taking quotes out of context, to conduct so-called debunking exposés, thereby attracting eyeballs and harvesting traffic.

He and his fan base all share the superiority of being sober while everyone else is drunk.

In Zhou Huairen's view, the popularity of Zhenyang Zoo is practically tailor-made material for his debunking.

Whatever talk of animals being smart and human-like, in his view, is nothing more than the zoo's marketing gimmick, visitors' bandwagon praise, and video-editing magic.

He decided to personally expose this lie.

That morning, Zhou Huairen held up a selfie stick, started his livestream, and swaggered into Zhenyang Zoo.

"Good morning, viewers, Old Masters!" he said to the camera, "Today Xiao Zhou brings you to the recently outrageously popular Zhenyang Zoo, online they're almost blowing it up into a fairy-tale world, saying animals are smart as if they'd become spirits—real or fake? Xiao Zhou's followers know, we don't speak falsely, we only look at the truth."

"Today I'll take everyone to actually check it out, to see whether this zoo really is as divine as the internet says!"

Soon, a large number of viewers flooded his livestream room, and the comment barrage descended into chaos.

: Brother Zhou is mighty! We should tear apart the false masks of these internet-famous scenic spots!

: Finally someone went to debunk this zoo—obviously just hype!

: Bullshit! Zhenyang Zoo is great! Animals are smart! Have you been there or are you just spouting off here?

: Never been there, huh? Xiao Zhou, be careful, don't get attacked by the zoo's braindead fans.

Zhou Huairen pretended not to see the quarrel in the comments, secretly pleased that this was exactly the effect he wanted.

He headed straight for the relatively nearby squirrel enclosure, looking for spots easy to overlook, convenient for him to make an article out of.

In the squirrel enclosure, five or six fluffy, bushy-tailed squirrels were hopping about among the artificial hill's trees and rope bridges, occasionally picking up pine cones bought by visitors to feed them, skillfully peeling and eating until their cheeks bulged, looking extremely cute.

Xiao Kuai the squirrel has been in an especially good mood these past two days.

A few nights ago it performed a great deed, although it vomited from exhaustion, but it considers itself the top contributor, just waiting for the little boss to wake up to give it big praise and extra food.

Thus, it works especially hard, not only enjoying its own leaping, but also bringing along several squirrel sisters to perform stunts together.

But after too many performances, it gets sleepy.

Xiao Kuai quietly climbed up a tree to sleep, leaving the performance chance to its sisters.

Zhou Huairen simply didn't go to the bustling interactive area.

His Eyeball turned, he spotted a corner of the grounds, seeing a squirrel resting.

Zhou Huairen secretly delighted, adjusted the camera to aim at the squirrel, and said into the microphone: "Friends, did you see that? Online they've blown it sky-high, claiming extremely high interactivity."

"I've been standing here a while too, everyone look—this squirrel doesn't move at all, completely ignoring people. It seems this so-called super high interactivity has a lot of moisture! Probably just those few specially trained squirrels performing in a fixed area."

Xiao Kuai, who was lying there pondering how to invite merit from the big boss, twitched its sensitive ears, catching this unfriendly human remark.

It doubtfully lifted its little head, looking toward the human below the tree holding a strange stick, then turned its head to glance at the interactive area ahead.

Its little head tilted, a look of incomprehension.

How silly this human is, running to the viewing area and still expecting the squirrel to actively jump over to play with him.

"Alright, alright," Xiao Kuai thought, "let me graciously indulge this clueless human tourist."