Chapter 63: Don

When you fall into my hands, you’d better recite the National Animal Protection Law fluently—or I’ll peel off your crocodile skin to make a handbag and grind your leg bones into beads to play with.

Sitting alone on the rooftop, Chen Zhi’s face twisted with resentment as he glared fiercely at the river, bit into his bread, and let out a cold snort.

Today, the Changping Mountain Pet Park should be at its weakest defensive point.

Since the crocodile appeared and two wild boar boars raised on the mountain vanished without cause, the pet park has maintained round-the-clock patrols, typically with ten hunters patrolling each morning armed with compound bows and carbon-fiber fishing nets.

At night, eight hunters patrol, carrying compound bows, carbon-fiber fishing nets, and two explosion-proof rifles manufactured by Beigong.

Live off the mountains, live off the sea; if you have neither mountain nor sea, you rely on welfare lotteries.

Some hunters from Changping Mountain have registered with the Public Security Bureau and are legally permitted to apply for hunting equipment.

Chen Zhi is one of the few from the Changping Chen clan who passed the review and qualified to apply for a hunting rifle.

Although the Public Security Bureau hasn’t caught the crocodile, they’ve detected traces and granted Chen Zhi and her father special permission for hunting rifles as a precaution.

Because a large estuarine crocodile really does exist in this stretch of the Jianghe River, having crossed over from across the strait.

“Damn crocodile.”

Chen Zhi bit into her bread, irritated.

The night patrol team, originally nine people including herself, had all gone back to the village for the Changping Chen clan’s banquet hosting the distant An Tong Lin clan—nearly every eligible young man and woman from Changping Chen had rushed home to go on blind dates.

Chen Zhi is the village chief’s daughter and one of the few specially authorized armed hunters.

The night surveillance duty falls squarely on Chen Zhi.

Chen Zhi didn’t actually want to go back for a blind date or get married—she wouldn’t still be single at twenty-eight if she truly wanted to marry.

What annoyed her was that every single villager, young and old, was feasting at the ancestral hall with shark fin and bird’s nest, while she was stuck on the rooftop chewing bread.

Her father had said that once the village boys finished their dates, they’d return to the pet park immediately and bring her a big red envelope.

But she was still annoyed—everyone else was feasting at the ancestral hall while she was stuck chewing bread, making her feel like a lonely dog kicked out of the family.

Fuming, Chen Zhi picked up her phone, opened her father’s WeChat, and sent a barrage of angry voice messages.

Though annoyed, Chen Zhi still held her post, carrying out surveillance duty.

As long as that estuarine crocodile remains alive, the Changping Chen clan won’t know peace before winter arrives.

What Chen Zhi didn’t expect was that shortly after sending the voice message, her father replied.

It was a sixty-second voice message.

Sixty seconds wasn’t her father’s limit—it was just the maximum length allowed for a single voice message.

Chen Zhi’s eyelid twitched twice as she tapped open her father’s WeChat voice message:

“Barking! Keep barking! If it weren’t for you, this unfilial daughter, failing your blind date and then hitting the guy, would the whole village be feasting while you’re stuck on night duty? If you’re so capable, why not bring back a boyfriend already! Hmph—”

“Unfilial daughter!” The voice on WeChat, feeling it wasn’t enough, sent another voice message.

Chen Zhi froze, then flew into a rage and called her father’s voice line.

He declined.

She called again.

He declined again.

Chen Zhi: “.”

If you’ve got the guts to insult me, you’ve got the guts to pick up the phone!

…………

As Chen Zhi relentlessly kept calling her father,

a black business car pulled into the parking lot of the Changping Mountain Pet Park.

And a new WeChat message arrived as scheduled on driver Xiao Lin’s phone.

Xiao Lin opened it—and even with his hardened will and spirit, he couldn’t help but freeze.

Boss Lin: 【Take a taxi into the city and buy me a new phone.】

Xiao Lin looked hesitant and sent a message to Lin Ying in the back seat.

Xiao Lin: 【Miss Lin, we’re already in the middle of nowhere—you might not be safe alone.】

Boss Lin: 【Go ahead, it’s fine.】

Seeing Miss Lin’s reply, Xiao Lin’s face showed resignation. He got out of the car, glancing back every three steps, staring toward the mountains as if afraid something terrifying—wolves, tigers, or leopards—might leap out.

His real job was security; driving was just a side gig.

Back in the city, the greatest danger was stray dogs and drunkards—but now, in the mountains, at 8:30 p.m., deep in the wilderness?

“May Mazu and the Lord protect me,” Xiao Lin gritted his teeth, called a taxi, then ordered a new phone via Flash Delivery to be sent to the pet park.

After watching Xiao Lin leave, Lin Ying, wearing a hat, carrying a shoulder bag, and hugging a little fox, stepped out of the business car and walked toward the mountains.

And in An Sheng’s mind, his wish list refreshed with a new wish.

【May Mazu and the Lord protect me! Don’t let Miss Lin get hurt while meeting her secret lover—if anything happens to her, I’ll lose my job paying me thirty thousand a month with six insurances and two pensions!—Xiao Lin, hiding in the grass after getting out of the car and crawling back, frowned with worry: afraid she’d get hurt, afraid he’d return to see something he shouldn’t and still get fired.】

【Wish fulfilled: Job Defense Battle! (Miss Lin’s existence is vital—where she is, they are. If Lin Ying dies, the Tropical Continent tribes will explode.)】

“Mmm?”

An Sheng, seeing the wish list update and the fulfillment notice, froze.

Wait—why would Lin Ying’s mishap in Xia Country cause the Tropical Continent to explode?

And what did “where she is, they are” mean?

An Sheng thought harder, eyes widening—as if something clicked in his tiny brain.

“Holy shit! Does that mean if Lin Ying gets hurt, all the security staff connected to her will be exiled to the Tropical Continent to pluck fleas off gorillas?”

Come to think of it, his guess didn’t sound impossible.

But why would the tribes on the Tropical Continent explode once those security staff arrived?

“Mmmmmm?”

An Sheng instinctively looked toward Lin Ying—when a dark shadow “slapped” the little fox across the face.

“Mmm?”

An Sheng stared in disbelief, raised his paw, and pressed it to his slapped fox face.

“Huh? Sorry, Lord Fuli.”

On the way to Changping Mountain, there was a ravine; as Lin Ying descended, her body swayed slightly.

Lin Ying also felt something bump against her.

“Did I just get slapped by a human baby feeder?” An Sheng’s dazed gaze slowly returned to focus. He turned his head, cheeks flushing with embarrassment, shifting uncomfortably.

“Mmmmmm.”

Lin Ying felt nothing. After stepping through the muddy ground, she reached the mountain path of Changping, where stone and cement steps allowed Lord Fuli to move freely.

Lin Ying set Lord Fuli down, then calmly apologized and asked:

“Lord Fuli, we’ve reached Changping Mountain—what’s the next move?”

“Mmmmmmm.”

An Sheng led the way, walking ahead to guide Lin Ying to the mid-mountain ridge.

Lin Ying sat on the pavilion at the mid-mountain ridge as instructed, puzzled, watching Lord Fuli.

【Stay here. I’m going to hunt two wild boars to use as bait—the crocodile’s in the river.】

An Sheng typed on his phone, confident.

After arriving at Changping Mountain, An Sheng felt the promise of +3, then +1 in wish power.

His motivation was at maximum.

Even if there were a whale a hundred meters long in the river right now, he’d drag it out.

It’s the end of the month—please, dear readers, use your monthly tickets.

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(End of Chapter)