Super Zoo

Suming was initially unaware of the attack on the TV station's website, but it later turned out that it was the doing of a zoo fan. After Suming left a message on Weibo pleading for mercy on behalf of the station, the cyber attack never occurred again.

Yangchuan City TV Station held a special internal meeting, and while the meeting didn't directly mention anything related to the zoo, two resolutions were announced.

First, there would be an increase in the scrutiny of news reporting. The words of the station chief were, "We are not a roadside tabloid, we should not broadcast every piece of messy gossip."

The second resolution involved several personnel changes, with the most noteworthy being that Nangong Yan was promoted from an intern reporter to the official host of "Yangchuan Daily News." This program was the prime time flagship show of the station. Nangong Yan used to make occasional appearances, but now she was formally in charge. Another one was Yang Meng, who was transferred to the planning department.
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Afterward, Nangong Yan told Suming that she felt an unreal and strange sensation. After having completely offended Ren Chen the last time, she had braced herself for a series of difficulties and even harassment at work, but instead of any trouble, she was inexplicably promoted.

The station chief often said she had a kind of strange good fortune about her, and in her heart, Nangong was more or less aware that this good fortune came from Suming.

Meanwhile, Yang Meng hadn't slept well for several days, her face breaking out in a large number of pimples that couldn't be concealed with makeup. She wanted to talk to Ren Chen, but he was indifferent.

"You wouldn't still have some sort of plan, would you?" Ren Chen, with his legs crossed and a smile that was not quite a smile, said, emphasizing the word "plan" heavily and with an unmistakable mocking tone.

"No," Yang Meng shook her head, but then asked resentfully, "Are we just going to let it go at that?"

"What else should we do? I'll tell you this: if you have any ideas, that's your business, but don't involve me in them," Ren Chen said, standing up to leave.

Chasing women was one pleasure in his life, but money was the foundation. His company was in a critical phase of going public, and he was investing most of his time and effort into it. Compared to his career, women seemed trivial.

As a successful businessman, Ren Chen had a keen sense for things. With the utter failure of Yang Meng's last plan, he realized that pursuing Nangong or bringing down Suming was much harder than expected. Even if he took action, the cost would be high and success not guaranteed, making it completely unworthy.

Now, Ren Chen decided to temporarily extract himself from these messy affairs and concentrate on ensuring the company's public listing. For a businessman, money was everything; without it, even ten thousand Nangongs couldn't interest him.

"That's the spirit of a good young man! You are promising, I have high hopes for you!" Once Ren Chen left, Suming, not far away, chuckled to himself. Anyone who had made it as far as Ren Chen wasn't stupid, if it was himself, he would likely make the same choice.

Yang Meng seemed reluctant to accept the situation, but her reluctance was pointless as the TV station had transferred her to clerical work, with a clear message: she was being sent to the cold palace.

Without any evidence, provoking a future vice mayor and not finding any results were consequences beyond what a host like her could bear.

Just as she stepped out of the clubhouse and started her car, she suddenly noticed a fiery red fox squatting on the road ahead, gazing at her with narrow, icy eyes.

Even in broad daylight, Yang Meng shuddered at the ghostly stare of the fox.

"Damned fox!" When she saw the fox, she couldn't suppress her anger. Without much thought as to why there would be a fox there, she gritted her teeth, stepped on the gas pedal, and sped up, wanting to run over the red fox.

The nimble little fox from the zoo dodged the oncoming car with ease and darted into the bushes.

In the days that followed, Yang Meng was horrified to find foxes continually appearing in her life.

When she got up in the morning, there would be a fox outside the window, staring at her coldly through the pane;

Going out for a stroll, no matter where she went, as soon as she turned around, she could definitely see a fox crouching in a corner, watching her with green pupils;

Especially at night, when there would often be chilling howls outside her window, waking her up in the middle of the night with shadows flickering;

Those pale green, narrow pupils appeared more than once in her dreams, just staring at her lifelessly. Then those pupils would split rapidly, like a great mouth being torn open.

Damn it, she lived on the eighteenth floor, and a fox couldn't fly, so how could it possibly appear outside her window?!

After several days, Yang Meng was completely haggard. She couldn't eat or sleep properly, was constantly on edge, and showed up to work with huge dark circles, distracted and making several major mistakes. Once, she even burst into the studio armed with planning documents during a live broadcast.

"Maybe you should take a break."

Mr. Shi, the deputy station chief, looked at Yang Meng, thinking she was finished. In the city, how could there be so many foxes? If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear; she must be hallucinating.

"It's not hallucination, I really saw the foxes, they're everywhere!" Yang Meng said almost hysterically.

"Ah, you should really see a psychologist," Mr. Shi, who had studied some psychology, knew that experiencing hallucinations was one of the key criteria for diagnosing schizophrenia. If hallucinations occurred frequently, it was almost certain that schizophrenia was to blame.

Yang Meng screeched like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, "I'm not insane!"

"Alright, alright, no one's calling you insane. Here's the deal, the station has decided that you should take a leave of absence for a while. Return to your hometown, rest up, and when you're feeling better, you can come back to work at the station," Mr. Shi didn't bother arguing with a 'lunatic'—after all, a lunatic would never admit they were lunatic—so he simply handed Yang Meng the suspension notice.

Yang Meng plopped down into a chair, completely dumbfounded.

...

"I'm really not crazy!" Suming was also shouting the same thing at this moment.

"But... it says here, score 60 points, and you've got schizophrenia, over 70 points, and there's a tendency for psychopathy, over 80 points, and you're a pervert... Big brother, what's a pervert? You got 92 points, wow! That's amazing!" Chengcheng was holding a little psychology test booklet, her eyes wide open, looking very innocent and naïve as she asked Suming.

"Cough cough..." Suming was at a loss for words.

The Great Sage Liquor Industry factory had already been built, the employees recruited from Sun Town had arrived some time ago, and after a brief training, they were officially starting their jobs alongside others recruited from the job market. Several trucks of Shuixie Lake water had already been transported to the factory to be used in production.

Zhang Si Ming had also managed to get the patent application through, and the reason Suming came to Zhao Yun's house was to discuss the subsequent promotion and sales details.

Zhao Yun had drunk too much Monkey Wine last night, and when Suming arrived, he and his wife were still sound asleep. Chengcheng somehow found a 'Psychological Test: 100 Questions' and had been doing the test on the living room table, occasionally erasing and correcting her answers with an eraser.

When she saw Suming come in, she insisted on having him take the test with her.

As a result, Suming scored a super high score of 92 points, breaking the record!

"But then again, I've never been number one in any test I've done!" With that thought, Suming's eyebrows shot up, and he became quite pleased with himself again.

Chengcheng looked at him intently for a while and then nodded thoughtfully, "Mhm, I understand what schizophrenia is now, big brother. One moment you were really down, and now you're very happy—that's schizophrenia!"

"No, no, no, a guy as handsome as me couldn't possibly have schizophrenia," Suming said seriously to Chengcheng.

Chengcheng discussed it with Suming seriously too, "But does that matter? Why can't handsome people have schizophrenia? Plus, big brother, you're not as handsome as Lu Han!"

"I'm not as handsome as Yi Yang Qianxi either!"

What else could Suming say? He just ran to the kitchen to boil a few eggs and warm up some milk, then shared them with Chengcheng for breakfast.

After breakfast, almost ten in the morning, the upstairs bedroom door suddenly opened, and Zhaoqian, dressed in a very sheer lace nightgown and dragging her slippers, rushed out, rambled downstairs and said, "Oh dear, Mom of Chengcheng woke up late. Haven't you had breakfast yet, sweetie? Mom will make it for you right away."

She stuck her head out and saw Suming and Chengcheng squatting side by side on the sofa, each with half an egg in their mouths, staring at her in shock.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Like a ghost who could float, Zhaoqian whooshed back into the bedroom, and then voices could be heard from inside blaming each other...

A while later, they both came out of the bedroom, properly dressed. Zhaoqian gave an awkward chuckle and scurried off to prepare lunch in the kitchen.

"You really can't drink too much of that stuff, it's no joke," Zhao Yun staggered down from upstairs.

"No worries, I was just experiencing some schizophrenia, didn't see anything, can't remember a thing," Suming chuckled.

"Huh? You've got schizophrenia too?" Zhao Yun saw the little psychology test booklet in Chengcheng's hands and waving his hand, joked, "I remember last night, after I drank too much, she made me take this test, and what did I score again..."

"85 points! That's also really impressive!" Chengcheng shouted from the side.

"Oh, right." Zhao Yun looked at Suming strangely, "I got 85 points while drunk; how did you manage to score so high when sober?"

Suming was stunned; this family was just too unreliable. He had only heard of families sitting around the dinner table telling stories or watching TV, not taking a mental illness test together late into the night.

After the little episode, the two 'lunatics' began discussing serious matters.

Currently, Great Sage Liquor Industry was quite small and lacking in experience, so the first batch of liquor was quite limited in both variety and volume, producing only 'Dasheng Hundred-Fruit Wine' and 'Dasheng Pure Brew'—a fruit wine and a white spirit, respectively, a total of ten tons.

"That little?" Suming remembered that even the small private distilleries in Maoxi County, which were unheard of by outsiders, had an annual production of several dozen tons each. Great Sage Liquor Industry producing only ten tons, what would that amount to?

...

PS: May Day is coming up. When you're out and about, drink less, eat more vegetables, and make sure to come back in the evening~~