Super Zoo

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Mr. Cheng, the manager of the factory, was introduced to Suming by Wang Jian She at an entrepreneurs' meeting. The Yangchuan Toy Factory has been around since the early days of the nation's founding, a well-established state-owned enterprise. Before the 1980s, it was one of the best workplaces in Yangchuan City, but as with most state-owned enterprises, it gradually began to decline after economic reforms and opening up.

The current Yangchuan Toy Factory is nothing like its heyday, with most of the buildings and equipment sold off, the staff reduced to less than a tenth of its former size, and barely surviving on municipal subsidies.

Wang Jian She, who is in charge of the economy, finds these unprofitable, drag-on-the-economy state-owned enterprises a major headache. His introduction implied an opportunity for Suming to lend a helping hand. In fact, not only to Suming, but Wang Jian She, like a matchmaker, often introduced local loss-making state-owned enterprises to others.

Although the Yangchuan Toy Factory isn't what it used to be, it is still a state-owned entity, with guaranteed product safety compared to private companies. Nowadays, toy manufacturers are all trying to cut costs by using toxic and substandard materials. The toy factory's poor performance is largely due to its insistence on using qualified materials, making its costs several times more expensive than other companies, which naturally made it difficult to make a profit.

After busying for half the night, he finally arranged the follow-up work.

Early the next day, Taoyuan posted the upcoming competition schedule on Weibo, which was also shared on the Yangchuan forum.

The Yangchuan City Zoo will hold an animal martial arts event every year from June to August, during the summer vacation.

This year's inaugural event will feature sixteen 'batches' of contestants, using a single round-robin elimination system, for a total of fifteen battles to be held every Saturday and Sunday.

Following is the match-up list:

Giant Tortoise VS Scale-Armored Tyrant Python, a great turtle and snake battle...

Giant Gourami VS Yangtze Alligator, these two old foes finally have a chance to settle their long-standing grudges;

Grey Wolf VS Wolfhound Brothers, this is a 1-on-2 battle, of course, it's not quite fair, but this isn't a regular Olympic event – no one cares about that.

Diamond Parrot (Sister) VS Diamond Parrot (Sister), the battle will be mainly a swearing match, with points deducted for foul language;@@novelbin@@

White-browed Gibbon VS Macaque Group, as both sides have too many combatants, the battle will primarily involve long-range attacks; the zoo will provide each side with a hundred pounds of rotten peaches, rotten bananas, rotten apples...

Blackback Gorilla VS Wild Boar Second Elder! The century fight between the Great Elder and Second Elder, the often overshadowed Second Elder finally gets his chance to turn the tables.

Alpaca Group VS Two Racehorses, competing in spitting;

Conger Eel Group VS Three-Legged Old Turtle...

In addition to the official matches, there will be a closing battle, a Cat and Dog War! The cats that wander around the zoo all day will battle the dogs that roam the back hill all day.

Seeing this match-up list, a 'prediction craze' quickly swept through the forums and Weibo.

"Yangtze Alligator and Gourami in battle? There's absolutely no suspense, I bet the Yangtze Alligator will win!"

"Not necessarily, don't forget they're both in 'protective gear' and can't use claws and teeth. The alligator's advantage won't come into play!"

"I bet fifty cents the gourami will turn the tables!"

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"So who do you think would win between the crocodile bird eel and the old turtle? I can't even imagine how they would fight, so looking forward to it..."

"And about the shepherd dogs and the Grey Wolf, I heard that the two dogs from the zoo are purebred German Shepherds. They're gonna fight two against one, and I'm betting on the dogs to win!"

"You obviously don't know the inside story. Don't you know that those two dogs are usually just lackeys to the Grey Wolf? They're already at a huge disadvantage in terms of presence."

"What does that matter, there are no brothers in the battlefield!"

"Cut the crap and start the betting!"

Of course, gambling is illegal, and whether there was offline betting at the zoo's martial arts tournament or not remains unknown.

However, the Yangchuan City forum blatantly set up a big casino, taking bets on the outcomes of the martial arts tournament.

Betting used the forum's gold coins, which members earned by posting—a single coin for a reply, five for a new thread, with more for featured and hot threads. There were also various activities to earn gold coins, so forum members normally had a bit of 'savings'.

The minimum bet was five gold coins, with a thousand as the limit.

"They really know how to have fun." Suming chuckled as he saw the betting module on the forum and placed several hundred gold coins in bets. But he didn't have a clue who would win—it was all down to luck.

Yangchuan City forum even worked out the betting odds.

The most even odds were for the great parrot sisters' swearing match, with both sides at 1:1.04, the older sister getting just a slightly better chance. Maybe members thought that the younger sister, being less experienced at hurling insults, wouldn't match up to the older women seen cursing in the markets. They were always the fiercest...

Unexpectedly, the biggest gap in odds was not between the Yangtze crocodile and the axolotl but rather between the Great Ape and the Second Brother with odds at 1:5.2, suggesting that the Great Ape was generally considered much stronger.

There was a reason for this. An ape fighting a monkey wasn't anything special, but if you threw a 'pig' into the mix, the ape was suddenly imbued with a sacred cultural significance.

"Go, Great Saint! Great Saint for the win!"

Suming felt almost compelled to prepare a Golden Cudgel for the Great Ape—Second Brother, you're in for a tough time. But who made you a pig? Anyway, with your thick skin, a few hits from a stick probably won't hurt you that much, right...

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"Dear viewers, hello, I'm Li Jingjing from Yangchuan Television Station. I'm here at Yangchuan City Zoo to cover the zoo's martial arts tournament. Since the previous double bear battle and the final cat-dog showdown were exhibition matches and not part of the official competition, the upcoming event will be the tournament's first official match..."

It's no exaggeration to say that the first match began with the attention of thousands. Naturally, Yangchuan City TV Station wouldn't miss such a great local news opportunity, and they sent a reporter for a live broadcast.

Suming was virtually a son-in-law to Yangchuan City TV Station by now. A large group of the station's staff and reporters surrounded him, chatting and laughing a few hours before the live broadcast. Nangong, now a mainstay of the station with a focus on political and military news, left the zoo's entertainment news to Li Jingjing, who used to work with him. Since she had met Suming several times before through Nangong, they were already acquainted.

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"So, with a little over an hour to go before the competition starts, Mr. Su, could you share with us the original intention behind organizing this 'martial arts tournament'?" Li Jingjing asked with a smile. "Despite the great interest, a small portion of viewers are questioning whether the martial arts tournament could cause harm to the animals?"