Super Zoo

"Speaking of Yue Fei, inspired by Mr. Zhou's martial prowess and character, and despite his own family's poverty, which precluded him from setting out on a journey, he was moved to write this poem on the wall..."

Today, the Diamond Parrot 'broadcasted' the complete story of Yue Fei. After sundown, the small theater at the entrance of Whisperwind Pavilion filled up with people. Sitting by Shuijun Lake, enjoying the lake breeze while sipping tea and listening to the storytelling made for a cool and pleasant experience. The price was reasonable as well; for barely more than ten yuan, one could loiter for half a day, a perfect place to escape the summer heat.

If it were any other animal performing every day, none could bear it. For example, those Fortune Cats now only make an appearance once a week, acting as mascots, and spend the rest of their time frolicking about.

Animals, after all, are not the same as humans; they're naturally active and dislike constraints. Even rational and self-disciplined humans, who work eight hours a day, five days a week, are exhausted to death, let alone animals. Thus, when Suming arranged 'work' for the animals, he fully considered this point. In earlier days when he was financially strained, he had no choice but to have the animals work harder. Now it's different; any animal that can take a break does, or else he would 'hire' 'new staff'. For instance, the 'ride the big fish' activity at Shuijun Lake still operates as usual, but the number of big fish has increased to thirty.

The only exceptions are these two parrots, a pair of natural chatterboxes. Even when they were caged, they would chat all day long, never stopping for a minute. Now that they've been assigned the role of traditional Chinese storytellers, it suits them perfectly. As long as the water is running and food is plentiful, aside from eating and sleeping, the rest of the time they don't stop talking.

It's like a rat falling into a vat of oil or a dung beetle crawling into a pile of manure—they've found their organization.

Perhaps due to spiritual power, the more these two creatures spoke, the smoother their tongues became and the larger their brain capacity grew. At first, they could only say a few simple lines of cross-talk. Within a week, they could stammer through a section of storytelling, reciting it on stage, then memorize another segment for next time.

Of course, there were still frequent lapses in memory.

Animal performances have a major advantage; the audience is very forgiving. If a professional storyteller made a mistake or forgot his words midway, he would certainly be heckled to death by the audience. But it's different with parrots—every time they forget their lines, the crowd erupts into good-natured laughter.

Over time, a small theater formed at the entrance of Whisperwind Pavilion. Not everyone coming here was dining; many came to cool off and pass the time. Quite a few elderly people got annual passes to the zoo and would stroll over every day, creating a new attraction in the zoo.

Every time Suming came to Whisperwind Pavilion to dine, he could see a large group of people sitting at the entrance, young and old.

This day, just as he reached the entrance, a parrot on the overhanging eaves finished a sentence and suddenly froze as if it had been hit with a paralyzing spell, not moving at all, eyes darting around, and its mouth emitting 'uh... uh... uh...' sounds, like a chicken whose neck was being squeezed.

Laughter erupted at the entrance; the parrot had forgotten its lines again. Trying to get back on track, it dejectedly called out to the audience below, 'Give me a hint, give me a hint,' to which someone laughingly replied, "It's time for Zhou Tong to come on…"

Flapping its wings, the parrot said, "Oh right... speaking of Zhou Tong..."

Suming smiled and walked inside Whisperwind Pavilion. The woman at the door, an usher, was so engrossed in listening to the parrot that she looked up in a daze. Upon seeing Suming, she quickly led the way to the upper floors.

"Is everyone here?" Suming asked as he followed.

The usher nodded: "They just arrived and are waiting for you."

There was only one private room on the entire fourth floor, which Suming used for dining and entertaining guests. After arriving, several people were already seated in the room, chatting amiably.

There was Nangong Huang who had just returned from Xiangjiang, and Jiao Shou, a man whose face was buried under layers of fat.

Seeing Suming enter, Jiao Shou and Nangong Huang stood up from their chairs. Jiao Shou motioned towards Suming and said cheerfully to the fat man, "Mr. Wang, let me introduce you. This is our boss, Mr. Su."

"I've long admired your reputation!" The fat man shook hands with Suming eagerly, his face breaking into a broad smile.

"Mr. Wang, hello! It's actually me who has long admired your name; I grew up watching your movies since I was little," Suming said with a laugh. "Please, have a seat."

The chubby director in front of me was none other than one of the famous "Two Wangs" of the Xiangjiang film industry, Director Wang Jin. Wang Jin and Wong Kar-wai occupy two extremes; one follows a crass, vulgar, comedic style while the other adopts a serious, pretentious, artistic approach. The former's box office is repeatedly successful, but always out of reach of any awards, while the latter's movies are box office flops but are award magnets.

Wang Jin was definitely one of Huaxia Star's preferred directors, and his visit to Yangchuan City this time was through the introduction of Long Wu, as he wanted to shoot a scene in the zoo.

Without a second thought, Suming agreed. For one thing, the zoo's landscapes were idle anyway, and providing locations for movies could bring in some extra income. If more movies were shot here, it would be hugely beneficial for the promotion of the tourist attraction, and it was even possible to establish a small film city; money was secondary. Most importantly, since he planned to enter the industry, getting to know more well-known people within it could only be beneficial.

"I've watched your 'Animal City' several times now, and thinking about it still makes my heart race in admiration!"

Suming glanced at the plate of chicken feet on the table and thought, you still eat despite feeling anxious? He wondered if he had also ordered pig trotters...

After a few polite exchanges, they got down to business.

Wang Jin was here to shoot a movie called 'The Great Fairy Tale', which was a sequel to 'A Chinese Ghost Story'.

The title alone told you this was another nonsensical film, similar to one called 'The Magic Bumbershoot' that Sun Li starred in a few years ago.

The protagonist Ning Caichen uses a celestial world's time portal to search for Xiao Qian, traveling through various mythical worlds. These include The World of The Legend of the White Snake, The World of A Chinese Ghost Story, The World of Painted Skin, and The World of The Investiture of the Gods...

It was clearly meant to be a comedic, standard nonsensical commercial flick.

However, Suming felt that the film's real purpose was to pave the way for Huaxia Star's big production 'The Investiture of the Gods', creating a buzz for the fantasy style.

The "Lanruo Temple Hot Springs" behind the zoo had just been officially renovated and could be used as a filming location for The World of A Chinese Ghost Story, while the Ancient Moon Xian Residence could serve as the Nine-tailed Fox's home in The World of Painted Skin. About a third of Wang Jin's film would be shot in the zoo.

"There's something else I'd like to ask for your help with, Mr. Su. In a magical world, there are bound to be animals," Wang Jin said with a chuckle.

"No problem, how many do you need?" Suming nodded.

"Not too many. Many scenes are shot with a group, so there's no need for the animals to perform specifically. For those that require performing, at most ten. I don't know how you calculate the remuneration?" asked Wang Jing.

The fee for Suming's animals was calculated on a 'per animal per day' basis, costing much more than extras, and the price varied for different animals. For some harder-to-train ones, their rates were almost on par with those of third-tier stars who have some name recognition.

But if it was only for ten animals, that wasn't a lot of money. Suming thought about it and didn't give a quote.

———— Divider Line ——————

0.65+1.6+0.95+0.35=3.55, I used a calculator to work it out three times this time. Yes, it should be correct.

I'm willing to take full responsibility!

This definitely can't be blamed on my math teacher, because he died too early...

Of course, it can't be blamed on the PE teacher either, as he taught sports.