Super Zoo

Suming hadn't guessed wrong, Park Cheol-bin's mother, the widow Song Zhiya, did indeed have Japanese ancestry.

As they chatted over dinner, Suming learned that Song Zhiya's background was quite legendary. Strictly speaking, she was of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and American mixed heritage, no wonder Suming not only found her submissive like Japanese women but also noticed her exceptionally white skin: a trait of Western Caucasians. However, due to just being one-quarter Western, her skin didn't have the coarseness of Western women's but rather inherited the delicacy of Eastern Asians.

The Korean Peninsula has been a mess since ancient times, at one moment fighting among its few small countries, and at another, being firmly suppressed by the major neighbor Huaxia through various dynasties. Fortunately, with a few ports facing the sea, it didn't rise through seafaring like Spain did—no way it could when it had Huaxia, a neighbor not at all on the same scale to the west, which, even though aloof, wasn't brutal. But there was the malevolent neighbor Japan to the east at sea, raiding and plundering whenever it could, and if Huaxia was internally troubled and couldn't attend to it, this wicked neighbor would even assume residency for a while.

In modern times, first it became a vassal state to the Qing Dynasty, then fell under Japanese colonial rule, and just when it finally achieved national independence, big brother America crossed the ocean to establish military bases and stationed troops, circling half the globe to "protect" the life and property of the Korean people, with arguably sincere hearts and genuine intentions.

In summary, Korea is a place with a large foreign presence, and due to historical reasons such as intermarriage and immigration during various Huaxia dynasty eras and the Japanese colonial period, over time, many Koreans cannot claim pure heritage even when tracing back three generations. Otherwise, why would they always claim to have invented everything...

Song Zhiya's grandmother was a pure-blooded Korean, while her grandfather... must have been one of the stationed American soldiers. Her father was of mixed nationality, and her maternal grandparents migrated from the Northeast after the fall of False Manchuria. Following its collapse, a large number of Japanese expatriates and people from the puppet government in Northeast "fled." Her mother was of Chinese and Japanese mixed heritage.

For Song Zhiya, a quarter of her bloodline belongs to each of the four countries, making her a living embodiment of a century-long history of China, Japan, America, and Korea.

A woman with a story.

During the meal, Song Zhiya finally took off her black veil.

Her appearance wasn't as stunning as imagined; at first glance, she seemed ordinary, and her face bore the typical pre-surgery pancake-flatness common among Korean women.

But she wasn't hard to look at. On the contrary, she turned out to be quite a pleasant-looking woman, the kind that grows on you the more you look at her.

Most of Su Desheng's construction crew were working on the senior living community project in Sun Town, a long-term endeavor, both in terms of construction and future revenue, without a rush for immediate completion. After Yang Lin, now with Park Cheol-bin and his mother Song Zhiya as patients needing private nursing care, accommodation was necessary. Suming simply called his uncle Su Desheng and arranged for a group to come back. Near the zoo on the hillside behind the mountain, he expanded a cluster of cottages to house the current and potential future 'related parties.'

Supposedly, Wang Jian She once half-jokingly said to Wang Hao that if he could retire smoothly, he would also like to build a house in the hills behind the zoo to enjoy his retirement.

There was no helping it; the environment here was just too pleasant. Young people living here for a long time might still miss the hustle and bustle of the city, but it was particularly suitable for the ill and the elderly. If real estate were developed on the backside of the mountain, it would definitely be hot. However, firstly, policy doesn't allow it, and secondly, the environment is pleasant precisely because it lacks large-scale human habitation. If apartment complexes were built, it would lose its original charm.

Building a few internal houses in small quantities is still feasible. In the future, when mom no longer wishes to be the director of the neighborhood committee, coupled with Wang Jian She, they would make a perfect mahjong group.

Suming and Song Zhiya were dining, Park Cheol-bin took a few sips of liquid food, and mostly rested in the private room, occasionally interjecting a few words.

As they were about to finish their meal, Song Zhiya suggested that since it was their first time in Huaxia's Yangchuan City, could Suming arrange for someone to show Park Cheol-bin around.

Looking at the fact that the flights had already been canceled, Suming decided to go all the way with the favor and accompany them himself.

"Do you want to go to the hospital first?" Suming asked tentatively. The medical conditions in Korea were no worse than in Huaxia, but it wouldn't hurt to get checked out, as Park Cheol-bin's health didn't look promising.

The so-called 'elixir of life' was indeed Polyporus umbellatus, but Suming didn't want to reveal this, first because Polyporus umbellatus might not be able to cure Park Cheol-bin's illness—based on what Suming knew about Polyporus umbellatus, strengthening the body was fine, and eating a small amount regularly wouldn't be a problem and it could grow back completely, but to say it could cure Park Cheol-bin's severe muscular atrophy in an instant was probably beyond its capabilities; secondly, even if it did have an effect on his condition, Suming didn't want to expose the Polyporus umbellatus to avoid coveting eyes. He needed to find a plausible surface reason, such as a medical miracle of Huaxia, for example.

If they didn't go to the hospital and he managed to cure him, he wouldn't even be able to find a cover story.

By the time they finished dinner, it was already dark. Mrs. Tong had booked rooms at a hotel near the zoo, where the mother and son would stay first. As they were leaving, Song Zhiya suddenly asked a waiter to bring a lunch box and packed some leftover dishes that weren't finished.

Suming was slightly surprised—she was from a well-off family, after all, and it was their first meeting, so there was no need to be this frugal, right?

Without saying much, perhaps this was the true nature of Korean women when it came to managing a household.

At the entrance of Whisperwind Pavilion, a small-sized tabby cat was crouching, and upon seeing Suming come out, it started meowing incessantly toward him.

With the increase in the number of cats, Xiaobai had given birth to a large litter, and the other cats had lured many feral cats to mingle. The zoo had practically become a gathering place for feral cats within several kilometers. Often, a large group of cats would swagger through the park, intimidating everyone-cars from afar would have to stop and honk in greeting, waiting for them to leisurely pass by first.

Apart from Hei and Xiaobai, Suming often got the rest of the original cats mixed up, but this tabby cat was an exception. Of the initial few cats, only it had a tabby pattern. When it first arrived, it was as thin and small as Suming's shoe.

"Miao San, what's up? Something wrong?" Suming went up and stroked its head, the little tabby cat meowed at him, as if to greet, and then surprisingly jumped down from the stone and darted over to Song Zhiya, looked up, and meowed, affectionately rubbing her leg with its little head.

"Oh? So you weren't coming to find me..." Suming was speechless.

"This afternoon, we met this cat here. Zhebin and I both like cats, so I couldn't help but feed it a little, I didn't inform you in advance, sorry for the trouble," Song Zhiya said with a touch of apology and a smile at Suming then shyly shook the takeaway box in her hand.

So it was for the cat to eat, no wonder she mostly picked fish. I thought Koreans just liked to eat fish...

"You traitor, lured away by a box of fish. Bloody hell, those were fish raised by me." Suming looked at Miao San's affectionate manner with the mother and son, shrugged his shoulders, and laughed, "It just so happens that my group of cats always run around, idle as they are, if you're willing, you could help take care of them a bit."