Chapter 2
The fifteen-minute drive was quick.
Mu Ling saw the deserted gate of the Beak Zoo on the mountain.
After all, it has only been closed for half a year, and with two employees maintaining it, the zoo gate does not look too desolate and is kept quite clean.
On the left side of the gate is the ticket office, which is of course empty now. When you enter the gate, there is a service area right in front of you. When Mu Ling looked inside through the glass window of the service area, Wei Li next to her began to introduce it to her.
"To the left of this service area is a deli where tourists can have lunch. To the right is a supermarket, which sells daily necessities and souvenirs. However, after closing, the items inside were moved away, and now it is unused."
Mu Ling nodded. Now there were only some shelves, tables and chairs inside, nothing else.
Wei Li pointed to the five-story building on the right side of the service area and said, "This is our office and dormitory area. The first floor is a parking lot for shuttle buses, mountain bikes, and the like. The second floor is the office, finance department, and file room. The three floors above are the staff dormitories. At its peak, our zoo had more than a hundred employees at a time, and the three-story dormitory building was just enough to accommodate them. Now, to save electricity, Brother Xiang and I still live in one room, but since we knew you were coming today, we cleaned out one of the girls' dormitories. If you need anything, just let us know."
Mu Ling thought to herself, how could she be short of anything? She could do anything without paying. She said quickly, "I'm not picky about where I live. I can live with any bed."
Wei Li glanced at the new director, whose tone was slightly shabby, and thought, "How could someone so poor take over such a large zoo? Perhaps he's just being more approachable?"
Wei Li added, "Brother Xiang has been patrolling the mountains these past two days. Director, how about I help you carry your luggage up first?"
Mu Ling hurriedly said that it was not necessary and that she could carry it herself. She had seen that the building had an elevator and she did not want to ask the employees to help her carry her personal belongings.
She dragged her suitcase towards the elevator entrance. After taking two steps, she heard Wei Li behind her say, "The elevator is not running. It saves electricity."
Mu Ling: “…”
Mu Ling turned around and walked back, shyly handing the suitcase to Wei Li: "Then I'll trouble you, Brother Wei."
It was a three-story building, and her luggage was heavy, so she probably couldn't climb it with her luggage.
Wei Li chuckled and didn't care. He picked up Mu Ling's suitcase, which weighed more than 30 pounds, with one hand and went up the stairs like a strong man.
Mu Ling was watching from behind with fear, thinking that Brother Wei was really strong. If she dared to withhold his salary, he would probably knock her out with one punch.
Wait, not only are the wages in arrears, but the wages owed for the past six months must also be paid back...
Mu Ling began to suffocate again.
They went up to the dormitory on the third floor. Mu Ling's dormitory was at the end of the corridor. Mu Ling looked around and found that this dormitory had the best environment and the largest windows. Standing at the window, she could see a large mountain forest outside.
The room was very clean. There was a wooden bed, a wardrobe, and a long table on the side. There was also a quilt on the table. It looked very clean and must have been freshly washed.
Wei Li put down the suitcase and asked Mu Ling to pack it first, and then he went out.
Mu Ling hurriedly thanked him. After seeing Wei Li off, she opened her suitcase and started packing.
It took about half an hour to finish cleaning. Mu Ling closed the door and went downstairs. As soon as she got down, she saw Wei Li repairing the car. When he saw her coming down, he greeted her, "Director."
Mu Ling walked over with a smile and asked curiously, "What's wrong with this car?"
Wei Li was fiddling with a mountain bike. He said, "There's something wrong with the rear wheel. The road in the jungle is difficult to navigate. We turned into a ravine a while ago, and the rear wheel got stuck. It took me and Brother Xiang two days to tow it back. It's going to take some time to fix it, and it's still not fixed."
Mu Ling heard him talking about Brother Xiang all the time, and she became curious about another employee: "If Brother Xiang is on patrol, can he come back tonight?"
Wei Li shook his head: "No, he left the day before yesterday and won't be back until the day after tomorrow."
Mu Ling was surprised: "It takes so long?"
Wei Li smiled and said, "The jungle is huge and dangerous. It takes at least three to four days to patrol it. We currently patrol four times a month. We drop food at fixed points, and some animals will come out to eat on their own."
Mu Ling had never run a zoo, and knew nothing about wildlife parks, so she casually asked, "The animals have all moved into the mountains. Can we still keep them under control?"
Wei Li said, "Of course we can't control them. At best, we can roughly understand their whereabouts. When the park was most staffed, we had fixed keepers. Someone was responsible for a specific area. You had to know all the animals living in your area. Although you couldn't get close to them, you had to know if they were injured, if they were breeding, if they were safe, etc. But later, the staff left, and now we don't know the animals' whereabouts very well. But as long as we don't go into the deep forest, we're fine."
"Deep forest?" Mu Ling asked again.
Wei Li said, "Our park covers a total area of over three million square kilometers, but when it opened, we only developed the outer one million square kilometers. We didn't dare touch the other two million square kilometers inside because there are still many native animals. We put up a protective net in the middle to prevent animals on both sides from crossing into each other, but the protective net needs monthly maintenance. It's been more than half a year since it closed, and some parts of the net have been damaged. Brother Xiang and I will repair any damaged spots we see during our patrols, but if we don't see any, we don't know if there are any other damages. Most of the native animals in the deep forest don't have anti-abnormal certificates, and we're worried that there are abnormal animals hiding inside."
As soon as the word "strange beast" appeared, Mu Ling's eyelids twitched, and she immediately remembered the border news she had seen in the small supermarket at the foot of the mountain just now.
In the interstellar age, strange beasts are rampant. Ever since an unknown virus spread to the Federation through a wormhole one hundred and fifty years ago, the animals in the Federation have been easily infected by the virus and mutated.
This virus is very scary. It can change the genetic chain of animals. Currently, except for humans, almost all animals have been infected, and this virus is also hereditary.
The directions of mutation of infected or inherited animals are not uniform. Some have limb mutations, becoming three heads and five legs, and some have habit mutations, becoming extremely aggressive and even eating people.
In short, since the appearance of the alien beasts, the Federation has been plunged into a dark period that lasted for several decades. It was not until 110 years ago that the research institute developed a virus vaccine. From then on, all captive animals must be compulsorily vaccinated against aliens every six months from birth.
But even so, not all animals can be vaccinated, and some animals will still mutate even if they are vaccinated, especially some wild beasts in deep mountains and forests. Because of their strong attack power, they cannot be captured by humans, and the probability of mutation is the highest.
For example, the planet where the alien beasts rioted as mentioned in the previous news is a poor place with chaotic policies and local pirates. Because the environment is so harsh and the upper management is improper, it is easier to nurture the spread of alien beasts. Once the alien beasts riot, there will inevitably be countless casualties.
In order to quell the tide of alien beasts, every time this happens, the army and war beasts have to rush to the scene immediately. Speaking of war beasts, after the alien beasts wreak havoc, humans are often unable to fight against them. More often than not, it is humans’ best partners, the war beasts, who gallop on the front lines.
Their sharp teeth, sensitivity to smell, and ferocity that can kill with one blow are all beyond the reach of humans who can only use weapons and have fragile bodies. Some well-trained war beasts can even fight ten enemies at once. For this reason, war beasts are also called treasures of mankind, and every war beast that sheds blood and sweat for mankind will be remembered by the people.
When Mu Ling heard there might be exotic beasts in the deep forest, she didn't care about whether she had money or not. She said hurriedly, "I'll contact someone to upgrade and overhaul this protective net immediately. We can't be careless about the protective net. We can't take any risks related to exotic beasts."
Wei Li glanced at the director, and the smile on his face deepened: "Director, you are wise."
He is a clear-headed principal.
The matter of the strange beast made Mu Ling feel confused. She didn't bother to chat with Wei Li anymore. After asking Wei Li for the contact number of his previous protective net maintenance company, she went aside to contact the person.
They were quite surprised to hear that she was from the Piccolo Wildlife Park. They remembered that the zoo had been closed for a long time, but since there was business coming, of course they had to do it. The two sides quickly agreed on a date for the inspection. They said they would come tomorrow afternoon, but due to the large area of the Piccolo Zoo's protective net, the total inspection time would take about half a month. They gave her a discount on the price, a total of 99,999 interstellar coins, with a deposit of 20,000, to be paid when they arrived tomorrow.
Mu Ling's scalp went numb when she heard the price, but she couldn't save that kind of money. After thanking the other party with tears in her eyes, Mu Ling opened her bank card again.
Looking at the deposit amount of only 200,000, Mu Ling drooped her head and seemed to have shrunk.
Her grandfather passed away when Mu Ling was sixteen years old. Her grandfather's family was poor and he left her nothing. Mu Ling worked part-time and studied since high school until she went to college and joined her mentor's laboratory. With the dividends from her previous pharmaceutical research, she finally saved up 250,000 yuan.
However, because of the success of that drug research, her mentor was poached by a larger drug research company. After the team was disbanded, Mu Ling was unable to find a suitable new job for a while, and she has been almost living off her old savings for the past two years.
After adding and subtracting, she only has 200,000 yuan left in her savings. Not only does she have to spend 100,000 yuan in one go, but she also has to pay back the money advanced by her employees, pay their salaries, buy food for the animals, and buy the next round of vaccines.
It costs too much money. No, I have to make money as soon as possible, otherwise I won’t be able to support this whole family!
Cheering up, Mu Ling returned to the dormitory and took out her "Zoo Opening Plan".
First, an opening date must be set.
It takes half a month to maintain the protective net. Now it is the end of August, and half a month later it will be mid-September. Coincidentally, the tourist area at the foot of the mountain will hold a flower exhibition in October. In mid-September, the number of tourists coming to see the flower exhibition will gradually increase. Therefore, the zoo will open in mid-September. With the opening gimmick and the popularity of the flower exhibition, the visitor flow should be higher.
Mu Ling turned on the light brain again and started to check the weather. The weather in September was relatively good. Except for a few light rains at the beginning of the month, it was sunny in the middle of the month. Mu Ling wrote a date of September 17th on the plan, which was considered a preliminary date for the opening.
Then she began to think about publicity. In addition to taking advantage of the popularity of the flower exhibition, she also had to try her best to attract traffic. In today's society, advertising is undoubtedly the most effective method of publicity, but Mu Ling had no money for advertising, so she could only take advantage of other people's popularity.
She should mention her own zoo more often under animal-related videos or hot searches, leave more messages on the official tourism website of Shenwangxing to increase her presence, and she should also create an official account of her own, frequently post photos and videos of cute animals, and brag about her own zoo.
If all else fails, she can also package starship tickets, food and lodging, and invite big influencers to travel and explore the store, which is also a disguised form of publicity.
Mu Ling studied pharmaceutical research in college, but her roommate studied economics, so Mu Ling was also exposed to some of these basic Star Network marketing methods.
If he can make money in the future, Mu Ling can also develop cloud tourism, that is, use holographic technology to allow tourists to enjoy an immersive tour of the entire zoo without leaving home.
You know, a tourist destination can only receive a limited number of tourists every day, but holographic tourism can receive an unlimited number of tourists at the same time, and every tourist who enters the holographic scenic area needs to pay for an entrance fee. Although holographic tickets are much cheaper than real tickets, if they accumulate over time, it will definitely be a huge profit!
Some popular scenic spots are open for cloud tourism!
Mu Ling immediately searched for technical expenses related to cloud tourism. After this search, the ambitions that had just risen in Mu Ling's heart were instantly extinguished.
She was being presumptuous. The initial technical investment in cloud tourism would require tens of millions of dollars!
Sorry, sorry, she will never think about it again!
…
The clock on the table moves bit by bit.
An hour later, Mu Ling's plan was roughly formed. She looked at the time and it was almost noon. Mu Ling decided not to wait any longer and asked Brother Wei to take her into the jungle for a walk in the afternoon. If she could see any animals, she would take videos and photos and set up the official account first.
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