Super Zoo

That morning, Wang Cai brought back a plastic snack bag from the water and barked at a few tourists rowing on the lake. That's when Suming learned that some uncivilized tourists not only fed the fish but also threw trash into the lake.

If fish ate the plastic bags, they would certainly be doomed. Even if the fish didn't eat them, such items were hard to decompose naturally. They would accumulate on the lakebed, and over time, they would be difficult to clean up, causing significant water pollution.

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Suming immediately had Li take a motorboat around the lake, and fortunately, the wolf-dog brothers had discovered the pollutants in time. There weren't many plastic bags and the like in the lake, but even so, they retrieved more than a dozen.

Having no choice, he erected signs stating "No Swimming, No Feeding the Fish" around Shuijun Lake at intervals. He then had the wolf-dog brothers patrol the area, asking Zhou, Mr. Peng, and the others to keep an eye out and remind the tourists not to litter.

The plastic bag incident served as a wake-up call for Suming. Shuijun Lake was an open waterbody, and it was impossible to prevent outsiders from getting close. With the steady flow of people, it was inevitable that some would throw things into the water; simply reminding the visitors was not enough.

He sent Er Gouzi back to the mountain and had him bring back five large blue beehives filled with honey.

With these tonic supplements, Suming lavishly used his spiritual power to communicate with all aquatic life in the lake, entrusting them with some important tasks, such as not sneaking back to the reservoir through the channel and not eating the trash dropped by visitors.

You can't blame the tourists entirely for littering; it's not always right to escalate it to a matter of 'quality' or 'morality'. The zoo itself did not have many trash bins, and there were even fewer near Shuijun Lake. Often, you had to walk several hundred meters to find one, so sometimes tourists just threw garbage into the lake for convenience.

Therefore, Suming dug into his own pocket and spent over ten thousand yuan on several dozen simple trash bins, which he placed in a row along Shuijun Lake.

After taking care of these matters, the ten tons of Mixed Sea Fish and half a ton of ordinary feed ordered by Suming finally arrived.

Zhu Chenggui had said last time that to ensure the freshness and quality of the fish, they should reduce feeding them other fish food. Feeding less did not mean not feeding at all. The half ton of ordinary feed Suming bought was not intended to be the main diet for the fish. It was primarily to balance their nutrition and also had some water purification and antibacterial effects. It was a practical type of concentrated feed that people usually mix into the fish's diet.

Wang Cai and De Fu, who were about to go swimming to cool off, could smell the fishy scent from the truck from far away and barked furiously at it.

The Mixed Sea Fish had already been preliminarily processed into minced chunks and were frozen. As soon as the truck's door opened, an intense fishy smell wafted out, causing Suming to stagger several steps back.

"Take it to the warehouse!" Suming quickly pulled down the rear shutter of the truck with a snap, covering his nose as he sat down in the passenger seat and said to the driver.

If so much Mixed Sea Fish were stored near Whisperwind Pavilion, nobody could live there anymore. The stench could kill a person. At that rate, they might as well convert it into a fly farm.

The zoo had a large warehouse with pools, a cold storage unit, and even a small slaughterhouse—everything was all-inclusive. Normally, it was mainly used to store food for the animals, but because the zoo was under financial stress, a good half of the warehouse was left vacant, which was quite a waste.

The space was unused anyway, so when Mr. Song heard that Suming was truly planning to raise fish, he straightforwardly approached Suming with a proposition to rent a portion of the warehouse to him. Suming could store the fish feed and other related items there, and in the future, if there were fish for sale, they could also be stored in the warehouse. The condition was that it must not encroach upon the space for the zoo's various goods.

Suming agreed without hesitation. After all, the warehouse was huge, and even with the addition of feed and such, it would hardly be filled to capacity, so there would be no issue of taking up space needed for the zoo's goods.

The crux of the matter was that the rent was dirt cheap!

The zoo employees Mr. Lin and Lin, an uncle and nephew pair who managed the warehouse, earned just over two thousand yuan a month. The rent Suming paid for the warehouse, aside from the utilities which he covered himself, was to provide each of them with a stipend of fifteen hundred yuan a month.

By this calculation, for such an expansive and well-equipped warehouse, the yearly rent was just over thirty thousand yuan, and he had two experienced hands in Mr. Lin and Lin to help look after it—such a deal was impossible to find elsewhere.

Since the warehouse was the property of the zoo, with just a word from Mr. Song, Suming benefited from this great deal. It proved how crucial it was to maintain good relations with the boss!

The zoo was just as much a beneficiary. Although the majority of the warehouse was vacant, it couldn't be rented out to anyone outside the organization. The warehouse housed food for the animals, and any accident would have led to big trouble and disputes. Besides, outsiders coming and going wasn't convenient. Renting to Suming negated these concerns.

At first glance, the zoo didn't earn any money from this, but Mr. Lin and Lin, the uncle and nephew, did benefit.

The uncle and nephew's wages were among the lowest in the entire zoo, even less than what Suming earned when he first joined. With the current cost of living, a little over two thousand yuan a month was simply poverty level. The Lin duo complained to Mr. Song every now and then, begging for a raise. Yet, since wages for each position were fixed, Mr. Song couldn't simply increase them on a whim. If he raised their pay, what about everyone else?

By renting, Suming essentially solved Mr. Song's headache and effectively appeased the staff's sentiments.

It might not seem like much, an extra thousand or two, but for someone used to receiving a fixed few thousand yuan per month, this sudden increase was truly significant and made a real difference. If it hadn't been for Suming's intervention, they would have had to wait at least seven or eight years for their salary to rise by that amount through seniority alone.

And this was for technical staff. For someone like the Lin family's uncle and nephew, it was unlikely their wages would increase by that much even by the time they retired.

First, there was Mr. Peng, Zhou, and Li, and now Mr. Lin and Lin, the uncle and nephew, who had seen their incomes greatly increase due to their association with Suming. Consequently, the enthusiasm of all the zoo staff was significantly boosted, and everyone felt hopeful.

So, when they saw Suming arrive, Mr. Lin was even warmer than when he saw Mr. Song. With Li in tow, they bustled about, enthusiastically moving all the feed into the warehouse.

"Mr. Su, take a seat; we've got the moving covered." Lin made a cup of tea for Suming and then came over with a grin, asking eagerly, "Mr. Su, by the way, do you need extra hands for feeding the fish?"

Feeding the fish? When Suming heard these words and glanced at the mountain of feed, a brilliant idea seemed to strike him.