’Phew, good thing I hired so many people for the store, or I’d be worked to death.’ After making breakfast for everyone early in the morning, Shen Yibin took Hah’Er and hopped into his Wuling Hongguang van. He planned to head to the zoo to deliver the red envelope from Hou Longtao’s parents. Last night, Shen Yibin had found an ATM to check the amount—the Hou family was seriously loaded. They had casually given him a hundred thousand yuan.

With this hundred thousand yuan, Dong could not only fix the fences at Xiong Mountain, but he could also patch up the other enclosures to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

"Let’s go, Hah’Er. Time to see your cousin, second uncle, and second auntie." Shen Yibin had seen how much fun Hah’Er had playing with the three black bears that day, so he figured the panda would want to go down there and hang out again. Before leaving, he’d even prepared a bag of apples for Hah’Er to bring to the three bears.

"Mmm!" Hah’Er grinned goofily. He seemed to miss the little black bear cub, too. His only regret was that Egg and Cheeky hadn’t come along.

This time, Shen Yibin didn’t call ahead. When he arrived at the zoo, he first swung by Dong’s office, but it was empty. He stopped a passing employee and asked, only to find out that Dong was leading the zoo staff in a thorough safety inspection of the fences at Xiong Mountain.

’What a coincidence.’ After thanking the man, Shen Yibin led Hah’Er toward Xiong Mountain. When they arrived, they saw Dong—his hair already graying—acting like a young buck. He was wearing nothing but a simple tank top, grappling with the fence.

’Whoa, I never would’ve guessed. Dong is in great shape for his age. I definitely can’t compete with those muscles,’ Shen Yibin thought, green with envy. ’If I were that muscular, I could probably just stroll into a gym and pick up tons of girls, couldn’t I?’

Shen Yibin went up and explained his reason for visiting. Dong was overjoyed. He had been worrying about where to scrape together the money to fix the fence, and here was Shen Yibin, arriving like a saving grace. He immediately grabbed Shen Yibin’s hands and thanked him profusely.

"You should have your finance person come and get it. And by the way, don’t use my name this time. For the donor, just write... write Hou Longtao." After all, if it weren’t for the kid, the zoo wouldn’t be getting this money.

"I’m afraid that wouldn’t be appropriate. Technically, the money was given to you, so it should be donated under your name." Dong disagreed.

"Dong, just think about it," Shen Yibin said. "Hou Longtao’s parents are very wealthy. If word of this gets out, maybe he’ll get the idea to donate to the zoo himself, right? He might even encourage his friends to do the same. I’m really looking out for the zoo’s best interests here." Unlike most people, Shen Yibin didn’t just back down; instead, he explained the advantages of his idea from the zoo’s point of view. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

This rendered all of Dong’s prepared arguments useless. He could only agree to Shen Yibin’s request. "Fine. We’ll do as you say, Mr. Shen. We’ll use the money to fix the fences at Xiong Mountain first. If there’s any left over, we’ll patch up the wire mesh at the primate enclosure, replace the glass in the reptile house, and clear out the drains in the crocodile pond..."

’Holy crap, it’s a miracle this zoo hasn’t had a major disaster before now!’ Shen Yibin shuddered at the list. ’Did I come to a zoo or some kind of death trap? Why does everything sound so dangerous?’

"You go on and get busy. I’ll just stay here and watch Hah’Er play with them." ’It seems the two donations I’ve made are nowhere near enough,’ Shen Yibin thought, shaking his head. He asked a zoo employee to open the gate to Xiong Mountain and let Hah’Er inside. He then sat on the ground, watching Hah’Er while pulling out his phone to make a Weibo post.

On Weibo, he described the plight of the Yunzhong City Zoo and made an appeal for donations. Shen Yibin had built up a sizable following by occasionally posting photos and videos of Hah’Er, Egg, and Cheeky. The moment his post went live, it was met with a wave of shares and comments. Some people even sent him money directly, asking him to donate it to the zoo on their behalf.

"Mmm!" While Shen Yibin was busy with his Weibo post, Hah’Er had entered Xiong Mountain carrying the bag of apples. The three black bears caught Hah’Er’s scent and immediately emerged from their den. The two adults were a bit reserved, but the little cub couldn’t be bothered with decorum and trotted right up to Hah’Er.

And then... it tackled Hah’Er to the ground, sending apples scattering everywhere. Not one to be shown up, Hah’Er immediately launched a counter-attack, flipping over and pinning the little black bear underneath. The two goofballs started to wrestle.

"Mommy, Mommy, there really is a panda here! Look, it’s down there playing with the little black bear!" The scene immediately drew the attention of the visitors. They flocked toward Xiong Mountain, and zoo employees had to hurry over and warn them not to get too close to the fence, to avoid a repeat of the Hou Longtao incident.

’Sigh, I’ll have to wash Hah’Er’s clothes again when we get home.’ Shen Yibin smiled and shook his head as he watched the two of them tussle. ’Hey, wait a minute, why am I sighing? Sun Qian is always the one who does Hah’Er’s laundry. It’s no skin off my back.’

"Mmm!" After roughhousing for a while, the two little ones seemed to have had their fill. Hah’Er climbed off the black bear cub, picked up a nearby apple, and offered it to him. The cub accepted without hesitation and began to chomp on it noisily.

’Huh. Getting off of someone and then immediately giving them food... Where have I seen that behavior before?’

Hah’Er then brought a few apples to the cub’s parents before finally sitting down to munch on one himself. After Hah’Er had finished two apples, the little black bear seemed to remember something. It waddled its rear end back into the den and emerged a moment later with a bloody chunk of meat in its mouth. It looked like the little guy felt it ought to return the favor after eating Hah’Er’s food, so it offered up the meat the zookeepers had given it.

’Whoa, Hah’Er’s not going to eat that, is he? This guy prefers stir-fried twice-cooked pork; I doubt he can handle raw meat.’

Just as Shen Yibin had predicted, Hah’Er shook his head again and again. The little black bear, however, kept pushing the meat in front of Hah’Er’s face. The comical scene made all the onlookers burst into laughter.

At the same time, Shen Yibin’s phone was buzzing nonstop. People on Weibo were constantly asking about the donation drive. Shen Yibin responded to them one by one, carefully recording all the funds people were sending him so he could make a public list later.

Some local netizens from Yunzhong City even said they wanted to come to the zoo and donate in person, which Shen Yibin of course welcomed. ’At this rate, we should be able to raise a decent sum,’ he thought. ’That should let Dong breathe a little easier, right?’

"Bin, I’m at the zoo entrance. Come let me in." It was his old classmate, Xu Ye, who had also come to join the commotion.

"Hah’Er, come on out! Time to greet our guest." Shen Yibin stood up and called into the Xiong Mountain enclosure. He wasn’t about to leave Hah’Er there by himself.