Chapter 224: Chapter 173: Tuantuan Gets a File

Luo Feifei was an actress with superb skills. She had also used her Spiritual Power to control her heartbeat and breathing, making her performance so realistic that even Li Xiang was almost fooled.

But once his Spiritual Power entered her body, nothing could remain hidden. Li Xiang breathed a sigh of relief. ’I knew it couldn’t be that serious,’ he thought. ’She was just pretending.’

"Brother, mouth-to-mouth..." Seeing she couldn’t keep up the act, Luo Feifei reminded him with her eyes still closed.

’You little...! Such a convincing act. How dare you try to scare me?’

Li Xiang immediately started tickling her. Luo Feifei couldn’t take it and leaped up, honking with laughter.

The goslings: "..."

The two goslings suddenly felt a kinship with Luo Feifei and waddled over, rubbing against her pant legs.

Luo Feifei crouched down to play with the goslings, her eyes darting a subtle glance at Li Xiang. ’Brother Xiang really is a true gentleman,’ she thought. ’Any other man would have used that as an excuse to kiss me.’

After their morning meeting, Li Xiang went to make breakfast, and Luo Feifei followed to help.

"Are you settling in okay?" Li Xiang asked.

"It’s great." Luo Feifei nodded. ’I guess this is a rehearsal for the future. When I marry him, I won’t have any trouble adjusting. It’s just... Brother Xiang and I won’t truly get together for more than a decade.’

’That’s during the Apocalypse. We probably won’t be living in this house, but in the Shelter inside the mountain.’

At this thought, Luo Feifei couldn’t help but ask, "Brother, when does construction on the second phase of your Shelter begin?"

Li Xiang replied, "The construction company is already working on the plans and a quote."

"Send them to me when you get them. I might have some suggestions," Luo Feifei said with a smile.

"No problem!" Li Xiang readily agreed. Luo Feifei had invested a hundred million, after all, making her the second-largest shareholder.

Of course, that hundred million was a trivial amount for her. As people said online, Luo Feifei’s most valuable asset was herself.

A short while later, Granny Li Xiang woke up, and Luo Feifei’s mother arrived. Everyone sat down once again for a lovely breakfast together.

After feeding his pets, Li Xiang decided to go check on Tuantuan. He had acquired a lot of new Spiritual Medicine the previous night, including some tasty fruits, and he wanted to share a few with Tuantuan and its mother.

He also planned to build a bamboo shelter for Tuantuan and its mother so they would have a place to hide from the wind and rain. Wild pandas could find their own shelter, of course, but building one was a personal gesture from Li Xiang.

’I can’t just lure them over and then not care for them, can I?’

As he passed the rapeseed field next to the backyard, Li Xiang checked on the plants’ growth. Most of the seed pods were still a bluish-green, with only about a fifth having turned yellowish-green. The plants also retained many of their leaves. Clearly, it wasn’t time to harvest yet.

It would be soon, though, he figured. Li Xiang recalled that his family used to harvest the rapeseed around May or June, once most of the leaves had fallen off and about two-thirds of the pods had turned yellowish-green.

Another way to check was by rubbing the pods in his hand. If the shells broke open easily and the seeds inside were distinct and loose, it was just about time.

Outside the bamboo forest on the back mountain, crowds of tourists had gathered. There hadn’t been a path before, but now one was worn into the ground by countless feet. Giant pandas were a rare sight, after all.

With how fast news traveled online, word had fermented over the past two days. Many people now knew that two giant pandas had appeared in Li Family Village. On top of that, there was a film crew on location, along with the incredibly popular Little Celestial Immortal. As a result, people flocked to Li Family Village almost every day. They came to watch the filming, see the pandas and the Little Fox, grab a cup of coffee, sip fragrant tea, or enjoy a drink. With the gentle mountain breeze and beautiful scenery, it was all very pleasant.

Although the pandas were wild and the village couldn’t restrict their freedom, the Li Family Village committee took precautions. To prevent tourists from going up the mountain and disturbing the animals, and to avoid any accidents, they had cordoned off the base of the mountain with a red rope under Li Xiang’s direction.

Security guards were on-site to maintain order, urging everyone not to cross the line.

Li Xiang greeted a few people he knew and walked up to the red rope. Up on the mountain, Tuantuan was thrilled to see him and immediately performed two somersaults. The crowd of onlookers erupted in cheers, everyone scrambling to take pictures.

Some people would turn around to take a selfie, getting Tuantuan or its mother in the background from a distance.

The Little Fox and Er Huang had also gone up the mountain, but they didn’t stay in sight of the crowd, preferring to hide in the shadows. Li Xiang had simply instructed them to watch over Tuantuan and its mother and ensure no accidents occurred.

Tuantuan’s mother had acclimated significantly since her arrival and was no longer as nervous around the crowd.

Li Xiang took out a fruit and threw it with a precise arc. Tuantuan’s eyes lit up. It leaped, caught the fruit deftly with its paws, and immediately began to gnaw on it.

There was actually plenty of other food on the hillside that tourists had thrown—bread, bananas, and the like—but Tuantuan hadn’t touched any of it. It turned its nose up at them.

It would only eat fresh bamboo shoots and Li Xiang’s Spirit Fruits.

The guards had tried to stop people from feeding the pandas, but it was impossible to prevent completely. The village committee could only send people to clean up the litter periodically.

What Li Xiang tossed was, of course, a Spirit Fruit, but no one else could tell the difference. Even if someone filmed it on their phone and posted it to social media, he wasn’t too worried. You couldn’t tell anything special from just a video or a picture.

There were plenty of pictures online of beautifully photographed fruit.

The only way to distinguish a Spirit Fruit from an ordinary one was to taste it and see if it contained sufficient Medicinal Power.

Li Xiang tossed another fruit to Tuantuan, motioning for it to give it to its mother. Tuantuan happily cradled the fruit and went scampering and stumbling over to present it to her.

Many people captured this moment on camera, exclaiming in amazement.

Someone, deeply moved, whispered, "This panda is so Spiritual! It feels like it’s about to become a spirit itself. It even knows to be filial to its mother."

"The bigger one is its mother?"

"I don’t know, that’s just what I heard."

"Nannan, you have to be good to Mommy in the future, just like the baby panda is to its mommy, okay?" a mother said to the daughter in her arms.

Just as Li Xiang was about to head over to the film set and the shops, Li Jinyu and a few others from the village committee approached, leading a large entourage.

"Xiang Ya, this is an investigation team and a research team from the province," Li Jinyu said. "They say they received a report that our village deliberately captured two wild pandas to attract tourists and drive business."

Everyone was outraged. The accusation was utterly absurd.

"Welcome, welcome. I am Li Xiang, the Party Secretary and Village Director of Li Family Village, as well as a member of the County’s Political Consultative Conference." Li Xiang shook hands with each member of the investigation and expert teams, greeting them warmly.

He wasn’t the least bit concerned about the report.

The tourists on site, hearing there was drama unfolding, also gathered to watch. Li Xiang was completely open, explaining the situation to the investigation and expert teams and leading them to see for themselves.

After receiving permission from both teams, Li Xiang recorded the entire process on video to post on his social media accounts later.

In fact, the investigation team was also recording, accompanied by their own media reporters and photographers.

Several hours later, the expert team reached a unanimous conclusion: Tuantuan and its mother were genuinely wild. They hadn’t been captured; they had simply found this habitat on their own.

The investigation revealed that the two pandas were completely free. They were in excellent health with no injuries and could easily climb high into the trees. Their fur was smooth and glossy, indicating a superb nutritional state.

Their playful interactions with the tourists also pointed to an excellent disposition.

It was obvious. The bamboo forest wasn’t fenced in; the pandas could come and go as they pleased. If they chose to live here, who was to say otherwise?

They could be determined as wild because all captive pandas are part of an identification system.

They are national treasures, after all. Every single one in a zoo is on file.

Even for wild pandas, Sichuan Province began building a genetic archive in 2015. The goal was to gather more detailed population and individual data to achieve "conservation down to the individual."

But creating a file for a national treasure like a wild panda isn’t as simple as drawing blood. For one, they are dangerous animals. For another, they are difficult to locate. Furthermore, drawing blood would leave a wound at risk of infection and could cause the animal psychological trauma. Therefore, the standard method is to collect fecal samples to obtain an individual’s DNA data.

The process is incredibly long, but its significance is extraordinary.

Not every wild panda was in the database. Many, especially those living in the Primitive Forest Reserve, had never had their droppings collected.

One of the researchers on the expert team had a portable rapid DNA analysis device. Li Xiang led them to collect droppings from Tuantuan and its mother. The test results showed no match in the database.

The expert team was thrilled. They had discovered two new giant pandas. Establishing their genetic profiles would be significantly important for the conservation and study of the wild panda population.

As for why the two pandas had suddenly appeared in Li Family Village and where they had come from, the expert team speculated they had likely migrated from the nearby Primitive Forest Reserve. This was probably due to the excellent ecological conservation in Li Family Village.

"Professor Liu, would it be alright for me to build a bamboo shelter for them, to give them cover from the wind and rain?" Li Xiang asked.

He’d had the idea for a while, and with the provincial investigation and expert teams right there, it was the perfect time to consult them.

Reporters and photographers were filming nearby; the footage would later be edited for a television broadcast.

Professor Liu, who was leading the expert team, replied, "No problem. A simple shelter is acceptable, but we advise against excessive interference or feeding. You also cannot turn this into a commercial venture."

Li Xiang quickly clarified, "Of course not, of course not. This area of the mountain is open to the public for free, and we will continue to urge tourists not to feed them. We will also ensure proper security to protect both the pandas and the visitors."

’Of course, I’m not planning to make money by selling tickets to see the pandas,’ Li Xiang thought. ’The profit comes from people visiting and spending money at the shops, and later, from the Shelter as a tourist attraction.’

’Tuantuan is just one of the future guardian Divine Beasts of the Shelter.’

Without a doubt, once the day’s events were reported, Li Family Village’s fame would grow even more, attracting even more people to come and see the wild giant pandas.