A major safety incident with such a huge impact as a brown bear escape meant that, as the deputy director, Tong Xiaoyue naturally couldn’t stay long. She quickly excused herself to go handle the aftermath.

Yang Qi, on the other hand, was happy to be alone. He returned to the drink shop from before.

He found a spot at an outdoor table, sat down, and finished the drink he had only half-consumed. He also took out his phone and changed his high-speed train ticket back to Donghua from tonight to tomorrow night.

Before long, Zhou Jing hurried over, her face a mixture of excitement and lingering fear.

"Yang Druid, you’re just too amazing!"

Zhou Jing sat down across from Yang Qi, her eyes sparkling as she gave him a thumbs-up. "Calming a rampaging brown bear with your bare hands and saving a tourist... that’s like a real-life Bear-Catching Warrior! No, a Bear Tamer!"

"That’s an exaggeration." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Yang Qi waved his hand dismissively. "The she-bear didn’t mean to do it. She only went berserk because she was agitated. Once she calmed down, she was actually quite reasonable and knew to be scared."

He paused, then looked at Zhou Jing. "But you—with such a huge mess at the Zoo, you should be busy. How do you have time to run over here?"

"There are people specifically assigned to calm the frightened tourists and manage the scene. My aunt said that my most important task right now is to take good care of you, our great hero, and not neglect you in any way."

Zhou Jing said with a smile, her tone lighthearted.

Yang Qi smiled too, not taking the "hero" bait. Instead, he said, "By the way, Zhou Jing, I need to ask you for a favor. If any reporters hear about this and come over to interview me later, could you please talk to Teacher Tong and ask her to help turn them down for me?"

"Huh?"

Zhou Jing blinked, confused. "You don’t want to be in the spotlight, get interviewed, and get all that exposure? This incident is definitely going to have a huge impact, but for you personally, it’s a fantastic opportunity. It could greatly boost your fame, and who knows..."

"I don’t need that kind of opportunity," Yang Qi interrupted her, his tone calm.

Getting interviewed, being exposed to the public, becoming a "hero"—Yang Qi was, of course, aware of the potential benefits.

Fame, honor, and even potential material gains.

But the downsides were just as obvious, and might even far outweigh the benefits.

He would be under a massive amount of scrutiny. His every move could be magnified and over-analyzed, and his private life would be severely invaded.

More importantly, this "Druid" moniker of his was fine being passed around privately among colleagues, classmates, and acquaintances. At most, they would just think he was exceptionally gifted and had a strong affinity with animals.

But once he was pushed in front of the nation’s netizens, subjected to the scrutiny and curious probing of countless eyes, there was no guarantee someone wouldn’t try to "deep-dive" into his past and daily life.

The trouble that would follow would likely be overwhelming, completely shattering the relatively peaceful and manageable pace of his current life.

"Alright..."

Seeing Yang Qi’s firm attitude, Zhou Jing didn’t press the issue.

She picked up her phone and said while tapping on it, "I’ll tell my aunt right now so she’s aware. It’ll also prevent some department heads from thinking ’for the greater good’ and trying to pressure you into an interview with some high-minded reasoning."

"Thanks."

Yang Qi thanked her and stood up, walking toward a vending machine.

"Let me get you a drink. What do you want?"

...

Meanwhile, in the Zoo’s administration building, the head of the Public Relations Department was reporting to Tong Xiaoyue, holding a preliminary draft of the crisis management and publicity plan.

The plan involved shaping Yang Qi into a "fearless, wise, and courageous" hero and arranging an exclusive interview with mainstream media. This was a key part of diverting public attention and mitigating the negative impact of the incident.

After listening, Tong Xiaoyue said nothing. She simply turned her phone screen toward the PR department head. On it was the message Zhou Jing had just sent, relaying Yang Qi’s clear wishes.

"See?"

Tong Xiaoyue’s tone was calm. "Xiao Yang himself doesn’t want the exposure and won’t accept interviews. You’d better find another plan to execute. Don’t force him."

"Yes, Director. I understand."

The PR department head glanced at the phone screen, replied resignedly, and then sighed.

"Sigh... what a pity. If Yang Qi would cooperate with an interview, the results would be much better. It would be extremely beneficial for repairing our zoo’s image and guiding public opinion..."

Tong Xiaoyue put away her phone and didn’t respond.

Of course, she understood the logic.

Pushing Yang Qi into the spotlight, focusing public attention and discussion on his heroic deeds, would naturally reduce the focus on Red Star Zoo’s own management failures and the liability for the accident. This was indeed a common strategy in crisis management.

’But it’s not like Yang Qi is a brainless idiot. He’s an employee of Donghua Zoo. Why should he sacrifice himself for the "greater good" of your Red Star Zoo?’

’And shoulder all the trouble that comes with it?’

Without paying any more attention to the still-regretful PR department head, Tong Xiaoyue turned and left to continue handling more pressing matters.

...

That evening, Guo Xiaoyun, who had been busy until it was completely dark, finally found the time to formally host a banquet at a small restaurant inside the park to thank Yang Qi.

Besides Tong Xiaoyue, several other senior leaders from the Zoo were also in attendance.

Originally, Guo Xiaoyun had wanted to go to a high-end hotel in the city, but Yang Qi declined, suggesting a simple working meal at the cafeteria would be fine and there was no need to be extravagant.

Seeing his sincere attitude, Guo Xiaoyun complied.

At the dinner table, although the atmosphere was somewhat heavy due to the day’s accident, everyone’s gratitude toward Yang Qi was sincere.

Guo Xiaoyun and the others toasted him frequently with tea instead of alcohol, their words of thanks earnest and heartfelt.

Yang Qi responded humbly and didn’t take credit for his actions.

「After dinner.」

Yang Qi returned to his hotel. After washing up, it was just past nine o’clock.

Just as he was about to take out the newly acquired Magical Artifact to study it, his phone suddenly went crazy, vibrating violently with a nonstop BUZZ-BUZZ-BUZZ.

It wasn’t a single call or message, but the notification sounds of a flood of group chat messages.

Yang Qi picked it up and saw that on the screen, the top-right corner of every familiar group chat icon had a bright red "99+" unread notification badge.

The Donghua Zoo main work group, Chen Ze’s private gossip group, the Liudong Study Group chat, the university class group, the university alumni group, the high school classmates group...

There were even a few local community groups he had joined for various reasons and had barely ever spoken in.

In every group, messages were scrolling by at a frantic pace. People were constantly @ing him, and the content was filled with shock, excitement, disbelief, and all sorts of exclamation points and emojis.

[HOLY SHIT! @Yang Qi, Brother Qi! Is that you? Is that really you in the video?]

[You’re insane, Yang Qi! You’re a trending topic! You’ve gone viral!]

[Stopping a brown bear with your bare hands? Yang Qi, are you even human?!]

[@Yang Qi, my old classmate, you’ve been hiding your skills! When did you learn these ’Druid’ abilities?]

[Our senior is mighty! You’ve brought honor to our alma mater!]

[This has to be the Yang Qi from our class, right? @Yang Qi, Brother Qi, hurry up and say something!]

[Watched the video three times, my legs are still jelly... Brother Qi, you’re a badass! (voice crack)!]

[...]

Yang Qi quickly scanned through the messages, his expression unchanging. He clicked on a link shared in one of the groups, which took him to a popular short-video platform.

A video titled "Real-Life Druid? ’Beast Tamer’ Fearlessly Calms Rampaging Brown Bear, Saves Tourist!" was sitting high on the trending list at number eight. Its view count had already surpassed ten million, and the number of likes, comments, and shares was climbing frantically.

The video was a bit shaky, but the quality was high, and the core content was perfectly clear.

It showed the exact moment from the afternoon when Yang Qi had run against the flow of the crowd toward the brown bear, then miraculously calmed it down, led it away from the fallen tourist, and fed it fruit.

Although it was filmed from a distance and the audio was unclear, Yang Qi’s composed back, the unbelievably "harmonious" interaction between him and the massive brown bear, and the image of the bear following him docilely all had an extremely powerful visual impact.

In just over two hours, the video had spread like a virus and gone viral!

Along with it, keywords like "Red Star Zoo," "Druid," and "Bear-Taming Warrior" had also shot up the trending lists.

’How is Red Star handling their PR?’

Yang Qi wondered briefly.

A brown bear escaping, running through the zoo, roaring and raging—too many tourists had seen it. It was impossible to cover up.

But having a video versus not having one were two completely different things.

Normally, this video should have been taken down by their PR team.

’So how did it end up online?’