Chapter 55: The Owner of the Pet Paradise (Please Vote, Follow, and Bookmark)

The moment he caught sight of Chen Zhiyu, especially upon noticing the compound bow in the woman's hand, An Sheng wore a look of panic. He quickly fluttered away from the adult Chinese alligator and scrambled onto Yu Xueqing's body.

The last time he had seen a similar compound bow was in his past life, when he had ventured deep into the mountains in search of wild old tea tree seeds.

That kind of short compound bow, fitted with heavily modified pulley blocks, could unleash terrifying kinetic energy even without pulling the bowstring to its maximum limit. Combined with powder-metallurgical arrowheads, it could easily blast straight through a black bear's skull. In the Huaxia region, it was unequivocally a contraband weapon.

Judging by Chen Zhiyu's posture, An Sheng knew she must have previously spotted a massive alligator somewhere along the river channel. Hearing now that a pack of alligators had suddenly emerged and was causing chaos in the pet park, An Sheng figured Chen Zhiyu was currently in a state of high alert. He had zero desire to go head-to-head with compound bow arrows.

"Miss! Stay calm and don't move! We'll come right over to save you!"

Accompanied by Chen Zhiyu were over a dozen security guards wielding steel tridents. While shouting warnings to Yu Xueqing, they also unspooled a specially made fishing net, preparing to capture the alligators.

"Wait! Everyone, please wait!"

The security team consisted of strapping, robust young men. Their aggressive, menacing demeanor almost frightened the timid Yu Xueqing into shrinking into a ball. Yet, upon seeing the cold, gleaming steel tridents and anti-riot shields in their hands, she started and quickly spoke up to halt the bear-like guards:

"They're just Chinese alligators—creatures that will bite wildly at prey six consecutive times in shallow water and still miss every single target! Everyone, please calm down. No matter what, they're still our nation's Class-I protected animals!"

When Chen Zhiyu had leaped out from the stairwell with killing intent in her eyes and a hunting bow in hand, the alligators had been scared out of their wits. None of them were purebred wild Chinese alligators; rather, they were escapees from a collapsed breeding farm. They knew all too well the pain of being disciplined by humanity's iron fist. Therefore, throughout the entire process of being captured by Yu Xueqing, they hadn't put up the slightest struggle or resistance. They had even displayed a pitiful glimmer of hope and anticipation, wishing simply for a full meal.

However, Chen Zhiyu was far too terrifying; an aura of genuine bloodshed emanated from her. The moment the alligators caught sight of her, every single one of them flipped onto their backs, exposing their bellies to play dead. Forget about hoping for a free meal now; the alligators were terrified they would be served up as someone's lunch.

Well... at its peak price, Chinese alligator meat could fetch four hundred yuan per catty. It was low in fat, low in cholesterol, and high in protein—meat perfectly suited for fitness enthusiasts. Moreover, rich in trace elements, long-term consumption allegedly boosted immunity and improved blood oxygen uptake capacity.

***

Rushing into the first-floor lobby, Chen Zhiyu's eyes immediately landed on Yu Xueqing and, behind her, the group of alligators that had flipped onto their backs to play dead. Her expression froze, and the muscles at the corners of her eyes twitched visibly.

She saw a customer with a pet fox blocking the path of the hunter-composed security team, earnestly lecturing the crowd on just how pathetic the predatory capabilities of Chinese alligators truly were.

In deep water, when facing fish, shrimp, and crabs, Chinese alligators undoubtedly reigned at the top of the food chain, wielding a bite force of hundreds of pounds that could crush snails into paste. But in shallow water and on land—while their hunting ability couldn't be said to be nonexistent—they were essentially the undisputed, cute little losers among Huaxia's Class-I protected wildlife.

Realizing that the crocodiles invading the pet park were merely a few farmed Chinese alligators, Chen Zhiyu felt a huge wave of relief wash over her. The reason she had been so tense was that, while working overtime some time ago, she had accidentally glimpsed a dragon-like silhouette drifting downstream in the Changle River channel, easily estimating its length to be six or seven meters.

A saltwater crocodile!

With Chen Zhiyu's reservoir of knowledge, she recognized at a glance that the shadow lurking in the river was a crocodile! Furthermore, anything capable of growing that large had to be a saltwater crocodile with the ocean-crossing and cruising capabilities inherent to the species!

Not long after Chen Zhiyu spotted that saltwater crocodile, law enforcement officers had arrived the following evening to seal off the mountains, claiming that three anglers had drowned in the Changle River near Changping Mountain. Then came the prolonged closure of the mountains. In the end, the forest rangers and law enforcement officers failed to track down the saltwater crocodile.

Chen Zhiyu's heart had sunk. Consequently, while the police were scouring the sealed mountains, she had pressed forward with reinforcing and remodeling the defensive facilities of the Changping Pet Park.

The Changping Mountain Veterinary Hospital was tied to the livelihood of their entire Changping Chen clan village; failure was absolute anathema.

"All of you, stand down!"

Arriving at the scene and realizing it was nothing more than a farce, Chen Zhiyu's tense expression melted away. As relief washed over her, she stepped forward to put an end to the commotions.

"Boss!"

Upon seeing Chen Zhiyu emerge with her hunting bow, the security team of Chen clan hunters paused and called out in unison.

Chen Zhiyu nodded slightly, then stepped forward, her gaze locking onto the soft, belly-up alligators playing dead. Instantly, the alligators stiffened as if they had genuinely died, displaying a lifelike rigor mortis. Chen Zhiyu had blood of fierce beasts on her hands, and her murderous aura was immensely potent; the alligators were truly terrified of her.

"I am Chen Zhiyu, the manager of this pet park. I am terribly sorry..."

Sweeping her gaze across the alligators—who were so terrified they had practically pissed themselves—and feeling the lingering haze regarding the saltwater crocodile dissipate from her mind, Chen Zhiyu apologized profusely to Yu Xueqing. "Our staff training was inadequate, and we had no idea someone was keeping an alligator as a pet, needlessly alarming our guests and their pets."

"Please, come up to the restaurant on the second floor. Let our Changping Mountain Pet Park play the host and set up a couple of tables to apologize to you properly."

"Ah... no, no, there's no need for that," Yu Xueqing said, flustered as she waved her hands repeatedly. "And those alligators really aren't my pets."

"I just found them in the bushes, and they kept saying they were hungry. I thought they were pets fostered here in your pet park, which is why I..."

Chen Zhiyu spoke with utmost courtesy, immediately apologizing to Yu Xueqing right out of the gate, offering apologies to the pets as well, and even inviting Yu Xueqing to a meal to make amends. Such a combo of sincere apologies caught the student completely off guard.

She hadn't felt particularly frightened anyway; those burly security guards might have been shouting, but they were only worried she would get bitten by the alligator. Moreover, Yu Xueqing had just heard the guards address Chen Zhiyu as their boss.

It was just a trivial matter, yet the owner of the pet park had personally come out to apologize so humbly. It left Yu Xueqing feeling rather at a loss, her face flushed with fluster.

"You found them in the bushes?"

Chen Zhiyu furrowed her brows in surprise, her sharp gaze sweeping across the security team and the front desk receptionist.

The security captain's heart skipped a beat. Cold sweat instantly beaded on his forehead as he lowered his voice to explain:

"The riverside area should be completely sealed off; there's no way anything could get past the electric fence..."

"If something truly did get in, the only possibility is that... they dug under the barrier or walked right through the front gate."

"Don't worry, Boss. I'll go check the surveillance footage right now. I'll make sure such a thing never happens again."

Chen Zhiyu frowned deeply, but considering that a guest was still present, she held back her reprimands and merely instructed the security captain to thoroughly investigate what had happened.

Stringing up electric fencing along the riverbank was a non-compliant measure, and Chen Zhiyu had spent a pretty penny to make it happen. If it was just an accident, fine. But if someone was embezzling her kickbacks, she wouldn't hold back her clan ties; she would summon a clan meeting in the ancestral hall and kick those corrupt parasites right out.

Without another word, Chen Zhiyu escorted Yu Xueqing and An Sheng to the second-floor dining area to be seated.