Those Years I Opened A Zoo Chapter 7

Chapter 7 : The First Batch of Visitors (1)

The total number of students from the first grade to the sixth grade in Tongxin Village Primary School amounted up to at most fifty plus. Both Teacher Zhao and another teacher, Teacher Yan taught six cla.s.ses, and it included all the subjects.

When Teacher Zhao told everyone that this year, as per norms, would still be going to Cape Zoo – No, it should be called Lingyou Zoo now, all the students made noises of rejoicing.

The senior grades students were still discussing: “I am going to see Shasha, it will definitely still remembers me.”

“Nonsense, it is obviously Leidian…”

As they go every year, they also gave a name to the animals. Just that everyone gave a different name so they fight easily.

On the podium, Teacher Zhao repeatedly emphasized the announcement and the timing for the outing the day after tomorrow.

On the third day, the students of Tongxin Primary School gathered in the front of the teaching building and they were arranged into two teams. A student at the back was pulling at the clothing of someone in front.

However, among the group of students, Teacher Zhao saw an unfamiliar face. “Little cla.s.smate, you are not a student from our school, where are your parents?”

The child was probably around primary four. He looked fair and tender and was dressed very cleanly. But the expression on his face did not seemed to be very happy. Teacher Zhao basically knew all the children in Tongxin Village, but he had never seen this child.

“Teacher, he is my cousin. He came to my house yesterday to play. My dad and mom said to let him come with me.” Another child raised his hand and proclaimed.

“Zhang Shun, is this your brother? He does not need to go to school?” Teacher Zhao was feeling a little helpless. Zhang Shun's parents had to go down to the fields to work every day. In the past, if there were relatives' children coming in to stay, they would most likely not let Zhang Shun go to cla.s.s. He repeatedly persuaded saying that Zhang Shun must come to school. Now, this was good, Zhang Shun was not skipping cla.s.ses, but he brought his relative together with him.

“Yeah, my brother is on his holiday! He is a student of s.h.i.+yan Primary School, they are having a holiday!” Zhang Shun was feeling extremely proud as he said this.

Other students did not sense anything wrong but were looking at Zhang Shun's brother enviously. However, Teacher Zhao was aware that something was wrong. Which school had a vacation at this timing, but he did not say it out. He just asked Zhang Shun's brother, “Then come and join us today for our outdoor activities. What is your name?”

“My name is Zhao Bo.” The child said in a low and m.u.f.fled voice.

Of course, Zhao Bo did not came here because of school holiday. He fought with his cla.s.smates at school and was ordered to go home by the teacher. He was then thrown into the countryside by his parents, saying that he should experience some suffering.

Zhao Bo rarely went to Zhang Shun's family. Even if he did, he had never spent the night but Zhang Shun would occasionally go to his house to play. He only came here for one day, and Zhao Bo already died of suffering, no air conditioning, no computer, the phone was confiscated, nothing to play, his cousin only knew how to play with mud, today he still had to go to some zoo…

Teacher Zhao repeated the announcement to Zhao Bo again, he let Zhang Shun look out for his cousin, and then announced that they are departing. Everyone lined up and walked to the road, and then wait for the public bus.

Before they even arrived at the zoo, Zhang Shun couldn't help but introduce his old friend to his cousin. “Cousin, there is only one in the zoo – a big lion, its voice is super loud, there is still the monkey…”

Zhao Bo listened to Zhang Shun's rambling until he was very impatient. “What's so great about this? There are a group of lions in the city zoo, as well as tigers, crocodiles, camels, giant pandas…”

Zhao Bo listed a lot of animals in one breath, and then added another sentence: “Hey, I don't like to go, the zoo is nothing fun."

Zhang Shun was extremely yearning as he listened on. He was very surprised that Zhao Bo didn't like to go to the zoo. If he lived in the city, he would go to the zoo mentioned by his cousin every week.

When Zhang Shun's cla.s.smates heard Zhao Bo's words, they racked their brains to find out the differences between Lingyou Zoo, but as they thought it over and over again, the animals here had all been mentioned by Zhao Bo. It was even less then what Zhao Bo listed.

In the end, they could only stammering said: “… There is a Cape Park next to the zoo.”

– There was really nothing to brag about the zoo. They go to the zoo every year. They did not see any increase in the animals, but the lion was getting thinner every year.

……

All the way, the students were chattering and making a fuss until they reached “Cape Park Station”. They got off the bus, running to the Lingyou Zoo next to it.

The zoo was not opened and the door was locked. Teacher Zhao took out his cell phone and called Duan Jiaze. Not long after, Xiao Su ran to open the door.

“h.e.l.lo, Teacher Zhao, our director is tending to a new bird.” Xiao Su and Teacher Zhao shook hands. “I am Xiao Su, this time I will be accompanying you all to for the sight-seeing.”

“Thank you, we will be troubling you.” Teacher Zhao said with a smile. In fact, they have came here until they were all familiar with this place. In the past, Cape Zoo would not specially send someone to accompany them.

But after going in, Teacher Zhao knew why. It was not that the zoo put a great importance on them, but at first glance, it seemed that there were no other employees at all.

The conditions of the zoo house cages were very plain, not like the larger zoo; They used gla.s.s to completely separate the tourists. Here, it was easy for visitors to flip over the guardrail and it was only safe to have a staff supervise.

But right now, they could only see a male keeper that was busy feeding the monkeys not far away. Duan Jiaze was said to be taking care of the birds. It was of no wonder that this Xiao Su was following them…

Teacher Zhao and Teacher Yan naturally have a set of commentary, and they visit the cages one by one, explaining to the students.

As soon as they walked to the opposite side of the cage and saw the animal inside, Teacher Zhao was stunned before he asked Xiao Su: “Have you brought in a new lion?”

“No?” Xiao Su was a newcomer and was not very clear, “The director said that these were all left by Cape Zoo, so it shouldn't be.”

"No?" Teacher Zhao and Teacher Yan glanced at each other. The last time he came here, he did not go in to see. Now, at first glance, this spirit and momentum were very different from the last time. The fur on its body was clean, smooth and s.h.i.+ny, and the eyes were full of expressions. Although it was laying there down, it was lacking the listless appearance it used to have.

Under the watchful eyes of the children, the lion stood up and roared, and it trembled across the sky. It was ten times more domineering than before and it scared the first graders that were visiting for the first time to the point of crying.

Xiao Su knocked the railing with a stick, and the lion adjusted its head back and lay down. Then she comforted the children. “Don't cry, look, the lion is not roaring anymore.”

Teacher Zhao was even more surprised. The lion was not this obedient before. The animal keepers at the time had no standard, the lion could not even maintain a fixed excretion spot.

“Is this trained by you?” asked Teacher Zhao.

“Train what?” Xiao Su said unsurely, “I am not a animal keeper, I am in charge of finance.” Although she had helped to feed the animals these days, she had never fed the bigger size animals.

“Someone else trained it? I see that it quite listens to you.” Teacher Zhao said with a smile.

Xiao Su scratched her head, she was also puzzled. “I also don't know. It might be that the director had looked for someone to train. This is my first time knocking. I saw them doing this before.”

The two were not experts, they simply did not go deeper. Teacher Zhao began to tell everyone about the story of the lion, where was the hometown of the lion, and what was its habit.

Although the students were happy, with the number of times the older kids came, they didn't really listen to Mr. Zhao's words. They formed groups of three and five, leaning on the guardrail looking at the lion.

“Look here, Leidian!”

“Wow, it has grown up, I really want to touch its fur.”

Zhang Shun's cousin, Zhao Bo, was also frightened by the lion's roar, quickly try to find ways to remedy. "What is this? I have seen several lions roaring together, it was louder than this volume…"

Teacher Yan asked Xiao Su at the side. “Your zoo will be reopening, have any new animals been brought in?”

“Yes, we have introduced a lot of birds, today just came a new one. There are aquar… well, ornamental fishes.” Xiao Su almost spilled the beans and said aquarium. Ever since Duan Jiaze said that they will jokingly call that tank of ornamental fishes that.

“Then we will go see the birds first!” said Teacher Yan.

After visiting the only beast in the zoo, Xiao Su took them to the bird shed.

The keeping ground for these birds was also very plain. You could tell from its name. It was in a shed with a thick fence, and there were many bird cages hanging high and low.

From far, Duan Jiaze stood in the shed and was fiddling with a bird. The bird was the only one that did not enter the cage. It stopped on the arm of Duan Jiaze. The color was as bright as fire, and the size was large than normal. It was quite good looking.

Teacher Zhao pushed up his gla.s.ses. “Is that a parrot?”

Teacher Yan: “The mouth does not look similar.”

They were not professionals, and they only discussed two sentences before stopping.

Compared to the last time, there were dozens of more cages in the bird shed, which made it more crowded. But when they arrived, Teacher Zhao noticed a detail, that was, all the cages of the birdcage were not closed.

An arm can easily pa.s.s through the s.p.a.ce of the outside fences. The birds would not fly away despite not closing the cages? Was this also a result of training?

Looking at the side, next to the bird shed, the big cage where the pair of peac.o.c.ks lived was also not closed. The two peac.o.c.ks swayed and walked to the bird shed, squatted at the side of Duan Jiaze.

The colorful birds were still very attractive, especially the peac.o.c.ks, and the children were excited to shout at them: “Open the tails! Hurry open the tails!”

Duan Jiaze and Teacher Zhao greeted each other. Under his introduction, he also said greeted Teacher Yan.

The two teachers lamented: “Compared to before, here had really changed a lot. The lion has more spirit, the number of birds has grown. What kind of bird is on your hands? Is it really beautiful?”

“The birds are actually raised outside the cages, you trained very well!”

“This is a golden crow…” Duan Jiaze "Hehe" and gave a smile.

That's right, what was on his shoulder was the last Three-legged Golden Crow in the three realms, the original appearance of Luya – shrunk and the- third-leg-was-kept version.

“Golden crow? This variety is so fresh, it must be especially rare, so beautiful.” Teacher Zhao praised.

“Yes, it is very rare.” Duan Jiaze looked at Luya's raising his head. Seeing at how prideful it was now, he added two sentences. “Right, in fact, we have a small performance for the student.”

Indeed after changing the owner, it was really a world different. Now there was still a performance. In the past, at most, it was calling the monkeys to flip.

“That's great,” Teacher Zhao clapped. “Students, be quiet. Big Brother Director said that the birds have a performance. Do you want to see them?”

“Want!!” The elementary school students shouted in unison.

Zhang Shun shouted the loudest. He also pulled Zhao Bo's sleeve. “Cousin, is there any performance in the city zoo?”

Zhao Bo disdainfully said: “Why not, the parrots there will still talk and count.”

Zhang Shun stared at a parrot in the bird shed. “Maybe ours will know…”

“Daojun, all depend on you.” Duan Jiaze softly said. He raised his hand and released Luya.

Luya rolled his eye at Duan Jiaze - a slight feeling that they were making a fuss over a trifle, but their scale was small, so he himself, Luya Daojun, also had to go out and take the lead to make a living by selling performance. In order to let Luya take actions, Duan Jiaze really made effort to talk his way through.

Luya flew one round inside the bird shed, and the parrots, starlings, oriole… One by one, jumped out from the cage, fluttered the wings and spiraled with Luya. Luya flew a few laps until all the birds came out from the cages and followed it behind and orbit.

At first, it flew along the wall of the shed, and later there was a route, which was to shuttle between the gaps of the high and low bird cages as if to show off their flying skills.

“Wow–“

This scene was really a little spectacular.

The wild goose flying to the south was also done in a group, the sparrows in the treetops were also in a cl.u.s.tor. But a group made of different birds so neatly lined up flying, it was even more dazzling. It was not even seen on television.

Zhao Bo, who originally was pretending to look elsewhere to express his disdain forgot to continue his disguise. He was staring at the group of birds, unable to take his eyes off them. He especially felt regretful that his parents had confiscated his mobile phone. Otherwise, he would be able to take pictures of this scene and when he returned back to school he would let his cla.s.smates take a look. It would definitely open their sight.

Duan Jiaze saw that the program he had arranged had a good effect, and he became happy. He coughed and reminded Luya of the next step.

Duan Jiaze only saw Luya reversed back and landed on his head. Duan Jiaze made effort to smile, not letting others see that Luya deliberately held his head until it was painful.

The dozens of birds followed suit and scattered around. One, and two, and all flew out of the gap in the fence.

Teacher Zhao let out a scream, and he just wanted to say that they are flying away, yet saw that the birds did not fly toward the blue sky, but one by one, landed on the heads and shoulders of the students.

In an instant moment caused a greater voice.

The students cheering, were cheering, those screaming were screaming, and some did not dare to move, afraid to scare the birds away.

Zhao Bo had a colorful parrot on him, and he was frenzied. Where is the boredom from the beginning? “Shunzi*, look! My parrot!”

Zhang Shun also had a bird on him, a chubby zebra finch, but he does not recognize the breed, “Mine, mine is so cute teacher, what kind of bird is this?”

“Ah, ah, ah! I can't see the top of my head, what bird is on my head?”

Even Teacher Zhao's shoulder parked an oriole. He felt incredible, he didn't know how exactly was this trained.

However, there were more than fifty students, all the birds in the bird shed were parked on one person, and there were still a few students who didn't have. They see that everyone had a bird on their body and yet they don't have. Other than not crying yet, they were wallowing.

Teacher Zhao and Teacher Yan quickly took the birds on them and placed on the two students, and in this way, there were still two students who didn't had the birds.

“Wuwuwu* – I also want, I also want!”

　　
“Teacher, why I don't have, wu, was it because the birds don't like me…”
　　
Teacher Zhao turned to Duan Jiaze for help.

“Don't worry, cla.s.smates,” Duan Jiaze took the bamboo pole and drove the two peac.o.c.ks out. “This is both of yours!"

For a time being, these little pities became the most enviable object of everyone.

The two children were more than elastic.

The two peac.o.c.ks seemed to have human characteristics, they actually stationed themselves each next to a student's side. The male peac.o.c.k actually fluttered the tail feathers and opened.

The fancy feathers spread out like a fan in the crowd. The peac.o.c.k raised its head and displayed its gorgeous color feathers, which caused a burst of exclamation and onlookers.

“Children, everyone pays attention, you can touch the birds, but you can't pinch them, otherwise they will fly away.” Duan Jiaze reminded, “Next, these birds will accompany you to visit the zoo and be your companion until you leave the zoo – As long as you love and protect them, okay?”

Duan Jiaze pondered on how to use the limited resources to attract tourists, naturally that was to use the animals and make something out. This was an experiment.

Projects such as animal accompaniment were not well promoted. In addition, there was not enough manpower to guarantee the safety of the birds, and having more made it less unique. Random interaction with a small number of visitors was feasible. Just look at the enthusiastic reactions of these children, you know that it was very attractive and it can improve the rate of return.

In front, in the face of Duan Jiaze's question, these fifty plus people, at this time, shouted out the momentum of five hundred people, "Okay-!!

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