I have a wildlife zoo-Chapter 614 - 613: Harvesting Rice!

"I'm back!"

As soon as Tang Xiaoxin was home, she heard a steady "chop chop chop" sound from the kitchen.

She ran to the kitchen and saw Mother Tang chopping green onion and ginger, with a marinated fish beside her and the oil in the wok already starting to smoke slightly, "Wow, are we having fish for dinner?"

Mother Tang shooed her away: "Get out, get out, I'm about to start cooking. Don't let the oil splatter on you!"

"Oh," Tang Xiaoxin obediently agreed!

There was a bout of sizzling sounds that followed, mingled with the tantalizing aroma of fish, and then the kitchen door was shut, and the sound of the extractor fan could be heard.

Tang Xiaoxin then sat on the couch, holding Little Blackie and stroking the cat while scrolling through her phone, preparing to pick out a few nice photos to post a status update.

After a while, Mother Tang came out of the kitchen, closed the door again, and with damp hands asked with a smile, "Come on, tell your mom how your shopping went today?"

She picked up the red-crowned crane-themed stationery gift set from the couch, looking at it curiously: "What's this thing? It looks pretty fancy!"

Tang Xiaoxin opened the gift set and excitedly showed it to her mom, "This is new stationery from the zoo! It includes tape, notebooks, ballpoint pens and such. Look, they all have beautiful patterns on them, and there are illustrations inside the notebooks too. Aren't they exquisite?

But I really can't bear to use this notebook for taking notes, I'm planning to use it for recording song lyrics and poetry verses!"

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"Is it expensive? How much?"

"A set for 98!"

Mother Tang flipped through the notebook, admiring the elegant red-crowned cranes and the graceful cloud patterns, saying, "Oh, that's not too bad!"

Actually, she understood her daughter's fondness for pretty stationery, as she had gone through that stage herself.

However, she felt a bit surprised: stationery is so upscale these days, huh? The zoo is pretty good at generating revenue.

But this revenue generation was ethical; no matter how it was built, the price of admission didn't change, there were no separately charged areas, and a single ticket could get you through the entire zoo.

There were no messy feeding and animal interaction projects either; the only animals you could feed and interact with were domestic animals like alpacas and pigeons.

When you visit the zoo, you could bring your own food and drinks without facing situations where a drink sold outside for 3 yuan was sold for 15 inside the zoo, or a piece of bread with sausage was priced ridiculously high. With visitor satisfaction going up, people were naturally willing to spend and support it, not to mention that the products were indeed very well-made.

Tang Xiaoxin started to excitedly recount: "Today, Keke and I went to the gibbon exhibit early in the morning, and we heard the gibbons singing! Gibbon songs are truly beautiful and heartfelt. I heard they are the only animals that can sing harmonies! Oh, it's a pity I was so mesmerized that I forgot to record a video. Otherwise, I could have played it for you, so you could experience it too."

"Gibbons singing?" Mother Tang tried to imagine it but couldn't quite picture it.

However, seeing her daughter's genuinely happy smile and her enthusiastic manner of speaking, she couldn't help but feel, perhaps it's not so bad to skip tutoring classes in favor of a trip to the zoo for some simple joy.

After all, such unsullied happiness was hard to come by once you started working and got married.

Especially in the first few years of starting work, life's pressures nearly suffocated her; she would often cry secretly under the covers at night.

She wanted her child to study hard but also wanted her to be happy; sometimes her heart was indeed quite conflicted.

"And the hippos! Wow, when hippos fart, it's like a thunderous event, the sound is like a lawnmower. They fart and poop at the same time, swinging their tails to fling poop in all directions—it's quite a sight!"

Tang Xiaoxin's vivid description made Mother Tang laugh: "Eh, could we not talk about this when we're about to eat!"

Tang Xiaoxin suddenly remembered something, "That's right! The rice I planted when school started looks golden and ripe, it must be time to harvest now! The zoo's hot spring hotel has also opened for business. When can our whole family go and soak together?"

Mother Tang thought it was a good idea, "Wait for your dad to come back and mention it to him, to see when he's free."

The rice really was ready for harvesting!

Not just the rice, but also the corn; both were planted at the same time and took four months to mature.

After a week, the zoo's first farming group @everyone in the chat, sending a message to inform everyone that they could come to harvest this weekend.

The time was set for 8 a.m., to start early while the sun hadn't yet risen and the weather was cooler, so that after the harvesting, they could enjoy rice cooked with the freshly harvested grains!

The zoo's official account also published an article; those interested could come to watch.

...

The weekend arrived, and daylight gradually brightened.

In the azure sky, clumps of white clouds drifted leisurely!

Several birds perched on the treetops as they flexed their vocal cords, chirping and trilling melodiously, and other birds hopped around in the fields, pecking at the grains.

In the morning, the edges of the rice plant leaves still bore droplets of morning dew, which, illuminated by the gentle sunlight, took on a translucent green hue!

Between the leaves, the heavy, golden ears of rice had drooped down, swaying and nodding gently in the breeze.

By the edge of the nearby pond, frogs croaked loudly, leaping from the bank into the water and paddling their legs as they swam into the distance.

Around the pond, with pale violet, pink, and an array of unnamed colorful wildflowers, there were butterflies and bees fluttering about.

A tranquil rural scene!

The vast fields of golden wheat exuded a feeling of joyful harvest.

In the nearby enclosure, the alpacas that had come out for air stretched their necks toward the rice ears, seeming quite envious.

The kids and their parents had all arrived by now, admiring the wheat field scenery while chatting eagerly in anticipation.

Father Tang was immediately drawn to the waterladder pump in the pond upon arriving. His eyes lit up and he hopped on with enthusiasm, stomping about as he watched the water splash, thoroughly enjoying himself.

Of course, since the rice field was about to be harvested, the pump had been moved aside, but its outlet was still in the pond.

He chuckled, "I didn't expect to find something like this in the zoo! These things must be quite rare in the countryside now."

Tang Xiaoxin, joining her father on the waterladder pump, asked curiously, "Is this the kind of water pump you used back in your day?"

"There's a slight difference, but it's pretty much the same!"

Father Tang sighed, "You don't know, but water in the countryside was so precious back then. Especially when it was close to harvest time, water directly affected the crop yield; if the grains weren't watered enough, they would shrivel. We were especially afraid of hot weather, always hoping for rain.

Usually, the village relationships were good, but at such times, fighting over water would lead to non-stop quarrels over every trifling matter. Even villages upstream and downstream would fight over water rights, and there have been deaths from those fights."

Tang Xiaoxin blinked her eyes in disbelief, finding it inconceivable that fights over water could lead to fatalities. It sounded terrifying.