Bab 22: Chapter 22 Kickoff to a Good Start!
In Whisperwind Pavilion, Suming opened a bag of cat food and poured it into a row of small bowls in front of him.
Hei, along with Miao Yi to Miao Si, each cat had its own bowl and buried their heads in a fierce bout of eating.
"Good job, everyone has worked hard."
Sitting cross-legged on the bed like some old-school landlord, Suming opened the cashbox and counted it, totaling eight hundred and eighty dollars.
Suming didn't go far today. It was the first day the boat service started, and he wasn't comfortable being hands-off as the boss. After a brief visit to the Wolf Pen, he immediately returned and hid in a nearby forest to secretly observe the situation on the lake.
Today, only six groups of tourists came, and although the total income wasn't much, every visitor paid to row the boat. Among them, many people, like that young couple, spent extra money for the sake of playing with the cats.
These people would become free advertisers. As more and more people came in the future, income would steadily increase.
Rowing itself was nothing special. To attract people, one needed some gimmicks. Suming had been training these cats to collect money for the last few days. Not only was it novel, but it also fit well with the zoo's own characteristics.
Theoretically, pets like cats and dogs could indeed be trained to recognize money simply, and even give change.
Of course, this required long-term professional training and was often only possible for professional circuses.
At first, Suming couldn't do it either; his spiritual power was insufficient. However, after obtaining Monkey Wine, his spiritual power surged each day, and eventually, he managed to teach these cats to recognize common denominations and do simple arithmetic.
With Suming's current level of spiritual power, if he wished, he could even teach the cats to recognize all denominations of money and give change proficiently, but that would be too shocking for the world.
"And you, although you didn't contribute much, you did put in some hard work. Go and get some air, but don't you dare bite that big catfish," Suming snapped his fingers at the alligator turtle peeking in from outside the door.
As Suming grew stronger each day, the alligator turtle also became more and more obedient, even showing a pleasing attitude today.
As a reward, Suming allowed it one hour a day to roam free in the lake. If it behaved, the roaming time would increase in the future; if not, Suming certainly had ways to deal with it.
The grateful alligator turtle nodded vigorously and took off. Suming discreetly assigned a sliver of his spiritual power to it, keeping an eye on its movements at all times.
"Hey, Su! OMG, how did you do it? Those cats are incredible!" Wang Hao was excited on the other end of the phone.
"How did you know?" Suming was taken aback, he hadn't mentioned the cats' feat to this kid.
"Go and have a look. It's all over the Yangchuan forum!" Wang Hao said.
The Yangchuan forum was a semi-official forum in Yangchuan City with several hundred thousand registered users, most of whom lived and worked in Yangchuan. It was quite well-known.
Suming accessed the forum and immediately saw a pinned post at the very top.
"Zoo Spotted With Money-collecting Cats!"
The poster seemed to be the couple from earlier that day.
"So, Her Majesty I took my husband and daughter to the zoo today..."
With pictures to prove the story, there were more than a dozen photos of the cats collecting and giving change, as well as a serious Hei guarding the cash box. Accompanied by the photos, the post recounted their family's experience of the day.
The post was made at 7:30 PM, and now, just three and a half hours later at 10:30 PM, the following comments had already exceeded one thousand, and the view count was nearing the whopping one hundred thousand mark.
"Is this for real, or did a circus cat escape?"
"Surely they must be trained, right? Cats are just pets after all, so what's so surprising?"
"You moron above, try training one and let's see!"
"The person above clearly never had a pet. It's difficult, yes, but they can indeed be trained! Go search on Baidu, 'American Golden Retriever shops at the supermarket' and you'll understand. Besides, these are zoo cats after all."
"The kitties are so cute and adorable... I'm melting..."
"The sister above is soaked, guys below, remember to bring an umbrella!"
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"Scram!"
"Can we not derail the topic, please? We're talking about cats, what do chicks have to do with this?"
"The person above is a hooligan..."
"A classmate of mine also went today, they can testify, those cats were awesome!"
"I'm going to the zoo tomorrow to row a boat and see these money-collecting cats for myself, anyone want to join?"
"Count me in, count me in..."
Suming was very satisfied. The publicity had the desired effect of drawing attention, serving as free advertising, while also keeping the sensation within the realm of what people would find believable.
Apart from curiosity, there were also some voices of skepticism in the forum.
"If there's no staff around, who will save someone if they fall into the water?"
"Is there a risk of someone stealing the money box?"
"Cats can't possibly tell real money from fake money, right? What if someone uses counterfeit bills?"
Suming wasn't bothered by the skepticism. In this day and age, the more people questioned and argued about something, the more popular it would become. It was only if no one cared that there would be a real problem. As for the issues raised in the posts, he had of course considered them all.
...
Training the cats with spiritual power had been exhausting these past two days. Suming had switched to the afternoon shift today, planning to catch up on some serious sleep.
He was woken up before ten in the morning by the noise from outside the pavilion.
"I really want to stay in bed a bit longer!" Suming yawned. Living in the park had its drawbacks—visitors constantly coming and going meant it could get noisy, and he couldn't just send them away.
Since he couldn't sleep anymore anyway, he got up, washed up haphazardly, threw on a coat, and stepped outside the pavilion.
He saw that all eight boats were already out on the lake. Not too far from the shore, a group of visitors was lining up, furiously snapping pictures with their cell phones of the cats collecting money. The people at the front of the line weren't in a hurry to board the boats; instead, they waved colorful bills at the cats, teasing them.
Not far away, groups of two or three visitors were approaching from the forest path, evidently also drawn by the fame of the spectacle.
It wasn't until five in the afternoon, when Suming returned from feeding the animals and the zoo was about to close, that he reluctantly made an appearance outside the pavilion and persuaded the crowd to disperse.
He counted the money in the boxes and it was close to three thousand!
Which meant that the eight boats had been busy for the whole eight-hour day without a single break, and there was also a significant amount of 'tip money' for the cats.
That evening, the forum blew up with posts about the 'money-collecting cats', practically taking over the board.
The situation forced the moderator to intervene with a harsh announcement: anyone who started a new thread about the 'money-collecting cats' would be muted for three days.
"Damn, the mods are so heartless!"
...
"Mr. Song, I never imagined Su had such a talent. You should have seen those cats he trained; they're as smart as little humans, so empathetic. I want to ask him for one to take home. I'm just too shy to ask."
With a cheerful expression, Mrs. Tong sat in the director's office chattering, "You see, not only is his area crowded, but it's also brought the whole zoo to life."
"These are just the hot moments; if it stabilizes and we retain even half of our current numbers, that would be excellent," Mr. Song replied with a smile.
Even so, the once-abandoned little boat business had turned a profit after just a few days of operation and had also helped to increase zoo ticket sales, which was a pleasant surprise for Mr. Song.
He handed Mrs. Tong a business card: "Yangchuan Television Station's 'Life of the People' program wants to interview Su. This is the reporter's card. Please look after them."
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