“Is that so?” the park director clearly didn’t believe Chen Qi’s explanation.
Chen Qi turned and gave Ning Wei a frantic, silent signal, while others nervously held their breath for her.
Just then, a group of tourists approached, looking at the large fish with delight.
The children eagerly vied to buy fish food to feed it. The director temporarily shifted his gaze away from Ning Wei.
Everyone seized the opportunity to return to their posts. On the way, Chen Qi led Ning Wei down a different, smaller path.
“If you don’t let go, I’m going to hit you,” Ning Wei warned. Chen Qi was acting strangely, dragging her to this place furtively.
Her stomach still ached from the beating Ning Wei had given her yesterday.
Chen Qi quickly released her hand. “Didn’t I tell you yesterday not to go look!”
“Which side are you on?” Ning Wei crossed her arms and scrutinized him from head to toe.
Chen Qi’s eyes flickered. “Believe me, I’ll help you all leave here successfully. Just don’t provoke the director anymore!”
“How am I supposed to believe you? Without the director’s permission, can we leave?”
Chen Qi nodded. “As long as you use the key to open the zoo gates at six in the morning, you can get out. The key is with the director. I’ll find a way to steal it.”
After speaking, Chen Qi left, only urging Ning Wei to text him.
Ning Wei couldn’t make up her mind and could only relay his words to everyone.
“If what he said is true, then we can find a way to get the key ourselves. There’s no need to wait for him.”
“The key issue is whether this method of leaving is actually true and needs to be verified.”
Everyone had their own opinions, and no single, definite answer was reached for now.
However, Ning Wei remained vigilant. When interacting with the director, she made sure to glance at his belt.
The reason she suspected the key was there was because middle-aged men his age often clipped their keys to their belts.
The director was very attentive to the two newly arrived hyenas, checking on them multiple times a day. Ning Wei, therefore, kept him engaged, constantly looking and explaining what the hyenas had done and eaten, essentially trying to pinpoint the key’s location.
The director, forced to play along, broke out in a sweat following Ning Wei. When he took off his shirt, a bunch of keys was indeed hanging from his belt buckle.
Visually estimating, there were over ten keys, but it was unknown which one opened the main gate.
After being bothered by Ning Wei, the director became even more resolute in his decision.
He called Chen Qi over. “That Ning Wei cannot stay! Find an opportunity to get her into the operating room!”
The entire zoo had only one operating room, a bloody hell for skinning and dismembering.
Chen Qi lowered his head, and the director couldn’t see his face. “You’re unwilling?”
Chen Qi quickly retorted, “No, no, it’s not that.”
“Chen Qi, don’t forget, we’re already in the same boat. Do you think you can escape retribution?” the director threatened.
Chen Qi lowered his head even further. “I understand.”
“Work hard, and I’ll promote you in a couple of years!” the director said, patting Chen Qi’s shoulder to show how much he valued him.
Chen Qi had seen through the director’s empty promises.
Before leaving, the director reminded him again, “Remember to find a way to get Ning Wei into the operating room. Everything has been prepared in there.”
Chen Qi gritted his teeth, watching the director’s retreating back, making a silent decision in his heart.
Meanwhile, Ning Wei was unaware that she had become a target.
After work, Chen Qi asked to meet her at the predator enclosure.
When they arrived at the predator area, before Ning Wei could speak, Chen Qi began pointing at empty cages and introducing them one by one. Ning Wei also learned about the history of the zoo.
This zoo was originally a small private establishment. The director’s father was the first park director, and his goal was to expand the zoo.
However, due to financial reasons, the government intervened and jointly managed it. The zoo expanded severalfold, and the number of animals gradually increased.
The first director was a person who deeply loved animals, unwilling to do anything to harm them.
For instance, he refused to skin and sell the carcasses of naturally deceased tigers, or to intentionally mistreat animals to attract tourists for photos and hugs. Because he wouldn’t accept these unspoken rules, the zoo eventually went out of business.
With no tourists attracted and no investors, the government abandoned it, leaving the zoo to fend for itself.
The staff collectively resigned. He, dragging his ailing body, commuted between enclosures daily until he fell ill.
His dying wish was for his son to make the zoo bigger and better.
But he didn't know that because he and his wife were the only ones caring for all the animals, many animals fell ill without timely detection.
After the consecutive deaths of the couple, the zoo’s animals also died one after another.
The current director, having witnessed the zoo’s beginning, end, prosperity, and decline, had seen through everyone’s true nature.
Unknown where he learned the art of skin-shifting, he first experimented on the resigned staff.
Not only did the number of animals in the zoo gradually increase, but these transformed animals were also incredibly intelligent and could interact with visitors.
Gradually, the zoo became famous and grew larger and larger.
After telling the story, Chen Qi pointed to the tigers, lions, wolves, and even foxes, red pandas, and other animals in the zoo. “Actually, none of these are real animals; they are all transformed through the art of skin-shifting.”
Ning Wei could comprehend the larger animals, but those the size of foxes: “How can a person fit into such a small body?”
Chen Qi looked coldly at the cage. “Does only an adult have the ability to shift skin?”
After hearing this, and seeing the smaller animals in their cages, Ning Wei felt a chill run down her spine.
“Why are you telling me this? What role do you play in all this?”
“The first director was my grandfather. The current director is my father. He has strayed too far in his pursuit of fulfilling grandfather’s will. I can’t bear to watch him sink further into this abyss.”
Ning Wei quickly stepped back. She never expected Chen Qi to be the director’s son.
What Chen Qi said next further astonished her. Director Fu was Chen Qi’s uncle. And some of the other staff were not ordinary people either; they were all people the director had found somewhere, individuals with severe psychological issues.
They volunteered to work here precisely because, like the director, they wanted to abduct different people and transform them into animals, keeping them in cages.
Among these people were those they resented, and also complete strangers.
Therefore, within the entire zoo, there wasn’t a single real animal, nor a single human in the true sense of the word!