Chapter 163 - 113: There Must Be a Purpose

Chapter 163: Chapter 113: There Must Be a Purpose

"..." Zhao Han was at a loss for words.

Some parents are just terrible at raising their kids. When they can’t get their children to stop watching cartoons, and the kids won’t listen, they can’t solve the problem—the child. So they go after the cartoon instead.

I heard these parents even have their own forums. They get together to discuss how to control their kids and how to denounce things they deem harmful. Basically, if they can’t control their child’s obsession with something, they decide that thing is "harmful" and must be eliminated.

Ultraman, for example, was targeted by a joint petition from parents on one of these forums.

But that show comes from the Plaster Country, so if it got reported, so be it. Some of these complaints, however, are just ridiculous.

Now, with this latest complaint, the parents’ kid was fascinated by the black bear at Li Yuan Farm. They couldn’t control their child, the child threw a tantrum, and so they decided to cause trouble for Li Yuan Farm.

The problem was, once a complaint was filed, the tourism bureau couldn’t just ignore it. He had no choice but to pay a visit to Li Yuan Farm.

He especially needed to ask Boss Zhang about the bear’s permits and documentation. If this blew up online, it would be a huge headache.

Zhao Han soon arrived at Li Yuan Farm and found Zhang Lin. "Boss Zhang, your two animals have certainly become famous."

"That’s just because the tourists love them," Zhang Lin said with a smile, pulling a stack of ticket packages for the farm from his drawer and handing them to Zhao Han. "Zhao Han, feel free to bring your colleagues from the bureau to come and give us some pointers!"

Zhao Han looked at the stack of tickets and smiled. ’So Boss Zhang is playing this game now, too,’ he thought. Not that he found it strange. The bureau had stacks of ticket packages from all the tourist spots in You City; most of them ended up in the trash.

Even with free tickets, nobody at the bureau wanted to visit some of those places.

Li Yuan Farm, however, was a different story. ’The folks at the bureau will actually want these,’ he thought. ’Since Boss Zhang is offering, I’ll just accept them as an employee perk!’

"You must have come for a specific reason, Director Zhao?" Zhang Lin asked.

Zhao Han nodded. "A parent filed a complaint about your farm’s black bear, so I had to come and ask. The main thing is to check with you, Boss Zhang, if the bear’s permits are all in order. If anything’s missing, our bureau can help you fast-track the application process to get it sorted out."

Hearing this, Zhang Lin smiled. "Don’t worry, Director Zhao. All the permits and certificates for keeping the animal are in order. In fact, they were all processed at the provincial level."

"That’s good." Relieved, Zhao Han took his leave.

With a sigh of resignation, Zhang Lin called Lin Muxue over. "Muxue," he instructed, "a parent filed a complaint with the tourism bureau about our Black Bear Spirit Fruit Stand. In a moment, I’ll send you Xiaohai’s keeping permits and certificates. I want you to post them on our Tiao Yin account. Also, tell them to add another guardrail at the fruit stand. We’re suspending its operation for tomorrow and the day after."

"Someone complained about this, too?" Lin Muxue was incredulous.

Perhaps now she finally understood why that *Pleasant Goat* cartoon had been reported. This compulsion to complain about everything was pathological.

Still, it was something they had to take seriously. In the internet age, there would always be people looking to pick a fight—not for justice or out of principle, but simply because you had clout, and attacking you was a way for them to get clout.

A short time later, the official Li Yuan Farm Tiao Yin account posted a new video. The title read: *In Response to a Parental Complaint Regarding the Black Bear Spirit Fruit Stand, Li Yuan Farm Has Ordered a Temporary Suspension of Operations for the Next Two Days to Install an Additional Guardrail!*

The video’s release immediately set off a storm of angry comments.

This was especially true for those who had already bought tickets. They had excitedly made their plans, and now this?

Why were there always so many parents complaining about every little thing?

Complaining about cartoons, fine. Complaining about video games, whatever. But what the hell did a tourist attraction ever do to you? You complain about that, too?

Regardless, the Black Bear Spirit’s two-day suspension was set in stone. For today, however, business continued as usual. The stand was still incredibly popular and became a top trending topic online.

The Little Black Bear and Bailong worked for two hours in the morning, then took a break. They worked another two hours in the afternoon before clocking out for the day.

As the sun began to set, Zhang Lin went to the area set aside for the Little Black Bear in the main office building. He found Lin Mengyao and a few women from the HR department gathered there, all looking completely overwhelmed. The two new keepers, Yuan Bingbing and Lin Lele, were with them.

"What’s going on?" Zhang Lin asked, puzzled by their expressions.

"President Zhang, look. This is how much money Xiaohai made today." Lin Mengyao handed Zhang Lin a tablet displaying a dedicated account.

When he saw the balance, he froze for a second. 5,460 yuan.

"This much?"

"Mhm. Tourists are basically buying the fruit just so they can film a video of Xiaohai holding up the QR code for payment. He’s selling one or two bags a minute. And this is only the first day. It’s only going to get busier."

"Impressive. The little guy can earn this much in a single day."

"And that was only in four hours of work."

Hearing Lin Mengyao’s report, Zhang Lin really felt like Xiaohai could support himself and Bailong, and even cover the salaries of his two keepers.

After all, the fruit itself was cheap. Each small bag cost about 3 yuan on average. With 5,460 yuan in revenue, the cost of goods was just over 1,000 yuan, leaving a net profit of more than 4,000.

The women from the HR department sighed.

"This belongs in the ’I’m less successful than a bear’ category."

"My whole monthly salary is barely more than what he makes in a day!"

"Suddenly, I want to be a bear."

Zhang Lin finally understood why they were so dejected.

Everyone always says how hard it is to make money. But then you suddenly discover it’s actually quite easy—a bear can casually sell fruit for a day and earn your entire monthly salary. That’s a truly demoralizing realization.

And Xiaohai made it look so easy! Just holding up a QR code, selling a 3-yuan bag of fruit for 10 yuan... The profit margin was terrifyingly high, and the tourists were more than happy to pay it.

After all, for just 10 yuan, you could get a close-up video of the Black Bear Spirit "asking" you for money. Posting that on your Friends Circle to show off? That was a bargain.

「The next day.」

The Black Bear Spirit Fruit Stand was officially closed for the day, but the online buzz didn’t die down. In fact, it grew even more intense, with numerous posts popping up online cursing out the "mindless parents."

Zhang Lin paid it no mind, however. This sort of complaint would have no real impact on his farm.

After arriving at his office early in the morning, he started organizing some documents. He had a trip to the commerce bureau today to handle the follow-up procedures for the properties acquired by Kailin Investment Farm.

He had just finished organizing the paperwork when Lin Muxue came in to report. "President Zhang, two things. First is the matter of creating separate Tiao Yin accounts for Xiaohai and Bailong. I just need your signature on this!"

Zhang Lin glanced at the application form and signed it without a second look. ’This is definitely a good idea,’ he thought.

He’d been paying attention to this sort of thing. He had already noticed that the two new keepers, Yuan Bingbing and Lin Lele, were smart enough to seize the opportunity. They had changed their Tiao Yin handles to "King Heifeng’s Little Demon, Lele" and "King Heifeng’s Little Demon, Bingbing."

"And the second thing?" Zhang Lin asked.

Lin Muxue continued, "Yesterday our Black Bear Spirit Fruit Stand was reported by a parent. Today, we’re being blasted by a certain ’master artist.’ He’s an actor who once played Sun Wukong, and he’s accusing us of making a mockery of a world classic. He says it’s disrespectful to the novel *Journey to the West* and to everyone involved in the original screen adaptations. He claims it’s something we ’need to apologize to the entire nation for’!"

"???" Zhang Lin blinked. ’Why does that sound so familiar? Is it that actor, Liu?’

"That’s the one." Lin Muxue nodded. "Should we issue a response?"

"Respond? Respond my ass," Zhang Lin said irritably. "What the hell does this have to do with him? If we respond, we’re just giving him the publicity he wants!"

He couldn’t be bothered with people like that.

With that, he grabbed the documents and left the office, heading for the county’s commerce bureau.

However, just as he arrived at the main service hall and submitted his documents, a staff member immediately made a phone call.

A moment later, a middle-aged man came downstairs and walked directly up to Zhang Lin. "Boss Zhang, I’ve been expecting you," he said. "Don’t worry about the paperwork. I’ve already taken care of everything for you. It’s all waiting upstairs. You just need to go sign."

Hearing this, the staff member immediately addressed the middle-aged man with great respect. "Director Zhong!"

The scene caused everyone else in the hall to turn their heads and start whispering amongst themselves.

"Who’s that young man? To have the Director himself come down to greet him!"

"More than just greet him! Didn’t you hear? He said he already prepared all the paperwork for him in advance!"

"I wish I could get that kind of service!"

"..."

While the people around him were shocked, Zhang Lin was just as surprised. He knew there was no reason for this official to treat him with such deference. ’He must be after something,’ Zhang Lin thought.

As for what that "something" was, he’d have to go upstairs with the man to find out.