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Is the giant panda in trouble? Upon hearing this, Suming's scalp buzzed with alarm.
Yangchuan City Zoo had giant pandas years ago and even built a Panda House, not far from Xiongshan. Later, the pandas of Yangchuan City were 'borrowed' to the Capital Zoo to support the capital's developnt and never returned. Since then, the Panda House at Yangchuan City Zoo had been left empty.
The two giant pandas Yingying and Lele from Xiangjiang now reside in the Panda House, cared for by the zookeeper Li from Xiongshan. After the arrival of the two pandas, they caused quite a sensation in Yangchuan City, attracting a large number of visitors in a short ti.
These two pandas lived a life akin to immortals, being treated like ancestors by the zoo; they were so pampered that even wishing for the stars seed modest. Their daily food expenses were several tis higher than Suming's budget as the deputy director. Soone was always sent to check on their health, and to prevent them from getting anxious, specialists were hired to accompany the pandas at the Panda House—this so-called playti involved being used as climbing poles for the two cuddly creatures.
Li was an experienced manager, and his tone sounded quite grave.
If it were any other animal, it wouldn't be as serious, but these two giant pandas were too significant. They were not only national treasures but also ********. Initially, lending them to Yangchuan City Zoo was ant to promote friendship between the two parties. What if sothing terrible happened to them?!
Moreover, the Panda House was always live-streaming, so if sothing really did happen to the pandas, it would be impossible to cover up.
"Li, imdiately turn off the caras in the Panda House. I'm on my way now!" Suming had no ti to inquire about the pandas' specific conditions, abruptly ending the call and rushing downstairs from his office.
As soon as he descended the stairs, he whistled towards the nearby woods, prompting two large horse heads to pop out.
Ever since Big Happy Life and Lion Castle Dragon arrived at the zoo, they finally escaped the monotony of their previous life, which revolved around the stable and the racetrack. Besides playing with the alpacas, they usually road the zoo at will and sotis accompanied Suming to the back mountains for a stroll. They were free of any 'business' pressure and in excellent spirits.
Horses are particularly empathetic creatures. Big Happy Life was Nangong Yan's mount, and occasionally Nangong Huang would ride it too. Recognizing Suming, Big Happy Life snorted and shook its head, turning back into the woods to graze. Lion Castle Dragon trotted over briskly, and without ti to saddle up, Suming hugged its thick neck, climbed onto its back, and raced down the zoo's cobblestone path towards the Panda House.
"Make way, make way!"
In the early morning, there weren't many visitors at the zoo. Seeing soone riding a tall, leggy black horse charging through caused no panic. Instead, they all stepped aside, laughing and taking photos with their smartphones. Lion Castle Dragon was clearly a purebred racehorse of high caliber, far surpassing the old horses usually seen at tourist spots for photo ops, which were rarely seen in the city.
Horse riding is a rather luxurious sport for the average citizen, and even a mid-range dostic horse club has a mbership system, with annual fees starting in the tens of thousands at the very least.
Passing through the main park area and reaching the Panda House at the northeast corner, Li was already waiting at the door. Suming dismounted, rubbed Lion Castle Dragon's large head, signaling it not to wander off, and then strode into the Panda House, asking, "What's the situation?"
Li followed behind, "Lele has been lethargic all day and its food intake has noticeably decreased. Sotis it just sits there for half a day without moving."
A sense of dread hit Suming, "And Yingying?"
"Digging holes..." Li said with a gloomy face. "It's dug several large holes in the ground."
"Digging holes?" Suming and Li were both professionals in the field of animals. Hearing this, Suming's face turned pale.
Giant pandas, like other ancient large animals, have a certain spiritual awareness. When they sense their lives nearing an end, they exhibit behaviors like what Li had just described, looking for suitable burial places by digging holes as one of the thods. Lele's decrease in food intake and inactivity could likely an it was ill. Just like humans, being sick could lead to a loss of appetite and energy.
"Could our luck be this bad?!" The lifespan of these pandas was only equivalent to that of a human adult, not even middle-aged by comparison. Logically, they still had many years before reaching the end of their natural lives.
Could it be that after coming to the zoo, they suffered from the change in environnt and diet, or was it because visitors threw in unclean food?
"Have you checked?"
"We haven't done any instruntal checks yet. I thought I'd have you take a look first and then decide." Now the pandas were the apple of the zoo's eye, and Li didn't dare to be negligent. Upon noticing sothing amiss, he didn't dare make decisions on his own and imdiately sought advice from Suming.
Suming pushed open the last gate briskly. The interior of the Panda House covered about an acre, with lush green grass and a small pond. Trees were planted in the middle of the lawn as the weather got hotter to provide shade and a cool retreat for the pandas.
In the tree shade, there was a small 'playground' with a slide and a swing set.
The swing was actually made of two ropes holding up a large rubber tire, hanging only about thirty centiters above the ground, a playground that the two chubby pandas could easily climb onto.
Lele was sitting on the tire swing listlessly, head drooping, forearms hanging over its belly, looking profoundly troubled.
The lawn was riddled with holes of various sizes. Not far from Lele, the black and white striped *** wiggled and squird above ground, with dirt flying everywhere: Yingying was digging holes.
"That's not right!" Seeing Yingying energetically digging, Suming felt that sothing was off.
It's true that large animals approaching death would arrange their affairs, but their movents would be slow and sluggish, after all, they were close to dying and would hardly be in high spirits. Who, on the verge of death, would be so cheerful? There had been no word that giant pandas experienced monts of returned vitality.
Seeing Suming approaching, Lele, who had been brooding with its head down, glanced up at Suming from a distance and then, lacking any vigor, lowered its head again, rocking sluggishly on the big tire.
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"Yingying, stop digging and co over here!" Suming yelled as he strode towards Yingying, who was busy burrowing a hole.
****** In a blink, Yingying crawled out of the hole, her black and white head mottled with patches of mud and grass, completely filthy, walking in a slightly comical pigeon-toed manner. She wobbled over to Suming, stood on her hind legs, and hugged his thighs.
"Careful, careful!" Every ti those two pandas hugged his legs, Suming felt a surge of panic. When they stood on their hind legs, they were nearly as tall as his waist, and their front paws would wrap just around the roots of his thighs. If their sharp claws were careless even in the slightest, scraping across, he might as well start practicing the Sunflower Manual and take the path of dominating the martial world.
However, seeing that Yingying was still rather lively, Suming felt sowhat relieved. He used his spiritual power to check on them, and both pandas' vital signs were very robust. They didn't seem to be sick.
"What's wrong with your wife? Did you two have a fight?" Suming picked up Yingying, who clung to him like an oversized koala, grabbing onto Suming with her limbs.
"Woof woof..." Yingying made a sound similar to that of a small dog.
The vocal cords of pandas were strange; they could produce a variety of sounds, like the crying of human infants, the squeaking of little mice, and even sounds resembling those of dogs and sheep. The only sounds they couldn't make were the ows of cats or the roars like those of a bear.
'Woof woof' suggested that Yingying was in a good mood, probably because she had seen Suming.
When Lele saw Suming hugging Yingying and approaching, she actually turned her body away, presenting her back to the two of them.
"What exactly is going on?" Suming grew even more curious. Lele was usually very playful, and under normal circumstances, would have pounced on him long ago. Even if there had been a disagreent with Yingying, there was no need for her to ignore him as well.
Yingying jumped down from Suming's arms, sat down with a plop on the grass, then got up and shook off the grass from her behind. She went over to Lele, raised her front paws to pry at Lele's body, attempting to turn her around. But Lele seed unwilling to pay her any attention and twisted away.
Yingying was quite clever; unable to move Lele, she simply stuck her butt out and used her head to knock over the little swing.
Lele tumbled off with a rolling motion, spun a couple of tis, and ended up lying on her back in front of Suming.
"Huh? What's happening? Scared enough to pee?"
Suming, with his keen eyes, imdiately noticed a wet patch beneath Lele's belly, which looked like she had urinated.
That location was her reproductive organs. Lele seed sowhat embarrassed, quickly covering her belly with her paws, not wanting Suming to see.
"Why are you embarrassed for goodness' sake! Do you think I'm going to eat your tofu?!" Suming squatted down irritably and pinched Lele's flat round ears. Lele 'baa baa baa' bleated displeasedly and lifted her paw to swipe away Suming's hand.
With that, Suming got a clear look at the bottom of Lele's abdon, which was coated with a sticky and damp secretion.
Suming's eyes lit up, and he yelled without turning his head back, "No way! Li, Li, co quickly, get the vet over here with the equipnt!"
"Alright, alright!" Li turned and ran to call the dical office.
...
It wasn't long before the veterinarian arrived with the diagnostic equipnt.
As Suming watched the veterinarian take out tools from a small box, he threatened, "If you pull out another Isatis root, I'll fire you!"
"Boss, I drink it myself," the vet pulled out a small thermos cup containing soaked Isatis root from his lab coat, leisurely sipping a few mouthfuls before using the equipnt to examine Lele.
Hormones, excrent, blood... After a series of tests, the veterinarian gave a result that matched what Suming had guessed earlier.
Lele was pregnant.
"Oh, I see! That day the robber fell into the zoo, they were in the middle of panda mating. Everyone thought the mating was interrupted by the robber, but actually, the mating had been completed by the ti the robber fell down. It's likely that they conceived during that instance!"
"But shouldn't pandas' activity levels increase significantly when they're pregnant?" Li asked, puzzled on the side.
"Theoretically, that's the case," the veterinarian said lazily. "But depression can also occur, just like with humans. The little girl wasn't ntally prepared at all, got pregnant by accident, and was scared."
"Ah?!" Li blurted out without thinking, "Then, should we consider abortion, painless abortion?"
"I'll punch you first!" Suming laughed in exasperation.
Luck was in their favor; pandas have a mating season of only a few days per year, and the odds of conception are pitifully low. Now that such a fortunate event had happened on his watch, the future cubs of Yingying and Lele, once they are to return to Xiangjiang Ocean Park, would certainly have to stay.
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