Chapter 651 - 541: Meng Lan’s Zoo Travelogue

Chapter 651: Chapter 541: Meng Lan’s Zoo Travelogue

Ma Tao had told Shen Xin before that raising a giant panda was actually simple. It was just a normal job, not fundamentally different from raising a cat or a dog.

But that was just talk.

This was a giant panda, after all. A creature in a class of its own, one that could be sent abroad to earn foreign currency, with a history stretching back eight million years.

From ninety-nine-year-olds to three-year-olds, men and women, East and West—there was hardly anyone who didn’t like them or find them adorable.

Even the World Wildlife Fund had specifically chosen its image for their logo.

How could such a rare animal really be raised like a cat or a dog?

That’s why raising a panda was a delicate business.

In their daily work, Ma Tao’s team did their absolute best, meticulously considering every single detail, from food to living quarters.

They were afraid of it getting sick, afraid of it having an accident.

They had contingency plans for many possible emergencies.

But the one thing they had never considered was what to do if a giant panda escaped.

The problem was, who would have thought an animal would even try to break out of jail?

As he sprinted all the way over, Ma Tao’s mind was completely numb, a total blank.

He had come from the staff break area behind the Asian Games Hall.

Normally, visitors would enter through the zoo’s south gate and queue up at the entrance to the Panda House.

That was the only entrance.

After entering, you’d follow the path past the Asian Games Hall and then head further in to reach the Olympic Hall.

There was a large open area between the two halls.

In Ma Tao’s mind, Meng Lan should have been somewhere in this area after his escape.

And even if he had run towards the entrance, the guide railings set up for crowd control and queuing would have blocked him. Meng Lan wouldn’t be able to get out.

But when he actually got there, he didn’t see Meng Lan.

"Old Ma, where’s Meng Lan?" Xu Haisheng gasped, out of breath as he ran up from behind.

Ma Tao pointed west.

He could already see a crowd of tourists gathering over there, each holding up their phone with outstretched arms, filming.

"Get back!"

Ma Tao charged over, shouting at the top of his lungs, trying to push the tourists away.

’It’s fine to enjoy a spectacle, but you have to consider what kind of spectacle it is!’

Sure, giant pandas were devastatingly cute, but at the end of the day, they were still bears.

The scene was like a violent criminal with a weapon running into a crowd of innocent people. Not running away and instead gathering to watch was no different from asking for death.

He and his men struggled to push through the crowd, and his vision immediately went dark.

It wasn’t that Meng Lan had hurt someone, but that he had gotten away.

Ma Tao subconsciously thought about how the area outside the Panda House was enclosed by bamboo landscaping, with the only entrance being the one near the house itself.

But that was for humans.

For a panda, wasn’t it free to go wherever it pleased?

To him, what was the difference between that landscaping and being back home in the wild?

So by the time the group arrived, Meng Lan had already climbed over the greenbelt and was heading straight for the Waterfowl Lake to the west.

The only good thing was that the tourists from the Panda House were also blocked behind it.

Ma Tao couldn’t worry about all that. He had some of his people circle around through the entrance while he cut through the greenbelt to chase Meng Lan.

The ideal situation would be for Meng Lan to get scared by the large crowd and hide in the greenbelt.

’Pah! Scared?’

Ma Tao cursed inwardly. ’Meng Lan could dance for the tourists; he wasn’t scared of them for a second.’

Sure enough, Meng Lan had already swaggered across the greenbelt and made his way to the Waterfowl Lake.

Unsurprisingly, this sparked another crowd of gawking tourists.

They got to see a panda without buying a ticket or waiting in line.

Ma Tao had actually guessed right.

The escaped Meng Lan wasn’t afraid of the humans everywhere; on the contrary, he was filled with curiosity about everything.

His entire life, since birth, had been spent at the breeding base in Jin City.

Later, he returned to the Anjing Zoo.

He had spent his whole life in an enclosure designed for him by humans. His world was only a few hundred square meters of outdoor space.

Now that he was truly out, Meng Lan realized just how big the outside world was.

’What a huge lake!’

’What a tall rockery!’

’And what are those birds of different colors swimming on the lake?’

Meng Lan excitedly charged at a pelican, startling it into flapping its wings and hastily dodging away.

The swans and red-crested pochards resting on the bank also took to the air in a panic.

Meng Lan deftly scrambled up a nearby rockery, watching with fascination as a large number of waterfowl he’d never seen before flew about chaotically.

’I’ve been watched as an animal my whole life. Today, it’s my turn to watch the animals.’

"Meng Lan, get down from there!" a familiar voice called from behind him.

He turned his head and saw Xu Haisheng.

Meng Lan hopped twice in excitement and let out a bleat. ’Look, birds!’

Meng Lan had no sense that he’d done anything wrong, only the novel excitement of discovering a whole new world.

He bounced and hopped on the rocks of the rockery, making Xu Haisheng’s heart pound wildly as he watched from below.

Then, Meng Lan charged forward and leaped off.

"Ahhhh—"

Xu Haisheng clutched his chest and let out a long, drawn-out groan.

Meng Lan’s jump nearly gave him a heart attack.

It had already snowed, and most of the Waterfowl Lake was frozen. With a CRACK and a SPLASH, Meng Lan fell straight into the lake.

Ma Tao’s vision swam.

He knew that giant pandas, unlike cats, weren’t afraid of water. In fact, they could swim.

Living in the mountains, they would swim to migrate.

As for the cold, it was nothing to an animal with such a thick coat of fur.

But the problem was, it was terrifying to watch!

The next moment, Meng Lan’s head popped back out of the water. The lake wasn’t deep, and he began to play freely in the water with excitement.

During his time with Shen Xin, he had loved to splash around in the pool.

This was just a much bigger pool now.

’And birds!’

Meng Lan pawed at the surface of the ice, chasing after a mallard duck, completely lost in the fun.

At this moment, Zhu Fengmao, Lingqian Mountain, and the police arrived.

Inside the zoo, just east of the pelican gift shop, there was a police station, part of the Anjing West City Branch.

Its main duty was to maintain order in the zoo and handle emergencies.

But a giant panda jailbreak?

This was a first!

The police officer on duty rushed to the scene and was completely dumbfounded to see Meng Lan frolicking in the lake.

Zhu Fengmao’s vision went dark. He didn’t have time to ask how something like this could have happened. He quickly grabbed Station Chief Han Xin Hong and told him to work with the park security and staff to evacuate the tourists.

’Close the park! We have to close the park!’

Meng Lan wasn’t fully grown, but he wasn’t far off. If he ran into the crowd, got spooked, and his aggressive instincts were triggered, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Han Xin Hong nodded numbly. As he directed his subordinates to get to work, he grabbed Zhu Fengmao and asked what was next.

They could evacuate the people, but what about the panda? How were they supposed to handle it?

This wasn’t like a raging bull charging down the street, where as a last resort, you could shoot it.

Who would dare shoot a giant panda?

"I don’t know!" Zhu Fengmao’s mind was also a complete blank at that moment. He never would have dreamed something like this could happen.

’In any case, we have to evacuate the tourists first.’

The incident years ago when a tourist climbed over the fence into Walnut’s enclosure and was bitten was still fresh in his mind.

Meanwhile, the tourists weren’t happy.

Who had ever seen something so rare? Who wouldn’t want to watch a little longer?

Besides, there were too many of them. During the New Year’s holiday, the daily visitor count was in the hundreds of thousands. This was no joke.

The police officers and park staff tried to drive them away, shouting until their throats were hoarse, but the crowd only grew larger.

On the other side, Ma Tao and Xu Haisheng stood by the lake, constantly calling out to Meng Lan.

Ma Tao held up a specially made panda cake, his voice full of pleading.

’Forget about coming back for now, just get out of the water first! If you accidentally drown, that’ll be a real disaster!’

Perhaps he had had enough fun or couldn’t catch the waterfowl. Meng Lan lost interest and climbed onto the bank.

Shaking the water from his fur, Meng Lan was so excited he started hopping on the spot.

’Not done playing yet.’

Meng Lan had even forgotten why he’d come out in the first place. He looked around.

To the south and east, it was a dense sea of people. To the west, there were buildings.

After a moment’s hesitation, Meng Lan headed north.

But there were security guards blocking the way there, too.

Meng Lan had no intention of hurting anyone; he just dodged when he encountered people.

He followed the path south of the Malayan Tapir House and headed northeast.

Don’t be fooled by how lazy and motionless he usually was. When he really took off, he was pretty fast.

Ma Tao and the others chased after him but just couldn’t keep up.

And no one dared to block his path.

Meng Lan followed the path, first passing the Australian Animal Zone, where he saw kangaroos fighting.

He stopped, pawed at the fence, and watched with curiosity.

The kangaroos found it strange, too. They stopped their fight and turned to look.

Meng Lan was about to go in and "say hello" to the kangaroos, but when he heard Xu Haisheng calling his name, he immediately took off running again.

He ran quite fast, his butt wiggling.

Ahead was Shihushan, and further on was Xiongshan.

Meng Lan stopped once more, pawing at the glass to study the group of black bears inside Xiongshan.

Meng Lan’s eyesight was average, but he could see a black bear dozing nearby.

A strange... sense of kinship?

Meanwhile, the black bears in Xiongshan were no longer sleeping. They were startled awake and were now warily and curiously sizing up Meng Lan.

Although black bears are sometimes called "blind bears," their eyesight is actually decent.

Seeing Meng Lan, it was also confused.

’Our body shapes are similar, so we seem to be the same kind. But if we are, why are you so special, with black and white fur?’

Meng Lan slapped the glass and looked around.

He wanted to go inside.

Unfortunately, the Xiongshan enclosure had large glass viewing windows that were smooth and offered no footholds. He couldn’t climb them.

Meng Lan’s actions had already attracted the attention of several black bears inside Xiongshan.

They stared at each other through the glass.

One of the black bears stood up on its hind legs.

When Meng Lan saw this, he also stood up, leaned against the glass, and started wiggling his butt.

Meng Lan was trying to show goodwill.

But the black bears inside had never seen a dancing bear. One of them roared twice and slapped restlessly at the glass, taking Meng Lan’s actions as a provocation.

When one black bear was triggered, all the others reacted.

One by one, they stood up, roaring restlessly, as if shouting: "You, come in here!"

They were animals, after all. Meng Lan could sense the uneasy atmosphere through their scent, and he was provoked too. He bared his teeth at them.

’You come out here!’

He slapped the glass, pretending to be fierce.

He even started showing off the kung fu Shen Xin had taught him, slapping the glass hard with his paws and then ramming it with his head.

Iron Head Skill!

Just as he was happily hopping around, he felt something like a mosquito bite on his butt.

Meng Lan didn’t even react and kept hopping.

But as he hopped, he sensed something was wrong.

The strength was draining from his body.

Meng Lan turned his head and finally saw Xu Haisheng and the others watching him nervously from a distance.

Ma Tao was holding a tranquilizer gun.

Given the way he was running wild, the chances of luring him back into a cage with food were slim. Zhu Fengmao made a decisive call: tranquilize him.

Fortunately, they had all the necessary equipment.

For some of the major routine check-ups at the Panda House, they would use anesthesia.

The anesthetic was pre-mixed and ready.

With one tranquilizer shot, Meng Lan’s first jailbreak adventure came to an end at Xiongshan.