Super Zoo

At 3:30 am, in the Intensive Care Unit of Yangchuan City First People's Hospital.

The room was unusually quiet, the exhaust fan rotated steadily, and Zhou Jin lay on the hospital bed, drifting into dreams with the help of sleeping pills.
Your adventure continues at empire

A tiny shadow fluttered in through a gap in the exhaust fan, unnoticed, buzzed around the room, and finally landed on Zhou Jin's IV tube. Then, a tiny, sharp stinger extended from its tail and pierced into the plastic IV tube.

Under Suming's deliberate arrangement, Er Gouzi had administered only a limited dose of bee venom, which was not enough to kill immediately. Zhou Jin's breathing became slightly rapid in his sleep, his complexion gradually turned pale, and then he sank back into a deep slumber.

The next morning, the court's verdict notification arrived.

"How much do I need to pay?"

With trembling hands, Zhou Jin slowly picked up the verdict. As he made out the series of numbers on it, his heart skipped wildly, as if an invisible sledgehammer had struck him hard in the chest. His eyeballs bulged out, and he sat shocked and stupefied on the hospital bed.

Seeing Zhou Jin's strange reaction, the court personnel instinctively took a step back, retreating to a safe distance before cautiously asking, "Mr. Zhou, are you, are you alright? Do you need me to call a nurse...?"

Before the words were fully out, Zhou Jin suddenly let out a loud scream, his head thrown back as he spewed a large spray of blood like a fountain, gushing for several seconds before he toppled over rigidly backward onto the bed.

With eyes wide open and the hand holding the verdict limp at the side of the bed, the paper fluttered down to the floor like a falling leaf.

"Somebody help! Nurses, doctors, come quickly!"

"Beep..." The line on the heart rate monitor flatlined. By the time the doctor arrived with a group of nurses rushing into the room, Zhou Jin's heart had stopped beating, and he lay on the bed with unseeing eyes.

"What happened here, what did you say to him?" the doctor asked, turning to the court personnel.

"I didn't say anything, I was just delivering the verdict!" said the court personnel, picking up the verdict from the floor in shock and handing it to the doctor.

When the doctor saw the string of zeros on the verdict, the corners of his mouth twitched involuntarily. Not to mention a patient already in poor health, even a healthy person might be scared sick at the sight of such a huge sum to be compensated.

"Notify his family and his place of work."

A young nurse shook her head, "He doesn't have any family members; he is the leader of their company."

"What about friends?"

"I haven't seen him with any friends either."

…

A week later, Suming's Taoyuan Fisheries Company was officially established. Zhang Siming proved to be very efficient; while it typically took at least a month for others to register a company, Zhang Siming managed it in just a week.

Furthermore, the matter of compensation was finally settled.

The other fish farmers divided up Zhou Jin's company's deposits and cars, but that still wasn't enough. Suming had a stroke of genius, using a portion of the fish bred by Zhou Jin in the Huating Reservoir to offset debts. Each household would go and salvage their own share, with a few dozen tons of fish per family compensating for the payout they owed.

Suming himself took over the Huating Reservoir and a few old boats upon it as he had hoped, only waiting to sign the contract with the Parks and Recreation Bureau. With Wang Jian She covering him from above, nothing could possibly go wrong. When Zhou Jin's original contract term ended, Suming would also be able to take over the contract at the original price.

Nangong Yan gained considerable attention in subsequent investigative programs. In the minds of the viewers, she was a character who had set things right. Recently, she was assigned many tasks by the TV station, working from morning to night without even having time to congratulate Suming.

The key was her appeal, a beautiful young girl filled with a sense of justice—who wouldn't like her?

However, Suming was too lazy to celebrate anything at the moment and instead stood in front of a columbarium wall at the Yangchuan City Cemetery with Toufa, as they called Er Gouzi.

In front of them was a new spirit tablet with a photo—it was of Zhou Jin.

The hospital's conclusion on Zhou Jin's death was somewhat vague, suggesting something like 'rage causing a heart attack' or 'relapse of an old illness.'

But Suming was clear that Zhou Jin's death was absolutely related to the venom injected by Er Gouzi. Without Er Gouzi, Zhou Jin might have coughed up blood, but he might not have died. Those toxins accelerated the blood flow in Zhou Jin's body and contained a small, lethal element.

However, he was certain that the hospital would never conduct a detailed examination. For one, Zhou Jin had no relatives and was a criminal: his death was just another death, no family members would cause trouble. Even if an inspection did reveal a slight amount of toxins in Zhou Jin's body, the hospital wouldn't publicize it—it would be tantamount to admitting a medical accident had occurred.

As for police intervention in the investigation, that was even less of a concern. No one could determine that it was Suming's doing based on a tiny hole in the IV tube hardly visible to the naked eye.

Besides, Zhou Jin's health had been poor ever since the dolphin had bumped into him; he often coughed up blood, and doctors had repeatedly advised him to rest. He never listened and insisted on stirring up trouble everywhere. Now, after suffering a series of blows, he finally couldn't hold on and died in a way that was very 'reasonable.'

Suming, his hands clasped behind his back, waited until Toufa had finished offering a stick of incense before speaking indifferently, "You, too, were his servant for a while. He had no relatives, and you found me and asked me to pay for his funeral; that's considered fulfilling your duty."

"Ah, I never expected it to end this way." Toufa sighed, "I understood long ago that I shouldn't have gone against you, Mr. Su. It was Zhou Jin who wouldn't listen, and he brought this outcome upon himself."

Suming was noncommittal about these street-smart words, only saying, "If you had understood this from the time you released those crocodile gar, you wouldn't have suffered so much afterwards."

"You even know about that?!" Toufa was shocked.

"My family has a tradition of training animals; where there are animals, there's nothing I don't know about. I noticed you entering the zoo that night. Do you think it was a coincidence that the dog chased after you? As for those crocodile gar, I found them rather interesting, so I kept them as pets. They're still in Shuijun Lake now," Suming said casually, tapping away at Toufa's conscience.

"Mr. Su, I really understand my mistake! Let me off the hook, and I will surely repay you in the future," Toufa said.

"If you want to repay, why wait for the future?" Suming asked in return.

Toufa was taken aback, "What do you mean? I don't have money right now."

"I don't care about your petty cash." Suming kept his hands behind his back, "You've been following Zhou Jin for so many years; you should be quite familiar with the Yangchuan City fish market and Zhou Jin's few out-of-town distributors, right?"

"Yes, yes!" Toufa nodded vigorously, "I'm pretty familiar with the out-of-town bosses, and I was in charge of the Yangchuan City fish market. My word meant something there."

"Good, I have two things for you to do."