Interstellar Zoo No. 1 - Chapter 28.2

Chapter 28.2

The medical equipment was daunting – over sixty wires and three to four dozen components made it headache-inducing just to look at.

Mu Ling watched as Brother Xiang plugged two transmission lines in the wrong way, clicking her tongue and shaking her head. “Let me do it.”

Wei Li and Colonel Song both turned to look at her.

Mu Ling rolled up her sleeves with disdain. “I’m probably the only science major in this room. You three jocks, step aside.”

Wei Li, Colonel Song, and Brother Xiang: “…”

Mu Ling specialized in pharmaceutical research, and they often had to fix their own equipment when it broke down. While she might not understand everything, she knew medical devices like the back of her hand.

The installation that had stumped the three men for half a day took Mu Ling just a glance at the manual to complete perfectly. When she powered it on, it worked flawlessly.

“Clap, clap, clap.”

Wei Li applauded, showering her with praise. “Director, you’re incredible! Is there anything you can’t do?”

Mu Ling felt embarrassed, waving her hand dismissively. “Don’t say that. It just happens to be my specialty. No big deal.”

Wei Li continued, “You’re a veterinarian, a manager, a beast fighter, and now you can even install equipment. Having someone as talented as you running Bi Ke Zoo is truly our blessing.”

Mu Ling started feeling smug, her pride showing, but then caught herself. Eyeing Wei Li suspiciously, she said, “Last time you buttered me up like this, you made me pay the bill. You’re not trying to make me pay for something again, are you?”

Wei Li froze, sheepishly admitting, “The vaccine’s been ordered. Payment is due within twenty-four hours.”

Mu Ling: “…”

It really was about money.

With a blank expression, she paid the invoice Wei Li forwarded and promptly distanced herself from him. What a money-draining man!

With the mental assessment device installed, it was time to start testing. Mu Ling walked to the ward area, looked around, and then opened Qilin’s cage.

Qilin was already asleep but opened its eyes to look at her when it heard Mu Ling enter.

Mu Ling went over and hugged it first, then checked the wound on its back. Seeing that the wound had stopped bleeding, she kissed its eye and said, “Good, get up now.”

Qilin yawned and nuzzled its head against the bedding.

Mu Ling patted its bottom again, and only then did Qilin stand up. It stretched first, then followed Mu Ling out.

Outside in the hall, the three men were standing quite far away. Although Qilin wouldn’t attack them when Mu Ling was present, if they got too close, it would make Qilin uncomfortable.

Mu Ling led Qilin to the instrument panel on the ground. She pointed at the panel and said to Qilin, “Stand on this.”

The golden tiger lowered its head to sniff the panel, then tentatively extended a paw and stepped on it.

“Come on,” Mu Ling said again.

This time, Qilin stepped on it all the way and then looked at Mu Ling a little confused.

Mu Ling pressed on its bottom, making it sit properly. Then she took two wires, attaching one below Qilin’s left ear and one below its right ear.

After attaching them, Mu Ling nodded to Xiang Bie.

Xiang Bie pressed start, and instantly, red wavy lines began to fluctuate on the black screen of the assessment device.

The entire assessment process would take five minutes. Two minutes in, Colonel Song quietly said to Wei Li, “Last month, when Pimi had its final mental assessment, its brain nerves were already severely damaged. Throughout the entire testing process, it struggled like it was mad. It took more than a dozen of us to hold it down.”

Wei Li looked at Colonel Song in surprise.

Colonel Song just kept staring intently at the Qilin. “Retired war beasts should theoretically be even more restless, but it’s not resisting at all.”

As he spoke, Colonel Song looked towards Mu Ling. He knew all this was because of Director Mu’s presence. She was truly mysterious.

“Beep.”

With a crisp prompt sound, the five minutes were up.

Mu Ling glanced at the instrument. It would take another hour for the backend to calculate the results, but it could do that on its own while they proceeded with the next assessment.

“Good girl.” Mu Ling opened a packet of meat paste, squeezing it out like a cat treat to reward Qilin for being so well-behaved during the assessment.

Next up was Lightning. Lightning proved even more docile than Qilin, though considerably clingier. When it sat on the testing platform, it had to lean against Mu Ling, so she sat down on the floor, cradling its head in her arms while gently stroking its neck.

After Lightning’s test was complete, all that remained was waiting for the results.

An hour later, both reports were ready.

Brother Xiang had already pulled up the mental assessments from when Qilin and Lightning first entered the zoo. With the reports side by side, the differences in the data were stark.

On Tuesday evening, Zhou Qin followed his usual routine, heading to the classroom for evening self-study after dinner.

The room wasn’t very full yet, and before the bell rang, many students were still chatting or browsing their light-brains.

After finding his seat, Zhou Qin also began browsing his light-brain. As he scrolled, he stumbled upon an unusual video. It was thirty seconds long: the first ten seconds showed a mental assessment report from eight months ago, the next eighteen seconds displayed a report from 10 PM last night, and the final two seconds captured a golden tiger sitting on the testing platform, electrodes attached to its head, looking at the camera in confusion.

Only when the video ended did Zhou Qin realize what he was seeing. Checking the account name – sure enough, it was “Bi Ke Zoo Official Account.” Posted just one minute ago.

Zhou Qin’s eyes widened, and he immediately replayed the video.

Though the two reports had slightly different formats, they contained the same basic information: mental fluctuations, error margins, mental strength, wave values, and stability scores.

Zhou Qin studied the reports repeatedly, his frown deepening with each review.

Zhou Qin looked back and forth between the two reports several times, his brow furrowing more deeply with each look.

At this moment, a classmate who had also come across this video suddenly exclaimed, “Damn, it hasn’t improved!”

Someone asked, “What hasn’t improved?”

That classmate replied, “Qilin! The mental assessment from eight months ago showed its nerve damage value was 53.1%, now it’s 70.5%. Not only has it not improved, it’s gotten worse!”

“Qilin’s mental assessment results are out? Bi Ke Zoo’s Qilin?”

The classmates immediately opened their light brains to look.

If a small classroom could cause such a commotion, imagine the evening starNet…

Under Qilin assessment report video, the comment section had already exploded. No one had expected such a result.

Everyone had almost assumed that Qilin’s ability to be so close to humans must be because its neural trauma was healing. But the data told them otherwise. Qilin’s mental state was even worse than when it first arrived at Bi Ke Zoo. If that was the case, why did it display such unusual gentleness?

It simply didn’t make sense.

In less than ten minutes, comments broke six thousand, and real-time hot searches were climbing rapidly. After another ten minutes, the term ﹤Qilin’s Mental Assessment Report﹥ reached the top of the starnet hot search.

At the same time, many war beast experts who had been following Bi Ke Zoo also spoke out: “Neural damage is irreversible damage. This has long been a definitive answer in veterinary science. We originally thought there might be a miracle, but it seems there isn’t after all.”

Other experts held different opinions: “Who says it’s not a miracle if there’s no self-healing? Eight months ago, the damage value was 53.1, and after eight months, it only increased by less than 20%. It seems like a lot, but only those who have done data surveys know how terrifyingly low this increase is. Many war beasts that retire due to neural damage see their damage value skyrocket from 30% to 90% in less than three months, and this is not an isolated case, it’s the majority. But Qilin has been at Bi Ke Zoo for eight months and only increased by 20%. This precisely shows that a wild environment is indeed beneficial for the mental health of war beasts, at least slowing down their death rate.”

Faced with different expert opinions, netizens couldn’t take in anything. They had only one thought: Even if the death rate has slowed down, won’t it still die? If it increased by 20% in eight months, does that mean after another eight months, Qilin’s damage value will exceed 90%? By then, will Qilin still be alive?

The possibility that “Qilin might die” suddenly hit like a heavy hammer, making countless netizens who had already become fans of Qilin feel dizzy and disoriented.

Netizens couldn’t accept it. In Zhou Qin’s classroom, it was now eerily quiet.

Until after a while, a female classmate’s voice broke the silence. “They… they posted another video… Bi Ke Zoo.”

The classroom was silent for a moment, then suddenly became noisy. Everyone, including Zhou Qin, quickly clicked on Bi Ke Zoo’s profile icon and indeed saw that they had just posted another video.

This video was similar to the previous one, also showing assessment reports, but the time was different.

﹤Assessment time: 7 PM today.﹥

The subject of assessment was still Qilin.

But the assessment data was different. Qilin, which had a damage value of 70.5 yesterday, now had a damage value of 69.8.

At the end of this video, there was also a clip filmed by Mu Ling.

In the clip, Mu Ling pointed the camera at three assessment reports on the table and slowly said, «Last night, we conducted our first mental assessment on Qilin. The results showed that its neural trauma was already very severe. So starting from last night, we decided to have it take medication long-term to stabilize and alleviate neural damage. This kind of medicine is quite common in the market, and our zoo’s veterinary station also had some in stock. I started giving it a dose last night, and today it’s been taking it three times a day as prescribed. We just did another mental assessment, and the results show that Qilin’s comprehensive damage value has decreased slightly. From now on, we will do a mental assessment every day to see how much improvement there is after one course of treatment. In any case, let’s keep working hard. Treating illness is not something that happens overnight. Our goal is to bring down the damage value of retired war beasts.»

The video ended there.

The starNet, which had been boiling for more than ten minutes…

「I apologize for my wife’s habit of pausing when she speaks. I’ll talk to her about it. Um, I need to go change my pants now.」