Super Zoo

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This large group of foxes, after a rough count, seemed to be close to two hundred. Suming simply couldn't understand why foxes, which usually have no more than a dozen or so in a group, would have such an enormous family. Could it be that they had lived for several generations in this underground town, proliferating into a huge clan?

But that didn't seem to make sense either. If they had lived underground all this time, some animal characteristics would inevitably have degenerated. However, the foxes in front of him looked quite normal.

Perhaps it was an unsolvable mystery.

Suming was too lazy to think about it and bent down to pick up the long-eared fox in the red outfit that he had found first. He held it by the ears, brought it to his chest, and tapped its moist little nose with his thumb, saying, "From now on, you're their leader. I'll give you a name. Seeing as your ears are long and you seem intelligent, with a rather sneaky look to you, I'll call you 'Big-eared Thief.'"

The long-eared fox didn't understand what 'Big-eared Thief' meant; it just listened as Suming called it that, squealed twice with its eyes squinted, as if to agree.

When the little guy wasn't screaming on purpose, its voice was quite pleasant, damn it. But when it let out those terrifying screams like before, it was absolutely horrifying. Even Suming had almost peed himself the first time he heard such a scream.

Zhao Yun, unable to make heads or tails of what he was seeing, chuckled and said, "What are you doing with so many foxes, taking them home to stew?

"To raise them in the zoo, or let them roam in the back mountain with the dogs. This ancient site will definitely have to be 'handed over to the country' in the future. Suming has no use for keeping it; once protective excavations begin, these foxes definitely won't be able to stay here any longer. It's best to bring them to the back mountain for now, since that place is also a wild environment."

Suming rubbed Big-eared Thief's large ears and remarked, "If Chengcheng likes them, I'll give her a couple to take home as pets."

"She would definitely be thrilled, just afraid her mother wouldn't agree. Zhaoqian is timid and scared of these furry things," Zhao Yun laughed. "But if her mother sees these foxes, whether she decides to raise them or not, she'll definitely start clamoring to buy a fox-fur coat again."

"That's not very environmentally friendly. Next time I go to the zoo, I'll pluck some feathers from a peacock to make Mrs. Zhao a peacock feather coat."

The two of them cracked a few jokes and felt much more relaxed now that there didn't seem to be anything particularly dangerous left in this underground complex.

Suming and Zhao Yun, following the pack of foxes, investigated several large houses, but didn't find anything of particular value. Most of the furniture was decayed beyond repair, though there were a few vases and pots from the Ming and Qing dynasties.

As Zhao Yun had said earlier, this underground complex might have been a residential area from a hundred years ago. Overall, it represented a tremendous cultural treasure and could be studied for insights into Ming and Qing culture, but it didn't have any particularly valuable individual artifacts. Even if they took whatever they wanted, they probably could only make a few hundred thousand at most, which wasn't very significant.

As a party member, Suming was now quite aware. Nowadays, to make money, have a future, and live comfortably, there's a six-word mantra: listen to the party, follow the party! He would never do anything to offend the party or the state.

Besides these, in some of the houses, they found several skeletons. It was impossible to tell if they were male or female, young or old.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Suming felt a slight stirring in his heart, emptied his backpack, and packed the bones into it before returning to the edge of the pool.

The Yangtze alligator was still lying obediently in the pit. The group of foxes that had accompanied them were particularly envious when they saw this enemy of the alligators, scratching and clawing at it incessantly.

The alligator's skin was thick and hard, difficult to penetrate even with bullets, let alone the claws of a few small foxes. While it couldn't be injured, it was very annoyed by the scratching. Unfortunately, its big mouth was tightly bound by tape, and it couldn't move, so it just closed its eyes in frustration, pretending nothing was happening and taking on the approach of 'out of sight, out of mind' as it played the shrinking turtle.

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Suming dug a big pit in the ground, poured all the bones from his backpack into it, and then covered them with dirt. He put his hands together and gave a bow. No matter who these skeletons were in life, now that they were dead, Suming did not wish for them to be displayed like exhibition items for people to gawk at. He decided to let dust return to dust, soil to soil, and buried them in a pit. It was, after all, a fateful encounter, even if centuries apart. As for whether they would be dug up by "experts" later, that was no longer his concern. It was enough that he had shown his respects; he didn't need to insist on anything more.

Over there, Zhao Yun had also nearly finished exploring. Two streets, a total of more than sixty Ming and Qing buildings, most of which were fairly intact, but would definitely need protective repairs, otherwise, it might not be long before a large-scale collapse of the houses here would occur, which would truly be a shame.

The three of them were ready to leave the cave, having Su Meng climb out first along the climbing rope, and then planned to hoist up the crocodile, the fox, and the like.

As he was "packing" the crocodile, Big-eared Thief zipped out of Suming's arms, bit his pant leg, and started pulling him towards the street. A whole bunch of foxes were also running in the direction they came from.

"What's the matter? Don't want to go with me?" Suming asked with his spiritual power, and it seemed like Big-eared Thief wanted to make a trip back 'home' first.

With so many foxes living here, there was definitely a den somewhere. What Big-eared Thief referred to as 'home' was actually just a fox hole. Suming chuckled to himself, thinking it's not like they were humans moving houses, needing to take furniture along; it's just a fox hole, could there be anything worth holding onto? Probably just some food.

"Alright, alright, let's go home first." Since Suming was not in a hurry, he followed Big-eared Thief down the street.

After walking about several dozen meters, he saw a stone stele more than a meter high standing between two households. The foxes skirted around the stele and then vanished from sight. Suming followed and found behind the stele a hole about forty to fifty centimeters in diameter, which the foxes had used to slip into their den.

Zhao Yun followed and was surprised, "Huh, how did I miss this hole just now?"

With no light here, relying only on flashlights, and the hole being behind the stele, it certainly was not easy to find. Plus, as an archaeologist, Zhao Yun's first instinct upon seeing a stele was to study the inscription, not to consider that there might be a large hole behind it.

"What's written on the stele?" asked Suming, who was semi-illiterate in this regard, pointing at the traditional characters on the stele that didn't have any punctuation marks.

"It seems to be about the battle of Poyang Lake, the glorious deeds of Emperor Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang defeating Chen Youliang's six hundred thousand navy." Zhao Yun said.

Suming laughed, "It seems the tradition of flattering the leaders in our country has a long history. Even a small village would erect a stele to suck up to the emperor. Is it worth it? It'd be more practical to flatter the county magistrate."

While saying this, Big-eared Thief popped its head out of the hole with something in its mouth. After coming out of the hole, it spit the object out, held it up with its front paws, stood up on its hind legs, and presented it to Suming as if offering a treasure.

Suming reached out to take it, but Big-eared Thief hugged it to its chest and refused to hand it over, staring at Suming with its dark, shiny eyes.

Suming was stunned for several seconds before he burst out laughing. Out of beef jerky, he offered an Oreo sandwich cookie instead, which Big-eared Thief grabbed with its mouth before finally handing over the object it had been holding to Suming.

Suming took it and saw it was a round, mud-covered object. After wiping it with his sleeve, it turned out to be a pearl the size of a thumb!

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PS: Huff, huff, huff, and here we go again!