Guanhu Farmers' Market?
Of course, Fang Ye knew it well.
Often before the sky even brightened, Old Zhang would take the battered van there to purchase fresh vegetables, fruit, and meat needed for the zoo. The only bus that stopped at the zoo, route 35, had its penultimate stop at the zoo, and its fifth-from-last at the Guanhu Farmers' Market. The distance was quite close.
After some thought, he made a call to Meng Shi.
It was better to go earlier. The system said there was no danger to its life for 24 hours, but who knew who would buy it, and if its location changed it would be even more troublesome to find.
At this time, Meng Shi had a 30kg dumbbell in each hand. The heavy weights seemed as light as feathers in his hands, lifting up and down without his face turning red or his heartbeat accelerating, not even a slight hastening of his breath. For him, this weight was merely an appetizer.
The zoo's opening time was 8 a.m., and because it was located in the suburbs and didn't have many animals, there were originally no visitors coming so early. The animal keepers could leisurely sleep until 7 o'clock, or even get up at 8 o'clock.
But now, as the zoo gradually regained its popularity, some animal-loving visitors would indeed come at 8 a.m., so they had to get up earlier to clean the exhibition areas and feed the animals before the guests arrived.
Even though Meng Shi had come to the zoo, he still kept up his fitness routine, so he would get up a little earlier to exercise his muscles a bit.
He put down one dumbbell and picked up the phone with one hand, while still continuously lifting the other dumbbell, "Hello, Director."
"Are you up? I didn't wake you, did I?"
"No, I'm exercising right now."
Fang Ye immediately understood. Judging by the calm voice, he was probably doing some morning calisthenics or something, "Okay, let's have a meal together later, then come with me to the farmers' market."
"Oh, all right." Meng Shi didn't ask what for; it was nothing more than him being used as a manual labor tool. He hung up and continued his workout.
After Lan Li came to take over White Tiger, Fang Ye went to the cafeteria with Meng Shi for breakfast, then asked Old Zhang for the keys to the van and headed to the farmers' market.
"By the way, Meng Shi, can you drive?" After getting into the car, Fang Ye yawned, "I'd like to catch a quick nap."
If they didn't have the appropriate environment and just used a simple aquarium, that would be too degrading. This is a zoo, not a pet market.
However, after walking around, he hadn't heard the prompt, but he did see some lively crayfish waving their pincers non-stop at a stall, and he couldn't help but buy five pounds. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have spicy beer crayfish as a late-night snack?
After purchasing, he handed over the crayfish to Meng Shi and continued his search in the meat section.
The primary source of odor in the farmers' market came from the meat section, where tightly coiled, fragrant pig intestines were laid out in metal trays, making Fang Ye instinctively wrinkle his nose and put on a pained expression as he passed by.
Although he rather liked eating intestines, especially stir-fried ones, he had to admit that the smell of fresh intestines really wasn't flattering.
"Cluck cluck cluck cluck!" The chickens and ducks in the cages were noisily cackling, and pigeons were cooing and flapping their wings.
After passing through the poultry section, Fang Ye was puzzled. Looking ahead, all he could see were butchered pigs, cows, sheep, and the like, with no live animals in sight. So where was the protected animal?
His gaze swept over to the market's back door, and Fang Ye unconsciously walked towards it.
Passing through the back door, a small alley lined with shops opened up – a whole new world.
In fact, the products sold here were the same as those in the larger market outside, but there were fewer casual shoppers in the back alley, and more were purchasing for restaurants, buying entire pigs and sheep, and boxes and boxes of seafood and vegetables.
Most of them had already been reserved in advance, and there was none of the noisy haggling from outside; they just checked the orders and carried them straight to the vehicles.
Even the zoo, when preparing feed for the animals, had long-term partnerships with several shops here.
"Boss, want to buy some pigs? Come, take a look at mine – they're fat and big, with all the health checks complete!" A bare-chested, greasy pig trader seemed to notice Fang Ye was a new face and warmly called out to him.
Fang Ye waved his hand, the smell here was truly awful, and if not necessary, he didn't want to speak.
"Ding! A protected animal has appeared within a 20-meter range!"
Having just walked a few steps into the alley, the system prompt appeared, and Fang Ye immediately perked up, speeding up his pace, finally finding it after such a long search!