"Oh my, why are you crying?"
Realizing that Lan Li had actually been frightened to tears, Fang Ye indeed felt somewhat embarrassed.
He glared at the two sunbeam snakes that were eagerly drinking the spiritual water, "Look at how you've scared the girl!"
He picked them up and stuffed them back into the express box, then pressed a book on top of it.
Continue keeping company with the sponge, will you!
The sunbeam snakes were utterly confused: ???
Just minding my own business drinking water, who did I offend?
After Fang Ye put away the snakes, he turned to the door with a pleasant expression and said,"It's okay now, they are really put away this time!"
"Really, really?" Lan Li covered her eyes and sobbed with tears streaming down, "You can't lie to me anymore, Director!"
"Yeah, really!"
Lan Li, hearing this, had no doubts and lowered her hands. Seeing that the snakes on the table had disappeared and Fang Ye was looking at her with an apologetic face, she couldn't help feeling aggrieved again and wiped her tears, "Director, you are so bad! How could you lie to people."
Fang Ye sincerely apologized, "Sorry, sorry, I was wrong. Come on, don't cry, come here."
It was one thing to accidentally show Lan Li the snakes the first time, but the second time he purposefully lied to her about not having snakes, that was indeed a bit too much.
He gestured for Lan Li to come over, took a tissue and wiped her tears, then poured her a glass of water and handed it to her, comforting,"Don't cry, don't cry, you won't be cute if you keep crying. It's alright, the one just now was a sunbeam snake, non-venomous and docile, it doesn't bite."
With the water cup in hand, Lan Li sniffled pitifully, "It doesn't matter if it's poisonous or not, I'm scared of snakes anyway!"
Fang Ye humbly admitted his mistake and accepted her discontent, "Yeah, it won't happen again! Do you want to scare me back, or do something as a penalty, to make up for your hurt feelings?"
Lan Li felt a bit embarrassed herself, "Let's forget it, it's not that serious."
After comforting Lan Li, Fang Ye took the express box up to the quarantine area.
Reptiles, of course, also need to undergo quarantine checks.
Originally, the quarantine area wasn't prepared for snakes, but it was relatively simple, he just cleared out a room and put several large wooden cabinets inside, with each cabinet divided into many large and small compartments.
"Oh, I'll pick it up myself!"
After Fang Ye collected the express delivery, he went straight to the quarantine area to open it, murmuring to himself, "What have we got this time?"
Upon unpacking, he found a wooden cage with wire mesh, the bottom scattered with pieces of cabbage leaves. Through the mesh, he could see about a dozen white mice with pink tails moving around, standing and poking their heads through the meshes, sniffing around with twitching noses.
Well indeed, what had arrived were indeed "breads"—the kind meant for feeding snakes.
Just as the sunbeam snake had been residing here for a few days, it should be accustomed to life in this place and ready to start eating.
Although the white mice looked adorable, they could not escape their fate as food.
Therefore, in the zoo, besides fish and bugs, we generally feed the live preys backstage or after closing!
If visitors were to witness the feeding of meat, it would be pre-cut meat.
Mencius once said, a gentleman, in beholding animals live, cannot bear to see them die; upon hearing their cries, cannot bear to eat their flesh. Hence a gentleman keeps his distance from the kitchen.
Everyone has compassion, which instinctively makes people repulse bloody scenes.
Even though it's natural for animals to prey on others as a survival method, if children or people with heart diseases saw a lamb, whimpering, being torn apart by wolves, or a snake consuming a fluffy, cute white mouse, reminiscent of pet hamsters at home, could their psyche withstand it?
Someone with a heart condition might get an attack right there, while children would cry out loud, too frightened to ever come again.
Not feeding live prey in front of the visitors, apart from humanitarian reasons, another cause is not wishing for guests to classify animals into hierarchies. Rats, snakes, deer, tigers—they each have their place in the ecological environment; while one may be food for the other, none is superior.
Opening one side of the wire enclosure, three bolder mice immediately clung to the edges of the wooden cage, poking their heads out and taking in the fresh air outside.
As Fang Ye extended his hand, two retracted their heads, but the third, rather than retreating, climbed onto the frame, standing on its hind legs, turning its head to take in the view.
Its back bore several purplish-red bite marks, likely the result of unpleasant interactions with other mice during shipping, resulting in a fight.
Fang Ye picked it up by its tail, looked at it, and lamented, "Ah, such severe injuries from a fight, it looks like it won't last long. Since its time is short, it might as well contribute, and become food for the snakes."
After glancing around, he noticed another one that barely moved, pondered for a moment, "Hmm, this one... this one seems to have been internally injured in the fight, not moving at all, probably going to die soon too. Alright, you two it is."
The internally injured mouse tried to escape, but Fang Ye, with the merciless Hand of Noxus skill, snatched it up and replaced the wire mesh cover.
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