"Ugh... really not thinking of keeping two? I think they look pretty cute."
Facing Miaomiao's suggestion to add more chili powder, Ah Qing hesitantly asked.
Miaomiao dragged over two crocodiles, both chubby, with their short-snouted faces giving off an extra dazed and adorable vibe.
The academy's Harvest Festival, in a sense, was because students were on break, livestock unattended, and fields needed clearing for next year's planting and fertilizing, thus came the end-of-semester gathering on the last day.
But the Agricultural Research Institute didn't actually mandate that students had to completely clear the area; they could take home their raised animals if they wanted, or send them to be fostered as pets.
Senior students often left heirlooms for juniors after leaving school.
In Yunnan Province campus that year, who knew what powerful medicine was used by some genius senior from the School of Animal Science, training female elephants to consistently give birth to two elephant calves each time.
The elephant herd couldn't sustain them, so they could only be tossed into the School of Animal Science for temporary storage.
"No way, absolutely not! There are still several nests over there!"
Miaomiao's attitude was unusually firm, feeling words alone were somewhat hollow.
Unable to make Ah Qing and the others understand how vicious the crocodiles she raised were.
"Just watch!"
Miaomiao looked like she was ready to face death, taking out a small knife from the key ring and crouching down to untie all the ties binding the crocodiles' hands and feet behind them.
Out of instinct, Miaomiao retreated two meters, adopting a defensive posture with her arms crossed to protect her chest.
The freed crocodiles, after a brief consideration, had a cold glint flash in their eyes.
Suddenly, one crocodile locked its arms on the cement floor, drew strength from its hind legs to leap up fiercely, executing a high-speed mid-air death roll, charging straight at Miaomiao's abdomen.
Meanwhile, the other freed crocodile, using all four legs, wagged its tail at high speed, swiftly maneuvering behind Miaomiao for a mid-air death assault from beside her.
"Crap, combo attack—"
Seeing the crocodiles' impressive teamwork, crashing into Miaomiao, Momo's face showed astonishment, almost dropping her jaw.
"Help, help!"
Crushed under the crocodile, with her shorts nearly torn by the crocodile's pulling, Miaomiao curled up, calling for help.
Seeing the crocodiles' ferocity, Ah Qing and Momo were not in the mood to sit and watch, instead hurriedly advancing to pin down the fierce crocodiles full of wildness.
"Now you believe it! I told you, absolutely not to keep them. I've grown accustomed to their ambushes, but if I passed them to juniors, the scene could be indescribable."
Miaomiao composedly stood up, patted the dust off herself, and looked at the two crocodiles in surprise.
"Such powerful crocodiles..."
Ah Qing expressed amazement, never having seen crocodiles so aggressive, not even pure wild Yangtze Crocodiles had such a strong desire to attack.
Or rather, the probability of them breaking teeth on snails was higher than performing a death roll.
"Never mind them, where are the little foxes? Haven't seen the cute Huhu in several days."
Miaomiao dusted off herself, speaking with a face full of eagerness: "Brother Jiaojiao went out early this morning, said the little foxes were also hosting a banquet."
"Xiaolan? He's playing games in his nest..." Ah Qing, helping bind the crocodiles, showed a slightly odd expression and said:
"There's indeed a banquet, but we shouldn't need to join the fun because Xiaolan said their banquet is all locally sourced..."
"Locally sourced?" Miaomiao was stunned, instinctively glanced around the academy. This winter, although it hadn't snowed much, the northern winter was silent; not even two weeds in the flowerbed, how to source locally?
"There they are, see..." Momo clapped her hands and nodded, hinting Miaomiao to look down the campus road.
A chubby Tibetan horse bear, looking satisfied, walked out with a stainless steel bowl in its mouth, followed by four or five different types of Bear Race, waddling along the way.
They found a crowded area and sat by the roadside, clutching the bowl with their arms, banging on it beside the road, eyes staring directly at students.
Smaller pandas proactively approached, drawing students towards the Tibetan horse bear.
Watching the Tibetan horse bear banging its bowl, students helplessly rummaged their pockets, showing they had no money or food.
The Tibetan horse bear wasn't angry either, held the bowl up, revealing blue and green dual barcodes stuck to the bottom of the bowl.
[A penny is love, bears don't mind gifts; can you really bear to see bears starving, friend?]
Student: "......"
"Beep, five dollars received..." The student begrudgingly scanned five dollars over, earning a bear hug from the Tibetan horse bear.
"This..." Miaomiao wore a surprised expression, raising her arm pointing at herself, saying: "You're saying 'sourcing' refers to financial sourcing? They're fund-raising among students for their banquet?"
"Not quite exactly..." Ah Qing shook her head: "They're earning money to buy cola now, the main meal is the food we've barbequed..."
"Yip-yip?"
Ansheng walked out from the cafeteria, curiously looking at Ah Qing and the others, yipping: "What are you chatting about?"
Saying this, Ansheng casually grabbed a room-temperature iced cola from the supermarket's fridge.
"Miaomiao said she wanted to join your banquet." Ah Qing smilingly said to Ansheng.
"Our banquet? Our banquet is just using your ingredients, what's the difference." Ansheng jumped onto a chair, handing the iced cola to Ah Qing.
"Help me open the bottle, I can't open it myself..." Ansheng lay comfortably on Ah Qing's lap.
"Almost died of thirst this morning, the old man from the opposite dorm was arguing again."
During the days Ah Qing was busy with exams, Ansheng didn't run around, but he was quite busy too.
Ever since a group of old men arrived at the academy to assist Medicine Spring Mountain Lord with supercomputer research, the academy hasn't been quiet.
If not a power outage here, then the transformer exploded.
Even the Treasure-Seeking Mushroom that Ah Qing brought back wasn't an easy task, releasing black sticky substances with a foul stench if left unattended for twenty-four hours.
While cooking feces might be an exaggeration, the terrible smell could still sting one's eyes.
However,
After Ansheng's in-depth study, wielding the Triangular Hammer by the Treasure-Seeking Mushroom's neck, some minor issues were resolved through strong and effective communication.
The skull aside was persuaded, although the intelligence of the Treasure-Seeking Mushroom hadn't increased, its display capabilities had enhanced, and the punitive measures for passive slackness were removed.
Certainly,
What most frustrated Ansheng was that the Imperial Capital's Security Bureau sent videos intermittently, asking if they had found the right Huhu.
Ansheng couldn't fathom what kind of image he had in the Security Bureau's minds.
Day after day, doing silly fox stuff, if it weren't for being part of the Fox Race himself.
If chat info were seen by others, they'd surely think of him as a furry fanatic, sending him to a gay bar.
"Wow, Momo just across is watching you." Tang You, bored, surveyed the surroundings, suddenly spotting some School of Animal Science students across the supermarket on the road.
A leading male student, holding a mighty crocodile turtle, hesitantly gazed at him with roommates and buddies beside him seemingly encouraging him.
Though unable to hear the conversation, according to past practice, it's likely an attempt to give Momo a gift, using the Harvest Festival's surplus as a pretext, trying to make a known face.
"Should be watching you..."
Momo rolled her eyes, huffed lightly, cheeks showing slight jealousy, clearly displeased, eaten up with her own envy.
"I do have a boyfriend..."
"Didn't he run off with a foreign girl?"