Super Zoo-Chapter 398 - 394: All Talented People

In the zoo meeting room, after Suming conveyed the city’s opinions, a few veteran employees couldn’t help but complain a bit.

"Director, we’ve already reformed, and still, the city is nitpicking. In my opinion, we might as well hold a couple of ’civilized moral education’ discussion meetings, write up a report, go through the motions and be done with it."

"Exactly, when our profits weren’t good, they complained that we weren’t making money. Now that the zoo is starting to make some money, they want to promote civilized moral education? Isn’t this just a pure waste of time? With that energy spent on these empty gestures, shouldn’t we better use the time to work?"

The construction of spiritual civilization was not being carried out for the first time; it had happened every year, and everyone present was painfully aware that it was all empty formalities, just a waste of time.

Before the zoo was reformed, whether you worked or not, you earned the same fixed amount of money each month, it was all the same, just a matter of getting through the day. But now things are different, the zoo’s efficiency is improving every day, and personal work and performance are directly linked; you could earn more money by doing concrete work, so nobody wanted to waste their energy on spiritual civilization anymore.

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Simply put, time used to have no value, and working on spiritual civilization was a way to kill that time. Now that time is money, working on spiritual civilization would be a waste of life!

Suming patiently waited for a few employees to finish speaking before he gestured with his hand and said, "That’s not entirely true. No matter how the zoo has reformed, it still serves an educational purpose, and the building of a civilized and cultured society is still indispensable. Besides, that’s just how the national conditions are, and complaining won’t solve any problems. As entrepreneurs, we can’t expect the market and the government to follow our wishes; instead, we need to proactively solve problems. Moreover, it also helps with the future evaluation of the zoo as a tourist attraction."

When it came to evaluations of tourist attractions, Suming felt a bit indignant. National 3A, 4A, and 5A tourist attractions all have clear standards, item by item, thoroughly detailed. Yet many sites that didn’t meet the standards managed to achieve a rating. For instance, some ancient architecture in the provincial capital and some newly built large parks benefited from their cultural ambiance.

Although Suming spoke with a smile, his tone became serious as he continued. Having been a leader for a while, Suming naturally had an aura of authority without even being angry.

"Director is right about that. Running a business, how can we complain when we encounter problems? We are all veteran employees of the zoo, and we’ve witnessed the zoo’s step-by-step progression. Remember how difficult it was at the beginning? Have you ever seen Mr. Song or Mr. Su complain when they were faced with numerous challenges?" Mrs. Tong fully played the role of Party Committee Secretary.

"Hey, Director, we’re not complaining. We just want to do some practical things," the person who spoke earlier quickly explained.

"The library holds book events and offers free reading to help citizens increase their reading. So should we do an animal-themed event and offer free admission?" someone suggested.

This comment immediately attracted eye rolls. The library isn’t reliant on borrowing fees to survive with government funding, but the zoo lives off ticket sales; if we offer free admission, are the dozens of employees supposed to dine at your place?

The representative veterinarian from the medical facility slowly said, "How about I offer free medical consultations to visitors?"

The room instantly quieted down, and everyone’s expressions turned strange. Mrs. Tong was drinking tea at that moment and couldn’t hold back a spit-take, hastily wiping her mouth while apologetically smiling at the veterinarian, "I didn’t mean anything by it..."

The veterinarian’s skills in treating animals were reliable, but as for treating humans, let’s just drop it and not cause any unexpected disputes. Animals can’t speak; if they’re not cured or even die, they can only consider it bad luck, but humans are not as easy to deal with as animals.

After Mrs. Tong finished spitting out her tea, she pondered before saying, "The zoo goes to schools every year for science education, introducing animals to students. This is part of spiritual civilization construction. Mr. Su, Runhua Public School organized an outdoor expansion activity in the zoo last time, which was quite successful. How about we take advantage of Children’s Day and I make contact with the schools in the city to do another science education event?"

"Hmm, that’s not a bad idea," Suming nodded.

But it was just that—not bad. Every year, science popularization activities were carried out, and with the zoo’s spacious premises, it often hosted school students and company staff for outings or outdoor expansion activities. This was routine business for the zoo and hardly exceptional.

As someone who originated from the special forces, Mr. Dong was straightforward and assertive, saying, "Since the city is holding us up as a model, who knows how many eyes are watching us. If we’re going to do this, then we need to make a splash."

Suming actually admired this quality in Dong—he never shirked from a challenge, a true man who took things on with courage.

But to do something well, determination and courage alone weren’t sufficient, one also needed good methods.

The difficulty lay in standing out. The routines for promoting cultural and spiritual civilization were almost worn out, with institutions employing only a handful of tactics—for instance, the library’s Book Month, an annual event that would end with the release of news about an increase in reading volume and visitors…but to put it bluntly, no one cared about such insignificant news.

When it came to cultural construction, the zoo’s so-called cultural landscape was nothing to boast of.

Shuijun Lake was claimed to be the place where Cao Cao trained his navy, but even seven or eight-year-old children wouldn’t fall for that. Mingqing Residence was touted as architecture from the Ming and Qing dynasties, but no one would visit even with a ticket priced at thirty yuan; let alone Whisperwind Pavilion, purported to be Yangchuan City’s best ’retro viewing spot’... Since it couldn’t be profitably managed, it had been turned into a small restaurant.

The hot springs and the tomb of Chen Youliang at Lanruo Temple on the back mountain were relatively reliable, but they weren’t completed yet.

Since they were prepared to put effort into this and treat it as something serious, Suming naturally hoped for a tangible improvement, not just going through the motions to fulfill an obligation. Whether it was for knowledge dissemination or promoting the zoo, he didn’t want to waste time or money.

"Nowadays, campus bullying is a serious issue. How about next time there’s an expansion, I teach the students self-defense?" Dong’s eyes shone with a cold light.

"Cough cough cough..." Suming felt a chill in his throat and other vital parts.

He had seen Dong’s version of self-defense. As a former special forces member, Dong’s concept of ’self-defense’ was quite different from that of ordinary people. In Dong’s view, the best defense was offense—a move to incapacitate the enemy, either by killing or crippling, naturally served the purpose of self-defense.

Suming would never dare let Dong teach students those lethal techniques. Dislocating jaws and arms might be considered relatively mild, but throat locks, groin kicks, and eye gouging were Dong’s signature moves. Should students learn these, the consequences were unthinkable. Bullying would be gone, but the school might then have to deal with a group of cold-blooded young assassins.

After an afternoon of meetings, the staff expressed their views, with four or five suggestions being passable, though there were not many highlights.

When one door closes, another opens; while the meeting wasn’t very fruitful, Shen Yan’s newly established data analysis group made some progress in their work.