As Yang Lin watched Li Wei suddenly turn around, he hadn't yet figured out what was happening when he abruptly felt a black shadow lunging straight at him.
Instinctively, he jerked his head to the side.
Thud!
With a dull sound, a mass of filth appeared on the wall behind him, accompanied by a foul stench.
Looking at this disgusting mess, Yang Lin was dumbfounded.
If he hadn't reflexively dodged, that filth would have hit him square in the face, and he might have even tasted it.
The very thought made him nauseous.
"Li Wei, you bastard, how dare you throw poop at me!" Yang Lin shouted at the chimpanzee in the cage.
But no sooner had he finished yelling than he heard a gruff voice.
"What did you call your grandpa, you little brat? Call me that again, and I'll throw more poop at you!"
Upon hearing these words, Yang Lin's eyes widened in disbelief.
If he wasn't mistaken, that voice had come from the gorilla in front of him.
He then remembered the Beast Language Mastery skill the system had mentioned earlier.
"Can I really understand what it's saying?"
Puzzled, Yang Lin cautiously addressed the chimpanzee in the cage again:
"Li Wei, was that you talking just now?"
However, as soon as he finished speaking, the chimpanzee in the cage replied irritably:
"Who are you to call me Li Wei? By human standards, your grandpa here is 80 years old."
"Go get me a cigarette, or I'll throw more at you."
As he spoke, the chimpanzee picked up a dried piece of ape dung and made a throwing motion.
Seeing this, Yang Lin quickly ducked into the nearby zookeeper's office.
When he returned, he was holding a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.
Tentatively, he slipped the cigarettes and lighter through the gaps in the cage.
To his surprise, the chimpanzee Li Wei immediately grabbed them.
What shocked Yang Lin even more was how skillfully Li Wei took out a cigarette and lit it with the lighter.
In no time, he was puffing away inside the cage, occasionally even blowing smoke rings.
"These cigarettes are no good. When old Yang was here, I'd sometimes get to smoke 60s. This pack probably doesn't even cost 10 yuan."
"This..."
Yang Lin never imagined that this balding old chimpanzee was actually a seasoned smoker.
No wonder his father had been looking listless these past two days since going abroad – turns out he was going through nicotine withdrawal.
Watching the chimpanzee's practiced moves, a spark of inspiration flashed through Yang Lin's mind.
The next second, he opened his camera and started filming Li Wei in the cage.
After finishing the recording and adding some background music, he casually uploaded the video to TikTok.
This incident finally confirmed for him that the skills granted by the system were indeed real and effective.
But as far as he could tell, the Throwing Mastery talent didn't seem to have much use, except for flinging ape dung.
"Let's go check out the other animals."
Leaving the chain-smoking chimpanzee behind, Yang Lin soon turned his attention to its neighbor, the gibbon Li Qiang.
As an animal that used to perform high-wire acts in a circus, it had developed a fear of heights and depression after leaving the circus, spending each day doing nothing but staring into space.
However, when Yang Lin cast the Light of Insight on it, its talents surprised him greatly.
[Talent 1: Master Mimic (Green) Activation requires 1 talent point]
[Talent 2: King of Heights (Blue) Activation requires 2 talent points]
[Talent 3: Spiritual Brilliance (Gold) Activation requires 5 talent points]
[Talent 4: Elder's Wisdom (Gold) Activation requires 5 talent points]
[Talent 5: Brewing (Gold) Activation requires 5 talent points]
......
Apart from one green and one blue talent, all its other talents were golden, making it even more impressive than the chimpanzee from earlier.
But obviously, Yang Lin could only choose the green Master Mimic talent for now.
Thinking this, he immediately allocated one talent point to it.
The next second, the gibbon Li Qiang seemed to sense something and turned its head.
Suddenly, Yang Lin felt as if he was facing not a gibbon, but an elderly human.
"Grandpa Qiang, it's me, little Yang. Yang Guang's son, Yang Shu's grandson. How's your depression, old timer?"
As soon as Yang Lin finished speaking, an aged voice came from the cage.
"Little Yang, go fetch your Grandpa Qiang a bottle of cola. Grandpa's thirsty."
Although he knew these animals all had their quirks, Yang Lin hadn't expected this old monkey, who had lost half its teeth, to have a taste for carbonated drinks.
But remembering the cigarette-smoking chimpanzee from earlier, he accepted it.
"Wait right there, I'll go get it for you."
Without any delay, Yang Lin soon returned from his manager's office with a can of cola.
After handing it to the gibbon, Li Qiang skillfully popped the tab and tilted its head back to drink.
As it drank the cola, there was no trace of its depressed state to be seen.
Witnessing this scene, Yang Lin immediately took out his phone and started filming.
After finishing the recording, he uploaded it to the West Rainbow Zoo's official account, just like the previous video.
However, to his surprise, while he was posting the video, the gibbon in the cage seemed to be mimicking his actions, picking up a brick from nearby and scratching at it.
Noticing this, Yang Lin had a sudden idea and produced a spare phone from somewhere.
"Grandpa Qiang, come over here for a second. I'll teach you something new and exciting!"
Five minutes later, looking at the gibbon that had quickly become proficient with the smartphone, Yang Lin's face showed a satisfied expression.
After awakening their talents, these animals had shown obvious improvements in both physical abilities and intelligence.
The gibbon's quick mastery of the smartphone was proof of this.
Of course, Yang Lin's reason for teaching it to use a smartphone wasn't just out of his own amusement, but for his upcoming plan to breathe new life into the zoo.
He planned to use this strategy to revitalize the seemingly hopeless animal park.
With this in mind, he couldn't help but turn his gaze towards the other areas of the zoo.
And just as Yang Lin was imagining his grand business blueprint, the two animal videos he had uploaded earlier were rapidly going viral on TikTok.