The Yong River, as the main waterway of Ningnan City, plays an extremely important role in the entire water system of Ningnan, including but not limited to drinking water and agricultural irrigation.
It was already nighttime, but there were still many citizens cooling off and playing in the water by the Yong River, with quite a few people swimming in the river.
However, what they didn't notice was that in the dark waters, a massive creature was moving through the water.
A pair of dark golden eyes was fixated on them.
"Damn, how did we end up at the Yong River? This waterway actually connects to the Yong River."
Looking at the familiar scene before him, Yang Lin immediately recognized where the saltwater crocodile was.
But precisely because he knew this, he was even more surprised.
West Rainbow Zoo was at least seven or eight kilometers away from the Yong River, yet that underground waterway had completely connected the two places.
This also explained why that undercurrent had brought so much garbage - it had all come from the Yong River.
And right at that moment, someone on the riverbank carelessly threw a bottle in front of the crocodile.
"It's all because of you people who don't care about the environment, and those kids swimming in the river - someone drowned just a few days ago, and here they are swimming again."
"Fatty, go out and scare them!"
At Yang Lin's command, Li Xiaopeng's massive body, which had been hiding in the river water, immediately surfaced.
As luck would have it, a naked little boy who was swimming landed right on top of it.
"Huh? Why is there such a big rock here?"
The boy curiously began touching it, until he saw a pair of goose egg-sized, gleaming eyes.
The next second, a terrified scream rang out across the water.
"Mom! There's a monster!"
Following his shout, all the Ningnan citizens cooling off by the Yong River saw a creature the size of a small van slowly crawling toward the shore.
Instantly, these people scattered like they'd seen a ghost, and those in the water were even more desperate, wishing their parents had given them flippers.
In less than five minutes, everyone in and around the river had fled.
Soon after, news of a water monster in the Yong River spread throughout Ningnan City.
In the following months, no one dared to swim in the Yong River, and drowning incidents became nonexistent.
Yang Lin was unaware of these subsequent effects, as he was currently directing Li Xiaopeng to search slowly through the river water.
After realizing this was the Yong River, he had a pretty good idea of where to investigate.
The only things that could cause large-scale pollution were sewage treatment plants and large chemical factories.
He only needed to search for these two on the map, and several relevant results quickly appeared.
Among them, the one he thought most likely was a large chemical plant called Ming Chemical Company.
With a general direction in mind, Yang Lin quickly had Li Xiaopeng find several sewage pipes buried under the riverbank in a bay area.
Even from over ten meters away, Yang Lin could see the polluted water mixed with various small particles continuously flowing from the pipes.
Just thinking about this water seeping into his zoo's artificial lake through the underground water system made his blood boil.
"These people have truly lost their conscience."
"They're capable of doing such horrible things that will harm future generations. No, I must report them."
After his anger subsided, Yang Lin immediately had Li Xiaopeng return to the zoo along the original route.
He then took out his phone, found the environmental protection department's email address, and wrote a detailed report several hundred words long.
Of course, he knew this report might not be effective.
Because Ming Chemical Company created billions in tax revenue for Ningnan each year, such a behemoth couldn't be dealt with just through a single report.
"Looks like I'll need to prepare a backup plan."
Realizing he might not be able to complete this task in the short term, Yang Lin began plotting his next moves while preparing to get some good rest.
The previous night's poacher incident had left him without sleep, and he was already struggling to stay awake.
After washing up, he lay down in his bed and fell into a deep sleep.
Meanwhile, the day's events at West Rainbow Zoo began to rapidly spread online.
Topics related to the water monster maintained high popularity.
At this time, a video posted by a Ningnan City video user quickly caught netizens' attention.
Because this video showed another water monster, and from the footage, this one appeared even bigger, longer, and seemed to even have feet.
If it had just been one such video, some netizens might have questioned its authenticity, but as more and more local Ningnan netizens posted similar videos, the monster's existence became undeniable.
"Whoa, how did another water monster appear? Didn't one just get eaten during the day?"
"And it's in Ningnan again - when did Ningnan become the city of water monsters?"
"The one during the day was an alligator gar, who knows what kind of fish this one is."
"This time it probably isn't a fish, it surfaced above water."
"Indeed, it doesn't look like a fish, more like some kind of large reptile."
"Could it be a crocodile? Doesn't West Rainbow Zoo have a huge crocodile?"
"Are you suggesting that huge crocodile from earlier today broke out and went to the Yong River to scare children?"
"I don't think purely natural environments can produce such large creatures. The one at West Rainbow Zoo is only that big because the director took good care of it. How could a wild one in the Yong River grow so large?"
"Maybe it mutated?"
"You think this is Radiation Island? We don't have that kind of radiation."
"I've decided to make a new movie called 'The Yong River Monster' - any investors interested?"
Before long, topics about the Yong River monster's popularity soared.
By the time Yang Lin woke up the next morning, netizens had already drawn approximate sketches based on the captured monster footage.
When Yang Lin saw these drawings on his phone, he nearly burst out laughing.
"This is clearly just Godzilla, netizens really have unlimited imagination."
After this reflection, Yang Lin suddenly felt a flash of inspiration.
And right at that moment, Chen Kexin came running into Yang Lin's administrative office.
"Cousin, cousin, there's someone outside with a bag asking for you."
"They said something about an injured protected animal."
Hearing Chen Kexin's words, Yang Lin didn't think twice and rushed straight to the zoo's entrance.