The wolves in the zoo didn't have the strict hierarchical structure typical of those in protected areas or the wild.
However, just by looking at Qingfeng's tucked tail, one could see he was displaying submission to Chu Tingwu, acknowledging himself as the subordinate.
But it hadn't started this way—
Qingfeng was a wolf with some cleverness and a bit of cunning. Chu Tingwu had suggested to everyone that Qingfeng's unusual behavior might just be an act, and she explained her logic.
During this time, after sitting down at Chu Tingwu's command, Qingfeng seemed to realize there was still a glass barrier between them, and Chu Tingwu couldn't reach through to hit him. So, he stared at the girl opposite him for a while, slowly arched his back, stepped backward cautiously, and then carefully howled at her.
Chu Tingwu turned her head.
The grey wolf's howl stopped abruptly.
Watching this scene, Li Yun fell silent for a moment: "Should we try returning Qingfeng to the wolf enclosure?"
The wolf enclosure was multi-leveled - the lower level allowed visitors to watch the wolf pack playing in the water through glass, while the second floor offered an overhead view of the enclosure's landscape without any glass barrier.
At first, Qingfeng just lay dejectedly in a corner, but after Chu Tingwu went up to the second floor, she stretched and said: "Meow~"
Cat language?
But Qingfeng responded - he lifted his head in apparent shock, stared at Chu Tingwu above for two seconds, then rushed off to eat. Not only did he eat, but he also began seriously playing with various enrichment facilities, quickly integrating into the group... Watching this, Li Yun felt like she was seeing an overweight person who, upon learning of impending danger, decides to start exercising desperately to outrun wild beasts.
But would starting exercise today really be in time?
Since discovering the illness in the golden snub-nosed monkey, the zoo had been conducting unified checks on all animals and increased the frequency of regular physical examinations. Now that Qingfeng was better, they decided to check the whole wolf pack one by one. Qingfeng had just been returned only to be herded back into the cage, but when he saw Chu Tingwu through the cage door, he tucked his tail.
Even Li Yun thought this kid was being a bit spineless.
Has she ever beaten you up for you to be so afraid of her?
Chu Tingwu was clearly just a girl under sixteen, though she exercised regularly, had muscular arms, could do many one-handed pull-ups in succession, had a proportionate physique, looked like she could kick an adult flying, could catch nearly two-meter-long fish with her bare hands... Sorry, being afraid of such a girl was actually quite normal.
Now that they had figured out Qingfeng's "illness," Chu Tingwu's work was complete. She took a half-day off, and since she had no important classes in the afternoon, she naturally didn't plan to return to school.
After receiving payment, Li Yun wanted to treat Chu Tingwu to a meal to build their relationship, but the young girl declined.
"I don't need to pay for a zoo ticket, right?"
Li Yun smiled, "Of course not. Would you like to tour our zoo?"
She wanted to assign a staff member to accompany Chu Tingwu, but the young girl declined again.
...Because Chu Tingwu wasn't actually planning to tour the zoo.
She carried her backpack, brought San Wu Wu with her, and walked to the sixteen-meter-high rock wall from before.
It was Monday, with very low visitor numbers, and there were no pavilions near the rock wall, so no one had passed by for half a day.
Chu Tingwu took out her climbing shoes from her bag, then tossed the bag aside, asking San Wu Wu to watch it.
She started climbing!
System: "=="
It knew it.
As for safety measures - this human-cat cub believed that someone who could insert their fingers into solid rock to stabilize themselves probably didn't need much in the way of safety measures.
Well, she had tested it first by making finger holes in the rocks at the bottom.
Now there were four finger-sized holes left in the stone.
The first few meters were still easy to climb, just without needing to clip safety ropes to anchor points. While climbing, Chu Tingwu could feel her muscles "awakening" - the climbing movements activated muscle groups rarely used in ordinary movements, and this sensation of full body control was truly addictive—
She felt she could not only jump on the rock wall but also perform even more dangerous and wonderful movements.
There were no spectators at this time, and San Wu Wu, tired of looking up for so long, simply lay down against Chu Tingwu's backpack, unusually taking a lazy position.
The rock wall split the sky in half, and Chu Tingwu was approaching the sky above.
She encountered that protruding corner again, but this time, she didn't choose to traverse around it. Instead, she looked up to observe the position, mentally planning her next moves.
She pushed off the rock with her toes, giving herself repulsion force, then jumped up, reaching out both hands to grab the most protruding sharp corner.
Now she was hanging in mid-air, supported only by her hands gripping this rocky corner.
This corner had no insertion points for anchoring, no way to leverage force, and even sloped downward - she was holding her entire body weight with just her finger strength.
A gentle breeze blew at this height.
According to Chu Tingwu's plan, the moment she grabbed hold, she should have "pushed" herself up, pulling up her lower body, first hooking her feet on the rocks above for stability, then flipping her whole body up.
But in that moment of hanging and swaying, she actually abandoned this plan.
Because the sensation of her entire body suspended in air, secured only by her fingers... was truly thrilling and exhilarating.
She took a deep breath, turned her head, and found herself making eye contact with a tiger on the distant lion and tiger enclosure's artificial mountain.
Though they were far apart, after two seconds of eye contact, the Siberian tiger changed from lying down to standing up, as if it had spotted a predator capable of threatening itself.
Five seconds later, Chu Tingwu suddenly leaped onto the rock, passing this "difficult scoring point," and continued upward.
The Siberian tiger, standing on top of the artificial mountain, let out a long roar that startled the photographing tourists.
Chu Tingwu had already climbed to thirteen meters, her movements becoming increasingly graceful, while her mental mapping of routes became faster and faster.
The difference between free climbing and indoor facilities is that no matter how much you prepare for outdoor conditions, you never know what will happen until you actually climb.
Wild beasts, insects, shifting rocks, and crumbling soil - anything could happen, and each climb could be different.
At least this time, Chu Tingwu realized that in rock climbing, she was actually a "slow starter."
Many sports have these slow starters who need time to get into their rhythm, to focus completely, before they can perfectly demonstrate their full abilities.
Chu Tingwu was the same - after her body completed a true warm-up through climbing, her muscles and brain became fully active and alert... What was at the top?
Chu Tingwu braced against the rock, first lifting her left foot up, then her right, half-kneeling as she exhaled, and saw the side wall of the panda enclosure.
Above the rocks was a small path, and after climbing over the anti-climbing railing, one could enter the panda enclosure's gift shop. At this moment, a couple who had just finished visiting the panda enclosure came out hand in hand, staring blankly at Chu Tingwu.
This young girl was standing on the other side of the railing, next to which was a large sign: "No Climbing!"
Chu Tingwu: "=="
She ignored the railing and instead used her arms to brace against it, turning around—
Half the zoo lay beneath her feet. In the distant wolf enclosure, wolf cubs were playing and roughhousing; in the nearby monkey house treetops, a golden snub-nosed monkey was spacing out while hugging a branch; and the tiger from the lion and tiger enclosure was no longer visible, leaving only an empty artificial mountain...
The view she currently saw was the same as what other visitors passing along this small path would see.
But Chu Tingwu smiled inexplicably.
She believed she had seen something different.
The staff from nearby shops seemed to notice the situation outside and rushed out, saying, "What are you doing? You can't climb over the railing, it's very dangerous. Come back here!"
Worried that Chu Tingwu might be a student attempting something extreme, the staff member didn't dare approach her directly, only urging her to come back while quietly messaging security.
But to his surprise, the young girl turned her head, held onto the railing, and smiled at him with curved eyes, "I didn't climb over."
"You can check the security cameras. I didn't climb over from this railing," she said, "Besides, there isn't actually any 'No Climbing' sign below."
No climbing sign?
While the staff member was still confused, he saw Chu Tingwu's figure suddenly drop lower.
Not only had she not come back, but she seemed to be going down!
The staff member, no longer concerned about anything else, rushed forward to grab her, while a nearby couple also exclaimed and moved to help.
However, when they leaned over the railing, they saw Chu Tingwu clinging to the rock face, slowly moving downward. When she was about two meters from the ground, she simply turned and jumped down.
She landed steadily without rolling forward, merely taking out a tissue from her bag to wipe her hands, then called to her cat: "Let's go."
Staff member: "..."
The girlfriend from the couple: "Ah! She's that one! The good Samaritan who can climb with bare hands! I saw that video...?"
Forgetting everything else, she waved and called out: "Hey, wait—"
Chu Tingwu: "?"
A box was thrown down from above, containing a golden snub-nosed monkey plush keychain, obviously just purchased from the shop, still unopened.
The girl said with a grin: "This is for you!"
Like a little monkey, you climb so fast.
Chu Tingwu: "=v="
She raised her hand and made a simple heart shape with her thumb and index finger.
While getting paid for work was nice, receiving a thoughtful gift from a chance encounter made her even happier. After returning to school, Chu Tingwu told everyone about her work, but they weren't interested in the adult negotiations, instead focusing on how cute the monkey keychain was.
"It's ugly-cute."
"Golden snub-nosed monkeys are already the cutest monkeys. If you think they're ugly, what about the monkeys on Mount Emei?"
"Those are bandits!"
Yes, they even started arguing about monkey aesthetics.
Of course, besides that, everyone was curious about how Chu Tingwu had resolved the Qingfeng situation—
Chu Tingwu: "I beat him up several times in my dreams, and after getting beaten, he became well-behaved and stopped pretending."
Everyone: "Hahahahaha..."
See? Even when telling the truth, no one believed her.
When the animal behaviorist White asked her about it, she gave the same answer. White gave her an odd look for a while before finally handing her his business card and inviting her to observe wolf packs at the Red Rock Reserve in mid-July.
Chu Tingwu was interested, but: "I'm not sure if I'll have make-up classes in July."
Even though it would be summer vacation by then, the competition class might still be in session.
White: "?"
"But that's the Michel wolf pack... Child, you'll definitely regret it if you don't go. The pack should have major developments this time. Michel is quite old now, and this year might be the last time they're known as the Michel pack..."
White mumbled on about the wolf pack's story while Chu Tingwu stared blankly at the real-time translation provided by her system, feeling like she was studying English despite being outside school.
Finally, White asked Chu Tingwu to give him an answer before mid-June. He didn't mind that she was just a high school student without any reputation. The world is vast, and there are always naturally gifted people—perhaps some are born with the ability to communicate with animals, even if they can't explain why themselves.
It was already late March, and Chu Tingwu was daydreaming in class. Early April was—
The biology competition teacher announced from the podium: "I've submitted your registration forms for the biology preliminary competition. The school registered everyone together, and the exam is on April 16th. Our province's preliminary exam is relatively late, and you need to pass it to participate in the provincial exam. In other words, if you can't even pass the preliminary, you're truly out after the first round..."
Yes, the biology competition preliminaries were starting in full swing.
From now on, students would face round after round of exams. Those in the competition class would need to focus more on the competition, squeezing time from other subjects and rest periods.
Chu Tingwu had also been registered, as she was a member of the class.
But even after learning of her successful registration, in the biology teacher's view, Chu Tingwu remained unchanged. She would check the day's teaching content in advance, and if she felt she had mastered the topic, she wouldn't attend class. She only completed homework for topics she didn't understand, and often didn't submit it—as if someone else was helping her review and explain.
However, since she was registered, although she didn't think she could go far—others had one or more years of additional study time than her—Chu Tingwu still prepared properly.
For instance, in the dream classroom, she would lie on the enlarged Three-Five-Five's back while working on half a set of biology competition problems.
Halfway through, Chu Tingwu would inexplicably start playing with Three-Five-Five.
She had to declare that dream resonance was the system's best update: lately, Three-Five-Five had been looking at her with annoyance, having entered the parenting phase where mothers want to avoid seeing their mischievous offspring, but in the dream classroom, the system habitually adjusted Three-Five-Five's size.
Three-Five-Five stared at the miniaturized cub for a while, and maternal love reignited.
Chu Tingwu: "..."
Chu Tingwu: "=v="
Buried in the tortoiseshell mama's belly, she accidentally forgot what problem she had just been working on.
Speaking of which, today should also have dream class... but that's not important.
*inhales*
The system didn't monitor her too strictly; it was even more indulgent than Three-Five-Five. It was only through self-control that Chu Tingwu didn't turn into a house-destroying kitten.
However, during this period, the system was indeed busy!
Early April... early April was important.
Early April was the cub's birthday!
Chu Tingwu was born on the third day of the third lunar month, with her birthday falling on April 11th. The system, celebrating the cub's birthday for the first time, was on high alert, burning out several server rooms in America while trying to think of the perfect birthday gift.
But in human terms, it was like "Although nervous, also very happy, feeling joy in every day of preparation and anticipation." Of course, the system didn't have "happiness" in its code, but it felt this description was accurate.
["Yes, yes, I think so too!"]
One person in their small group chat (?) exclaimed.
She had been holding her Husky with one hand and a tablet with the other, but now threw aside her drawing tablet and typed rapidly: "Boss, I just got some new inspiration, I'm going to sketch out the storyboard—"
Her ID in the group was "I Swear Vengeance Against Drawing," and she used the same ID on the New Plum app, where she was also the moderator of the "Chu Tingwu and Three-Five-Five" personal super topic. Yes, those viral Chu Tingwu fan art pieces from long ago were drawn by her.
Because her ID was too long, fans affectionately called this artist "Master Tian," "Teacher Daitian," or "Mama Daitian," or would exclaim when new art was posted: "Tian, my husband!"
Master Tian was a corporate slave by day, only able to grind out artwork at night. She had been following Chu Tingwu for a long time, watching her livestreams daily after becoming a fan, being one of those highly devoted followers, and she even collected materials from other sources.
Such as Fallen Phoenix City official news...
Jin City news...
And Jin City Fifth High School newspaper.
"Although this is my first time following a real person, isn't this way of releasing materials a bit ridiculous?"
When Master Tian was first pulled into the group by the system, he complained, "I find Chu Tingwu's materials quite interesting, but she lacks a dedicated account to manage and summarize them. Plus, her live broadcast frequency is too unstable, which can easily lead to fan attrition."
As both a "career fan" and a "mom fan," Master Tian was quite frustrated with how Chu Tingwu's account was being managed.
The system responded, "But Tingwu likes to stay low-key. If she hadn't been recognized, she wouldn't even want people to know she made the news. Would a dedicated summary account be inappropriate?"
You Zhenzhen chimed in, "Actually, operation work still needs to be done. Right now, all the news is good, but there are also many people who don't like Chu Tingwu. If someone buys a topic to spread rumors, having a strong official account would be much better."
It was only after she started managing the company that she realized—Chu Tingwu trusted her too much, directly handing the company over for her to practice with. You Zhenzhen encountered troubles, although they were mysteriously resolved each time, the impact of various rumors and business competition made her grow rapidly.
The system said, "It's okay, I can take care of the rumor-mongers before they act."
You Zhenzhen: "?"
Master Tian: "?"
The system: "Alright, I'll go do it=="
—The name of this three-person group was "A 16th Birthday Gift for Chu Tingwu," yes, the system had pulled these two people into the group.
Of course, a gift should be something the recipient is most lacking, but the system was surprised to find that besides Disney, whenever the baby needed something, it had already bought it, leaving it with nothing to give.
But no worries, needs can be created!
The system scouted around the crowd and quickly identified two groups: Chu Tingwu's "friends" and Chu Tingwu's "fans," both of whom loved her.
Then it picked out representatives—both representatives happened to be preparing birthday gifts—so the three of them formed a group chat.
Master Tian was quite excited when he joined the group: "System teacher, save me, I can't think of how to draw the birthday greeting. Chu Tingwu's recent live streams are too few, I can't find inspiration from old videos... Do you have any unreleased video footage, hehehe..."
The system: Better kick him out instead.
You Zhenzhen was quite calm, greeted Master Tian, and after getting to know each other, said, "I'm planning to hold a discount event and a birthday celebration event through the app, do a round of official account raffles, give the employees a bonus, and then send Tingwu some custom cat knee pads."
She had actually contacted the system earlier, as she often had to communicate with it about company business. After talking about Chu Tingwu's birthday gift, she proposed doing high-end customization.
Chu Tingwu liked sports, so sending knee pads and elbow pads would definitely be a hit. You Zhenzhen also had the money, so she found a high-quality brand and had cute cat patterns custom-designed on the knee pads based on Chu Tingwu's cat-like transformation.
What's wrong with fancy knee pads for a skateboarder? It's just to deepen the public's existing impression.
She arranged the gift and only needed to oversee the details of the app event.
Currently, the 365 Cat Census APP has not only become a paradise for cat owners to show off their cats and cloud-suckers to indulge in cat videos, but also cooperates with many small organizations dedicated to cat rescue and adoption, providing them with channels to find adopters.
Of course, the APP also has a shopping panel, gradually refining categories, mainly focusing on cat-related pet supplies and cute pet-themed peripheral products. Due to reliable partners, the quality has always been stable, and the products are both affordable and good, so although the APP hasn't gone viral, its reputation is quite good, gradually becoming top-notch in a certain category.
On the other hand, Master Tian had also figured out what to do, just lacking time.
Master Tian: "Of course, I'll draw a birthday hand-drawn animation. I've already drawn over ten pictures, but the duration isn't enough, ah... I feel like I'm going to die..."
The system: "You're a bit unhealthy, don't stay up late anymore."
Master Tian: "Not that kind of death!"
In the end, only the system was left.
Master Tian felt a bit sorry: "How about we collaborate on a hand-drawn animation, Master System? I can draw but I'm not good at editing videos, you should be good at that, let's co-submit it?"
The system: "..."
The system: "QWQ"
But that still wouldn't be its gift!
Master Tian was very optimistic: "As long as the intention is there, don't put too much pressure on yourself. The main point of giving gifts is to make everyone happy."
She was quite happy producing content, and now joining the group made her even happier—this meant she could not only receive praise from fellow fans but also have her videos seen by the main subject, and even push the operation around the main subject, right, Master System?
The system: "I don't feel pressure."
It wasn't human, after all, so it didn't have the concept of "pressure."
At most, it would blow up a few foreign servers when "thinking."
This state continued until April 8th, when Chu Tingwu finished her classes and returned home, where Coal Ball from Teacher Yuan's house and Cao Meng came over to play with her.
In recent days, Chu Tingwu had been using dream resonance to pull Coal Ball into her dreams for exercise, of course, exercising in dreams wouldn't lose weight, just help form the habit of exercising.
But so far, it seemed the habit hadn't been formed; Coal Ball had become more and more sycophantic towards her. Seeing Chu Tingwu, Coal Ball even brought its favorite ball toy to her, meowing to indicate it was a gift for her.
...Hoping she would play by herself and not involve it.
It was a gift and also a bribe!
The system: Gift?
The system controlled a drone ball to roll up, chasing Coal Ball all over the house.
Chu Tingwu: "?"
Although she could now understand the emotions of humans, animals, and other living beings, she still couldn't directly read the emotions of arthropods, microorganisms, or code-based beings, so was the system helping her make Coal Ball exercise?
On April 9th, Chu Tingwu suddenly felt the atmosphere around her become a bit special.
After pondering for a while, she realized when she got to school: "The smell of stray cats has decreased?"
She was very familiar with the scent left by stray cats nearby, and after fully mastering her body, she could also communicate with other cats by leaving such scents.
Some cat owners are more likely to attract stray cats because they might have the "cat-comforting" scent of their own cats, so other cats would follow the scent.
These scents would naturally fade over time, but cats with fixed territories would come back to renew them after a while.
Chu Tingwu noticed that some scents had decreased, as if the cats that left them hadn't returned for a while.
Chu Tingwu was very vigilant: "Is someone specifically catching cats?"
The system replied a few seconds later: "It's okay, they've been taken for sterilization."
Chu Tingwu: "Oh..."
She set the thought aside and only returned home after evening self-study, just as she met Sanwulu at the school gate. She noticed a taxi parked not far away, with the driver lowering the window to glance at Sanwulu and then at Chu Tingwu.
Seeing Chu Tingwu cross the road to the neighboring community, the driver regretfully raised the window.
Chu Tingwu: "?"
She just felt something was off.
This vague sense of weirdness continued until the next day when Chang Yile came over and patted her on the shoulder: "Chu Tingwu, isn't your birthday tomorrow? No competitive biology class tomorrow, right? But Chang Yixin and the others still have to go to class—"
"Hehe," she gestured, "so we'll come celebrate your birthday with you."
With the school's natural museum, they had the privilege of not having to attend evening self-study if they finished their homework early.
Chu Tingwu suddenly understood.
She first replied to Chang Yile: "Then come to my house tomorrow night? I'll make a cake myself."
Chang Yile: "Then I'll come to mess around!"
Chu Tingwu also brought along the birthday gift she had prepared, of course, high school students don't usually exchange overly expensive gifts, just handwritten cards and a novel about cats.
And the others could go to Chu Tingwu's house to eat cake after class.
After replying to Chang Yile, she asked the system, "Aren't you secretly preparing something too?"
System: [Struggling.jpg]
Before the system screen turned into flickering electronic snow, Chu Tingwu leaned on the desk and chuckled, "Alright, I won't ask. I'll just wait until tomorrow."
That said, Chu Tingwu didn't expect that "tomorrow" would give her such a big "surprise."
When she woke up, she first saw an APP push notification. The 365 Cat Census APP's birthday congratulations activity had directly pushed the promotional ad to the birthday girl herself.
Besides that, there were also birthday wishes from others. Some sent them at exactly midnight, while others weren't too concerned about the time, and some might not have known it was her birthday before but happened to have the APP and her contact information, so they hurriedly came to wish her.
No matter which kind, Chu Tingwu responded to each one.
As for the system, it didn't have the habit of sending messages at midnight—because Chu Tingwu had a healthy sleep schedule, she was already asleep by then, and there were no classes in her dreams, so the system said its gift would arrive tonight.
"So you're giving the gift tonight, what's this then," Chu Tingwu looked towards the pavilion at the entrance of the neighborhood, "a bonus?"
Yes, the pavilion was occupied by staff in uniforms from a nearby pet hospital, fully equipped with cat-catching devices, and they had a slogan—
"To celebrate Chu Tingwu's 16th birthday, all stray cats in the city can come here for free sterilization, the sterilization fees have been reimbursed!"
Chu Tingwu went up to ask, and learned that this activity had actually started a few days ago. Jin City's cat-related public welfare organizations and individuals engaged in public welfare activities had all received messages from the system, and through the system's organization, they began to efficiently catch stray cats for sterilization and adoption.
All expenses and additional overtime pay, cat-catching fees were reimbursed by the system.
This day was Chu Tingwu's birthday, but it was also the sterilization anniversary for many cats.
Chu Tingwu: "……"
The staff member also recognized Chu Tingwu and smiled at her, saying "Happy Birthday."
When she arrived at school, she met Chang Yile, who also had a complex expression, while Tang Zhe was gesturing and telling them about the slogan he saw: "This should be similar to the ancient 'amnesty'… when the emperor got married or celebrated his birthday, there was an amnesty, so it's normal for Chu Tingwu's birthday to have a 'city-wide sterilization'!"
Chu Tingwu: "…………"
She felt that her name would definitely be followed by a phrase like "gave free sterilization to all city cats on her birthday."
……It's not bad, right?
When she saw them, not only Tang Zhe, Chang Yile, An Shiyan, and other classmates also smiled and wished her a happy birthday. Chu Tingwu had never heard so many "Happy Birthdays" in her life as she did today. Even Teacher Yuan came to the classroom and, before class, said:
"Is there a little cat in our class celebrating a birthday today?"
Everyone laughed.
Chu Tingwu: "=="
Teacher Yuan waved, "Happy birthday, since it's your birthday today, I won't call on you to answer questions."
Chu Tingwu: "Then after the morning break, I'll treat everyone to a cake."
This wasn't homemade, just ordering a big cake now, everyone could share it without taking too long, just for fun.
During the morning break, there were also people coming to wish her, from the neighboring Class 2, from the competition class, and from teachers and security guards. One student Chu Tingwu didn't know well also came specially, not only to wish her a happy birthday but also to thank her.
"My cat suddenly fell ill yesterday, luckily you and your car…" the student took a deep breath, "Anyway, happy birthday, always be happy! Good people will definitely be rewarded!"
Chu Tingwu: "?"
What car?
After asking, the student was puzzled, "Didn't you know?"
"Your family seems to have bought shares in a ride-hailing company, the logo of the APP has updated with a cat head these few days," she recalled, "It seems to be a pre-event activity, currently only in Jin City, you can now book 'pet-friendly rides'!"
Currently, whether pets can be taken in cars is a bit unclear. If it's a sealed bag, it's fine, but sometimes using an airline crate, the cat might dirty the car, so there might be refusals.
Whether to accept the ride entirely depends on the driver's willingness.
But after the APP update, it seems the official platform gives drivers subsidies. If the car interior is damaged, as long as there's a recording and photos, they can get extra subsidies.
And rides with pets will be slightly more expensive, the extra cost is shared by the platform and the pet-carrying user, including cleaning fees.
Because it's slightly more expensive, most drivers have switched to the "pet-friendly" logo. For pet owners, it's spending money for peace of mind and assurance of getting a ride in emergencies. For drivers, as long as they're not allergic to pet hair, adding a logo won't lose money.
This humanized update is currently being piloted in Jin City, but the news has already spread on the internet, with netizens asking why it's only in Jin City—it could be rolled out nationwide.
Even the ride-hailing APP's stock price and download volume have risen, with netizens praising it as a "truly successful marketing."
Even if it's just marketing, it's good to achieve some of it, this is a humanized update!
And today, the promotional slogan of the so-called pre-event finally changed, the APP boldly put up the slogan "Happy 16th Birthday @Chu Tingwu and 3550, always be happy! Believe us, no matter when or where, you and your cat will never be refused!"
Netizens: "?"
Netizens: "??"
Some privately messaged the official account, wondering why they started doing birthday wishes promotions—
Is the next step to arrange a car formation video, spelling out "Happy Birthday" with cars?
How much for that.
Quite a show.
The official account didn't reply but directly updated a post, shyly saying:
"Chu Tingwu is our little shareholder, this app update 'pet-friendly rides' was also strongly promoted by her, we hope this update can be her birthday gift! We also hope all cute little animals taking rides can be well received!"
—Yes, the official acknowledged it.
This update was for Chu Tingwu's birthday celebration, of course, this is a permanent update, it won't be canceled after the birthday.
Netizens: "??"
Ms. Chu Tingwu, your birthday is really quite a show.
Could you celebrate your birthday 365 days a year? If it's too tiring, you can take a break on leap years.
Thus, with the fermentation of online public opinion and the deliberate promotion of the ride-hailing APP, the hashtag #Quite a Show Birthday# quickly rose to the hot search. Netizens clicking in were first shocked by the wealth displayed by the hot search, then started discussing the "showy birthdays" they had heard of.
However, flower gardens, yacht parties, private jets are someone else's, but the benefit of taking cats and dogs in rides is something they can get, so even though Chu Tingwu herself didn't use her account to post, many still flocked to the previous posts on her New Plum account to wish her.
Chu Tingwu quickly updated a post:
"Thank you."
This post with only two words and a punctuation mark quickly gained tens of thousands of likes and retweets, and seemed to be heading towards the million mark.
Tianshi updated her video just in time for the kids to play with their phones during their lunch break, and she frantically called Chu Tingwu to come and watch.
She was genuinely, truly satisfied with her hand-drawn animation! Sob!
System Lord, your passion and technical skills are too strong... She only drew a hand-drawn animation, yet somehow hit the jackpot... It's worth it!!
-
Tianshi originally couldn't find any inspiration, so she had to dig out some old content to draw a few classic scenes. It wasn't until the System approached her and informed her of the "tortoiseshell mom and Chu Tingwu kitten" setting.
Tianshi: "!"
An exclamation mark appeared above her head.
After vigorously playing with her Siberian Husky for half an hour, Tianshi began to work on her illustrations.
She decided to create a fairy-tale style hand-drawn animation with the theme of a big cat and a small human, and the character proportions would be more exaggerated—
Chu Tingwu and the surrounding city, background buildings would all be of normal size, but Sanwulu would be drawn exceptionally large, towering like a building, allowing tiny humans to roll around on her back.
A Godzilla-sized cat walking between buildings, with a human sitting on her back gazing at the clouds, feeling the breeze and clouds brushing past, serene, beautiful, yet lonely.
This was the feeling Chu Tingwu gave her, and it was the main trait that drew Tianshi into the story.
Without the System's intervention, Tianshi would have probably made a one-minute short hand-drawn animation, mostly static scenes with close-ups, and then found some pure music or foreign language music—so that the audience wouldn't be distracted by lyrics while watching.
But she never expected that after sending out an "invitation for joint submission," she would receive a brand-new video!
The video started with her illustrations, just with added small animations like blinking and hair being blown by the wind. But after the music kicked in, the black-and-white drawings were infused with color, gradually becoming vibrant, transitioning from 2D to mature 3D.
Tianshi: "?"
If it weren't for knowing that there couldn't possibly be such a giant cat in the world, she would have thought it was a real-life footage!
Tianshi recalled the System's introduction... Right, the System was not only Chu Tingwu's account partner and close friend but also seemed to have a low-profile but awesome special effects team. Wasn't that team responsible for the recent American fantasy special effects movie?
...How could her hand-drawn animation possibly deserve to get top-tier movie-level special effects for free?!
The video was still playing, and the background music wasn't just random. Tianshi found it was an unfamiliar song, and the sound sources seemed to come from Chu Tingwu and Sanwulu, of course, synthesized.
In the quiet video, the cat's meows of different tones formed the music, while the small human on the cat's back sang.
Some of her lyrics were in Russian, some in Chinese, and others were softer, lower meows, like a kitten's voice, blending with the big cat.
The lyrics were simple:
The sky is good, the clouds are good, today's weather is really great; the wind is gentle, the cat is gentle, I'm singing while lying on my mom's back; there's no one in the city, but I'm not sad, nor lonely, meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow...
At first, Tianshi didn't understand what the "meow meow meow meow" meant, but after listening once, she realized it was the cat singing in cat language... And what the cat language lyrics meant, only Chu Tingwu would understand.
She felt a bit confused and amused: "So this song is—"
Yes, it was, this song was for Chu Tingwu, including this hand-drawn animation. Whether other humans could understand it or not, what did it matter to the little cat?
The hand-drawn animation's texture shifted between special effects movie and 2D, but it never felt abrupt. Each pattern seamlessly connected with the movie-level visuals. Chu Tingwu in 2D looked like the embodiment of the theme "dream," while her 3D form didn't feel out of place at all.
This made Tianshi, the artist herself, feel... her drawings were like clouds, and the little girl in the scenes passed through them, stirring the clouds into sweet cotton candy, then setting the cotton candy free.
Tianshi: "I even feel like my drawings look better..."
In her lifetime, could she ever save enough money to commission the System to help with another video?
This light-hearted hand-drawn animation didn't have much content, just a happy little girl. Finally, she opened a birthday present on the cat's back, and countless stars burst out of the gift box. The sky transitioned from day to night, with all the stars in the sky being her gifts.
The video ended here.
Tianshi even felt a bit of disappointment.
After watching, she refreshed her video's comment section, took a deep breath, and opened the window to let her fermenting brain cool down—
"Damn!"
She lived in the city center of Sea City, and the window directly faced the CBD. The huge advertising screen across the street was now playing the video she was very familiar with.
Tianshi's hands trembled as she opened the group chat, finding that all the groups she were in were discussing this: the System had put Chu Tingwu's birthday congratulatory video on the core advertising spots of most cities, and now many people thought it was a special effects blockbuster's promotional video.
Well...
Even after seeing the birthday blessing content, they still thought it was a promotional video for a special effects movie with the theme of "giant cat" and "birthday girl."
Tianshi: "..."
She trembled as she opened the System's personal interface and privately messaged: "Comrade, you're so capable #bowing#bowing"
System: "?"
The System put this "baffling private chat" aside, currently checking its database non-stop—Chu Tingwu was making a cake with Chang Yile—it checked several times and found no issues, but still couldn't help but continue checking and looking at the status of the "gift."
Chang Yile was mainly responsible for assisting and sneaking snacks, and had eaten quite a few raw materials.
Then realizing she might not be able to eat the cake after eating so much, she went to the living room to do push-ups.
Chu Tingwu: "Hmm?"
Chang Yile: "I need to burn off what I just ate so I can stuff the cake in later!"
She immediately broke down after three push-ups, only managing two.
Chu Tingwu: "So your exercise is lying on the ground meditating?"
Just as she finished piping the cream, the doorbell rang.
"Your delivery, please sign for it."
Chu Tingwu took it and found it was a very small box, and a same-city delivery, but the sender was a garbled code.
Not knowing who it was from, she took the package to her bedroom, planning to open it after dinner.
Chang Yile didn't follow in, although casual in demeanor, she was actually a very polite person.
Just as she was about to close the door and leave, Chu Tingwu suddenly felt a hunch—
Perhaps her "intuition" kicked in at that moment.
She went back, picked up a knife, and started to open the package.
...It could indeed be from someone else, even some fan-sent gift, but when she noticed the System hadn't spoken for a few minutes, Chu Tingwu had an inexplicable premonition.
After opening the outer packaging, there was still a small box inside, the kind used to hold rings, earrings, etc.
But when she opened it, she found, fixed on a velvet pad with a thin thread, wasn't any precious jewelry, but a gold-green cat's eye stone-shaped button.
Even just touching it revealed it wasn't a real cat's eye stone, just a plastic imitation, and the "cat's eye" effect was a bit crooked, not even perfectly made of plastic.
Chu Tingwu: "..."
She opened her mouth slightly, whispering: "Why did you think to give me this?"
The system's voice became even softer, and it felt nervous: "Because... I consulted others, and they said that gifts should be given to fill what you lack. You don't seem to lack anything special right now, so I thought of your sweater that is missing a button..."
Spring has arrived, and it's time to put away the winter clothes and switch to spring attire.
Chu Tingwu has a beige thin sweater, a cardigan style, which she brought from Fallen Phoenix City to Jin City. She hasn't worn it during the summer, autumn, or winter seasons. When spring came, she took it out to have a look, and the system asked if she wanted to wear it.
Chu Tingwu: "No, it's missing a button."
She pointed out the position of the missing button to the system, and then the system noticed that all five buttons on the sweater were different, with the cat's eye positions oddly offset and facing different directions.
The system spent half a day calculating with its million-level computing power, but it couldn't figure out which direction the missing button's cat's eye would be offset.
Chu Tingwu, hearing that it was doing such a meaningless task, was both amused and exasperated: "Because it was made in a small-town factory with poor machinery, there are issues, and there's no pattern to it."
Data operation must have a sense of beauty in its regularity, but human-made accidents are always unpredictable.
The system wrote this sentence into its memo and sighed deeply.
That day, Chu Tingwu took out the sweater to have a look but didn't wear it.
Later, when the weather turned slightly cool, she took it out again to have a look but still didn't wear it.
So the system thought she actually wanted to wear it.
Maybe the young one just needed that one button, it thought.
It used its most powerful database to search for the manufacturer of that button and found that the company had gone bankrupt years ago. So it bought the machines and hired people to make buttons, but none of them had the right "flaw."
To others, it might just be a button, and any one would do, no need to go to such trouble. But the system didn't think there was anything wrong with doing so.
It made thousands of flawed buttons, then selected several hundred with the most "perfect" flaws, and finally... used its data to calculate again, selecting the theoretically most suitable one from the hundreds.
This was the most perfect, flawed button.
This button, chosen from thousands, was now at Chu Tingwu's side.
The system felt "nervous" as its data code, and it asked, "Is the pattern the same as the one that was lost?"
Chu Tingwu: "Probably not."
The system sighed in regret.
But luckily, those thousands of buttons hadn't been lost—
But then it heard Chu Tingwu say, "But it's the same."
System: Huh?
The box came with a needle and thread. The young one tightly held the button in her hand, took out the sweater, and started sewing, softly explaining:
"Because it's from you, so it should be the same."
System: "Okay, okay!"
"Happy birthday!"
You should be happy, why are you crying?
-
Last summer, when the weather was not yet very hot, Chu Tingwu wore her middle school summer uniform, with this cardigan over it, tightly holding her great-grandmother's hand in the hospital.
She held on until she couldn't feel the warmth in her palm, until the doctor came and gently pulled her away.
Someone was making a phone call, someone said they needed to inform the guardian, the homeroom teacher patted her shoulder, and the nurse surrounded her.
Later, when she got home, Chu Tingwu found that a button on the cardigan was missing.
She felt that this button might never be found again.
But she didn't throw the sweater away.
Now—
Chu Tingwu wore the spring long-sleeve uniform of Jin City Fifth High School, putting this cardigan over it, the temperature just right.
The button, too, had been found.
