I have a wildlife zoo

"I want to see the pandas, the pandas!"

When Liu Xueqing came home from work and just opened the door, her four-year-old daughter scrambled up from the floor and lunged toward her, clinging to her like a koala and would not stop bouncing.

"Oh baby, don't you greet Mama first when she comes back?"

"Mmm, Mama's back."

Liu Xueqing, amused and exasperated, patted her adorable daughter's head and looked toward her father sitting on the couch watching TV. Although he didn't say anything, his eyes clearly showed a hint of helplessness.

Grandma came out of the kitchen with a dish in hand, smiling kindly, "Yingying has been going on about going to the zoo to see the pandas today too."

Liu Xueqing had seen an article about Linhai Zoo shared on a friend's social media a few days ago, thinking of taking her daughter there over the weekend for fun, so she casually mentioned that Linhai Zoo had beautiful peafowl, majestic tigers, and cute pandas...

Grown-ups often exaggerate when placating children. For instance, when talking about how fierce tigers are, you make your hand into paws, you grimace and roar, ruah!

But this time, it seemed to have been too effective, as her daughter latched onto the idea straight away!

Every day she would ask, "Mama, when are we going to the zoo to see the pandas?"

"Before going to work, 'Mama, remember to take me to see the pandas!' After work, 'Mama, can we go to see the pandas today?' During meals, 'Mama, what do pandas eat?' Before going to bed at night, 'Mama, can you tell me a story about pandas?'"

When Liu Xueqing was at work, her daughter would pester her grandpa with endless questions!

She regretted it so much, wishing she had not brought it up so early. Wouldn't it have been better to wait until the day before the weekend?

Fortunately, the weekend finally arrived! If her daughter had pestered her for a few more days, she would have gone crazy.

"Alright, alright, we'll go tomorrow! Bright and early!" Liu Xueqing said with a tone of finality, as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

Yingying immediately beamed with joy, hugging her neck and planting a kiss on her face, "Mama, I love you!"

Seeing Yingying happily run back to her toys to continue playing with her toy train on the floor, Liu Xueqing laughed helplessly, exchanging a knowing look with her father, a look that said it all without words.

Taking care of this little tyrant is too difficult!

She asked the elder in dialect, "Daddy, are you going to the zoo together tomorrow? It'll be fun!"

Grandpa looked at her and firmly gestured with his hand, shaking his head at the same time.

Then he pointed downward with his finger.

Liu Xueqing got his meaning; it meant he would rather take a walk downstairs by himself.

The old man's health wasn't very good, so he didn't like going out much. Walking for too long made him feel tired.

However, Liu Xueqing always made it a point to ask her father before going out, because sometimes he did feel like going out, but he would never initiate it. He would wait to be asked. If he turned his head back to the TV without denying it, that meant he agreed to go.

After the family finished dinner, Liu Xueqing played with her daughter for a while, taught Yingying a few characters, then checked the fridge.

In the comments section of the article, she read that Linhai Zoo didn't have a restaurant. It recommended visitors to eat well before setting out or to bring their own lunch, otherwise, they would have to settle for bread if they got hungry.

So she decided to see what was in the fridge, planning to make the bento before bedtime and heat it up the next morning to take to the zoo.

Linhai Zoo, for the time being, did not restrict visitors from bringing food. After all, they couldn't let people starve without a restaurant.

Liu Xueqing opened the fridge and searched from top to bottom. Eventually, she pulled out carrots, broccoli, corn, celery, and chicken legs. She diced the carrots, broke the corn kernels off, chopped the celery, broke the broccoli into florets, and blanched them all separately in boiling water. She then packed them into zip-lock bags, squeezed out the air, and put them in the fridge to keep fresh.

She did the same with the rice after it was cool from steaming.

Once the chicken legs were boiled, she kept some of the soup, then heated oil in a pan, adding spring onions, Sichuan peppercorns, and minced garlic to fry until aromatic. Yingying hated the taste of peppercorns, so she filtered the spices out and poured the oil into the chicken broth, adding some light soy sauce for flavor.

The chicken soup and sauce were now ready.

The next day!

At six o'clock, the alarm rang, and Liu Xueqing yawned as she climbed out of bed.

She took out the rice, chicken legs, and vegetables she had cooked the day before from the refrigerator, put them in the pot to warm up. A very fragrant smell immediately filled the air.

As she was busy, Yingying also got up and ran over to stand on tiptoe to look at the stovetop. Normally, Yingying liked to stay in bed, and if no one woke her, she could sleep until nine o'clock. But today, she woke up on her own, which showed she was really looking forward to going to the zoo.

"Mama, what are you making?"

"I'm preparing our lunchbox for noon. It has carrots, celery, corn, chicken legs, would you like a taste?" Liu Xueqing said tenderly as she picked up a chicken leg.

Yingying frowned at the chicken leg, "It's too big, I can't finish it!" Your next chapter is on m v|l-e'm,p| y- r

"No problem, if you can't finish, give it to your dad to eat."

"What's happening, what's happening?" Just then, Yingying's father also got up, sniffing and rubbing his eyes, "Wow, not bad at all, it looks pretty healthy."

Once Liu Xueqing had reheated all the ingredients, she poured on the sparkling chicken soup sauce, and the healthy, nutritious, and delicious lunchbox was ready. Finally, she washed some sweet and sour cherry tomatoes and placed them into the lunchbox as well.

With the lunchboxes, mineral water, and fruit packed, the family of three had breakfast downstairs, then Yingying's father drove, heading straight for the zoo with mother and daughter in tow!

...

Bright sunshine, lush green trees.

The early morning had already brought quite a crowd!

And many were families of three, just like them. There were even babies lying in strollers, chewing on their fingers as they were pushed along.

"The environment here is so nice, with lots of trees."

"Yeah, and the breeze feels quite comfortable, too."

Liu Xueqing and Yingying's father were enthusiastically chatting away, while Yingying held the zoo ticket in one hand and her father's finger in the other, her smile sweet and her eyes sparkling. She walked with a spring in her step, almost hopping with every stride.

She wore a white children's baseball cap today, and her smooth shoulder-length ponytail came out through the hole at the back of the cap, bouncing along with her joyful steps.

Liu Xueqing found it amusing to watch and told Yingying to stand still. She straightened the red backpack that had slipped a bit from all the jumping. The backpack actually just held a bottle of water, but Yingying liked wearing it.

Patting her head with a smile, she asked, "Yingying, are you happy to be at the zoo?"

"Happy~" Yingying said in her sweet, milky voice.

"So what animal do you want to see?"

"Panda~"

"What other animal do you want to see?"

With a puzzled look in her bright eyes, Yingying turned her gaze left and right, unable to speak for a long time. Finally, she managed to say, "Panda!"

"Hahaha!" Yingying's father laughed, tickling her nose, "There are so many animals, silly child, and you just remember the panda. It's the red panda, you know."

But seeing Yingying's pure and innocent expression, she clearly had no concept of the difference between a giant panda and a red panda; to her, a panda was just a panda.