Chapter 73: Chapter 73: Waking Up to a Sky-Shattering Debt

After Coach Zhuang spent a good while in excitement, he picked up the phone again, having regained his previously composed demeanor.

Xu Ying shook the stopwatch in her hand: “Coach Zhuang, the numbers on the stopwatch aren’t fake, you know. I have a video recorded on my phone. Want me to send it over for you to see?”

Coach Zhuang was completely in awe of Xu Ying: “No need, benefactor! I believe you, and I believe in the new coach too!”

He tried hard to control his emotions, but tears still welled up in his eyes. Having coached the national team for so many years, he had seen many sports geniuses who shone brightly for a time only to fall to obscurity and quietly fade from public view.

He thought Ling Yu, this unprecedented “Eastern Flying Man,” would end up just like those athletes, retiring in loneliness. He was wrong!

Without exaggeration, Coach Zhuang really knelt and kowtowed to his phone: “Benefactor, dear leopard, I bow to you!”

Xu Ying was shocked. A coach who had trained world champions was kowtowing to her, this was too much: “No, no, no, please don’t make it so grand.”

“Benefactor, the training method you invented is so great! I must report it to the country!”

“I’ll buy a ticket to Xizhou Province right now to learn deeply from you. Do you think that’s okay? I promise not to disturb you, I’ll just come and take a look, and I promise I won’t come empty-handed.”

Xu Ying looked towards Ling Yu for guidance.

Ling Yu thought for a moment and then nodded. Coach Zhuang had enough experience to help him better plan his training, and perhaps the new coaches here could also inspire Coach Zhuang.

After finishing the timed training, Ling Yu started lower-body strength training, accompanied by Gobi Bear, the strength coach, for training.

Five ear fox cubs lay on the smooth, shiny backs of their cheetah brothers, sliding like on a slide, their happy fox cries never stopping.

As day turned to night, Little Sand Cat and Black Jungle Cat, the master and apprentice, also woke up and joined in the fun.

For the cats, the cheetah’s long, furry tail was the ultimate cat toy, especially four of them at once!

Even the typically cool and handsome Black Jungle Cat couldn’t help but swipe at the swinging tail with a paw, then pretended as if nothing had happened, coming over to help Xu Ying and Qiao Yuxi unload things from the RV.

Xu Ying and Qiao Yuxi unloaded a barbecue grill from Ling Yu’s RV and started preparing for a campsite barbecue, waiting to watch the desert night sky.

By the time Ling Yu finished his training, the barbecue grill was already set up, and the first batch of skewers was emitting a delicious aroma. The previously playing fluffy creatures had all gathered around, drooling by the grill.

The eyes of the little animals were brighter and brighter, glowing green, making Xu Ying a bit nervous.

Helpless, she picked up a skewer of lamb and, with scissors, started dividing the meat, “You can only eat a little bit of the barbecue, eating too much will make your fur fall out, and you’ll go from fluffy to bald!”

The little animals nodded one by one: [Just a little bit, only a little bit~]

Xu Ying glanced over and pulled out the Cheetah Leader who was trying to pass off as a big cat amongst the other two cats: “Why’s someone with a mouth ulcer joining the fun?”

Grabbing it by the ear, she lectured, “Don’t want a girlfriend anymore, do you?”

“Ready to give up on treatment, are you?”

The mighty Cheetah Leader was reprimanded like a child weighing over a hundred pounds, looking quite pitiful.

At that moment, Xu Ying took out a fish toy stuffed with catnip from the rescue station: “You can play with this to distract yourself.”

“But don’t go biting it to pieces!”

When the fish toy was put in front of it, the cheetah leader sniffed it and quickly transformed from its previous lethargic state to a happy big cat, playing in the sand.

When the last rays of the setting sun were embraced by the sand dunes, night quietly descended, and the brilliant Milky Way spanned the sky, scattering countless twinkling stars.

In Xizhou Province, thanks to the high altitude and low light pollution, plus the wide-open view, you could clearly see the Milky Way and various constellations in the night sky.

Xu Ying and the other two sat on a picnic cloth, surrounded and warmed by the fluffy foxes, cats, and leopards, fending off the chilly desert night.

Qiao Yuxi looked up, the magnificent starry sky above her head seemed like countless gentle eyes watching over the earth, and inexplicably, she felt like crying.

“I’ve heard people say that those who have passed become stars in the sky. I wonder if my parents are up there watching me?”

Xu Ying nodded at this: “They will. They will always shine down on you, hoping you live as warm and bright as a star.”

Qiao Yuxi wiped away her tears upon hearing this, raising her soda: “Then let’s toast to a new life!”

Ling Yu put down his vegetable salad and raised his glass of water to clink glasses with them: “Let’s shine on!”

The ear fox cub raised its paw high: [I want to toast too~]

Xu Ying, laughing, lowered her hand slightly.

The cats and leopards joined in too, with their various-sized paws and pads placed on Xu Ying and the other two’s hands.

Qiao Yuxi held her camera and snapped a “click” capturing their paws intertwined with the little animals’.

*

Like other official positions, an animal rescuer also gets weekends off. Without any emergency tasks over the weekend, Xu Ying happily enjoyed her days off.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, the police made a breakthrough thanks to a clue eavesdropped by Tuantuan, the little undercover, from Shi Wenxuan. The deadlock was suddenly broken.

The police, who had been holding back, seemed to have leveled up and quickly found evidence of Shi Wenxuan and Flavor World Foods’ boss Xu Qi colluding to attempt to murder Qiao Yuxi.

The evidence was overwhelming, and the previously confident Shi Wenxuan was dumbstruck. Every time he communicated with Xu Qi, he ensured it was absolutely watertight.

He couldn’t understand how the police discovered his relationship with Xu Qi from Flavor World Foods, even when handcuffs were being put on him.

Shi Wenxuan asked the police numerous times, but they only told him to think about what sins he committed that led him there.

On Monday morning, Hai City police, in conjunction with the Desert Police Station, released a police briefing announcing that Qiao Yuxi’s fiancé, Shi Wenxuan, had been detained for attempted murder, and Xu Qi, the owner of Flavor World Foods and an accomplice, had been arrested.

The Qiao Family, not to be outdone, contacted the media to expose the various scandals of Flavor World Foods—using rotten fruits for juice, failing to settle payments with fruit farmers while having funds for donations, and using the enhanced exposure from donations to boost product sales without repaying its debts…

Flavor World Foods’ reputation plummeted to rock bottom, its stock price nosedived, and investors were in despair.

The controversy surrounding Xu Ying’s animal crime-solving live stream also dissipated with the official briefing. This meant that the rapper Zou Ying, who claimed to be Shi Wenxuan’s brother, lost the bet.

The whole internet was waiting for Zou Ying to donate three million to Xu Ying’s Desert Rescue Station and kowtow in apology.

Zou Ying had been drinking and partying until 4:30 AM the previous night and was woken up by the incessant ringing of his phone.

When he turned on his phone, his world collapsed.

The news feeds across all major platforms were flooded with the police briefing.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep