hotmtlnovel Chapter 274 Bear Park Management Office
Chapter 274 Bear Park Management Office
Lin Feng leaned closer to Wasim: "This black bear was most likely a keeper here before."
"If we can find the list of missing zookeepers at the bear park, we might be able to find out who he is and recover his name."
Wasim's pupils constricted sharply: "You intend to... call his name?"
Lin Feng nodded, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes:
"Don't you think it's too much of a coincidence?"
"As soon as we arrived at the bear enclosure, the guide started telling us the legend of the 'wood-cutting bear,' the core of which is that 'the name is the root, and calling it can awaken memories.'"
"If I'm not mistaken, this is not a coincidence at all; it's a clue to the solution to Rule 5."
Wasim's gaze sharpened, and after a moment he analyzed:
"If we want to find out the name of this black bear, we only have two options."
"First, go back to the guard post in the lion enclosure and ask the lion-eared girl with number 07 about the situation. She might know something about the bear enclosure keeper."
"Secondly, go directly to the management office of the bear enclosure; there's a high probability they'll have clues there."
"But there's one thing: we absolutely cannot split up. That old employee specifically told us that."
Lin Feng gently rubbed his chin: "Give me some time to think about it."
His gaze drifted blankly as he activated [Infinite Deduction].
The scenario instantly unfolded in my mind—
He and Wasim quickly returned to the guard post at the Lions Park.
The warm lights in the pavilion were still on, and the lion-eared woman was wiping the walkie-talkie on the table, her fluffy lion ears twitching from time to time.
"Hello, we'd like to ask if any of the bear keepers have gone missing recently?" Lin Feng spoke first, trying to keep his tone calm.
The lion-eared girl abruptly stopped wiping, slowly raised her head, and her amber eyes, devoid of their previous gentleness, instead revealed a cold scrutiny.
She stared at the two of them and asked, word by word, "Did you hear the bear's cries for help?"
Lin Feng, who was performing the deduction, felt a tightness in his chest, but still nodded truthfully: "I heard it."
"Rule 5 clearly states that if you hear a bear making human-like sounds while on patrol, you must remain silent."
The lion-eared girl's voice suddenly turned cold, her body leaning forward slightly, her lion ears standing straight up, "You have broken the rules, so you must accept the punishment."
"Punishment? What punishment?" Vassim instinctively stepped forward, blocking Lin Feng's path.
The lion-eared girl did not answer, but slowly raised her right hand.
A bone bracelet on her wrist suddenly trembled, and one of the beads cracked with a "pop".
A nearly transparent worm with fine tentacles emerged from the crack, grew longer in the wind, and swelled to the size of a fist in the blink of an eye.
This thing has no eyes; it only has a constantly opening and closing slit at the front of its body, emitting a very faint "rustling" sound, like sucking out bone marrow.
"Memories always have weight, and they always need a... container." The lion-eared girl said softly, her fingertips slightly pointing in the direction of Lin Feng and the other person. "Let the 'Memory-Eating Cockroach' devour your memories of the past year."
The creature known as the "Memory-Eating Cockroach" twisted strangely in mid-air, then suddenly split into two afterimages, pouncing with unparalleled precision towards the two people's faces...
Lin Feng abruptly broke free from the deduction, his chest heaving slightly.
He cursed inwardly, "Damn it, wasn't the guard booth at the Lion Park supposed to have a purifying effect? How come it's such a rip-off!"
After a short while, Lin Feng looked at Wasim:
"Going to the security booth doesn't seem like a good idea. Let's try our luck at the bear enclosure management office instead; at least the clues will be direct."
"Okay, I'll do as you say." Vassim nodded in agreement without asking any further questions.
The two immediately and quietly circled around to the side and rear of the bear enclosure. They walked along a narrow stone path for about a hundred meters, and an inconspicuous blue brick house appeared before them.
The small hut had a dark green tin door with a worn wooden sign hanging on it. The sign read "Bear Park Management Office" in red paint, with a line of smaller characters next to it—
[Unauthorized personnel are not allowed to enter]
The metal door was not locked, but just ajar.
Wasim pressed his ear against the door and listened, then gently pushed the car door, which creaked open.
The two cautiously scanned their surroundings, and only after confirming that there was nothing amiss did they slip inside.
The small room is not large, about 20 square meters, and is divided into two areas - the outside is the office area and the inside is a small rest area.
The desks in the office area were piled with various items. An old desktop computer sat in the center of the desk, its screen black and its keyboard covered with a thin layer of dust.
On the left side of the table were several stacks of feed lists and animal health records, while on the right were several empty feed bags and an iron shovel for cleaning the cages.
A map of the bear enclosure hangs on the wall, next to several photos. The photos show close-ups of several bears, and another photo shows two men in blue zookeeper uniforms smiling, with a docile black bear standing beside them.
In the rest area, a small bed was covered with neatly folded blue bedding, and on the bedside table sat a thermos and a well-worn novel.
"Let's split up and search," Lin Feng said in a low voice.
Wasim nodded and walked straight to the row of filing cabinets.
The cabinet door wasn't locked. He carefully pulled it open, revealing neatly organized file folders and document bags.
Lin Feng quickly checked the desktop first.
He flipped through the notebooks, which mostly contained daily feeding records, brief notes on the animals' mental state, and equipment inspection records. The handwriting was inconsistent, indicating that different keepers had taken turns recording the information.
His attention then turned to a black folder on the desktop.
Upon opening it, I found a printed monthly work schedule tucked inside, covering nearly three months.
Lin Feng bent down to examine it closely, his fingertip slowly moving down the date field—
It was discovered that about two months ago, a name that used to appear regularly on the shift schedule suddenly stopped appearing, and subsequent shifts were filled by other names.
The name that disappeared was—Qu Cheng.
"Wasiem!" Lin Feng immediately called out in a low voice.
Wasim was looking through an "employee file" folder when he heard the sound and looked up.
"Look at this schedule. Two months ago, the name of a zookeeper named Qu Cheng disappeared." Lin Feng pointed to the form on the wall.
Wasim immediately put down the folder he was holding and leaned over to take a look.
"Qu Cheng..." he murmured the name, quickly turned around and went back to the filing cabinet, pulled out the "Employee Files" folder again, and quickly searched through it.
He quickly pulled out a thin personal file page, the title of which was "Qu Cheng".
The basic information above is: Qu Cheng, male, 28 years old, has been employed for three years, and is responsible for the bear enclosure's feeding work.
It included a one-inch photo of a young man with delicate features and a shy smile.
The last recorded date in the file was about two months ago, marked "resigned", but the "reason for resignation" column was blank, and there was no signature or stamp.
"Only 'resignation,' no reason, no procedures..." Lin Feng frowned. "This is not normal."
Wasim continued searching and found a very brief record in another folder labeled "Accident Report/Abnormal Event Record". The date was exactly the day after Qu Cheng's name disappeared from the schedule.
The record contained only a few lines of text:
[Event: The night patrolman reported that a brief period of unexplained fog occurred in the Bear Garden area that evening, resulting in extremely low visibility and unusually low temperatures.]
No obvious damage to facilities or abnormalities in animals were found after the fog dissipated.
[Handling: Reported and pending investigation.]
[Recorder: (Signature illegible)]
[Follow-up: None.]
"Unidentified fog... abnormally low temperature..."
As Lin Feng recited these keywords, images of the "thick, impenetrable black mist" that seemed to devour all light and memories from the memory fragments passed down by the black bear, as well as the "strange black mist that steals memories" from the legend of the "Lumberjack Bear," instantly surfaced in his mind.
Everything makes sense!