fictionpage Chapter 12 First Day of Trial Operation
Chapter 12 First Day of Trial Operation
At 6:30 a.m., Lin Chen was woken up by his phone vibrating.
He squinted at the screen, instantly waking up. There were already at least a thousand people lined up at the scenic area entrance, some even with tents. In the video, a guy wearing a Sun Wukong (Monkey King) T-shirt was shouting at the camera: "Brothers, I'm here! I heard the monkeys on Flower Fruit Mountain can open bottle caps, I'm going to see if it's true!"
Lin Chen cursed and got out of bed.
When he arrived at the foot of the mountain, he was completely stunned.
More than a thousand people. A conservative estimate suggests at least three thousand people were already crammed into the makeshift entrance, a sea of heads. There were internet celebrities with selfie sticks, photography enthusiasts with their long lenses, and elderly people with their families. Most outrageously, someone had even set up a folding table next to it to sell grilled sausages, and business was booming.
"Boss!" The Earth God squeezed through the crowd, his face full of anxiety. "There are just too many people! I've lived for three thousand years, and this is the first time I've seen so many people lining up to enter the mountain!"
Lin Chen glanced at the backend data—110,000 people had made reservations, but only 30,000 slots were available today. He took a deep breath: "Notify Da Sheng to prepare to start work."
The Earth God paused for a moment: "The Great Sage... is still sleeping."
"Then wake him up." Lin Chen looked up at the mountaintop. "Tell him that if anything goes wrong today, his entire performance bonus for the month will be deducted."
The Earth God ran away in a flash.
At 8:00 AM sharp, the scenic area gates officially opened.
As the first group of tourists rushed in, Lin Chen stood at the entrance, watching the crowd surge towards the mountain path like a tide. Some girls were dressed in Hanfu and holding oil-paper umbrellas, some young couples were running hand in hand towards the Water Curtain Cave, and several middle-aged men were carrying cameras and heading straight for the monkey troop gathering area.
The first bombshell is that monkeys are really not afraid of people.
As a bespectacled man in a plaid shirt stepped onto the stone steps in front of the Water Curtain Cave, a small monkey jumped down from a tree, landed directly on his shoulder, and then reached out a paw to gently pat his glasses.
The bespectacled man froze.
His girlfriend screamed from beside him, "Look! It touched your glasses!"
The little monkey tilted its head, reached out and touched her hair, then flipped over and landed on the rock, assuming a one-legged stance, looking up at the sky.
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More than a dozen phones were already raised nearby.
"Holy crap, it can even pose!"
"Is this monkey trained?"
"Training my ass! These are wild monkeys!"
The little monkey seemed unhappy when it heard the word "wild". It turned around, its back to the group, flicked its tail, and looked like it didn't care about them.
The scene was captured and posted on a short video platform with the title "The monkeys of Huaguo Mountain got angry after being praised for being wild," and it received over 10,000 likes in two minutes.
The second explosion occurred halfway up the mountain.
A girl in a black hoodie was looking for a restroom. She got lost three times and squatted by the roadside, almost crying. Suddenly, a large monkey jumped down from a tree, stood in front of her, and pointed to the left with one paw.
The girl was taken aback: "You...you're giving me directions?"
The monkey nodded, pointed to the left, took two steps ahead, glanced back at her, and gestured for her to follow.
The girl was stunned.
She took out her phone and turned on the live stream.
"Family members, do you believe it? The monkeys of Flower Fruit Mountain are leading the way for me!"
In the footage, the monkey kept looking back to make sure she was following, and it would stop at forks in the road, waiting for her to catch up before continuing. Finally, the monkey stopped by a large tree and pointed to the path behind it—a path leading to the toilet, with a wooden sign that read "20 meters ahead of the toilet."
The girl squatted down and said earnestly, "Thank you."
The monkey scratched its head, turned around, and ran away.
Five minutes after the live stream started, it became a trending topic on local social media, with comments like "I suspect this monkey is a temporary worker," "The monkeys at Huaguo Mountain are better at navigating than my home GPS," and "The scenic area should give this monkey an outstanding employee award."
But the real highlight came from the viewing platform next to the Water Curtain Cave.
A "staff member" wearing a mask and a park uniform was squatting on the ground, holding a rag in his hand, with a row of monkeys standing next to him.
He was teaching them to wipe the railings.
"Look carefully, wipe from top to bottom, don't wipe back and forth, it will leave water stains."
He demonstrated it once, then handed the rag to a monkey next to him.
The monkey took it and, imitating him, wiped the railing from top to bottom. The water stains on the railing were wiped clean.
"Okay," the staff member nodded, "Next."
Another monkey took the rag and wiped the area as well, its movements even more precise than his.
The tourists on the observation deck went completely crazy.
Someone holding up their phone, their hands trembling, exclaimed, "Holy crap, the monkeys at this scenic spot really do rub against the railings! This isn't special effects! It's not special effects!"
The staff member wearing a mask stood up, clapped his hands, and turned to leave. A tourist exclaimed, "Dude! How long have you been training these monkeys? That's amazing!"
He turned around, grinned, and said, "Not long, just this morning."
Someone secretly took a picture of his profile. Although he was wearing a mask, his golden eyes were particularly striking in the sunlight.
The video's comment section exploded.
"This actor is incredibly dedicated! They can even train a monkey to be this professional?"
"To put it bluntly, this monkey is cleaner than my housekeeper."
"Wait a minute, doesn't anyone else think this staff member's eyes look a lot like... the Monkey King?"
"Don't be crazy, the Great Sage is a special effect, this is a real person."
"Can a real person train a monkey to behave like that? Show me how you train one!"
"Who exactly is the owner of this scenic area? Could he be a local monkey from Flower Fruit Mountain?"
Lin Chen stood in the monitoring room, looking at the screen full of bullet comments and the comment section, unable to suppress the corners of his mouth.
The local earth god cautiously asked from the side, "Boss, that... the one who teaches monkeys to wipe the railings... is it...?"
"It's the Great Sage." Lin Chen picked up his teacup and took a sip. "He went there on his own initiative. I told him there were a lot of people today and asked him to keep an eye on things, but he went to do pre-job training instead."
The Earth God's lips twitched: "The Great Sage... is he giving pre-job training?"
"Yes," Lin Chen put down his teacup and looked at the figure squatting on the ground, teaching the monkeys how to wipe the railings, in the surveillance footage. "He said he couldn't let tourists think that the monkeys of Huaguo Mountain were uncivilized."
The Earth God was silent for five seconds, then sincerely sighed, "The Great Sage... he's really afraid of having his wages docked."
At noon, the flow of people reached its peak.
The figure of 30,000 people is no joke. From the foot of the mountain to the Water Curtain Cave, the entire mountain path was packed with people. Some brought small stools to sit and eat bread, some set up their phones to live stream, and some simply spread out picnic mats and lay down to sleep under the trees.
The most outrageous thing was that several monkeys mingled into the crowd.
No one noticed when they came down. They were like tourists; some squatted on the rocks drinking water, while others sat on the steps cracking sunflower seeds—they seemed to have gotten the seeds from somewhere and cracked them with more skill than the old men.
A tourist photographed a monkey sitting on the steps with its legs outstretched, leaning against the railing, holding a bottle of mineral water. It unscrewed the cap, took a sip, then screwed it back on and placed it aside.
The entire process was smooth and seamless, without any interruptions.
The person who filmed the video posted it on WeChat Moments with the caption: "The monkeys of Flower Fruit Mountain have begun their retirement life."
A bunch of people replied, "It's living a more comfortable life than you."
At 2 PM, the most exciting scene unfolded.
A child's balloon floated up into a tree, out of reach, and he squatted on the ground crying. The child's mother was about to ask the staff for help when suddenly, a monkey jumped down from the tree, tilted its head, looked at the balloon, and then at the child.
It stretched out its paw, pointed at the balloon, and then pointed at itself.
The child's mother hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Could you...could you help me get it down?"
The monkey ignored her and climbed up the tree.
A dozen seconds later, it slid down with the balloon string in its mouth and handed the string to the child.
The child stopped crying and smiled, saying in a childish voice, "Thank you, Uncle Monkey."
The monkey patted his head, turned around, and walked away.
The entire scene was filmed and posted online, causing a frenzy in the comments section.
"Is this monkey some kind of spirit?"
"I suspect the monkeys on Flower Fruit Mountain are secretly taking college entrance exams."
"I'll go to Flower Fruit Mountain today, I don't believe it."
"Hey, I just got back, I can vouch for it, it's true. That monkey even gave me directions, it works better than Gaode Maps."
Some people calmly analyzed: "The scenic area must have trained them in advance. No matter how smart the monkeys are, they can't possibly be this obedient."
Under this comment, someone replied: "You train one and show me!"
At four o'clock in the afternoon, Lin Chen received a WeChat message.
It was a friend request from an account that claimed to be a "paranormal event investigation team," with the note: "Boss Lin, we are commissioned by Longteng Group and would like to talk to you about Huaguo Mountain."
Lin Chen glanced at it and immediately took a screenshot and sent it to Sun Wukong.
"Great Sage, someone wants to make you lose your job."
Three seconds later, the Great Sage replied with a voice message: "Let them come."
Lin Chen heard a hint of excitement in his voice.
The scenic area closes at 6 p.m.
Thirty thousand tourists gradually left, leaving behind a trail of reluctant farewell photos and selfies along the mountain paths, in front of the Water Curtain Cave, and in the monkey troop area. Before leaving, some people specifically sought out the monkey that had led the way and gave it a banana.
The monkey took it, peeled it open, ate it, and then waved goodbye to him, as if saying goodbye.
The tourist was so excited that he posted on his WeChat Moments: "The monkeys of Huaguo Mountain said goodbye to me, and I cried."
Lin Chen stood at the mountain gate, watching the last group of tourists leave, and let out a long sigh.
The Earth God walked over carrying a stack of reports, his face crinkling into a wide smile: "Boss! The data for today's trial operation is in!"
"How many?"
"The number of visitors was 29,700, close to 30,000," the local deity's voice trembled. "There were no safety incidents or visitor complaints all day, and the monkeys' complaint rate was zero! Yes, not a single monkey complained. The videos taken by visitors have already surpassed 20 million views online."
Lin Chen took the report, glanced at the numbers, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.
He looked up at the mountaintop.
Under the moonlight, Sun Wukong squatted on a rock in front of the Water Curtain Cave, slowly peeling a banana. Several little monkeys surrounded him, chattering as if reporting the day's events to him.
After hearing this, the Great Sage reached out and touched the head of the little monkey closest to him, moved his lips, and said something.
Lin Chen didn't hear clearly, but he saw the Great Sage smile.
That kind of laughter wasn't the spirited laughter he used to have in live streams, nor was it the arrogant laughter he had when he caused havoc in the Heavenly Palace—it was a very down-to-earth laughter.
It's like the satisfaction of someone who has finally found their place, watching the "underlings" they've trained do their work.
Lin Chen lowered his head, folded the report, and put it in his pocket.
"Land God".
"exist."
"Add another 10,000 tickets tomorrow."
The Earth God paused for a moment, then said, "Boss, our reception capacity..."
"Skills can be developed," Lin Chen said, walking down the mountain without looking back, "but the hype can't wait."
He took two steps, then stopped.
"Oh, right, give Da Sheng some extra pay for his work."
The Earth God stood there, stunned.
"He taught the monkeys to clean the railings today, it's a skills training program," Lin Chen's voice came from the night. "The market price is eight hundred a day."