Striving for Science C26 pt1
They heard that Shen Chang'an would be returning to his regular work after the weekend, and the staff around Dao Nian all tried to persuade him to stay, their enthusiasm so fervent that they wished Shen Chang'an would simply live there forever and never leave.
"Mr. Shen, there are so many rooms here, the environment is so good, and there are many ingredients you like. Why don't you stay a few more days?" Liu Mao listed the benefits of staying here to Shen Chang'an, almost directly reaching out to hold Shen Chang'an in place.
"Mr. Liu, I'll come over next time. We live in the same city anyway, it's not far." When he arrived, Shen Chang'an came empty-handed, but when he left, he had several sets of clothes and a large bag of fruits and vegetables. His behavior was a classic example of taking advantage of someone's generosity.
"It may not be far, but sir will miss you when you're gone, Mr. Shen."
"I'm in constant contact with Dao Nian, and I'll come over to play with him on weekends." Shen Chang'an finished his sentence, looked up at Dao Nian on the second-floor corridor, and remained silent. "Right, Dao Nian?"
Dao Nian stared at him for a few seconds: "Come up."
Shen Chang'an scurried upstairs and squatted in front of Dao Nian: "What's wrong?"
A silver men's necklace was placed around his neck. Dao Nian withdrew his hand: "Birthday present."
"My birthday is..." Shen Chang'an was stunned. Since his parents passed away, he had always celebrated his birthday on the Gregorian calendar because he couldn't remember the lunar calendar dates, and no one had bothered to remind him. He was about to say that his birthday wasn't in the next few days, but then he suddenly remembered that his lunar birthday was in this month.
He took out his phone calendar and checked. Two days later was his lunar birthday.
"Thank you..." The necklace felt cool against his neck. Shen Chang'an looked up at Dao Nian and smiled gently. "Dao Nian, thank you."
Dao Nian didn't know what to say. Seeing Shen Chang'an's bright eyes, he reached out and touched the top of his head: "Come back early tonight. Stay at my place for the next two days."
"Ah?" Shen Chang'an was stunned. Was this a way of keeping him?
"Leave after your birthday." Dao Nian turned his head and swept his gaze over the crowd downstairs. "There are many people, it's lively."
"This, this might be too much trouble for everyone." Shen Chang'an felt a little embarrassed. It didn't seem right to have his friends constantly worrying about him for his birthday.
"No trouble, no trouble at all." Liu Mao downstairs quickly shook his head, understanding. "We all hope Mr. Shen will stay here for a while longer."
Dao Nian raised his chin and looked at Shen Chang'an.
Shen Chang'an instantly understood what he meant. He was saying, "See, they don't think it's a bother."
Understanding, Shen Chang'an suddenly laughed and bumped his forehead against Dao Nian's knee: "Dao Nian, how can you be so cute?"
Dao Nian blinked, seemingly not understanding where his "cuteness" lay.
Seeing him like this, Shen Chang'an burst into laughter, got up and turned to go downstairs. As he reached the door, he turned back to see Dao Nian still sitting on the corridor looking at him. He waved to him: "I'll be back early tonight."
Dao Nian casually withdrew his gaze, as if he had just glanced at him casually.
As for Liu Mao, he quickly picked up Shen Chang'an's packed luggage, afraid that Shen Chang'an would see it and think it would be better to go back to his own place.
After Shen Chang'an left, the door slowly closed, and the house returned to its usual quiet state.
The soft carpet transformed into clouds, the spiral staircase became a void cloud ladder, and even the crystal chandelier on the ceiling lost its hanging rod, turning into fist-sized stars, floating quietly in the air.
"Sir, the plague ghost has gone south and may pass through Wuming City." Liu Mao stood upright, bowing. "Human cultivators have set up an altar to invite the Nuo God for help."
"Nuo God?" Dao Nian seemed to be thinking, what kind of god is that.
"Nuo God is a divine position dedicated to treating plague dogs. Since the last Nuo God disappeared a hundred years ago, no new god has been born.’ Liu Mao gave an awkward smile. "Although there are still rituals to honor Nuo God in the human world, they are mostly presented in artistic forms, without much faith, making it difficult to give birth to new gods."
Dao Nian waved his hand, and many images appeared in the air, showing doctors working overtime to save patients, researchers studying data, and businessmen investing in drug research, countless experimental platforms, and medical equipment.
"They can do better on their own." Dao Nian clicked on one of the images, an elderly, frail woman wearing a respirator, writing an experimental formula with trembling hands, surrounded by several young people who were crying softly.
They called this old woman "teacher."
He tapped his index finger, the image disappeared, and Dao Nian looked at Liu Mao and the others who were standing at attention in front of him. "Do you understand?"
Liu Mao remained silent.
"Humans are very intelligent, they don't need divine beings as much as you think." Dao Nian closed his eyes, his flawless face full of coldness and ruthlessness. "Perhaps, it is some divine beings who need humans more."
The room was silent, and when everyone looked up again, Dao Nian was no longer in the corridor. Everyone was a little puzzled, was the master saying that humans are cold and ruthless, that they don't need divine beings anymore, and then they abandon them, or does he think that some divine beings are incompetent, that they can't even maintain their divine bodies if they are not needed by humans?
***
As soon as he returned to the office, Shen Chang'an received warm greetings from his colleagues, even Chen Panpan, who loved to eat snacks, generously shared a few bags with him.
However, Aunt Juan, who usually dressed herself up beautifully, seemed a little out of sorts today, and even her makeup couldn't hide the fatigue around her.
Seeing Shen Chang'an come in, Gao Shujuan reached out and stuffed a lucky bag into his hand. "Here, this is from my hometown, one for each of you, carry it with you these days."
Shen Chang'an took it and put the lucky bag in his jacket, saying to Gao Shujuan, "Thank you, Aunt Juan, for thinking of us even though you're so busy. You just came back from your hometown, do you want to take a few days off?"
"Where's the time to rest..." Gao Shujuan chuckled, just as she was about to say something, she suddenly noticed something, and looked at Shen Chang'an carefully. "Chang'an, have you encountered anything these past few days?"
"Speaking of which, it's so infuriating, Chang'an met a nutcase." Chen Panpan told Gao Shujuan about the outrageous incident that happened a few days ago. "Don't you think this kind of scum is infuriating?"
Gao Shujuan hesitated, met Shen Chang'an's gaze, and nodded after a while. "It's pretty infuriating, if I were there, I would have cursed his ancestors for eighteen generations."
"Your skills are definitely beyond ours." Chen Panpan nodded repeatedly. Although Aunt Juan now just wipes the tables in the department and tells everyone about life's little lessons, when she was doing women and children protection work, she had made countless scumbags cry and beg for mercy, almost making them commit suicide.
It was rumored that because her eloquence was too sharp, she was complained about many times, so she was transferred to their Civil Service Department, living a peaceful life.
But this was just a rumor, she had never seen the live version, so it was hard to tell if it was true or not.
Before they could chat for a few more sentences, the police station called, saying that they would soon have to go to the assembly point to be assigned patrol routes and times.
Due to insufficient manpower, not only their department, but even the street office had borrowed personnel, everyone rushed to the assembly square, receiving work operation procedures and work badges.
Since today was the eve of Halloween, the superiors specially instructed everyone to work hard today and work overtime.
Patrols were in groups of two, mostly male and female pairings, Shen Chang'an and Gao Shujuan were in a group, mainly responsible for a bus route in the suburbs. After nine o'clock in the evening, the bus would stop running, and they would go to a nearby square with high pedestrian traffic to meet Ding Yang and Chen Panpan.
The bus company was very happy, in recent years, because Halloween had become popular in China, which was a good thing, representing that people's lives have become richer, and they have time and money for entertainment. However, due to the different ideas of the older generation and the younger generation, there had been many conflicts, now the government had specially arranged staff to help their work, they naturally applauded and welcomed it.
Wuming City was not very big, except for rush hour, the buses were not very crowded. Shen Chang'an saw that Aunt Juan's complexion was really not good, worried that she couldn't handle it, so he let her sit in the back seat to rest, and he took charge of the main supervision work.
Until the afternoon, nothing out of the ordinary happened on their side. Although some young people dressed up for the holiday, they didn't do anything too outrageous. There was a little girl dressed as No-Face* who specifically came to ask for a photo with him, claiming he was too handsome.
After a busy morning, Shen Chang'an and Aunt Juan took advantage of the bus driver's shift change in the evening to grab some noodles at a nearby noodle shop. Halfway through the meal, he suddenly remembered that someone was waiting for him to have dinner at home. He quickly pulled out his phone and called Dao Nian.
"I won't be back tonight."
"I'm not having dinner with anyone. I have to work overtime tonight and won't be back until late."
"Don't wait for me, go to bed early. Remember to drink a glass of milk an hour before bed."
Hanging up the phone, Shen Chang'an saw Aunt Juan sitting across from him, looking at him with a smile that wasn't quite a smile. He was a little confused. "Aunt Juan, what's with that look?"
"I thought you were too young to have a girlfriend, but it turns out you already have someone waiting for you back home. Today's young people are really something, huh?" Gao Shujuan gave him a thumbs-up. "Next time we have a gathering, bring your girlfriend along. It's not good for her to wait for you alone at home."
Shen Chang'an was stunned for a moment before he realized what she meant. He laughed awkwardly and said, "Aunt Juan, you've got it all wrong. I've been staying at a friend's place for the past few days. I was supposed to have dinner with him tonight, but I had to work late. I definitely need to tell him in advance."
"Friend?"
"Yeah, a friend." Shen Chang'an poured some vinegar into his noodles. "But if he's willing to come, I'd like to bring him along to future gatherings."
Thinking about Dao Nian's empty apartment, Shen Chang'an always felt uneasy. He wanted to find ways to make Dao Nian find some joy in life.
"Oh, I see." Gao Shujuan apologized with a smile. "I'm sorry, I misunderstood."
"It's okay, you were just being concerned." Shen Chang'an ate his noodles in big bites. The noodles from this street-side stall were pretty average, but he was really hungry, so he finished the whole bowl.
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