Striving for Science C32

A solitary life, without family or close friends. Even the house he lived in wasn't considered home, but merely a place to stay.

At that moment, in Shen Chang'an's eyes, Dao Nian was the epitome of sadness, loneliness, and helplessness. He quickly nodded, "Everyone has a home, it's just that some homes are more lively, while others are quieter."

Dao Nian put down his chopsticks, "But everyone has one?"

"Not just people, animals do too. Look at the gods and yaos in Journey to the West, they also have their own mansions or caves." Shen Chang'an used clean chopsticks to pick up some fish and put it in Dao Nian's bowl, "Where your heart feels at peace is your home, Dao Nian, where do you want to settle your home?"

"Do you like it here?" Dao Nian asked.

"Here?" Shen Chang'an turned his head to look at Liu Mao who was busy inside the house, the parrot hopping around on its perch, and the young man who was burying himself in planting flowers in the garden. He nodded, "I like it."

"Then this is my home." As soon as Dao Nian finished speaking, a sudden clap of thunder echoed across the sky. The wind, carrying rain, rushed towards them, making the windows rattle.

Dao Nian watched the lightning and thunder outside the window without speaking. The whole house became unusually quiet.

"Dao Nian?" Shen Chang'an dragged his chair closer to Dao Nian, "Don't be afraid, it's just thunder. It's just a bit strange for it to thunder in this season."

Shen Chang'an's mind suddenly flashed back to the night they returned from Mountain Spring Valley, the scene of Zhang Gu being struck by lightning. Could someone be going through a tribulation again?

"Hmm." Glancing at Shen Chang'an, who was only half an arm's length away, Dao Nian swallowed the words "I'm not afraid." It is said that humans, when interacting, will occasionally show weakness to enhance the relationship between them.

Seeing Dao Nian hanging his head in silence, Shen Chang'an couldn't help but start to imagine: little Dao Nian, afraid of the thunder, squatting alone in the corner of the empty house, shivering, with no one to accompany him, no one to comfort him.

The more he thought about it, the more distressed he felt. Shen Chang'an reached out and patted Dao Nian's shoulder, "Let's play some games together tonight, and we'll go to sleep after the storm passes."

"No." Dao Nian refused without hesitation, "Mature men should go to bed early and rise early."

"Tonight is different."

"How is it different?"

"I... I'm afraid of thunder." Shen Chang'an rested his arm on Dao Nian's shoulder, "You can keep me company."

Dao Nian stared at him for a few seconds, "Okay."

Shen Chang'an secretly chuckled in his heart. Dao Nian, who was clearly afraid of thunder but chose not to say anything, was so adorable.

"Are you laughing?"

"I'm not laughing." Shen Chang'an quickly picked up a piece of fish with his chopsticks and put it in Dao Nian's bowl, "You must be mistaken."

"Eyes." Dao Nian looked at Shen Chang'an seriously, "Your eyes are laughing."

"Are they?" Shen Chang'an touched his eyes doubtfully, can you even tell that? He turned to look at Dao Nian, could it be that successful people all have sharp eyes?

"Are you happy?" Dao Nian thought, is he happy because he agreed to play games with Chang'an?

"Happy." Shen Chang'an thought, coming to a friend's house every day to mooch off their food and lodging, and the friend doesn't even mind him. With such a cute friend, anyone would be happy.

Hearing this, Dao Nian silently sighed. Chang'an is still young, he's willing to be happy about such a small thing, let him be happy then.

The two of them reached a perfect consensus. After dinner, they played games until after midnight. Finally, Liu Mao couldn't bear it anymore and quietly reminded Dao Nian that Shen Chang'an had to go to work the next day. Dao Nian quickly urged Shen Chang'an to go to sleep.

The next morning, Shen Chang'an, still in a daze, was stuffed into the car by Liu Mao and sent to the office building.

"Mr. Shen, watch your step." Liu Mao shoved a breakfast box into Shen Chang'an's hand. "There's roast suckling pig and wild mushroom soup for lunch today. I'll come pick you up at twelve. Can you make it?"

Shen Chang'an, clutching the breakfast box, nodded dazedly.

It wasn't until Liu Mao drove away that the morning chill woke him up. He lowered his head and looked at the beautiful breakfast box in his hand, feeling a little bewildered.

Was he going to Dao Nian's house for lunch again?

Looking at Brother Liu's attitude, it was as if Shen Chang'an had already become a member of Dao Nian's family.

Oh, this is so embarrassing, hehe.

"Chang'an, did you come by your friend's car again?" Ding Yang leaned against the balcony, seeing Shen Chang'an holding the breakfast box in a daze, and teased, "Luckily you're a man, otherwise I'd think you were your friend's little wife."

"Yes, yes, you actually discovered my secret." Shen Chang'an said with a smile, "Actually, I'm a girl disguised as a boy."

"Ugh, you shameless thing." Ding Yang laughed and scolded, "Come up and eat your breakfast. We're going to a company in the city later. They say their IT department is haunted. Some employees took pictures of the Daoist priest performing rituals and posted them online, causing a lot of discussion among netizens. We're going to be the debunkers of superstitious rumors."

"The IT department is haunted?" Shen Chang'an went upstairs, walked into the office with Ding Yang, and returned to his desk, opening the breakfast box. The aroma instantly filled the entire office.

"Chang'an, does your friend's family run a hotel?" Ding Yang saw Shen Chang'an taking out several different dishes and couldn't help but swallow. Strange, he had eaten quite a bit this morning, why did he still feel like eating when he smelled this?

"His family doesn't run a hotel, but they have a chef." Shen Chang'an took a sip of the fragrant and soft corn porridge. He didn't know how Uncle Zhao made the porridge, but it tasted much better than the porridge he usually made.

"You've only been in our Wuming City for two months, how did you meet such a generous and kind friend? Why don't I have this kind of luck?" Ding Yang swallowed, pretending to have no interest in the food in Shen Chang'an's bowl.

"It's all fate's arrangement." Shen Chang'an said with a smile, "You can't envy me."

"Go away." Ding Yang glanced at the time, "We leave in half an hour, okay?"

"Okay." Shen Chang'an drank his porridge in big gulps, "If it's really haunted, you can hide behind me."

"Who, who's afraid of ghosts?" Ding Yang blushed slightly, "It's a new era now, all the evil spirits and demons have been defeated by us."

"Oh?" Shen Chang'an raised an eyebrow, "So, if you need to work late in the future…"

"Boss, I was wrong." Ding Yang immediately cowered, looking at Shen Chang'an with a slight surprise, "Chang'an, you never used to talk about topics related to ghosts and gods, but today you actually brought up the topic of ghosts with me. This is a truly groundbreaking development."

"Hmm." Shen Chang'an paused his hand holding the chopsticks, then raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Is it a case of 'near the ink, one gets black'?"

Ding Yang: "..."

Please be clear, who exactly is the ink?

***

The Wuming City Branch of Changfeng Biological was a newly established branch. The headquarters didn't pay much attention to it, so the employees assigned to work here were mostly those who were not valued by the headquarters.

They thought opening a new company in this 18th-tier city was bad enough, but things got even worse. After the company officially opened, the production line was constantly running into problems. Sometimes it was due to weather affecting supply, other times it was machine malfunctions during overtime production. They thought it was just bad luck, but then strange things started happening in the office. Computers would suddenly turn on and off by themselves, and horror movie videos would pop up.

They heard that a young man who had just graduated died there when the company was about to open. They were worried that the boy's spirit was restless and was causing trouble at the branch office.

To reassure the employees, the branch office leader, through a friend, invited a Master Zhang, a Daoist Master rumored to be from Mount Longhu, to perform an exorcism. However, this incident was spread online by some clueless employees.

He thought this wasn't a good thing, but the netizens nowadays are strange. After watching the drama unfold, many people bought their company's products online, saying that their company's planning team was full of marketing geniuses, and that they could come up with such a marketing strategy.

The company leader: …

What marketing strategy? He's about to lose all his employees, let alone marketing.

The production line kept malfunctioning, the employees were anxious, and the computers in the office couldn't even input data. He was so worried his head was about to explode. Faced with the increasing number of online orders, he could only limit purchases on the online store, citing limited quantities, and mostly using pre-sale methods. He thought this would stop the netizens from joining the hype.

However, he never expected that someone online would suddenly start boasting about how conscientious their company's product ingredients were, how dedicated their employees were, and that their company's limited purchase policy was also proof of their conscientious product.

If it were a unscrupulous merchant, seeing so many orders, who would care about quality or not? They would just work overtime to produce and ship them, wouldn't they make a fortune?

Seeing this kind of online comment, the company leader: "..."

These netizens are so young, how come their perspectives are so strange?

When Shen Chang'an and Ding Yang arrived at the company, they saw that all the employees were shrouded in gloom, as if they had encountered a problem of the century.

They were just about to inquire if anything else had happened at the company when the company's receptionist rushed over.

"Chang'an?" Wu Wei heard that the relevant department personnel had arrived, so he hurried downstairs to greet them. When he saw that the person was Shen Chang'an, his knees trembled.

Chang'an doesn't seem to be very interested in ghosts and spirits?

"Wu Wei?" Shen Chang'an was also surprised. He knew Wu Wei had been transferred to work here, but he didn't expect him to be working at this haunted company.

"I heard your company is haunted?"

"It's just rumors among employees, rumors." Wu Wei quickly said, "We're just trying to calm the employees down, there's no other meaning."

"The computer randomly turns on and off by itself, and it even pops up video websites?"

"Yes."

"The production line also breaks down frequently?"

"Yes."

"Is the production line operated manually or by a computer system?"

"Some processes require computer control."

"So..." Shen Chang'an stopped and looked at Wu Wei, "Have you considered that the computer control system might have a virus?"