Striving for Science C42 pt1

A car emblazoned with the words "Animal Protection" sped out of Wuming City overnight, heading towards the provincial capital city bordering Wuming.

The conditions at Wuming City Zoo were very limited, and this Arctic fox was a Class II protected animal. After discussion, the local wildlife protection association decided to send the Arctic fox to a place with a better living environment overnight.

"I don't know which smuggler brought this fox to Wuming City. Thankfully, it was found by a kind person, otherwise, its life would have been miserable." The staff member glanced at the fox, which was constantly calling out from its cage, and said to his colleague, "But this fox has a really bad temper."

"Maybe it's because of its bad temper. The wildlife smugglers were afraid of making noise, so they just threw it away." The colleague sighed, "If it keeps making noise like this, I'm afraid it won't be able to reach the provincial capital before its own body gives out."

As soon as the words left his mouth, a thick fog suddenly rose up ahead. They couldn't stop on the highway, so they had to slow down and turn on their high beams: "Why is there so much fog all of a sudden?"

The driver felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead. He had heard other drivers talk about this kind of fog that descended in the blink of an eye, but this kind of abnormal phenomenon was often linked to supernatural events.

He turned to look at the two refined-looking staff members, gripping the steering wheel tightly: "Gentlemen, if you see anything strange later, don't make a sound."

As soon as he finished speaking, a person suddenly appeared in the middle of the road, and the vehicle collided with it.

"Ah!" The two staff members cried out in unison.

The driver wiped the sweat from his face. All those words he just said were useless.

"S-should we call the police?" One of the staff members trembled as he took out his phone, but he couldn't press the numbers correctly.

"Call the police for what!" The driver gritted his teeth, "Who would be on the highway this late at night? Besides..." his voice trembled, "There was no feeling of impact at all."

The two staff members were stunned. After a long silence, they said, "What do you mean?"

"What else could it mean? We hit a ghost." The driver saw that the two were scared pale, "Take out your phones and open the music player."

"What for?"

"Search for something with a strong, righteous energy. The Internationale* will do."

TN: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internationale

"Stand up, all victims of oppression!"

"Turn it off!" The driver was also a little scared and couldn't help but shout at the staff members, "Can you two be a little more grounded? This is the middle of nowhere, and ghosts can understand foreign languages? Give me the Chinese version!"

"Oh, oh, oh." The staff member quickly searched for the Chinese version. After finding several versions, he was a little dumbfounded. Which version should he choose?

In a moment of panic, he closed his eyes and randomly selected one. But instead of the song playing, a line of cold words appeared on the screen: "Sorry, this song has been removed from this website due to lack of copyright authorization."

He clicked on several more songs before finding one that could be played. Unfortunately, this version was clearly a subpar cover, making them wonder if it would actually scare away the ghost.

The fog outside the car window didn't dissipate. The most eerie thing was that they realized they were the only car on the entire highway.

The weak song echoed in the car, and the two wildlife protection staff members were pale with fear, shrinking into a ball. One of them reached out and pulled the cage containing the white fox towards him, trembling as he unlocked the cage.

"What are you doing?"

"If there really is some evil spirit, it will definitely target us living people. This little thing still has a chance to run." The staff member who opened the cage was so scared that his teeth were chattering, "If we can save one... that's one."

Hu Ming glanced at the human whose hands were shaking like a Parkinson's patient, and he disdainfully turned his head. Who was saving who, with them being so scared?

The fog ahead was so thick that they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces. The driver didn't dare drive forward, so he slammed on the brakes, pulled the car to the side of the road, and turned on the hazard lights.

Three breaths, rising and falling in the silent car.

"Wow!" A crow, from somewhere, suddenly landed on the car's hood, its eyes fixed on the three people inside. These weren't the eyes of an animal; they held human emotions.

The staff member stuffed the arctic fox under the seat, holding it down to prevent it from escaping.

The crow flapped its wings and flew away. A group of people in red clothes appeared ahead on the road. Their movements were stiff, their bodies devoid of any life.

"The Ghost King is on his rounds, everyone clear the way."

The leader, mechanically reciting these words, stopped abruptly as they were about to pass the Wildlife Protection Association's car. He turned his head stiffly towards the three people: "Those who obstruct the path, shall be killed without mercy."

Hu Ming crawled out from under the seat, opened the car door with a swipe of his paw, jumped out, and swiped at the leader.

You're just a stray ghost, who do you think you are?

Ghost King, what a load of crap! You just entered the territory of Wuming City, and you dare to act so arrogant? Ever since Lord Heavenly Dao established the Divine Mansion in Wuming City, even the King of the Underworld, the head honcho of the Netherworld, has to behave himself when he comes here. A measly ghost who just arrived from somewhere else, dares to call himself king with a bunch of trash?

He can't touch Shen Chang'an, and he can't touch this trash? Hu Ming was already fuming. A fox got lost and it was even reported in the newspaper, and now this ghost was acting all high and mighty in front of him.

With a swipe of his paw, the ghost, like a torn piece of paper, split in two and fell to the ground.

"Who dares to harm my ghost messenger?"

"You think you're so tough?" Hu Ming leaped into the sedan chair. Inside sat a green-faced, fang-toothed evil ghost. Without a word, Hu Ming slapped the ghost across the face with his tail. The ghost tumbled out of the sedan chair, and as he scrambled to his feet, he tried to run.

Hu Ming was itching for a fight, how could he let him escape? With a series of kicks, he beat the ghost until his body became transparent and his soul unstable.

The three humans huddled in the car, their eyes wide with shock, almost forgetting to breathe.

This is... a live-action version of the white fox repaying a kindness. The movies didn't lie!

Hu Ming wasn't a fox who cultivated merit. After beating the evil ghost to a pulp and venting his anger, he opened his mouth wide and swallowed the ghost whole. He wasn't done yet. He gathered the other small ghosts into a ball, picked up a dirty, dusty mineral water bottle from the side of the road, and stuffed all their souls inside.

After doing all this, he turned to look at the humans in the car, who were still scared and weak, and then disappeared into the bushes.

He never wanted to see Shen Chang'an again. He didn't even want to hear his name!

"It... it ran away?" The Wildlife Protection Association staff member saw the arctic fox run off and, as the thick fog gradually dissipated, slowly regained his senses.

"When we go back, should we say we encountered ghosts on the road, and the white fox killed them and then ran off on its own? Will the leader believe us?"

"..."

Who would believe that?

"There's a dashcam in the car..." The driver swallowed hard. "Let's hurry back." If they didn't hurry, he was afraid something else, like a demon king or a tiger king, would jump out at them.

***

After dinner at Dao Nian's house, Shen Chang'an remembered the newspaper article. He handed the neatly folded newspaper to Liu Mao: "Brother Liu, the news about you sending the white fox to the police station has been reported."

"What's going on?" Dao Nian glanced at Liu Mao, "Who sent it to the police station?"

"Mr. Shen found a lost Arctic fox in his house last night. We've already arranged for someone to take the fox to the police station. Now the white fox has received the best possible care.

Hmm..." Dao Nian took the newspaper from Shen Chang'an's hand, "Good job."

Hearing this, Liu Mao understood that Hu Ming could no longer appear here.

After talking about the white fox for a while, a message popped up on Shen Chang'an's phone, a Double Eleven promotional ad. He turned to Dao Nian and asked, "Dao Nian, is there anything you want to buy lately?"

Dao Nian shook his head.

Shen Chang'an felt like he didn't really need anything special either, but he always felt like something was missing from the excitement of this shopping festival if he didn't buy anything.

He thought about it all night, but couldn't think of anything to buy. After getting up in the morning, he cut a few branches of flowers in the small garden, looked around, and found that the young gardener with the pointed face wasn't there. He asked Shen Tu, who was standing nearby, "Is the guy with the pointed face not here today?"

Because he was caught by you and sent to the police station.

Shen Tu coughed, "He wasn't serious about his work, and Brother Liu found out he was secretly bullying the parrot, so the boss fired him."

"Oh." Shen Chang'an nodded. "Animal abuse is unacceptable. Good thing he was fired."

He put the cut flowers into the vase. When he turned around to go upstairs, he saw that Dao Nian was already awake, so he exchanged the vase in his hand with the one from yesterday. "I'm going downstairs to run for a while. Call me when it's time to eat."

The sports meet was about to begin, and he still needed to sharpen his sword at the last minute.

"Mm." Dao Nian glanced at the fresh flowers with morning dew in the vase. "I've asked Old Zhao to prepare a sports meal for you."

"Do you really have to be so strict?" Shen Chang'an was shocked. Exercise meals were hard to eat.

"Since you've decided to do it, you have to do your best." Dao Nian leaned back in his chair, lazily watching Shen Chang'an. "Shen Tu has a friend named Wu Qu who is very good at sports. I've asked him to give you professional training."

"Ah?!" Although Dao Nian still looked like he didn't want to open his eyes, Shen Chang'an felt that he was smiling, and smiling very happily.

"Dao Nian, I think, this kind of thing is about participation, rankings are…"

"Don't worry, all of us will cooperate with your training." Dao Nian lowered his eyelids and stopped looking at Shen Chang'an. "Train hard."

Shen Chang'an: "..."

So the barbecue he ate the night before was his last indulgence before training?

"Dao Nian, you can't be like this when you become a parent." Shen Chang'an patted his shoulder and said earnestly, "Otherwise, how much pressure will your child be under?

Dao Nian looked up at him: "Since you're unwilling, then..."

"Forget it, it's better to get a ranking." Shen Chang'an compromised first. "But let's be clear, I can't guarantee I'll win an award."

Dao Nian nodded. After Shen Chang'an left, he took out several books from the drawer of his bedside table and threw them directly into the trash can.

The covers of these books were printed with titles like "How to Make Your Child Successful," "How to Raise a Child You Can Be Proud Of," and "Pressure Makes Progress," etc.

These books written by those so-called successful parents are useless.