Striving for Science C44

He turned to leave, but after taking only two steps, he suddenly remembered his childhood. Back then, he didn't know that these colorful stones were made of glass. He thought they were magical stones, so he asked his mother to buy him several.

He had left in a hurry when he moved to the countryside to live with his grandmother, and he didn't have time to pack those stones. He hadn't played with them since.

Thinking about this, he turned around and picked up the lonely stone, stuffing it into his coat pocket.

It was actually quite heavy, considering it was only slightly bigger than a bird's egg.

When they arrived at Uncle Zhang's house, Shen Chang'an distributed the barbecue to Zhang Gu and the otaku ghost. He saw Uncle Zhang and Dharma Master Yan Yin discussing some profound philosophical principles. Although he didn't quite understand them, they sounded pretty impressive.

His phone rang. It was the call from the custom-made craft shop owner he had contacted.

"It's done so quickly? Didn't you say it would be ready tomorrow at noon?"

"Can I come and pick it up now?" Shen Chang'an saw that it was still early and wanted to get the gift he had specially customized for Dao Nian as soon as possible.

"I'll be there in half an hour. Thank you." Shen Chang'an hung up the phone, got up, and prepared to leave.

"Chang'an, where are you going?" Zhang Gu was fighting with the otaku ghost over the chicken wings. Seeing Shen Chang'an had just come in and was about to leave again, he said, "It's so late.

"I ordered a gift for a friend. It was supposed to be ready tomorrow, but the shop owner finished it today, and I want to give it to him as soon as possible." Shen Chang'an said as he walked out, and by the time he finished speaking, he had already gone down a few steps. Thinking about how Dao Nian might like this gift, his legs moved faster.

"Hey..." Zhang Gu chased after him to the door, watching Shen Chang'an's hurried back: "It's so late, is it really okay to pick up a gift and give it to someone?"

"Late? What's late? When you give a gift to someone you care about, the moment you get it, you want to give it to them, even if it's in the middle of the night." The otaku ghost crunched on a crispy bone, "You cultivators don't understand the feelings of ordinary people."

"You're a dead otaku, how would you know?" Zhang Gu returned to the sofa and continued to fight with the otaku ghost over the barbecue, "If you really understood, you wouldn't be a single pringle until death. If you want to escape being single, you'll have to wait until your next life."

"I remember someone asking me to play games with him just now?" The otaku ghost thought ominously, "Sorry, but the most stingy people are those who are single until death…"

Zhang Gu: "..."

Remembering how he was called a "box spirit"* in a certain game, he decided to back down.

TN: noob, that dies so often in games leaving behind a box of equipment

***

Shen Chang'an rushed to the shop door. Several nearby stores had already closed, but this one was still lit with dim yellow lights.

"Boss, sorry to keep you waiting." Shen Chang'an knocked on the door and went inside. The shop owner was a man in his sixties or seventies. The less than ten square meter shop looked a bit crowded. The shop owner sat under a handmade lamp, gently wiping a newly carved object with a cloth.

Seeing Shen Chang'an enter, he put down the object in his hand, got up, and took out a palm-sized box from the cabinet: "This is what you ordered."

Normally, it would take a long time to get a finished product like this tree carving. But Shen Chang'an was lucky. When he came to choose a gift, he happened to see a small root carving that was about to be finished and no one had bought it, so he immediately paid a month's salary for it.

"Not many people like these things nowadays. Young man, is this for an elder in your family?" The shopkeeper, with trembling hands, placed the box in Shen Chang'an's palm. It was a cold November night, and there was no air conditioning in the shop. Shen Chang'an accidentally touched the shopkeeper's hand, which was icy cold.

He felt a little embarrassed. It was so cold, and he had made the old shopkeeper wait so long. He remembered that there was a fast food restaurant nearby that was still open, so he put the box back in the shopkeeper's hand: "Wait for me for two minutes, I'll be right back."

He ran to the fast food restaurant and bought a cup of hot milk. Shen Chang'an, out of breath, put the milk in the shopkeeper's hand: "Hold this to warm your hands. I'll pay you the rest."

The shopkeeper held the milk and smiled: "You came just in time tonight. I'm closing this shop tomorrow."

Shen Chang'an, who had taken out his phone and was about to scan the QR code on the wall to pay, was stunned. Last night, when he came here, the old man said he didn't want his craft to die out and was going to find an apprentice. Why did he suddenly decide to close the shop?

"I've been carving roots for a lifetime. I came back to Wuming City a few years ago, hoping to find a suitable apprentice." The shopkeeper's gaze swept over the various root carvings in the room, his eyes filled with a deep sense of reluctance. "But life always has some things that are incomplete, so it's best to let go."

Shen Chang'an felt a tinge of sadness in the atmosphere. He paid the remaining balance, picked up the box containing the root carving, and said, "This isn't for an elder. I want to give it to a friend, because... it's beautiful, and I like it too."

"There aren't many young people who like these traditional crafts nowadays." The shopkeeper chuckled. Perhaps due to spending years indoors carving wood, his complexion appeared pale under the dim light. "I had already gone to bed, but thinking about the order I hadn't delivered to you, my customer, I felt uneasy. Thankfully, you came tonight. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to give it to you tomorrow."

Shen Chang'an found this statement a bit odd. Even if the shop was closing tomorrow, why was it so urgent to deliver it tonight?

"Well... thank you. Take care of yourself, elder." Shen Chang'an tucked the gift box into the pocket of his oversized coat, turned to leave, and seeing the shopkeeper still holding the cup of hot milk and smiling at him, he couldn't help but soften his heart and add, "Drink the milk while it's hot. You'll sleep better at night."

"I know, young man." The shopkeeper's smile grew even more benevolent. "Young man, you have such a kind heart. You're a lucky person."

Shen Chang'an thought, he had no parents, and lived a solitary life, how could he be considered lucky? But thinking about the happy days he had been experiencing since meeting Dao Nian, he felt that he might be a little lucky after all.

He walked past the chilly intersection. When he looked back, the lights of the narrow, dilapidated root carving shop had already been extinguished. A gust of wind blew, making him shiver involuntarily. He quickly got into his car, started the engine, and drove towards Dao Nian's home.

As he drove into the residential complex and parked, Shen Chang'an saw several people walking out of Dao Nian's house with dejected expressions. They must have been criticized by Dao Nian for not performing well, otherwise, why would they be so downcast?

He moved his car to the side, intending to let them pass first. However, the thin man at the front stopped, turned around, and politely nodded to him, "Mr. Shen."

"Hello." Shen Chang'an was a little puzzled. How did these people know him? But their state seemed truly terrible, so he didn't ask further and simply watched them leave.

"Mr. Shen?" Shen Tu saw Chang'an standing on the steps and smiled, "Why have you come?"

"Is Dao Nian asleep?" Shen Chang'an felt awkward about coming specifically to see Dao Nian with a custom-made gift. He nervously tucked his hands into his coat pockets. "I have something to talk to him about."

"Master hasn't gone to sleep yet." Hearing that Shen Chang'an had come specifically to see Dao Nian, Shen Tu's smile became even brighter. He opened the door, "Come in, it's cold outside."

After entering the house, Shen Chang'an noticed something amiss with the parrot on the bird stand. The entire bird was listless, as if it had been subjected to a great shock.

"What's wrong with this parrot?" Shen Chang'an placed some food in front of the parrot, but it didn't move.

"Maybe it's unhappy because it didn't see you today." Liu Mao walked up to Shen Chang'an, looking at the listless Fei Ying, "Is that right, little parrot?"

Fei Ying shook its feathers and flapped its wings, "Yes, yes..."

Shen Chang'an gently touched the feathers on its forehead and said to Liu Mao, "I'll go upstairs to find Dao Nian. You can try to cheer this bird up."

"Okay." Liu Mao smiled, "You didn't come for dinner tonight, and Master even ate half a bowl less."

"That won't do." Upon hearing this, Shen Chang'an quickly ran upstairs.

As soon as Shen Chang'an left, Fei Ying slumped back down. As a bird-type yao cultivator, the disappearance of the Phoenix lineage, even the elders within the clan couldn't figure out its whereabouts, which was a huge blow to the bird clan, and even the entire yao race.

She couldn't possibly be happy at this moment.

She didn't know who stole the phoenix egg. The egg's life force was already very weak, barely surviving on the elders' spiritual energy every day. Now that it's out there, wouldn't it be completely...

Fei Ying didn't dare to think about it, but she knew it wasn't a good omen.

***

"Dao Nian." Shen Chang'an walked into Dao Nian's room, seeing him still reading. He closed the door and said, "It's so late, why are you still reading?"

"It's so late, why are you still here?" Dao Nian glanced at him lightly.

"Hehe." Shen Chang'an chuckled, walking to Dao Nian's side and whispering like a thief, "I ordered a little gift for you. It's a bit expensive, so I only ordered one for you." This kind of preferential treatment couldn't be heard by others.

He rummaged in his jacket pocket, taking out the gift box. He accidentally dropped the colorful stone he had put in his pocket earlier, but neither of them paid attention to it.

"This is... you prepared this specially for me?" Dao Nian stared at the box in Shen Chang'an's hand for a few seconds before reaching out to take it.

The box opened, revealing a root carving. It wasn't complicated, with two little rabbits grinding medicine on a curved moon. On the tip of the moon, there was a half-opened trumpet vine flower.

"Look at these two little rabbits, one sitting still, the other smiling and grinding medicine. Don't they look like us?" Shen Chang'an said, "Yesterday when I saw this root carving, I wanted to buy it, but the shopkeeper still had a little bit to finish. I was supposed to get it tomorrow, but the shopkeeper called me just now and said it was done, so I rushed to pick it up."

Dao Nian looked at the two tiny rabbits. They were carved so small, he couldn't see how they could possibly resemble them.

But since Chang'an said it looks like them, then it must look like them.

"Right? Doesn't it look like us?" Shen Chang'an saw Dao Nian staring at the two little rabbits and said happily, "I thought about it for a long time, and I didn't know what to get you. I just thought this was good, both elegant and beautiful."

And he could afford it.

"Yeah, it looks like it." Dao Nian placed the root carving on his bedside table, took a picture with his phone, and then opened his Moments.

Nian: Gift [Picture]

Shen Chang'an finally remembered the colorful stone that had fallen on the carpet. He picked it up and placed it next to the vase on the cabinet: "People say it's like a pie falling from the sky, but for me, it's a colorful stone falling from the sky."

He took two steps back and examined it carefully: "But this colorful stone that looks like a bird's egg actually looks quite nice next to the vase."

Dao Nian only then noticed the stone by the vase. His eyelids twitched slightly, and his gaze lingered on Shen Chang'an for a long time: "This, you found it?"

"Yeah." Shen Chang'an nodded. "I just got to the entrance of the neighborhood today, and this stone hit me. Luckily, I was lucky and didn't get a head wound."

He saw that Dao Nian didn't seem interested in this cheap little stone, so he put it back in his coat pocket: "At first, I thought it was a bird's egg."

"For example, a five-colored divine stone falls from the sky, and after encountering the destined child, a phoenix or a divine dragon hatches from it, leading to a life of peak achievement…"

Just then, Shen Chang'an suddenly stopped, trembling as he pulled out the stone he had tucked into his pocket.

“This… this… it’s cracked.”

So it wasn't the stone that cracked his head open, but his head that smashed the stone?

Shen Chang'an couldn't help but touch the spot where he had been hit. There was still a faint bump there, which felt a little sore and wasn't hard.

So, it must be the quality of this handmade five-colored stone that was the problem?

"Chirp..." A small, pink bird, almost featherless and about the size of a thumb, struggled to climb out of the stone.

Shen Chang'an held the stone, his hand trembling as he watched the bird with its beak open, ready to eat. He looked up at Dao Nian, whose expression was blank, and stammered, "Dao... Dao Nian, a bird just popped out of the stone?!"