Striving for Science C45

The room was deathly silent.

Dao Nian looked at Chang'an without speaking. Chang'an trembled, holding a bird that hadn't even grown its feathers, not knowing what to say.

"Dao Nian, what should I do?" Shen Chang'an waited for almost half a minute, but still didn't get a response from Dao Nian. Seeing the little bird in his palm trembling, as if it was freezing, he felt a little panicked: "If I had known it was a bird egg, I should have put it back in the nest. Now it's covered in the scent of a stranger, even if I send it back, the bird mother might not recognize it."

He couldn't possibly raise a newborn bird like this.

***

The bird tribe elder returned to the tribe in despair. They pushed open the door of the Divine Phoenix Hall and knelt down in a daze.

Had their bird tribe truly reached such a hopeless point?

At that moment, a faint light flickered from a lamp at the foot of the Divine Phoenix statue.

"The Phoenix Lamp…"

"It's lit?"

This lamp was made with phoenix feathers as its wick and phoenix tears as its oil. If a phoenix was born in the world, this lamp would light up. However, in the past few thousand years, this lamp had never lit up.

Now, this lamp suddenly lit up. The elders kneeling before the Divine Phoenix statue couldn't believe their eyes.

"Phoenix... a phoenix was born?" Elder Crane trembled as he held up the Phoenix Lamp with both hands, "The phoenix lineage, it hatched."

The elders were so excited that tears streamed down their faces, and they couldn't stop sobbing. After their excitement subsided, they suddenly realized that the phoenix lineage had hatched, but where was the phoenix, and who hatched it?

"Search."

"We must find the Divine Phoenix, even if it means sacrificing the entire bird tribe."

"Go find it immediately, search all night."

"This is our bird tribe's... last hope."

***

At Dao Nian's home, Shen Chang'an wrapped the fragile little bird in a soft towel: "I just checked online, this kind of newborn bird needs to be fed by its parents to survive."

"I hope this guy is a protected species, so I can hand it over to the experts." Shen Chang'an looked at Dao Nian, who remained silent, "Dao Nian, do you know any experts in this field?"

"No." Dao Nian looked at the bird in the towel, its mouth wide open, waiting to be fed, "Even if you send this bird to a rescue station, it won't get much attention."

"It won't survive, just throw it away."

Shen Chang'an held the little bird and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Dao Nian stared at Shen Chang'an's back. In his dark eyes, countless emotions seemed to be surging, but upon closer inspection, there was nothing in those eyes, no joy, anger, sorrow, or joy, and naturally, no love or hate.

"I'll talk to the parrot downstairs, they're both birds, maybe it can raise it?" Shen Chang'an shrugged, "The parrot downstairs is so smart, maybe it's willing to raise a cheap son?"

"Wait." Dao Nian stopped him, "Liu Mao knows a little about raising birds, leave the bird here and go downstairs to call him up."

"Alright." Shen Chang'an gently placed the little bird on the table, turned around, and ran downstairs.

Dao Nian quietly watched the small bird, his hand resting on the armrest of his wheelchair. He slowly stood up, walked to the bird, and reached out to cover it with his hand.

A species that shouldn't have been born, how could it escape the laws left by the Great Dao and be born in his presence?

His five fingers slowly closed. With a slight effort, this thing that shouldn't have been born could return to its original trajectory of fate and disappear from the world forever.

"Chirp, chirp, chirp." The young bird's tender head bumped against his palm. This should have been a lovable sight, but Dao Nian's eyes held no emotion.

"Dao Nian, Uncle Zhao made some late-night snacks. I'll wash my hands and bring them up for you."

Shen Chang'an's voice came from downstairs. The five fingers that were already closing suddenly stopped. Dao Nian released his fingers, stared at the young bird for three seconds, and retracted his hand.

"Sir." Liu Mao, who had already appeared at the door, looked at Dao Nian, who was expressionless, and bowed to him.

Dao Nian glanced at him, flashed back to his wheelchair, and said coldly, "Watch over it. Don't let it die."

"This is... the lost phoenix bloodline of the bird race?" Liu Mao walked into the room, looking at the small bird wrapped in a towel in shock. "How did it end up here?"

Dao Nian didn't speak.

"Sir, the phoenix clan should have been extinct. Why did you keep it?" As one of the forty-nine incarnations of the laws left by the Great Dao, the master's actions shouldn't deviate too much from the laws. But keeping this phoenix remnant today goes against the rules he should follow.

It's like a human knowing that something is bad for their health, but they still choose to eat it.

What he couldn't understand even more was how this bird hatched.

Footsteps came from the hallway. Liu Mao turned and looked at Shen Chang'an, who was carrying two bowls of late-night snacks, and closed his mouth.

"Brother Liu, do you think this bird can be kept alive?" Shen Chang'an placed the tray on the small table, put the mushroom and chicken soup noodles in front of Dao Nian, and sat down on the lazy sofa himself. "If it can be saved, please help rescue it. Maybe saving a bird's life will bring good luck."

"This bird... did you bring it back?" In a flash, Liu Mao suddenly thought of a possibility. His voice trembled slightly. "Saving this bird will bring good luck to me and the sir?"

"Of course." Shen Chang'an handed the chopsticks to Dao Nian. Seeing that Dao Nian didn't take them, he raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"Wash hands." Dao Nian's voice was calm.

"Oh." Chang'an realized and pushed Dao Nian into the bathroom to wash his hands. "Uncle Zhao's stir-fried ingredients are too fragrant. He originally only planned to make one bowl for you, but I shamelessly asked him to add another bowl of noodles so I could eat with you."

Dao Nian glanced at Shen Chang'an's bowl, which had only a few noodles left, and didn't expose his "want to eat" lie. He lowered his head and silently took a sip of soup. Looking up, he said to Liu Mao, "Take it back and raise it. In the future..."

He turned his gaze back to Shen Chang'an: "When it grows up, it can be a pet for Chang'an. It will be useful."

Liu Mao's expression changed several times before he slowly said, "Yes."

Fei Ying sulked on the bird perch. Seeing Liu Mao holding a young bird without even feathers, she felt a sense of crisis. "Does Mr. Shen have a new pet?"

The bird race had already lost the phoenix bloodline and couldn't afford to lose their connection with Mr. Shen.

This bird looks small and ugly. It's obviously a common bird with ordinary bloodline. It's probably difficult for it to even develop spiritual intelligence in the future.

Fei Ying quickly stated her position, "Can he make Mr. Shen happy like I do?"

Liu Mao looked at Fei Ying with a complex expression, "Do you really think so?"

"Of course." Fei Ying thought, she was Mr. Shen's number one pet.

"As long as you're happy." Liu Mao raised an eyebrow, took the bird, which was still covered in down, to the kitchen, and checked if Old Zhao had anything to feed it.

***

That night, some night owls who were up late posted on the forum.

【There were so many birds flying around my neighborhood tonight. Half an hour ago, even the pigeons I raised ran away. Is this some kind of omen?】

Netizen 1: OP! It's the same here, I was scared I was going to have an earthquake. Thankfully, my cats and dogs were sleeping soundly, so I felt relieved.

Netizen 2: The person above is here to show off their cats and dogs, confirmed.

Netizen 3: You're up so late at night, and you can still observe birds flying outside? You must be a single dog.

Netizen 4: Seeing this post, I'm going to open my window and look outside. Then I suddenly remembered that we're in the north, and there's snow outside, so I can't see anything...

A few minutes later, the netizen from the north who said they were going to open the window came back.

Netizen 129: Holy crap, holy crap, it's snowing here today, and there are actually a lot of sparrows on the snow! 【Picture】

This netizen not only posted a message but also uploaded a picture. The lighting wasn't very good at night, so everyone could only see a lot of small dots on the snow, and it was unclear whether they were fallen leaves from the trees or the "sparrows" the netizen claimed.

Some netizens didn't believe it and asked the OP how many small accounts they had opened to spread rumors in this post?

OP: Whoever is spreading rumors is a fool, I live in X City, X County, are there any netizens who live in the same place as me? Go out and see for yourselves.

Netizen 571: You won't believe this, but I just opened my window and almost got slapped by a suddenly appearing owl. Even more magical, there were a few pigeons following behind it. So owls and pigeons have such a good relationship?

Netizen 1256: I think... maybe birds are preparing to overthrow our human rule. Hundreds of years from now, we humans will become zoo animals, the kind that birds pay money to see.

Netizen 1257: So after all this discussion, none of you have any clear photos to confirm it?

Netizen 1265: Confirmed, confirmed, I knew it was going to be confirmed. It's late at night, and birds fly fast. Forget taking photos, even filming a video is impossible. These birds are like they're being directed. As soon as I took out my phone, a bird came out to block me. I almost dropped my phone in fright.

For a while, it seemed like there were large flocks of birds appearing in many places. But Wuming City was quiet. Not only were there no birds flying around, but even the chirping of insects couldn't be heard.

***

The next morning, when Shen Chang'an woke up, he received a phone notification about a news article: "Birds Migrate Erratically in Multiple Locations, Experts Speculate Earth's Magnetic Field Disturbance Affects Birds' Direction-Finding Ability, Urge Humans to Protect the Environment."

What's with all this? Don't birds migrate in the fall? It's already winter, and they haven't reached their destination yet?

Closing the notification page, Shen Chang'an lazily crawled out of bed. When he went downstairs after washing up, he saw Liu Mao there and casually asked, "Is that bird from last night still alive?"

"Don't worry, Mr. Shen, it's still alive." Liu Mao led Shen Chang'an to where the little bird was kept. Someone had sewn a nest for it, and the bird was curled up comfortably inside. When it saw Shen Chang'an, it chirped a few times and stretched out its little wings as if wanting a hug.

Shen Chang'an didn't dare move. Such a small creature, he could crush it with just two fingers.

Fei Ying looked disdainfully at the ugly bird with barely any feathers. It had only been born a couple of days and already knew how to curry favor with its owner. What a scheming bird.

As a national second-class protected animal, a scarlet-breasted parrot, she, Fei Ying, would never give up!

"You're the older brother, you need to protect the younger brother." Shen Chang'an took some food and put it in the bird feeder to feed Fei Ying, "You're both birds anyway, don't be so divided."

Fei Ying: "..."

No, I'm a female bird! I'm a noble pure-blood scarlet-breasted parrot!

"Master is the best, master is the most wonderful!" Fei Ying proactively extended her bird head and rubbed against Shen Chang'an's index finger. But when she saw Dao Nian coming out of the elevator, she immediately retracted her head.

As a smart pet, she would never be affectionate with her owner in front of the master.

She turned her head to look at the featherless bird that was still chirping and trying to get closer to Shen Chang'an, a mocking look in her eyes. This unintelligent bird, how could it compete with her.

"Dao Nian, are you awake?" Shen Chang'an turned to push the wheelchair, "Why are you up so early today?"

Dao Nian glanced at the chirping bird, his voice calm, "It was too noisy last night."

Hearing this, Fei Ying didn't dare to breathe. It seemed that the adults were unhappy about the bird tribe's search for the phoenix bloodline last night.

"Noisy?" Shen Chang'an scratched his head. Could it be that he had slept too soundly last night and hadn't heard anything?

"Liu Mao." Dao Nian closed his eyes. "Tell them... " He turned to Shen Chang'an. "Tell them we've found it, and have them come here to collect it."

"Sir..." Liu Mao hesitated.

"Go."

"Yes."

Fei Ying stiffly turned her head to look at the featherless, ugly bird beside her. Did the Lord mean it in the way she thought?

She screamed in despair and collapsed on the ground.

Who gave her the guts to say that the Phoenix bloodline was small and ugly?

It's over.