Striving for Science C57

Seeing the master being pushed through the door in his wheelchair by Shen Chang'an, Liu Mao exchanged a look with Shen Tu, then turned to call Old Zhao in the kitchen to prepare the dishes.

"Wait." Shen Chang'an stopped Liu Mao. "Brother Liu, is there a doctor for external injuries here?"

"Mr. Shen, are you injured?" Liu Mao immediately took out his phone and called the doctor.

"No, it's Dao Nian." Shen Chang'an squatted beside Dao Nian, looking up at him. "Let me see your wound?"

Dao Nian didn't refuse. Shen Chang'an rolled up his pant leg and found a large bruise on the side of his calf. It was particularly noticeable against Dao Nian's fair skin. He couldn't help but gasp. Shen Chang'an wanted to reach out and touch it, but he was afraid of hurting Dao Nian, so he could only stare at it helplessly.

"Mr. Shen." Liu Mao brought over a small stool and placed it next to Shen Chang'an. "You can sit down and take a closer look."

After Shen Chang'an sat down on the stool, he turned his head and glanced at Dao Nian, who was "weak and enduring the pain." The human world was truly a big melting pot. A good Heavenly Dao, who could lie so convincingly, truly opened the eyes of the yaos.

"Mr. Liu, who is sick?" A middle-aged man wearing a long blue robe, walking with a limp, entered the courtyard, his expression somewhat anxious.

"It's..." Liu Mao glanced at Dao Nian, who was being served tea and water by Shen Chang'an, and found it difficult to say. "It's our master."

"You said who?!" The limping doctor unconsciously raised his voice. "The master needs to see a doctor?"

"Yes." Liu Mao smiled slightly. "Our master accidentally fell on the flower bed when he went out just now, and he bumped his leg, leaving a large bruise. Come and take a look."

The words "fall," "bump," and "accidentally" were pronounced with extra clarity by Liu Mao.

Doctor Li nodded silently. "I understand."

He walked to Dao Nian, his hand trembling as he grasped the other's calf. "Master, I apologize for the intrusion." He lifted the pant leg and casually glanced at it a few times. Well, the spell was used perfectly. Anyway, with his cultivation level, he couldn't tell anything was wrong.

"Doctor, is his leg okay?" Seeing the doctor staring at Dao Nian's leg without speaking, Shen Chang'an couldn't help but feel a little anxious. "Should we go to the hospital to get an X-ray or something?"

"No need, there's no fracture."

Seeing that Doctor Li hadn't even touched Dao Nian's leg before declaring that the injury wasn't serious, Shen Chang'an was a little uneasy. He smiled at the doctor and said, "Why don't you take a closer look?"

"What, you're not satisfied with the result? You want him to break his leg?" Doctor Li took out a few bottles of external injury medicine from his medical kit. "Just apply the medicine every six hours."

That's not what I meant." Shen Chang'an didn't like hearing people talk about Dao Nian's "broken leg," but the other party was a doctor, and Shen Chang'an had a natural respect for people in the medical profession, so he still smiled and said, "I'm just worried that he might have injured his bones, and it's not good if the injury is left untreated for too long."

"I see you don't want him to break his leg, you want to cause a medical dispute." Doctor Li shoved the medicine into Shen Chang'an's hand. "Don't worry, his leg is absolutely fine. If there's a problem, I'll give him my own leg."

He pointed to his own limping leg.

Shen Chang'an: "..."

This doctor is quite stingy. Why not give him the leg that's perfectly fine?

Doctor Li was about to say a few more teasing words, but before he could open his mouth, he saw the master, who had been looking down, suddenly raise his head and look at him.

He immediately swallowed his words back. His heart felt like a piece of ice had rolled into it, chilling him to the bone. He didn't dare let the other know he was frozen.

Shen Chang'an lowered his head and sprayed medicine on Dao Nian, unaware that the doctor, who had been so sharp-tongued just now, didn't even dare to breathe.

"How do you feel?" Shen Chang'an finished spraying the medicine on Dao Nian. "Do you feel any stinging?"

Dao Nian shook his head.

Shen Chang'an put the medicine away and pushed Dao Nian towards the sink to wash his hands. He didn't forget to say to Doctor Li, "Doctor Li, have you eaten? If not, stay and have some with us."

"No, thank you." Doctor Li picked up his medical bag and left without looking back. If he didn't leave, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to eat lunch at all.

"Being a doctor is really not easy, always rushing around." When they returned after washing their hands, Shen Chang'an found that Doctor Li had already left. He sighed to Dao Nian, "My mom was a doctor too. Sometimes, when she encountered patients in serious condition, she didn't even have time to eat or sleep. Once, my dad took me to the hospital to find her. She was asleep, leaning against a chair. I pulled her several times, but she didn't react. I was so scared that I cried loudly, thinking that my mom had died."

When other doctors heard his cries, they checked on his mother and realized that she had just been up for a day and a night without sleep. She was too tired and had fallen asleep during her break.

After my mother died, I often thought, if she had a regular sleep schedule, she wouldn't have died from a sudden illness. She saved so many patients, but she couldn't save herself.

Shen Chang'an didn't like to talk about his parents with others, but in front of Dao Nian, he seemed to have no such reservations. 

"The day my mom truly died, I thought the uncles and aunts at the hospital were lying to me. My mom didn't die, she was just too tired and fell asleep like that time."

"Dao Nian," he asked, "Is fate really unchangeable? So even if you do a lot of good deeds, you can't change the predetermined outcome?"

"Sorry." Dao Nian shook his head. "I can't answer you."

He was the Heavenly Dao, the fate of all things in the world was born from him. Their birth, aging, sickness, and death were all within the cycle of laws he controlled. Changing fate was a challenge and hostility to his power.

"I forgot you believe in science and don't care about the cycle of fate." Shen Chang'an scratched his head. "Let's not talk about such boring topics. Let's eat."

The food was served. Looking at the steaming dishes on the table, Dao Nian suddenly said, "Do what you want to do, don't let yourself regret it."

Shen Chang'an was stunned for a moment, then he smiled broadly at Dao Nian, "I understand."

After dinner, Shen Chang'an took a file folder to Dao Nian. "I'll show you a picture of my dad. My dad was really handsome."

These photos were taken a long time ago. The pixels were not very high back then, and they didn't care about angles or lighting. Many people looked rustic in the photos, not very handsome.

But the man in the photo had a tall and slender figure, with regular features. His eyes showed that he was a very determined man. Looking at the man in the photo, who was smiling with a mouthful of white teeth, Dao Nian suddenly remembered eighteen years ago.

That day, he had destroyed a ferocious beast that wanted to use the filth of the human world to be reborn. On the edge of the Gobi Desert, he felt a powerful force of prayer.

This force was mixed with a strong golden light of merit, which made him, who was unwilling to meddle in other people's affairs, take a second look at the clouds below.

On the dry sand and gravel, a man covered in blood lay there. There was a lingering death aura around him, a man who had already died.

On this corpse, there were two ferocious, somewhat intelligent hawks pecking at his flesh. For carnivorous hawks, this human body full of merit was a spiritual elixir that helped them cultivate.

But often, the monsters that hurt those with merit would not end well.

Dao Nian hadn't seen a human with such bright merit for a long time, so he descended from the clouds to see what this dead soul, who didn't want to leave, was asking for.

The man's translucent soul stood beside his corpse. His eyes were dull, and he was muttering to himself, but he didn't seem to notice the hawks pecking at his body.

"Xiao You, A'ru…"

"Xiao You, A'ru…"

His soul was already incomplete, clinging to his earthly attachments, lingering by the corpse, unwilling to leave. The sun beat down on the Gobi Desert, and even though this ghost had merit protecting him, he would soon dissipate completely, vanishing into the heavens and earth.

Many humans, when they die, are unwilling to give up on their loved ones, whether it be their lover or their family.

Dao Nian was unwilling to meddle in human love and separation, and as he turned to leave, he saw that the ghost, who had lost his normal senses, suddenly bent down to touch the hat a meter away from the body.

"Xiao You, the hat…"

Dao Nian stopped his departure, stared at the man for two seconds, and revealed his form, drawing away the intelligence of the two hawks that were pecking at the decaying flesh: "To consume the flesh of one who possesses great merit will bring down a heavenly curse."

"For the next thirty years, no bird-kin will awaken their divine consciousness," Dao Nian said, looking at the two hawks that were now indistinguishable from ordinary birds. "Choosing to harm others only leads to loss."

The ghost's hand reached out again and again towards the blood-soaked hat, but his transparent hands couldn't touch anything real.

And so, Dao Nian watched as this ghost repeatedly performed the same actions, until the sun set and the moon rose, until the moon set and the stars faded, until the light of dawn broke.

He had then spread his arms, opening the gate to the Underworld, and threw the remaining soul inside.

After the gate to the Underworld disappeared, he glanced at the hat at his feet. Bending down, he picked up the dirty, smelly hat and placed it on the corpse's hand.

It was just a small thing he did on a whim, Dao Nian didn't even bother to find out who the "Xiao You" and "A'ru" mentioned by the ghost were. But he never imagined that the righteous remnant soul would be Chang'an's father.

"Isn't he handsome?"

"Handsome." Dao Nian put down the photo and looked at Chang'an. "Where do you want to go tomorrow?"

"I'll take you to watch the flag raising first." Shen Chang'an carefully put the photo away. "After that, I'll take you to eat breakfast."

Raise the flag?

Even Dao Nian, who had seen and heard much, didn't expect this answer.

"I asked Brother Liu, and he said you've never been to the capital. It would be a shame to come here and not watch the flag raising once." Shen Chang'an said, "If you don't like it, we can go visit my elders directly tomorrow. My family visit request has already been approved."

"No need, let's go watch the flag raising after." Based on his understanding of humans, the elders Chang'an knew would likely appreciate young people who were positive, patriotic, and loved their country and land.

***

That night, after twelve o'clock, Dao Nian was pulled out of bed by Shen Chang'an.

He was practically shoved into the car. Shen Chang'an got in and sat beside him, saying, "There are so many people in the morning, we need to go early and get a good spot, otherwise we won't even be able to see the flagpole."

As the Heavenly Dao, going out at dawn to queue up for the flag-raising ceremony... if other little yaos knew about this, it would probably become a hot topic for several realms.

Dao Nian suppressed all his aura and, when he got out of the car, wrapped himself up in a scarf and mask.

It was a cold day, and there were already many people on the sidewalk heading towards the square. Dao Nian saw elderly people in military uniforms, fashionable young people, and...

Several young people spinning in place, seemingly lost, with a look of confusion on their faces.

These young people were wearing ill-fitting, tattered clothes. They wanted to ask passersby for directions, but these people ignored them and hurried away in the darkness.