Striving for Science C115 extra

As everyone knows, the future heir of the Bird Clan, the last descendant of the Phoenix Clan, the young Phoenix Lord, has a very down-to-earth nickname: Little Sparrow. The little yaos in the Demon Realm couldn't understand why a phoenix of such noble status would be called this. When they asked the elders in the clan, the elders would only smile mysteriously, refusing to tell them the reason.

The bird tribe's position in the Yao realm was quite awkward. Logically, they should have been highly respected, with the phoenix bloodline as their successor and a parrot yao as the Heavenly Dao's lover's pet. However, in recent years, the young phoenix lord has already awakened his spiritual awareness and can transform into human form. The Heavenly Dao Lord also doesn't like to see them.

There were rumors that over twenty years ago, a bird tribe yao cultivator violated the Yao realm's rules by consuming the bodies and souls of those with merit. The Heavenly Dao Lord discovered this, and for twenty years, no bird yao has awakened their spiritual awareness and transformed. There was also a less credible rumor that the person whose soul the bird tribe almost devoured was the father of the Heavenly Dao's lover, Shen Chang'an.

If it were true, then it would be a blood feud, an unforgivable offense. The bird tribe's young lord was left with Shen Chang'an. Could he be a hostage bird?

The only phoenix in the world ended up with his enemy. It's truly a case of a fallen phoenix being no better than a chicken.

Other tribes didn't have ancient bloodlines left behind, so they occasionally relied on imagining how miserable the phoenix was to maintain their own psychological balance.

Some yaos even secretly thought, "Humans have short lifespans. After ten or eight years, their beauty will fade. Maybe by then, Shen Chang'an will lose the Heavenly Dao Lord's love, and we yaos will have a chance to compete."

"Dream on. What I can't do, other yaos can't do either." Hearing these rumors, Hu Ming scratched his chubby chin with his hind legs, lazily sprawled in his nest, and glanced sideways at the humans taking pictures of him outside the glass wall. His beauty was enough to captivate countless humans. The Heavenly Dao wasn't human, so his aesthetic preferences were different from ordinary people.

"Look, there's a fat fox! Hahahahaha!" Suddenly, a child laughed outside, "How can a fox be so fat? I almost thought it was a pig."

Whose brat is so clueless?!

Hu Ming raised his head, looked at the short, chubby child pressed against the glass wall, and retorted in fox language that humans couldn't understand, "You call me fat? Take a look in the mirror. Are you a human or a ball?"

"Wow, this fox can talk!" The chubby child widened his eyes, pointed at Hu Ming, and turned to the adult behind him, "Lord, he's scolding a child. Punish him."

"So what if I scold you? If I hadn't calmed down in recent years, I would have wanted to beat..." Hu Ming swallowed his words because he recognized the person behind the brat.

"You've gotten fatter since we last met." Shen Chang'an reached out and poked the little fat boy's head, "Didn't I tell you not to make fun of other people's appearances?"

"But it's not a human, it's a fox-pig!" The little fat boy hugged Shen Chang'an's leg, "In the whole world, no one is more handsome than you, Lord."

At such a young age, he already mastered the art of flattery.

Hu Ming realized that the child hugging Shen Chang'an's leg wasn't human, but... a yao?

His bloodline might be noble. With Hu Ming's cultivation level, he couldn't discern his origins.

The little phoenix looked at the chubby white fox with disdain. With such looks, he dared to compete with his Lord for the Heavenly Dao a few years ago? What audacity!

"Tsk." He retracted his gaze with disgust, placing his hands behind his back. As a noble phoenix, the Heavenly Dao Lord's exclusive pet, he didn't need to waste his gaze on such a defeated foe.

Hu Ming: "..."

Which tribe's brat is this? Don't think that just because there are fewer yao descendants who can transform now, he wouldn't dare to hit him.

"He's clearly a yao, yet he's mooching off the human zoo. He's really not ambitious." The little phoenix asked in a naive tone, using the yao language, "Lord, can't our little monsters learn from him?"

Shen Chang'an: "..."

Don't think that just because you're pretending to be innocent, I can't see through your deliberate malice. Before, he couldn't tell that this fox was a yao, but now he can, yet he doesn't want to lose face for the other party.

As a yao, eating and drinking in a human zoo, making himself so fat... it's really... hard to describe.

Late at night, the zoo had already closed. Hu Ming, lying in his nest, suddenly opened his eyes. He looked at Shen Chang'an, who had suddenly walked through the wall, and his tail almost stood on end in surprise, "Shen Chang'an, how can you do wall-walking magic?!"

Could it be… that Shen Chang'an died after just one afternoon of not seeing him?

Shen Chang'an walked to the side of the fox's den and squatted down, looking at Hu Ming from head to toe: "I heard from little Sparrow that you're interested in my person?"

"You can believe a child's words?" Hu Ming, the whole fox, exploded. "I'm not, I didn't, don't talk nonsense."

Although Hu Ming's rejection was swift, Shen Chang'an saw a guilty look on its fluffy, chubby face.

Pretending not to see its guilt, Shen Chang'an pulled Hu Ming out of the warm fox den and sat down himself: "The ground is cold, you can't sit directly on it."

Hu Ming: "..."

You can't sit on the ground, so you drag me out? How could the Heavenly Dao Lord fall for such a shameless thing?

"Don't be so stingy." Seeing Hu Ming glaring at him, Shen Chang'an rummaged through his pockets and pulled out two tissues to put on the ground. However, after looking at Hu Ming's size, he pulled out two more and placed Hu Ming on them. "Isn't that better?"

Hu Ming: "Why don't you sit on the paper?!"

"Because I don't want to." Shen Chang'an said confidently. "You want to steal my man, I haven't even settled the score with you, be content."

Hu Ming… Hu Ming was stunned by Shen Chang'an's audacity?

Was that called stealing a man? From beginning to end, the Heavenly Dao Lord had never looked at him directly. Was that stealing? It was a one-sided beatdown by Shen Chang'an.

"Little fox, be gentle with your savior." Shen Chang'an took the opportunity to stroke Hu Ming's fur. It was a bit chubby, but the fur quality was good.

Savior?

Hu Ming looked at Shen Chang'an in bewilderment. It was he who saved him, how could he have the face to call himself a savior?

Shen Chang'an didn't explain. Back then, he was still a normal human, so he didn't know that what he truly wished for could actually come true. Hu Ming almost died in the hands of that gray-clothed man, because he happened to wish to see Hu Ming at the zoo, so Hu Ming was transported to the zoo and discovered by others.

But he didn't intend to tell Hu Ming these things. It was quite interesting that all the monsters in the world were guessing when he would grow old and die, but he just wouldn't age or die.

Life is so long, you have to find some fun.

"Are you going to stay in this zoo forever, not going back?" Pretending not to see Hu Ming's struggle, Shen Chang'an stroked its fur intermittently. "I heard that your fox clan elders have been looking for you for years."

Hu Ming didn't speak.

"To find you, the fox clan elder has begged Dao Nian several times. Last time, he even followed us to the South Pole." Shen Chang'an shook his head and sighed. "Poor thing, living in the tropics, he shivered in the ice of the South Pole."

"Is the fox elder alright?!" Hu Ming asked anxiously. "What about the other yaos in the Beast yao clan, why didn't they persuade him?"

"How to persuade?" Shen Chang'an said. "Should they persuade him not to care about you, or let you fend for yourself?"

Hu Ming fell silent. In recent days, he would sometimes sneak close to some young yaos who were still naive and ask them about some yao clan matters. The young yaos didn't know much about other things, but they were gossipy. When asked about serious matters, they only knew that the Pig Elder had colluded with villains. Later, the villains, in order to provoke the Bird, Beast, and Water clans, deliberately killed the Pig Elder, trying to frame the Water and Bird clans. Fortunately, the Dragon King and the Peacock Elder were prepared, and when the three clans were about to fight, the Heavenly Dao Lord, who usually didn't care about things, actually appeared in person, and thus nipped this incident, which could have caused chaos in the yao realm, in the bud.

Hearing that the yao clan crisis had passed, Hu Ming secretly returned to the zoo. Perhaps because he was afraid of going home, or perhaps because he felt that his attempt to attract the Heavenly Dao Lord was ridiculous, he felt that he had no face to appear in the yao clan.

"It's been years. The gossip in the yao clan has changed countless times. Who would still care about what you did before?" Shen Chang'an poked Hu Ming, "Do you want to spend your whole life in the zoo as the longest-living fox, only to be studied by human experts for the secret to your longevity?"

Hu Ming: "..."

"As a fox yao, you're constantly being watched by humans as you eat and sleep. You don't feel embarrassed about that, but you're suddenly getting all coy about going back to your own clan?" Shen Chang'an saw that Hu Ming was starting to waver, so he pressed on, "If you're too embarrassed to go back, I'll have the fox elder come and get you?"

"Wait!" Hu Ming stretched out his paw in a shouting gesture, "Give me another two months, and I can go back on my own.

Why another two months?"

"I... can't I diet?" He's the most handsome man in the yao race, he has to maintain his image!

***

A few weeks later, a news about a zoo abusing a fox suddenly became a hot topic on the internet platform. The reason was that a netizen discovered that a fox, which was very popular at a zoo he often visited, had become increasingly thin recently. He suspected that the keeper was abusing the animal, so he brought the matter to the internet.

After the matter blew up, the zoo director immediately came forward to clarify that they did not abuse the animals, and after the fox became uninterested in eating, they invited famous animal experts and animal psychology experts, but none of them could increase the fox's appetite.

After the invited experts came forward to confirm the truth of what the zoo director said, everyone truly believed that the once chubby fox was actually dieting!

A netizen captured a photo of the white fox happily pouncing on the food when the keeper brought it, but then suddenly stopped, and with a paw, flipped over the food bowl.

Netizen Comment 1: This action is exactly like my sister when she was on a diet. Did this fox realize it's too fat and started dieting? Hahahaha!

Netizen Comment 10: Although what 1st floor said isn't very reliable, I somehow feel... it's very similar.

Netizen Comment 23: This fox's expression is like, 'Get out of my way, you damn delicious food!'

Netizen Comment 55: Woah, that's a very accurate description.

Because of the video's popularity, Hu Ming once again topped human trending searches. Even some of the little yaos who usually loved playing with their phones saw it, and they laughed along with the humans, completely unaware that this fox, who had been starving for weeks but was still somewhat plump, was the once-famous yao fox Hu Ming, known throughout the yao realm for his beauty.

It wasn't until a few days later that Elder Hu, by chance, saw this video.

He stared at the video, a picture of a "Second Master" sitting in the zoo, his eyes narrowed, his double chin bulging, his paw swatting over the food bowl, his expression shifting from surprise to anger, then from anger to indifference.

"Which zoo did this fox come from?" The fox elder, who usually loved to smile, asked the little yaos with a blank expression.

The little yaos was startled by the fox elder's unusual behavior and stammered out the address.

"Heh." The fox elder sneered, turning to leave.

***

At night, Hu Ming used his paw to stroke his double chin and sighed. Was two months of dieting not enough?

Should he talk to Shen Chang'an about extending the time a little?

Just as he was thinking this, a gust of wind came and knocked him against the glass wall.

“You’ve grown up!” A man in a white robe walked up to him, grabbed his tail and sneered, “Whose fox is this, so ugly.”

Elder?!

Hu Ming cursed inwardly, that shameless Shen Chang'an! We agreed on two months, but the Elder arrived after only two or three weeks?!

Humans are truly untrustworthy!

Soon after, the yao race had a new piece of gossip. Hu Ming, who had been missing for a long time, was brought back by the Fox Elder. However, no one knew why his tail fur had been completely plucked.