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Zhong Kui's Diary
"One must learn to make choices!" Zhao Lei pretended to pick up a bottle of mineral water, twist it open, and took a sip as if it were liquor, then put the bottle down and continued, "Once a man understands how to make choices, he is no longer just a pure man. We can call him Invincible East or Yue Buqun; once a woman understands how to make choices, she is no longer just a pure woman. We can call her Chun Ge or Brother Zeng!"
"Is your idea of making choices just getting rid of your protruding parts?" I laughed.
"Haha, just joking. But seriously, the boundaries between men and women have become quite blurred now. The phrase 'red lips and white teeth' is used to describe those effeminate types, while 'strong and bold' describes the tough women. Am I wrong, Zhengnan Brothers?" Zhao Lei sighed, but his gaze shifted to Xiao Qingcheng beside me: "Fortunately, Miss Xiao is still as stunning as ever."
Xiao Qingcheng was not impressed by this flattery and rolled her eyes while looking out the window.
I met Zhao Lei on the train. After the Doll incident, the first thing I did when I returned to Star City was to ask Kong Xuan to accompany me to find Nine Nether Grass. Kong Xuan firmly refused. Her reasoning was quite sound; for Nan Kong, the Southern faction tends to focus on support while the Northern faction emphasizes attack. That ancient tomb belonged to Liu An of Huainan Wang; without discussing the traps inside, the main concern was that there might be demons summoned by Liu An guarding the tomb. If only two people could enter, it would be safer for Xiao Qingcheng to go with me since she was more adept at dealing with gods and ghosts.
That seemed reasonable enough. With two Fire Spirit Pearls in hand, I went to find Xiao Qingcheng. She readily agreed but mentioned she needed to find someone first—Tomb Raider Expert Brother Five.
I had met Brother Five before; his incredible digging skills were still fresh in my memory from our time in Fifty-Six District. Since Xiao Qingcheng wanted to find him, I had no objections. Moreover, Lin Tao had drawn a map for me that only indicated a rough location without revealing where the entrance was. Given Brother Five's exceptional digging skills, finding an entrance should be easy for him.
When I asked her why she didn't just call Brother Five directly, Xiao Qingcheng gave a helpless smile: "The last time we could call Brother Five was because he owed us a favor from the Xiao Family. After helping us out, that favor was settled. This time we need him to take action; it depends on what we can offer him."
After discussing for quite some time without reaching a conclusion, we finally decided to head to Brother Five's hometown—Mountain City—to see if we could persuade him. Some things may not succeed even if you try, but if you don't try at all, you are guaranteed not to succeed.
Mountain City had no flights or high-speed trains; there was only one train station with a single Local Train stopping there. Given that it was National Day and tickets were hard to come by nationwide, I was anxious not to waste any time. Lingfeng couldn't help me get sleeper tickets either and ended up giving me two hard seat tickets instead, which earned my disdain: "You're still a deputy director? You're from a prominent family? Pfft!"
Since it wasn't the starting station, the train was already packed when we boarded. It took considerable effort for us to squeeze into our seats after driving away two burly men who were occupying them. Actually, we didn't drive them away so much as demonstrated our strength: I took out a bottle of beer from my Travel Bag, held it by the neck, placed my thumb under the cap and with a forceful push popped it open with a 'pop.'
The two burly men immediately turned pale and moved aside upon seeing this display. My act of showing off attracted the curiosity of two people across from us—a girl by the window wearing headphones who seemed like a college student in her first or second year; and a handsome guy sitting in the aisle who looked about my age and wore frameless glasses, giving off an intellectual vibe.
After glancing at us a few times, the girl ignored us and continued looking out the window while listening to music. However, the Glasses Youth was very talkative; as soon as I sat down, he immediately struck up a lively conversation with me. After chatting for a while, I learned that this Glasses Youth Zhao Lei worked at some research institute; he didn’t disclose its name—probably due to confidentiality—but he wasn’t shy about sharing his research topic direction with us.
"Our research topic is ants," Zhao Lei said mysteriously.
"Oh? Ants? Are we cooking them or stir-frying them? Should we add sugar?" I asked casually.
"Seriously. Ants are animals, but they have great strength. If you weigh an ant and the weight of what it carries, you would be very surprised! The weight they can lift is nearly 100 times their own body weight. No human has ever been able to lift more than their own body weight by that much, so in this sense, ants are much stronger than humans." Zhao Lei became very excited at this point, even spreading his arms wide to illustrate the huge difference, which made me chuckle.
"Well, your research institute's task is to weigh the ants and then weigh what they move, and after that, you can happily play cards until it's time to leave. Oh look, it's already time to get off work; research time really flies!" I joked intentionally.
"How could that be?" Zhao Lei knew I was joking, but he still insisted, "I definitely can't reveal my work details, but I can assure you that I haven't wasted a single penny of taxpayers' money."
"Come on, even a dime is being phased out of circulation now; where would a penny come from?" I continued joking.
Zhao Lei seemed to realize that arguing with me wasn't wise and simply ignored my interruption, continuing on his own: "Research institutions have already discovered that the muscles in an ant's legs are a highly efficient 'engine,' several times more efficient than an Aviation Engine, allowing them to generate considerable power."
"Okay, and then?" After hearing Zhao Lei say this, I stopped teasing him and asked seriously.
"If we could apply the powerful and agile mechanisms of an ant's legs to technology, it would lead to a fundamental transformation in technology." At this point, Zhao Lei looked around and pulled out a glass jar from his pocket, holding it up mysteriously in front of me. "Look, this ant is quite large, isn't it?"
The light yellow glass jar was about the size of a toothpick holder on the dining table. The plastic lid had several holes poked in it for air circulation, and inside the jar was an ant.
Honestly, it was my first time seeing such a large ant; it was almost as big as my finger. Its body shone like a black gemstone with a faint luster. It seemed to sense me looking at it and quickly turned around in the jar, its large eyes staring at me.
In that moment, I surprisingly felt as if there was a life form in front of me—a sentient being. The ant's eyes seemed to express a kind of anxiety, which startled me. I couldn't help but rub my eyes and look closely again, only to realize it was just an illusion; this ant was merely larger than usual and nothing else was abnormal. I shook my head; how could an ant possibly have thoughts?
Just then, Xiao Qingcheng suddenly stood up: "It's a bit stuffy! Would you mind if I opened the window?"
We were on the Local Train, more plainly known as the Green Train. The windows of this type of train could be opened, and I don't know what got into Xiao Qingcheng, but she suddenly pulled the window open, and a gust of wind rushed in.
Zhao Lei and the girl were sitting in the direction the train was moving. When the window suddenly opened, the strong wind made them both close their eyes immediately. Zhao Lei blinked rapidly, likely because dust had blown in. He instinctively placed the glass bottle on the table and reached up to rub his eyes.
"What is wrong with you?" the girl exclaimed, flustered as she tried to hold down her flying hair, her expression quite annoyed.
"I'm really sorry for blowing it into your eyes!" Xiao Qingcheng said apologetically, reaching to close the window again. However, she miscalculated her strength and accidentally knocked the glass bottle off the table.
I was sitting on the aisle side, and Xiao Qingcheng stood up to block my view. I saw the glass bottle get knocked away but couldn't catch it in time. I faintly heard the sound of shattering glass, which was quickly swept away by the wind.
"Ah!" Xiao Qingcheng exclaimed in surprise, forgetting about closing the window.
Hearing her shout, Zhao Lei rubbed his eyes and looked at the table, only to find that the glass bottle had vanished. His face turned pale as he let out a strange cry: "What the hell!"
He leaned against the glass for a moment before sitting back down. Seeing Xiao Qingcheng's guilty expression, he waved his hand and forced a smile. "It's fine; it's just an ant. It was caught by chance, and aside from its size, it probably doesn't have much scientific value."
Fortunately, Xiao Qingcheng was a beauty; if it had been Fatty instead, he might have already started a fight.
...
After getting off the train in Mountain City, I said to Xiao Qingcheng irritably, "Why did you let that ant go?"
Xiao Qingcheng looked at me in surprise. "Oh? You noticed?"
"Of course! If someone who practices Dao were so careless and clumsy, they would have been killed by a ghost long ago." I crossed my arms and tilted my head to examine Xiao Qingcheng. "That Zhao Lei didn't offend you much, did he? Why did you let his ant escape? That ant was so big; he must have put in a lot of effort to catch it."
"Since you've noticed, I might as well tell you that I feel something strange about this ant," Xiao Qingcheng said, her brows slightly furrowed.
"What do you mean strange? Did the ant wink at you? Or spit at you? Did it shout 'Sun Wukong, save me'?" I rolled my eyes. An ant being strange? I think it's you practitioners of the Dao who are the strange ones.
Xiao Qingcheng couldn't explain it after a while, and I was too lazy to ask further. I raised my hand to hail a taxi and headed directly to Brother Five's house.
Brother Five's home is located in the Meiyuan District in the eastern part of Mountain City. This area is considered relatively upscale locally because it even has a swimming pool. For a county town, having a swimming pool in the district feels as odd as having a navigation system on a tractor.
Upon reaching the fourth floor, I took out a large bag of fruits and gifts from my Spatial Bag and knocked on the door. A beautiful young woman opened it; she must be Sister Five. There was a hint of sorrow in Sister Five's expression, as if something very significant was troubling her. She looked surprised to see us: "Who are you looking for?"
I waved the gifts in my hand: "You must be Sister Five, right? We are here to see Brother Five."
"Brother Five has gone out and will be back later," Sister Five nodded and, after a moment of hesitation, stepped aside to invite us in. After sitting down and chatting for a bit, Xiao Qingcheng smiled and asked, "Sister, where is Peach?"
Before coming here, we had done our homework and knew that Brother Five had a four-year-old daughter named Peach, who was dearly loved by him. To make Brother Five happy, one must first make Peach happy. This trick requires no skill but works on all parents.
However, when Sister Five heard Peach's name, she couldn't help but choke up: "Peach has been possessed lately; Fifth Brother took her to see Master Yudi."
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