The people around Dao Nian heard that Shen Changan was going to return to work after the weekend, so they tried their best to persuade him to stay. Their enthusiastic attitude was as if they wished Shen Changan would stay there forever and never leave.
"Mr. Shen, there are so many rooms here, the environment is so good, and there are plenty of ingredients you like to eat. Why don't you stay a few more days?" Liu Mao listed all the benefits of staying here for Shen Changan, he was just short of directly pressing Shen Changan down to make him stay.
"Mr. Liu, I'll come again next time. After all, we live in the same city, and it's not far." When he came, Shen Changan's hands were empty, but when he left, he had several sets of clothes, and a big bag of fruits, vegetables and meat. It was the epitome of having a windfall.
"Although it's not far, once you leave, sir will surely miss you."
"I'm in contact with Dao Nian every day. I'll come to see him on weekends." After saying this, Shen Changan looked up at the second floor corridor at the silent Dao Nian. "Right, Dao Nian?"
Dao Nian stared at him for a few seconds: "Come up."
Shen Changan ran up the stairs in small steps and squatted in front of Dao Nian: "What's wrong?"
A silver men's necklace was put around his neck. Dao Nian retracted his hand: "Birthday present."
"My birthday is..." Shen Changan was stunned for a moment. Since the death of his parents, he had always celebrated his Western calendar birthday, because he could never remember the lunar dates, and no one deliberately helped him remember. He was about to say that his birthday was not in these few days, when he suddenly remembered that his lunar birthday fell in this month.
He took out his phone calendar to check, his lunar birthday was in two days.
"Thank you..." The necklace felt a bit cold against his neck. Shen Changan looked up at Dao Nian with a gentle smile, "Dao Nian, thank you."
Dao Nian didn't know what to say. Seeing Shen Changan's bright shiny eyes, he reached out and touched the top of his head: "Come back home early tonight, stay at my place these two days."
"Ah?" Shen Changan was stunned. Did he mean to retain him?
"Leave after your birthday." Dao Nian glanced at the people downstairs, "More people make it more lively."
"Is this...wouldn't this be too much trouble for everyone?" Shen Changan felt a little embarrassed. It was his own birthday, but he was making his friends worry so much, it didn't seem quite right.
"No trouble, no trouble at all." Liu Mao downstairs quickly shook his head, "We all hope that Mr. Shen can stay here for a little longer."
Dao Nian raised his chin, looking at Shen Changan.
Shen Changan instantly understood he meant to say, 'See, they don't think it's troublesome at all'.
After understanding, Shen Changan suddenly laughed and bumped his forehead against Dao Nian's knee: "Dao Nian, how can you be so cute?"
Dao Nian blinked, seemingly not quite understanding what was so "cute" about him.
Seeing his reaction, Shen Changan laughed out loud. He got up and turned around to go downstairs. When he reached the door he turned back to see Dao Nian still sitting in the corridor, looking at him. He waved at him: "I'll come back early tonight."
Dao Nian indifferently retracted his gaze, as if he had just glanced over casually just now.
As for Liu Mao, he hurriedly took away Shen Changan's packed luggage, afraid that Shen Changan would see it and think it would be better to go back to his own home.
After Shen Changan left, the door slowly closed, and the house returned to its usual tranquil state.
The soft carpet transformed into clouds, the spiral staircase became empty cloud steps, and even the crystal lamp on the ceiling lost its chandelier and turned into fist-sized stars, quietly floating in the air.
"Sir, the plague demon has moved south, and may pass through Wuming City." Liu Mao stood respectfully, "The human cultivators have set up an altar to ask the Nuo god for help."
[傩 (nuó) refers to a traditional Chinese ritual that involves exorcism and the worship of various deities, while 神 (shén) means "god" or "deity." When combined, 傩神 (nuó shén) refers to the exorcizing god (god who drives away plague and evil spirits), deities worshiped during the 傩 ritual.]
"Nuo god?" Dao Nian seemed to be thinking, what kind of god this was.
"The Nuo god is a divine position specialized in dealing with plague demons. Since the last Nuo god dissipated a hundred years ago, no new god has been born." Liu Mao smiled awkwardly, "Although there are still rituals to worship the Nuo god in the human world, most of them are displayed in artistic forms, and there is not much faith power, so it is difficult to give birth to a new god."
Dao Nian waved his hand, and many scenes appeared in the air. There were doctors working tirelessly to save patients, researchers studying data, businessmen investing in pharmaceutical research, and countless experimental platforms and medical equipment.
"They can do better on their own." Dao Nian opened one of the scenes where an elderly and frail woman wearing a ventilator was writing experimental formulas with trembling hands. She was surrounded by several young people crying softly.
They were calling this elderly person as 'Teacher'.
With a flick of his index finger, the scene disappeared, and Dao Nian looked at Liu Mao and the others standing solemnly before him. "Do you understand?"
Liu Mao was silent.
"Humans are very smart, and don't need deities as much as you imagine." Dao Nian closed his eyes. His flawless face was full of coldness and ruthlessness, "Perhaps it is certain deities who need humans more."
The room fell silent, and when everyone raised their heads again, Dao Nian had already vanished from the corridor. They were puzzled by his words—did the master mean that humans are cold and indifferent, that if they didn't need deities anymore they would eventually forget about them. Or did he believe that some deities were simply incompetent, unable to sustain themselves or even maintain their divine bodies if not needed by humans?
Back in the office, Shen Changan received warm greetings from his colleagues. Even Chen Panpan, who loved snacks, generously shared a few packs with him.
On the other hand, Aunt Juan, who usually dressed herself meticulously, looked a little out of sorts today. Not even her makeup could conceal her exhaustion.
Seeing Shen Changan come in, Gao Shujuan reached out and stuffed a fortune bag to him, "Here, I brought these back from my hometown. I got one for each of you, carry it with you these days."
Shen Changan took it and put the fortune bag in his coat, saying to Gao Shujuan: "Thank you Auntie Juan for thinking of us despite being so busy. You just got back from your hometown, why don't you take a few more days to rest?"
"No time to rest..." Gao Shujuan smiled bitterly, just as she was about to say something, she suddenly noticed something and carefully looked at Shen Changan a few times, "Changan, did something happen to you these past few days?"
"Speaking of this makes me angry, Changan encountered a lunatic." Chen Panpan recounted the outrageous incident about the scumbag incident a few days ago, "Don't you think such scum is infuriating?"
Gao Shujun hesitated for a moment. She met Shen Changan's gaze, and nodded after a while. "Indeed, it's quite infuriating. If I were there, I would have scolded his ancestors for eighteen generations until they cried for mercy."
"We definitely can't compare to your skills." Chen Panpan nodded repeatedly. Although Auntie Juan have nothing to do now and just wipes tables and gives advices of little chicken soup for soul to everyone, when she worked in women and children's protection, she had made countless scumbags cry for their fathers and beg for their parents, nearly driving to commit suicide in remorse.
According to rumors, her tongue was so sharp that she received many complaints, so she was transferred to their civil service department to quietly live out her days.
But these were all rumors, and she didn't see it herself, so it was hard to judge if they were true or not.
They had just chatted for a while when a call came from the police station. They were told to gather at the meeting point immediately for patrol route and time assignments.
Due to insufficient manpower, not only their department, but even the sub-district office had borrowed staff to them. Everyone hurried to the gathering plaza to receive their work procedures and ID badges.
Since today was Halloween eve, they were specifically instructed to work hard and do overtime today.
The patrols were in pairs, mostly with male-female combinations. Shen Changan was paired with Gao Shujuan, mainly responsible for a bus route in the suburbs. After 9pm when buses stopped running, they would go to a nearby plaza with high pedestrian traffic to meet up with Ding Yang and Chen Panpan.
The bus company was very happy because in recent years, Halloween had become popular in China and originally, this was a good thing, indicating that people were becoming more prosperous and had time and money for entertainment. But due to the different mindsets of the older and younger generations, conflicts arose. Now the government has arranged staff to help with their work, and they naturally welcomed it.
Wuming City was not very big. Apart from rush hours, the buses were not too crowded. Seeing that Auntie Juan looked really unwell, worried that she wouldn't be able to bear it, Shen Changan let her sit in the back to rest while he took charge of the main supervision work.
Until the afternoon, nothing much happened on their end. Although some young people dressed up specially for the festival, there was nothing too outrageous. However, a little girl dressed as faceless specifically came to take a photo with him, saying that he was handsome.
After working for most of the day, Shen Changan and Auntie Juan took advantage of the bus driver's shift change in the evening to have noodles at a nearby noodle shop. Halfway through the meal, he suddenly remembered that someone was waiting for him to go home for dinner today, so he hurriedly took out his phone to call Dao Nian.
"I can't make it back tonight."
"I didn't make plans to have dinner with anyone. I have to work overtime and will only be back late at night."
"Don't wait for me, go to bed early, remember to drink a glass of milk an hour before bed."
After hanging up, Shen Changan saw Auntie Juan looking at him with a smile that seemed to hold a deeper meaning. He was a little puzzled: "Auntie Juan, what's with that look?"
"I thought you didn't have a girlfriend at your young age, didn't expect someone's already waiting for you to go home. Young people nowadays are really something." Gao Shujuan gave him a thumbs up, "Next time bring your girlfriend to the work dinner, it's not good to let her wait home alone for you."
Shen Changan was stunned for a while before reacting, and couldn't laugh or cry: "Auntie Juan, you misunderstood. I've been staying at a friend's house these past few days. I originally made plans to have dinner with him tonight, but didn't expect to have to work overtime tonight, so I definitely had to let him know beforehand."
"A friend?"
"Yes, a friend." Shen Changan poured some vinegar into the noodles. "But in the future, if he's willing to come to the gatherings, I do want to bring him along."
Thinking of Dao Nian's empty house, Shen Changan was always a little worried, and tried to think of ways for Dao Nian to add some interest to his life.
"So it's like this." Gao Shujuan smiled apologetically, "Sorry, I misunderstood."
"It's okay, you're just concerned about me." Shen Changan ate his noodles heartily. The taste of this roadside noodle shop was quite average, but he was really hungry, so he finished the bowl clean.
When they walked out of the noodle shop, Gao Shujuan asked, "When I came to work today, I noticed the leaves on that tree in the yard have been falling more and more severely. I heard from Panpan that the tree seems to have some kind of disease?"
Hearing Auntie Juan mention this, Shen Changan felt a little guilty. How could he explain to Auntie Juan that this centuries-old tree was slapped into this state by him? Even if he said so, others probably wouldn't believe it anyway.
He touched his nose and said, "Maybe, plus it's easy for leaves to fall in autumn, so it looks more severe. Maybe after next spring, it will slowly recover to normal."
"You make sense," Gao Shujuan lowered her eyelids. She had been observing here for half a year and discovered that this tree had profound cultivation. It could even transform into a human form. So even though she found that the tree had captured the soul of a living person, she didn't dare to act rashly. Just when she finally figured out the habits of this tree demon and was about to ask for help from her peers to rescue the captured soul, she found that the living soul hidden in the tree's heart was gone.
She thought the soul had been devoured by the tree. Unexpectedly, news came out the next day that Sun Jia's mind had recovered. At the time, she had suspected that Shen Changan was the one who rescued the soul, after all, many demons and ghosts following the path of proper cultivation wouldn't dare to mess with a person with such profound merits and virtues.
But she soon discovered that Shen Changan did not believe in ghosts and gods, which meant he was completely unaware of the demon under the office building, or the means to subdue demons. If so, how could he have brought Sun Jia's soul back from the tree demon?
So, which unparalleled master did this good deed without leaving a name?
If possible, could this expert do another good deed, like eliminating the plague demon?
After following the bus the whole day, Shen Changan felt light-headed as he hurried to the plaza with Gao Shujuan. He looked at the surrounding businesses, many of which were holding Halloween promotions, and shook his head. "These merchants really wish they could celebrate every day of the 365 days of the year."
"Anyway, as long as the merchants are happy and the consumers are happy." Seeing that Shen Changan looked a little pale, Gao Shujuan said, "Changan, if you're tired, let's find a place to sit for a while?"
"I'm fine, just felt a little dizzy from sitting on the bus for too long." Shen Changan rubbed his temples. "This next month, I don't want to squeeze onto buses anymore."
In the plaza, some children were dressed up as little wizards by their parents, waving their wands and running around, resembling moving little winter melons, which was quite cute.
Shen Changan had just taken two steps when a chubby little kid suddenly stretched out a magic wand and pointed at him, "Turn into a pumpkin!"
"Ah, I've turned into a pumpkin!" Shen Changan cooperatively squatted down and spread his arms to pretend as if they were pumpkin leaves. "Great wizard, when will you turn me back into a human?"
The chubby kid laughed and put his hands behind his back, circling around Shen Changan: "Alright, seeing how pitiful you are, I'll turn you back into a human."
"Thank you, great wizard." Shen Changan stood up and saw the kid's parents coming over to thank him. He waved his hand to indicate they didn't need to come over, and headed towards the center of the plaza.
Some merchant in the center of the plaza was doing a promotion and had hired some folk performers to sing and dance on stage, surrounded by crowds of onlookers. Among the audience, some were dressed as animals, some as Nie Xiaoqian, and even someone as Zhu Bajie, getting their belly rubbed by many children.
So, no matter what festival it is, when it reaches China, people celebrate it in their own unique way.
After much difficulty finding Ding Yang and the others in the noisy crowd, Shen Changan saw that Ding Yang's face was deathly pale, looking as if he had been severely tortured. "What happened to you?"
"Motion sickness," Chen Panpan said helplessly. "He's been getting concerned looks from passengers on the bus all afternoon, and even a seventy-year-old elderly gave up his seat to him."
"I'm not usually like this. I just suddenly felt a little uncomfortable this afternoon, maybe I caught a cold." To prove he was not a weak chicken with only half fighting power, Ding Yang quickly added, "I don't even get dizzy riding in Changan's flying car, let alone the bus."
"Flying car? What flying car?" Shen Changan innocently looked at Ding Yang. "I don't know anything about that."
Ding Yang: "..."
Shen Changan, I didn't know you were this kind of person.
Everyone was a little tired after patrolling for a day. Reluctant to move, they sat in rows by the flowerbed under the flickering neon lights, watching the lively crowd around them.
They just wanted to go home, take a shower, and get a good night's sleep.
Wherever plague demons descended into the mortal realm, they would always bring pleas and terror to humans. Of course, that was how previous plague demons were treated. This newborn plague demon rushed for nearly a thousand kilometers with the raging wind, and landed in a city to find lights flashing everywhere, and streets were full of humans.
He had the memories of previous plague demons, and the nights in the human world didn't seem like this, did they?
Touching the horns on his head, the plague demon revealed the terrifying red rash and pustules on his body, ready to enjoy the screams and cries from the pedestrians around him.
However, to his surprise, the pedestrians around didn't seem to notice him at all, and hurriedly passed by him. Some even took out their phones to take his pictures, muttering things like "no public morals".
The plague demon was a little confused - was he really in the human realm and not in hell?
"Bro, I know today's Halloween eve, but there are still many elderly and children around. Dressing up like that, isn't it a bit disgusting?" A young man wearing bull horns walked over. "There are bars with special Halloween night events over there, it'd be more appropriate for you to go there. This plaza is a public recreational area, dressing too horrifically might not be suitable here."
"But you went pretty hard on yourself." The young man looked over at the man in front of him. He was wearing dirty, ugly horns on his head, his skin was painted dark blue-green, and there were very realistic-looking pustules on his body. "Who are you supposed to be?"
"I am the plague god. You mere mortals, quickly come to worship and kneel before me!" The plague demon grinned hideously. "All who come within a hundred meters of me will die from the plague within seven days, only those who sincerely worship me can be spared from this disaster."
"You're really into character," the young man pointed to the horns on his head. "I'm the Bull Demon King, you know who my brother is, right? The Monkey King, Victorious Fighting Budhha, Sun Wukong."
The plague demon was bewildered. Who were the Bull Demon King and the Victorious Fighting Budhha? And why were these humans not afraid when they saw him?
After speaking to this person for so long, why hadn't he contracted the plague that he released?
He began to doubt again whether this was heaven instead of the mortal realm.
"Waaah!" A child's cry suddenly came from not far away, the sound was so loud that it almost pierced the plague demon's eardrums.
"Woof woof woof!" A big golden dog barked at him from afar, tail tucked between its legs.
"What kind of person is this? Does he have any sense of public morality? He dressed up like this to a plaza!?"
"Yeah, everything just follows trends, without considering the occasion. Would people also eat poop if it's on trend?"
"All of you shut up!" Seeing these lowly commoners daring to point fingers at him, the plague demon roared at them, "If you dare say another word, I'll bring ruin upon this city, leaving no dogs or chickens behind!"
"Oh my, heavens!" A shrill-voiced auntie clutched her chest, looking as if she was about to faint. "He's threatening us, he wants to kill people! I'm going to have a heart attack. Police… quick, call the police!"
The plague demon was infuriated by these humans. He stretched out his hands and scattered a large amount of plague, the green mist quickly spread in the air, and soon everything within a radius of five meters around him was covered by green smoke.
"Quick, call the police, there's a psycho here endangering public safety!"
"Stop him quickly, he's still running around sprinkling stuff!"
"What's going on up ahead? Why is there so much commotion?" Shen Changan noticed the noise coming from a corner of the square and said to his three colleagues, "You guys sit for a while first, I'll go take a look."
As he approached the disturbance, he saw several children bawling, one of whom was the chubby kid who had 'turned him into a pumpkin' just now.
The chubby little winter melon, who had been cheerful just a moment ago, was now crying uncontrollably next to his parents, obviously scared quite badly.
Not far from them was a young man dressed in a very disgusting manner, sprinkling green powder everywhere. The smell in the air was quite nauseating.
Unfortunately, this person was quite agile, making it difficult for others to get close to him.
No one knew what he was scattering, and with the dense crowds here, Shen Changan didn't think twice before rushing towards the troublemaker.
"Changan, don't get close to him, that's a..." Following behind, Gao Shujuan saw this scene and her face turned pale in fright as she tried to stop Shen Changan's actions.
Shen Changan ran very quickly. He grabbed the man's arm and struck it hard. The man let out a pained shriek, and the green powder in his hand also disappeared.
Not knowing what kind of cosmetics the other party used, the stuff on his arm felt a little sticky. Shen Changan felt disgusted and let go of his arm, then leapt and kicked the man. The man fell to the ground with a thud, his head making a crisp sound as it kissed the floor.
Shen Changan turned around and gently smiled at the bawling children with flushed faces: "Brave little wizards, don't be afraid. The demon has been defeated by the Pumpkin Knight. Do you want to take out your magic wands and turn this demon into a pumpkin, then let the police uncle take him away?"
Seeing this scene, Gao Shujuan swallowed back all the words she was about to say.
She felt like her cultivation must have been over-taxed recently, causing problems with her eyes. The one Shen Changan had kicked down definitely wasn't a plague demon.
She felt that she might have overdrawn her cultivation recently, causing problems with her eyes. This person who was kicked over by Shen Changan couldn't possibly be the plague demon.
This wasn't possible, it couldn't be real!