Chapter 96: Can We Dedicate Ourselves to Science? [Two Updates]

One day passed in a flurry of activity. Ren Qian returned home early and prepared dinner for his nurse sister, who was currently pursuing further studies.

After finishing, he curled up on the sofa and played on his phone.

Just a moment ago, the mighty soldiers of the Qian-Shen Purge Army were reporting their victories below Ren Qian's Weibo post: they had stormed the personal pages of seven unfortunate souls, causing this group to lose a combined total of fourteen million followers.

Ren Qian wanted to see exactly how the battle had gone, so he paid a visit to the Weibo pages of those seven individuals.

He hadn't known—but now he was shocked.

"Yellow Leaf Knows Autumn," whose real name was Huang Qiuping, was one of the original masterminds behind Ren Qian's sensational "Car Crash Scandal"—one of the earliest bloggers to repost that infamous Weibo: "Ren Qian smiles heartlessly at the scene of his car crash; his morals have completely collapsed."

To attract even more attention, Huang Qiuping had accompanied his repost with a full six hundred characters of scathing attack against Ren Qian.

Six hundred words, sprawling and grand, with abusive language flooding every line. Yet Huang Qiuping still believed his ideological enlightenment had nearly reached the level of a saint!

He fantasized that he was a selfless moral guardian! A paragon of virtue for the great empire!

What was even more exasperating was that he smugly believed this article would shake the entire empire.

Sociologists and literary critics alike would hail it as a textbook example of satirical writing. And he, Huang Qiuping, would rise to nationwide fame on the strength of it.

The media would praise him as "the defender of justice and morality," lavishly celebrating his fearless defiance of the powerful and his dauntless spirit in the face of evil forces...

Netizens would worship him, and his Weibo follower count would reach forty million!

He was about to become the darling of high society—tycoons paying fortunes for a single article from his pen, socialites eagerly seeking his acquaintance... From there, he would ascend to the pinnacle of life, drinking the finest wine and bedding the hottest women...

He was crazy for fame.

His ideals were plump, but reality was cruel.

The very next day, his Weibo feed was flooded with headlines revealing the truth about the Car Crash Scandal.

"The truth behind the Car Crash Scandal! On March 20th, Ren Qian went to the East District to view an apartment when he happened upon a car accident. As a man of responsibility, Ren Qian was the first to..."

"The truth behind the Car Crash Scandal! We need public figures like Ren Qian—people with a strong sense of justice who step in to help when they see wrongdoing..."

"The truth behind the Car Crash Scandal! Those big-shot Weibo bloggers who fabricate false information and distort the facts—they have not a shred of shame."

"The truth behind the Car Crash Scandal! We only want to return every vicious word those self-styled public intellectuals spewed, right back at them..."

Within a mere twelve hours, the three million followers Huang Qiuping had painstakingly accumulated over four years vanished into thin air—every last one gone, not a single one left!

In the past, reposting a single advertisement could earn him ten thousand yuan. Now, he couldn't earn a single cent!

Huang Qiuping, struck squarely over the head by the club of reality, no longer had anything to live for. He had thought he'd rise to fame in one stroke, but instead... he had pulled off a spectacular act of self-destruction.

The other major Weibo bloggers suffered much the same fate—in short, they were jolted awake from their beautiful dreams only to find their homes bare and empty, their wives run off with other men.

"Keep up the good work, onward and upward..."

Ren Qian posted an encouraging Weibo, then went to the door to welcome his gentle sister.

"I'm exhausted... all I see are fly-sized characters..."

The nurse sister came in and leaned against his chest, clinging to him like a little bird.

"Let me give you a massage."

Ren Qian's heart stirred. He carried her over to the sofa. Then he volunteered his services, offering to rub her shoulders and legs.

He said shoulders and legs, but really, his hands wandered everywhere.

Of course, Ren Qian didn't dare go straight for the goods. First he rubbed her shoulders, then patted her thighs and calves, and only then let his fingers graze past her delicate, smooth collarbone.

'Mm... truly beautiful.'

Ren Qian swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

The sexiness of a girl's collarbone and its power to attract men is in no way inferior to her breasts... Ren Qian stole a glance. Wen Run's straight, one-line collarbone made her neck look long and fair, its smooth curves like a lightly gliding swan, lending her an air of both vivacity and refinement.

And further down were the twin peaks.

Ren Qian couldn't help but savor the memory of that other day's blissful encounter, scheming about whether he might once again perform a "bone-reading fortune" session.

"You haven't been going to school lately? Thinking of dropping out?"

Wen Run lay on the sofa, blinking her big eyes, looking at Ren Qian with a playful expression.

Ren Qian was silent for a moment, then raised his head and grinned a mischievous grin: "Even though I'm not in the classroom, my heart is still there. Look at my bone-reading fortune-telling—isn't that also a form of applied biology?"

"Bone-reading fortune-telling isn't science, is it... How could it be a form of applied biology?"

The nurse sister was curious; she'd never heard such a claim before. The fortune-tellers you normally see on the street were mostly traveling charlatans who spouted nonsense for a bit of money.

Although it seemed Ren Qian had met a true master and his readings were quite accurate... but was bone-reading fortune-telling really science?

"You don't understand, right? Chinese culture is profound and extensive... You know computers use binary code, right?

That thing was invented based on the Eight Trigrams diagram! And the Eight Trigrams is something from thousands of years ago. Physiognomy is also an invention from thousands of years ago—deep and mysterious. Even today's scientists can't fully fathom it. So my study of bone-reading is really just me indirectly learning professional knowledge. Once I master bone-reading, I'll be able to grasp everything else by analogy."

Ren Qian kneaded as he talked. After all, bragging cost nothing—he could spin it however he liked.

"That actually makes sense. Your massage skills are amazing... so comfortable."

The nurse sister let out a soft moan, praising Ren Qian's massage technique endlessly.

"Of course! My professional knowledge is absolutely flawless. The skeletal chart and acupoint distribution map are etched into my mind. If you don't believe me, let me point them out for you. This is the maxilla, this is the mandible, this is the collarbone...

This is the temple, this is the infra-mammary point... It's hard to point accurately through clothes—why don't you just take them off? I'll give you a free science lesson."

When he pointed at the infra-mammary point, Wen Run's cheeks flushed crimson in an instant. She grabbed Ren Qian's pervy hand and scolded him furiously.

"You lecher! You always find new ways to cop a feel. Forget the bone-reading fortune-telling, now you're using such low-class tricks!"

Ren Qian immediately wiped the lecherous expression from his face and sat up straight.

"Girl, your big brother only wants to educate you. Look into my clear, honest eyes..."

"Don't let it happen again!"

The nurse sister's heart was pounding. She didn't want to look at Ren Qian's meaningful smile, so she turned her head away.

Ren Qian noticed that his nurse sister hadn't shown such obvious violent tendencies lately, so he began to push his luck.

"Girl, your ideological enlightenment still needs work... As the saying goes, behind every successful man, there's a woman who silently gives. How about considering sacrificing yourself for science?"

"How... would I... do that... You're not going to send me to a lab for dissection, are you?"

The nurse sister was stunned, seemingly terrified. She stared at Ren Qian with a pitiful expression, her voice trembling with tears.

"Not dissection. It's just letting me do bone-reading on you one more time. There are still some things about the sternum I haven't quite figured out. Would you be willing to sacrifice yourself and let me feel again?"

Ren Qian wore a look of pure innocence. He continued:

"It's what they call 'sacrificing the small self to achieve the great self.' Your sacrifice might just push human technology forward by a huge leap. Why not? For the prosperity of humanity, for world peace, let's settle down and do a little scientific research, shall we?"

The nurse sister was silent for a moment, then finally figured out what Ren Qian was really getting at.

Just as Ren Qian thought he was about to succeed, what greeted him was a roar:

"GET! LOST!"

Of course, Ren Qian didn't get lost. He continued shamelessly kneading his nurse sister's shoulders.