The normally resolute Professor Cao was eventually taken to seek medical attention, with the young boss driving Professor Cao and Lin An through a maze of city streets until they arrived at an even more remote small clinic.
Professor Cao had just enough time to remind Lin An to take good care of the books he'd borrowed before letting the young boss carry him inside.
The clinic was really small, with peeling printed papers on moldy walls saying 'Appliance Repair', and various corners were haphazardly piled with old TVs and fans.
The chubby middle-aged doctor smiled very amiably, telling Lin An to find somewhere to sit. But after looking around, Lin An couldn't find a spot to settle down and simply walked out to the street at the entrance.
This place was already in the rural outskirts of the suburbs, where the weak light from nighttime street lamps barely reached the ground, shrouded everywhere in pitch darkness.
Looking back, Lin An noticed a worn sign hanging over the clinic's doorframe.
The sign, weathered by sun and wind, had paint-written characters that were full of cracks and peeling. Beside the words 'Zhang Guoquan Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic,' there was also a hand-drawn deer head, although the paint was half peeled off and the figure was so obscure that it looked more like branches of a plum blossom, extremely inconspicuous.
Antler Witch-Hunting Knight Order?
Lin An looked at the doctor, who resembled a fat uncle next door, especially since he was shuffling his feet in flip-flops against the back of his leg, which seemed oddly mismatched with transcendent powers.
Could this person also possess transcendent powers?
Lin An quickly found out.
Because the chubby uncle took out a disposable stainless-steel needle from a plastic-sealed box, and as he performed acupuncture on Professor Cao, countless wisps of black mist started to waft from his body.
Those mists gathered behind him into a shape like flames, and within the flames, there was a huge black deer head, identical to Professor Cao's.
Lin An had never seen such identical 'illusions' anywhere.
So, this kind of 'illusion' not only represented the emotional gaze of others but also had some sort of visualization effect on transcendent powers?
After a while, the clinic suddenly echoed with a few deliberately lowered voices arguing, and then the young boss was chased out.
He pursed his lips, looked at the clinic interior with an indescribable expression, exhaled with displeasure, and turned to call out to Lin An.
"Let's go, I'll take you back to the residential area."
The car traveled through the village roads for some time, its constantly shaking frame suddenly became smooth as it reached the even surface of the city's ring road.
"It was originally planned for you to learn from Mr. Cao for a while, but Mr. Zhang just said that Mr. Cao needs at least a month of recuperation at his place, so you should go to the company first."
Driving the car, the young boss's hair became somewhat disheveled as the night wind blew in through the car window, "When the time comes, bring the books Mr. Cao gave you to the company, I'll transfer you to the planning department, and you won't have to deal with those programming things anymore."
"In a while, you'll come with me to hire some graphic designers and planners. Suxin Software is planning to outsource to us, we need to set up a framework first to show them."
Lin An wanted to say that the female boss of Suxin Software was the one who hurt Professor Cao, but he opened his mouth and eventually said nothing.
What to say?
Say that he was carried up into the air by a huge statue, witnessed the fight, and recognized the witch as the boss of Suxin Software through that magical vision?
He did not want to reveal his secret.
"Alright," Lin An nodded.
He had thought before that if his boss asked him to focus solely on graphic design and leave programming, he would definitely change jobs. No matter how high the salary, it wouldn't work because it went against his career plans.
If Antler Software Company went under, such a skewed professional experience would not be enough to land him a good job.
But now, his mind was wholly consumed by the magical scenes he had just witnessed, stirring something inside him.
Whether it was the witchcraft of the female boss or Professor Cao's Antler, both were clearly very powerful and mystical.
How could such a magical moment not excite him?
This was transcendent power!
And the most wonderful thing was that the young boss had given him the chance to learn from Professor Cao, an opportunity too precious to miss.
When he returned to the residential area, the night had deepened.
Opening the fingerprint-locked door, Lin An stared blankly at the curtains fluttering in the night wind.
Just now, he had climbed out of the window of this 23rd-floor apartment, a mad act that now seemed even madder in retrospect.
He turned on the light in the room and stood in front of the dressing mirror at the entrance to study himself.
Drenched in the blood of that statue from the beginning's sharp pain to the latter's chilling sensation, he now felt entirely icy cold.
Not just a physical coldness, but a perceptual one, as if an air conditioner had been installed in his head.
Calm? Serene?
It seems "cold and clear" would be the words to describe how I'm feeling right now.
Amid the coldness, there's also an extreme restlessness, just like what he felt about the divine flame.
What's the use of this?
He didn't know, he just felt that he could no longer sleep, with his mind frantically recalling everything he had encountered tonight.
Those images were so vivid, in meticulous detail, as if he could now flip through his memories at will.
He could even recall the model of the high heels that the witch's loose robe had inadvertently exposed when its hem fluttered, and Professor Cao's subtly heaving chest, as if it carried a unique rhythm.
Another hour slipped by unknowingly, and Lin An had to consider lying down to sleep.
He had to go to work tomorrow.
But he couldn't fall asleep no matter how much he tossed and turned in bed, so he simply lay prone, peering under the bed.
Being ugly as it might've been, the basketball was his own, making sure he was never without someone to talk to.
Unfortunately, for some reason, now there was only the basketball under the dark bed, no head.
Lin An turned over and lay on his bed, and finally, in frustration, ruffled his hair and got up.
Do something!
He wanted to do something!
So he turned on the lamp by his bed and pulled out a random book from the collection that Professor Cao had left for him.
This book was a comic album.
In the late modern period, as foreign culture seeped in, many people attempted various reforms, and this book was one of the most classic examples.
Qi Laozhai, a master of traditional Chinese painting. It's said that before last year's New Year, one of his paintings was sold for the astronomical sum of 527 million at an auction.
Such a master had created a comic album.
The title of the album was "The Spirited Dance of the Fawn". It's a simple story about a fawn leaping and running through the forest, observing its surroundings. With thirty-six paintings and childlike text, it's hailed as a 'national treasure' by netizens online.
It's the kind of album you'd definitely mention when introducing your country's culture to foreigners.
Lin An, when browsing forums, would sometimes see illustrations from this album, and he would join others in exclaiming 'Masters are awesome', but he really couldn't appreciate what was so amazing about these illustrations.
But at this moment...
He stared blankly at an illustration of a fawn leaping down from a flower-clad rock, feeling a tremor from deep within his soul.
Lively yet powerful, light yet agile.
He could actually feel what those reviews described.
He felt as if he had become the fawn himself, lightly leaping down from the fragrant hillside.
He leapt lightly, with animation, with grace.
It was so effortless, so joyful, so natural.
He even involuntarily started to breathe in the way Professor Cao had taught him.
"Wow~"
Lin An exclaimed, intending to turn to the next page, when he suddenly felt his entire self become unstable.
Somehow, he was no longer on the bed but had appeared two meters away, on the wall.
He was standing on tiptoe on the lamp attached to the wall.
When the feeling of lightness faded and his full weight press down on the lamp below his feet, the lamp finally made a shattering noise.
Boom~
Lin An cried out in a panic, unable to maintain his balance as he fell from the wall, landing in a way that felt like his buttocks had bloomed.
"I..."
"Did I just jump up there?"
Lin An looked on incredulously at this scene, suddenly noticing countless dark golden wisps of smoke rising from his body, converging in midair to form a dark golden flame.
Within the outline of the flame, there was the faint figure of a fawn.