In actual fact, Ke Lin and his friends had thought too simply about it. They thought it was a normal reorganisation of the film industry, and nothing to do with the Metaphysics Association. However, they had forgotten that even metaphysics experts were allowed on TV these days!
When the proposal was first released, these metaphysics experts paid no attention to it. After all, the age range of these experts meant that they did not pay much attention to the internet. They had heard about it but didn’t think much about it. They’d thought that it was a temporary proposal and there won’t be any real moves made.
But an anonymous letter pissed them all off.
Who would have thought that this letter would be sent to national TV? The General Administration had banned metaphysics and considered it feudal superstition, so why was it broadcast on TV? Did this mean that they could skip past restrictions because of connections?
This was obviously due to the celebrities’ fans being disappointed by these new restrictions. It didn’t seem like such a big deal at first, but making an example out of someone like that was too much of a coincidence. Moves had been made on the film that Wen Ran worked on, and the protagonist of the movie was based off the Master of one of the leaders of the Metaphysics Association.
According to the letter, the film was about the life of their association’s founder and it was taken down. Why was it that they could still preach about national science and education? According to the General Administration, wasn’t the association also openly spreading feudal superstitions?
The metaphysics masters were pissed off by this.
Them? Feudal superstitions? Nonsense!
Metaphysics was now a branch of study in modern times, called agnostic ontology. Some people might think this was nonsense but it was true that there were things in the world that cannot be explained by science.
These sounded like metaphysics, but they actually existed in the world. Also, according to the way it was defined these days, metaphysics is not separate from scientific thought, but a representative of serious philosophy. They are just two different trains of thought.
But now, the association’s founder’s story was being axed and called a superstition. How was this any different from denying the entirety of metaphysics?
The point was that though the anonymous letter meant to report and provoke, the words were on point.
Wen Ran’s script didn’t add any untrue details. The few things written about were all recorded in history books. According to the intentions of the General Administration, did they mean that people’s history books and historians are also feudal superstitions?
The old scholars who studied history were unhappy at this.
“No! We must have an explanation.”
“Yes! These are not rumors, and hints can be found in various records. I have watched that film of Wen Ran’s, and I also admired the rigorous detail in the writing of the script. He is a person who has really studied history!”
“And since ancient times, there have been many non-scientific points of view. You can disbelieve or question these views, but you can’t deny history. Now does this changing of the scripts and rewriting of things mean that so many historians have been promoting nonsense?”
The historians made a fuss, but the Metaphysics Association made a bigger fuss. After all, their ancestors have been labelled as feudal superstitions!
The National Science and Education Channel was the one put in the most difficult situation.
Previously, according to the above definition, metaphysics was a serious discipline and part of Chinese studies. All major colleges also had some degree of metaphysics as an elective course. What’s more, disciplines that evolved from metaphysics, such as Feng Shui, were also used as elective courses in architecture majors and are welcomed by universities.
This was why they didn’t think so much of it. But now that the General Administration applied a one size fits all approach, the channel was embarrassed.
It’s all under one system, and they had to cooperate if the higher-ups wanted changes done, but they couldn’t afford to offend those old scholars either!
Of course, the scholars who kicked up a fuss were all about the process. They were all people with reputations after all, and they went through official channels. Petition letters were relatively slow to get started, and the organisational costs were huge.
So it was clear that they had been prepared for two or three days, but still did not come up with any specific charter. They were maintaining a delicate balance instead.
But it was impossible to maintain this balance forever. Meanwhile, something big had happened in Ke Lin’s family.
That night, Ke Li, Ke Lin’s father, encountered a strange thing on the way home.
A man was standing at his door and looking inside. He could not tell how old this man was.
“Go ask him what he wants.” Ke Li was the head of the B city branch of the General Administration, so there were usually a lot of people trying to contact him. This was the first time he’d seen one so strange though.
The driver also felt awkward about it. The thing was, this person was all dressed in white, and standing at the door of someone’s home and looking inside. He hope that the person wasn’t mentally ill.
That thought made the driver more careful. But he heard an unexpected sigh before he got closer.
“What an unfortunate house. There will probably be a bloody disaster soon.” The man’s voice was ethereal, with a sense of otherworldliness. But in this situation, it was especially weird, and what he said made people shudder.
Damn it! What the hell was this?
The driver’s heart thumped, and his calves went soft right away. He heard the man speak again.
“Your name is Liu Daquan. You have been a driver for Ke Li for more than 30 years. Every time he has something going on, you will pick him up. In other words, if Ke Li goes in, you will be an accomplice without knowing it.”
“Wh-Wh-What did you say?” The driver was stunned. But the man’s next words shocked him even more.
“Ke Li has a cruel heart. He’s trod on others to get to the top. Thirty years ago, Ke Li wanted to divorce his ex-wife and marry his current daughter-in-law. In fact, he was aiming for the help of his father-in-law. And his ex-wife did not want to divorce, so she later went mad and died unexpectedly in a nursing home. The last person to see her was you, right?”
“What are you talking about? I don’t know anything about that.”
“You don’t know? Don’t you know best?” The man chuckled. “His original partner was already with child at the time, but what Ke Li wanted was not a child, but power. So you cruelly let the nurse increase the dosage of a certain drug, and it ended two lives. Am I right?”
“Who are you? What do you want?” The driver panicked, but his panic seemed like an extremely interesting picture to the man.
“Haha, I’m an ordinary master of metaphysics. Didn’t Ke Li say that metaphysics is feudal superstition? I came over to see what sort of person he is.
“Pass on a message to him. What he’s done has not gone unseen. Some child’s doodles can sell for millions? Really? Isn’t that such easy money?”
The man turned to leave right after saying that. As he brushed past the driver, he suddenly said, “Tonight. Don’t drive home tonight, or you’ll bring retribution down upon yourself.”
A chill went down the driver’s spine. He sneaked a quick look out of the corner of his eye and saw a beautiful but grotesque face. The upturned eyes, in particular, were too elongated, and an eerie blue.
This wasn’t a living person… It… It was a fox spirit!
“D-Demon!” The driver pissed his pants in fright. He fell on his ass and sat, stunned.
In the car, Ke Li sensed that someone was wrong. By the time he got out of the car to see what was going on, however, the driver had already passed out from fear.
What was this situation? He looked around for the man in white who’d been at his door, and his eyes widened as he saw very clearly that that man was enveloped by fog.
Then he saw the face which had made his driver faint.
Delicate eyebrows, and otherworldliness in his every feature… He was much too good looking, and it made his hair stand on end.
He was a fox spirit!
Ke Li shuddered involuntarily. He was still brave enough to stay standing. However, the man laughed, and he grew so bright he seemed to glow. Words came from him though he did not open his mouth. “The sin of killing wife and son must be accounted for, sooner or later.”
“Hold it!” Ke Li wanted to chase after him, but the man left too swiftly. He disappeared from his sight in seconds.
Ke Li was bathed in cold sweat. The first thing he did was to call the security guards and tell them to watch the camera feed of the villa’s main entrance closely, and not let anyone in or out. Ke Li also told them to check the security footage and call for an ambulance.
“Mr Ke, may I ask what happened?” Ke Li was someone of status, so the security guard took things more seriously.
However, Ke Li did not give him any details. He only said that something had happened to his driver, and some unknown person had appeared in the doorway.
As expected of an upscale villa neighbourhood, the head of the security team pulled up the footage right away. What they saw stupefied the security team.