Chapter 288: Making the News Again, an Adorable Family Photo

Ning Fei's car was parked outside the Protection Station.

Early the next morning, after waking up, Ning Fei and the little animals of Qingfeng Temple stepped out of the vehicle. They each found a spot to do what every normal person did first thing in the morning.

This was the wilderness.

Certain standards of public decency didn't quite apply out here.

Everything followed the call of nature.

It was worth mentioning that Ning Fei had made the news again yesterday.

It was all because he had discovered a stone chamber within the Kunlun Massif, which contained a stone sculpture.

Experts had identified the sculpture's clothing as the traditional attire of an ethnic minority from the Zhou Dynasty. This indirectly proved that Huaxia possessed mature carving techniques as early as three thousand years ago, making it a discovery of immense research value.

Ning Fei didn't have much of a reaction to this.

He was the first to find it. The greatest joy of outdoor exploration was being the first to discover or witness a natural wonder.

As for what would happen next, it was all dull and tasteless to him.

The Kunlun Geological Bureau and the Cultural Relics Protection Bureau had sent Ning Fei a Silk Banner, along with a reward of 30,000 yuan.

They presented the Silk Banner while he happened to be live-streaming. Seeing this scene, the netizens joked, "Temple Master Ning is truly a model citizen," and, "On behalf of Huaxia's Geological Bureau and Cultural Relics Protection Bureau, I thank you."

Today, Ning Fei ventured deep into the Kekexili Nature Reserve once again.

Ordinary people usually couldn't enter this area, so the popularity of his live stream was incredibly high.

Netizens who had just opened the stream were immediately greeted by a beautiful scene.

On a hillside, Ning Fei sat on a patch of dry grass. Beside him, the little animals of Qingfeng Temple sat in a neat row.

They all accompanied him, gazing into the distance.

On a distant slope, a herd of Tibetan yaks and Tibetan wild asses were grazing.

These were wild animals unique to Huaxia.

The sight was magical.

Temple Master Ning felt very relaxed as he watched the animals.

The netizens also felt very relaxed watching Temple Master Ning watch the animals.

"Temple Master Ning really is constantly standing at the peak of life."

"I'm so jealous. Adorable pets within reach, rare animals in sight. I want it all too."

"Some people are living a life I wouldn't even dare to dream of."

"I don't care about the animals, I just want the Temple Master."

"That's crossing the line! Temple Master Ning belongs to everyone."

Deep in the Kekexili Nature Reserve, Ning Fei simply sat on the grass, looking off into the distance.

In this moment, his mind was completely empty.

The other little guys didn't know what Ning Fei was looking at either.

But they were all exceptionally well-behaved.

Ning Fei turned the drone's camera around to face himself.

"The background here is nice. Let's take a family photo."

Ning Fei said.

Then, he gave an order to the little guys:

"Everyone, look at the camera!"

As soon as his voice fell, all the adorable pets looked toward the live-streaming camera.

Seeing this picture, the netizens felt their hearts melting from the cuteness.

"This is too cute!"

"This family photo is just too beautiful!"

"Ahhh! I want to give Little Fox a hug!"

"So adorable!"

"It's so cute I'm getting a nosebleed!"

Then, Ning Fei spoke to the little guys again:

"Everyone, smile."

Hearing his words, Little Fox and Little Dog both showed off standard adorable pet smiles, while the three Xiao Heijiu tilted their heads to the right in perfect unison.

The three birds—Little Fei, Xiao Feng, and the little falcon—all struck poses. The most handsome was still the little falcon, holding its head high and puffing out its chest, looking at the camera with its head tilted, appearing aloof and dashing.

"Click! Click! Click!"

The drone took several photos in succession, sending them all to Ning Fei's mobile phone.

When he returned to Qingfeng Temple, Ning Fei planned to print this photo, frame it, and hang it in his bedroom.

Kekexili didn't have any soul-stirring thrills. This was a paradise for wild animals, with very little human disturbance. The animals simply lived their lives peacefully here.

Walking and watching like this, Ning Fei spent the whole day looking around. Feeling thoroughly satisfied, he decided it was time to head back to Bai Yuanche's place.

In two days, it would be the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month—Dust Sweeping Day, a relatively important festival in Huaxia leading up to New Year's Eve.

Some places persisted with this tradition, while others had long forgotten it. After all, for many people working away from home, their annual leave hadn't even started yet, so they hardly had time to celebrate Dust Sweeping Day.

However, this festival was very important to Qingfeng Temple; it was one of the temple's traditions.

"Dust sweeping" referred to a massive year-end cleaning, scrubbing the house from top to bottom, inside and out. It carried the meaning of driving away disease and praying for a healthy new year, as well as the emotional wish of sweeping away the old to make way for the new.

But for Qingfeng Temple, what mattered more was calming the mind and clearing away the miscellaneous dust within one's heart.

That night, Ning Fei drove out of the Kekexili Reserve and spent another night in the car.

Early the next morning, he drove back.

When passing the entrance to the Kunlun Mountains, Ning Fei noticed that the area around the stone chamber had been cordoned off, and many Government workers were bustling about.

A stone chamber and a stone sculpture inside the mountain—this was already a major discovery in itself.

If it led to the discovery of any ancient monuments or ruins, it would be a massive jackpot.

However, Ning Fei knew much better than those experts. He had already seen it: the stone chamber was just a stone chamber. Aside from the stone sculpture, there was absolutely nothing else.

Unless, of course, this stone chamber held some other meaning.

Ning Fei didn't dwell on it any further. He drove straight toward the small countryside villa.

He had left early in the morning and arrived back around six o'clock in the evening, shutting off the live stream as he did.

Bai Yi came out to greet him. Seeing Ning Fei appear, she looked very happy.

"Brother, I saw you made the news."

She reported the good news to Ning Fei as if she were the one who had made the news, her words carrying a hint of pride.

"Yeah, I got lucky," Ning Fei said with a smile.

"You're amazing. I've lived in Kuncheng since I was little and heard plenty of legends, but no one has ever found a proper ruin like this before," Bai Yi said with a grin.

Ning Fei opened the car door, letting all the little guys run out.

Then he began gathering the pet beds from the car. Bai Yi helped him carry them all back into his room.

"Come out with me for a bit later. I want to pick out two Cat Trees for the three little black cats to play with," Ning Fei said to Bai Yi.

"Okay!" Bai Yi nodded eagerly.

Returning to the courtyard, his first order of business was naturally to find Bai Yuanche.

At this time, Bai Yuanche was in the yard feeding the pigeons.

While Bai Yi tidied up Ning Fei's room, Ning Fei walked over to Bai Yuanche. Only this time, his brow looked a bit more serious.

"Master, I'm back," Ning Fei started.

"I heard. Did you have a good trip? Did you see the Tibetan antelopes?" Bai Yuanche asked with a smile.

"Yeah, I saw them. Kekexili has really gotten quite nice now." Ning Fei grabbed a handful of millet grains from the side, stepping up next to Bai Yuanche to help feed the pigeons.

"Oh, right, Master. This time, I found a stone chamber over by the Budong Spring."

Ning Fei added.

"Inside the stone chamber, there's a sculpture of a young girl. I think there's something strange about it."

Bai Yuanche's expression didn't change as he simply asked, "What do you think is strange about it?"

"At first, I thought it was the mythical Queen Mother of the West, meaning the sculpture of the female tribal leader that King Mu of Zhou actually went to find."

"But the clothes were wrong."

"In that era, a tribal leader would definitely have worn totem accessories, whether it be animal teeth, deer antlers, or bracelets."

"That sculpture's clothing was completely ordinary and very plain. She looked like a servant girl, or perhaps someone of another profession, like a tribal priestess."

"I can't figure it out. What is the purpose of carving a priestess's sculpture inside a stone chamber?"

If anyone else had heard Ning Fei's words, it probably would have set off massive waves of shock.

However, Bai Yuanche remained quite calm.

He scattered the rest of the millet in his hand onto the ground and said with a gentle smile:

"Do you know what I was looking for when I wandered through Kunlun all those years ago?"

"Back then, I was looking for the secret King Mu of Zhou left behind in Kunlun."

Hearing Bai Yuanche's words, a look of surprise gradually welled up in Ning Fei's eyes.

So it turned out that his master also believed that Kunlun, long hailed by people as a mountain of immortals, definitely harbored a massive secret, one that had been waiting all along to be uncovered.