HDRDTH -Chapter 31 Believe in Science, Reject Getting Skunked

Inside the backstage control room, the only sound left was the loud buzzing of spinning fans.

“All departments, listen up! This is a direct order! Final self-check on the magnetic system!” the chief director shouted, drenched in sweat as he gripped the walkie-talkie. “He has to catch a fish! Even if we have to blow one out of the water, we’re protecting science’s dignity today!”

“D-Director… there’s a problem.” The operator stared at the monitor, his voice trembling. “Those koi seem to have been scared by Master Yu’s ‘killing intent.’ They’re all hiding in the far corner of the tank—that’s the magnetic blind spot!”

“What?!” The director’s eyes nearly popped out. “Then crank the power to maximum! Drag that fish over by force if you have to! This is called physically forcing a bite, understand?!”

In the studio, the spotlights focused on center stage.

“Fine.”

Yu Xian stood up, calmly unbuttoned his suit jacket, and accepted the specially made short fishing rod from a staff member.

He looked steady as a mountain on the outside, but inwardly he had zero confidence.

If he got skunked again today, the label of “cult superstition leader” would never come off.

“Since everyone wants to see it so badly, I’ll show you all a little trick. What materialism is. What the perfect combination of quantum mechanics and fluid dynamics looks like.”

Taking a deep breath, he walked to the tank, attached a scentless dough bait to the hook, and flicked his wrist.

Plop.

The hook entered the water, hovering in the center of the tank.

The entire audience held their breath. Several physicists pushed up their glasses and leaned forward so hard it looked like they wanted to stick their faces against the aquarium glass.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds…

Not only did the five koi refuse to approach, they frantically swam in the opposite direction, desperately trying to shove their heads into the filter gaps.

Yu Xian: “…”

Dong Qingqing: “…”

An awkward silence began fermenting in the air.

Yu Xian’s hand holding the rod stiffened slightly. The corners of his mouth twitched wildly as he prepared to salvage his dignity.

“Ahem. According to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, when fish are being observed—”

At that moment, the operator backstage—already losing his mind—closed his eyes and slammed the red electromagnetic switch all the way down.

“GET OVER HERE ALREADY!!”

Bzzzt—BOOM!

An invisible but instrument-detectable magnetic storm instantly erupted, the monitors flashing bright red.

The koi trembling in the corner suddenly looked as if an invisible hand had seized it by the throat. Completely defying biological common sense, its body moved backward in a stiff and bizarre posture as it was violently dragged toward the hook.

Yu Xian suddenly felt the rod tip sink heavily in his hands.

“Got one!”

A wave of unprecedented joy shot straight to his brain.

Holy crap! There’s really a fish?!

This feeling! This pull!

Could it be that heaven had finally opened its eyes? Was my curse of always getting skunked finally broken?!

“UP YOU COME!”

He roared, both arms tensing instantly. Using the masterful fish-fighting skills honed over two lifetimes, he violently jerked the rod backward.

Splash—WHOOSH!

Because the magnetic force was too strong, the poor koi shot out of the water at terrifying speed like a red cannonball fired from a gun barrel!

It drew a golden afterimage through the air, even producing a sonic tearing noise from sheer speed. Then it flew perfectly over the tank, over Yu Xian’s head—

SMACK!

The koi crashed heavily at host Dong Qingqing’s feet several meters away, flopping wildly across the floor with loud slapping noises.

After a deathly silence, thunderous applause erupted throughout the studio.

“Amazing! So this is the power of science?!”

“Incredible! Did that fish just teleport over there? Is this the application of gravitational acceleration?!”

“Superstition is nothing but a paper tiger! Master Yu truly speaks the truth!”

Yu Xian stared at the koi flopping on the floor, questioning its entire existence.

The fish’s landing posture had admittedly been a little too wild, but that didn’t stop him from acting cool.

His old face flushed red as he quickly adjusted his expression, unconsciously straightening his back and elegantly fixing his crooked tie.

“Ahem. Low-key, low-key.”

He was practically unable to suppress his grin anymore. The pride of a lifelong skunked fisherman finally turning things around was overflowing from him. It felt as though he wasn’t standing in a TV studio, but atop the stars and seas he had conquered.

“I told you before—those past failures were all just statistical coincidences. As long as the environment is right and the parameters are accurate, with my two lifetimes of fishing skills, there’s no fish in this world I can’t catch.”

Facing the camera, he revealed a mysterious smile.

“Everyone saw that, right? This is science. As long as we believe in Newton, fish will naturally bite the hook. That’s called universal gravitation.”

Newton: “…”

Dong Qingqing and the backstage director both collapsed into their chairs at the same time, letting out huge sighs of relief.

Success!

The show’s effect was absolutely explosive. The process had been terrifying, but the result was perfect.

Not only had they protected the dignity of science, they had even successfully transformed a “mysticism guru” into a “science popularization ambassador.”

Several physicists in the front row frowned deeply, still calculating on scratch paper how that fish had achieved an initial velocity of twenty meters per second. But facing the cameras, they still gave thumbs-ups and solemnly spouted nonsense:

“Correct. This is a miraculous resonance between bioelectricity and fluid dynamics.”

The studio filled with laughter and cheerful materialistic energy.

Only Yu Xian was still secretly calculating:

Looks like the problem wasn’t me—it was the feng shui of those oceans! Once I get back to that neighborhood lake in Jiangcheng, as long as I use this “instant explosive power,” how could I possibly fail to haul in a massive catch?

As soon as Face to Face aired, the entire internet exploded.

The scene of Yu Xian catching a “flying koi” in the CCTV studio using pure “materialistic scientific theory,” right in front of national audiences and Chinese Academy of Sciences experts, was turned into countless meme GIFs and reaction images by netizens.

Out of the top ten trending searches, he occupied eight by himself.

#MasterYu: BelieveInScienceRejectGettingSkunked

#EvenNewtonAgreesYuXian’sPhysicsFishingMethod

#FromMysticismGuruToScienceIconOnlyOneKoiAway

For a time, Yu Xian’s fame not only dominated the fishing and criminal investigation circles, but he was even becoming a top influencer in the science community.

Countless fishing gear brands came carrying sky-high endorsement deals, and variety shows nearly wore down the doorstep of the Jinshui Bay villa.

In Jiangnan, inside the Qin family’s private garden estate, Quiet Garden.

The place was surrounded by mountains and water, breathtakingly beautiful. Most importantly, to please this man, Qin Yue had personally ordered the artificial lake cleaned three separate times.

Other than two thousand expensive koi that had been starved for three full days, there wasn’t even a single loach in the water. Security was so strict that even stray cats couldn’t get in.

“Now this is how humans are supposed to live.”

Yu Xian wore oversized shorts and a straw hat, reclining in a luxury ergonomic fishing chair worth over a hundred thousand yuan. In his hand was a brand-new top-grade carbon fiber rod.

He was overflowing with confidence.

There were no magnets here—but there were two thousand starving fish. If he still couldn’t catch anything now, he’d eat the rod on the spot!

Ten minutes passed.

Half an hour passed.

Three hours passed…

The sun set in the west, and the evening glow dyed the lake orange-red.

Schools of koi swam across the surface. Some particularly bold ones even swam right beside his float and smacked it twice with their tails before swaggering away, completely ignoring the fragrant bait.

The smile on Yu Xian’s face gradually disappeared, replaced by the vacant expression of a man questioning reality itself.

He suddenly stood up and walked to the lakeside, staring at the fish-filled lake that seemed full of contempt for him.

“This isn’t scientific…”

Scratching his head, Yu Xian simply couldn’t figure it out.

“In a lousy place like the CCTV studio, I could still catch a fish using scientific gravitational acceleration. So why is it that in this feng shui paradise, these fish won’t even look at my bait?”

“Could it be… these fish didn’t watch the CCTV broadcast? They don’t believe in science? They lack basic physics knowledge? Or maybe my ‘materialist force field’ only works inside CCTV?”

Standing nearby, Wang Dafu was trying so hard not to laugh that his fat cheeks quivered.

He knew exactly how that CCTV fish had been caught—but he didn’t dare say it out loud. If he did, what if Yu Xian stopped treating him like a son? Even though Yu Xian had never acknowledged him in the first place.

“Dad, how about… we call it a day?” Wang Dafu carefully handed over a glass of iced watermelon juice, his voice trembling. “These koi might be… suffering from environmental stress? Loss of appetite? Yeah, collective anorexia! It’s definitely not your skill level!”

Yu Xian looked at this fat “son” who was over ten years older than him, and the corner of his eye twitched violently.

“Bad luck! This is freaking cursed!”

He ripped off his straw hat and slammed it onto the ground. Still unsatisfied, he kicked the priceless fishing rod aside.

“We’re done! Going home! This damn place’s feng shui is suppressing me!”

Filled with nowhere-to-release “skunked fisherman rage,” Yu Xian stormed through the doors of the Jinshui Bay villa.

Right now, he was like a barrel of gunpowder—any spark would set him off.

But the moment he entered, the deathly silent atmosphere in the house instantly extinguished all his anger like a bucket of ice water.

There was no usual sound of Su Qian running over to hug his leg.

No warm bustle of Su Wanyi cooking in the kitchen.

Even the lights weren’t fully on, leaving the house dim and oppressive.

On the living room sofa, Su Wanyi’s eyes were swollen red like peaches. In her hand, she tightly clutched several crumpled A4 papers.

Su Qian hugged her worn old doll, sitting on the carpet with her head lowered, her tiny shoulders trembling from sobbing.

Having lived fifty-five years in his previous life, Yu Xian understood this expression all too well.

It was the look of someone who had been bullied, yet had no power to fight back.

Yu Xian kicked off his flip-flops and slowly sat down beside the sofa.

Su Wanyi looked up at him. The moment she saw Yu Xian, the tension she had been holding finally snapped, and tears burst forth like a broken dam.

“Xiao Yu… something happened with Qianqian’s competition. They’ve gone too far!”