【Dragon in the garage】

Carl Sagan said he had a fire-breathing dragon and lived in his garage.

If a person says this to you very seriously, and this person is not a joker when talking to you on weekdays, then you will definitely want to take a look in person. There is a story about dragons that has been passed down for hundreds of thousands of years, but there has never been any evidence to prove its existence. As the saying goes, you must not miss the opportunity and never come again.

"Let me see," you will definitely say to him, he led you into his garage, you see a ladder, an empty paint bucket, and a tricycle that was too old to lose, but there was no dragon.

"Where is the dragon?" you asked.

"It's here," he would reply, probably pointing to the front, "I forgot to tell you that it's an invisible dragon."

You suggest sprinkling some flour on the ground, and you will see the dragon's footprints.

"The suggestion is good," he said, "but the dragon floats in the air."

Then you suggest using infrared sensors to detect invisible flames.

"The suggestion is good," he said, "but the flame is not warm at the same time."

You plan to use spray paint to make the dragon appear.

"The suggestion is good," he would say, "but it is an immaterial, invisible dragon, and the paint will not remain on it." Just keep going, all your physical detection suggestions, it can refute you with a special explanation and tell you why your suggestion doesn't work."

The story told by Lu Mingxue does not seem to be a fairy tale. Lin Huan was confused when he heard it, "So... what's the difference between a dragon that cannot prove its existence and it does not exist at all?"

Lu Mingxue nodded, "This story confirms a golden law in the scientific community: a theory should be affirmed only if it is falsified - that is, this theory can be overthrown by people and has the possibility of being overthrown. Let me give an example, Newton said that everything in the world has gravity, and all apples will fall. This statement is falsified - as long as you find an apple flying upwards, and this apple can fly upwards when held by anyone alone, then you have changed the physics community and overturned the law of gravitation; but so far, such an apple does not exist, so Newton's statement is correct for the time being."

"Well... I understand the truth, but you definitely don't just want to share this popular science short article with me, just tell me these..."

Lu Mingxue nodded, "I'm not so bored yet. I just suddenly thought of this story... If Xia Mo cannot affect reality without the existence of a system, and if you can't prove Xia Mo's existence to us, everyone may think that you are just a madman who falls into delusion because of losing important friends, Xia Mo is the [Fire Spit Duck] in your garage."

"Indeed... I have also questioned Xia Mo's real existence..." Lin Huan shook his head, "I can only say that fortunately she is not a real ghost, but a entity... However, when Xi Xiao saw me interacting with the air, she didn't think I was a lunatic, but she really believed in my Xia Mo's existence."

"Yes, she's just that person..." Lu Mingxue fell into a moment of contemplation, "Believe in miracles, and always maintains an extremely childish idea...including the same thing as being able to be with me for the rest of my life without being separated."

"She would say that because you are her best friend?"

Best friend...

"Yes." Lu Mingxue responded softly, she never denied this statement.

At some point, Xiaoxue gradually floated in the sky. Lin Huan finished resting and carried Lu Mingxue again. Lu Mingxue also put on a mask. Compared to carrying Lu Mingxue in the ward, Lu Mingxue's body seemed a little cold. Lin Huan was worried about whether her condition would worsen, so he whispered to ask her if she felt cold, but Lu Mingxue denied this and insisted that Lin Huan carry herself to the social hall;

"Has no one been here for a long time?"

Although he had already realized it, Lu Mingxue sighed slightly when he saw the dilapidated and declining temple of the ruined temple, "When I was a child, it was very prosperous. Many patients would ask their families to come here to worship, pray for the blessing of the gods, and hope that their condition would be cured soon... However, after the president changed several times, he heard that the new president believed that it was against the etiquette of the Chinese people to worship the gods of Japan, so he gradually gave up the renovation of the shrine and withdrew all the shrine managers. Gradually, people would not know about it."

"In fact, patients often don't care who they are praying for. They are just praying for the opportunity to be cured. Gods, ghosts, and they are all [fire-breathing dragons] in the garage. Although there is no way to prove it, everyone has always believed in their existence for thousands of years."

"Yes." Lin Huan nodded, "But you don't believe what you said..."

"Let me down first."

Lin Huan put down Lu Mingxue on her back. She came to the worship hall in front of the hall. In front of her was a cash box, and there was a thick rope above the cash box. Due to the disrepair, the thick rope looked dusty and dirty. The cash box was also covered with moss, and the wooden fence at the mouth of the box was also missing several pieces.

“Are there coins?”

Lin Huan took out a pocket and took out a coin from his pocket and handed it to Lu Mingxue. Lu Mingxue took the coin and stood in front of the worship hall. Then he threw the coin into the cash box, grabbed the rope above the cash box, and shook it gently.

Dong.

There seemed to be a bell tied to the rope, but the sound was very strange and there was a melodious echo, but it could finally make a sound. Lu Mingxue closed her hands together and lowered her head to perform a very standard second-and-second-and-shot and one-worship ceremony in the shrine worship.

When she bowed, she was very skilled, like a capable and pious clergyman. If she was a witch, she would be very good at Lu Mingxue's white jacket.

"Although I look very skilled, I don't often do this." Lu Mingxue and Lin Huan sat on the wooden stairs next to the worship hall. "To be precise, after my grandmother passed away, I should never be here again. When I was young, I always expressed my confusion about my grandmother's behavior, because in my opinion, most of the problems in the world can be solved with my own actions."

"But people also have strength and unreachable places, such as birth, old age, sickness and death."

Lu Mingxue nodded and agreed with Lin Huan's statement, "That is excluded from the majority. I know that I am not in good health, but I am very open about birth, old age, sickness and death... All things have their own rules of growth, and weak groups are eliminated, which is itself a law of survival."

"But humans cannot..."

"I know humans cannot directly use this theory to explain it. I just... don't think it's so sad... it should have been like this."

Lu Mingxue's voice became weaker and weaker; her nose was red with cold, and her whole body was curled up in the corner of the shrine ladder.

"I could have endured the darkness... If I hadn't seen the sun before, was that...?" Lin Huan touched her cheek. Although this was a very appropriate line, when she said it, she always felt a little bit inferior, which made people accept it for a while. Lu Mingxue smiled slightly when she heard it, "I didn't expect someone could say such words... You said, [My Sun], is it Xixiao?"

Lin Huan nodded.

"Xixiao is an important person to me. I may rely on her more than you, more than she imagined; but she is not my [sun]."

"Not... the sun?" Lin Huan was stunned, "Is there anyone else more important to you than Xi Xiao?"

"【Sun】 does not mean how important this person is to me. More situations..." Lu Mingxue shivered, her body shivered and trembled. Xiaoxue slowly fell. Lin Huan put on the hood of her cotton-padded jacket for Lu Mingxue, "I... I'll get closer to you, you look very cold."

"You have already carried me so far. You have come across all the things you should and should not be touched. You don't need to ask for my opinion on this kind of thing..."

Lu Mingxue looked at Lin Huan with a faint smile, just like an intellectual and mature sister watching her youthful and charming younger brother.

"Do you know? For me, my sun... should be you."

"Me?!" Lin Huan was startled, "Really?"

"To be precise, my [sun] should refer to you and Xia Mo." Lu Mingxue pulled the mask off again, and the white air that came out of her lips dissipated in the air. "Your appearance completely destroyed the [reason world] I have always trusted. If I had not met you and had not met Xia Mo who had been resurrected from the dead, maybe I wouldn't have told Xi Xiao that I was very sad, and I wouldn't have agreed to let you accompany me to say goodbye to this city; I wouldn't have told you the most annoying thing to tell you, the most annoying thing, to others."

The most annoying thing...

Lin Huan scratched the dog's head and patted the snowflakes on his head, "I don't feel weak... You are the real ones like this."

"But the real side of people often breaks all the fantasies that others have about him before. If a person shows his truest side to others, he will have more weaknesses; we cannot hope to be close friends with those who express their feelings for the rest of his life..."

"Ah, too."

Lu Mingxue gradually showed her unique tone and style of speaking. Although she was telling things that were related to herself, her perspective seemed to be standing from the macro perspective of God, and coldly stated some psychological mechanisms and cognitive behaviors; Lin Huan's thinking speed was not as fast as hers, and it was not easy to barely keep up, but Lu Mingxue didn't expect him to discuss with her the great world of heaven and earth, and what she wanted might be such a simple listener.

"So, in my opinion... Momo is a very powerful flame-breathing dragon. She can not only blast fire, but also communicate with me - her existence has broken the ideological world I have constructed for more than ten years in destruction." Lu Mingxue raised her head and took a deep breath, "So, I have been thinking about this period of time - why do I have to face such a situation..."

"Faced with such a situation, it means...going--"

Lu Mingxue nodded vigorously, and her head gradually buried in the collar of my cotton jacket.

“I don’t want to leave school.”

"Um."

"I want to get better soon."

"Um."

“I still have a lot of things to deal with now.”

"Um."

"The game of Supernatural Observation Club has not been completed yet."

"Um."

"We haven't collected all the presence of Momo."

"Um."

"It is difficult for Xixiao to survive independently."

"Um."

Lu Mingxue kept talking about what she wanted to do, and gradually, her voice became more and more choked and blurred.

"After all... since Momo can be reborn under someone's prayer, why can't I... occasionally irrational and let the gods respond to my prayers?!"

"sure."

Now Lin Huan and Lu Mingxue are very close; he promised Xixiao, Xia Mo, Xiao Qian, and many people that he was not alone with Lu Mingxue. He himself did not want Lu Mingxue to leave with regrets like this.

"Hey... Xiaoxue—"

"Don't think that after listening to what I think, someone can call me in that way-"

"Ah...well, Lu Mingxue."

"Of course, it's a special situation now. Even if you call me that, I honestly won't have any objection..."

You are such a person who has a lot of things to do! You will destroy the atmosphere completely!

Lin Huan was too lazy to complain to Lu Mingxue; even when she was fighting each other, her voice just now was crying; now it is the most important thing to talk about serious things.

"If you feel uncomfortable, you can shout out all the unhappy things. Only the louder the voice will the gods hear..."

Lin Huan lowered her head and said her thoughts, but she looked up and found that Lu Mingxue was staring at her - her eyes were red, but her face was still bulging, and she rarely showed a girlish expression, "You would do this in such a stupid thing before?"

"To be honest... I did it once." Lin Huan scratched his head, "When Xia Mo couldn't wake up, I went to the park to climb a mountain, and I shouted at the top of the mountain for a long time. Although I couldn't actually change anything after venting, it was..."

"You must have never told Xia Mo about this kind of thing, right?"

Lin Huan nodded, "It is impossible to tell her such a shameful thing."

"Then, we will be even... we have each other's secrets." Lu Mingxue smiled. She wiped her tears, stood up from Lin Huan, stood on the threshold of the worship hall, and suddenly pulled down her cotton jacket in the direction of the distance, shouted at the top of the voice.

Her voice was very sharp and thin. Although she was shouting, because of the weak Qi, that was the case. After yelling for two consecutive times, she quickly coughed violently, and her cheeks were red. Lin Huan quickly helped her back to the steps to hide from the snow, and tied her cotton jacket for her.

"If this happens, the invisible flame-breathing dragon in my garage will probably appear next to me..."

Lu Mingxue's face was flushed, and she always looked inexplicably excited.
To be continued...