Twelve o'clock sharp.

  The moon hangs high in the sky. The land lies in utter stillness — no roar of vehicles, no chirp of birds, scarcely even the sound of insects. A profound silence and harmony pervades.

  At Min's residence, the lights are off, and the house is devoid of sound — as if everyone inside is asleep. With the study curtains drawn, Xi P powers on his computer and resumes editing his blog.

  Back in Lierus, nights this quiet are unheard of. Even with soundproofing that mimics acoustic isolation, the view outside and other sensory elements break any illusion of quite. For most people, a quiet place where they know they won't be disturbed is ideal for tasks requiring intense concentration — writing or editing manuscripts naturally fall into this category.

  Suddenly, Xi P is struck by a strange sensation. The high-end, sleek computer in his hands, the wilderness outside the window, and the half-century-old style of the room around him create a disorienting sense of temporal dislocation. Shaking off these peculiar thoughts, he refocuses on the screen.

  This piece, "New Analysis: The Influence of Planetary Environments on Life Forms and Morphology" belongs to a former colleague's blog. It is the latest instalment in his 'New Analysis' series, though surely another entry has appeared by now. The title itself hints at the content, though the actual depth far surpasses what the headline suggests. It isn't just simplistic popular science like "high gravity causes organisms to flatten". This piece even delves into chemical environments. Crucially, it avoids overly specialised or esoteric terminology, which will make the upcoming translation much easier.

  ***

  "Take the Xi-type tri-vesicle plankton as an example. The morphology of their undulating membrane wings is severely influenced by the environmental conditions above the polar regions, specifically the intensity of electromagnetic radiation..."

  Upon reaching this section, Xi P can't help but feels a headache coming on. These "using such-and-such organism as an example" sections are always troublesome. For previous similar examples, Xi P plans to replace them with analogous organisms later. However, that won't work here — there are no air-sac organisms here, not even any creatures that use undulating membrane wings for aerial movement. Sure, there are a few marine species that use undulating membrane wings for locomotion, but they don't have to contend with high-frequency electromagnetic radiation from stars...

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  He pulls a large biological encyclopaedia from the bookshelf. Flipping through it briefly, he promptly returns it. This is far too unreliable. He must devise a better alternative.

  Ultimately, Xi P can only leave that sentence blank for now. Deleting it outright would cause too much disruption to the subsequent content, and he can't currently think of a suitable replacement example. Having anticipated this difficulty, he moves directly to the next part without lingering.

  "..."

  "The Kaifenglia subterranean cavity represents one of the finest examples of a large-scale biosphere under extreme conditions. Geological estimates suggest that this cavity became completely isolated from the surface biosphere as early as the Eocene epoch, suffering severe deprivation of sunlight and oxygen..."

  Reading this passage, Xi P falls silent for a moment. Glancing at the full page of related content that follows, he suddenly slams his hand down on the table in frustration. If not for fear of waking Min, he would have sworn aloud.

  How "on Earth" is he suppose to localise this? Such a colossal subterranean cavity, housing an ecosystem isolated for over 100 million years — it's simply too unique. He doubts he could find anything comparable here...

  ***

  After the first round of revisions, the article already read like a completely different piece. There were gaps dotted here and there, accompanied by abrupt shifts in writing style and sections that scream bad editing. The difficulty of the task far exceeds what Xi P anticipated. At this rate, it seems impossible to finish before the two return to their normal schedule.

  Closing the laptop, he pulls back the curtains and gazes into the distance. After several minutes of deliberation, Xi P finally makes up his mind: he will scrap the entire article and start over!

  This is no joke. Having personally experienced the difficulty of the revisions, Xi P now knows that forcing further changes would be no easier than rewriting the whole thing. Rewriting would not only solve the problem of replacing difficult examples, but also fundamentally eliminate the stylistic inconsistencies.

  There is also a small perk: he wouldn't have to endure the self-reproach of his professional ethics anymore!

  But it's getting late now. Though it's still only around 3 a.m., Xi P decides to call it a night on the article. He's starving and needs to cook today's meal.

  The moment he steps into the kitchen, Xi P jumps in surprise — the silver fox is staring at him from the kitchen, its eyes glowing green!

  'Does this creature ever rest? How can it stay awake both day and night?' Xi P ponders for a moment.

  Of course, his startled reaction stems entirely from the fox's unexpected appearance. As for the green glow reflecting from its eyes, he has seen plenty of that to say at least....