Through the long and arduous journey of life, I finally attained the enlightenment of Quanzhen!

"Which son of a bitch called me soft and flat?"
"Damn it!"
"Old Cat! It's actually you, you little bastard!"
"You've changed so much! When Biaozi, Weigou, and the others were teasing you in the group chat earlier, I almost didn't believe it. You really look like you've had a total head transplant." Zhou Anping, standing inside a small snack stall, looked up and glanced at Chen Jue, who was standing outside with a wide grin. At first, he was momentarily stunned and didn't dare recognize him, but upon closer inspection, realizing it truly was Chen Jue, he couldn't help but exclaim loudly.
Beside him, a sharp-tongued Bashu girl with a fiery temper gave him a fierce pinch on the waist. "You useless blockhead! What are you howling about? Don't you want to run your business?"
"Ouch! Hiss! Wife, go easy... This is my college roommate, Old Cat from the group." Zhou Anping was naturally mild-mannered, and with his wedding just around the corner, he was even more submissive in front of his wife, instantly transforming into an obedient husband. He hastily admitted his mistake and softened his tone, lowering his voice.
"Oh? Your college roommate!"
"Then hurry up and go tend to your customers. The students will be heading to evening self-study soon anyway, and there aren't many guests right now. I can handle things here by myself." Hearing that it was an acquaintance, the Bashu girl put away her stern expression and pushed Zhou Anping out of the stall.
Zhou Anping eagerly trotted over, threw his arm around Chen Jue's shoulders, and the two walked to a nearby curb, squatting down to chat.
"You're doing pretty well, Softie! You even found yourself a wife," Chen Jue teased with a slight smile.
"Not at all, nowhere compared to carefree guys like you guys. Weigou runs an early childhood education center and makes a million a year. I'm just purely trying to earn a living. Biaozi's new shop has opened too, and business is booming. I heard you were the one who came up with the ideas for him, Old Cat." Zhou Anping was filled with the gritty aura of worldly life, looking like someone who had stood by the frying pan for too long, but he didn't smoke, and his eyes were full of hope for the future—without the heavy pressure Wang Biao carried.
"I just came up with some lousy ideas! Biaozi has a lot of tourists over there, so he can make money doing pretty much anything."
"What about you, Soft Ping? What made you think of setting up a pushcart and selling crispy chicken skeletons? Weren't you still working a regular job before?" Chen Jue asked curiously.
"Sigh! Don't even mention that job. You have no idea how low the salaries are here in Hezhou. You bust your tail for a whole month and only take home two to three thousand, while an apartment costs hundreds of thousands. Might as well come out and set up a street stall to make some hard-earned cash."
"Setting up a stall also lets you take vacations alongside the students—it's unbelievably carefree! It's just that you end up covered in grease and grime every day, which can't compare to big bosses like Weigou, and the reputation isn't great either. For a college student to set up a street stall... I didn't even dare post about it on my Moments." Zhou Anping scratched his head, explaining with a trace of embarrassment.
"Making money is nothing to be ashamed of! I see your business is doing great, and you've found a partner. You're doing better than an unemployed vagrant like me." Chen Jue smiled faintly, patted the other man's shoulder, and gestured for him to keep up the good work.
"Hehe! It's alright, I'm telling you, anyone who tries my crispy chicken skeletons says they're good. It even made it onto the Hezhou online forum."
"Nowadays, I casually pull in around a thousand bucks a day. Just put down a down payment on a bridal home right over there. Still, I can't compare to the old man who sells fried rice and fried noodles. That old bastard came to set up his stall right when these universities nearby first opened. A husband-and-wife duo, each with their own pushcart, they've been doing this for over a dozen years. Word is they've bought several apartments and storefronts, and even with a net worth of millions, they're still at it."
"There are restaurants popping up all over Hezhou, opening and closing every single day with new faces constantly rotating in, yet hardly any of them make as much money as that old fried rice seller." Zhou Anping pointed toward a newly built western-style residential complex in the distance, then turned back to point at the fried rice master wielding a spatula in front of a giant wok, taking the opportunity to fill Chen Jue in on the industry's secrets.
Hearing this, Chen Jue couldn't help feeling a sense of emotion. Back when he was in college in Wenzhou, he knew that people setting up stalls on snack streets and food streets made good money, but he never expected it to be *this* lucrative.
On second thought, it made sense. The massive influx of foot traffic brought by the nearby universities, combined with pushcarts that eliminated storefront rental costs, meant the couple could operate it directly. A portion of fried rice sold for seven or eight yuan, and with a few extra toppings, it topped ten yuan. At that scale, selling a few hundred portions a day easily translated to daily earnings of several thousand.
The only downsides were that the street-vending business was intensely competitive—those who did well made a fortune, while those who struggled depended entirely on the weather, with countless stalls attracting zero customers.
Moreover, the trade was dirty, exhausting, and lacked prestige, meaning very few people could stick with it for the long haul.
Walking down this entire snack street from end to end, Chen Jue didn't see a single young person setting up a stall; most were middle-aged folk driven by the pressures of life.
Most young people cared too much about saving face to ever lower their pride and do what Zhou Anping was doing.
...
The two caught up on recent events, and Chen Jue went back to Zhou Anping's stall to order a portion of chicken skeletons to try. The taste was indeed excellent, much better than the cartilage snacks he used to buy near the bunny shop back in college. With an extra dash of spicy numbing seasoning, the crispy-fried chicken skeletons were savory, crunchy, and exceptionally flavorful to gnaw on.
Seeing that it was getting late and the young couple, busy serving student customers, no longer had time to chat idly, Chen Jue didn't linger. He said goodbye to Zhou Anping and went to find a hotel nearby to stay for the night.
There were still two days until the kid's wedding, so there was plenty of time to reminisce. Plus, after days of continuous walking meditation, Chen Jue felt somewhat fatigued. After polishing off a large bag of chicken skeletons, he enjoyed a wonderful night's sleep at the hotel.
Early the next morning, Zhou Anping dropped by unannounced. When asked, it turned out there was an unwritten custom where the bride and groom had to return to their respective family homes to prepare on the eve of the wedding—a tradition seemingly shared by many regions.
"Let's go, Old Cat! I'll take you to try Hezhou breakfast! Guaranteed you'll fall in love with it," Zhou Anping said with a grin, leading Chen Jue into his Wuling mini van.
The vehicle drove out from the university campus area into the old streets of Hezhou, pulling up at a noodle shop that clearly had a long history. Zhou Anping recommended the local specialty, lamb offal rice noodles.
Because Chen Jue had a hearty appetite, he ordered a three-liang portion—in the Yuzhu region, noodles and rice noodles were measured by the *liang*.
A bowl of broth noodles topped with a generous mound of chopped lamb offal, swimming in a clear, bright red chili oil broth and garnished with chopped scallions and pickled mustard greens. It delivered a mild, tingling numbness when eaten, without feeling overly spicy.
Zhou Anping explained that although people in Yuzhu loved spicy hot pot, their breakfasts weren't overwhelmingly heavy, leaning instead toward the lighter side. The noodle shop also offered free, unlimited refills of sweet soy milk, which paired uniquely well with the savory, numbing lamb offal noodles.
The noodle shop's television was playing the morning news, showing a manned rocket slowly lifting off into the skies as the anchor reported in crisp, standard Mandarin: "Wishing the spacecraft Shenzhou-19 complete success in its ascent."
Several local residents slurping noodles nearby whispered among themselves: "That son of a bitch is unbelievable! They really are getting rich; launching rockets into outer space every single day. Which crewed rocket launch is this for the year?"
"Seems like the twelfth? The news has been broadcasting every day, saying they're going to build a lunar space station," another noodle-eating uncle chimed in.
Chen Jue curiously glanced at the news as well. Lately, he had been entirely focused on walking and refining his mind, paying little attention to current events.
After finishing the lamb offal noodles and still feeling slightly peckish, Zhou Anping led Chen Jue to the entrance of a nearby vegetable market to try some appetizing steamed buns.
The cost of living in Hezhou was so low that one could still find people giving change in small-denomination paper notes inside the market. Chen Jue recalled the days when he was working office jobs, wondering when exactly those fractional paper bills had begun fading from sight. Seeing them again now filled him with a sense of warm nostalgia.
...
After breakfast, Chen Jue accompanied Zhou Anping to his new apartment. Spanning over 120 square meters, it reportedly cost over a million yuan all-in including renovations, effectively draining his savings and the nest eggs of his parents' generation.
The two chatted and marveled at life after graduation while sitting at home. By noon, Wang Biao was the first to arrive by car.
Coming from farther down south in the Yuzhu region, this fellow brought a trunk full of Gongshan local specialties, instantly radiating the prosperous aura of a newly opened business that swept away his previous gloom.
Upon spotting Chen Jue, Wang Biao pulled him aside for a muttered remark: "Old Cat! I'll pay you back the money later!"
"Not bad, Biaozi! Sounds like you've truly struck it rich as a boss." Chen Jue smiled faintly, not expecting that just a short while after parting ways, his roommate's circumstances would undergo such a dramatic turnaround.
"Hehe! All thanks to the great ideas you came out with. Let me tell you..." Wang Biao pulled Chen Jue along to talk at length about the business at his specialty store, taking the opportunity to repay the money he had previously borrowed. Chen Jue, in turn, returned the IOU slip from his backpack.
Seeing that Wang Biao had only brought his eldest son along, it was safe to assume Biaozi's wife was heavily pregnant at home, making travel inconvenient.
A few hours later, Cheng Wei arrived from Beidu with his recently reconciled ex-girlfriend. The two were sweet and affectionate, and upon inquiring, it turned out they had also placed their wedding on the itinerary—a speed of execution that left everyone stunned.
Shortly after, Jiang Fan and Huang Zhe, the sixth member of their dormitory, arrived together by car, both accompanied by their wives and children. Seeing that the apartment was quickly running out of floor space, the group of college friends—reunited after years apart—decided to head to a nearby hot pot restaurant and book a private room.
Since most of them hailed from coastal regions with milder palates, they specifically ordered a dual-flavor mandarin duck hot pot. Once dishes like tripe, duck intestines, gongcai, and crispy fried pork were served, the conversation began to flow freely. Drinks were poured, and laughter filled the private room uninterrupted.
Everyone shouted out each other's college nicknames, raking up old embarrassing moments and gossip. The lively gathering continued past nine in the evening before finally breaking up so everyone could return to their hotels to rest.
...
The next morning, everyone woke up bright and early. Led by Cheng Wei's Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon followed by a line of wedding cars, they headed out early to the bride's old residential neighborhood to pick up the bride.
Hezhou didn't put much stock in flashy displays, and the wedding cars weren't subject to the strict requirements seen in Wenzhou, where fleets had to consist exclusively of Mercedes, BMWs, Audis, or even double-R Bentleys. In Hezhou, as long as you had a car, you could join the convoy, and the atmosphere was exceptionally warm and cheerful.
Backed by the thousand-plus ten-yuan red envelopes Cheng Wei had prepared, the sheer visual impact of "monetary power" paved the way, allowing the group to smoothly breach the door of the bride's home.
After completing the pick-up ritual, the wedding motorcade drove straight to a hotel by the river. Upon sitting down at the banquet tables, they discovered that wedding banquets here spanned two rounds—lunch and dinner. Once lunch was over, the tablecloths were swiftly yanked off, and mahjong games immediately kicked into gear. Moreover, the banquet dishes weren't exorbitant, costing several hundred to a thousand per table, unlike Wenzhou where tables easily ran into the tens of thousands.
The atmosphere at the wedding venue was lively. When the time came to watch Zhou Anping escort his bride onto the stage, the guys at the roommate table began jeering, urging Chen Jue to pick a single bridesmaid from the bride's side and find a match to settle down on the spot.
Out of the six members in their dorm, Chen Jue, who had taken up cultivation, remained the sole single dog.
Looking at his college roommates—each leading happy, fulfilling, paired-up lives while raising the next generation—and then glancing at the newlyweds on stage, Chen Jue felt as though life was a grand karmic cycle. Everyone was ordinary, everyone had their differences, yet the overarching trajectory was strikingly similar.
...
After the midday banquet, Zhou Anping suggested heading to the nearby Wenfeng Ancient Street to take wedding photos outdoors. The roommates, whether accompanied by children or girlfriends, all tagged along.
It had become a customary tradition for each roommate's wedding. As they strolled down the ancient street along the riverbank, Chen Jue discovered something remarkably fascinating about the rivers in Hezhou.
The Jialing River, Fu River, and Qu River converged at this very spot, presenting a bizarre spectacle of three distinct colors. Three currents of different hues swirled together on the river surface before ultimately embracing into a unified entity, resembling a natural tri-colored Dan pill—calm, inclusive, and devoid of violent turbulence.
"Life is perhaps much like these three rivers, rushing forward without turning back, only to ultimately converge at a single point." Standing before this miraculous confluence of the three rivers, Chen Jue felt a profound wave of insight.
When his roommates called out for group photos, he snapped back to his senses and cheerfully joined the formation.
The photographer, dispatched by the wedding planning company, wielded a high-end camera. After snapping a few group shots, he used Cheng Wei's high-end phone to take one final group picture and uploaded it to their chat group.
As soon as the photo was sent, Jiang Fan dug up an old graduation group photo from somewhere and posted it right below, creating a before-and-after contrast between the two pictures. In the side-by-side comparison, all six men had undergone dramatic transformations.
Some sported protruding bellies, others carried weather-beaten expressions; the youthful glow of their early college days was gone, replaced by the fading of their sharp edges and the polish of worldly sophistication.
Only Chen Jue stood out in the photo, looking more extraordinary in temperament than before, seemingly growing younger as time went on.
"Old Cat! You little bastard! You're the only one in this picture growing younger!"
"Confess right now—which plastic surgery clinic did you go to for a head transplant?" The group laughed and bantered, preparing to head back to the hotel to play mahjong and liven up the afternoon.
Passing a small shop in the ancient street selling Hanfu and traditional accessories, Chen Jue suddenly caught the strains of a clear, resonant song drifting from the store's speakers: "Rolling giant waves, chaotic mortal dust... affinity gathers then scatters, a floating life like a dream of fleeting joy... a long and winding stroll through life's mortal path, seeing through the exhaustion of worldly prosperity to witness the ultimate truth..." Presumably, the shop owner had specifically queued up the theme song of a classic martial arts film to set the ambiance.
Wang Biao, Cheng Wei, Zhou Anping, and the others recognized the song instantly, remarking on how familiar it sounded and reminiscing about their childhood as they debated which version of *The Smiling, Proud Wanderer* it belonged to.
Chen Jue hummed along softly under his breath, his thoughts drifting back to the people and sights he had witnessed while wandering out from Beidu, measuring the earth with his footsteps and refining his heart amid the mortal realm.
From bustling metropolises all the way to this Hezhou town brimming with the gritty warmth of human life.
From Li Wei, whose culinary skills surpassed his martial arts, to Master Huang Zhen running his orthopedic clinic, to Old Man Luo—the Golden Elixir expert on Mount Hua who sold Eight Treasures Tea through fortune-telling and physiognomy—and finally to his college roommates going through the various stages of life beside him.
Every spiritual imprint, every mortal face he had encountered, right down to the two characters "Complete Truth" carved into the protruding cliffside on Mount Hua, flashed across Chen Jue's eyes at that moment like a rapid slideshow.
Just as the old song went: "A floating life like a dream of fleeting joy, seeing through prosperity to witness the ultimate truth."
At this very instant, Chen Jue finally understood. His moving moments were concealed within the rolling tides of the mortal world, and his Dao lay right here in this seemingly ordinary, day-in-day-out human existence.
"Dwelling within the Dao, yet unaware of the 'Dao'."
"Complete Truth... Complete Truth... So the ultimate truth of life... lies in plain simplicity!"
The minimum promised first chapter is delivered~
This chapter arrived a little late. Originally written at over six thousand words, it felt too bloated, so I repeatedly trimmed and edited it down to this state. Sorry to keep everyone waiting!
Up to this point, the protagonist's enlightenment has concluded, and the formal plot of the book is about to begin (adjusts glasses). It dragged on a little too long, apologies for the wait~
Also, Pianfeng isn't a street vendor selling chicken racks, he just really likes eating them (covers face).