A month might not mean much to an ordinary person, but for a Nascent Soul Stage expert, if he devoted himself to studying, one month was absolutely worth several years for an ordinary person. Sure enough, Zhang Hupan's English was now extremely fluent. Since he felt that New York, USA English sounded more pleasing to the ear, he had persisted in imitating and studying it. By now, he could speak fluent, authentic New York, USA English. If everyone had not known for certain that Zhang Hupan had come from Shiyan City on Wudang Mountain, they would have suspected that he was an overseas student returning from the United States.
Hangzhou lay on the southern wing of the Yangtze River Delta, at the western end of Hangzhou Bay, downstream of the Qiantang River, and at the southern end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It was an important central city in the Yangtze River Delta and a transportation hub in southeastern China. Hangzhou had a subtropical monsoon climate, with four distinct seasons, mild and humid weather, abundant sunlight, and plentiful rainfall. West Lake, in the center of Hangzhou, was a historic and world-famous scenic destination. Ancient sites were scattered throughout the area, while its mountains and waters were beautiful and its scenery pleasant. It stretched 3.3 kilometers from north to south and 2.8 kilometers from east to west. Its original water surface covered 5.66 square kilometers, or 6.3 square kilometers including the islands in the lake, while its shoreline measured fifteen kilometers. The average water depth was around 2.27 meters. The deepest part was over five meters, and the shallowest was less than one meter.
West Lake was filled with beautiful sights. In addition to the Ten Scenes of Qiantang and the Eighteen Scenes of West Lake, the most famous were the Ten Scenes of West Lake, named during the Southern Song dynasty, and the New Ten Scenes of West Lake, selected in 1985. Within the sixty-square-kilometer garden and scenic area centered around West Lake were more than forty major scenic spots and over thirty key cultural relics and historic sites. In summary, the beauty of West Lake could be described by one lake, two peaks, three springs, four temples, five mountains, six gardens, seven caves, eight tombs, nine streams, and ten scenes. In 1982, West Lake was designated a national scenic area, and in 1985, it was named one of the Top Ten Scenic Spots in China.
West Lake was a poem, a natural painting, and a beautiful, moving story. Whether they had lived there for years or were merely travelers passing through, everyone was captivated by this unparalleled scenery. In the spring of March, orioles flew and grass grew lush. Peach and willow trees lined the Su and Bai Causeways. On either side, the water rippled brilliantly and pleasure boats dotted the surface, while in the distance, hazy mountains held shades of blue and green. Walking along the causeway at such a time, one would be stunned by the view before them, even intoxicated and enthralled, wondering whether they had entered an immortal realm beyond the mortal world.
Zhang Hupan had visited West Lake several times with Hu Zhiming and the others since he had started school, and he had also come alone several times. After all, this was where Zhang Sanfeng had taken him in. Every time he came to West Lake, Zhang Hupan felt an endless melancholy. Although he had lived for nearly a century and could be considered an immortal-like figure in the eyes of the world, whenever he thought about his unknown origins, he still felt immense regret and inexplicable sadness.
It was Saturday, and Zhang Hupan was once again walking alone along South Mountain Road. Although the weather was clear, the autumn wind blowing toward him still carried a trace of chill. With Zhang Hupan's cultivation, he had long since become immune to cold and heat, but to avoid seeming out of place, he still wore a casual tracksuit. Of course, Zhang Hupan was no longer the foolish immortal who had first ventured into the world. At Hu Zhiming and the others' repeated urging, he had long since given the dowdy clothes away to beggars by the roadside. Everyone loved beauty, and Zhang Hupan was no exception. Besides, he had to attend English classes twice a week, where he faced two publicly acknowledged campus beauties, one of whom was from out of town. Moreover, because of Zhang Hupan's excellent English, the Scottish beauty now favored him greatly, while Zhao Liya still refused to concede and clung to him. Under such circumstances, if Zhang Hupan did not pay attention to his appearance, all the male students would kill him with their eyes, because they felt he had disgraced all men. Thus, half driven by his vanity and half pressured by his classmates, Zhang Hupan had no choice but to wear the clothing brands considered top-tier by the student body: Nike, Adidas, and the like.
West Lake in autumn was undeniably beautiful and intoxicating. The gentle autumn breeze stirred tiny ripples across the water and carried waves of osmanthus fragrance that refreshed the heart and mind. This stretch of South Mountain Road was also one of West Lake's most beautiful and tranquil scenic routes. Tall parasol trees and dense foliage made the air beneath them feel especially fresh and cool. Zhang Hupan, however, had not come to enjoy the tranquility and freshness of South Mountain Road. He had come to look for a part-time job. His ten thousand yuan had gone toward train tickets, clothes, tuition, books, a portable music player, and replacing his wardrobe. Of course, after becoming the acknowledged leader, he had not been willing to fall behind and had treated everyone as well. After all that spending, only a little over one thousand yuan remained in his pocket. Although Zhang Hupan's cultivation had long freed him from the need to eat and drink, if he wanted to live like an ordinary person in this dazzling modern world, he still needed money. Thus Zhang Hupan, whom the world regarded as an immortal, had been forced to look for a part-time job. Naturally, he could have asked his disciples and descendants for money, but he felt that would damage his dignity. More importantly, he believed that experiencing an ordinary person's life would broaden his life experience and improve his state of mind. Otherwise, if he simply sold pills, he could certainly become an unparalleled tycoon.
He had chosen South Mountain Road for two reasons. First, he had heard that there were quite a few cafés and bars here, most of which operated at night and offered relatively high incomes. Second, it was far from the school, so he was unlikely to run into acquaintances. Besides, a bar was a complicated miniature version of society. Zhang Hupan believed that integrating into this life and observing the varied lives of the people here would make his worldly cultivation twice as effective with half the effort.
Perhaps because it was autumn, the evenings were crisp and refreshing, and many people liked to go out drinking in such weather. As a result, quite a few bars had posted hiring notices at their entrances. Around the middle of South Mountain Road, Zhang Hupan took a liking to a bar that looked as though it had a distinctly American West atmosphere. It was even called Western Paradise. Whether the owners would take a liking to him, however, remained unknown.
Western Paradise was a freestanding, two-story, villa-style cottage with a steep roof, covering nearly two hundred square meters. The entire exterior used the brown, timeworn trunks of primeval forest trees as its backdrop, giving it a rugged, weathered appearance from a distance. The small door was made of raw wood, and the decorators had deliberately used tree trunks to adorn the entrance, making people feel as if they had arrived at a roadside bar in some remote forest.
Zhang Hupan pressed the doorbell. "Come in." A very languid woman's voice came from inside. The door was not locked, so Zhang Hupan pushed it open after hearing her. Once inside, he quickly surveyed the place. The bar's interior decorations matched its exterior style perfectly. All the tables were wooden and had been coated in the distinctive brown of primeval forest timber. The entire bar was somewhat dim, perhaps because of that, the owner had turned on several lights. To the left, facing the entrance, was a stage. On the right, against the wall, was the bar counter. A mature, alluring woman sat languidly on a tall stool behind the counter, holding a stack of bills under the light as she calculated and checked them. Zhang Hupan guessed that this beautiful, mature woman was probably the owner. Just as he was about to approach her, he felt someone tugging at his trouser leg. He turned around and saw a little girl of four or five, dressed in a princess outfit, her hair tied into braids, and her bright eyes shining. When the girl saw Zhang Hupan turn around, she examined him with a shy yet curious gaze and asked in a childish voice, "Big Brother, are you here to see my mommy? Mommy's busy right now. I went to ask her to play with me just now, but she said she was busy and didn't have time! Why don't you play with me for a little while first, then go see her when she's free?"
Liu Zhenxi was the female owner of this bar. Five years earlier, she had gone to New York, USA, to study, where she met a handsome, dashing, wealthy overseas Chinese heir. They quickly fell in love, but Liu Zhenxi had never expected that the rich heir would be such a womanizing playboy. In a fit of anger, she returned to her hometown in Hangzhou two months pregnant. She then opened a distinctive bar on South Mountain Road. Because its decorations and layout embodied the atmosphere of a small town in the American West, and because the bar promoted a healthy drinking culture, it gave people an unusual impression in both cultural refinement and the promotion of responsible consumption. It was deeply popular with customers, who flocked to it, making it a fairly famous bar on South Mountain Road.
The little girl tugging at Zhang Hupan's trouser leg was named Liu Feifei, Liu Zhenxi's daughter. Because she had grown up in a single-parent family, and because Liu Zhenxi was usually busy running the bar by herself, she had very little time to care for her daughter. As a result, Liu Feifei had become introverted and would not speak to strangers, much less tug on a stranger's trouser leg. Liu Zhenxi felt deeply guilty about her daughter's withdrawn condition, but it was truly difficult for a single woman to support herself and her child. She simply had no spare time to give her daughter more attention. Her daughter's behavior today greatly surprised Liu Zhenxi, and she could not help taking an interest in the young man nearby. While carefully studying him from a distance, she said with a hint of reproach, "Feifei, don't bother him. Let Big Brother come over. Big Brother has something to discuss with Mommy!"
If one analyzed it carefully, Liu Feifei's behavior was not strange at all. Children all possessed an exceptionally pure heart. Their souls were spotless, and they often judged things not with their minds but with their instincts. Their sharp intuition told them who was bad and who was good, much like a puppy could clearly tell which strangers meant its owner well and which harbored ill intentions.
Zhang Hupan had grown up in the Xuanwu Immortal Realm from childhood and had never been stained by worldly thoughts. His nature was as pure as a baby's. He had also cultivated the Heavenly Dao from a young age, gaining insight into the profound mysteries of heaven and earth and becoming intimately connected with them. He naturally gave off an approachable aura. Although he had sealed his own magic power, growing for so long in an immortal land had inevitably given him an ethereal, nature-loving, simple, and unadorned quality. This was also one reason Zhao Liya inexplicably did not resist sitting beside Zhang Hupan. Otherwise, given Zhang Hupan's appearance, no matter how brilliant the schemes Hu Zhiming claimed to have devised were, Zhao Liya, the favored daughter of Heaven, could never have sat beside Zhang Hupan every day for a month.
To the pure-hearted Liu Feifei, this unfamiliar Big Brother was obviously a very good person, someone who would not harm her in the slightest. There was also something warm and familiar about him that made people feel close. Only a little girl like her could have such a strong impression. After being lonely for so long, Liu Feifei had suddenly discovered such a Big Brother and could not help summoning her courage to tug at Zhang Hupan's trouser leg, hoping that he would play with her. But after hearing her mother, Liu Feifei looked at her with disappointment, then gazed at Zhang Hupan with intense hope and asked, "Big Brother, will you play with me after you finish talking to Mommy?"
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