Haijing Academy of Fine Arts, Block B Teaching Building, Third Floor Art Studio.
The night outside the window was quiet. The energy-saving lights gave off a faintly pallid glow, and the different colors of paint smeared across the walls made the classroom feel like the setting of a ghost movie.
A tall girl sat in front of an easel.
Her long black hair was wrapped in a scarf and tied into a large bun at the back of her head to keep it from getting paint on it. The bristle oil brush in her hand swept back and forth, splashing a surging, turbulent blue current across the canvas.
The current swirled and churned, forming a mad nebula, like a demon's gaping mouth ready to swallow the entire city beneath the night sky.
She was painting Van Gogh's Starry Night. It was already ninety percent faithful to the original. What it still lacked was that feeling...
Smack!
She suddenly dropped the oil brush and stared blankly at the ceiling.
Her pitch-black pupils were like a stagnant pool, utterly still.
After a while, she picked up the Huawei Phone beside her and opened Bilibili.
The phone was old, so the interface lagged a little.
Could that guy called Lin the Hungry One really have given up?
Worried, she opened her list of followed accounts.
There was only one creator on it,
all alone, like an abandoned stray dog.
An update?
Her eyes lit up, and she immediately opened the video.
Huh?
It was the Heart Sutra?
Without headphones, a man's voice, pure and gentle as a spring-fed stream, began to echo through the art studio.
The chanting wasn't solemn or serious. It was like a refined, easygoing friend speaking softly, telling stories about the things he'd seen and heard on his journey to obtain the scriptures.
She listened quietly.
The Heart Sutra was short. It ended.
She didn't move, slowly savoring it. After about ten minutes, she set it to repeat.
In the morning, golden sunlight spilled across the campus, as if it had been painted with gold.
With the start of the semester approaching,
some fourth-year students had already returned early to work on their graduation projects.
Li Jing got up early, bought a jianbing guozi, and hurried to the art studio. If she didn't finish her work soon, she'd have trouble finding a job.
Huh?
What's that?
Chanting?
It actually sounds pretty good!
Li Jing climbed to the third floor and heard the chanting. She hurried to Art Studio 302 and found the door unlocked!
Creak!
Li Jing pushed the door open and poked her head into the classroom like a hamster, taking a peek.
"Chen Xin? You're here early!"
Li Jing knew this girl.
Or rather, as a painting prodigy who had held an exhibition in Paris, France, during her second year, there wasn't anyone at Haijing Academy of Fine Arts who didn't know her.
They said the principal had begged her to stay and teach.
The noise made Chen Xin frown slightly.
"C-Chen, could I... ask you for some advice?"
This was a rare opportunity, so Li Jing decided to seize it. She hurriedly brought out her half-finished painting and asked Chen Xin to critique it.
"Your technique is excellent, but it has no soul!"
Chen Xin glanced at Li Jing's reworked version of the Sistine Madonna. "If you're only looking for a good job, then choose a painting that best showcases your skill!"
"For example, Kramskoi's Unknown Woman."
Li Jing was stunned. She hadn't expected Chen Xin to guess what she was thinking after only one look at her work.
Back when she'd applied to Haijing Academy of Fine Arts, she'd been ambitious, too. She'd planned to create her own school of painting. But now?
Sorry!
She just wanted to paint character illustrations for major game companies—the kind that paid tens of thousands of yuan apiece.
"Thank you! Thank you!"
Li Jing hurried to thank her, her manner meek.
Chen Xin packed away her canvas and tidied up her paints and oil brushes. Then she untied the scarf around her head, and her waist-length black hair cascaded down like a waterfall.
Chen Xin lowered her head and opened the comments.
She skimmed through them, then started leaving messages.
Flower Blooms in the Fields: Congratulations. You've found your own path!
Flower Blooms in the Fields: The fish will eventually find an ocean where it can leap to its heart's content, and the bird will fly to a sky wide enough for its wings.
You didn't give up. I'm relieved!
Flower Blooms in the Fields: Keep it up, Hungry Person!
Chen Xin put her phone away and prepared to leave.
"Chen..."
Li Jing couldn't help calling out again.
Chen Xin stopped, turned around, and gave a soft nasal hum.
"Hmm?"
"Um... well..."
Being watched by a genius like her made Li Jing feel awkward. "That Buddhist chant you were listening to just now—could you tell me what it was?"
"I thought it sounded really good!"
Li Jing swallowed.
What was going on?
Did this girl have that much presence?
"Go on Bilibili and search for Lin the Hungry One."
After Chen Xin said this, the expressionless face finally showed a faint smile.
Building 12, Shiwan Shangyuan Residential Area, Foshui City.
A huge fat guy hammered furiously at his keyboard!
"Fucking dodge! Heal, heal! Do you even know how to play, damn it?"
Riven died, and the screen turned black and white.
The fat guy angrily pounded the keyboard and swore, cursing out every teammate in turn.
"Did you eat shit? Why's your mouth so filthy?"
"Stupid piece of shit!"
"Fuck you!"
His teammates didn't hold back either and immediately fired back.
The fat guy got even more fired up, ready to put his eighteen years of single-guy typing speed to use in a war of words with the whole team.
Smack!
The computer screen went black. The power was out.
The fat guy froze for a moment, then started sobbing.
"My love life's dead, I can't win at games, and now even the power company's picking a fight with me when I just want to curse someone out. Think I won't pay my electric bill next month?"
The fat guy's surname was Zhang, and his given name was Jing. He'd just graduated from high school and figured he might not get another chance, so he'd planned to confess to the girl he'd had a crush on for three years.
But before he could even open his mouth, he saw her coming out of a hotel with the school heartthrob.
At that moment,
Zhang Jing felt his life shatter. There was no point in living.
"Xiao Jing, what are you bawling about? Xiao Pi's here to see you!"
Zhang Jing's mother called out in a powerful voice.
"Tell him I'm dead!"
Zhang Jing jumped onto the bed. His nearly two-hundred-pound bulk made it creak under the strain.
"What are you doing, you idiot?"
A boy as skinny as a monkey pushed open the bedroom door. "You've been holed up at home for half a month. What, are you cultivating or something?"
"Pi, my love life is dead!"
Zhang Jing's eyes were teary.
Li Piwang was his childhood friend, so Zhang Jing wasn't afraid of embarrassing himself.
"Come on, when was your love life ever alive?"
Li Piwang pressed the computer's power button twice and found there was no electricity. "What's so great about women? They only slow down the speed at which I draw my sword!"
Zhang Jing lay on his back on the bed.
He was emotionally drained!
It would've been fine if the girl had rejected him, but the problem was, he'd seen her coming out of that hotel with his own eyes.
It had hit him too hard!
He felt like the hapless guy in a manga.
Seeing Zhang Jing like this, Li Piwang knew he'd taken a serious hit this time. He sighed, opened Bilibili, and sent him a link.
"Listen to this!"
"What is it?"
Zhang Jing clicked the link, and it took him to Bilibili.
"A Buddhist chant!"
Every night before bed, Li Piwang watched videos of pretty girls dancing. But last night, he'd happened to hear this chant, and suddenly lost all interest in the girls.
It had scared him at the time. He thought he'd masturbated himself into impotence.
"Even if Shakyamuni himself sang Buddhist chants to me right now, it wouldn't work!"
Zhang Jing snorted and clicked play.
As soon as the chanting began, the very first line caught his ear.
So soothing!
The irritation, anxiety, and resentment he'd felt were instantly extinguished, like a fire doused by snow, and vanished without a trace.
By the time it ended,
all that remained in Zhang Jing's heart was peace.
He even put his hands together and muttered, "Amitabha."
"How does it feel?"
The power came back. Li Piwang turned on the computer, ready to conquer the Continent of Valoran!
"I want to become a monk!"
Zhang Jing was being honest. He really did feel like he had no ties to the mortal world and might as well become a monk.
"Haha, I felt the same way after I heard it!"
Li Piwang skillfully opened a folder and found a porn video. "This chant is really something. I bet it's from some eminent monk at a temple, right?"
Zhang Jing had wanted to ask, There are still eminent monks these days?
But when he recalled the chant's rich Zen feeling, he shut his mouth again.
After savoring it for a few minutes, Zhang Jing suddenly said, "Pi, want to visit Shaolin Temple with me?"
"School's about to start. Why would we go to Shaolin Temple?"
Li Piwang thought his childhood friend was nuts.
"To listen to the scriptures, worship Buddha, and pray for..."
Zhang Jing had meant to say he wanted to pray for a good marriage, but then he suddenly thought, maybe it didn't matter if he never had a woman.
"Quit lying there like a corpse. Get up and watch this with me!"
Li Piwang urged him.
"Not interested!"
Zhang Jing listened to the chant again, liked it, tipped it, favorited it, and left a comment.
Zhang San Ri Tian: Master Lin, do you have an MP3 version? Could I get a download?
Zhang Jing wanted to download the chant to his music player so he could listen whenever he felt upset.
He took a look and saw that plenty of people were asking for a download.
"Lin the Hungry One? That name doesn't sound like an eminent monk!"
Zhang Jing followed the account,
then thought about it and changed it to special follow.
September 3, six in the morning, outside Guangqing City High-Speed Rail Station.
"Mom, go back! You've brought me here. That's enough!"
Lin Baici got out of the taxi with bags in both hands and a pile of luggage on his back.
"I'll go back after you've boarded the train!"
Mom Lin had originally wanted to see Lin Baici off to university, but she was too busy with work, and her supervisor wouldn't approve her leave. Besides, Lin Baici said he was grown up enough to manage on his own, so Mom Lin decided not to go.
But as departure drew near, thinking of her child living for four years more than a thousand li away, in a place where he knew no one, made Mom Lin worry all over again.
"No need. I won't get lost. Besides, you don't have a ticket, so you can't even get in!"
Aside from feeling sorry for his mom, Lin Baici was also miserable from carrying so much luggage.
He could easily have stuffed it into the Black Altar Bowl, but with his mom watching, he didn't dare. He had no choice but to carry it all.
Otherwise, given his mom's personality, she would definitely keep asking questions until she got to the bottom of things.
Then he wouldn't be able to keep the Longchan Temple Divine Ruins a secret. She would definitely worry and forbid him from going to explore God Ruins again.
Lin Baici was also planning to get his hands on a few more God's Taboo Objects and sell them for a fortune.
A mother always worried about her child traveling far from home.
Mom Lin still couldn't relax.
She regretted it now. She should have gone with her son to register.
"Mom, let me learn to stand on my own two feet. It'll be good practice!"
Lin Baici wheedled her: "You can't take care of me for the rest of my life, can you?"
Mom Lin was finally convinced.
"Then be careful. Keep your wallet and phone somewhere safe, and don't lose them!"
Mom Lin reminded him.
"Mm!"
Lin Baici waited in line for half an hour and got through security. Seeing his mom still outside the high-speed rail station, he waved to her through the glass.
"Mom, go on home!"
Lin Baici sent her a message on WeChat.
He knew his mom wouldn't leave until he was out of sight, so he took the escalator up to the Waiting Hall on the second floor.
The hall was packed with people, many of them students about to head far from home.
Lin Baici looked around, about to find Gate A12, when a sudden wave of hunger hit him.
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