Young Taoist Priest

"Boss, one large bowl of beef noodles!" At a shop outside campus, Su Yuan found an empty table and called out to the busy middle-aged owner.

Before long, a steaming bowl of beef noodles was served. She picked up her chopsticks and began wolfing it down, soup and all.

Night had fallen over the campus. The moonlight stretched for miles, stars dotted the sky, and the fragrance of unknown flowers drifted in with the rustling of leaves, carrying the dry scent of earth and the freshness of grass and trees.

On a whim, Su Yuan wandered through the small woods on campus, passing bridges, artificial hills, and a little lake. Feeling the vastness of heaven and earth, her heart suddenly seemed to open wide. It was not until eight o'clock that she finally headed back to the dorm.

The room was still pitch-black. Ji Yehao and Gao Jun probably would not be back until tomorrow. She shook her head, took out her laptop, and prepared to go online.

She refreshed several times, but no page appeared.

Only then did she realize that the software used to get online had been shut down by the telecom company again. The network at Binhe University of Science and Technology used client dial-up accounts, one account per person. Yet for some unknown reason, the school administration had made a rule that only students who had passed College English Test Band 4 could get an Internet account.

This hard rule had instantly driven countless students into despair. Su Yuan was clearly one of the unlucky victims.

Fortunately, it was not completely beyond remedy. They said true experts were hidden among the common folk, and after much begging and pleading, she had indeed found a god-tier student from the Computer Science software program at the neighboring Hangdian University. He reverse-engineered the online software, allowing one account to be shared through a router by an entire dorm room as long as they bought a larger data package. One computer dialed in, and the whole dorm got free Internet.

Unfortunately, a workaround was still a workaround. Even the longest-lived software of this kind only lasted about one semester; some did not even survive a week.

It was enough to make one sigh.

When Su Yuan failed to connect, she knew the software had died another death. The dorm was dark and silent, quiet enough to suffocate her. Being alone in the room was unbearably stifling. She grabbed her keys, checked her wallet, ID card, and bank card, then decided to go to an Internet café and pull an all-nighter.

The Internet cafés in the district were north of Binhe University of Science and Technology, in a residential area that had only recently been developed. Several cafés had opened there and gathered quite a few student customers.

After passing through lush green woods and following a stone path for a while, the huge neon logo of an Internet café appeared across the road.

The café was fairly large, with over a hundred computers equipped with LCD monitors. Half of them were occupied at the moment. Su Yuan opened an account card, then went upstairs to a private booth and began playing by herself.

When she opened the card, the young female attendant gave her a flirtatious wink, probably because she had a nice face. Su Yuan was immensely pleased with herself and winked back. Plenty of people usually told her she was handsome, and Su Yuan deeply agreed with that assessment. Of course, plenty of others said she was not handsome at all, just pretty like a girl. That was a matter of personal taste. Su Yuan believed that anyone who said she looked feminine simply had no eye for beauty. How vulgar!

She was not used to having people around while at an Internet café. No matter how passionate their gaming shouts were, they sounded no different from noise to her. Of course, another reason might have been that the game she played was rather childish.

Zhu Xian 2. And she was playing a female character.

She played Zhu Xian 2 because the game was quite flashy. When it came to games, Su Yuan had always pursued spectacle over substance. As for playing a female character, that was also because it looked flashy. The fox spirits of the Lieshan Tribe had been adorably delicate from the very start.

Pretending to be a cute little demon was what Su Yuan liked best.

In the game, her Lieshan Little Fox had latched onto a rich player. That player had plenty of money, showering Su Yuan with ingots, equipment, pets, and mounts. Her level rose at a terrifying pace.

But school was about to start, and playing a female character was truly damaging to Su Yuan's masculine aura. Anyone who knew her and saw her playing one would call her feminine too! Su Yuan decided that after playing tonight, she would seal the account. On the screen, the fox spirit in pink kept firing arrows from an ornate bow. Accompanied by coquettish gasps and the pained cries of enemies, Su Yuan clicked the mouse in excitement.

Cough, cough. When she finally saw Little Fox collapse to the ground and the words "Return to City to Revive" appear on the screen, she rubbed her nose and lamented that she had seen the beginning but failed to guess the ending. Her Little Fox had actually been beaten to death...

In a fit of anger, she looked at the clock in the lower-right corner of the desktop. It was nearly eleven. Poor Little Fox lay sprawled in the middle of nowhere. Let that be the end of the game, then. Tragic, so tragic. It was damn artistic.

After quitting the game, she began looking for a movie.

"What movie should I watch today?"

A good movie was not about whether it was a blockbuster, but whether its plot could skillfully explore thought or emotion. Su Yuan had always considered herself somewhat clever, so she found a movie that looked very highbrow: The Last Man on Earth. Fine, she admitted it—she had been drawn in by the faint hint of romance in the synopsis. The story took place in the summer of 2002, when every mammal on Earth with a Y chromosome suddenly died at the same time, leaving behind only one young man and the monkey he kept...

Hold it!

One lonely surviving man, one pitiful monkey, and more than three billion women around the globe—was this supposed to be a human tragedy or the story of the ultimate winner in life?

Late into the night, Su Yuan chatted with the night owls on her friends list. Only when she was exhausted did she drowsily curl up in the soft leather sofa chair and fall asleep.

Morning, seven o'clock.

Su Yuan opened her eyes and saw that the computer had already logged out. Her head felt heavy and muddled. She shook it, stretched lazily, and walked out of the Internet café.

The scorching sun was already blazing down again. With her nerves still feeling weak, Su Yuan could not help raising a hand to shield her eyes. She bought a little food from a street stall, her mind fixed entirely on how much she missed her bed.

"Hey, miss, please stop for a moment."

Su Yuan, who was chewing on a meat bun, turned around and saw a young Taoist priest waving at her. Hmm, she had run into a scammer.

"What do you want?"

"Miss, no... layperson, please slow down for a few steps." The Taoist priest in a blue-gray robe with a crossed collar and wide sleeves followed after her.

"Layperson, I see that your face is haggard, your steps unsteady, and a dark line faintly hangs between your brows. This is surely an omen of misfortune..."

Bullshit. You were lurking outside the Internet café. Didn't you see that I'd been online all night? Su Yuan could not be bothered with him and kept walking.

"Layperson, layperson..."

The Young Taoist Priest spread his arms and blocked Su Yuan's way. His broad sleeves hung low, but they allowed Su Yuan to clearly see the glittering gold ring on his finger. She did not know whether Taoist priests had any rules about wearing rings, but was he not afraid of attracting attention with one that large?

"Layperson, you have an Omen of Great Misfortune lately. A Disaster of Bloodlight is upon you!"

"Go away, go away. Stop saying such unlucky things!" Su Yuan frowned and tried to wave him off. Although she did not have any deep religious beliefs, she still had some taboos regarding the customs passed down by her ancestors.

Unfortunately, no matter where Su Yuan went, the Taoist priest stepped in front of her, as if he had singled her out.

"What exactly do you want?" Su Yuan was instantly annoyed. So many people had come out of the Internet café. Why were you only stopping me? Did you think I was too skinny to beat you up?

"Layperson, I am a real Taoist priest, not a fake one."

"Is there a difference?"

"There is! A huge difference!"

"Then why don't you call yourself 'this poor Taoist'?" Su Yuan asked.

The Taoist priest smiled slyly. "You don't know this, layperson. These days, Taoist priests rarely use 'this poor Taoist' anymore. Just saying 'I' is enough."

Su Yuan choked on her food and became even more convinced that this Taoist priest was no good.

"The immortal way cherishes life and saves countless people. Boundless blessings, Boundless Heavenly Venerate..."

Su Yuan waved a hand to cut off the Taoist priest's long-winded speech. "What do you want?"

"This humble Taoist sees that your inner and outer vital energies are both weak. This is an inauspicious sign of the Five Decays of Heaven and Man. As it happens, I have a Jade Talisman Seal that can help you avert danger."

"Just tell me. How much?"

The Young Taoist Priest gave Su Yuan an approving look. This little layperson truly understood the way of things. She had wisdom; his painstaking guidance had not been wasted.

"This object is a natural treasure, gathering the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and bearing great merit. It can defy fate and turn one's fortune around. As for the price... cough, putting a price on such a thing would surely cheapen it... I will not accept money for it."

This is called playing hard to get, the Young Taoist Priest thought smugly.

"There's such a good deal? Then give it to me." As she spoke, Su Yuan directly snatched the so-called Jade Talisman Seal from the Young Taoist Priest's hand and examined it carefully. It was called a Jade Talisman Seal, but it was merely an ordinary square piece of jadeite, emerald green and roughly half the size of her palm.

The Young Taoist Priest's face darkened for a moment, but he quickly forced out a smile. "I do not accept money, but the merit..."

"What merit?" Su Yuan asked.

The Young Taoist Priest's expression changed. "This merit!" As he spoke, he rubbed his thumb and forefinger together.

"Oh, that!" Su Yuan suddenly understood. The jadeite was most likely genuine; she had enough of an eye to tell that much. Besides, she rather liked it. She casually pulled a red hundred-yuan note from her pocket and handed it over. "That's enough merit, right?"

The Young Taoist Priest pursed his lips. Naturally, the greater the merit, the better! But seeing that Su Yuan had already walked far away, he could not be bothered to chase after her. He had picked the thing up anyway, so trading it for a hundred-yuan note was not a bad deal. Humming a little tune, he leisurely crossed the road.

Then came the screech of sudden brakes from behind, followed by a cry of pain. Su Yuan turned around and saw the smug Young Taoist Priest from earlier knocked down by a Minivan. Blood spurted from his head as he climbed back up and shouted furiously at the driver. That truly proved the saying: Disaster of Bloodlight.

Su Yuan smiled speechlessly. It seemed this Taoist priest had sacrificed himself for others and taken on someone else's misfortune. Boundless merit, boundless merit indeed!

Back in the dorm, unable to resist her drooping eyelids any longer, Su Yuan threw herself onto the bed. The air outside was sweltering, but under the combined effects of the air conditioner and fan, she slept very comfortably beneath a thin blanket.

Only when she heard a few sounds did she slowly wake up.

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