After carrying out a mission with Senior Brother Zhang Yide, Chen Chong somehow grew close to him.
Senior Brother Zhang Yide occasionally came to see Chen Chong. Unlike Yu Che, he did not spend all day training hard in the bamboo grove, nor did he bury himself in medicinal research like Elder Yang.
He lived at an easy, unhurried pace. Once he sold his goods, he went down the mountain for a stroll, then returned to restock. His days flowed like a mountain stream, neither hurried nor slow, and he took pleasure in them.
That day, after Chen Chong finished refining pills, Senior Brother Zhang Yide was waiting at his door again. He squatted on the stone steps outside the stone house, holding two oil-paper parcels—one of braised meat and one of peanuts—with a small jar of wine in his other hand.
"Chen Chong, those goods are all sold. I picked up some food and wine. Come have some with me." Senior Brother Zhang Yide's hearty voice rang especially loud through the mountains at dusk.
Inside the stone chamber, the two sat on the floor. The oil-paper parcels lay open on the stone table. The braised meat was thickly sliced, the peanuts fried crisp, and the wine poured into two coarse ceramic bowls was cloudy and richly fragrant.
Zhang Yide took a sip of wine, wiped his mouth, and asked what Chen Chong had been practicing lately. Chen Chong concealed nothing and told him about receiving the Marrow-Cleansing Essence-Hiding Record from Luo Yu.
When Senior Brother Zhang Yide learned that Chen Chong had received their master's cultivation method, his eyes lit up, widening like bronze bells.
"Seriously?"
He set down his wine bowl and muttered to himself, "That can't be right. Weren't we all supposed to stay ordinary together?"
Chen