A message from Zhang Zhongjing

Sunlight shone through the window, birds chirped softly, and a day full of promise arrived right on schedule.

The first thing most young people did when they woke up was check their phones, and Jun Wangchen was no exception. When he opened WeChat, Strongest Chat Group in History already had over ten thousand new messages.

"These immortals really have nothing better to do. They can spend an entire day talking about the tiniest thing." Jun Wangchen smiled helplessly as he read the chat history.

There was nothing particularly remarkable as he scrolled through it, just immortals joking around and roasting each other, but Jun Wangchen had not come away empty-handed.

He learned from the group that the Three Realms of Gods, Ghosts, and Immortals currently had no direct passage to the human realm. In other words, barring special circumstances, their inhabitants could not descend to the human realm at all. They also knew nothing about its current development, including its food and entertainment.

If possible, I could start there—sell snacks to some of those lazy, food-loving immortals in exchange for immortal techniques or something.

Still, he would have to test whether that idea would work. There was no point rushing it.

At that moment, Jun Wangchen had only one priority—breaking free of his bed's hold on him!

As the ancient saying went: neglect hard work in your youth, and you would struggle to find a wife in old age; if you wanted full marks on a test, get up before dawn.

As an ambitious young man with ideals and aspirations, Jun Wangchen constantly reminded himself to study hard. After all, only by enduring the bitterest hardships could he make his wallet grow fatter and fatter.

After struggling in bed for quite some time, Jun Wangchen finally broke free of its hold and briskly washed up.

Once he finished, the other three got up one after another. Seeing that Jun Wangchen was heading out for breakfast, Third immediately pulled out a hundred-yuan note and handed it to him, telling him to treat himself to something nice.

Jun Wangchen was initially reluctant. Money could buy a house but not a home, marriage but not love, a clock but not time. Money was not everything; rather, it was the rotten source of all evil and the root of suffering. So... he resolutely took that corruption and suffering upon himself.

It was already eight in the morning when he finished breakfast, with twenty minutes left before class. Rather than wandering around campus, Jun Wangchen headed straight for the Zhiyuan Building.

Jinling University had many teaching buildings, but the most famous was the Zhiyuan Building, because so many things had happened there that would go down in history.

People jumping off the building, fires, indecent exchanges between a female teacher and a student—everything except something good had happened in that building.

Room 612 in the Zhiyuan Building was a classroom Jun Wangchen both loved and hated. It held far too many memories of him and his ex-girlfriend. Once, it had reeked of romance; now, well, all that probably remained was the sweaty stink of lonely singles.

By the time Jun Wangchen arrived, the classroom was packed. Even the students who usually loved skipping class were all present. This class was taught by an elderly professor from the medical school who was extremely strict. Anyone who dared skip his class would lose their eligibility to take the final exam.

His three roommates were sitting in a back corner, a spot reserved for academic slackers. Three years of irregular university schedules had accustomed them to skipping breakfast, so they had arrived much earlier than Jun Wangchen.

As he approached them, Third pointed at a seat in the middle rows and frowned. "Fourth, isn't that your girlfriend, Qiu Ya? Why is she sitting with another guy?"

Jun Wangchen looked where Third was pointing and saw a stylishly dressed young woman reclining in a young man's arms. The young man wore expensive clothes and practically reeked of money, looking every bit the rich brat.

As Jun Wangchen looked at them, the two happened to turn their heads toward him.

There was no trace of their old affection in the woman's eyes. She looked at him as though he had nothing to do with her, while the man's gaze was filled with contempt, as though he were showing off his trophy.

Jun Wangchen's expression remained calm, not a flicker crossing his face. But his hand, hidden beneath his clothes, clenched tight.

Seeing his former love lying in her new lover's arms, no matter how much he pretended not to care, he could not settle his emotions so quickly.

His three roommates looked at the couple in the middle rows, then at Jun Wangchen, and immediately understood everything.

Third lit a cigarette and said between puffs, "Fourth, that's how the world always is. Some people live worlds apart, yet feel like old friends the moment they meet. Others are right beside each other, yet spend every day passing each other by.

"So don't just focus on what's right in front of you. Along any road, some people walk beside you, and others leave. Maybe at the next crossroads, the person who'll stay with you for life is waiting."

"Thanks, Third!" Looking at the wisdom in Third's eyes and hearing his philosophical words, Jun Wangchen took a deep breath, nodded, and sat down beside them.

He checked the time. There were still five minutes before class, so with nothing else to do, Jun Wangchen took out his Groundhog Phone and opened WeChat.

Before he could enter the Strongest Chat Group in History, a message caught his attention.

"Ding! Zhang Zhongjing has started a conversation with you through the Strongest Chat Group in History."

Jun Wangchen froze at the message.

Zhang Zhongjing was a renowned physician from the late Eastern Han dynasty, honored as the Sage of Medicine. He had collected medical prescriptions extensively and written the enduring masterpiece Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases, establishing the principles of treatment based on syndrome differentiation and laying the foundation of clinical practice in traditional Chinese medicine.

Jun Wangchen's major happened to be Clinical Medicine, and Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases was something every student in the field had to know thoroughly, however much of a headache it gave them.

At the thought of receiving a private message from the Sage of Medicine, Jun Wangchen felt both excited and nervous as he sent a reply. "Sage Zhang, what can I do for you?"

Zhang Zhongjing typed rather slowly. A full minute passed before he replied, "Fellow Daoist, I saw that you claimed Primordial Heaven Venerable's red packet yesterday. May I ask whether it contained Zhuge Liang's manual, Divine Calculations?"

Jun Wangchen was taken aback. Though he had no idea why Zhang Zhongjing was asking, he still nodded and replied, "That's right. Why do you ask all of a sudden, Sage Zhang? Is there something wrong with Zhuge Liang's manual?"

Zhang Zhongjing gave a bitter chuckle. "You misunderstand, fellow Daoist. There is nothing wrong with Zhuge Liang's manual. It's just that when I played chess with him yesterday, that fellow cheated by using Divine Calculations. In every game, he foresaw my next move, until everything I did was within his predictions. In the end, he won every merit point I had saved over the years. Utterly infuriating!"

"Last night, I happened to see Primordial Heaven Venerable send Zhuge Liang's manual to the group as a red packet, and you happened to claim it. So I would like to acquire Divine Calculations from you, take Zhuge Liang down a peg, and win my merit points back while I'm at it."

(Merit points: the common currency of the Three Realms of Gods, Ghosts, and Immortals. Most manuals and supernatural abilities belonging to their inhabitants could be purchased with merit points.)

Reading Zhang Zhongjing's messages on the screen, Jun Wangchen could not help finding them amusing.

Zhuge Liang is a master diviner. Forget your next move—he can even work out what you're thinking. You actually dared play chess against someone with cheats like that? Talk about going out of your way to get yourself killed.

Still, amusing as he found it, Jun Wangchen could hardly mock Zhang Zhongjing openly. After a moment's thought, he typed, "Zhuge Liang really did go too far. Sage Zhang, I can send you Divine Calculations, but wouldn't I be losing out if I simply gave it to you?"

Zhang Zhongjing paused, then hurriedly replied, "I understand what you mean, fellow Daoist. It's just that I have no merit points right now. Could I owe you for the time being and pay you once I win my merit points back?"

Jun Wangchen was speechless. An IOU? Who knows whether you'll ever pay me back?

After thinking for a moment, Jun Wangchen's eyes suddenly lit up. He typed, "Sage Zhang, I'm not short of merit points at the moment. To tell you the truth, I'm quite interested in your Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases. How about we trade one item for another?"

Zhang Zhongjing seemed greatly surprised. "Fellow Daoist, are you sure you want Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases?"

"I do want it. But from what you're saying, Sage Zhang, is Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases so valuable that Divine Calculations isn't enough for an even trade?" Jun Wangchen paused, then asked.

Zhang Zhongjing did not know whether to laugh or cry. "No, no, no, you give me far too much credit, fellow Daoist. Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases was merely a collection of casual notes I wrote back then, hardly worthy of serious consideration. Don't you think you would be losing out by trading Divine Calculations for it?"

The corner of Jun Wangchen's eye twitched. Damn it, his casual notes became the medical masterpiece Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases? If those grandmasters of traditional Chinese medicine who spent thirty years studying it heard this, wouldn't they cough up buckets of blood?

While Jun Wangchen was still speechless, Zhang Zhongjing added, "Fellow Daoist, how about this? To make sure you don't lose out, I'll trade you both Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases and Hundred-Year Acupuncture for Divine Calculations. What do you say?"

"Deal!" Without giving it another thought, Jun Wangchen agreed to Zhang Zhongjing's trade.

At this stage, nothing was more important to his studies than Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases. Once he mastered that manual, he would have learned the better part of what he needed for clinical medicine. It was something he desperately wanted.

As for Hundred-Year Acupuncture, Jun Wangchen had no idea what it was, but anything from Zhang Zhongjing was bound to be extraordinary.

Without hesitation, after learning from Zhang Zhongjing how to send items to the immortal realm, Jun Wangchen tapped the red packet and sent him Divine Calculations. Zhang Zhongjing was equally straightforward, immediately sending Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases and Hundred-Year Acupuncture to Jun Wangchen as red packets.

Delighted to receive Divine Calculations, Zhang Zhongjing said, "Thank you, fellow Daoist. A pleasure doing business with you. Let's play chess together when you have time!"

Jun Wangchen replied with a few "OK" emojis, then eagerly tapped his wallet and opened Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases.

"Manual: Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases. Learn it?"

"Learn it!"