After leaving Yuanfang Driving School, Chen Jue seemed to enter a strange, wondrous state. He thought less, asked less, looked more, and walked more, measuring the earth with his feet, observing the world with his eyes, and using his heart to understand life.
His legs kept moving. With his backpack on, Chen Jue strolled past Beidu's towering buildings and bustling streets, entering the crowds of millions and looking at one unfamiliar face after another.
There were busy vegetable vendors at farmers' markets, housewives who had risen early to buy groceries, students laughing and roughhousing on their way to school with bags on their backs, dust-covered construction workers starting work, sanitation women sweeping fallen leaves from the roadside, urban office workers clutching breakfast as they rushed to clock in, married couples busy in their breakfast shops, and couriers and food delivery riders hurrying through the streets on electric scooters.
Chen Jue was using his Heavenly Sensitivity to experience the many faces of living beings throughout the vast mortal world.
Rather than going to the high-speed rail station to catch a train back to Wenzhou, he walked south all the way, leaving Beidu's bustling urban sprawl for its increasingly sparsely populated outskirts.
When he grew hungry at noon, he stopped at a small roadside restaurant for pulled noodles or rice with toppings. When walking made him thirsty, he bought a sports drink to replenish his strength.
The autumn sunlight did not feel scorching on his skin. A cool breeze brushed past, his pores relaxed, and yellowing leaves drifted by his feet. In the distance, the mountains were lush and green beneath blue skies and white clouds, with birds calling in flocks.
Chen Jue found that wherever he went, he could see traces of people.
Along the way, he saw small shopkeepers sitting