At Jiangcheng No. 1 Middle School, afternoon sunlight streamed through the tall glass windows, casting dappled light and shadows across the corridor.
The din between classes was like boiling water, filling every corner.
The laughter, roughhousing, and chatter of boys and girls mingled, brimming with the vitality of youth.
In the back row of the second-year Class One classroom, several boys had put their heads together, forming a small gossip circle.
At the other end of the classroom, several girls also glanced now and then at the figure sitting alone by the window, whispering among themselves.
"Hey, have you guys noticed anything different about Li Qingshan lately?"
The first to speak was Zhang Tao. His crew cut stood straight up, and his outgoing personality made him the class's go-to source for news.
"Different? I haven't noticed. Hasn't he always been like that?"
Li Wei spoke up, pushing up his black-framed glasses. Slightly chubby, he was looking down and fiddling with his phone.
"Actually, now that Zhang Tao mentions it, I've noticed something too,"
said Wang Yu, a tall, thin boy beside him, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"Just a couple of days ago in math class, Old Liu was explaining that super-hard extension problem. It all sounded like a heavenly book to us, but Li Qingshan didn't seem to be listening at all. He was reading a pretty old book under his desk the whole time. I think the title had 'classic' in it or something."
"Seven Slips of the Cloudy Satchel."
A subdued voice cut in. It was Chen Hao, the class's academic representative. He pushed up the glasses on his nose, his eyes gleaming behind the lenses.
"I saw it clearly. And when Old Liu called on him to answer, he looked up at the problem and, almost without thinking, gave two solutions on the spot.
"The second solution even left Old Liu stunned for several seconds before he came to his senses."
"Right, right, that was it." Zhang Tao slapped his thigh. "It was scary, okay? I couldn't even understand the problem."
"It's not just math."
Zhao Gang, the sports representative, a stocky, dark-skinned boy, leaned over.
He lowered his voice, a look of disbelief on his face.
"Remember the hundred-meter test in PE yesterday? I was the one timing it.
"When Li Qingshan started running, it was like he'd become a different person. His movements were incredibly coordinated, and he had explosive power too. He was nearly a second faster than he was on the test at the end of last semester.
"And the main thing was, after he finished, he was like nothing had happened. He wasn't even breathing hard."
The boys around him all sucked in a breath. They were ordinary students who thanked heaven and earth just to pass their PE exams; improving by a second was practically an impassable chasm.
"And haven't you noticed?"
Zhang Tao glanced mysteriously from side to side and lowered his voice even further.
"Lately, he's always reading those weird old books.
"The Dao De Jing, the True Classic of Nanhua, the Zhou Yi.
"Sometimes he reads them between classes too, and he writes and draws in a notebook. Every now and then he mutters words like 'visualization' and 'concentrating the mind.'"
"Visualization? Concentrating the mind?" Li Wei looked up, utterly baffled. "What are those?"
"Why do they sound so much like terms from a cultivation novel?"
Wang Yu said hesitantly.
"Pfft."
Zhang Tao couldn't hold back his laughter.
"Could it be that our great academic ace Li has studied himself into a frenzy and wants to ascend in broad daylight?"
A low burst of laughter rang out. The boys wore teasing, somewhat dismissive expressions.
It was perfectly normal for high school students to read cultivation novels, but actually believing in that stuff was a bit much, especially for a genius like Li Qingshan.
Meanwhile, in another corner of the classroom, several girls had also noticed the change in Li Qingshan.
"Have you noticed? Li Qingshan seems to have gotten more... special lately."
Lin Weiyu, the class's arts representative, spoke quietly to her desk mate, her gaze drifting now and then toward the quiet figure by the window.
Her desk mate, Su Qing, nodded, a trace of admiration in her eyes.
"Yes. The way he looks at people, it's as if he can see right through their hearts.
"Last time I asked him about a math problem, he opened my eyes with just a few words. That feeling of understanding it so thoroughly is hard to describe."
Sun Mengyao, a student in the back row who specialized in sports, was more direct.
"I think he looks especially good when he runs. He's powerful but light on his feet.
"And haven't you noticed? His skin seems to have gotten better, and his eyes are especially bright."
The girls exchanged glances. Some showed obvious affection, while others were simply curious and appreciative.
Li Qingshan had always been strikingly handsome, but now he had gained an indescribable quality, a tranquility and depth that seemed detached from worldly concerns, drawing people to him involuntarily.
Just then, the classroom's front door swung open.
Li Qingshan walked in carrying a book with an archaic appearance, The Cantong Qi of the Zhou Yi, ready to return to his seat.
His head was slightly lowered, and he seemed to still be thinking about something.
The people who had been talking most animatedly fell silent at once, a trace of awkwardness flashing across their faces, as if they had been caught speaking ill of someone behind his back.
Li Qingshan's steps seemed to pause. He raised his head with complete naturalness and swept a calm glance over them.
His eyes were as clear as ever, the black and white distinct, but for some reason, when his gaze passed over Zhang Tao and the others, they felt a faint, inexplicable flutter in their hearts.
It was as if he had seen right through their little discussion and teasing, leaving them with nowhere to hide.
The feeling vanished in a flash.
There was no particular emotion on Li Qingshan's face. He merely gave them a slight nod in greeting, then walked toward his seat.
His stride was steady and his back straight. Though he wore the same blue-and-white school uniform as everyone else, he somehow gave it a distinctively clean, sharp look.
"Uh, Qingshan,"
Zhang Tao said, a little embarrassed. He scratched his head and struck up a conversation.
"Did you go borrow another book from the library?"
"Yeah."
Li Qingshan answered and set the book on his desk. At the sight of The Cantong Qi of the Zhou Yi,
Zhang Tao and the others exchanged glances that said, "Just as we thought."
"You read these old texts?"
Chen Hao adjusted his glasses and asked curiously,
"Are you interested in them?"
Li Qingshan sat down and arranged his book. Hearing the question, he turned his head, the faintest curve appearing at the corner of his lips, and spoke in a calm voice.
"Yeah, I read them occasionally. I think there's some truth in them, and they help me calm my mind."
His voice wasn't loud, but it had a strange power to penetrate and soothe, making people unconsciously believe what he said.
Calm the mind.
The boys looked at one another.
For people their age, "calming the mind" seemed a very distant idea.
Li Qingshan said no more. He had already opened The Cantong Qi of the Zhou Yi,
and began reading with a tranquil gaze, as if he had instantly settled into it and all the noise around him had nothing to do with him.
Looking at his tranquil profile and focused expression, Zhang Tao and the others were at a loss for words for a moment.
In the classroom, noisy between lessons, an invisible zone of silence seemed to form around him.
"Strange,"
Zhang Tao muttered, breaking the silence.
"He barely said anything, so why do I feel like he saw right through me?"
"It's his bearing, I guess."
Chen Hao was thoughtful.
"I feel like he's been getting steadier and steadier lately.
"It's like, well, how do I put it? As if he wouldn't panic even if the sky fell.
"He's even... even harder to read than before."
Zhao Gang watched Li Qingshan's fingers as he turned the pages, steady without the slightest tremor, and murmured,
"Anyway, he doesn't feel like an ordinary high school student anymore.
"The way he runs, that coordination and explosive power-there's no way he could have those without years of training."
Their feelings were no illusion.
Li Qingshan's change stemmed from a significant improvement on the mental level.
Cultivating the Crystal Visualization Method had brought not only a dramatic increase in his speed of thought and memory, but also a state of mind marked by supreme calm and the ability to see the finest detail.
This inner transformation was subtly influencing his bearing, his patterns of behavior, and even his control over his body.
He wasn't deliberately trying to show anything. It was simply that his mental foundation, far beyond that of ordinary people, had already begun to reveal itself naturally,
quietly widening the distance between him and his peers, who had yet to set foot in this realm.
After school, Li Qingshan went to the library as usual.
He wasn't there to finish his homework, but to continue studying books that seemed unrelated to his schoolwork:
Daoist classics, Buddhist meditation, occult texts, and even some ancient Qigong cultivation methods.
The librarian had grown familiar with this perpetually quiet, taciturn boy,
and was no longer surprised by the "strange" books he borrowed.
Today, Li Qingshan found a copy of Detailed Explanation of the Basic Questions of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic and sat in a corner, quietly leafing through it.
When he read, "In tranquil emptiness, true Qi follows; with the spirit guarded within, how could illness arise?" a thought suddenly struck him.
Wasn't this much like "concentrate the mind like crystal, reflecting the self" in the Crystal Visualization Method, different in approach yet equally wondrous?
Different worlds and different systems, yet they pointed to a similar truth: inner tranquility and focus were the key to unlocking a certain potential.
As he pondered, a familiar feeling suddenly came over him.
The mysterious stone door appeared in his mind once more.
The patterns on the door flowed without cease, giving off an ancient presence that spanned time and space.
A message entered Li Qingshan's consciousness directly:
"The passage opens again, for a period of three days."
Li Qingshan's heart jolted, but his expression remained unchanged.
He calmly closed the book and stood up, returned it to its place, and headed out of the library.
His steps were as steady as ever, but anyone watching closely would have noticed a barely perceptible trace of anticipation in his eyes.