Volume 1 Chapter 1: Sincere Heart Yearning for the Way Whose Son Is This

  Not seeking great virtue in a wrong path, even if talented but unmanly is no hero

  A hundred years of light and shadow, a lifetime of worldly affairs like floating water bubbles.

  "Wu Zhen Pian"

  "Humbly request the immortal elder to include this humble one in the temporary list of disciples!"

  "You still have worldly attachments and no affinity with the immortal path. Please return!"

  "Wooo..."

  "Please accept me as your disciple!"

  "I have no fate with you."

  *sigh*...

  "Master Dao, how about taking me as your apprentice?"

  "The quota is full."

  "Oh."

  "Old man, be my master."

  "No way. Later when you sneak a peek at the boss's daughter at the grocery store, help me take a look if the sandalwood I ordered has arrived."

  "Good. But I get very forgetful when I see a beauty..."

  "Get out!"

  This is the daily conversation between young Zhang Xingyan and old Dao Qinghe in recent years. Zhang Xingyan was a fourteen or fifteen year old boy, with clear and elegant eyebrows and eyes, black and shiny, looking lively and agile. Zhang Xingyan grew up in a farming family, his parents were honest and kind farmers, living at the foot of Mati Mountain outside Raozhou City on Lake Poyang.

  Compared to other poor farming families, Zhang Xingyan was not particularly special. If there's one thing that can be said about him, it's that despite the family's poverty, his parents managed to scrape together enough money for him to study with Mr. Ji from the private school in Raozhou City. The Zhang family was too poor to afford tuition, so they could only offer some of their own food and occasionally send over some seasonal wild vegetables as a gift to Mr. Ji.

  The name "Xingyan" was given by Old Man Ji of the Ji family's private school. At that time, there was only Zhang Jia Dog Dan Er, and he was seven years old. His father, Old Zhang Tou, happened to be working temporarily in Raozhou City at the home of the wealthy Seasonal Family's Old Master Ji. He heard that Mr. Ji of the private school was knowledgeable and kind, so Old Zhang Tou plucked up his courage and, through the introduction of Old Sun Tou, asked Mr. Ji to give his son a proper name.

  Although he was called Old Zhang, at that time Dog Egg's father was actually in his prime. He just had children relatively late, and the farm work from dawn till dusk made him look older, so everyone called him Old Zhang naturally.

  Listening to the villager's sincere and fearful words, Mr. Ji, with his kind eyebrows and eyes, didn't put on airs, but instead asked Old Zhang with a gentle smile what requirements he had for his son's name. Unexpectedly, Mr. Ji wanted to ask for his opinion on naming, which made Old Zhang somewhat surprised. Dog Egg's father scratched his head, thought for a moment, then respectfully replied:

  "I often think that the sun sets too quickly, and I wish there was less time for sleep, so that the working day would be longer, and I could till a few more acres of land; ... If you ask if there's anything else I want, it's just that I hope my son will learn to speak well in the future, so that when I sell mountain goods and local products, I won't be cheated too badly by those eloquent city people..."

  It seems that the gentle and elegant Mr. Ji, who is not often heard to make such a request, was suddenly taken aback, as if he had been choked back by a mouthful of air, and for a moment he was stunned, unable to speak fluently as before - "Quick thinking, waiting for the horse", these eight characters were the evaluation of Mr. Ji's essay by his teacher when he was young, from then on, Mr. Ji has always been proud of himself.

  Old Zhang and Old Sun stood at the bottom of the stairs, neither daring to breathe loudly, fearing they would disturb Mr. Ji's thoughts.

  The old man deliberated for a long time, thinking repeatedly - he had to consider meeting Old Zhang's requirements, and couldn't use empty words like "rich", "noble", "clear" or "bright", nor could he use obscure characters like "" or "", but still had to make it easy for the illiterate villagers to recite fluently, which was indeed not an easy task.

  After a series of twists and turns, Mr. Ji finally determined the two characters "Xing" and "Yan" before breaking a sweat on his temples. Old Zhang was overjoyed as if he had obtained a treasure, immediately presenting Mr. Ji with a basket of freshly picked lychees from Ma Ti Shan; while Little Xingyan also completed his transformation from Dog Egg to Zhang Xingyan at the age of seven.

  Illiterate old Zhang was inspired by the matter of naming, and he begged Mr. Ji to let Xingyan attend classes as well, so that he could learn a bit more and avoid his son growing up like him, unable to recognize characters, not even able to understand his own son's name. Although the villagers were short on money and silver, if Mr. Ji would graciously accept little Xingyan, they would definitely not be stingy with their offerings of seasonal fruits and mountain delicacies in the future; although these mountain goods were cheap, they could also serve to whet the master's appetite.

  At that time, it was unclear whether Mr. Ji was in a good mood because he had successfully avoided sweating, or if he was really tired of the fish and meat at home, but he was moved by the promise of fruit and mountain treasures made by Xing Yan's father, and unexpectedly agreed to Old Zhang's request. Although it seems that accepting such a poor student into a private school of a scholar family would be detrimental to their reputation; but after all, Mr. Ji was a respected elder in the Ji family, with his intelligence and prestige, he could come up with a thousand reasons to answer questions, and each one would be reasonable!

  It was only later that the matter of taking Zhang Xingyan as a disciple became one of Master Ji's most remarkable encounters, causing many famous scholars to envy him. When Zhang Xingyan's name spread far and wide, Master Ji forgot his former eight-character evaluation of his teacher and no longer boasted about it, instead praising his own ability to recognize talent in Zhang Xingyan. Even when Master Ji was old and showing signs of severe forgetfulness, he still remembered every detail of his proud disciple's past anecdotes with perfect clarity! Moreover, Master Ji later changed his courtesy name from "Mingchang" to "Mingyan", which was a rare change for people at that time; from then on, if anyone called him "Ji Mingchang", he would scold them. Master Ji's decision to change his courtesy name had deep meaning - every time he introduced himself, he could tell the story of how he got this new name!

  Although Xingyan had entered a private school and could read books, he was after all the son of a poor family. Unlike his wealthy classmates who spent their days idly in the schoolhouse or indulging in frivolous pursuits like raising chickens and dogs, Xingyan also had to take advantage of his time in Raozhou City to sell fruits, vegetables, and other local products for his family; at noon and in the evening, he also worked as a waiter at the Lixiang Building restaurant in Nanshi Street, earning some pocket money by doing odd jobs worth only a few cents, which was just enough to cover the cost of stationery like pens, paper, and inkstones needed for school.

  As for the old Taoist priest with four changed names mentioned at the beginning of this article, he was a famous Taoist priest from the "Shangqing Palace" in Luofu Mountain, Raoyang Prefecture. He was responsible for purchasing daily necessities, especially some special products from Poyang Lake, and his Taoist name was Qinghe. Qinghe Taoist priest was already old, born with a thin face; due to not combing often, his sparse beard grew longer day by day, and over the years, it could even flutter in the wind, which had a somewhat immortal and elegant demeanor.

  Although Qinghe Lao Dao is already old, he still does this kind of miscellaneous work - according to Xing Yan, the reason should be that Qinghe Lao Dao is relatively stupid and did not do well in his duties at Shangqing Palace, so he was sent to run around in the city.

  Although the two have been persisting in their daily bickering for years, Zhang Xingyan has not yet become his apprentice, but he has become familiar with Qinghe Old Dao. The two of them seem to be a pair of old friends who have forgotten their age. However, as soon as Zhang Xingyan teases Qinghe about this point, Qinghe becomes enraged and demands that Zhang explain himself clearly. He says that the true reason he came to Raozhou City is that the Upper Clear Palace emphasizes entering the world, and there is no more worldly position than this one on Luo Fu Mountain. Therefore, he was sent to Raozhou to take up this beautiful post after going through countless hardships and intense competition with his fellow disciples, and finally obtaining it after much struggle.

  It seems that in order to prove his point, he would certainly mention that he was once a senior Taoist priest at the Tianyi Cangjing Pavilion of Qinggong Palace, and only later came to this Raozhou City in pursuit of further cultivation. However, if the young man were a few years older and more mature, he would have noticed that the expression on Qinghe Lao's face was not entirely natural at this moment.

  However, although he may look old and feeble, Qinghe is actually quite sharp-minded and worldly-wise. He handles matters with ease, unencumbered by his identity as a monk - in the words of the venerable Daoist, that's what they call "entering the world".

  No matter whether Qinghe was sent to do this task because of his failure in cultivating the Tao, in Xingyan's eyes, Qinghe Lao Dao's "entering the world" skills had already reached a state of perfection. His skills were so refined that he often had to take care of trivial matters for Xingyan along the way. It seemed that the famous Shangqing Palace was indeed extraordinary, and this old man Qinghe was a living example of how Shangqing Palace made use of its talents - which further deepened young Xingyan's reverence and admiration for Shangqing Palace!