One thousand years

  Wine should be drunk mouthful by mouthful, and a road should be walked step by step. If you take big strides, it's easy to trip!

  Ge Dazhong said so.

  Su Ning is dragging an egg, and the egg hurts...

  He stood on the endless grassland, with a dazed expression in his eyes.

  He misjudged his own abilities, even if he crossed into a fantasy world and wanted to surpass the heavens, he would have to go through a lot of painful struggles and absurd encounters that were so ridiculous they couldn't be any more ridiculous. That's for protagonists, if it was a supporting character, they'd just be cannon fodder, a stepping stone for the protagonist to climb up, no matter how glorious they were at the time, the protagonist's halo and plot progression would make them experience points, dispersing into the world.

  It's clear that Suning is not the protagonist and hasn't crossed over into a fantasy world to fight against all the gods in the sky... the difference is huge...

  Su Ning patted his somewhat dizzy head, took a few deep breaths, and wondered, why is the air so fresh? Isn't there PM2.5 in the air of Tian Chao? Su Ning remembered that the air in Tian Chao was always filled with those special tiny particles. And look at the sky! Oh my, it's really blue! Living in a big city for so long, he hadn't seen such a beautiful blue sky in ages. This is truly a breathtakingly beautiful scene, like a painting of a vast and serene landscape with wind blowing through the grasslands and cattle grazing peacefully.

  Suning couldn't help but feel the urge to recite a poem, just to express his current carefree and exhilarated mood. However, he soon thought of his own "poem-reciting" skills and wisely gave up on the idea.

  The eyes are the windows of the soul, and also the basis for the brain to make judgments. Everything seen by the eyes will be handed over to the brain for evaluation. So when Su Ning blinked her eyes, her brain quickly reacted, and all the beautiful scenes in front of her shattered into fragments in an instant, only to reassemble and transform into a new shape.

  This place is not beautiful, there's no lush green grass, no cattle and sheep everywhere, only withered grass everywhere, the cold wind whistling, and according to this chill, Suning roughly determined that it was now winter. Fortunately, he was wearing a down jacket, or else... Suning was relieved that he hadn't taken off his down jacket and gone into battle in just his underwear, but then a very serious question suddenly popped up in his mind...... Where the hell am I?!

  I was clearly on the top of Mount Tai, pointing at all the gods and Buddhas in the sky and scolding them loudly, and it was even in the middle of the night! How could I close my eyes, laugh angrily, and then open them to find that it had turned into a vast grassland? Was it daytime? The transformation from a deep sea to a mulberry field wasn't this fast, was it?! This is like the 2012 doomsday earthquake! One quake and the darkness shook into daylight?! What a scam!

  Su Ning suddenly felt extremely speechless, and looked down at his own hands in dismay. "How could you be so cheap?!" he exclaimed. "Why did you have to curse the heavens?" People always say that there are gods three feet above one's head, and when the time comes, they offer sacrifices and worship the Stove King. This is something Su Ning knew all too well, but now...now he didn't even know where he was! As he looked at his hands pointing at the sky, Su Ning was about to let out a long sigh, but suddenly discovered something off. "Why do my hands seem smaller?"

  No way! I'm already 22, how can this hand be like a teenager's? It's so white and tender. My own hands are big enough to grasp a basketball with one hand, but these hands in front of me can only grasp a small soccer ball with one hand! Suning quickly touched his face, then touched his nose, eyes, ears, hair, head... forehead... no way, when did my hair become like this?

  Su Ning grabbed a handful of hair from his head, brought it in front of his eyes, and saw that it was black, shiny, and had good texture, just like the girls in shampoo commercials... Wait, what's going on?! He clearly had a buzz cut, so when did his hair grow this long?! This isn't right! Su Ning hastily reached into his pocket and pulled out his Nokia smartphone, which cost over 4,000 yuan. He held up the phone and took a selfie of himself...

  His hand relaxed and his phone fell down...

  What's going on? Why do I look like I'm in my teens again? I'm clearly over 20, how can I have regressed? This is obviously what I looked like in middle school! How did this happen?! Su Ning's legs went weak and she fell to the ground, hastily grabbing her phone and taking another photo. After checking it from all angles, Su Ning finally confirmed that she had indeed become younger by several years, reverting back to her middle school state. No way?!

  A lightning bolt struck and sent me back a few years? Did I time-travel?

  Su Ning hastily opened her mobile phone and took a look at the time and date on it. It was 10:21, and the date was...

  Am I seeing things?

  In the fourth year of the Zhenguan era of the Great Tang Dynasty, on January 16th... What's going on? Is this the Tang Dynasty? Does the Tang Dynasty have mobile phones? Have mobile phones also traveled through time?!

  Su Ning took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and then stretched out his hand to press the Jingming acupoint. This was one of the simpler sections of the eye care exercises from back in the day, because it only required using one hand. Su Ning was a lazybones, and he resented the other three sections that required using both hands.

  After finishing, patted his head, shook his head, making sure he had maintained the clarity of his mind, opened the 24K gold dog eye, and took a look at the screen of the divine machine! Damn it! How is this possible?! The fourth year of the Zhenguan era of the Tang Dynasty?! Over a thousand years ago?! How can this be?! You're a divine machine, but you shouldn't be able to time-travel like this! Did I time-travel and you came with me?!

  After a long time, Su Ning began to face everything he had now, no matter what was wrong with the divine machine, and put the divine machine into his pocket, sat on the ground, closed his eyes, and started using the Taoist's supreme heart method - meditation, and began to recall all that he had experienced.

  I am Su Ning, a 22-year-old male from a rural village. I have limited courage and graduated from a third-rate university. My family has no money, so society uniformly calls me "Si". From an academic perspective, I naturally belong to this class. My parents are farmers who have spent their lives facing the earth and with their backs to the sky, working hard to support my education, allowing me to leave our isolated mountain village and see the outside world. With no extra wealth at home, I am indeed "Si".

  Of course, after getting to know the old man, all of this changed. The old man was a top-notch chef, which was his official identity for outsiders. As for his true identity, Suning always felt that someone like him should be a certain academic or sectarian leader, but the old man not only didn't tell him this, he didn't even reveal his name. His external name was called "Nameless".

  Su Ning always felt that on that sunny day, at the foot of Mount Tai, the old man's strange eyes, his calm and collected smile, and his seemingly well-prepared words, as well as Su Ning's own triumphant gaze after agreeing to become his apprentice, made him feel that this was all arranged by heaven or by the old man himself...

  After following the old man, because of not paying attention to studying, only learning the old man's skills, his grades were always very poor, from elementary school to junior high school to high school to university, never changed. This time it was the second-to-last semester of university, and he failed eight out of nine subjects in the final exams. The remaining one subject was passed because the teacher took pity on him after knowing that he had failed all eight subjects and secretly added ten points for him to barely pass one subject. As a result, his parents were called, and the counselor said in front of them: "Your child is too poor, can't be managed, go home and farm!"

  Isn't this just a forced withdrawal? Do you need to be so pretentious? Playing this song in the school office while calling dad and mom, who are you mocking?

  Go farming if you want to farm! Do you think I don't have money? According to the old man's words, the school bullies you? No big deal, buy this school and flatten it! The old man has plenty of money and no one to leave it to, everything will be yours in the future. You're afraid of not having money? Of course, after learning from the old man, you can make a living on your own.

  The old man is very rich, extremely rich. Jokingly, how can a top chef not have money? However, this is a secret between the two of them, no one knows, so Dad and Mom don't know either. The two are farmers who can't even recognize a few characters, let alone know the old man's identity. In a closed-off mountain village, they can't understand the outside world, they just think he's a strange old man. They're very dissatisfied with Su Ning becoming his apprentice, they hope Su Ning is a scholar, not a chef...

  Of course, they didn't know that the old man's skills went far beyond his exceptional cooking skills. The old man's cooking skills were just a hobby to alleviate boredom. His true skills, Su Ning dared not exaggerate, he had studied for twelve years and didn't know if he had mastered even one-tenth of them. Such skills, Su Ning initially really didn't understand why the old man wouldn't become a national leader instead of becoming a chef. Later, after following the old man for a long time, Su Ning understood, it was like that...

  So the old dad and mom didn't have grand ambitions or far-reaching vision, they just knew that Su Ning no longer had the opportunity to become a true bookworm, and the feeling of shattered hopes was unbearable. In a fit of anger, the old couple brought Su Ning to a farm products store, bought all the seeds for farm products in one breath, packed them into a bag and let Su Ning take them home to plant. If he couldn't be a scholar, then go be a farmer! Farmers, workers, businessmen, farmers are second only to scholars! And they had to walk back home, from Henan to their old home in Hebei!

  Suning also had a stubborn temper, and just started walking. Originally, there was nothing much to it, but on the day he left, early in the morning, just after leaving the school gate and cutting ties with that hateful school, his Nokia rang. A lawyer called to tell Suning that before passing away, his father had given him a will, instructing him to handle matters after his death. This morning at six o'clock, his father had passed away very peacefully. According to the will, all of his father's inheritance was left to Suning, asking him to return as soon as possible to handle the relevant procedures. The total...

  Suning didn't hear what was said afterwards. After hearing that the old man had left, Su Ning's mind went blank and she fell to the ground...

  For a whole hour, until he was surrounded by people discussing whether to call the police or dial 120, Suning finally got up and stumbled away. He had to go back, return home to mourn for his father...

  When he walked to the foot of Mount Tai, Su Ning remembered the situation when he first met Lao Tou. At that time, it was also at the foot of Mount Tai that they got acquainted and became master and apprentice, and together climbed to the top of Mount Tai. For a moment, his heart felt infinite sorrow, so he got drunk. Now thinking about it, Su Ning still feels fearful, wondering how he had the courage to climb Mount Tai in such a situation. No wonder he dared to point at all the gods in the sky and ask about their ancestors eighteen generations ago, and even cared about their children's birth and upbringing.

  It was then that the gods in heaven could no longer bear it, and took advantage of Su Ning's moment of despair to strike him down with a bolt of intense light. By the time Su Ning opened his eyes again, he found himself here...

  It's actually a very speechless thing, imagine that at night you take off your clothes and lie down on the bed, close your eyes and start sleeping, sleeping very sweetly. But the next morning when you open your eyes suddenly find yourself standing naked by the sea, the smell of the sea makes you feel carefree...

  It's speechless, as you can imagine.

  I didn't time-travel, did I?

  Su Ning asked herself, what kind of TV drama was this? She had watched plenty of them before, but what was her situation now? Had she really traveled through time? How ridiculous would that be? Su Ning wasn't crazy enough to want to jump off a high mountain to see if anything unexpected would happen. In her opinion, that would just be the rhythm of becoming minced meat!

  Subconsciously, Su Ning took off the backpack from his shoulder and poured out all the things inside. Most of them were seeds for crops, small ones like wheat and rice, which looked still alive; larger ones like potato blocks also seemed to be alive. There were also a few clothes, a wallet, toothpaste, toothbrush, cup, towel, facial cleanser, lip balm, and a large treasure. Additionally, there was a Swiss army knife, a piece of dried meat bread, a package of lucky instant noodles, a charger, and another wallet. That's all there was.

  So, the things on my body are still there, my phone is still there, my earphones are still there, my clothes are still the same, my pants are still the same, and my shoes are still the same. The only difference is that I seem to have become a few years younger than before. Now I look like a middle school student at most, with a feeling of being 14 or 15 years old. What's going on?

  What's the situation with the mysterious display of the fourth year of the Zhenguan period in the Tang Dynasty on January 16th? Even if it's a divine machine, it shouldn't make such an error! The calendar inside starts from 1900, where would it get a calendar from 630 years ago? It's off by over a thousand years!

  Apart from the date, there are also crosses on the signal, indicating that there is no signal here. Even with 3G traffic, you can't access the internet or make calls. You can only use the basic functions of the phone, and even the basic calling function is not available, so it's impossible to contact the outside world. The battery seems to have some problems too. Su Ning remembered that when he reached the top of Mount Tai, he took out his mobile phone to check the time, and at that time, there was only 9% battery left. How did it suddenly become a full 100% battery?

  Suning couldn't think of any problems, so he put the phone back in his pocket, zipped it up, and Suning vaguely felt that something was off about this phone, couldn't lose it, and zipping it up was the safest. Then he picked up his backpack again, put it on his back, stood up, looked around, and Suning fell into confusion once more, wondering which way to go?

  If I were still in China, then the grasslands would be north, to find people you'd have to go south, so that's where we should head, yeah, basically as long as we keep heading south we'll run into people no matter where we are, yeah, it's about time! Let's get moving! The tragic life I've led all these years hasn't brought me anything else, just made my mental endurance incredibly strong.

  Think about it, what's the most tragic thing for a student? Isn't it failing an exam? Hmph! I've been failing since I was little, this small setback doesn't count as anything. Might as well just go to the south and find someone directly!

  He took the first step, but Su Ning suddenly stopped and fell into deep thought. He was thinking about a very serious question! A question that was so serious it affected his entire journey!

  Where is south?