Chapter 8

When Tang Zhendong left the Ye family's house, he was holding a pot of tiger-striped snake plant. It was only a little past nine o'clock, so he decided to walk back, treating it as a way to digest his food. This would save money and also provide some exercise.

The Ye family lived in the southern part of the city, while the small house Tang Zhendong rented in the Happy Community was in the western part. Although the bus fare was only one yuan, the distance was not short, at least ten kilometers.

For Tang Zhendong, this ten-kilometer brisk walk allowed him to focus his mind entirely on his steps, achieving the six harmonies of the Ghost Valley Internal Martial Arts: the mind harmonizes with the intention, the intention harmonizes with the breath, the breath harmonizes with the strength, the hands harmonize with the feet, the elbows harmonize with the knees, and the shoulders harmonize with the hips.

Don't underestimate the six harmonies that Tang Zhendong achieved while walking. Only the mysterious Ghost Valley Internal Martial Arts could be practiced while walking.

Ye Xian held the prescription Tang Zhendong had written: two taels of angelica, two taels of ginseng, and one tael of Sichuan lovage, divided into ten doses, to be decocted in water.

Tang Zhendong specifically noted to use a clay pot for decocting the herbs.

"This guy is really considerate!" Ye Xian thought to herself, her face unconsciously turning red. "What am I thinking? He barely looked at me all night."

Ye Xian originally didn't have a good impression of Tang Zhendong, but his treatment for her mother's heart disease was so effective that she felt a sense of gratitude towards him when she saw her mother's genuine relief.

At this moment, Old Ye and Huang Xiuqin had just returned to the house. Ye Xian seemed to notice her face was a bit flushed. "Dad, Mom, where did the small mirror I put on the coffee table go? Did either of you see it?"

Inside the house, Old Ye had just finished discussing his wife's current physical condition with her. They were convinced that Tang Zhendong's acupoint treatment was truly effective.

"Xianxian, what are you doing with a mirror at this hour of the night? Aren't you afraid of attracting ghosts?" Old Ye criticized his daughter a bit, then returned to the room to study the massage techniques for the three acupoints—Zhongyang, Jiutail, and Neiguan—that Tang Zhendong had mentioned.

No woman is indifferent to beauty, and Ye Xian was no exception. Although she didn't wear very avant-garde clothes, she always kept herself neat and tidy. The small mirror she couldn't find was a gift from her most admired philosophy teacher.

...

While Ye Xian was looking for her mirror, Tang Zhendong had already walked back to his home in the New Village of the Happy Community. The so-called New Village was actually just a lot of haphazardly built structures added to the original village.

The Happy Community consisted of sixteen natural villages, numbered from Happy Village 1 to Happy Village 16. A few rows of houses were built in the center of the town, filling up the space. It's unclear why they didn't call it Happy Village 17, but instead named it New Village.

The Happy Community had a large number of idle people, mostly former farmers who had become urban residents due to the city's development. Having lost their land and being of advanced age, few were willing to work regular jobs, so they became idle.

Of course, the Happy Community not only had many idle people but also many ruffians and a large number of outsiders. This was understandable, as more idle people naturally led to more troublemakers and loafers, who eventually turned into small-time hooligans and ruffians.

The Happy Community was all single-story houses, with each house rented to several households, mostly migrant workers from other places. In the city, a two-bedroom apartment would cost at least 1,000 yuan per month, and even if shared, each household would still have to pay 500 to 600 yuan, which was a significant burden for migrant workers who earned only 1,000 to 2,000 yuan a month and didn't care much about the quality of life.

Therefore, they all chose to live in the single-story houses in the Happy Community.

The house Tang Zhendong rented was owned by an elderly couple who were very kind and friendly. Besides that,

"Brother Dong, just got back? Have you eaten?" Zhao Lili asked when she saw Tang Zhendong return.

This girl, Zhao Lili, lived next door to Tang Zhendong. They had been neighbors for a year, so they were quite familiar with each other, always nodding and chatting when they met. However, they had no other interactions.

"Hehe, I've eaten, I've eaten," Tang Zhendong chuckled. In fact, Tang Zhendong rarely went out to eat; he usually cooked in his room, where he had a small gas cylinder, a small wok, and a small rice cooker. He could cook vegetables and rice, but if he wanted steamed buns, he had to buy them, as he couldn't steam them himself.

Although Zhao Lili wasn't from the area, her home wasn't too far from Hai City, so she sometimes brought back some delicious food and shared it with Tang Zhendong.

Zhao Lili had a very outgoing and lively personality, always ready to help others. However, the reason she always shared food with Tang Zhendong was that Tang Zhendong had once saved her from two hooligans. At least, that's what Zhao Lili said.

At the time, New Village only had a few dim streetlights on the main road, and the side streets were quite dark. One night, Zhao Lili was accosted by two hooligans, but Tang Zhendong, who had just moved in, shouted and scared them away.

Zhao Lili was a grateful person. When she found out that the person who saved her was her neighbor, she started bringing home some delicious food and sharing it with Tang Zhendong.

Zhao Lili was very outgoing, and actually, Tang Zhendong used to be even more active when he was in school. However, as he experienced more in life, his personality changed. Before going to prison, Tang Zhendong was as outgoing as Zhao Lili, but all his personality changes happened in prison. Seeing the lively and beautiful Zhao Lili, Tang Zhendong suddenly thought of his high school classmate, Yu Qingying.

Tang Zhendong didn't know when he started to like Yu Qingying, but she was the dream girl of all the boys in the school.

Yu Qingying and Tang Zhendong were both in Class 1 of Grade 1, and they were classmates. However, she had a strange feeling about Tang Zhendong. It wasn't exactly a good feeling but more of a sense of admiration, as his good friend and desk mate Yuan Xiaqiang told him.

Yu Qingying studied all day, while Tang Zhendong spent his days playing and having fun. Although his admission score was slightly better than Tang Zhendong's, she put in several times more effort in her studies.

At first, Yu Qingying didn't believe that Tang Zhendong could achieve such good grades by just playing. She secretly asked around to see if he studied secretly at night in the dormitory, but the results surprised her. Tang Zhendong was consistent in his behavior; he not only didn't study in the classroom but also played even more in the dormitory. It was said that in junior high school, Tang Zhendong often stood at the back of the classroom because he didn't do his homework, but even so, he still had excellent grades that made all the students jealous and left the teachers amazed.

This extremely intelligent person made Yu Qingying feel threatened. She had to study hard to prevent this lazy person from taking her top spot in the school.

It was actually when Yu Qingying started asking around about Tang Zhendong that he began to secretly like this pure and beautiful girl. Although the whole school was amazed by Yu Qingying when they first met, Tang Zhendong was an exception. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate beauty, but he wasn't particularly enthusiastic about beautiful girls.

However, when Yu Qingying started to inquire about him, Tang Zhendong also noticed her beauty. He thought she was interested in him because his classmates said so, and he believed it. But after a while, Yu Qingying stopped asking, and Tang Zhendong, seeing that she had no interest, became disappointed and later avoided her completely.

Tang Zhendong was outgoing and could chat with every student in the class, but he never spoke to Yu Qingying. Perhaps he truly liked her and didn't want to disturb her beauty. Or perhaps the sudden change in Yu Qingying's behavior left him feeling a great sense of loss.

Anyway, only Tang Zhendong knew what he was thinking. But that liking, which had been buried for eight years, didn't fade with time; instead, it grew stronger and deeper.

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