pjbooks Chapter 1 Unproven
Chapter 1 Unproven
"Lin Yu, a true cultivator of the Purple Mansion, seeks the true fruit of the [Sinking Wood] realm. Today, he is seeking the Dao through the Five Methods at Mount Taiting. Cultivators from home and abroad are invited to attend!"
……
A sound like metal striking the ground rang in his ears, and Lin Yu's vision suddenly blurred. He didn't know where he was, as if a cloud had obscured his view.
But after he shook his head, everything around him became clear again. People were coming and going in the subway hall, and pedestrians were hurrying by. It was the daily scene of the morning rush hour in Minjiang City, a metropolis with tens of millions of people.
—But that sound, which was originally like the clang of metal, had become very distant, and no matter how Lin Yu tried to recall it, he couldn't remember it at all.
"...Is this another side effect of my recent dreams?"
A bitter smile appeared on Lin Yu's lips.
He took a step, went through security, and even after swiping his card through the turnstile, he still felt foggy-headed. So, as he rode the escalator down the platform, he couldn't help but tap his head a few times.
Lately, Lin Yu has been having frequent dreams.
Logically speaking, it's normal for middle-aged people in their thirties to dream.
Those without families want to start one, those with families want to establish a career, those who are employed have work pressure, and the unemployed are even more afraid of going hungry.
But Lin Yu's dreams were very abnormal.
In his dream, he seemed to be a powerful cultivator, possessing great supernatural abilities and able to command the wind and rain in that wondrous world. However, upon closer reflection, he could hardly recall any of the dream's details, only occasionally experiencing auditory hallucinations and visual disturbances, just like before.
practice?
Seeking immortality?
Lin Yu gave a self-deprecating laugh.
As the saying goes, what you think about during the day, you dream about at night. Could it be that this middle-aged man in his thirties, without a wife or children, neither married nor established in his career, spending his days doing a mundane job and just waiting to die, actually has the greatest wish that is...
Is it immortality?
Nothing to say.
The tram surged through the tunnel with a whooshing sound, and the closed glass doors opened at that moment. Lin Yu remained silent, following the queue onto the carriage. Squeezed by the dense, rush-hour crowd, she was pushed to the door, her eyes flickering as she looked at the tunnel outside the glass doors, which was covered by flashing "GG" signs.
This is the scene he has experienced every day for the past decade and is most familiar with.
……
After getting off the subway, the company is just a few hundred meters away.
After graduating from university, Lin Yu changed jobs three times, with the last time being when she joined this company eight years ago.
At that time, he was twenty-seven years old, nearing thirty, and still harbored some ambitions. But after actually joining the company, as the external market environment gradually declined and the company's atmosphere gradually solidified, Lin Yu's ambitions gradually faded, and now only apathy and indifference to just get by and protect his life remained.
At 8:59, Lin Yu clocked in and went upstairs just one minute before work started.
"Good morning, Brother Yang."
"Meri, good morning."
"Anyone want to share coffee? Ruixing?"
"Morning meeting is starting."
Amidst a lively yet seemingly predetermined stream of greetings, each sound was like a side branch growing from the bushes. Yet, as Lin Yu passed through, not a single leaf touched her.
Until he sat down at his workstation.
Press Win+L to wake up your computer from standby mode. Open your office software; the tasks haven't changed much, so it seems I don't need to start working overtime first thing in the morning.
Lin Yu continued scrolling down, and a green bubble in the lower right corner was flashing. Lin Yu clicked on it casually, only to find an unexpected message:
Yin Fengze: Lin Yu, did you go to the project team building activity last night?
Lin Yu raised her head.
The person who sent this message was sitting not far away from me.
A few workstations away, through the gap between two screens, one could vaguely see Yin Fengze, who was also an IT professional, wearing a knowing smile.
They were in the same room, yet they communicated using chat software. And instead of the company's communication system, they used green chat bubbles. Lin Yu understood many things almost instantly, but she didn't find it amusing; she simply sighed softly.
Lin Yu: I didn't go, why?
Yin Fengze: You probably don't even know about this, do you? I asked around, and almost everyone in the project team went, but they didn't invite you, saying they forgot. This is what those "loyal cronies" who were recruited from campus did, a bunch of bullshit. Such blatant exclusion, I think it won't be long before they start cutting costs and trying to kick us old folks out.
Yin Fengze spoke with righteous indignation, defending himself, but Lin Yu found it somewhat amusing.
Firstly, Yin Fengze was close in age to him, and his resentment was less for Lin Yu and more an opportunity for him to vent.
Secondly, Yin Fengze only asked himself whether he knew about this matter, but he was obviously not invited and was excluded. Otherwise, he would have known about it last night, and would not have asked about it only this morning.
Thirdly... Yin Fengze's conversation was probably mainly aimed at provoking Lin Yu's anger, so that Lin Yu would lash out at the others. In this way, with Lin Yu leading the way, Yin Fengze would have much more room to maneuver behind him.
"You're not stupid to come up with all this. So why treat me like one?"
Lin Yu looked at the chat box in the green bubble, smiled helplessly, typed a single word, and ended the conversation.
Lin Yu: Oh.
There was nothing more to say.
Lin Yu glanced again and saw that a few workstations away, between the two screens, Yin Fengze had turned his head away. However, it was still clear from his profile that his expression wasn't very pleasant.
With another sigh, Lin Yu got up, filled a glass of water at the water dispenser, sat back down, and turned her gaze back to the computer screen.
While handling server requests, I put on my headphones and started listening to music.
The cool, clear music is perceived by the brain through the ear canal, while hundreds or thousands of lines of code flow across the screen, undergoing careful processing to prevent errors.
This is what Lin Yu has seen every day for the past ten years, or rather, for nearly twenty years since starting university. What kind of functions a program will have, what kind of bugs it might have, Lin Yu can even sense them while typing the code—this is the intuition cultivated by years of professional training and practice. If we were to describe it in some mysterious terms, it would be the so-called "acquired coding sanctity"...
But today, things seem a little different.
Lin Yu gently removed her headphones, typed on the keyboard, and temporarily stopped the operation.
He rubbed his eyes deeply, a strange look on his face.
"What is that...?"
Lin Yu's gaze was unfocused; the focus of her eyes seemed to be on what was in front of her, yet also on something thousands of miles away.
But all that could be seen was an ordinary white wall.
only……
At this moment, in Lin Yu's vision, one shadow after another appeared, like layers of mountains obscuring his view, covering everything he could see with those layers of clouds.
What exactly happened?
Lin Yu reached out and trembled as she grasped the glass, trying to calm herself with the hot water.
But just as he raised his glass, a clear, cold sound, like the shattering of gold and jade, rang in his ears!
"...Lin Yu, a True Cultivator of the Purple Mansion..."
"...Having mastered the five methods, I desire the true attainment of [Sinking Wood]..."
"...using the wondrous power of 'entering the earth'...refining the power of 'hiding within decay'...using the power of 'listening to the incense of the soul'...possessing the power of 'gathering spirit banner'...and finally the power of 'coffin palace'..."
"...combining the Five Flowers, cultivating the Golden Nature, I humbly request the attention of the high-ranking officials..."
"...I have attained enlightenment today!"
"Splash!!!"
The glass slipped from his hand, shattering on the floor.
However, Lin Yu had no time to spare at this moment.
Because the gloom before him had completely obscured his vision, and the clear, cold sound that could shatter gold and jade had occupied Lin Yu's entire mind, leaving him with no awareness of the outside world.
All that remained in my mind were the memories that appeared along with that cold voice, as vast and surging as a torrent!
"I……"
Lin Yu closed her eyes.
His body went limp and he fell to the ground from the chair.
"Why did that person over there fall to the ground...?"
"It couldn't be sudden—"
"Call an ambulance immediately!!"