After the spiritual energy was restored: Goddess girlfriends came knocking.

Life is already exhausting enough, so this will be a seriously written, enjoyable read (that's my opinion, haha)!

Brain storage space (≧□≦) ノ.

……

In June, Shenzhen was so hot that it was hard to breathe.

Lin Chu had been staring at the computer screen for ten minutes.

A line of red text appeared on the screen, written by Manager Wang.

"It's not grand enough, nor is it attractive enough. Draft two more versions and see."

These are just a few words; they didn't even bother to type all the punctuation.

Lin Chu opened her proposal.

The title reads, "Using poetry as a guide, we seek the beauty of mountains and seas."

It quotes a lot of ancient poems, from Li Bai to Xie Lingyun. He wants to do a real cultural exploration, not the kind of thing that hangs a few lanterns, displays a few pieces of antique furniture, and has a few female internet celebrities dressed in Hanfu dance and dares to call it "Guochao" (national trend).

He stayed up for three nights in a row to work on this plan, flipping through more than a dozen poetry collections and materials, and even checking the annotations one by one.

Ran and egg.

"Lin Chu, Manager Wang wants to see you." Her colleague, Xiao Zhou, leaned over and whispered, "You don't look too good."

Lin Chu responded, saved the plan, and got up to walk towards the manager's office.

The sound of keyboards clattering filled the cubicles.

As Lin Chu passed through these sounds, for a moment she suddenly felt like an outsider, separated from everything by some kind of barrier.

Pushing open the office door, I saw Manager Wang on the phone, beaming: "Don't worry, Mr. Li, this time I guarantee you'll be satisfied. It's all the hottest content on Douyin, guaranteed to get tons of views."

After hearing something said on the other end, Manager Wang laughed even louder and repeatedly said, "No problem, no problem."

After hanging up the phone, his face turned cold.

He threw a stack of papers in front of Lin Chu.

"Look at yourself. What people want is a trendy, traditional Chinese style—lanterns, Hanfu (traditional Han clothing), and photo opportunities. What did you write? 'Floating wine cups on a winding stream, moon shining through the pines.' Who can understand that?"

Lin Chu wanted to speak.

He wanted to say that the phrase "winding stream and floating wine cups" comes from Wang Xizhi's "Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion," and "the bright moon among the pines" comes from Wang Wei's "Autumn Evening in the Mountain Dwelling." These are not obscure allusions; anyone with a little cultural background would understand them.

But he opened his mouth, then closed it again.

Manager Wang didn't give him a chance.

"You've been with the company for almost six months. How many of your proposals have actually been implemented?"

Lin Chu remained silent.

"During the quarterly evaluation, one member of your group will be promoted."

Manager Wang leaned back in his chair, which creaked as he said, "I'll give you three more days. Redo it according to Mr. Li's instructions. If that still doesn't work—" He paused, "a change of environment might be a good thing."

When Lin Chu came out of the office, it was already dark outside.

Office buildings stand side by side in Shenzhen.

Behind every window sat a person, and everyone was climbing up.

This city has nearly 20 million people, and he is just one of them, crammed into a cubicle, doing what others want.

I sat back down at my workstation and stared out the window for a while.

Then I opened my phone and saw a post on my college classmate Li Qing's WeChat Moments: "Promotion and raise," accompanied by a photo of him and his new car, smiling broadly next to it.

The comments section was filled with likes, and several old classmates left congratulatory messages.

After a moment of silence, Lin Chu swiped away.

He muttered to himself.

"I'm not serving you anymore."

He then decisively opened Feimoushu and submitted his resignation application in the background.

After thinking about it, I opened the travel app and booked a high-speed rail ticket.

Go to Tai'an.

He's going to climb Mount Tai.

This idea didn't just pop into my head suddenly.

I just haven't had the time to go.

When he was a child in the village, the village chief once told him, "Mount Tai is the number one mountain under heaven. Everyone should go there at least once in their life."

At that time, Lin Chu didn't understand why she had to go, and of course, she still doesn't quite understand now.

But he just wanted to go to the highest place to see things, maybe if he stood higher, he could see the mess in his mind more clearly.

This was the first time Lin Chu left work on time.

Xiao Zhou was stunned when she saw him packing his things: "You're leaving so early today?"

Lin Chu said, "I quit."

Xiao Zhou opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

……

Back in my rented room, I poured myself a glass of wine.

He finished his drink in a few gulps and started packing up.

A backpack, two pieces of clothing, and a pair of hiking boots are enough.

The next morning, on the high-speed train.

The view outside the window changed from the city to the fields, and then from the fields to the mountains.

Lin Chu leaned against the window.

He saw vast rice paddies shimmering green in the sunlight, distant mountains layered upon each other, and occasional glimpses of small villages with smoke rising from their rooftops.

These sights made him feel comfortable, much more so than those glass curtain walls and concrete jungles.

We arrived in Tai'an in the evening.

Lin Chu found a small hotel, put down her luggage, and ate a bowl of noodles.

Then we set off from the Red Gate.

Instead of taking the cable car, we used the most basic method: walking up step by step.

There are quite a few people who go night climbing.

Couples walked hand in hand, students carried large and small bags, and families were traveling together, with children riding on their fathers' shoulders when they got tired.

Everyone chatted and laughed, taking breaks every now and then, making it quite lively.

Lin Chu walked slowly alone.

Night gradually fell.

The mountain road became increasingly steep.

When you reach the Eighteen Bends, the steps almost form a wall, and you can feel your knees protesting with every step.

He was panting heavily, his clothes were soaked with sweat, and his back felt sticky.

Near the South Heavenly Gate, Lin Chu could no longer hold on and found a rock to sit down.

The moon is exceptionally beautiful tonight.

Lin Chu sat there, looking at the city lights in the distance.

My experiences working over the past few years flashed through my mind like a movie.

I took out my phone to take a picture of the moon, but my hand slipped.

With a snap, the phone fell into a crevice in the nearby rubble.

Cursing his bad luck under his breath, Lin Chu squatted down to touch it.

The crevice was deep, and he reached in, his fingers groping through the rubble and mud.

I didn't touch the phone; it seemed I bumped into something cold and smooth.

He picked it up and examined it by the moonlight.

It is a jade pendant, slightly larger than a coin, and shaped like an open book.

It is engraved with dense patterns, like some kind of ancient script, with winding and twisting strokes.

The texture is very smooth, and even when it gets covered in mud, its warm luster remains undiminished.

"Who dropped it?" Lin Chu asked instinctively.

The sound was carried away by the mountain wind.

Just as I was about to take a closer look, my fingertips suddenly felt a warmth.

The jade pendant flashed.

It transformed into a beam of light that flowed down his fingertips and into his skin, cool and refreshing like water.

Lin Chu had no time to react.

A chill ran down my spine.

Then he "saw" deep within his consciousness that the jade pendant was slowly unfolding.

It was no longer a jade pendant; it was a book, a small book gleaming with a faint golden light, hanging there quietly.

He had never seen the words on the cover before, but inexplicably he understood them: four words—

The Book of Myriad Realms

Lin Chu's eyes widened suddenly.

Looking down at my hands, they were empty.

The jade pendant is gone.

And that book was in his mind.