What is deeply yearned for will always find an echo!

The seemingly grand and intense grand competition finally came to a close with Chen Jue's ultimate victory.

For Chen Jue, participating in this grand competition was merely a formality. Throughout the entire event, he barely had the chance to fully stretch his abilities, leaving him with a somewhat lonely feeling of being an unrivaled master.

After all, Chen Jue's physical body had already shattered human limits. If he were to use his full strength, it was estimated that none of the more than two hundred martial artists present could have withstood even a single six-thousand-jin single-whip strike from him.

Therefore, when sparring with others, Chen Jue intentionally held back, using only one or two tenths of his strength. The only exception was when he fought Li Xiang, a master of the Hua-jin realm, where he used three tenths of his power.

Of course, the three-day competition was not without its gains for Chen Jue. From the martial artists and soldiers present, he perceived and comprehended quite a few distinctly individual spiritual imprints.

In this era of information-warfare, firearms were gradually becoming obsolete. Everyone now talked about high-tech warfare; once a missile bombed the area, any martial arts technique would be rendered completely useless.

Yet, with so many martial artists still persisting in passing down their heritage, Chen Jue caught a glimpse of the faint, seemingly dying embers of martial arts, still bursting forth with their final brilliance.

However, Chen Jue was not a pure martial artist like Li Xiang. He felt that he should at most be considered a practitioner who happened to know martial arts.

After collecting the one hundred thousand yuan prize money provided by the event organizers, Chen Jue declined the invitation to be specially appointed as the chief instructor. Although the offered stipend was quite high, Chen Jue intended to maintain his peace and quiet.

Going to teach at a certain military regiment once had already made him somewhat weary, let alone becoming the chief instructor.

Nevertheless, starting from this day, the reputation of Chen Jue, the ship-boxing master from An County, Wenzhou, would begin to spread wildly among various martial sects and civilian practitioner circles.

Yet, to Chen Jue, all these were merely superficial fame, and he did not care much about them.

"I'd better go back, live my life honestly, and walk my own path of cultivation!"

With this thought in mind, Chen Jue picked up his backpack, which was packed with nine boxes of human nutritional supplements he had just ordered from the medical station, got into the jeep arranged by Political Commissar Yao, and returned to the guesthouse located in the Sixth Ring Road of Beiadu.

As for the military drill and competition that Zhou Gang and the others were participating in, Chen Jue had no opportunity to observe it due to special reasons. He only hoped that after receiving his guidance, Zhou Gang would successfully secure a good ranking and return.

...

Back at the guesthouse on the Sixth Ring Road, Chen Jue turned on his phone. Since the past three days had been a closed-door competition, no communication devices were allowed to be used.

Upon powering it on, Chen Jue received various messages and notifications: inquiries from his roommates, requests for guidance from Junior Sister Yun, and friend requests sent by a few civilian masters who had obtained his contact information before leaving.

Chen Jue scrolled through the friend request list, found the request from Taoist Priest Liu Shiqing of the Wuzdang Sect as well as the one from Li Xiang, and clicked to accept them.

Along the way, he sent a fist-salute emoji, which served to establish a preliminary friendship with them.

Afterward, Chen Jue gave Cheng Wei a call to ask if he was free to get together and have dinner together that evening.

Since it was rare for him to return to Beiadu and revisit old places, Chen Jue felt he should spend more time with this college roommate who was suffering from emotional heartbreak, in order to counsel and guide him.

...

After making an appointment over the phone, Chen Jue checked out of the guesthouse and hailed a ride-hailing car straight to the nearby subway station.

Given his recent heavy expenses, Chen Jue did not want to waste too much money, so he chose not to take a taxi to Cheng Wei's place, opting instead for the convenient urban subway transit system.

Scanning his code to enter the station, Chen Jue boarded the train and found a spot to stand in the corner of the front carriage.

Looking at the various drifters making a living in Beiadu inside the carriage, Chen Jue felt as if he were looking at himself five or six years ago when he had just graduated.

Crowding into the subway while bowing their heads to scroll through their phones, only to walk into tiny office cubicles upon reaching their stations, punching in for work, and passing the day—in short, people of his age group lived roughly this kind of life.

Arriving at Taoting Station, Chen Jue exited the station and walked to the early-childhood education center run by Cheng Wei.

Since it was still afternoon, adults with young children were coming and going in an endless stream inside the center, mostly toddlers of two or three years old, with the younger ones being only about one year old.

Looking at these innocent, pure, and cute little tots, Chen Jue felt his inner self grow considerably more peaceful.

...

After greeting the young receptionist at the front desk and putting on shoe covers, he walked all the way into Cheng Wei's office to wait. Seeing that his friend was busy working on some documents, Chen Jue didn't ask much and simply sat on the sofa by himself, browsing his phone for a while.

When it was close to 7:00 PM, Cheng Wei finally finished his work, stretched lazily in his boss's chair, stood up, glanced at Chen Jue, jerked his head, and said, "Let's go! Old Cat! Tonight, I'm taking you out for a really good meal!"

"Hehe! Then I won't be polite!" Chen Jue nodded, realizing his stomach was indeed getting hungry. He followed Cheng Wei out of the shopping mall, turned into a nearby alley, and finally found a humble, hole-in-the-wall diner in the alley to sit down.

"Old Dog! You're already worth tens of millions! And yet, when you said you'd treat me to a good meal, you brought me here to eat this? I thought you were going to take me to some Black Pearl or Michelin-starred restaurant!" Chen Jue rolled his eyes at him in mock anger.

"Haha! I just wanted to take you back to reminisce about our beginnings!"

"Remember when we first came to Beiadu with empty pockets and loved visiting these little hole-in-the-wall diners?" Cheng Wei said with a warm smile.

"Of course I remember! I once got acute gastroenteritis in the middle of the night and was rushed straight to the hospital." Chen Jue's face twitched as he recalled those unpleasant past events.

However, that was all in the past; nowadays, even these small diners were being cleaned up, and the environmental hygiene inside was no worse than that of restaurants on main streets.

Stir-fried tripe, shredded pork in Beijing sauce, braised tofu, kung pao chicken, three-not-stick dessert, and an extra pot of boiled mutton. Having treated himself to a late-night snack a few days ago, Cheng Wei knew that Chen Jue's appetite had transformed into something extraordinary, akin to a completely different person, so he ordered several heavy meat dishes along with two bottles of beer.

As the two ate and chatted, they reminisced about past events, recalling those carefree days in college and some of their early experiences upon arriving in Beiadu.

When they first arrived in Beiadu, the two were full of fresh curiosity about everything in the city. They had climbed the Great Wall together, visited the old imperial city, and gotten up early to watch the flag-raising ceremony—something almost everyone who came to Beiadu had to experience.

By the way, that flag was actually designed by a fellow townsman of Chen Jue from An County, Wenzhou, and the designer's statue now stands in Yuhe Square in An County, Wenzhou. Talk about a coincidence, right?

With mutual sighs of emotion, once they were full and well-drinked, they returned to Cheng Wei's home, watched a comedy movie, washed up, and went to bed.

...

Waking up the next day before 7:00 AM, Chen Jue packed his luggage. Initially planning to buy a morning high-speed rail ticket back to Wenzhou, he found that Cheng Wei had also gotten up bright and early. Cheng Wei then mysteriously led Chen Jue down to the residential garage, saying he intended to give him a ride.

Before that, however, Cheng Wei planned to take Chen Jue to a specific place along the way, claiming they needed to continue reminiscing about their beginnings, which left Chen Jue somewhat baffled.

Getting into Cheng Wei's newly purchased Mercedes-Benz G-Class, Cheng Wei drove out of the residential complex while asking Chen Jue where he had been roaming around the past few days.

Having vanished for three days without replying to WeChat messages or answering phone calls, Cheng Wei felt that out of all six roommates in their dorm, Chen Jue had undergone the most drastic change.

"It's nothing much! I just went to participate in an event and won a prize of 100,000 yuan." Chen Jue didn't elaborate, simply glossing over it with a casual remark.

"Crap! 100,000 yuan in prize money? What kind of event is that awesome!" Cheng Wei hadn't expected his roommate to be so capable, earning 100,000 yuan after being away for just three days.

"You're already a big boss with an annual income of millions, and yet you still care about my 100,000 yuan?" Chen Jue touched the interior trim of the car, feeling that Cheng Wei was indeed living a prosperous life now.

Living in a luxury mansion, driving a luxury car, and lacking only a confidante by his side—this was the textbook definition of a zero-to-hero counterattack and a winner in life.

When the car arrived at a secluded, open area near the Fifth Ring Road, Chen Jue swept his gaze across a distant cubic white building bearing the four large characters "Yuanfang Driving School" hanging on it, and he instantly realized Cheng Wei's intention.

This driving school was the place where the two of them had registered together to learn how to drive when they first came to Beiadu as drifters.

Due to being busy with work at the time and lacking time to study the test questions, Chen Jue had gone straight in to take the Subject One exam bare and failed it on his first attempt, for which he was teased by Cheng Wei for quite a long time. Consequently, he had a deep impression of this "Yuanfang Driving School."

The reason they came to Beiadu to learn driving instead of registering for a driver's license while studying in Wenzhou was that learning to drive in Wenzhou was relatively expensive, costing at least ten thousand yuan to complete the whole process and get a license.

However, Beiadu was very straightforward; three thousand yuan could get it done, and if you were willing to shell out an extra five thousand, you didn't even have to practice on the old Jetta, getting to use a Mercedes-Benz directly as your training car instead—economical and practical.

"You old dog!"

"Is this what you call reminiscing about our beginnings?" Chen Jue said, half-amused and half-annoyed.

"Haha! Old Cat, did you forget that the jianbing guozi at the entrance of this driving school is exceptionally delicious?"

"After we finish eating, I'll send you to the high-speed rail station; we'll have plenty of time." Cheng Wei chuckled cheerfully, parked the car, and the two ran over to the pancake stall at the entrance of the driving school to order two pancakes stuffed with tenderloin.

Mimicking how they used to squat together at the entrance of the driving school back when they were learning to drive, they squatted down while biting into their pancakes and sipping soybean milk.

"Old Dog, I remember your ex-girlfriend was the one you met at this pancake stall! You said you were bringing me to reminisce about our beginnings—you aren't actually reliving your own romance history, are you?" Sensing that Cheng Wei was perhaps lingering too deeply in past emotions, Chen Jue intended to counsel and guide him.

Faced with this question, Cheng Wei took a fierce gulp of his soybean milk, swallowed it down with a slurp, and sighed, "Life is hard enough, why expose it? Can you not pierce my heart? Can't you see I'm already grieving?"

Just as the two were squatting and sighing over the changes of time, a light pink Porsche pulled up beside the pancake stall, and a delicate-looking young woman stepped out of the car.

This woman probably also had a craving for this authentic morning pancake breakfast and, just like Chen Jue and his friend, had driven over to indulge her inner foodie.

However, upon seeing the woman's face, Cheng Wei—who was squatting beside Chen Jue—instantly sprang up like a madman. Disregarding his friend who had come to see him off, he ran forward with quick, spellbound steps: "Qianqian! Is that you?"

When the young woman turned around and saw Cheng Wei, she wore an expression of utter disbelief as well. After falling silent for a long moment, she looked at the half-eaten pancake still clutched in Cheng Wei's hand, and tears instantly streamed down her face: "So... you haven't forgotten the taste here either..."

With just a sentence from each of them, the man and woman stood facing each other without words, until finally, right in front of the pancake stall owner and Chen Jue, they pulled each other into a tight embrace.

At this moment, Chen Jue used his celestial perception to sense that a rich, intense wave of romantic affection was surging rapidly between the two of them.

"Damn it!"

"I'm already stuffed with dog food early in the morning!" Chen Jue muttered inwardly, feeling like an outside observer watching an extremely melodramatic romance story.

Yet, upon second thought, this scene of Cheng Wei and his ex-girlfriend reuniting after a broken relationship was perhaps the very embodiment of the saying: "What is truly yearned for will eventually find an echo."

...

After finishing the rest of his pancake, Chen Jue didn't step forward to disturb the two as they immersed themselves in their own world of mutual affection. Instead, he walked over to Cheng Wei's car, opened the door, and hoisted his backpack onto his shoulders.

He decided to hail a taxi to the high-speed rail station to avoid ruining the soaring romantic atmosphere between the couple.

However, just as he rounded the corner into the inner training road of the driving school, Chen Jue suddenly heard the opening notes and inspiring, impassioned drumbeats of a song ring out from a distant overhead loudspeaker.

This was a song deliberately played by the driving school in the mornings to refresh and invigorate the students and instructors. He hadn't expected that after so many years, the track still hadn't been changed.

"It's this old song again!"

"Every time I came to practice driving, I'd hear it. Back then, it almost brainwashed me to the point of nausea..." Chen Jue glanced back at the broadcasting speaker, then at the shivering driving school students waiting in the early morning chill for their turn to practice, feeling as though the events of the past were right before his eyes.

Yet, just as he turned back around to resume his stride and leave, the dense drumbeats and melodious erhu from the loudspeaker began to gradually fade, replaced by a hurried, magnetic female vocal delivery carrying an inexplicable sense of lingering melancholy as she sang:

"The universe is boundless, travelers are mere passing guests, the tides rise and fall,"

"Resentments and graces, life and death growing white-haired together, how many can truly see through it?"

"The mortal world rolls on..."

At this instant, the step Chen Jue had just taken came to an abrupt halt, as if strummed by this song upon some special chord deep within his heart. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, and his life experiences began to flicker past his eyes like a fast-forwarded slide show.

"So... it was right here..." Chen Jue murmured softly to himself. His previously halted footsteps moved forward once more, slowly walking away amidst the classic retro melody until he completely vanished into the bustling traffic and the endless stream of humanity.

This is the second bonus chapter for tonight~ It was typed a bit late, and counts as the first chapter for breaking 100k favorites!

Special reminder: Reading this chapter while playing the BGM makes it feel even more immersive (subway old man looking at his phone)

(End of this chapter)