The Three Pure Ones' Secret: Expressing Spirit

I'm grateful that this black guy thought so highly of me, but thankfully, I haven't encountered any strange things that really bothered me since summer vacation. If anything, there was only one minor incident, but that happened a long, long time later, during the second semester of my junior year in college. After returning from Old Qiu's place, I realized that I was actually a half-baked geomancer. Although I had learned some basics of the "Chuan Shen" (a book on geomancy), since the book was in my hands and it was no ordinary book, I needed to study it more thoroughly.

Actually, this book is quite impressive, but I didn't fully understand it back then. What's most frustrating is that I didn't even know who was delivering the message. To avoid that embarrassing situation again, I need to study how to accurately identify messengers.

But I'm not the kind of person who can really get into studying; I didn't study for long before moving on to something else.

I earned several thousand yuan in one summer. Grandpa Wu didn't treat me badly. He not only gave me a salary but also taught me a lot about funerals. Actually, it wasn't that I was talented and learned quickly, but that old guy Lao Fan was there with me. He could teach me step by step like a machine.

At the end of August, a week before my school started, I went home to rest. One afternoon, I went to He Qiaohe's house next door to pick up a package. Her mother was playing mahjong with my mom at my house. I originally planned to just pick up the package and leave, but when I saw He Qiaohe wearing shorts and a t-shirt, lounging in a rocking chair with her legs crossed, eating a lollipop and looking at her phone, I became a little curious: "Wow! Little girl, quite relaxed!"

He Qiaohe avoided looking at her phone screen and deliberately teased me, saying, "Yuanwa, what are you stealing from my house again?"

I looked at her and said, "I didn't steal anything, I just wanted to pick up a package!"

She sat up from the rocking chair with a mischievous grin and asked me, "I heard you went to work this summer? I didn't realize! You're like a block of wood all day, yet a boss still dared to hire you. And after making money, you didn't even treat me to a meal or anything!"

Seeing her expectant look, I stood there dumbfounded and said to her, "That's easy. Come on! We'll eat at my place later."

She stared at me with wide, curious eyes: "What delicious food are you buying to treat your older sister?"

I looked at her, laughed, and spat on the ground: "Pah, I'm not offering you anything! Don't eat it then!"

Then he deliberately provoked her, saying, "Look at your face, it's gotten rounder again. Have you gained weight?"

When she heard me say she was fat, how could a gossipy girl who cares about appearances and weight all the time listen to such things? Instantly, she turned into a young man, chasing after me, wanting to teach me a lesson. But I had already anticipated this, so I took off running!

He Qiaohe lost interest after chasing me for a while. Watching her behind me with her phone, her fingers were frantically typing on the screen, sending messages while a wide smile played on her lips. I thought she seemed to be in love, so I asked her curiously, "Hey, who are you messaging, handsome guy? You're all smiles!"

She looked at me, laughing heartily, and teased me, "Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand!"

I wasn't very interested and turned to go home. But the girl didn't stand on ceremony with me and came to my house that evening with a bowl. I originally wanted to invite Lao Fan to come over for dinner, since his house is only five or six kilometers from our town, but Lao Fan had other things to do and said he would come another time.

Time flies. Staying at home for a week was really boring. Maybe it's because I don't have many friends. Lao Fan is busy with work every day, while He Qiaohe goes out to meet her friends every day. But they're all girls. I'm a grown man, so I can't exactly hang out with a bunch of girls, can I? I'm already rather thin, and I'm afraid people will think I'm a sissy if I hang out with her.

I stayed at home until the day before school started before returning to school. The second semester officially began, and I didn't have many expectations. Perhaps someone like me is really not suited to staying in school.

Fortunately, although school life was monotonous every day, with my three roommates to keep me company, we were too lazy to bother with Lao Wang. We spent our days either surfing the internet all night or just going through the motions in class. As for me, I slept in the classroom every day, and Yin Yuhong next to me asked me with great confusion, "Hey, Pu, why do you sleep in the classroom every day? Don't you ever think about learning anything?"

Yin Yuhong paused, tilted her head to look at me, her eyes crinkling with a smile. She didn't say anything lecturing, but simply nodded gently, moved the open notebook closer to me, and pointed the pen tip at the neat notes on it. Her voice was soft and gentle: "If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me anytime."

Sunlight streamed through the window, falling on her flowing long hair and the back of her fair hand. Her gaze was focused, without a trace of disdain, simply offering a kind reminder. I paused for a moment, then softly replied, "Okay." A subtle warmth quietly welled up in my previously bewildered heart.

Before this, I was never a good communicator, and I was quiet and reserved. Although Yin Yuhong and I were deskmates, we were just ordinary classmates. At most, she would occasionally say I was dull. We didn't bother each other in class, and after class, we would go our separate ways without even exchanging pleasantries. Until that morning, an unexpected encounter completely shattered the distance between us.

It was an early autumn morning, about a week or two after the start of the semester. The sky was just beginning to lighten, a few stars still lingered in the pale blue expanse, and a thin mist hung over the campus. Dewdrops clung to the leaves of the sycamore trees, rolling gently in the breeze. The air was filled with the sweet fragrance of grass and osmanthus blossoms. The streetlights were still on, their dim light filtering through the leaves and casting dappled shadows on the ground. The campus was peaceful and serene.

I was starving after playing on my phone all night, so I got up to buy breakfast. I asked Li Quan and Li Peng what they wanted to eat, but they were both sleeping like logs and mumbled that I should just buy whatever they wanted.

I went downstairs to buy breakfast, and perhaps because I hadn't slept all night, I unknowingly went the wrong way. When I came to my senses, I was already standing downstairs in the girls' dormitory. I almost walked right into the girls' dormitory.

Until a pair of legs longer than my life came into view, she coughed lightly and said, "Girls' dormitory, boys keep out."

I was startled, instantly regaining my composure. My face flushed, and I stood frozen, at a loss for what to do, frantically trying to turn and leave. But then a familiar voice rang out: "Hey, Pu, what are you doing here? Trying to sneak into the girls' dorm? Oh, I see, bringing your girlfriend a homemade breakfast?"

A familiar, cheerful voice came from in front of me, gentle yet tinged with curiosity. I quickly looked up and saw Yin Yuhong in her pajamas, without makeup or any grooming, standing on the steps in front of me. Her eyebrows were curved, a faint smile played on her lips, and her cheeks were flushed with the light blush of morning. Her loose hair was gently swaying in the morning breeze.

Looking at her in her pajamas, I awkwardly said, "Uh, I don't have any girlfriend. Sorry, wrong way!"

Her eyes were full of amusement, showing no surprise whatsoever. Instead, she was amused by my flustered state. I became even more embarrassed, my ears turning bright red. I scratched the back of my head, unable to utter a complete sentence for a long time, and could only awkwardly explain that I had taken the wrong turn.

Looking at the steaming breakfast I had just bought, I impulsively handed it to her, stammering, "I...I just bought this, I haven't eaten it yet. Have you had breakfast? Want me to give you some?"

Yin Yuhong blinked, looked at the breakfast I handed her, and then at my embarrassed, flushed face. I thought she was going to refuse, but to my surprise, she didn't stand on ceremony and took it. Perhaps her fingertips accidentally brushed against mine, because she paused slightly.

She then whispered a thank you, picked up the warm breakfast, turned around and went back to her dormitory. After taking a few steps, she looked back at me. Seeing her take two steps instead of one when she could have climbed the stairs in one, I couldn't help but feel speechless.

I stood there, watching her light and quick figure disappear into the stairwell, staring blankly at the stairs in front of me, a subtle feeling I had never experienced before welled up in my heart, and even the morning breeze seemed to become gentle.

For some reason, I couldn't suppress the feeling of happiness the whole way back. Before reaching the dormitory entrance, I opened the door and shouted to Li Quan and Li Peng, "Sons, Dad's home!"

The two men, wearing only boxer shorts, listlessly got up, rubbing their sleepy eyes. Li Quan, seemingly out of nowhere, pulled out a half-empty bottle of cola from earlier that evening, downed it in one gulp, burped, and asked, "What goodies did you buy?"

I placed breakfast on the table where we usually play cards: "You can choose your own!"

Perhaps my habit of buying breakfast every morning became the opportunity for me and Yin Yuhong to gradually become familiar with each other.

From then on, this habit became unstoppable, and Yin Yuhong didn't treat me like a stranger. I became her personal lackey! No, her personal deliveryman. Every morning when I went out, I would bring her a portion. Fortunately, she didn't really treat me like a lackey; she usually bought two portions, and she would buy mine as well.

We started talking more and more. In class, she would quietly wake me up when I was dozing off and hand me my notes; during breaks, we would chat about everyday anecdotes and campus life, and the awkwardness and silence of the past were gone. From simple greetings to sharing everything, we slowly became good friends with countless common topics. The originally bland and boring campus life was filled with a different kind of warmth and anticipation because of this sudden closeness.

Many times, Li Quan and Li Peng couldn't understand why Yin Yuhong was the only one they could get along with out of 54 students and 49 boys in the class. Did I have the potential to be a simp? I looked at Li Quan, who was smoking and deep in thought, and seeing that he still couldn't figure it out, I teased him, "Brother, you once said you wanted to be the class's Casanova, why are you so down?"

Li Peng laughed at him from the side: "There are only five girls in the whole class. She can't stand looking at two of them, and she won't even look at the other three. He calls himself a Casanova? He's more like a beast!"

I don't know if Li Quan is a Casanova or not, but later I became more and more familiar with Yin Yuhong. At most, she would just tease me because I was a bit of a goofball, but perhaps because we got to know each other better, this girl would talk to me about things that happened around her when she was in a good mood.

Besides He Qiaohe, she was only the second female friend I ever had. Perhaps that's what I thought back then. But many years later, I realized that love is truly a wondrous word. It can bring happiness, change a person, turn cowardice into courage, confusion into determination, make people cherish every moment, and teach them what it means to be unforgettable!

Yin Yuhong was actually a very good student. At first, I didn't quite understand why she chose such a low-ranking major when she could have applied to a better university. But her exact words were: "Sigh, the most important thing in life is to be happy. This is my hobby, even if it's a pile of shit, I'll still find it cute!"

Looking at her beautiful, graceful, and refined appearance, I was genuinely puzzled as to why she would describe our current major in that way. Fortunately, it was a natural interest for her, while I, on the other hand, was naturally more talented. Although I wasn't very attentive in class, I still had a fairly thorough understanding of videography.

It was like in a photography class where Meng Jiahong's wife, Cui Xingwen, was our photography composition teacher. She found a picture online somewhere, projected it onto the screen, and asked us to analyze the theme of the picture.

The classmates discussed the composition, focusing on the foreground and background contrasts, as well as the layering of figures and scenery. Yin Yuhong analyzed the picture with me; she has exceptional professional skills in photography, able to analyze professional data such as aperture and shutter speed from a single image.

They each analyzed their own work, but I wasn't particularly interested. I just stared at the picture. It was of an elderly man with white hair, a cigarette between his fingers, exhaling smoke from his lungs. His face was wrinkled, and his eyes were vacant as he stared at a scene beyond the picture. The old man sat in front of a stove in the countryside. Sunlight shone on his face from where he was looking, making his exhaled smoke appear particularly clear. The stove behind him was clearly visible, and it looked like the old man was preparing a meal, lighting a cigarette and thinking about what to eat.

Everyone was offering their opinions, and the analyses were all quite professional. Cui Xingwen asked everyone to raise their hands to answer. Although some students gave decent answers, they weren't the final conclusion. Yin Yuhong looked at me curiously, wondering what the photo was trying to express. After looking at the photo, I told her, "Actually, it's not that complicated. Notice how the scenery in the photo is smaller than the people? The subject isn't actually the people, it's the scenery!"

Yin Yuhong was somewhat puzzled: "This character is so prominent, how could he be considered scenery?"

I looked at the photo and then said to her, "Do you think this photo looks professional?"

She nodded, and then I said to her, "This theme seems to be about an old man thinking about what kind of meal to cook, but it actually highlights the loneliness his surroundings bring him. The contrast between his smoking and his gaze, and the contrast between the positions of others and the background scenery—the light shines on the person first, then the scenery—shows that this is a photograph with strong visual language. It mainly presents the old man's loneliness; the light shining on his face, his silent eyes representing expectation, and the background scenery representing desolation—you see, his figure is blocking the sunlight, and there's no sunlight on the objects behind him!"

After I analyzed it for Yin Yuhong, she was shocked by my talent. Then, staring at me with wide eyes, she said, "I never expected that you, Pu, would actually be such a gifted person! How come I didn't see so much cinematic language!"

Then Yin Yuhong raised her hand to answer Cui Xingwen. Upon hearing Yin Yuhong's answer, Cui Xingwen's eyes lit up, and she immediately affirmed Yin Yuhong's answer, something everyone was already used to.