Chapter 1: Training the Body to Resemble a Crane's Form

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A world of integrated daily life in domestic television dramas.
Beijing.
Building 17, Unit 3, Room 301, Country Garden Residential Complex.
Monday, August 29, 2011.

"Zhengzheng, today is the first day of senior year, time to get up! Your brother is already up and out for his morning exercise. Hurry up, don't make people wait for you. Wash up and then you can head to school with him, and pick up some breakfast on the way..."

Inside the bedroom, a delicate young girl opened her eyes. Listening to her mother's persistent reminders outside, she agreed reluctantly. Once she heard the sound of her mother closing the door and leaving, she buried her head in her quilt and let out a frustrated scream.

"So annoying! He Chen is not my brother!!!"

After venting, she glanced at the daylight outside, forced herself to crawl out of bed, quickly washed up, changed into her Chunfeng High School uniform, shouldered her backpack, and went downstairs. From a distance, she saw a group of people gathered under a tall pine tree, pointing, whispering, and bursting into laughter from time to time.

A look of embarrassment and shame immediately appeared on her face. She knew exactly what they were looking at.

She lowered her head, intending to walk past quickly, but was stopped by a voice: "Ruan Liuzheng, He Chen is still practicing. Aren't you going to wait for him?"

The delicate girl, Ruan Liuzheng, looked up to see the renowned top student of Chunfeng High, Qian Sanyi, straddling his mountain bike at the corner. He was looking at the figure jumping under the pine tree from afar with a smirk on his face.

Ruan Liuzheng had no choice. Fearing that he, who lived downstairs, might let it slip to her mother that she hadn't waited for He Chen, she walked over and stood beside him, watching the boy under the pine tree who, despite the crowd, continued to perform his flamboyant movements with composure.

Her expression was extremely complicated.

He was a boy with thick eyebrows, large eyes, and an heroic aura. Standing in the morning light, the faint glow he seemed to radiate blended with the sunlight, making it easy to be captivated. The only caveat was that he shouldn't be performing such shameful movements in public.

One moment, he would stretch his arms backward and circle the pine tree; the next, he would balance on one leg, bending over with his arms flapping up and down. These actions were already shameful enough, and with the vivid demonstration of them by the Daoist Emperor Jiajing in the drama *Ming Dynasty 1566*, they were even more prone to ridicule.

Yet, the boy, He Chen, didn't care in the slightest. He practiced diligently, and finally, as he finished his morning session and moved to conclude, he recited a closing poem, just as Ruan Liuzheng expected, with the same shameful flair as always:

"Training the body to resemble a crane, with two scrolls of scripture beneath a thousand pines. I come to seek the Way with no further words; the clouds are in the blue sky, and the water is in the pitcher."

"Bravo!"

The composure and nonchalance ultimately drew a roar of applause from the onlookers. Whether sincere or just egging him on, the clapping was constant.

"He Chen, have some water!" A petite girl with glasses, wearing a Chunfeng High uniform, handed a bottle to He Chen after applauding wildly.

This made the expressions of Ruan Liuzheng and Qian Sanyi, who were watching from the corner, look rather sour.

"Thanks." He Chen didn't refuse the girl's gesture. He naturally took the Wahaha purified water, took a sip, and cast his gaze toward the two watching from afar.

The petite girl followed his gaze, saw them, and immediately waved: "Disciple, Ruan Liuzheng, you're here too! Let’s head to school together!"

Facing such a carefree little girl, Ruan Liuzheng and Qian Sanyi were both helpless, but they nodded in agreement. Together, they watched as He Chen put the two stacks of books he had deliberately placed under the pine tree into his backpack.

Ruan Liuzheng had complained more than once, but He Chen insisted it was about the "sense of ritual," that everything had to align with the closing poem, and if it could be replicated, it must be replicated perfectly. Just as he insisted on not practicing at home, but rather finding a pine tree, risking the ridicule of strangers, just to practice under it.

He Chen rode over on his bicycle.

The petite girl pedaled her short legs to catch up, stopped in front of them, and called out quite loyally: "Ruan Liuzheng, hop on, I'll give you a ride!"

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"Forget it, Lin Miaomiao, you're struggling enough on your own!" Qian Sanyi teased. "And you want to carry someone?"

"Get on!" He Chen smiled and invited his foster sister, with whom he didn't exactly see eye-to-eye. Before she could refuse, he reminded her, "Although it's not far from the school, it's still a few miles."

"Ruan Liuzheng, you don't want to ride?" Lin Miaomiao, seeing Ruan Liuzheng hesitate, immediately continued, "How about this, I'll let you ride my bike, and I'll sit behind He Chen. Hehehe, that way I can save some energy too."

"Lin Miaomiao, today is just registration day. Tomorrow is the senior year college entrance exam mobilization meeting. Are you really trying to get your parents called in today?" Qian Sanyi reminded her gloomily. "Ruan Liuzheng and He Chen are foster siblings, so riding together is fine. If you go into the school like that, the teachers will pull you off at the gate, believe me."

"What a killjoy!" Lin Miaomiao knew this was the truth and immediately drooped.

Ruan Liuzheng eventually climbed onto the back of He Chen's bike. The three bicycles rode in a line out of the complex, heading toward Chunfeng High.

"Can you stop practicing that? At least don't do it in public?" Ruan Liuzheng, sitting on the back seat, caught the scent of the masculine aura blowing in the wind. She couldn't help but tug at He Chen's shirt and whisper a request.

"Still not used to it? Still feel it's shameful?" He Chen asked with a knowing smile, then decisively refused, as always.

This immediately crushed the unusual emotions that had just risen in Ruan Liuzheng, making her so angry she wanted to jump off and stop riding with this detestable guy. Is practicing this during summer vacation the same as practicing after school starts? The level of shame is not the same!

He Chen didn't need to look back to know the expression and mood of this foster sister from a different mother and father, but he remained unmoved. Even if this foster sister had the face of a celebrity often called the "Little Liu Yifei"—likely the heroine of some domestic melodrama—compared to the pursuit of the Dao and immortality, girls only slow down the speed of drawing one's blade. Even if the real Liu Yifei herself came and begged him not to do it, he wouldn't change a thing.

After buying breakfast at a roadside stall, he ignored Ruan Liuzheng's expression and, while eating, sank his consciousness into the system panel.

System Name: Seasonal Superpower Refresh System
Host: He Chen
Age: 17 (17/35+)
Autumn 2011 Superpower: Crane's Calculation, Turtle's Longevity
Inherent Divine Ability: None

That's right! He Chen was a transmigrator with a system. He had only been in this world, which appeared to be an integrated world of domestic urban dramas, for less than a month.

Through exploration, he learned that this system refreshes a superpower every season. If used properly, the superpower could become an "Inherent Divine Ability," allowing him to possess it permanently. Otherwise, it would refresh and disappear when the season changed.

The current first superpower, "Crane's Calculation, Turtle's Longevity," came with two sets of techniques: the Crane Technique and the Turtle Breathing Technique. The Crane Technique was exactly what Emperor Jiajing practiced in *Ming Dynasty 1566*. Emperor Jiajing looked like a joke and a lunatic when he practiced it, but every time He Chen finished his practice, the system prompted "Lifespan +1 day." The Turtle Breathing Technique, also a Wudang Daoist Qigong, worked the same way. Practicing the Crane Technique morning and evening, and the Turtle Breathing Technique at lunch and before bed, added four days to his lifespan every day.

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This enhancement of lifespan truly lived up to the name of the superpower; practicing it kept one as long-lived and healthy as a crane or a turtle. Just this alone gave him, having inherited a body that was originally short-lived, full motivation, making him completely indifferent to the strange looks of others. Not to mention, after practicing for a while, he really started to develop some extraordinary results.

"Does Aunt Ruan not make breakfast for you at home?" Lin Miaomiao, who had already eaten at home but insisted on waiting for He Chen and the others to go to school, stood outside and couldn't help but ask.

Before He Chen or the others could answer, she slapped her forehead: "Oh, what was I thinking! Aunt Ruan is so beautiful; she must have been a school beauty just like Ruan Liuzheng back in the day. How could she be like the one in our house, cooking in the kitchen?"

When these words were spoken, He Chen's brow furrowed involuntarily. It wasn't that he thought there was something wrong with what she said. Lin Miaomiao was stating facts. Perhaps saying Ruan Liuzheng was a school beauty was a stretch, but Aunt Ruan was definitely a school beauty back then; calling her a national-level actress wouldn't be an exaggeration.

However, beauty fades, and even the most stunning woman cannot withstand the ravages of time. "Graceful and charming" is a compliment for an average woman, but for a former beauty of peerless elegance, falling from grace to mere "graceful charm" is like falling from the heavens into the mundane world.

He didn't frown because he was lamenting the fading of beauty; rather, he was uncontrollably triggered by a surge of intense emotion. Crucially, it didn't belong to him, but were the residual physical instincts of his predecessor—unusual emotions that hadn't completely dissipated. The reason they remained was that they were so deeply rooted that even after the original consciousness faded, the emotions etched into his bones remained as instincts, still slightly influencing He Chen. It made him aware of what was happening, yet he still had to struggle to suppress these indescribable emotions that churned within him every time they were triggered.

"Boss, give me a *shaomai*! Two steamed buns! And an order of dumplings!"

Lin Miaomiao had just spoken casually. Watching He Chen eating with such appetite, she swallowed her saliva and, ignoring the fact that she had already eaten breakfast at home, bought more and stuffed it into her mouth.

This scene made Qian Sanyi, standing quietly to the side, shake his head, mocking the little foodie in his heart. If it weren't for school, she could keep stuffing things into her mouth forever. Two years ago, she could even sneak food during class whenever she had the chance.

After finishing their meal, the four continued on their way. As they rode into Chunfeng High and were about to head to the bike shed, they heard a horn behind them, accompanied by the roar of an engine.

"Whoa!" Lin Miaomiao, not expecting a car with a roaring engine to be following them inside the campus, turned her head in shock. Losing her balance and unable to reach the ground with her short legs, she nearly fell off her bike.

He Chen, riding in front, seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He braked sharply, reached back, and with a movement that was slow yet fast, grabbed the handlebars of Lin Miaomiao's bike, holding it firmly and preventing her from falling.

Ruan Liuzheng flushed and quickly got off her bike, one hand protecting her chest and the other steadying the shaken Lin Miaomiao.

Everyone looked back to see a flashy red Ferrari sports car moving slowly. In the driver's seat, a boy wearing a racing suit swept a cold, arrogant glance at He Chen and the others before continuing to drive ahead.