My name is Li Yifan, and I am Chinese New Year's Eve two years old today. Maybe a lot of people know me because of an unintentional act I did last year, but in all the stories I'm going to write here, remember that I'm not the main character.

Because in his world, just as he is in mine, we are good friends with each other, we are iron buddies, and we often fight each other in our thirties, but that doesn't affect the relationship between me and him. We have been through many dangers together and have fought against many bizarre conspiracies. For me, this friendship is precious, and I have wanted to write his story countless times, even though neither he nor I are good men, even though we have not known each other for many years.

It started in October 2011. At the end of the month before that month, I officially went from a delinquent youth in my twenties to a delinquent middle-aged man in my thirties. Yes, I was thirty years old that year. This was supposed to be a very sad thing, but in that month, I received great news that my wife was pregnant.

Hu Zongren and Fu Yunni are both good friends of me and Sister Cai. The two of them got married so many months earlier than Sister Cai and I got married, and Hu Zongren's bad idea when he proposed was still given by me. As two families with excellent relationships, I want to be a father, so I naturally want to make an appointment to celebrate.

So at noon that day, I personally cooked and prepared the meal, and after everyone had a full meal at my house at noon, Fu Yunni took Sister Cai to bask in the sun and go shopping, and Hu Zongren and I continued to drink and eat at home.

Frankly speaking, since I met Hu Zongren in 2009, my understanding of his background is actually limited. I only know that Lu Dao is a teacher of the Yaoshan Taoist School, and his master is a retired Yaoshan old-timer, although Hu Zongren has always been crazy, he is still quite reliable for the inheritance of this Dao method. Other than that, I don't know much about his past.

Taking advantage of the joy of that day, everyone drank a lot of wine, slightly drunk but not drunk, and the two of us began to share our childhood. That was the first time I learned about his past from his own mouth, and what I talked about the most before that was what Hu Zongren's mother told me about him accidentally falling into a pit and eating a mouthful of when he was a child.

Hu Zongren told me that he was born into a family of intellectuals. Both parents are middle school teachers, and it stands to reason that a guy like him shouldn't be like me, who has been dealing with ghosts for many years and making a fortune from this. Hu Zongren's hometown is in Yilong County, Sichuan Province, which is the hometown of Marshal Zhu De. Hu Zongren said that maybe it is the relationship between the eight characters, from childhood to adulthood, Hu Zongren is a person who does not like to study. But every time he takes an exam, he always doesn't know what method he uses, so that although his grades have been at the bottom for a long time, he will never face the danger of repeating a grade or dropping out.

Hu Zongren said that until he graduated from high school, he failed the exam. Then the family said that they wanted him to take the exam for another year, and during that holiday, he teamed up with a few friends and beat a child from another school to a serious injury.

He told me that he had just gone to get help from someone, but as he was beating, he found that he liked the feeling of beating people so much that he couldn't stop and hit them on the neck with a wooden stick the thickness of his wrist, which broke the stick. The stupidest thing is that after he finished the fight, he proudly dropped a sentence, my name is Hu Zongren, if you are not convinced, come to me, as if he is a big brother in the rivers and lakes.

Unfortunately, the child who was beaten, his father was a relatively powerful local construction contractor in Yilong, and he knew a lot of friends on the road. Hu Zongren said that his father had died that year, so he and his mother were the only ones at home. Hu's mother saw that he was in trouble, and hurriedly asked the relationship to find the other party's parents to communicate, but they refused to communicate, so Hu's mother was scared, so she entrusted Hu Zongren to Hu Zongren's father's cousin, that is, Hu Zongren's cousin, and asked him to go there for a while and come back when the limelight passed. Hu's mother said that she is a teacher and a woman, and people will not be embarrassed for her.

When he said this, Hu Zongren took another sip of his wine glass. I know his character, he probably rarely recalls his absurd years like this, even with Fu Yunni, he may rarely share it like this. He went on to say that his cousin, who had only returned to Sichuan in recent years, was now living in Chengdu. Before that, he was a Taoist monk, but he refused to tell me where he was taught. Hu Zongren said that it was precisely because of the retreat during that period of time that he followed his cousin to contact Taoist culture for the first time, although it was not for a long time, but his cousin said that he was a piece of material, so he hid from Hu's mother and introduced Hu Zongren to a master he knew, for which Hu Zongren's mother and cousin had a very stiff quarrel. This master is a master in Qingcheng, and at first he said that he wanted to investigate Hu Zongren's temperament, so he let him follow the master all day long, and he didn't tell him anything, and he didn't care about him, just what he did all day long.

I asked Hu Zongren with a smile, I must have suffocated you during those days, right? Hu Zongren said, no, it's like a year, and then one day I was very irritable, and a few pilgrims who came up to the mountain were making loud noises in the temple, and they were swearing, and I couldn't see it, so I went to remind them. As a result, a few words were said wrong, and a fight broke out.

I gave Hu Zongren a thumbs up and said brother, you are so strong, Master Zu dares to fight in front of him, it is a pity that you are not a hooligan. Hu Zongren said that he had been depressed for a long time that day, the master neither taught him anything, nor prevented him from doing anything, and he didn't even say anything like accepting apprentices.

I asked Hu Zongren how he handled the matter. He said that Master Zhangguan still came out to protect him at that time, although those pilgrims were domineering, but after all, they still didn't dare to make trouble in the Taoist temple, and Hu Zongren was still a hairy child at that time, and he didn't care about it very decently, so for those people, this matter was over. But Master Zhangguan said that he didn't dare to accept a child like Hu Zongren anymore, so he planned to send him down the mountain.

Hu Zongren said that this incident hit him particularly hard, and he thought that he had a dispute with the pilgrims to maintain the tranquility of the Taoist temple. He was wearing the clothes of their Taoist Taoist boy, who knew that the master of the Daoist Dao was going to drive himself out of the Taoist master because of this, he couldn't figure it out, at this time, an old man in a white Taoist robe came out of the side room, and said to the master of the Taoist temple, this young man is strong in blood and stubborn by nature, we people who learn the Tao, when we meet the talents that we think can be created, we must stay, but for those who can obviously be changed through education, why should we be so resolute to reject the door?

The white-robed Taoist said to the master of Zhangguan at that time, if Brother Dao doesn't think Xiaodao is shallow in learning and has low skills, let Xiaodao take this young man away, let him follow me, and follow me to visit Yunyou, I don't know if Lu Dao is okay.

Hu Zongren said that at that time, he was full of grievances in his heart, and felt that he was probably not so suspicious, and he was actually dissatisfied with being punished by Master Zhangguan. And at this moment, the white-robed Taoist stood up to speak for himself, which made him feel relieved, and at the same time his stubborn temper also came up, he originally knelt on the ground and accepted the punishment, but suddenly stood up with his head held high, and said to the master of Zhangguan very disdainfully, since you don't keep me in this temple, then I won't stay here with you either, the world is big, who rarely stays in your Taoist temple that doesn't put salt in the dishes all day long!

I laughed, after so many years, this guy's personality has not changed in the slightest, and it is not too much to say that he has become much worse now.

Hu Zongren also laughed, he continued, that Zhangguan master was originally entrusted by his cousin to temporarily stay with Hu Zongren, and he probably didn't want to keep him very much, this Hu Zongren got into trouble, he had a justifiable reason, plus the white-robed Taoist stood up and said that he wanted to take over Hu Zongren, probably thinking that it was okay to do this, and not offend people left and right, but I am afraid that Hu Zongren will hate himself for a while from now on. So when the white-robed Taoist said this, Master Zhangguan readily agreed.

Hu Zongren said that at that time, he was just a hairy boy, although he had been in contact with Taoism for a while, but after all, it was a short time, and he had never met a person who was willing to really teach himself seriously, so before that, he knew very little about Chinese Taoist culture. But after this white-robed Taoist took Hu Zongren away, he went to Emei, Tiantai and other famous mountains one after another, during which the two ate and lived together, and the white-robed Taoist did not teach Hu Zongren anything about Taoism or Taoism along the way, nor did he mention the matter of apprenticeship at all, but kept asking Hu Zongren some things about his past life, such as why he didn't go to school, why he ran away, whether he wanted to go home, etc.

Hu Zongren said that the most impressive time for him at that time was when the white-robed Taoist took him on foot and pressed Emei on the old road, and the white-robed Taoist asked him a word, saying that if no one took care of you that day, you were really driven down the mountain, what would you do? Hu Zongren replied without thinking about it, it's a big deal to find a temporary job, I am young and strong, and I can't starve to death.

The white-robed Taoist said that in this world, no one will starve to death. But you have nothing in your chest, no skills, even if you find a job, with your character, it will be difficult to do it for a long time. Because you are still a long time away from becoming mature. Hu Zongren said that at that time, he thought that the old Taoist priest was looking for an excuse to tactfully want to drive him away, and when he was about to refute a few words in a negative anger, the white-robed Taoist pointed to the mountain pond and said, Look at this pond, there are water snakes, loaches, and eels in it, and some of them are strong and some are weak. But this water snake eel loach doesn't even have hands and feet, and people know how to survive, you have hands and feet, do you just want to live by odd jobs?

Hu Zongren took another sip of wine and said to me that it was the first sentence that the white-robed Taoist said to him that shocked him, because it was not easy to make people like Hu Zongren understand the truth. He told me that at that moment, he had an unprecedented respect for the white-robed Taoist in front of him.

Hu Zongren told me that he later learned that the old Taoist priest in front of him belonged to the Yaoshan sect of the folk Taoist sect, and had spent most of his life wandering around the world, not participating in any religious management institutions, free and casual, and contented. The Yaoshan faction is subordinate to the Xuanyuan Society, a folk Taoist society, worships the Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor, and is determined to revitalize the state religion.

And this white-robed Taoist became Hu Zongren's master in the end, and he was Xing Yazi.