The most frequent and hardest question to answer

Well, this is a question that is being asked most frequently, and I guess to everybody, especially acquaintances, classmates(old and new), friends(who you meet once a week or once a decade). Unlike technical questions which have an answer option "I dont know", for this common question, the answer would be weird. The question I am refering to is "How's life?" Most of the time, it is equivalent to a "Hi" as the person who asks the question does not even really want to know the real answer. Other times, even if they want a real true answer, it is very difficult to provide it in 2 words or so. Life is as usual, complex. There maybe something to cheer about and something worth crying about in the same day at the same instant. Then they are tensions, worries, happiness, apprehensions, uncertainties among others. How can anyone ever put out this plethora of feelings in just a few words? And so however big a lie it may be, we give a standard reply "good" and move on....