Chapter 7 First Mistake

I thought I had improved my ability to judge people, but I almost made a mistake.

It was a bright sunny day. I rushed to Youranju early, wiped the table and swept the floor, and then made tea.

The Taoist priest got up and ate some rice noodles. Then a few people came in to choose the date.

Choosing a date is relatively simple and I can do it independently. The teacher walked out of the yard and went for a walk outside.

Both of them were choosing a date to get married. I helped them match their birth dates and picked a good day for each of them. I also gave them some instructions on what to pay attention to when getting married, and the two couples left happily.

After choosing the date, another couple came. The woman was holding a baby girl in her arms. The man said, "Master, please help me choose a name for the child."

This is easy. Ask the person to report his or her birth date and then use the theory of the five elements to choose.

I wrote on the paper while reading "Girl, surnamed Ye, missing wood."

The man was a bit picky and said that the name he gave his daughter should be literary and artistic, and it should be her real name, more like a pen name.

I wrote the four characters "枝繁叶盛" (branch flourishing and leaves luxuriant) on a piece of paper and pointed to the last two characters and said, "Ye Mao, it sounds like both my real name and my pen name. Mao is associated with the element of wood."

The man was very satisfied and counted the money and left.

I was exhausted after two hours and was just about to stand up and take a rest when an old man came in. He looked at me from head to toe and smiled.

I also looked at him. He was wearing a black coat that was neither new nor expensive, a pair of leather shoes that were neither expensive nor expensive, and a pair of thick glasses with the bottom of a wine bottle.

Asked me: "Where is the master?"

Hearing his rather loud tone, I smiled and said, "He went for a walk outside."

He nodded and asked, "Are you an apprentice with him?"

I nodded.

From what I observed, I really couldn't tell who was coming.

You could say he was a pedantic scholar;

It is also possible to say that he is a great scholar who does not care about his clothes;

You could also say he was a wandering sorcerer.

But he was definitely not an ordinary person. I couldn't immediately tell what kind of person he was. I couldn't even fathom his relationship to the teacher: an acquaintance? A friend? A fellow student?

Should I let him wait or make tea first?

The Taoist priest and I had an agreement: normally, he would knock on the table once, meaning no tea needed. He would knock twice, meaning tea was ready. He would knock three times, meaning tea and a cigarette were both ready.

I thought the man was old, so I stood up and poured him a cup of tea.

He sat there without saying a word, looking calm and composed.

As if I wasn't worthy of his attention, I just waited for the teacher to come back.

I didn't dare to act rashly. Since he didn't say anything, I didn't say much either.

After a while, the Taoist priest came back. He stood up, clasped his fists and said, "Hello, Master."

The Taoist priest glanced at the other person and said indifferently, "Sit down."

The visitor said, "Master, my surname is Chen, and I am from the next county. I have heard of your great name for a long time, so I came to visit you."

The Taoist priest smiled slightly and said, "It's been a long journey, thank you for your hard work."

Old Chen said with a pious look: "I would like to ask you to give my grandson a character test for the college entrance examination next year."

I pulled out some paper and gave it to him. He refused to write, saying, "It's heavy, so heavy."

Without thinking, the Taoist priest said casually, "You'll do well in the exam. Don't worry."

Old Chen smiled and said, "Even if you do well in the exam, sometimes you still can't get in. Choosing the right school is crucial. Could you give me some advice, sir?"

As he was speaking, two middle-aged men came in.

The Taoist priest looked up at the two men. I took a look at them too. One was fat, the other thin, neatly dressed, sitting aside, as if nothing happened, just here to listen.

The Taoist priest cast his gaze on Lao Chen: "When applying to a school, the farther away the better. If you apply to a school in your own province, you won't be accepted."

Old Chen pretended to be surprised and asked, "Why do you say that?"

"Didn't you say you wanted to test the character 'heavy'? If you break it down, it becomes 'thousand miles'. 'Thousand miles' means heavy."

Old Chen chuckled, "Sir, fortune-telling is so simple?"

The two middle-aged men next to them also smiled.

The Taoist priest said, "In this world of knowledge, the simplest ones are the real ones. The mysterious ones are just tricks to attract attention."

Old Chen tilted his head and said, "Sir, you are so good, could you tell me a fortune?"

The Taoist priest nodded.

Lao Chen said the word "from" to test the career.

This was my first time encountering a career prediction. I was just thinking about learning more about it. Unexpectedly, the Taoist priest replied simply, "No prediction."

Old Chen sneered, "Can't tell, or don't want to say?"

The Taoist priest said, "It is impossible to predict. Some are extremely ugly, while others are dignified. You cannot judge a person by his appearance, nor can you measure the depth of the ocean. But you are a million miles away from appearances, and I cannot even count all the seventy-two trades."

Old Chen laughed and said, "You don't want to be tested?"

The Taoist priest also laughed: "If you must say, I will give you two lines of poetry. A lifetime of career is just a dream, and half of life is like a duckweed in the rain."

Old Chen laughed heartily: "Great, great!"

Old Chen asked again, "Mr. Meng's calculation is accurate. How much is it?"

"In ancient times, scholars wrote and painted, and gave them to each other as gifts, never accepting payment. You are just traveling the world, and I am just sitting at home. What is there to talk about money?"

I understood what the Taoist priest said. It turns out that this person is also in this line of work.

Old Chen blushed a little and said, "Then I'll take my leave for now."

As he stood up, the two middle-aged men also stood up. One of them said, "Interesting, interesting."

The Taoist priest called out to Lao Chen: "Take care. The university is thousands of miles away. Old sir, remember that you can do it again in your dreams."

Old Chen Gong cupped his hands and said, "Disrespectful, disrespectful."

What kind of drama is this? I'm completely confused.

The Taoist priest taught me, "The three people who just came are a group. The one who calls himself Lao Chen is also in our line of work. The two young men behind him must have been talking about how great I am in front of him. So, Lao Chen is here to challenge me, and the young men are here to watch him challenge me."

"Is that so?"

The Taoist priest analyzed it for me: "Why didn't those two people come in with Lao Chen?"

I thought about it and replied, "They pretended not to know Lao Chen."

"Why did they leave when Lao Chen left?"

"Because they didn't have anything to do, and since you've exposed Old Chen, they felt embarrassed to stay."

"What's that hint of something in Old Chen's words?"

"Provocative."

"By the way, you should be more careful in the future. Not all people who come here are here to have their fortunes told. Some are here to test you, and some are here to mess things up. So, it's better to offend someone than to make a mistake with the tea. You should be polite to others, but also be tactful."

My face turned red.

The Taoist priest said, "I have said that the art of fortune-telling begins with observing people, but I only gave you half of the book to read, so you haven't read it completely. You must study it carefully. Now, I will tell you how to observe people and what books you should read.