Chapter 15 Fortune Telling: Do You Want to Be a worm in My stomach?
"Cough cough cough..."
Yue Yining coughed until her face turned red. Wei Yihua noticed her reaction and quickly put down her teacup: "Are you alright?"
"It was my carelessness in speaking that offended the Celestial Master."
Yue Yining was still clutching her chest when she heard this, and she quickly explained, "No, no, no, Miss Wei, you've misunderstood."
“Ayu is just my servant, not my male concubine.”
Wei Yihua didn't believe it. Why would a lowly servant who does odd jobs need to be so beautiful?
But she also understood that Yue Yining meant she didn't want to discuss the matter openly, so she obediently replied, "I understand, Master. Actually, I don't mind this matter at all. I won't mind any personal quirks, because I believe in Master Yue's abilities in divination."
What is all this nonsense?!
Yue Yining felt a sense of helplessness and despair.
Seeing that she couldn't explain it clearly, Yue Yining decided to stop arguing. She rubbed her forehead and said helplessly, "...Alright then. Miss Wei, why don't you talk about the divination?"
“Miss Wei is so eager to seek divination, I have just learned about it. Please tell me in detail, Miss Wei.”
Kites sing among the green willows, and sunlight climbs the eaves.
Wei Yihua held the teacup halfway between her fingers, appearing calm and composed, but Yue Yining noticed a slight ripple in the water. She seemed very nervous, her fingers even trembling slightly.
Wei Yihua slowly began, "I would like to ask you to tell someone's fortune."
Su Yue stepped forward and laid a piece of stationery on the table between Wei Yihua and Yue Yining. A line of elegant small characters was embroidered on the white paper, like horizontal flowers in snow. Wei Yihua held one corner of the stationery and pushed it forward.
"These are his birth dates and times; please take a look, Celestial Master."
Yue Yining took it and glanced at it: "Okay, let's begin now."
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Yue Yining grasped the copper plate on the tea table with both hands. She pulled the copper plate to both sides, and a mechanism under the plate made a turning sound. Suddenly, a small crack appeared. Yue Yining reached out and pressed the bottom of the plate, and with a twist of her wrist, removed the object attached to the inner core of the copper plate.
It was a round bronze octagonal disc, its color old and rustic. Circle upon circle, from the edge toward the center, were densely engraved with many characters and patterns in ancient script: auspicious clouds and cranes, pine trees, rocks and waves, mountain flowers and beasts, all things rushing toward the octagonal diagram in the center, black and white at the heart, dividing it into yin and yang.
Xuan paper was laid out, and brush, ink, and inkstone were presented. Yue Yining half-closed her eyes, pinching her right index and ring fingers together, calculating on a calculator.
"May your fortune be as boundless as the Eastern Sea and spring always be with you, yet like a flower in full bloom, one petal is missing." Yue Yining opened her eyes, and with her first stroke, ink stained the Xuan paper. "A noble destiny."
"He has an extremely noble destiny, but unfortunately, he has a great flaw. Judging from this divination, I guess he comes from a very wealthy family, or his father is an official and holds a high position. However, he lost his mother at a young age and was isolated and helpless for a long time. This does not mean that he was poor, but that he had many things to say but no one to talk to and no one to listen to him."
"However, a turning point came soon. When he was about four or five years old, he met a benefactor. This person stayed by his side for a long time, giving him a lot of help and support, acting as a father, mother, teacher, and friend. From then on, a lucky star entered his life, and half of his life was bright."
“Judging from the position of this main star, we can see that this important person…” Yue Yining paused, “is of paramount importance to him.”
"This was his greatest fortune, and also his greatest misfortune. So much so that after this benefactor left, his ruling star dimmed considerably."
"He's not in a very good state right now, but compared to when he was on the verge of collapse a few days ago, he's doing much better now. He seems to be in a dilemma and is still carefully considering what to do."
"This man's temperament is like flowing clouds and running water when he is calm, but when he is agitated, he is like shattered jade and startled. If he does not take a step, the sky will collapse and the earth will crack. The cause has been set and the road ahead is clear. He is destined to face a calamity, and now the calamity is about to occur. He does not have much time left to overcome it."
As Yue Yining finished writing, she drew a beautiful hook with a clear, resonant sound.
"That's all I can see."
Wei Yihua was somewhat surprised: "Is that all?"
Yue Yining glanced at her and suddenly said, "I remember Miss Wei said at the beginning that the divination she asked me to do was related to the world."
"Looking at it now, you weren't exaggerating," Yue Yining said calmly. "The divination was rudimentary, which is why this person's fate is related to the destiny of the nation."
"The fate of a nation is the most profound secret of heaven, and it cannot be easily discovered. Even my master had to pay a huge price to calculate the fate of a nation."
Wei Yihua asked urgently, "What is the price? If I can afford it, can I pay it myself?"
Yue Yining laughed, but it was unclear what she was laughing about: "That's not something I can tell Miss Wei."
Yue Yining released her grip, and at that moment a gust of wind blew by, rolling up a thin sheet of white paper on the table. Seeing the paper being blown by the wind, Wei Yihua quickly reached out and caught it.
So the paper she had given away returned to her hands, the ink on the back stained with strong, vigorous characters.
"A single star falls from the heavens like a dragon, its torch burning away the last three feet of light."
This was Yue Yining's judgment.
A loud bang exploded in my mind.
Wei Yihua sat frozen in place, feeling her hands trembling. If she hadn't lived that life, she might have been completely baffled by this judgment. But recalling her past life's memories, and looking at the note in her hand, Wei Yihua realized with a start that she was drenched in a cold sweat.
Although she did not personally experience the fire during the palace coup in her previous life, she had heard a great deal about it.
Wei Jing was able to lead his troops into the imperial city so quickly not only because he had won over the commander of the Imperial Guards beforehand, but also for another reason.
He arranged for people to set fires in several places within the palace, causing chaos in the defenses of the palace, which gave them the opportunity to take advantage of the situation and enter.
That day, the firelight illuminated half of the Forbidden City. Although it was the night of a lunar eclipse, the sky was as bright as the sun, filled with orange and red hues, as radiant as a rosy sunset.
Her face was so pale that Yue Yining could tell at a glance: "Miss Wei, the divination I performed today is too vague to make a judgment. If it were any other celestial master, they would have told you that they could only give you an empty judgment. But I am arrogant and wrote a judgment based entirely on my intuition. I hope you will forgive me."
"I am not very knowledgeable and may make mistakes, so please don't worry too much about it."
"No." Wei Yihua spoke slowly, feeling the goosebumps on her arms subside. She took a deep breath. "I am very grateful to Master Yue."
Yue Yining stared at her, then suddenly asked, "Is this person very important to Miss Wei?"
Wei Yihua nodded heavily, her voice tinged with bitterness: "Yes. I am in a predicament, with only a handful of ways to break free, and he is the key to it."
Her fingers clenched tightly beneath her sleeves. Wei Yihua made up her mind and looked up to meet Yue Yining's gaze.
She said, "I have one last question I'd like to ask the Celestial Master."
"If all the paths laid out before you are known to be dead ends, but you cannot linger or hesitate, you cannot stop moving forward, then what should you do, what choices should you make, to turn a dead end into a life?"
In the courtyard, the green bamboo sways in the wind, and the lush leaves weave a symphony of sounds.
Yue Yining was already somewhat absent-minded, but she was slightly taken aback when she heard this question.
The emotions in Wei Yihua's eyes were very familiar: a faint hope, expectation, and bewilderment. She seemed to be adrift on a vast, dark sea, a lone boat swaying, waiting for a lighthouse to illuminate her course.
Yue Yining saw herself in her eyes.
A pair of emerald sleeves overlook the souls of men and introspect one's own body.
“…Miss Wei, roads are made by people walking on them.”
“There is no absolute dead end. Fate is full of twists and turns, and there is always a glimmer of hope. Although I practice mystical arts, I always believe that fate has its limits, but human will is awe-inspiring.” Yue Yining smiled faintly. “If there is a reason to move forward, we might as well proceed and observe. When things are at their worst, we should change. Change leads to success. It is better than staying in one place and waiting for fate to decide.”
The afternoon sun illuminated the entire screen wall. A woman in a pink skirt brushed across the threshold, and after exchanging pleasantries, the main gate slowly closed.
After seeing Wei Yihua and his group off, Yue Yining sat in the courtyard and drank the last bit of tea on the tea table in one gulp.
When Fu Yao closed the door and returned, this was the scene she saw.
She pouted and came over to close the bamboo box containing tea for Yue Yining: "Miss, it's too easy to bribe you."
Yue Yining, however, made a surprising statement: "Who said I was bribed by this tea?"
"Yes, Miss was not bribed by the tea."
The person who responded had a clear and melodious voice. A figure emerged from behind the tree, serene and composed like a breeze in the forest.
Ayu, dressed in a loose white gauze robe, knelt down beside Yue Yining's prayer mat. He was closer than usual, and although Yue Yining did not seem to mind or try to avoid him, she was surprised to look up at him.
With his long, slender, fair fingers, he lifted the teapot and refilled her dry teacup.
He looked at her with a faint smile: "No matter what price the person offers, Miss will agree to have her fortune told, right?"
Yue Yining's fingers, which were tapping the rim of the cup, suddenly stopped.
She narrowed her eyes and looked at Ayu: "Knowing me so well, are you planning to be reincarnated as a tapeworm in my stomach in your next life?"
Ayu laughed and said, "Ayu wouldn't dare."
He was just gazing at her out of habit, like a sunflower that cannot help but chase the scorching sun, or a firefly that cannot help but absorb the moonlight.
Looking at the little maid who was staring at them with a completely bewildered expression, Yue Yining finally kindly revealed the secret to her:
“That Miss Wei just now, her true identity is the current Princess Dongxi.”
Yue Yining's few words were like a giant club, knocking Fu Yao unconscious and dumbfounding her.
Fu Yao was so shocked she stammered, "What?! How...how did you figure that out?!"
Ayu said calmly, "Many subtle signs can be seen. But what I can confirm is that there are light red scars on the tip of her left little finger and the second joint of her ring finger. The only reason for the marks in those places is that she used to wear a nail guard for a long time, and only took it off for a day or two, which is why the marks have not faded."
The answer is obvious: someone who wears armor, an unmarried young woman, and whose surname is Wei.
Perhaps it's because the visitor made no attempt to conceal anything. The two played chess behind masks as thin as cicada wings, and the lack of deliberate concealment became a tacit understanding and unspoken words between intelligent people, adding a unique touch of sincerity and earnestness.
Ayu looked at Yue Yining and said in a gentler tone, "Miss, you noticed it back then, didn't you?"
Yue Yining smiled and said, "Which thing are you talking about? You used the excuse of serving water but actually came up to look at people? I figured it out."
Fu Yao stared at A Yu as if she had seen a ghost.
Ayu: "I guessed that the person who came was of very high status, but I did not expect him to be so noble. I am worried about Miss's safety. After all, if there is any mishap, and the Princess who is deeply favored by the Emperor is angered, she may end up in danger of losing her life."
Yue Yining took a sip of tea and cleared her throat: "I know that too."
“It’s normal for you to be worried. But I’m good at judging people. Her Highness the Princess is reasonable and knows right from wrong. She would never punish me based on a few words.” Yue Yining blinked and smiled brightly. “Besides, I’m really curious about what her purpose is in coming to find me.”
Fu Yao's mind was a complete mess: "But... but how did she leave the palace??"
Yue Yining: "I don't know. But the national mourning rites have not been abolished, so even a princess of a country cannot leave the palace at will."
"Perhaps she sneaked here without telling anyone. If so, the most likely method is to first make an excuse to leave the palace, but find a stand-in to act out the act, while the real person disguised herself and drove here."
Fu Yao was speechless. She felt as if flowers were blooming and fading before her eyes, and she felt dizzy: "If she really is Her Highness the Eldest Princess, then the person she divined is—"
Yue Yining: "It's her imperial brother."
Her mother's family was of humble origin, but her character was decent. She was previously unknown and now walks on thin ice.
The person Wei Yihua consulted was none other than Wei Ye, the current third prince of Dongxi.
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