Chapter 38 Fate: The moment she had been waiting for had arrived. ...
The cart wheels rolled over the remaining snow in front of the door, like chewing up a pile of rock candy.
Wei Yihua's carriage stopped in front of the princess's residence. A waiting maidservant, seeing Wei Yihua being helped alight from the carriage, quickly approached and offered her a bronze enamel hand warmer, whispering, "Your Highness, the hot water for washing is ready. Would you like to return to your bedchamber now?"
“No need,” Wei Yihua said. “Where is Master Yue? Is she at the manor?”
"Lord Yue has been in the manor all day today, and after his afternoon rest, he was discussing matters with His Highness the Third Prince until just now."
Wei Yihua: "Alright, I'll head over right away."
The maidservant walked to one side, noticing the princess's hurried pace and feeling puzzled, but dared not utter a sound. Why was Her Highness rushing to find Lord Yue instead of washing and resting upon her return? Was there something important on her mind?
Wei Yihua walked through the three-tiered covered corridor and arrived at the side hall where Yue Yining lived. She pushed open the half-closed door and immediately saw Yue Yining and Wei Ye sitting on either side of the upturned table.
The setting sun shone through the latticed paper window with begonia patterns on the rosewood door, illuminating the room. The shadows of the two people sitting opposite each other were cast on the mica screen, where the auspicious cloud pattern embroidered with gold thread shimmered softly.
Hearing the noise, the two looked towards the door.
Yue Yining's eyes lit up slightly, and she stood up: "Your Highness has returned to the residence? Why didn't I hear any maids come to deliver the message?"
Wei Yihua leaned against the door, not answering for a moment. The warmth inside the hall melted the snow and mud on her shoes into a few water droplets.
She slowly exhaled the pent-up frustration in her heart.
A smile finally appeared on her face: "I was in a hurry to get back."
"What are you talking about? Have I disturbed you?"
“No, that’s not true,” Wei Ye had already stood up and stood by the Boshan incense burner with his hands at his sides. He smiled and said, “I have just finished my business for today. Now that Yi Hua is back, I will take my leave.”
Yue Yining: "Your Highness, please take care."
Wei Yihua instructed her maid to escort Wei Ye out of the mansion. As Wei Ye stepped out the door, he glanced back at Wei Yihua and Yue Yining sitting at the desk, his mind replaying their conversation.
He asked her, "Does Yihua know what Master Yue is really thinking?"
Instead of answering, Yue Yining asked, "Your Highness the Third Prince was once one of the Crown Prince's closest confidants, so you must know something about the education you received in the Eastern Palace, right?"
"The education in the Eastern Palace aims to cultivate future rulers for the dynasty. The curriculum is very broad, including etiquette, knowledge, virtue, talent, the art of checks and balances, and the ability to judge people... These things are difficult to learn, but they are not unteachable," Yue Yining said. "However, there is one thing that is essential for becoming an emperor, but it cannot be acquired through education. Does His Highness the Third Prince know what it is?"
Wei Ye shook his head honestly: "I don't know."
"It's ambition."
Yue Yining said, "Ambition and aspiration are things that teachers cannot impart to students, and parents cannot give to children."
Therefore, she would not force Wei Yihua to make a choice, because forcing her would be pointless. Whether Wei Yihua intended to become a renowned minister whose name would be remembered in history, or to become the first female emperor of Dongxi, it was up to her to make the decision.
“I’ve been waiting for the day when the eldest princess comes to me and says she’s changed her mind. When that day comes, I will become her most loyal henchman.”
Wei Ye responded at the time by saying, "Then what can I do for you?"
Yue Yining said, "Didn't His Highness the Third Prince once aspire to become a wise minister who assists a wise ruler? Just do what you did before, and continue to do what you did before."
His conversation with Yue Yining made Wei Ye feel much more relaxed, as if he had cast off a heavy burden that had been weighing on his shoulders for a long time. So when he left, his steps became quick and light, his eyebrows relaxed, and he had an unconscious smile on his face.
Wei Yihua had seen it all, and as soon as she sat down, she said directly, "What did you and Wei Ye talk about? This is the first time I've seen him so happy since the three of us got together."
Yue Yining curled her lips: "Really? I think so too. He always looks like he has a sour face."
Wei Yihua couldn't help but burst out laughing. She was already extremely beautiful, and her smile made the whole room shine even brighter.
Yue Yining's smile faded. She studied the princess's expression and said slowly, "You were clearly smiling, but I sense that Your Highness seems to be burdened with worries."
Wei Yihua paused, then slowly lowered her hand from her lips: "...Is it that obvious?"
Yue Yining: "Your Highness, have you encountered anything unpleasant while you were traveling these past few days?"
What could possibly be bothering Wei Yihua? Her anxiety revolved around just one or two major issues. With Yue Yining by her side, everything was progressing steadily, and her mind was much calmer than before. But meeting Qiu Wuzhu brought her back to reality.
Wei Yihua sighed. She couldn't possibly confide these things to Yue Yining. The anxiety brought about by her rebirth was something she could only resolve herself.
Looking at Yue Yining's concerned expression, Wei Yihua hesitated for a moment before speaking: "...My mother and I went to Qingyun Temple to pray for blessings, and we met your master there."
Yue Yining's knuckles paused as she lightly tapped the table.
“Venerable Flower said that Venerable Autumn came to visit her and will leave soon,” Wei Yihua said hesitantly. “My divination was done by Venerable Autumn. She probably foresaw our friendship. She mentioned you when she was chatting with me, and it seemed that she still missed you a lot.”
Yue Yining chuckled and said with a relaxed expression, "The book says that when two people haven't seen each other for too long, they will gradually forget the bad side of each other and only remember the good in each other. I thought that Master had transcended the mortal world, but it seems that she is no exception."
"Is Your Highness satisfied with the divination result provided by Master?"
Are you satisfied? Wei Yihua didn't know what to say, so she simply replied, "Of course I'm satisfied."
Yue Yining, however, once again saw through Wei Yihua's insincerity.
Wei Yihua was looking down at the Mengding Fairy Tea floating in the white porcelain cup when suddenly a slender wrist took the cup from her hand. She looked up in surprise and saw Yue Yining empty the cup of tea that had gone cold and refill it for her.
When he handed it over again, his clear, dark eyes looked at her: "Your Highness, I have read Lu Yu's 'The Classic of Tea' and learned that the value of tea lies in its clarity. The same is true for people; honesty is a precious quality."
These words were actually offensive, but because of Yue Yining's unusually earnest and gentle tone, they sounded like coaxing.
Wei Yihua stroked the cup, which had been warmed by the boiling water again, and felt a warmth slowly rising in her heart.
"...The divination she interpreted did indeed awaken my inner anxieties." Wei Yihua began, "I believe that Venerable Qiu's divination skills are superb, and he is definitely not trying to fool me. I just..." She simply didn't know what else she could do to escape her so-called fate.
“Actually, I can roughly guess what Master said,” Yue Yining said, looking at her expression. “It’s nothing more than those things that are a matter of fate. If Your Highness feels discouraged, then you don’t have to believe it.”
Wei Yihua retorted, "That was Venerable Qiu's judgment; how can you not believe it?"
Yue Yining raised an eyebrow: "Why not? My master has loved to calculate the big and small things that happen to me since I was a child. I don't believe anything that's bad."
Wei Yihua was stunned. She hadn't expected that there were Taoist masters like this: "This, this... is this even possible?"
"Your Highness, do you still remember the scene when we first met? Actually, that morning when the princess came to knock on my door, I cast a divination. The divination said that a distinguished guest would visit, and I would become close friends with that guest."
Yue Yining chuckled and said, "I just didn't believe it, but then you came. I deliberately ruined this divination session and said a lot of offensive things. But you dealt with and defused them one by one, and even gave me a gift. The moment I saw the gift, I knew I couldn't make things difficult for you anymore."
Wei Yihua's brows relaxed a little: "Because I brought you a reward you couldn't refuse?"
“It’s not just that.” Steam rose from the boiling water on the table as Yue Yining took a sip of tea. “It’s also because I can tell from the gift that you put thought into it. Although I may act eccentrically, I am not unreasonable.”
A thoughtful, sincere, and wise friend is extremely rare. Yue Yining admitted that at that time she changed her original plans and willingly followed the direction that fate had set for her.
She always tried to prove that fate was not invincible by defying it, but she always failed.
“I’ve been like this since I was a child. When I was ten, I found a bird in the bushes. Its wing was injured and it couldn’t fly. I thought I would take care of it and release it back into the forest after it recovered. But my master glanced at the bird that night and said that it would die tragically in less than three days, and the more I protected it, the more tragically it would die in the end.”
This was the first time Wei Yihua had heard Yue Yining mention the past. The woman in the blue dress sitting behind the desk did not have a clear expression, but her eyes seemed to be filled with deep and shallow nostalgia.
“I didn’t want to believe it at the time, and I insisted on going against my master’s prophecy. I even put the little bird near my bed and personally fed it water and food for three days in a row, taking care of its injuries. I watched it get better day by day, but on the fourth day, it still died.” Yue Yining shrugged. “It was bitten to death by two cats that broke into the hall.”
That was the first time Yue Yining had glimpsed the vast and unpredictable phantom of fate.
What she didn't tell Wei Yihua was that when the young Yue Yining returned to the palace after her morning lessons and saw the mess of bird carcasses, she felt as if she had been struck by lightning. Yue Yining, who never shed tears, cried bitterly for this nameless little bird that had entered her life less than three days ago.
Her tears weren't because things hadn't gone as she wished, or the little bird hadn't escaped death, but because her own cleverness had truly harmed it. The bird was being tormented by two cats before it died; it was tortured to death. As her master had said, if she hadn't saved it, perhaps it wouldn't have died so tragically.
Qiu Wuzhu suddenly appeared behind her, looking at her face with tears streaming down her cheeks, still with that indifferent expression that seemed to know everything.
She said, “Yining, remember today’s lesson. Those who practice the Five Arts must be wary of harboring delusions and must never try to use the Five Arts to change the fate of others or themselves. So-called fate is the ordained destiny of Heaven and the natural order, an unchangeable fact that we cannot escape or resist, but can only accept it in its entirety.”
When Yue Yining grew up and looked back on this incident, she always felt that it was a microcosm of her life. Later, she repeatedly did almost the same thing, repeatedly returning to her youth, trying to save the "bird" destined to perish from the "cat's" mouth.
Wei Yihua was somewhat stunned. She opened her mouth and asked, "...Then, did you succeed even once after that?"
Yue Yining: "No. To my shame, everything I've calculated so far has indeed gone exactly as I predicted."
If there was any deviation, it had to be the divination she performed when she was in Jiulian Town, predicting the arrival of rain. The rain did not come as expected; instead, it arrived the afternoon of the next day, the day she had predicted. This was the first time her divination had gone astray.
It was from that time that Yue Yining vaguely sensed that something was out of control; the Heavenly Dao was no longer the perfect controller, but was gradually revealing its true colors.
No, perhaps it started even earlier, from the day I met Ayu in Jinling City. The vast universe, which had been operating in an orderly manner according to certain conventions and without any mistakes, secretly experienced several earth-shattering upheavals.
She knew that the moment she had been waiting for had arrived.
“The biggest difference between me and my master is that I tell fortunes, but I don’t completely believe in fate. I always feel that fate is in my own hands. Perhaps fate has already seen through me and included my resistance in its calculations, but I believe that it will always have a moment of oversight. As long as I seize the opportunity, I will tear apart its scheme and take back the initiative in my life from its hands.”
Yue Yining laughed and said, "Perhaps it is just as my master said, a last-ditch struggle, but if I give up even this little struggle, life will be terribly boring."
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