Unresolved: Predestined fate, a tribulation of life and death
Wen Zhibai frowned and pressed her temples, as if a piece of her memory had been ripped out of her. What had she just said to Pei Qinzhou? She had no recollection of it at all.
Just as she was about to think it over, an old fortune teller on the street corner beckoned to her. She hesitated for a moment, but still went over.
The stall was so simple it was almost shabby. A faded rag was laid on the ground, with a few yellowed copper coins and a small oil lamp on it.
The old man was hunched over, wearing a patched hat, and behind him hung a tattered yin-yang symbol, with two colorful gemstones spinning on their own in the eye positions of the symbol.
As Wen Zhibai approached, the bell in the corner of the stall rang, its clear sound inexplicably unsettling.
The old man looked up, a golden light flashed in his eyes, neither human nor ghost, and then disappeared.
"Young lady, would you like me to tell your fortune? I am most skilled at averting calamities. It will only cost ten copper coins."
Wen Zhibai didn't believe in these things, but he still took out an ounce of silver and placed it on the stall: "What is the meaning of the word 'love'?"
"Girl, there are many lovers in the world, but many cannot stay together forever. Why be so persistent?"
Wen Zhibai lowered his head and smiled bitterly: "Keep these silver coins and buy some good food. I'll take my leave now."
As she turned to leave, the old man suddenly stood up: "If you truly do not believe in fate, there is no need to pity me. Although I am poor, I earn my living through genuine skills." He smiled enigmatically: "As the saying goes, fortune and misfortune are intertwined, and life and death are unpredictable. Now that we have met by chance, I will give you a way to avert disaster—however, you will still need to find a treasure."
How could you possibly know the knot in my heart, let alone the way to untangle my inner turmoil?
"I take money to solve problems." The old man pulled a compass from the bottom of his stall. It was neither wood nor metal and felt warm to the touch. "Legend has it that there is a treasure called 'Forbidden Sand,' which can reverse time, temporarily return to the past, and capture the souls of the dying. Young lady, this compass will lead you to it. However—" His voice suddenly turned somber, "If the deceased is unwilling to return, the caster will also be left without a soul, forever wandering in the rift of time."
The old man extended his withered finger and gently touched Wen Zhibai's brow.
In an instant, the scene before Wen Zhibai's eyes changed drastically.
She saw herself in a void, a rift, with Pei Qinzhou's figure right in front of her, but no matter how fast she ran, she could not reach him.
Immediately afterwards, a tearing pain shot through her chest. She looked down and saw her body gradually becoming transparent and dissipating...
The illusion came to an abrupt end.
Wen Zhibai staggered, drenched in cold sweat, and when he looked at the old man again, his eyes were filled with fear.
"This... is the price of failure?"
The old man withdrew his hand, his expression unreadable: "It's a warning, but also an opportunity. Young lady, the path is under your own feet."
Before he could finish speaking, a gust of cold wind swept by.
When Wen Zhibai looked again, all that remained in front of him were empty streets and alleys; there was no trace of stalls or old men.
She looked around in shock and asked the nearby vendors, who all said they had never seen a fortune-telling stall before.
Only the cool touch of the compass in my palm confirmed that what had just happened was not an illusion.
Wen Zhibai did not stop walking, but returned to Lingxi Pavilion. She called Tao Zhi over and together they cleaned up the cloth in their hands.
“Miss, why sell all these fabrics at a low price? Not only will we suffer losses, but we will also miss the deadline for sending the fabrics to the palace.”
"Taozhi, just do as I say. Once the cloth in the storeroom has been cleared out, distribute the silver obtained in exchange to everyone at five times the usual amount as compensation. Take the remaining silver back to the Pei residence."
"You mean, we don't want Lingxi Pavilion and Suyue Workshop anymore?" Tao Zhi didn't understand. How could she just give up all the hard work she had put into building them? She grabbed Wen Zhibai's sleeve: "Miss..."
"There are some things I can't tell you frankly, so just do it." With that, Wen Zhibai walked towards the two sets of wedding clothes that had just been delivered from Jiangnan that morning.
As her fingertips brushed over the intricate embroidery, the twin lotus blossoms that once symbolized a long and happy marriage pierced her heart.
Silently, she carefully folded the two wedding dresses, placed them in a wooden box, and pushed it into the deepest shadow of the attic.
Then, she resolutely turned around, as if severing the last tender connection with this roof with her own hands.
She stepped out of the shop and looked up at the gray sky. It was early spring, yet the wind was still howling and the chill was biting.
Wen Zhibai left Lingxi Pavilion and headed straight for the Pei residence. She had made up her mind to find the Forbidden Sand.
As she walked to the outside of the study, she saw his slender profile reflected on the window paper, and her steps seemed to be nailed to the spot.
Her fingertips curled up inside her sleeve. The bizarre encounter with the old man on the street, her worry about Pei Qinzhou's injuries, and the fear brought about by that blank memory all tangled together and weighed heavily on her chest.
She couldn't remember what hurtful things she had said, but she could feel an ice wall suddenly erected between them.
When Wen Zhibai pushed open the door, he brought in a gust of night wind, which made the lamp flame on the desk flicker.
Pei Qinzhou did not look up, his pen steadily gliding across the paper, as if her arrival was nothing more than a breeze passing through the hall.
She walked straight to the desk, her goal clear—the key to the Suyuefang storeroom.
"do what."
Her hand froze in mid-air. She suppressed a sob in her throat and tried to make her voice sound as calm and even as his: "It's none of your business."
The pen finally stopped, and he slowly raised his eyes, asking again, "What are you doing?"
A silence spread between the two, becoming a silent struggle.
“If you need money, I will give it to you. Lingxi Pavilion is something Madam Jiang left you, and it is very important,” he stated, his tone neither discernible as advice nor reminder.
“No need.” Wen Zhibai met his gaze, not giving an inch. “This situation started because of me, and I will bear the consequences.”
Their eyes met; one was burning with anxiety but unable to express it, while the other felt as if her heart was being torn apart but there was no way to resolve the situation.
"By the way, there's something I still need to clarify with Lord Pei."
Pei Qinzhou paused.
"Thank you for taking care of me these past days, and... for everything you did for me in my past life." She turned her head slightly, her eyes catching a glimpse of his stiff back. "I will definitely repay this kindness. From then on, between you and me, we will go our separate ways, and there will be no more debts between us."
"Two clearings"?
"No more debts owed"?
The study was eerily quiet, save for the soft crackling of the lamp wick. Pei Qinzhou's hand, holding the brush, hovered in mid-air, a drop of thick ink falling from the tip and spreading into a smudge on the rice paper.
After a long while, he finally found his voice: "You and I were originally even."
Wen Zhibai felt as if his heart had been pierced by that gaze.
But she forced herself to meet his gaze and forced an extremely awkward smile: "That's true. So, please, Lord Pei, don't interfere in anything I do anymore."
Finally, Pei Qinzhou withdrew his gaze and looked back at the book, letting out a single, light syllable: "Hmm, whatever you want." Only after the footsteps completely disappeared at the end of the corridor did Pei Qinzhou slam his fist on the desk, making the pen holder and inkstone rattle.
A fierce wind was blowing outside the window, mirroring his current state of mind.
"My lord." Xie An appeared quietly from the shadows, his voice filled with worry: "Miss Qi's side is all prepared."
When Pei Qinzhou looked up again, all his emotions had been suppressed: "Hmm." His voice was cold. "Send people to keep an eye on the movements of the Gao family and the Spirit Binding Division."
"yes."
Back at the Qi residence, she realized that Qi Yuning had left the capital. She sat forlornly in the courtyard, took out a compass, pricked her fingertip, and dripped blood onto the compass.
A golden light shone forth, and following the direction of the compass needle, she looked up at the palace.
"..." Wen Zhibai's heart tightened.
Could it be that the forbidden sand is in the palace?
Every corner of Sangkyung is in a state of pre-storm calm, a false tranquility.
The members of the Spirit Binding Division stood silently in the courtyard of the Gao residence. Gao Zhongyi stroked his beard and looked at Wen Xian: "You've been following Wen Zhibai for so long. Jiang Shi, have you found her? And that divine curse..."
Wen Xian lowered her head: "Everything has been taken care of."
Zhang Mingdao, the chief of the Spirit Binding Division, took out a transparent talisman from his bosom, then cut his palm with a dagger and sprinkled the blood on the talisman. In this way, the talisman slowly rose into the sky and continued to grow larger.
Then Zhang Mingdao was heard chanting some incantations in a low voice, and the talisman actually covered the ground, forming a huge array.
“Strange…why is the demon’s aura so chaotic…” Zhang Mingdao muttered to himself. He clearly remembered that when he went to the Pei residence before, he could feel that the demon’s aura, though weak, was still stable.
"Senior brother, it must be that this demon panicked when it heard that our Spirit Binding Division was involved, which caused its demonic energy to become unstable."
Zhang Mingdao thought about it again and felt that his junior brother's words made some sense: "We just need to wait for the right opportunity to severely injure that demon."
After everyone dispersed, the gentleness in Wen Xian's eyes instantly turned into a cold blade.
She picked up the basket of offerings and quietly walked towards the lonely grave outside the city.
Wen Xian knelt before the grave, her fingertips tracing the cold tombstone, a hollow smile on her face.
"Brother, Mother, Xian'er has come to see you." The ruby ring on her index finger gleamed with blood: "Once I fulfill Mother's long-cherished wish, I will use that vile woman's heart's blood to offer as a sacrifice to your spirits in heaven. Brother, please don't blame me... I did it all for Mother..."
Suddenly, footsteps sounded behind her, and Wen Xian immediately became alert, taking out the short sword hidden in the basket.
With a hand on her shoulder, Wen Xian immediately turned around and swung towards him.
"How is it you?!" She exclaimed, a hint of panic in her voice after recognizing the person.
Gao Zheli clutched his wound and backed away, his eyes brimming with tears: "Xian'er, I heard you... Are you trying to kill me now...?"
Wen Xian's hand holding the sword trembled slightly: "Don't tell Grandfather..." Looking into his foolish yet clear eyes, she felt regret for the first time.
This husband, whom she had always looked down upon, had now become her greatest threat.
“I won’t kill you.” She cut off a piece of her skirt to bandage his wound, “but if you tell anyone—” The dagger suddenly pressed against his throat, “I will make you wish you were dead.”
Wen Xian stared into his terrified eyes, then suddenly leaned close to his ear: "Remember, Zhe Li. If even a whisper of this gets out... the next time, this wound will be on your neck."
Seeing his cowering figure, she knew her goal had been achieved. This secret would forever remain buried in the heart of this foolish boy.
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