Chapter 266: A Prophecy Comes True
The crowds of people in front of Wu Zi Temple were as large as mountains and seas. When Song Zhao accompanied the empress dowager to Hanshan Temple a few days ago, it was not as spectacular as this place.
Concubine Chen was the most annoying. Her luxurious clothes were squeezed by the people and were wrinkled. So she whispered to Xiao Jingheng coquettishly:
"Your Majesty! What's so good about a fortune teller? No matter how powerful he is, can he be more powerful than the Imperial Observatory? Let's go! The weather is already hot and humid, and this place is crowded with so many people. What if he accidentally hurts Your Majesty?"
Song Zhao also said: "Your Highness is right. This place is crowded and chaotic. Your Majesty should stay away from it."
Xiao Jingheng was just curious at first, but when he saw there were so many people, he lost his patience and turned back as advised.
But after taking two steps, a temple boy came out from the Wuzi Temple, shouted to the people to be quiet, and said in a solemn voice:
"Sir, the temple is closed today. Please go back."
As the crowd dispersed with complaints, the temple boy hurried over to catch up with Xiao Jingheng.
"Please stay, my master invites you in."
Xiao Jingheng felt strange, but thought that since the donor had sent everyone away and invited him alone, maybe he really saw something mysterious.
His curiosity grew, so he took Song Zhao and Concubine Chen into the temple.
When we entered, we saw a young man in a blue robe, bowing and waiting for everyone for a long time.
He looked very young and handsome, not at all like the ruddy, white-haired, and immortal-like man that Xiao Jingheng had imagined.
Before Xiao Jingheng could speak, Tan Yuezhi bowed deeply to everyone and said respectfully:
"I, a humble citizen, pay my respects to His Majesty. Long live the Emperor."
Hearing this, everyone was surprised.
Xiao Jingheng frowned and looked at him, "How do you know my identity?"
Tan Yuezhi said: "The fact that the distinguished guest of the Wei family is welcomed into the villa shows that he is of high status. In addition, the number of patrol soldiers in the city has obviously increased in the past two days, and Lord Wei has also paid 30,000 taels of his own money to build the river embankment. It is auspicious that the sky has descended on Gusu, and it must be that a distinguished guest has arrived. With all these things, it is not difficult to guess."
Tan Yuezhi was well-known in Suzhou as a fortune teller, and Xiao Jingheng thought he was just making up stories and said that all this was predicted by him.
But after hearing what he said truthfully, Xiao Jingheng exempted him from the formalities and said:
"You are honest. The people of Suzhou all call you 'Half-Immortal', but are you using such clever tricks to fool others?"
Hearing this, Tan Yuezhi's relaxed expression suddenly tensed up, and he said in a very serious tone:
"The art of calculating the innate eight trigrams is to understand the destiny of heaven and earth. It is the secret of heaven that reveals the fate of the person who calculates to the common people. Because of this secret of heaven, how dare the common people blaspheme? So what is there is there, and what is not there is not there. The common people dare not make up stories, otherwise they will be punished by heaven."
Just a few words made Xiao Jingheng interested in him.
He turned around and sat down in the hall, and said jokingly, "Oh? Then you can also tell my fortune, let me see your ability."
"It is an honor for me to be able to make calculations for the emperor."
The divination technique used by the donor is based on the innate Bagua of the River Chart, which is very different from the acquired Bagua of the Luoshu used by the Imperial Astronomical Observatory.
However, Song Zhao never believed these unfounded things.
At this moment, he was sitting next to Xiao Jingheng, watching Tan Yuezhi present the Bagua diagram, and using the coins thrown into the tortoise shell as the reference. He stood in the hall and muttered to himself for a while. She just thought he was watching for fun.
This kind of trickery is, after all, just a way to make money.
When he told Xiao Jingheng's fortune, he mostly played tricks and said some auspicious words to please Xiao Jingheng.
But who would have thought that as Tan Yuezhi was calculating, his face suddenly changed drastically, and all the blood disappeared in an instant.
He knelt down suddenly, and said with great fear:
"Your Majesty, this... hexagram indicates a very bad omen, which means that Your Majesty will suffer a bloody disaster during this southern tour!"
Every word of his speech was like a thousand-pound drop, hitting everyone's ears, which made people feel frightened.
Concubine Chen was even more annoyed. "Nonsense! Come here, drag this bastard who is pretending to be a ghost and speaking rudely out and beat him to death with sticks!"
At a command, dozens of guards filed in and were ready to attack Tan Yuezhi.
"Wait."
Xiao Jingheng stopped them and squinted his eyes at Tan Yuezhi who was kneeling on the ground and trembling.
"You are not a fool. You should know that what you just said was disrespectful. Even if you really predicted something strange, you could just tell me that everything is fine and take advantage of it to flatter me."
Tan Yuezhi's lips trembled as he said, "I just said that one cannot speak nonsense when calculating the innate eight trigrams. One must tell the truth, otherwise one will be harmed and incur heaven's punishment..."
Seeing that he was not afraid of death and wanted to speak frankly, Xiao Jingheng asked:
"Then tell me what the blood disaster method is?"
The donor received the order, picked up the tool that had fallen on the ground, and continued to calculate.
But this time, his expression gradually relaxed.
After a long while, he let out a long sigh and said, "Fortunately, fortunately! The hexagram only shows that there will be a bloody disaster. As for where this disaster comes from, the hexagram cannot be deduced, and I cannot be sure. But from the hexagram, this disaster is because the emperor has a noble person by his side to help him. The noble spirit is full and can take the disaster for the emperor, and it will not harm the emperor in the slightest!"
Concubine Chen angrily scolded: "You said this as if you didn't say anything. You keep saying one thing after another. It seems that you are not a capable person."
Then he looked at Xiao Jingheng and said, "Your Majesty must be tired after listening to his nonsense for half a day. You should go back first."
Xiao Jingheng was silent for a while, ordered Jiang Deshun to give Tan Yue a silver note of 100 taels, and then stood up to leave.
However, the donor stuffed the silver bills into the merit box in front of him, which only allows money to go in but not out.
This action caused Xiao Jingheng to look at him more, but he didn't say anything and left the temple.
Afterwards, the crowd wandered around the city for a while, watching the dark clouds coming down, fearing that a new rain was about to come.
So he turned back to the ship and headed for the island in the middle of the lake.
Inside the cabin, Xiao Jingheng was drinking tea with Concubine Chen and Song Zhao.
Concubine Chen started to nag, "If I were to say, that man is an out-and-out charlatan, and it's only because Your Majesty is so kind that you don't bother with him. Otherwise, if he had said such disrespectful words, even if he had been beaten to death, it would have been his own fault!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Song Zhao, who was sitting by the side of the boat, heard a commotion outside.
So he opened the window to see what was going on.
But I saw countless palace servants running around on the deck, and they all had gloomy expressions.
Just as he was wondering, Jiang Deshun suddenly rushed in and said in shock:
"Your Majesty! The boat is leaking!"
Hearing this, Xiao Jingheng and Song Zhao looked calm and not very worried.
Instead, it was Concubine Chen who was shocked. "How could such a thing happen out of the blue? What, what should I do?"
Song Zhao calmed her down and said, "Don't panic, Concubine. There are still more than a dozen wooden boats on the ship. Even if this ship sinks, we will be fine."
Concubine Chen calmed down and rolled her eyes at her, "Who said I was panicking? I'm not panicking, I'm just afraid that the emperor will make trouble..."
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