Regarding the fate foretold by the old Taoist, Qi An had only one thought: Hah! A classic scam!
She had heard people in town say that the fates calculated by those con artists were always the same: either you were cursed to harm your husband or wife, or your future was doomed to darkness. In short, after their calculations, not a single person had a good fate. They would first incite your panic and then produce so-called “fate-altering artifacts,” enticing you to willingly spend large sums of money on a pile of poorly made, cheap trinkets to worship at home.
Qi An looked at the old Taoist with eyes that saw through everything and shook her head. Trying to scam me with this outdated tactic? Keep dreaming!
She no longer wanted to converse with the old Taoist and set off at a run. The old Taoist chased after her, his mouth still rattling on incessantly. “The old Taoist knows that loyal advice is hard to swallow. Although these words sound unpleasant, they are the truth. With your fate, young lady, you are destined to be alone for life. Otherwise, sooner or later, you will harm those around you.”
Qi An suppressed her anger and turned back sharply. “Please stop following me.” Had it not been for the fact that he was an elderly man, she would have longed to give him a hard kick.
The old Taoist ignored her anger and continued to drone on. “If you don’t believe me, why not ask that young man you picked up if he has a younger sister? Is he also without parents? Is his birthday on the sixth day of the seventh lunar month? These are all things I have calculated; you may verify whether what this old Taoist says is true or false. If my words are not false, you must listen to me and distance yourself from the people you care about, otherwise, you will affect their destiny and harm them!”
Qi An could finally take no more. She turned back again, intending to give this old scammer a harsh scolding to vent the frustration in her heart. But as she turned, she saw that the old Taoist had vanished into thin air; she was the only person left on the entire small path.
She remained stunned for a moment, then her hair stood on end, and a trace of chill rose from the soles of her feet. Could it be that I just saw a ghost?
At the thought of this possibility, she immediately panicked, turning to run in the direction of home as fast as her legs could carry her. She didn’t dare look at the road, her senses seemingly reduced only to her hearing. She listened to the rustling of leaves stirred by the evening breeze, and the fear in her heart multiplied.
She sprinted with her head buried the whole way, deliberately avoiding the scenery around her for fear of seeing things she shouldn’t, to the point that she didn’t even notice a person appearing on the path ahead.
Her forehead smashed into a hard object, causing a burst of pain in her head. Panic flared again: a ghost wall! She didn’t even care to rub the painful spot and turned to run away, but suddenly her arm tightened. She jumped, struggling to break free, when she heard Shang Ziliu’s voice.
“Qi An, don’t be afraid.”
Those four words alone instantly calmed Qi An down. She slowly lifted her head, looking into Shang Ziliu’s reassuring face under the moonlight with reddened eyes.
Shang Ziliu gently stroked her back, lowering his voice as he asked softly, “What’s wrong?”
Qi An was too embarrassed to say she had been scared by a weird story she had concocted in her own head. She could only shake her head and mumble, “Nothing, I was just afraid you wouldn’t bother with me anymore.”
Shang Ziliu paused, and a hint of a smile suddenly appeared in eyes that had been tranquil just a moment before. “I’m sorry, it was my fault just now.” He cupped Qi An’s face and said earnestly, “I won’t ignore you; I never will.”
His expression was so solemn that Qi An found herself lost in his gaze, at a loss for what to do. After a long while, a strong gust of wind blew, and he released her hand, instead taking her hand with extreme naturalness and leading her home.
Qi An was startled, always feeling that their intertwined hands were scorching. She couldn’t help but softly call out, “Shang Ziliu…”
“Hmm?” Shang Ziliu responded gently.
Qi An had intended to remind him that he was still holding her hand, but as the words reached her lips, the thought of letting go made her feel suddenly hollow inside. The words that were about to spill out sank back down with this emotion and disappeared into her stomach.
“Nothing, I just wanted to ask why are you here?”
Shang Ziliu remained silent for a long time, so long that Qi An thought he didn’t want to answer, before he said slowly, “I came to pick you up.”
As he spoke, he suddenly stopped and turned to face Qi An, looking at her with absolute sincerity. “Qi An, I will treat you well.”
Qi An was slightly stunned and looked up in confusion, meeting his gaze as he stared at her. Her mind went blank, and she softly responded, “Mmm.”
In the days that followed, Shang Ziliu indeed treated her exceptionally well. Although he had always shared the household chores, these past few days he had been doubly attentive. Whenever Qi An had a fleeting thought of doing something, Shang Ziliu had already done it before her, and even the three meals at home were handled by him. Qi An was like a bored old man, needing only to inspect whether he had done everything perfectly each day.
Not many days passed before it was Qi An’s birthday. This day, Shang Ziliu rose earlier than usual and made longevity noodles for Qi An. Qi An was moved beyond words; she had never explicitly told him her birthday, only mentioning it inadvertently last year when Zhao Yue came to deliver gifts. She hadn’t expected him to remember. Under Shang Ziliu’s gaze, Qi An finished all the noodles, not even leaving a single drop of the soup.
After finishing, Qi An sat in the courtyard, content, while Shang Ziliu went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. The scene left Qi An feeling completely at ease. As she stared blankly at the sky, Zhao Yue ran over punctually, just as he had for the past few years, to congratulate her.
Zhao Yue took a jade hairpin from his robes, held it with both hands, and said to Qi An, “Qi An, happy birthday!”
“Thank you.”
Qi An looked at the exquisitely crafted hairpin and liked it very much. After thanking him, she reached out to take it, but Zhao Yue didn’t move. After a long while, just as Qi An began to feel puzzled, he suddenly seemed to decide something and looked at Qi An with firm eyes. “Let me put it on for you.”
He blushed terribly when he said this. Seeing him like this, a string in Qi An’s mind twanged—she seemed to be on the verge of understanding something. Zhao Yue, seeing she didn’t speak, took it as silent consent and carefully extended the hairpin toward her hair.
Suddenly, a hand reached out from the side and gripped his wrist. Qi An and Zhao Yue looked over together to see Shang Ziliu staring at Zhao Yue with an expressionless face.
Zhao Yue felt a strange sense of fear. The young man before him, whose appearance could at best be described as delicate, was currently exerting an inexplicable pressure. Shang Ziliu used his other hand to take the hairpin, inserted it into Qi An’s hair, and then said, “We have something to do, so we’re heading out. Thank you for the gift.”
With that, he took Qi An’s hand and walked away. This happened so quickly that Zhao Yue hadn’t even had time to react before Shang Ziliu and Qi An were already far away.
Qi An sensed that Shang Ziliu seemed to be in a bad mood, but he had been fine while they were eating noodles how had he become unhappy in the short time she was talking to Zhao Yue? Thinking of this, the string in her mind twanged several more times; a certain emotion was about to break through its shell.
She gently tugged her hand back, and Shang Ziliu turned around and asked, “Am I walking too fast?”
To Qi An’s surprise, there was not a trace of displeasure on his face, only concern and a hidden excitement. Qi An shook her head and asked, “Where are you taking me?”
The joy on Shang Ziliu’s face grew. “To give you a birthday gift.”
Shang Ziliu knew light-body skills and took Qi An across dense forests until they arrived in a valley outside of town. The area outside was barren and seldom visited, but inside the valley was another world. As soon as she stepped in, a sea of flowers met her eyes. The blossoms were as vibrant as tapestry, enchanting and alluring, beautiful beyond any mortal scenery.
Qi An was dumbfounded for a moment. Before she could distinguish whether what she saw was real or a dream, she was scooped around the waist by Shang Ziliu, who leaped with her onto a towering tree in the center of the flower field. Shang Ziliu supported her gently, pointed toward a certain spot, and said, “Look, that is the birthday gift I prepared for you.”
Qi An looked out to see, amidst the vast sea of flowers, swarms of butterflies flapping their wings from the distance, drifting down to land among the fields and forming several large characters: Qi An, Happy Birthday.
In that instant, the blood in Qi An’s veins seemed to surge, heating her eyes and the bridge of her nose; her throat choked, and she couldn’t speak for a long time. After a while, she suppressed her excitement and asked Shang Ziliu, “How did you do this?”
“A secret.” Shang Ziliu remained enigmatic. He turned his head and rested his chin against Qi An’s forehead. “Qi An, I will celebrate your birthdays from now on. I will treat you well.”
Qi An’s heart raced; the string that had been pulled taut in her mind snapped suddenly. She suddenly understood a kind of emotion other than friendship and family.
So, I like Shang Ziliu. And, it seems, he likes me too.
As soon as she realized this, she was too shy to lift her head. She had no experience and didn’t know how to respond in this situation. In her panic, she changed the subject: “When is your birthday? I’ll celebrate yours in the future.”
Shang Ziliu said slowly, “The sixth day of the seventh lunar month.”
Qi An memorized it silently, but it felt as if she had heard this date somewhere before. Then, she was suddenly jolted with shock, recalling what the old Taoist had said a few days ago, and a sense of unease surged in her heart. She repressed her inner trembling and asked, holding on to a slim hope, “You said before that you didn’t have amnesia, but that you ran away from home. Do you have any other family members?”
Shang Ziliu didn’t know why she was asking this, but he replied, “Only a younger sister.”
No parents, has a younger sister, the sixth day of the seventh month… it all matches!
The bashfulness on her face vanished instantly, and her complexion turned pale. She was still unwilling to give up, gritting her teeth as she asked, “Do you know an old Taoist?”
“No.”
These three words thoroughly extinguished Qi An’s hope. Since they didn’t know each other, the Taoist naturally wouldn’t have known those private details, so what he said was true, and her solitary life was also true.
Shang Ziliu saw that she was silent and moved his chin slightly, looking at her downcast lashes. “Why did you suddenly bring up a Taoist?”
“Nothing, I met an old Taoist today who calculated our fortunes; the birthdates and such were all accurate.”
Shang Ziliu had heard in the Demon Realm that some enlightened beings in the mortal world could know heaven’s mandate, so he wasn’t particularly surprised, only following her lead to ask, “Then what else did he calculate for you?”
Qi An’s spine stiffened for a moment. When she looked up again, she had masked her emotions. “Nothing else; I treated him as a scammer and chased him away. If I had known, I would have asked him about my future.”
Shang Ziliu didn’t suspect anything. He took her hand and said, “What does knowing it matter? Since fate hasn’t happened yet, it doesn’t count. I have never believed in such things.”
Qi An smiled. “Yes, it doesn’t count.”
But she dared not take any risks with him. Looking at the dreamlike sea of flowers before her, Qi An, besides being moved, felt only bitterness.
On her seventeenth birthday, the day she finally opened her heart, it was the happiest, yet also the most desperate, day of her life thus far.