Chapter 4: Reading Fate in the Palm

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Chapter 4: Reading Fate in the Palm

Of all the things in this world, perhaps nothing is harder to explain than fate—the mysterious ties that bring people together. Why do certain people cross paths? Where do love, hatred, resentment, and affection come from? No one knows. Yet it is these encounters and emotions that make this vast world so wonderfully vibrant.

As Chen Yuan led Huo Jian into the inn room, he found himself thinking about exactly that.

He had only just transmigrated, and somehow he’d already acquired a tagalong. It was a rather strange feeling.

Huo Jian, the unlucky kid his sister had left by the roadside, had originally followed her there without telling their parents after hearing that she was planning to “run away with a man.” Huo Shu had left him behind partly in the hope that he would give up and go home to their parents. Unfortunately, she had underestimated her little brother’s stubbornness.

This kid simply wouldn’t stop until he got what he wanted. He was determined to break up his sister and that man, and so Chen Yuan, who had merely been a passerby, had somehow ended up becoming his last hope.

In other words, Huo Jian had latched onto Chen Yuan.

Huo Jian was tall and thin, but he was only sixteen. His family had always taken excellent care of him, and this trip to find his sister, under the pretense of going sightseeing with his classmates, was already the biggest independent adventure he’d ever undertaken. He hadn’t expected his sister to react this way, and in his confusion, he’d latched onto Chen Yuan, a complete stranger, as his only lifeline.

He was still just a kid, after all. He had spilled his entire story to someone he’d only just met, like opening a bamboo tube and shaking everything out. If he’d run into someone other than Chen Yuan, who knew what might have happened?

Once they entered the room, Huo Jian watched Chen Yuan carefully lock the door behind them. He then plopped down on the edge of the bed and looked around the room, wrinkling his nose at the surroundings.

Chen Yuan happened to turn around and catch his expression. It didn’t surprise him in the slightest. He had never judged people by their clothes or style. As a mystic, he was accustomed to gauging a person’s identity from their overall aura, facial features, and other such signs. Huo Jian was obviously a young master who had grown up under the protection of his family’s good fortune. It was only natural that he had never stayed in a rundown inn like this before.

“If you’re not comfortable here, you can find a better hotel yourself.” There was no reason to make someone else stay somewhere they disliked, so Chen Yuan kindly offered the suggestion.

Huo Jian shook his head. “No, it’s fine.”

He thought he was being discreet as he glanced at Chen Yuan’s clothes before quickly looking away. It was obvious that Chen Yuan wasn’t wearing anything particularly nice. His clothes even looked a little faded from being washed so many times. Huo Jian’s refusal was simply the boy’s immature attempt at being considerate.

Chen Yuan’s lips curled slightly. He understood what Huo Jian was thinking. In truth, however, Chen Yuan wasn’t as poor as Huo Jian imagined. If he really wanted to make money, getting rich quickly would never be difficult for him.

But what would he need that much money for? Abalone, sea cucumber, shark fin, and fish maw at every meal weren’t necessarily better than a bowl of zhajiangmian from a street stall, and gold and jewels weren’t necessarily more comfortable than a simple cotton T-shirt.

Still, Huo Jian was a young man who had grown up well-off and knew little of hardship, yet he could still be this considerate. That alone showed he’d been raised well.

A family that accumulates good deeds will have blessings to spare.

With a family upbringing like this, how could their family’s blessings and good fortune be lacking? So even if the woman had been temporarily blinded by love, that man would never truly be able to ruin her.

“Hey, do you really know how to tell fortunes?” Huo Jian had told Chen Yuan everything on the way there, but now that they were in the room, he still couldn’t help asking. He didn’t want to go back to his parents, and he couldn’t talk his sister out of anything either. At this point, all he could do was grasp at the last straw and put his hopes in Chen Yuan.

Chen Yuan sat down in the room’s only chair and nodded. His gaze was calm and steady, somehow reassuring enough to put people at ease and make them trust him.

Huo Jian sighed and propped his chin on one hand. “You said that guy won’t be able to keep up the act for long and will show his true colors soon. How soon is ‘soon’? My sister’s been fooled this badly and she’s still refusing to see it. I don’t even know what to say to her!”

He wasn’t that old himself, yet he insisted on speaking with the weary gravitas of someone twice his age. It was almost amusing. Chen Yuan thought so too, conveniently forgetting that he was only eighteen himself.

“There’s no need to rush. What shows in someone’s face reflects their true nature. And true nature can’t stay hidden for long. Isn’t there a saying? ‘Mountains and rivers may change, but a person’s nature is hard to change.’”

Huo Jian switched hands, propping his chin up with the other as he frowned slightly. “I still don’t think it’s very reliable. What if he keeps up the act and fools my sister forever?”

“If he really can keep pretending to be a good person forever, then he won’t be able to hurt your sister, will he?” Chen Yuan reassured him.

That actually made sense. Huo Jian nodded, only to immediately think better of it.

“But what if something goes wrong just because we took your word for it? Those famous masters charge tens of thousands just for a consultation. Twenty yuan still doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.”

Talking about someone badly right in front of their face, and doing it so bluntly at that. Chen Yuan found himself thinking that the boy really was remarkably straightforward. It was rather endearing. He wasn’t offended in the slightest that Huo Jian didn’t trust his professional skills.

“Whether it’s tens of thousands or twenty yuan, it’s still payment. If I charged you tens of thousands, would you even have that kind of money?”

Huo Jian silently shook his head. He’d told his parents he was going on a trip to broaden his horizons, and they’d given him a little over ten thousand yuan for the trip. His mother, knowing how accustomed he was to comfortable surroundings, had budgeted for him to stay in good hotels along the way. His parents had even told him to keep the receipts and settle up when he got home, refunding him the difference if he’d spent less or reimbursing him if he’d spent more.

Seeing his expression, Chen Yuan chuckled. “Got it now?”

Huo Jian nodded emphatically, then frowned again. “No, I’m still a little worried. What if your prediction doesn’t come true? Why don’t you read my fortune? If you’re right, then I’ll feel better.”

He seemed to have suddenly found the perfect solution. He clapped his hands. “That’s it! Go ahead and read my fortune!”

Looking at Huo Jian’s bright, expectant eyes, Chen Yuan found it hard to refuse. He held out his palm and was just about to speak when Huo Jian interrupted him.

“Twenty yuan, right? I know!”

“I was going to say, if you want me to read your fortune, open your hand and let me see it.”

Apparently, Huo Jian had taken Chen Yuan’s request for payment to heart. Chen Yuan couldn’t help feeling a little exasperated. Did the kid really think he’d ask for money the moment he opened his mouth?

Huo Jian immediately shifted his attention. “You can read palms too?”

“Of course.” As the heir to a Daoist’s craft, Chen Yuan had to know a little of everything. Compared with physiognomy, palmistry could actually reveal more. Physiognomy often led to somewhat vague conclusions, whereas the Life Line, Head Line, and Heart Line of palmistry, the sort of things anyone could ramble about for a few minutes, could be much more precise in certain respects.

“Then take a good look.” Huo Jian spread his right hand flat in front of Chen Yuan, looking excited. This was his first real encounter with anything so mysterious and metaphysical, so naturally he was intrigued. Especially after Chen Yuan had identified that man as a bad match just by looking at his face. Who knew what he might discover from Huo Jian’s palm?

Anyone could drag out the usual talk about the Life Line, Head Line, and Heart Line and pretend to know palmistry. It might seem like a rather lowbrow form of fortune-telling, but truly mastering the art was anything but simple. There were so many fine lines on a person’s palm, and perhaps any one of them could hold a clue to something that would affect their entire life. Who could say for certain?

Palmistry did, in fact, focus primarily on three major lines: the Life Line, Head Line, and Heart Line. Even someone who knew little about palmistry could often glean quite a bit from them.

The Life Line was the one that curved around the base of the thumb. Most people knew that a longer Life Line was supposed to indicate a longer life, and that wasn’t entirely wrong. Even so, two Life Lines of the same length could have very different meanings.

Huo Jian’s Life Line began above the webbing between his thumb and index finger, then curved gracefully toward his wrist. It was tinged a light red, a sign of good health and a smooth life. The entire line was clear and well-defined, making it obvious that he had been blessed with good fortune.

There were, however, several small island-shaped markings near the line’s starting point. Chen Yuan studied their approximate position, already confident of what they meant.

“You must have suffered a serious illness when you were eight or nine.”

Island-shaped markings on the Life Line were said to indicate difficulties, serious illness, or injury.

Although Huo Jian had told Chen Yuan quite a bit about his family earlier, he hadn’t mentioned anything about his childhood. Chen Yuan’s words made his eyes widen.

“How did you know!?”

Chen Yuan pointed at Huo Jian’s outstretched palm. “I could see it.”

No way?

Huo Jian looked at his palm, then back at Chen Yuan, and swallowed hard. Wasn’t palmistry supposed to be about things like how long you’d live or whether you’d have a smooth love life? How could Chen Yuan tell that he’d been sick at a specific age?

This isn’t scientific!

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