Chapter 50: A New Name, Then a Wedding

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Chapter 50: A New Name, Then a Wedding

The girl’s face lit up, and she quickly gave him her Bazi. At least she had enough sense not to announce it loudly. She kept her voice low, so only Chen Yuan could hear. After all, one’s Bazi was not something to tell just anyone.

Chen Yuan already knew the answer after thinking for a moment. “Your elemental chart is heavy in Water and lacking in Metal. You need Wood to support it.”

Ge Tan nodded vigorously. “Exactly. The fortune-tellers I consulted before all told me the same thing. But somehow, I just didn’t find them very trustworthy.”

Since he hardly ever came up with names for people, Chen Yuan thought for quite a while before finally coming up with a few. With Ge as the surname, there actually weren’t that many suitable characters to choose from. He needed one associated with Wood and one associated with Metal, which made things rather troublesome.

Chen Yuan had always been even-tempered, but he was still an ordinary person, and when it came to certain things, he had his own temper.

Still, considering that the girl’s parents had even told her boyfriend about the matter, why should Chen Yuan stick his nose in and play the bad guy?

With that thought, he sighed inwardly and finally offered the girl his advice. “I’ll give you a few names. You can choose one yourself.”

The girl raised a hand when she heard this. “Please wait a moment!” she said, then hurriedly rummaged through her bag for a pen and paper, ready to take notes.

“First, Fangluo. Fang as in fragrant; luo as in tree fern.” The name actually sounded rather literary, like something that belonged to the heroine of a romance novel. Judging by her reaction, Chen Yuan could tell this sort of name was very much to the girl’s taste.

“Chenlan. Chen as in North Star; lan as in orchid. Juxian. Ju as in tangerine; xian as in slender and graceful. Yici. Yi as in the yi of the Six Arts; ci as in kindness. Liucan. Liu as in willow; can as in silkworm. That’s about it.”

The other names he could think of were either pretty but didn’t meet the girl’s requirements, or auspicious but unsuitable for a person’s name. Coming up with this many in such a short time was already pretty good. At least Chen Yuan himself was fairly well-read. Some fortune-tellers might have impressive abilities, but when it came to naming people, they only knew a handful of characters and used them over and over again, making their names sound hopelessly old-fashioned.

Ge Tan read through all the names Chen Yuan had given her, then happily put away her pen and paper. “Master Chen, thank you.” Then she looked at her boyfriend and lifted her chin slightly.

The young man took out his wallet, counted out one thousand yuan for Chen Yuan, and thanked him again. “Thank you for helping her come up with a name.”

Compared with the girl, he was clearly more worldly. At the very least, he could tell that Chen Yuan had been somewhat unwilling from the start, especially when he asked whether her parents knew about her plans. The girl’s answer had clearly put him in a bad mood, which was why he had interrupted to explain the situation. Even so, although Chen Yuan had still told the girl what she wanted to know, he was clearly unhappy about it.

Someone as accomplished as Chen Yuan wasn’t someone they could afford to offend, so he did his best to smooth things over. He knew his girlfriend wasn’t a bad person at heart; she just wasn’t very considerate of others most of the time.

Yu Shenliu glanced at him and answered in Chen Yuan’s place. “It’s fine.”

The implication was that Chen Yuan had already done what he needed to do and couldn’t be bothered with them anymore. That was why Yu Shenliu had taken the initiative to cut him off.

After saying that, Yu Shenliu picked up the teacup on the table.

This was what people meant by using tea to see a guest out.

Chen Yuan glanced at Yu Shenliu without saying anything. What Yu Shenliu had just done was exactly what he wanted to express.

To be honest, Chen Yuan didn’t have a very good impression of the girl. Even when Huo Shu had been madly infatuated with Rong Yan, she had at least thought things through and decided that Rong Yan would probably win her parents’ approval before making her choice—and being drunk on love had been another matter entirely. But to casually turn her back on her parents’ love for no reason at all was simply… There were so many people in this world who longed to be loved by their parents but never received it, who wanted a warm family but never had one, yet some people simply didn’t know how to cherish what they had.

With Yu Shenliu making his intentions so clear, the young man naturally took the hint. He quickly said goodbye and left with his girlfriend. The tea on the table hadn’t even been touched.

“I suddenly think you’re practically a mind-reader,” Chen Yuan said to Yu Shenliu.

Of course, “mind-reader” here wasn’t meant in the sense of someone who could literally read minds. Chen Yuan was referring to the sort of extraordinary creature that could give voice to what was in someone else’s heart. It was as though Yu Shenliu could see exactly what Chen Yuan wanted to say and do, even when Chen Yuan sat there expressionless and didn’t say a word, and then simply went ahead and did it for him.

“Haha, because I have Heartsight.” The ability to perceive what others are thinking was, to a large extent, a Buddhist supernatural ability. Yu Shenliu joked about it, but he knew perfectly well that if he hadn’t paid such close attention to Chen Yuan, it would have been almost impossible for an ordinary person to tell what was going on in Chen Yuan’s mind. Chen Yuan was simply too good at keeping his thoughts hidden. His emotional fluctuations were also very slight and quickly suppressed, making them even harder to detect.

“Pfft.” Chen Yuan laughed. “Heartsight? Shenliu, since when did you start using Buddhist techniques?”

“After spending so much time with Master Chen, I finally managed to gather the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth and the essence of the sun and moon. Then, in a flash of inspiration, I suddenly learned all sorts of amazing things. Things like the Chaotic World-Dominating Art and the Taiji Innate Art just appeared in my mind.” Yu Shenliu pointed at his head as he joked, raising an eyebrow.

Chen Yuan shook his head helplessly. He really had misjudged Yu Shenliu. Normally, the man always seemed so serious. Who would have thought he had this side to him in private?

“Speaking of which, Yuanyuan, you noticed it too, right? Xiao Shu and that kid Sheng Kong.” Yu Shenliu changed the subject and asked Chen Yuan.

Chen Yuan nodded. The two of them had been making it so obvious that anyone could see what was going on. He just hadn’t expected that after Rong Yan, the person who would turn out to be Huo Shu’s proper romantic luck would be Sheng Kong. After all, by conventional standards, Sheng Kong was two years younger than Huo Shu, and in this world, he had only just passed the metropolitan examination and entered the Imperial Academy. It was rather surprising.

“My sister has already met Sheng Kong,” Yu Shenliu dropped a surprising piece of news. “She thinks he’s a good kid.” As he said this, Yu Shenliu gave an unhappy snort, clearly holding his sister’s opinion in contempt. “Hmph.”

It took Chen Yuan a moment to remember that Huo Shu was Yu Shenliu’s niece, which meant Huo Shu’s mother was Yu Shenliu’s older sister. But the way Yu Shenliu was acting now was exactly like a father whose daughter—the girl he’d watched grow up—had been stolen away by some wild young man. Had he completely slipped into the role of a father instead of an uncle?

“Then her idea is to get Xiao Shu married to that bastard as soon as possible. She thinks Rong Yan has left a shadow in Xiao Shu’s heart, so she wants to put an end to this as quickly as possible. On the other hand, there are also a few people who have suggested a political marriage.”

Whenever he mentioned a political marriage, Yu Shenliu looked thoroughly disdainful. Although the Yu family had been a political family for generations, even if they were considering a marriage alliance, they would still take their feelings into account. Huo Shu, in particular, had grown up spoiled and cherished, so they would never simply marry her off for the sake of an alliance.

Still, they needed a suitable reason. Since Huo Shu now had a decent partner, marriage was a good enough reason. Her mother also had a few other subtle considerations, and in the end, she decided to have Huo Shu marry Sheng Kong as soon as possible. This was a textbook case of a whirlwind marriage. Huo Shu and Sheng Kong had only known each other for a few months, hadn’t they? Yet they had already reached the point of discussing marriage.

“Sheng Kong is Huo Shu’s proper romantic luck, right?” Although Yu Shenliu was pretty unhappy about his niece being snatched away, Sheng Kong was still better than Rong Yan, so he put up with it. In asking Chen Yuan, he already had a pretty good idea of the answer. Chen Yuan had said earlier that Huo Shu’s proper romantic luck was about to appear, and then Sheng Kong came along. More importantly, Chen Yuan hadn’t said anything to stop them and had simply let their relationship develop. So clearly, Sheng Kong was the proper romantic luck Chen Yuan had been talking about?

Chen Yuan nodded. Yu Shenliu’s judgment was correct. It really was quite a coincidence, but sometimes things simply happened to line up that neatly.

“I also asked Xiao Shu and Sheng Kong about it, and they both agreed to get married. So I suppose the matter is basically settled.” Even from Yu Shenliu’s own perspective, the whole thing seemed absurd. They were already discussing the wedding date and getting married? Weren’t they worried they might regret it? If Chen Yuan hadn’t judged that Sheng Kong was Huo Shu’s proper romantic luck, he would never have agreed to it.

Yu Shenliu continued, finally getting to the point. “Since the marriage has already been decided, we’ll need to discuss the wedding date, the proper rites, and so on. So I wanted to ask you for help. You should be rather good at this sort of thing, right?”

After hearing him out, Chen Yuan nodded. “If it’s a matter of choosing an auspicious wedding date or avoiding certain taboos, I can definitely help with that. No problem. But as for the specific wedding rites and such, I’m not very familiar with them. We’ll still need someone professional to handle those.” After all, weddings in this world were rarely Western-style. Most were relatively traditional Chinese weddings, except that the bride was no longer expected to simply wait in the bridal chamber. Instead, both the bride and groom had to receive guests and see to all the arrangements themselves. After all, people nowadays believed in equality between men and women.

Chen Yuan hadn’t actually grown up in this world, so he wasn’t very familiar with these matters and could only leave them to other people. Taboos and auspiciousness, however, were within the areas where he could have a say. Huo Shu and Sheng Kong were both people he knew and was fairly close to. Although Chen Yuan found their sudden marriage a little strange, he was more than willing to help if he could. And, more importantly, the person asking him for help was Yu Shenliu.

No matter how you looked at it, Yu Shenliu could be considered Chen Yuan’s closest friend in this world, couldn’t he? After all, Chen Yuan lived at his place, ate his food, and occasionally took things from him too. By that logic, Chen Yuan had long since become soft-hearted, sweet-tongued, pampered, and utterly spoiled.

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