One day, as Han Xiangxun traveled through a remote village, her eyes were drawn to a figure lying awkwardly on…
One day, as Han Xiangxun traveled through a remote village, her eyes were drawn to a figure lying awkwardly on a donkey by the roadside. Intrigued, she stopped and took a second glance. The man, though his eyes were closed, seemed to sense her presence and spoke, "Your fate is quite unusual."
Han Xiangxun scanned the area, ensuring there was no one else around, and then realized he was speaking directly to her.
"Out here in the wilderness, what could you possibly swindle me out of?" The man chuckled softly, then continued,
"Your year pillar shows calamity, your day pillar shows loneliness. When these two stars align in one's fate, that person is marked by the doomed loner."
"Doomed loner? So what then?"
"A doomed loner lives without parents, without kin. Marry, and your spouse will die; have children, and they will suffer."
Silence hung in the air as Han Xiangxun took in his words. He had indeed revealed all those misfortunes in the first half of her life. A bitter laugh escaped her lips. Was it just fate that had shaped all the misfortune in her life?
"I've long known my life's a mess. Don't need some damned priest rubbing salt in the wound!"
"No, no, it's not because of you. This fate belongs to a man, someone very close to you. You, however, are merely caught in the ripple of it."
"Someone... close to me?" Han Xiangxun's mind raced, her anger and hatred flaring as she remembered her father who had sold his wife and children without a second thought.
"It is him, and also not..." The man fell silent, urging his donkey forward, leaving Han Xiangxun standing there.