After returning home, Chu Qianli was shocked by the numbers on her account. She had just glanced at it briefly earlier, but now she realized she had missed a zero.
Despite He Shichen’s odd temper, he really knew how to make money, and it was hard not to admire him for it.
What makes such people truly terrifying is that they don’t work for the money; their astrological charts reveal their life challenges, and only the sense of accomplishment from expanding and growing can satisfy them.
If there ever came a day when He Shichen stopped working, he might lose his sense of purpose, feeling desolate and restless, and it wouldn’t have anything to do with money—it would be purely due to the psychological gap. Without competition, without feeling needed, He Shichen would lose his direction, and his life would lose its brightness. He would need to work in order to find meaning.
Everyone is born with a different astrological chart, which leads to different growth paths and varying lifestyle needs. Many people are unable to understand each other because their life challenges are different.
He Shichen was good at making money but had no interest in spending it, so Chu Qianli decided to take on that task for him.
Of course, she completely disregarded his requests and continued copying her deskmate’s homework without hesitation.
Chu Qianli spent the entire weekend playing. She chatted with Qiu Qingkong about astrology and with Tan Muxing about anime, and eventually, the three of them created a group chat to continue their discussions.
She had an exceptionally lucky week, earning money from divination and even reaping benefits from He Shichen. She was simply soaring with happiness.
The pleasant weekend passed by quickly, and soon Monday, the first day of school, arrived.
Chu Qianli groggily opened her eyes, picked up her phone, and checked the astrological chart. She was instantly shocked, and all sleepiness disappeared as she panicked, “No way, no way, no way…”
She pulled the blanket over her head and groaned. Unbelievably, she checked her phone again and nearly passed out in despair.
Maybe it was because she had played too much these past few days, and the worst possible outcome had occurred.
Today, her fortune was bad.
This was the most annoying thing for a diviner—predicting trouble, but being powerless to solve it immediately. It felt like a sword of Damocles hanging over her head. The most exhausting part wasn’t the moment of bad luck, but the forewarning period before it, where the tension lingered.
Chu Qianli finished her daily divination. After seeing the unchanged negative results, she began to address the trouble for the day.
For an ordinary person, seeing bad luck in their fortune might just lead them to ignore it, and they might get through the day without any major issues. But for Chu Qianli, it was different. She was too accurate with her divination; she simply couldn’t ignore it.
Chu Qianli gave herself a reading.
It predicted that she might face a blood-related disaster today, and the stars advised against outdoor activities or suggested she hide behind tall buildings.
Was she being targeted by a sniper? How could this be a solution to the problem!?
Chu Qianli jumped out of bed. As soon as she left her room, she began whining, “Dad, Mom, I feel sick. I don’t want to go to school today. Can you help me ask for a sick day?”
The living room was quiet, and her parents, Yu Shen and He Zhenghe, were nowhere to be seen. Only He Shichen was sitting on the sofa.
He Shichen scowled and said, “What nonsense are you talking? Today is the physical fitness test, and retaking exams is a hassle. It will also affect your graduation certificate.”
Although they went to a private high school, the academic process was very strict. Wealthy families paid particular attention to education, and absenteeism could affect graduation and school applications.
When everyone had money, they would compare grades and elegant hobbies. In any case, the comparison never stopped.
Chu Qianli complained, “I don’t want to go to school. I feel terrible. My head hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts…”
He Shichen calmly responded to her reluctance to go to school, “That’s because you had too much fun yesterday. Maybe one day of school will make you feel better.”
Yesterday, Chu Qianli had been giggling in the living room, chatting aimlessly with her friends. She didn’t look like she was exhausted at all.
“They’ve already left. No one can ask for a sick day for you,” He Shichen coldly pointed out. “I suggest you not try to skip the physical test. It will cause a lot of trouble.”
Chu Qianli didn’t believe it, so she divined again. Sure enough, skipping the test wasn’t a good idea, and there would be a lot of subsequent trouble.
She realized that whether she faced the issue head-on or avoided it, it would still be problematic. So she decided to go out after all.
In class, Chu Qianli asked to switch seats with Tan Muxing. She didn’t want to sit by the window today.
Tan Muxing had no objections. He moved to the window seat and asked in confusion, “But you used to love sitting by the window?”
Chu Qianli enjoyed the feeling of having the window open. She would even sneeze occasionally and never wanted to close the window.
“I just don’t like it today,” Chu Qianli said, her expression complicated. “I’m afraid of getting shot.”
Tan Muxing: “?”
Today, Chu Qianli couldn’t bring herself to sleep during class. She was extremely cautious the entire time, occasionally divining and watching for when this calamity would pass.
As a result, she didn’t engage in any divination business during the break and mostly focused on worrying about her own situation, without the energy to read anything else.
Tan Muxing had already heard the reason behind it. He placed his political science book on the table and tried to comfort her, “It’s okay, how about we read some Marxist philosophy? It might help calm your emotions.”
Chu Qianli had once said that reading Marxist philosophy could help overcome habitual thinking.
“…That’s not a bad idea,” Chu Qianli said as she flipped through a few pages of the book, then frowned and slouched. “No, I can’t focus.”
Tan Muxing sighed.
On the sports field, everyone was lined up for the physical fitness test, except for Chu Qianli, who squatted in a corner and refused to step onto the field.
Tan Muxing stood by her side helplessly and persuaded, “It’s fine, relax. Those things are…”
He instinctively wanted to say “superstition,” but then realized who he was talking to and hurriedly stopped, almost making a huge mistake.
However, Chu Qianli had already keenly sensed his intended words. She curled up against the wall, sadly accusing, “You were going to say superstition, weren’t you! You almost said it out loud!”
Tan Muxing immediately felt a strong desire to survive. He frantically waved his hands, “No, no!”
Chu Qianli sobbed, “You don’t believe in it at all. I can tell from your star chart…”
“I don’t completely not believe,” Tan Muxing tried to explain, noticing her tense mood. He rarely opened up, but in this case, he did it just to change the topic. “It’s just that when I was a child, I had my fortune told and heard some unpleasant things, so I became a bit resistant to it.”
Chu Qianli was clearly distracted by this, and she asked with curiosity, “Unpleasant things?”
Tan Muxing hesitated, “Well, let’s just say it wasn’t anything good, so it left a bad impression.”
However, he had recently changed his views on astrology, mainly because Chu Qianli liked it, so he was no longer so resistant.
Chu Qianli quickly reassured him, “That was because the person you encountered wasn’t skilled. If you discover your own power, you’ll definitely achieve something. Destiny isn’t something that can be simply described as ‘good’ or ‘bad’!”
Chu Qianli strongly suspected that Tan Muxing had encountered a mediocre fortune teller. Some people, after briefly looking at someone’s star chart, would rashly make subjective judgments, violating the seven basic principles of astrology.
Any person or statement that deviates from the seven basic principles is a malignancy in astrology, not part of astrology’s future. One of these principles is that no astrologer can determine how a person will express their star chart solely by looking at it.¹
People who study divination are inevitably solitary by nature. Some people enjoy making judgments about others, dividing planets into auspicious or inauspicious, and labeling star charts as either good or bad. This is indeed an efficient method, but the question of who determines what is auspicious or inauspicious, good or bad, suggests that using a one-size-fits-all approach might be overly simplistic and arbitrary.
Tan Muxing generally lacked confidence, so Chu Qianli focused on encouraging him. Guiding others appropriately was also part of being an astrologer.
“That master can’t be said to be unskilled…” Tan Muxing scratched his face and then softened, “Alright, I believe what you said. Let’s not talk about this anymore. Do you want to go back?”
“If you really can’t make it, I’ll go back to the classroom with you.”
Chu Qianli was so nervous, it was clear she couldn’t go to the physical test.
Chu Qianli stood up and asked, “Then what about your physical test?”
“I’ll send you back and then come back here,” Tan Muxing replied.
Seeing how tense Chu Qianli was, Tan Muxing wasn’t at ease leaving her to go back alone, so he decided to go with her.
Tan Muxing went to tell the teacher. Although the teacher repeatedly advised against skipping the test, they still allowed Chu Qianli to leave in the end.
The classmates were all occupied with the physical test, and no one noticed what was happening in the corner.
Tan Muxing accompanied Chu Qianli back to the classroom.
On the way, Tan Muxing saw that she seemed absent-minded. He pulled out his phone and interrupted her worrying thoughts, “Do you want to see the clothes I made?”
Chu Qianli saw the beautiful dolls on the screen and exclaimed, “Ah, you’re making clothes for dolls!”
Chu Qianli took the phone and flipped through it with interest. She noticed that the doll outfits were all different, but each was uniquely styled and exquisite. She didn’t understand much about these dolls, but thought they looked quite nice.
Chu Qianli muttered, “Wow, the dolls are dressed better than I am.”
No wonder the dolls belonged to wealthy families. Her desk mate’s family had been rich since her great-grandfather’s time!
Tan Muxing: “Ah…”
Tan Muxing had only seen Chu Qianli wearing her school uniform, so he didn’t know how to respond.
The two of them walked back to class side by side, passing by the open basketball court. Chu Qianli walked on the inner side, and Tan Muxing on the outer side, so they could hear the sound of basketballs bouncing from the court.
With a sharp throw, a basketball slammed hard against the rim, and then something unexpected happened!
“Hey, hey, hey!” The people on the court shouted, trying to warn the two bystanders, but the basketball was moving too fast.
Chu Qianli was looking down at her phone when she suddenly heard a loud bang. She looked up and saw the basketball flying up into the air, her face full of surprise.
Tan Muxing punched the incoming basketball out of the way. The ball fell heavily to the ground with a dull thud, spinning rapidly before launching back up into the air, bouncing high!
Chu Qianli froze.
The people on the court were stunned.
After hitting the ball, Tan Muxing noticed that Chu Qianli had stopped, and gently said, “Let’s go.”
Chu Qianli recalled the sound from just now. She looked down at his hand in surprise, “Doesn’t your hand hurt? It looks like you didn’t hit it with your palm?”
Chu Qianli swore she had heard the sound of a heavy strike. That definitely wasn’t the sound of a palm hitting a ball.
Tan Muxing raised his fist and said kindly, “Ah, I just tapped it lightly.”
Chu Qianli: “…”
The people on the court seemed to have the same doubt. They picked up the ball that had been knocked away and rushed over in a panic, asking with concern, “Hey, are you okay? Why did you hit it with a fist!?”
Tan Muxing: “It’s fine, the ball wasn’t heavy.”
Tan Muxing still wore his soft and obliging demeanor, and no one could tell there was anything unusual. Nobody knew how much force was behind the ball.
Bumping into things on the court was normal, so the others didn’t think much of it. They quickly dispersed like birds and beasts.
Chu Qianli, however, crouched down right there and did a divination, discovering that her blood-related disaster was resolved!
Tan Muxing saw her shrink back again and advised, “You should rest in the classroom.”
Chu Qianli looked up at her desk mate and sized up his large, bear-like frame. She thought to herself, Can this really be considered a tall building?
Her strange astrology cases were increasing.
Anyway, Chu Qianli was no longer under the negative influence. She instantly felt revived, her mood completely lifted. “I’m not going back! I’m fine now!”
Tan Muxing: “?”
Chu Qianli: “The sky is clear, the rain has stopped, and I feel like I can handle it!”
Tan Muxing: “…It was already a clear day to begin with. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have arranged the physical test.”
Tan Muxing didn’t understand why Chu Qianli had changed her mind, but she walked confidently back to the physical test, and surprisingly, she did quite well.
After finishing the physical test, Chu Qianli was in an extremely good mood and swapped her seat back to the window.
Tan Muxing understood that this was clearly because she wasn’t afraid of getting hurt anymore, and this matter had been resolved smoothly.
Chu Qianli sat by the window and even arrogantly stretched out her hand, saying, “Now no one can stop me. I can get back to work and open shop again!”
She had been too scared to do any divination in the morning, which was why she hadn’t made any earnings today.
Tan Muxing quietly said, “Getting back to work is a negative term.”
Chu Qianli puffed up proudly, “What’s so bad about astrologers being bad people?”
Tan Muxing: “?” Was this the same astrologer who had been reassuring me on the basketball court?
Since Chu Qianli had already told Qiu Qingkong, the astrology apprentice hadn’t been openly promoting their work recently. They planned to quietly develop their client base without drawing attention to themselves.
They now had a stable customer group, so it was harder for teachers or the school to notice them.
However, in the afternoon, Chu Qianli was called to the teacher’s office, and she didn’t know what it was about.
Chu Qianli panicked when she heard the news, “What’s going on today? Did I go too far? Is the city management going to shut me down before I even started?”
She had clearly divined that nothing bad was supposed to happen today.
Tan Muxing comforted her, “Teacher Liu is pretty nice, it’s probably not about this. She doesn’t usually care about hobbies.”
“You talked to her about divination last time. She knew about it and didn’t criticize you.”
Tan Muxing remembered that Teacher Liu had been collecting playing cards for the desk mate, but Chu Qianli had advised the her not to drink. If there had been a real confrontation, she would’ve gotten angry right then and there.
If it were any other teacher, Tan Muxing might have accompanied her, but he didn’t think Teacher Liu would be the type to cause trouble.
In the office, Teacher Liu had recently been feeling troubled. Her job at the school was going well, and both the students and the leaders recognized her. The only downside was that her family was pressuring her to get married, which left her feeling anxious and irritable.
Last week, she had originally made plans with a friend to go drinking after work, but during class, she strangely got involved in divination. Chu Qianli bluntly told her that her friend would stand her up and that drinking alone would cause her to miss out on a romantic opportunity.
Sure enough, after class, she was cruelly stood up by her friend. She decided to just go home obediently, but ended up running into a matchmaking session set up by her family.
Although it wasn’t explicitly arranged as a blind date, the attitudes of both families were obvious, and it made the situation awkward for both her and the other person. The meeting ended in a hasty and chaotic manner.
Was this what they called a “romantic opportunity”? Wasn’t this just another case of bad luck piling up?
Teacher Liu glanced at her phone, noticing the newly added WeChat contact. The more she looked at it, the more her mind became muddled. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, and she quickly said, “Come in.”
The door opened, and Chu Qianli peeked her head around cautiously, asking softly, “Did you want to see me, Teacher?”
Teacher Liu recognized the transfer student. Chu Qianli was known for sleeping in class and had a kind of mischievous intelligence. She probably thought her homework was great, pretending to make mistakes on purpose in two of the problems, but in fact, it had already been noticed that she was up to something.
Of course, Teacher Liu didn’t want to dwell on that now and had called Chu Qianli over for something else.
Teacher Liu waved her hand and said kindly, “Come in, don’t be nervous. I’m not here to cause you trouble, I just want to discuss something with you.”
Chu Qianli entered the room and sat on a chair, her posture polite and dignified.
Teacher Liu looked at her in surprise, “You didn’t sit up straight like that in class?”
Chu Qianli avoided her gaze, laughing awkwardly.
“Do you remember sleeping in class last week?” Teacher Liu saw her looking uneasy and spoke to reassure her, “I’m not here to scold you. You did a divination at that time, and you said that drinking would cause you to miss out on a romantic opportunity.”
Chu Qianli breathed a small sigh of relief, “I remember.”
Teacher Liu went on to describe her own situation and couldn’t help but ask with some suspicion, “Are you sure this was a romantic opportunity?”
Chu Qianli answered decisively, “Yes.”
Teacher Liu hadn’t expected such a firm response from her. She quickly added, “But the situation was awkward and uncomfortable. Can that really be called a romantic opportunity?”
Chu Qianli nodded, “Yes.”
Teacher Liu pondered for a moment before saying, “I think you might have misunderstood. We really dislike being set up by our families. Can that still count as…?”
Chu Qianli immediately interrupted, answering quickly and somewhat aggrieved, “Yes, it counts.”
Teacher Liu was stunned, “How does it count?”
Chu Qianli muttered softly, “When there’s no romantic opportunity, you blame it for not appearing. Then, when it actually appears, you deny that it’s a romantic opportunity. This makes the opportunity change its name. When you meet one, you try to run away from it. You might as well rename it ‘escape flower,’ as in the flower of escape.”
Teacher Liu clutched her chest and said, “…Stop, stop, don’t scold me anymore.”
