The group of four turned and saw an elderly woman in a small tent, looking at them with a mysterious smile on her face. From the looks of all the things present in her tent, it seemed that she was a fortune teller.
Nian tilted his head. "What are you talking about, Grandma?"
"Everybody's fate is changing, my dear. Yours, hers…" then she pointed at Jun and Ai, "you and you too. Especially you two. Your decisions are what are influencing the wheels of fate."
They blinked and shared a glance.
She cannot possibly be talking about our rebirth, right? Jun eyed Ai.
Ai gave him an equally confounding look.
"Hoho," the mystic woman chuckled. "I see everything, dear. You two have been blessed by destiny. You two have been touched by time."
They froze.
Xing Bi whispered. "I don't understand what she is talking about. Is this divinity? I am not sure if I believe in divinity."
Nian shook his head. "Maybe she just wants us to be her customers. Let's go from here."
But Jun and Ai dragged them towards her tent nevertheless, making Nian speechless.
"Little brother, were you always interested in fortune telling?" He raised his brow.
Jun cleared his throat. "There's no harm in just giving it a shot. It will be fun."
"But-"
"Do you want her to read your love-life fortune?"
That immediately made his face sparkle. "I want to know! I want to know! Fortune telling is the best!"
"..."
The four of them sat opposite her in the tent with darkness slowly enveloping their surroundings. The air felt mysterious and slightly spooky.
Ai politely asked, "Can you tell us more about what you were talking about?"
The elderly woman smiled. "Rebirth-"
"*Ahem ahem!*"
Jun and Ai began coughing harder. The truth about their rebirth was something that Nian and Xing Bi didn't know.
Xing Bi furrowed her brows. "Why did you two start coughing together? Are you okay?"
The couple gave her a thumbs up and nodded. "It's nothing."
The woman paused. Then she said, staring at Ai, "You have made some major decisions in your life. At first, it only affected you. But slowly…slowly…it started affecting the people around you too."
She blinked.
"Like this woman here," she pointed her finger at Xing Bi.
Xing Bi straightened up for some reason.
"What you did changed your path first and then it changed her life as you pulled her towards you. In turn…" she moved her finger towards Nian, "it changed the fate of this young man too."
Jun tilted his head.
Is she talking about Ai coming to Sky? If Ai hadn't, then Xing Bi wouldn't have met Bro Nian either.
In his last life, Nian was unmarried. But in this life, he already found the love of his life. So yes, Nian's fate had changed too. It was Ai's association with Jun that Xing Bi became connected to Nian.
It made perfect sense which made them stupefied. Nian and Xing Bi were stupefied in another sense because unlike Jun and Ai, they had no clue how to connect the dots.
The elderly woman smiled again as she looked at Jun and Ai. "You look bewildered, which means I am right."
Jun coughed.
She took out a deck of cards and randomly shuffled them. She kept it in front of Ai and said, "Please take out any three cards as you wish. But first, think about your intent in your mind."
"Intent?"
"What do you wish to understand from the cards? What is it that you want to know? The cards you pick will reflect that intent and give you a glimpse of the answers you are looking for."
Ai looked at Jun, and he nodded.
No harm trying it.
She cleared her throat and touched the deck. She thought about her past life, and her intent was clear in her mind.
I want to know the truth.
She picked out three cards and neatly placed them before the mystic elderly woman side by side.
The woman slowly said, "The first card represents your past. The second card represents your present and the third, your future."
With that said, she revealed the first card which represented the past. It showed the figure of two women. One seemed to be falling into the abyss while the other woman stood at the top with stars glittering around her.
Ai slowly widened her eyes. The woman falling instantly made her think of herself who had fallen to her death.
Does that mean the other woman is Guiying?
Jun squeezed her hand, giving her his warmth and reassurance.
Don't be afraid. I am here with you.
Nian and Xing Bi curiously leaned in too. "Two women, one falling and another standing. What does it mean?"
The elderly woman read the card. "It's not just two women, dear. There are three."
"Huh? Where?"
She pointed at a shadow of the woman standing at the top. "Amidst the glitter and sparkle, it is not easily noticed. But the shadow of this woman is different."
Xing Bi squinted her eyes to focus on that part. "True. The shadow doesn't match the woman's figure. It feels like it's creeping onto the woman," she shuddered, "It's creepy. What does it mean?"
She smiled. "What she seems isn't what she is. There is something else inside her, hidden from everybody. From the dark, it consumes her whole, slowly and steadily."
This time, Jun and Ai didn't understand much either.
Ai asked, "Can you please explain more?"
"What you are looking for in the past is connected to her. The woman falling and the woman standing, both are crying."
Ai took a closer look. "Indeed. Both have tears in their eyes."
She recalled that night. It was true that Ai and Guiying both cried that night as they confronted each other.
Ai lowered her gaze.
The falling woman's tears represented the betrayal and loneliness Ai went through.
She pointed at the woman standing at the top. "What do…her tears mean?"
The elderly woman had a solemn expression. "Betrayal and loneliness."
Ai widened her eyes. "What?"
"Yes. The stars and glitter around her is success. But despite that, she is crying."