CH 29

Chapter 029 - “Yes, yes. We will all be liberated one day.” (2)

Tan Muxing shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t.”

Chu Qianli was dumbfounded. “Then how do you know that she is a good candidate?”

Qiu Qingkong raised her hand up in the air. “Em, Teacher, my family is in the media business. The entire class know this.”

Tan Muxing added in good temper. “One of the biggest media companies in the country at that. One doesn’t need astrology to figure one that out.”

Chu Qianli, “! ! ?”

Seeing the shocked look on his deskmate, Tan Muxing smiled helplessly and said, “I guess what you said last time was true. Astrology has almost become your second nature. There are other means sometimes.”

Chu Qianli mentioned before that she studied Marxism as an escape from her instinct. Tan Muxing now understood her cognitive inertia.

“The content is too plain and far less catchy than what you’d see online. Nowadays, even webnovels need crazy titles in order to attract readers.” Qiu Qingkong rubbed her chin as she came up with ideas. “Let me modify this for you. All you care about is keeping the basic information, right?”

Chu Qianli replied decisively. “Very well. I choose you, Pikachu!”

Tan Muxing, “Puns will cost you extra.”

The three of them put their heads together. Qiu Qingkong was responsible for copywriting and Tan Muxing, the design. Chu Qianli was the client.

“Given Teacher’s ability in astrology, we should probably adjust these prices some as well……” Qiu Qingkong was just about to add a zero behind the prices when she noticed that Chu Qianli had put her hand over her pen. She looked up in surprise.

“Let’s not change the prices,” said Chu Qianli.

“Why not?”

“It can double as a practice for you.” Pausing a little, Chu Qianli cocked her head and said, “Even though many astrologists perform astrology or tarot reading for profits and enjoy the fame and status bring to them by the stars, but I don’t like that much……

“It’s not so much that it is difficult to make money from the stars, but most of those who turned to stars had no other options. Many would never believe in the stars had it not been some traumatic experience. They had only placed their hopes in stars after great pian.”

Chu Qianli had encountered many who turned to astrology for the very first time. Most of them were suffocating from desperation. Very few living a happy life would want to peek into their fates.

Many people turned to the sparks of the stars in the sky only when they were lost in the long and pitch-black nights.

Even so, they still might feel dubious toward astrologists or be scammed by the astrologists.

Chu Qianli toyed with her astrology dice on her desk and listened to the clingy noises that they made and said softly, “Those in power would rely on the stars to secure their positions but those who truly need the help from the stars might never been able to cross path with it. That has, unfortunately, always been the truth since the beginning of time. Perhaps that in and of itself had already gone against the spirit of numerology.”

The best astrologists had always worked for successful people by society’s definitions but these group of people were not normally the ones who desperately needed the power of the stars.

Tan Muxing noticed the rare solemnness in her and asked tentatively, “The spirit of numerology?”

“Mmhmm. You know Harry Potter, right? We are all muggles our entire life but we will still be touched by a story about magic. I think that’s the spirit of numerology.”

Chu Qianli smiled and said, “One might never be able to perform a reading but they might still be moved by the philosophy of the stars and realized that there are meanings for them to be here and that there are things that only they could accomplish.”

One’s star chart display each individual’s assignment for life and these assignments are unique and irreplaceable.

Under the boundaryless starry sky, every human is small and insignificant like dust. Nevertheless, each one of them would still want to be the dust that dance freely under the brightness of the stars.

“Granted, this is just my own take. Many objected my believes.” Chu Qianli sighed and looked over at Qiu Qingkong. “As such, I do not object to you making big money with the stars and I had already said that you don’t necessarily need to address to me as Teacher.”

“Why did they object your beliefs? I thought what you said made a lot of sense.” Qiu Qingkong was surprised.

“Isn’t it just the norm that one will come across oppositions? Scientists disagree with each other a lot too.” Chu Qianli had forgotten how many had assailed her in the past. There were countless ones of them, much like stars in the sky.

She numbly counted with her fingers. “Besides, there are so many different schools within numerology. There are several different branches in astrology alone. There are guo lao xing zong (果老星宗), qi zheng si yu (seven heavenly bodies and four remainders)* in ancient Eastern astrology. All of them lump into the fortune telling category. From the West there are traditional astrology and modern astrology. The traditionalists would fight with the modernists. Within the Western-style astrology, the theists would fight with the atheists……”

Picture: Guo Lao Xing Zong (I have no idea how to translate it and didn'’t find anything in English on Google so I am going to adopt the “a picture says a thousand words” philosophy. =D)

Source: sohu.com

Picture: qi zheng si yu

Source: sohu.com

Sometimes Chu Qianli felt that she wasn’t an astrologist, she was a star fighter who engaged in daily battles with all the others who studied the stars.

“Which sect do you belong to then?” asked Tan Muxing curiously.

“I am a jack of all trade and am proficient with both Eastern and Western style astrology. I fall under the targeted-by-everyone-else sect.”

Tan Muxing, “……”