CH 38

Chapter 38 - “Don’t just drink, have a bite to eat too.” (2)

Near the rear of the classroom, someone peeked at Chu Qianli and her gang’s divination process before she reported back to her own classroom in a hurry.

Inside the neighboring classroom, a few individuals gathered in a corner discussing the new astrologist among their peers.

The messenger returned and griped, “Qiu Qingkong was monitoring it closely and wouldn’t let anyone close to listen in. She even pace back and forth to surveil.”

“Is she really that accurate?” Someone else was curious. “I thought it is all a scam.”

“Better to believe in it than not. Even my dad will consult a fortuneteller for the best time to launch his company!”

“But all the fengshui master are old, no? The transfer student is our age.”

In the corner, a girl surrounded by the others listened quietly. She closed up the copy of I Ching that she was reading when she heard their conversation, took off her spectacles, and said slowly, “One’s ability is not determined by one’s age. Those who are truly talented in this area usually demonstrate their ability at a very young age. IT was said that there is a genius boy residing in Ganshan who does not step foot in our earthly world.”

When the bright and beautiful girl started to talk, all the others stopped talking at the same time and looked over at her.

“Ganshan?”

“Right, there are only a few masters in this area in the country and even less of them are willing to step foot in the earthly world. Most people are skeptical about this because they had run into too many scam artists and never met anyone who is truly talented.”

If anyone can truly predict everything, they can easily earn fame and status. They will always be those who are willing to offer up everything to them. They would not need to go around making themselves known. There will even those who would offer up unimaginable amount of money for them to leave where they are just to resolve difficult earthly issues.

“Qi Yan, I wasn’t able to listen in on the divination process but when I asked around, all of the said she was pretty much on point,” reported the messenger. “They said the astrology divination is the most accurate one and one can ask any question.”

Qi Yan pondered. When she saw the hexagram on the cover of her book, she suddenly looked up and said, “I would like to trouble you to help me with one more favor.”

Picture: hexagram

Source: zhuanlan.zhihu.com

Inside the classroom, Qiu Qingkong couldn't help but chuckled when she saw the familiar person. “Ah, so you have watched long enough and finally decided to give it a try yourself?”

Qiu Qingkong was very well-liked among her grade and more or less knew someone in every class. She recalled this girl was from their neighboring class and had been pacing around quite a bit lately but had never asked for a divination.

“Yes, I would like to give it a try.”

“What type of service are you looking for?”

“Astrology divination. Do I pay you?”

“Oh, Boss is so generous. This way please, Boss!”

Inside the curtains, Chu Qianli looked at the girl in front of her and asked, “What would you like to inquire about?”

“There is this boy that I am fond of and I run into him all the time around school. I want to know if there’s any possibility between the two of us. He had professed his feelings for me lately. I want to find out the direction that this will go……”

“Alright, so romance question, right?” said Chu Qianli in a cooperative way. “Let’s begin with the charting.”

Chu Qianli paused when she looked at the chart after she had completed it. She quieted down as though she was pondering over something.

The girl noticed that Chu Qianli didn’t believe her and quickly followed up by asking, “Is the result bad?”

Chu Qianli looked down at the chart, then up at the inquirer. She scratched her head with a blank look as if she was at loss of words.

Chu Qianli asked with difficulty, “You said someone professed his feelings to you?”

The girl lowered her head shyly, “Yes, he said he had a lot of feelings for me but the two of us being together might affect our futures. As such, I thought I would come and take a look…… Did you see anything?”

Chu Qianli was even more shocked after she heard the girl’s elaboration. She blinked and said bluntly “I didn’t see any romance but I saw something else.”

“What is it?” asked the girl.

Chu Qianli said, baffled, “You really are rich. Why did you want to spend this kind of money to ask a bogus question?”

Chu Qianli was stupefied.

As Chu Qianli’s readings were expensive, only those who really want to find answers would shell out the money. She has yet to run into someone who’d spend money on something bogus. Was this the joy of the rich?

From the reading, the inquirer was suspected of intentionally deceiving or tricking the astrologist.

Astrology divination wasn’t all about interpreting the chart; it was also about examining whether the chart was legitimate. This one obviously wasn’t.

Chu Qianli had no idea why the girl lied but she did take her money. In a sense, she wasn’t the one getting the shorter end of the stick. Was this her idea of showing off her wealth?

Chu Qianli said sincerely, “If you just want to make up stories to tell me, I can chat with you for a little while longer. I have, after all, already accepted your money. It seems wrong to send you on your way right away.”

“……”

“But I really won’t be able to opine on the direction of your relationship. Mainly because the information you gave me was incorrect.”

“……”

The girl’s blushed instantly and immediately bowed and apologized. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to find out if your readings are accurate!”

The girl wanted to test out Chu Qianli’s ability and see whether she could truly perform readings or that she just made things up.

Chu Qianli, “Oh, I am not upset. I only feel that you are very wealth. As long as you make the payment, it doesn’t matter what you want to talk about.

“Sort of like lunch with Buffett. That’s his name, right?” said Chu Qianli with her head cocked. “You can chat with you about financial investment or you can brag to him about Chinese culture the entire time. You can even discuss with him whether sweet or savory zongzi is the better one.”

Seeing how magnanimous Chu Qianli was, the girl mumbled, “So you can even tell whether the question is legitimate?”

Chu Qianli asked curiously, “Yes. So, is this boy real? I could only tell that the professing part was fake.”

“Yes,” said the girl as she pulled out her cellphone. “I can show you his picture.”

“Okay.”

Chu Qianli leaned in, saw the picture on the girl’s screen, and fell back into silent all over again.

Looking at the high-definition stage photo, she was stunned for a few seconds before she said hesitantly, “This is a photo of a male celebrity, no?”

The city-dwellers continued to baffle her.

The girl stared at the screen emotionally, “Wuwuwu, he is my husband but we can’t even be together. It would for sure negatively impact his career……”*

Chu Qianli, “?”

Chu Qianli comforted her, “Don’t just drink. Take a bite too.”**

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Translator's notes:

How fans refer to their idols. Not literal.

Internet slang. People who drink too much [alcohol] would ramble. So you’d tell them to eat some food in between.

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JJ Rasos Chua, Rohi, Akai Sora, Golialo, Iendesu, Paul Barron, Seemanta, and Welp.

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