The Crane Soars Across China

Description of the Gu Long wuxia novel The Crane Soars Across the Land:

Two people are sitting in the pavilion. One is a blind fortune-teller in a gray robe; the other is a young woman holding a moon lute. The blind man grips a bamboo staff. His hair is completely white, and a long white beard flutters gently in the breeze like a bolt of satin. A cord is tied around his gray robe, laden with odds and ends: a little cloth bag for divination fees, a long-stemmed tobacco pipe, a pouch of tobacco, a purse, and a small white-bronze gong. Hanging from his staff is a white cloth sign with several lines of writing: “Mystic Divination, Six-Line Oracles.” Three characters run across it horizontally: “Know Thy Fate.” In the middle is the old man's name: Xu Tiemei!

When you read those three characters, Xu Tiemei, you cannot help but glance at his eyebrows. Sure enough, they are thick and black, a good two inches long, like a pair of iron brushes.

The old man rolls his pale eyes around and fumbles at his belt to pull out his long-stemmed pipe. The young woman bends down and strikes a flint. When the tinder catches, Xu Tiemei begins puffing away.