As soon as Qi Qixie learned how to read fortunes, he pulled ten-year-old Le An over to tell his fortune. He blinked and said, “Le An, your whole life will be spent with clouds and moonlight as your only companions. Your future is bleak.”
Back then, Master was still there, and Le An could still run light-footedly toward the lively places, waiting for Master to call to him from afar:
“Le An, come back quickly.”
Later, Le An would often wake from dreams at those words. He would wake with sweat and tears soaking his pillow, but he didn’t dare go back to sleep. He knew that if he did, he would find himself once more in a cold mountain wilderness. Master wrapped the bloodstained sleeves around the silk zither and smiled, his eyes reflecting the vast desolation after snowfall.
“Le An, we’re leaving.”
When Qi Qixie became the most renowned fortune-teller in Jin Capital, Le An returned to the city and asked him to tell his fortune. Qi Qixie merely looked at him, frowning in silence. Le An smiled and took a step forward. The iron shackles on his feet clanked with a heavy, mournful sound.
“Qixie, just tell me if I was right or wrong to come back this time.”
The fortune-teller smiled, nearly weeping with bitterness.
“Le An, I’m just glad you came back.”
Later, Jin Capital gained a zither player without equal in the world. They said that Le An was the direct disciple of the master from the old teahouse eight years ago, and that his zither skills surpassed his master’s. They also said Le An played only for one person: the current emperor.
They said Le An kept placing his silkwood zither in front of the imperial mausoleum until the day he died.
Qi Qixie told Le An he was going away to see the world, because Jin Capital was simply too small. Le An smiled, his expression somewhat distant.
“Qixie, tell me, was I right to come back to Jin Capital back then?”
“You were.”
“Then, Qixie, tell my fortune one last time.”
“Le An... In your next life, you’ll surely enjoy the clouds and moon, and grow old together with the one you love.”
The first reviews are all written by the author to himself XD