Chapter 13: Exploring Fate

She was also stunned for a long time, and replied: "It's really yours, admire, admire, yours is much funnier than me." I responded, "It's a loss for both of us not to write essays." She said: "Originally, I thought that our conversation was too orthodox, and I wanted you to tell a joke to liven up the atmosphere, which is good, even the joke is extremely heavy." I said, "Then let's change the subject, I can see from your joke that you believe in aliens." She responded, "I'm just making up a joke, seriously, I believe in God rather than I believe in aliens." "Then what god do you believe in?" Buddhism, Christianity, Christianity, or Taoism, native to China? I asked. I just believe in God, but if you ask me what I believe, I really can't answer. She responded. I see what you mean. "You don't understand what I mean." "Aren't you just like the traditional Chinese people, worshipping Buddha in temples, worshipping gods in Taoist temples, worshipping gods in all kinds of gods, and many people are like this." I explained dissatisfied. "No, you're too superficial, you don't understand what I mean, I never worship any gods, I just think there's a destiny in the dark," she concluded.

I sarcastically said, "Then I can understand that there is a prince charming waiting for you in the dark." "Don't say that, don't you have similar thoughts?!" She asked rhetorically! "To be honest, there must be, as the saying goes, which girl is not pregnant, which teenager is not in love, when I was a child, I always fantasized that there was a Snow White waiting for me, she only loved me alone, but after waiting for more than 20 years, she did not appear after all." I admit it frankly. "That's because your standards are too high, and you can't catch it when you encounter it." She teased me. "What is the standard high, will you set the standard for your Prince Charming? In your imagination, your Prince Charming is perfect, so why do you need any standard to measure it? If you replace the white horse with the black horse, your prince will already appear. I choked back. You are really, no matter how reasonable you are, you can't choke me to speak, I'm angry and ignore you. "She's angry again." Don't, don't, don't, I suddenly realized I was wrong. "I'm busy coaxing her." You're really wrong, and your biggest mistake is that you don't recognize that you're wrong. "It's so philosophical, I admit it." I continued to please her. "Then you want to coax me, and when you are happy, I will chat with you again." She concluded.

How can I coax this, I scratch my ears and cheeks, there is no way. I had an idea and typed, "Don't you believe in fate?" I can predict your fate, do you want to know? She quickly replied, "Who do you think you are?" To brag like this! I'm letting you coax me, not to lie to me, it's really a long experience. "Have you ever heard of the eight-character fortune test? The ancestors invented it, and it is quite effective. "I explain carefully." You know this, too? She asked, surprised. It's a small case, not only this, but also the gossip of the six yaws. "I'll show it off right away." Can you die if you don't brag? Do you know what a character eight is?! "She was upset again.

"The so-called eight characters refer to the date of birth, the ancients used the heavenly stem and the earthly branch to record the time, the heavenly stem is A, B, C, D, 戊ji, Gengxin, and 癸, and the earthly branch is Zi Chou Yin Mao Chen, Si Wu Wei Shen Youxuhai, have you ever heard of the saying that a Jiazi in 60 years?" I had to let her know if I really understood or not. "You can say that I don't understand anything, I know the year of the Ganzhi, the year of Jiazi, and then the year of Yichou, but I don't know much about the month, day, and hour." She responded, and it seemed that her knowledge was not small. I continued to type: "The earthly branch of the month is fixed, for example, January is the month of Yin, February is the month of Mao, according to the order of Zi Chou Yin Mao Chen, November is the month of Zi, December is the month of Chou, the earth branch of the hour is also fixed, for example, 11 o'clock in the middle of the night to 1 o'clock in Lingli is the time of the child, 1 o'clock to 3 o'clock is the time of the ugly, according to the order of the child Chouyin Mao Chen 巳午未申酉戌海, the time of the sea is 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock in the evening." "And what do you say about their heavenly stems?" She asked very professionally. "Oh, that's a method of rising from the moon and the beginning of the sun, and it's very simple, I'll tell you in detail." I'll go on. "Don't say it, I don't learn fortune-telling, let me ask you how the sexagenary branch of the day is determined?" She asked. I twisted my head and said: "This is the most complicated, you have to remember the sexagenary branch of a day, for example, I often remember that January 1, 1944 is the Jiazi day, and then backward or forward calculation, the Gregorian calendar is very simple, 365 days in a normal year, 366 days in a run year, can be calculated." "Count you ruthless! I didn't think you were really good at it. She responded immediately. Generalization, if you still don't believe it, when you report your date of birth on the solar calendar, I can give you the eight characters in minutes. I smirked again.

"Then tell me first, is this thing accurate? You're not going to be a charlatan, are you? She suddenly became a little alert. That's not it, could it be that if I talk with you for so many days, it will be to tell your fortune? I'm just bored, I can't get to this point. I responded angrily and funny. That's good, then you can do the math for me, if you don't calculate it well, it will make you look good! "It seems that she has let her guard down. But I had to tell her seriously: "I can only say that I will calculate it for you according to the explanations in "Three Lives Meeting" and "Four Pillars and Eight Characters", and I will not be responsible." Seeing that she didn't reply, I added another sentence, "Now there are fewer people who really believe, but it is often used to test whether the eight characters of marriage men and women are compatible." "And what if it doesn't fit?" She asked. "Then you can't get married, even if you are reluctantly married, you will become a resentful couple." My answer is a bit like that of a charlatan. "You are full of feudal superstitions and nonsense, and I ignore you." She was suddenly annoyed, and she told me so badly. But I couldn't, so I had to type "don't, don't, don't," and she went offline before I could finish typing.

Fate, the devil believes, and I just treat fortune-telling as a game. Among all the people who disdain fate, the most familiar is the Chinese poet Beidao, whose "I Don't Believe" is still familiar to this day:

Meanness is the pass of the mean,

Noble is the epitaph of the noble,

Behold, in that gilded sky,

Floating with the crooked reflection of the dead.

The glacial age has passed,

Why are there ice cubes everywhere?

The Cape of Good Hope was found,

Why are thousands of sails competing in the Dead Sea?

I came into this world,

With nothing but paper, ropes, and figures,

In order that before the trial,

Read out the voices that have been sentenced.

Tell you what, world

I--no--phase--believe!

Even if you have a thousand challengers under your feet,

Then count me as the thousandth and onest.

I don't believe the sky is blue,

I don't believe in the echo of thunder,

I don't believe that dreams are fake,

I don't believe that death is without retribution.

There is a clear pessimism in the work "I Don't Believe", but the belief in challenging fate contained in it is unwavering, giving people a kind of courage born out of despair.