Chapter 10

He’d said, “Daughter, my readings have never been accurate. This one probably isn’t, either.”

He predicted the day he would die.

And, sure enough, he died on that day.

So that reading had been right.

But he’d said, “This one probably isn’t, either.”

Which meant he didn’t think he deserved to die.

Or, more precisely—

He still didn’t want to die.

He wanted to stay with me for a few more years.

But he couldn’t hold on.

A fake Taoist who had spent his entire life swindling others couldn’t even fool death when it came for him.

Still, he had managed to swindle one real thing into his life.

On a certain day of a certain month in a certain year, he’d passed through a certain place and found me.

He said it was the only accurate prediction he had ever made.

But I didn’t think he had predicted it correctly.

I thought he had chosen correctly.

He had chosen me.

A child with not a drop of his blood, whom he chose to raise, teach to read, teach to tell fortunes, teach how to make her way in the world, and teach how to live happily.

He had spent his life pretending to be a Taoist so he could do one real thing.

I touched the wooden sword pendant at my waist, then the white jade pendant at my neck.

One had come from Liu Shouyu. The other from Fang Lingge.

The two most important people in my life were both gone.

But what they had left behind remained.

They weren’t worth much money.

But they were worth more than the Grand Preceptor’s land deed.

The horse kept ambling down the road.

Shu lay ahead.

I didn’t know whether Qingfeng Temple was still standing, whether Father’s old master was still alive, or what life would be like once I got there.

But that was all right.

Father had said—

If your fortune is wrong today, try again tomorrow.

If the sky falls, someone tall will hold it up.

Just eat well, sleep soundly, and live decently.

That’s enough.

On horseback, I flicked an apple seed into the air.

It traced an arc and landed in the grass by the roadside.

Then I spread out Father’s string of copper coins and cast a fortune for myself.

The pattern appeared. I took one look.

Wrong.

Just like Father’s, wrong.

But I laughed.

Because Father had said one more thing—

It doesn’t matter if the fortune is wrong.

What matters is that the person is right.

The End

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