There was no additional work that day. Huang Jinchen had nothing to do, so he put a gun on his back and went in to investigate the “big boiler.” This time, no one went in with him. With something of an exploratory air, he went in and out, playing around. 

Kou Tong had to go back to the hospital to get his cast off. He left first thing in the morning. Henceforth he could at last stand upright and walk like a human being. 

When they were seriously injured, people always had to pay a price if they had passed adolescence but were still wreaking havoc as though they were in middle school—for example, though Dr. Kou walked out of the hospital on his own like a human being, his walking posture was still rather novel. His wounded leg couldn’t quite find its strength and didn’t cooperate very harmoniously. After holding the wall and swaying, practicing for a while, he was tired enough to waver. So he decided to give himself a day off. 

He let General Zhong know. Standing in place, Kou Tong considered the future direction of his life in a very elegant posture. Then he waved a hand to flag down a taxi. 

He passed through the city center and arrived at a rather remote block. Though he was walking on one and a half legs, he still rather smoothly went over the dilapidated railing of an elementary school for migrant workers’ children, taking a super shortcut to a little alley behind the school. 

This place forgotten by the city planners had the nearly abandoned school playground on one side and low single-story houses on the other. Someone’s worn out cardboard boxes were blocking the way. There was just enough room for a single person to pass through. The thin cry of a cat made Kou Tong raise his head. He saw a little stray cat laying on the brick and tile roof, shakily sticking up its little tail and looking wide-eyed at him. 

Dr. Kou, who could appease babies crying in the night, felt around in his pocket and turned up a piece of soft milk candy. He tore open the wrapper and stood on tiptoe. 

The stray cat was probably still a kitten. It was very timid. Seeing someone extend a hand towards it, it couldn’t resist backing up, its tail shaking at a higher frequency. It warily bared sharp little teeth that hadn’t fully grown in yet and, putting on a show of strength, cried out again. 

Dr. Kou put the milk candy on the edge of a tile. The little stray cat hesitated. Then, as though feeling that this person was harmless, it meowed twice, then tentatively drew a step closer. It lowered its head to sniff the milky white candy, then licked it. 

Kou Tong smiled, turned, took the UV-protection glasses out of his pocket, put them on, and slowly walked on like a beast in human clothes. 

At the end of the houses, there was a small shop with a door god stuck to the door and a peach wood sword hanging up. The walls inside were stuck full of yellow talismans drawn with cinnabar. Like a frequent visitor, Kou Tong pushed aside the greasy, filthy curtain and went in. He leaned by the door, waiting, and saw a middle-aged woman with her back to him, talking to a bizarre old blind man wearing sunglasses. 

The old man said, “Looking at your and his Eight Characters…eh, there’s something I really shouldn’t be saying.” 

“Please tell me, sir.” 

“Eh, there’s a saying that has it that it’s better to destroy ten temples than a single marriage, but husband and wife must spend their days together day in and day out. Their fates must not be mutually destructive. In the past, when the ancients were married, they had their Eight Characters reckoned to make sure they matched, and chose an auspicious date. Only then could they fix a date to marry. But people these days, they’ve lost the traditions of their ancestors. Look here, ma’am, in the years since your marriage, your husband, has he been having a hard time in his career?” 

“Yes! Since he was young, he’s never been able to accomplish his ambitions. At first he could still make progress, but then it got worse and worse…” 

“And he began drinking to excess.” 

The woman said, “Yes! How can you know everything?” 

“Your child must be an adolescent, soon testing into…” 

“Testing into high school.” 

The old man twirled his beard, pursed his lips, and reckoned for a time, shaking and swaying his head. He sighed. “Madam, you have a fire fate, and your husband, he has a wood fate. Think about it, when wood meets fire, doesn’t it burn up?” 

Kou Tong watched the stupid woman looking at the old man as though clutching her last hope. “Then, sir…what should I do?” 

“Your Eight Characters and his are at odds. You ought not to be together in this life. After your marriage, your husband must have encountered many vile persons and been obstructed in his career. You must also have tasted of the bitterness of the mortal world while with him. Enduring hardships, every day his temper becomes irascible, until he can’t even control himself, isn’t that right?” 

“Yes, yes! Too true! It’s just how you say!” 

“The resentment between the two of you proceeds from your past lives. The disturbance has not yet ended in this life. I fear that…in the future, it will fall upon your child as well.” The old man continued to sway. “Lately…has the child been having trouble at school?” 

This sentence turned on the waterworks for the woman. Her eyes instantly reddened, and big teardrops came pattering down. After a long time, stopping and starting, she said, “I understand…what you mean, I know, the two of us, we should never have been together.” 

The old man very considerately got out a tissue and gave it to her. 

The woman collapsed emotionally, sobbing. After sobbing for a long time, about fifteen minutes, she slowly calmed down. A determined expression appeared on her face. She took a stack of bright red bills from her bag and put it on the table. “Old immortal, thank you so much. What you’ve said is right! I’ll go do what I have to do and divorce him. I’ll take my son and raise him into a man myself.” 

“Hey, hey, good…” What was good was the cash. Blue light was about to start shining from the old man’s eyes. His hands like chicken’s feet were grabbing for it when Kou Tong, leaning by the door, gave a heavy cough. The old man saw him and, as though caught in the act of stealing, quickly drew back his hands and looked upright and proper, as though he viewed money as worthless muck. “Well, you’re being too polite. I don’t want your money, madam. The world’s people are confused. For those who cultivate, like me, pointing people onto the right path is the equivalent of improving our own karma, accumulating good karma for ourselves. We do fine without things that stink of money. Take this back. If you think that what I said has merit, when your family and friends are in difficulties in the future, they may as well come and see me.” 

Kou Tong wanted to laugh but thought that in the presence of that bitterness like the family member of a murder victim, it wouldn’t be very appropriate for him to laugh, so he had to hold it in, feeling that the muscles of his face were twitching a little. He turned his face away and stealthily rubbed them. 

When the woman had left with profuse gratitude, he ostentatiously walked in and plopped down in front of the old man. “Immortal Ji, will you tell my fortune?” 

Immortal Ji looked askance at him and snorted. He slowly stood up, closed the door, and hung up a sign saying “Three fortunes completed, come early tomorrow.” 

Then he turned his head and glared at Kou Tong, seething. “Is there any need to tell your fortune? You’re a bringer of bad luck. You’ve come to stand in the way of my livelihood!” 

Kou Tong said, “Don’t talk crap. Egging the woman on to get divorced and taking her money, aren’t you worried that the Kings of Hell will pull out your tongue when you get there?” 

Immortal Ji rudely slapped him on the back of the head. “You’re the one talking crap. That’s feudal superstition!” 

Kou Tong looked at him in admiration, thinking that even an armored car would feel inferior next to a face that was this thick! 

Immortal Ji lit a cigarette and slowly said, “She’s come to me many times. She has many wounds. At a glance, they come from domestic violence. You saw her clothes. While they aren’t name brand clothes, they’re still quite tasteful. She must be a woman who cares about appearances and likes cleanliness, yet she came here in her slippers—if she wasn’t at her wit’s end, would she be in such a rush?” 

Hearing this, Kou Tong thought it made some sense. He asked, “How did you know that her husband was unable to accomplish his ambitions because he encountered vile persons? And that he drinks to excess?” 

“Well, she told me herself.” The old man breathed out a leisurely smoke ring. “She said herself that her husband doesn’t come home after work but fools around with others outside and only comes back in the middle of the night. I’ve seen plenty of men like that. When they’re out in public, they let themselves be bullied and put on a helpless act. Then at night they drink some cheap swill and go home to throw their weight around with their wives. Doesn’t matter why they’re unable to accomplish their ambitions, most of the time they’ll still blame it on others. ‘Encountered vile persons’ must be his own excuse. Anyway, that woman, she doesn’t strike me as the kind to endure humiliation. The two of them must fight a lot. How could she not be irritable, spending her life with a person like that?” 

Kou Tong laughed. “Then how did you know that her child’s grades weren’t ideal? The child might have been particularly sensible. Doesn’t everyone say poor people’s children start managing the household young?” 

“When did I say that the child’s grades were bad?” Immortal Ji was entertained. “I just asked her whether the child had been having trouble at school. If there was trouble, then she would naturally think that I had hit the nail on the head, and if there was no trouble, then couldn’t I just have said ‘that’s good’ and moved on? When she came last time, there was a practice exam book she had bought for the child in her bag. I glimpsed a corner of it. So I knew there had to be a child of that age in her house. Even if the child didn’t have trouble at school, when she heard that, she would still have thought that I wouldn’t ask a useless question. It would have been a warning to her that the child was at a critical moment and she had to provide against possible trouble.” 

Kou Tong was speechless, suddenly thinking that these old fortunetellers were the true experts. 

Immortal Ji looked him over and said, “How come you have time to come see me and aren’t out fooling around?” 

“My leg is bothering me,” Kou Tong said unblushingly and magnanimously. “I went out a while ago and had an accident, broke my leg, and the cast has just been removed. Now it still doesn’t hold up well. It would spoil the fun.” 

Immortal Ji looked at the glasses on his face and snorted unhappily, muttering, “That’s evasive.” 

“I just…suddenly wanted to come and sit with you for a while,” Kou Tong finally said quietly after a while. 

“You can sit with me. Take your glasses off, look here.” Immortal Ji gestured at his own eyes. He had taken his sunglasses off at some point. His eyes were not only not blind, they had an old man’s particular incisiveness.

Kou Tong hesitated. 

Without warning, Immortal Ji rolled up the sleeve of his shirt, revealing the messy scars on the forearm of Dr. Kou, who wore long-sleeved shirts year round. Most of these scars were cuts from sharp implements; some were cigarette burns. The cuts were all deep on the outside and shallow on the inside, as though…he had made them himself. 

Immortal Ji coldly said, “I’ve already seen this. What are you still scared of me seeing?” 

Kou Tong laughed wryly and rolled down his sleeve, buttoning his cuff. He took off his glasses and quietly looked at Immortal Ji.

“Have you been dreaming again?” the old man asked, puffing on his cigarette. 

“Yeah.” Kou Tong laced his fingers together and put his elbows on the table. “This time I smashed the mirror, and it broke, but the person inside didn’t come out… I feel…like he won’t come out for the rest of my life.” 

Immortal Ji didn’t answer. 

“When I got up, I saw the mirror in my room and automatically did the same thing I do in my dream—I smiled at the mirror. But the person in the mirror didn’t smile at me. I suddenly thought then that…” 

“That someone else had appeared in the mirror?” Old Man Ji asked. 

“No… It was that I had been trapped in the mirror. I nearly smashed the mirror again. I only recovered when my colleague called to me.” Kou Tong frowned, his expression suddenly a little weary. “Of course, I may just have been confused first thing in the morning, but Old Man Ji, we aren’t people to believe our own lies. I’m afraid that…if things keep going like this, this will become a hallucination.” 

The old man frowned. “Scared of being trapped in the mirror—what kind of anxiety is that? Have you been inside your own consciousness space?” 

“I have. It’s very unstable and collapses rather easily.” 

“Oh…” The old man thought for a long time, then spoke cautiously: “Kou Tong, are you a little scared that…” 

But before he could finish speaking, the phone in Kou Tong’s pocket rang. He took it out, looked at the incoming caller display, and casually explained, “It’s Su Qing, I asked him to look into someone for me yesterday… Hello?” 

The moment he picked up the phone, Kou Tong’s faint anxiety, pallor, and haggardness all magically vanished, as though he was once again a man who could sparkle when given a bit of sunlight, so happy it was as if he hadn’t grown up. After less than two sentences, he hastily stood up. “I’ve got it, thanks… Fine, no problem, I’ll treat you to dinner another time.” 

Then he hurriedly said goodbye to Immortal Ji. “I have something to do today. We won’t speak anymore. I’ll come see you again another time.” 

He turned and ran.