My years as a fortune teller

The Temple of the Eight Immortals is located outside the east gate of Xi'an, Shaanxi. It is said that this is the famous Chang'an Winery in ancient times. The reason why the Chang'an Winery is known to all women and children is because it was once the place where one of the Eight Immortals, Han Zhongli, enlightened Lu Dongbin.

Legend has it that Lu Dongbin was a scholar when he was not a fairy. He came to Beijing to take the exam that year. After meeting Han Zhongli, he had a dream. After waking up from the dream, he realized that life is just a dream.So he gave up the exam and followed his teacher Han Zhongli to the mountains to enlighten Taoism and cultivate immortality.After Lu Zu Lu Dongbin became a fairy, he manifested here many times to benefit the people.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, the Eight Immortals Nunnery was built by borrowing part of the Xingqing Palace of the Tang Dynasty, mainly to worship Emperor Donghua and Lu Zu.After several generations of renovations, it has gradually become a ten-square jungle of the Quanzhen School of Taoism.After the Eight-Power Allied Forces attacked Beijing, when the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu fled to Xi'an for refuge, she allocated 1000 taels of silver and ordered the presiding priest Li Zongyang at that time to rebuild the Eight Immortals Nunnery and named it "Emperor Jian Wanshou Eight Immortals Palace".

Now, apart from some antique shops around the Eight Immortals Palace, most of them are fortune-telling shops. Although there are a lot of xxx masters passing on disciples, xxx successors, etc., many of them are fake.

And I also do divination business in a house of more than ten square meters on the second floor of the antique city here. Due to the popularity and no publicity advertisements, and no stalls below to solicit customers, very few customers come to my place.

On a new day, I still get up at six o'clock. After worshiping the statue of the patriarch in the room, I start to meditate and stand upright.This is what my master taught me many years ago, and I gradually formed a habit.

At midnight, the smell of various delicious breakfasts came in from the window. I put on my slippers and went downstairs to buy two fritters. I went back upstairs and sat at the table to enjoy my breakfast.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door, strange, who knocked on my door so early.Could it be the landlord? I get a headache when I think of a landlord who is less than 1.70 meters tall and has a sloppy face.Although I have been in Xi'an for almost ten years, his non-stop Shaanxi dialect and unreasonable expression really gave me some headaches.

With trepidation, I opened the door, and an obese middle-aged woman appeared in front of me.What is she doing so early?I asked with doubts on my face: "Hello! What do you want?"

The woman looked at me, and then looked into the room: "I'm looking for Master Zhang, and I want to have a fortune-telling." Hearing this, I almost jumped up for joy, the patriarch finally took pity on me, and sent me a client so early .

I didn't have time to thank the patriarch, so I let her into the room in a panic.The woman looked at the breakfast I put on the table and said, "I haven't eaten yet, you eat first, I'll wait, when will Master Zhang come?"

I said while packing my breakfast, "I'm the one you're looking for, but I'm not a master, I'm just a junior of Yi Xue..."

"What? It's you!" Before I could finish my sentence, I was interrupted by the surprised tone of the woman.

"What's wrong? Can't it work?" I asked strangely. "No, no!" the woman said quickly.I smiled and said, "You're afraid that I'm too young to be considered cheating on you, right?"

When I said this, the woman was a little embarrassed. "Don't worry, don't think I'm young. If I'm not sure, I won't charge you a penny, okay?"

Hearing what I said, the woman quickly said in embarrassment: "I didn't mean that, I didn't mean that."In order to show off my talents, and also to prevent her from underestimating me.I lit three sticks of incense in front of the statue of the patriarch, and then bowed three times.

I walked to the woman and sat down, "Please show me your hand," I said to the woman.The woman hurriedly handed me her right hand.I smiled and said: "I look at the left hand first, then the right hand".

The woman said suspiciously: "Aren't men left and women right?" I was not in the mood to give her a detailed introduction, but simply told her that the left hand is innate and the right hand is acquired.

After looking at the woman's hands for about half an hour, I told her: "Your middle finger is plump and bright like a mirror. This is the palmistry of a rich man. But if it is not flat or straight, it is a little crooked, which means that you have no relatives. Parents who are around 35 years old You will lose one person. And the cross mark on your hand is connected to the middle finger, which means that you came to fortune-telling this time because you were involved in a lawsuit by your friends because of money." At this point, I looked up at the woman, and saw that her mouth was in an O-shape, and her face was full. doubts.

I asked, "Why did I say something wrong?" The woman shook her head first, then nodded.I was confused by her flustered expression.

The woman regained her composure, and hurriedly said: "No, Master, what you said is correct. I came here to seek divination for these things. I hope Master will save me..." Before she finished speaking, tears burst into tears. It flowed down with a splash.

I don't want to see a woman cry, so I persuaded her and brought her tissues at the same time.The woman wiped her tears, then looked at me.I took out three Qianlong Tongbao and told her: "Don't be nervous, ask a divination, I will help you solve it"

The woman picked up the three copper coins I gave, put them in her hand and shook them.Seeing this scene, the little stars on my forehead were spinning, thinking why don't you wait for me to finish speaking?

The first time the three copper plates fell on the table, it was normal, the second time it was normal, and the third time the two copper plates were pressed together.

The woman picked it up and was about to continue shaking. I hurriedly grabbed her hand: "The elder sister's hexagram is not shaken like this, and the two copper plates are pressed together. This hexagram has failed. You will be restless. Rest and shake again." .”

The woman looked at me inexplicably and said: "That's how the xxxx in the alley ahead asked me to ask for divination, and he didn't say anything..."

"If you ask for divination here, you must follow what I said, or please go out and find those people," I said angrily.In fact, I can’t blame people like women. I don’t know the mentality of many people who use six-line divination. They don’t follow the rules at all. angry.

The woman seemed frightened by my angry appearance, and stared at me blankly.I didn't know what to say, so I quickly let go of her hand, sat opposite her, and said with a smile, "I'm sorry, big sister, I was a little anxious just now..."

The woman also smiled: "It's okay, you are a master, an expert, you can do whatever you say, as long as I am right..." The woman didn't say what she said, and I knew what she wanted to say.

I hastily diverted the conversation: "Eldest sister, your surname is..." "My surname is Cheng, Cheng Jingmin, and you, how can you do this at such a young age?" the woman said.

"Sister Cheng, huh, I have liked Chinese since I was a child, and I have a special interest in classical Chinese. Later, I bought a week of changes in a second-hand bookstore in my hometown, and started to study by myself. Later, I met my teacher and father, Just give up everything and start attacking Liu Yao.”

"Oh, no wonder." The woman seemed to understand and nodded.I then asked: "Sister Cheng is not from Shaanxi, is she? I read palms, and I am far away from my ancestral business. I can't rely on my relatives..."

The woman nodded vaguely when she heard this, and I felt embarrassed to ask again when I saw this, lest people later think that I will make a formula first and then do a fortune-telling or something.

I stood up and poured a glass of water for the woman, put it in front of her, and then took out the Yi Xue classic "Addition, Deletion, and Supplement" from the drawer, and found out from the book why the copper plates are pressed together that the hexagram fails, and pointed it out to her.

"Sister Cheng, you can see that the hexagram failure of overlapping copper plates is not up to me. Mr. Yehe, a master of divination 100 years ago, said so, and there are related sayings in many ancient books. As for those people outside I can’t control why it’s not like this when divination, but here I must follow these, not only for me, but also for your divination to be more accurate, you say yes!”

The woman listened to me while reading the book. "So that's the case, so those outside are all lies?" The woman's words completely drove me off my nerves.

I also know that there are many deceitful people out there, but how should I say this?

I thought about it for a while and smiled and said: "It depends on whether you are right or not, no matter what method you use, if you do the right calculation and solve the current problem, it will be done. Do you think so?" "

The woman nodded: "That's right, can we start with the Master Zhang?" I checked the time, and it was almost 15 minutes later, and I nodded with a serious expression, "Okay, I will teach you to ask for divination."