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Later, the rain brought a cold wind, and a cold autumn rain fell. The withered yellow leaves fluttered down. Jia Xu looked at the falling leaves outside the window and suddenly realized that autumn had already arrived.
Guo Jia still seemed disorganized every day. Although he didn't complete his tasks perfectly, he occasionally appeared at the top, which made everyone marvel and shake their heads.
When the weather turned cold, Guo Jia didn't like to run down the mountain, so he turned to run into the women's school. He had a sweet mouth and could talk, and the girls were willing to play with him. Sometimes Xun Yu would go to catch people, and when Cai Yan's senior sister was in a good mood, she would say a few good words.
Jia Xu once asked why Guo Jia liked to play with girls so much. Guo Jia raised his eyebrows and took Jia Xu to the wall. Guo Jia stepped on the raised bluestone bricks and leaned against the wall, pointing to the girls in the neighboring courtyard. "Look, that one is from the Li family, a tomboy who started martial arts at three and carried a spear at eight. At fifteen, she went to the battlefield with her grandfather. The one from the Wang family is also a tomboy, skilled in archery. The one from the Zhang family writes beautiful poetry and calligraphy, and she can also write books. And that one, from the collateral branch of the the Xun, is also a tomboy and excels in strategy." Every time Guo Jia pointed to a girl, he could say which family she was from, her full name, her achievements, and her strengths.
tomboy found Guo Jia on the wall and called out to him to come and play. Guo Jia smiled and replied, "No, today I have to accompany Wenhe to study!" Then the girls threw two oranges, which were caught steadily by Guo Jia and Jia Xu. After jumping down from the wall, Guo Jia tossed the oranges and asked Jia Xu, "Do you understand now?" Jia Xu nodded, seeming to understand.
Guo Jia continued, "Fate is unfair. In the future, when they become wives, they may take their husband's surname, give up their beloved pursuits, manage household chores, and raise children, becoming unlike themselves. Now, let's enjoy more, praise more. Perhaps in the future, in different places, they can still recall the days of fun at Beiyong academy."
Guo Jia paused and turned to Jia Xu, asking seriously, "Will you forget me, Wenhe? After leaving Beiyong academy, we may enter officialdom, or become advisors to others. We may not meet as often as now. Will you forget me?"
Jia Xu shook his head and answered just as seriously, "I won't."
Guo Jia smiled and pushed a segment of orange into Jia Xu's mouth, saying, "But the future is the most uncontrollable thing."
Fate stretched and stretched in a single space, and the limited space of the Nine Provinces was suddenly pushed by an endless stream of memories in the spiritual realm. It violently squeezed into the boundless world of a leaf, and all the flat images became three-dimensional, with the dead ashes surging and rushing.
And "He" is in it, entangled with sparrow and snakes throughout life, in the twists and turns of fate. It is said that when the lotus blooms, it represents a person's enlightenment of self-awareness and the ultimate journey of knowledge. This is the ultimate self.
After the White Dew, it's autumn, and the Autumn Equinox happens to be the Mid-Autumn Festival. The students who can't go home gather in groups of three or five with familiar people to celebrate the festival. Guo Jia rarely took the initiative to knock on Jia Xu's door. Seeing Jia Xu's somewhat bewildered look, Guo Jia smiled and said, "Come on, I'll take you to light the lanterns."
Surrounding the river of Beiyong, reflecting the twinkling lights.
Guo Jia glanced and then, holding Jia Xu's hand, turned and walked upstream.
The rugged mountain path, the rustling of trees in the forest, Guo Jia carrying the flower lantern in front, Jia Xu lagging half a step behind, watching his loose and flowing hair, and a small tuft swaying with each step.
The river water in the upper reaches reveals the exposed riverbed, with water soaking through and drying the sandy soil. Guo Jia crossed the guardrail of the mountain road and slowly slid down, taking out a match from his sleeve and gently lighting the candles on the flower lantern.
Guo Jia held the flower lantern, and the dim candlelight flickered, illuminating Guo Jia's increasingly long face. Jia Xu also held a flower lantern, looking at Guo Jia through the candlelight. Guo Jia seemed to have thought of something and chuckled softly, the low laughter pressing against his chest, like the gurgling sound of flowing water.
Guo Jia didn't say what he was thinking, just calmly put down the flower lantern. The lantern flowed down with the soft riverbed, flowing and flowing, leaving only a distant tail.
After that, Guo Jia said, "Wenhe, the moon is about to come out. Make a wish to the moon goddess." Jia Xu pushed Guo Jia's head closer and said, "Why don't you make a wish?" Guo Jia smiled sullenly and said, "Because we didn't bring any incense. Without the medium, I don't know if the moon goddess can hear my wish."
Jia Xu reached out to twist Guo Jia's arm and said, "Guo Fengxiao, you're trying to trick me again!"
Guo Jia exclaimed and lifted his leg to dodge, but unexpectedly slipped on the wet riverbank. He fell straight down, hitting his waist on a sharp rock, and let out a muffled groan.
It was common for Guo Jia to be beaten while playing around with Jia Xu, but usually, he would just fall to the ground and then start acting like a rascal, grabbing Jia Xu's clothes. Jia Xu was almost used to this, so he didn't react immediately when Guo Jia was really hurt.
Guo Jia hunched over, hanging his head in silence. It wasn't until Jia Xu rushed over, grasping Guo Jia's hand and tremblingly asking, "Where are you hurt?!" that Guo Jia reacted. He bit his lip, the pain causing black spots to dance before his eyes, making it almost impossible for him to speak. Jia Xu called out Guo Jia's name several times, and it was only then, as if summoned back to some semblance of consciousness, that Guo Jia reached out and held Jia Xu's hand, signaling for him not to worry. But with sweat the size of soybeans dripping from his forehead onto the back of his hand, the soft hair at the roots almost instantly soaked through, how could Jia Xu not worry?
Jia Xu squatted in front of Guo Jia and said, "Come up, I'll carry you back."
Guo Jia slowly moved onto Jia Xu's back, and it wasn't until they had walked a short distance down the mountain that he finally recovered, gently pressing his forehead against Jia Xu's neck and saying, "I'm fine."
Jia Xu coldly said in a low voice, "Don't speak."
Guo Jia responded with a slow "oh," then lay on his back and held the lamp restlessly, whispering in Jia Xu's ear, "I'll sing you a Yuefu poem I heard last time I went out to play. 'The grasshopper flutters its wings, fluttering and flapping... It should be ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
Guo Jia lay on the bed in the medical department of the academy, holding Jia Xu's hand. The physician was needling Guo Jia's waist injury, saying it wasn't serious, but Jia Xu's face darkened at the sight of the bruise. Guo Jia tugged at Jia Xu's hand to signal him to come closer. Jia Xu bent down, thinking Guo Jia wanted to say something, but was surprised when a slightly cool, sweaty hand covered his eyes.
When the needle fell, Guo Jia let out a soft hiss, but still covered Jia Xu's eyes firmly and said, "Don't look, it's okay."
Jia Xu's eyes trembled, and his eyelashes brushed against Guo Jia's palm. He held his hand and whispered, "I'm sorry."
Due to the pain, Guo Jia didn't sleep well. He would wake up several times at night, moaning and calling for Wenhe and Senior Xun. Unable to find them, he would drift back to sleep in a daze, adding two more dark circles to his already pale face.
Guo Jia was humming and not moving, with a note stuck on Jia Xu's arm. Jia Xu pushed Guo Jia's head and said, "I'm going out for a while." Jia Xu left in a hurry, and before Guo Jia could ask where he was going, he had already disappeared through the door. Guo Jia boredly flipped through the books and lightly touched the annotations left by Jia Xu. When Jia Xu returned, Guo Jia was almost falling asleep. He looked at Jia Xu with a piece of peach branch in his hand and asked, "What's this for?"
Jia Xu pushed Guo Jia away a little, and pressed a small peach branch under Guo Jia's pillow, saying, "Pressing the peach branch under the pillow will prevent nightmares. My mother used to do this for me when I had nightmares before."
Guo Jia lay on the pillow that Jia Xu had patted, and asked, holding Jia Xu's fingertips, "So Wenhe also believes in this?"
Jia Xu looked at Guo Jia strangely and asked back, "You believe that planting spring crops will lead to success. Why can't I believe that pressing a peach branch under the pillow can dispel evil spirits?"
Guo Jia hugged Jia Xu around the waist and chuckled softly. His waist felt itchy, but he didn't want to push Guo Jia away, so he just sat there with a straight face, waiting for Guo Jia to finish laughing.
Then Guo Jia suddenly exclaimed, "We haven't paid our respects to the moon goddess yet!"
Jia Xu pushed Guo Jia's head back onto the bed and said, "We can do it next time."
The cicadas stopped singing abruptly after the autumn day. Jia Xu looked at the cicada shell on the tree and remembered what Chen Gong said on Ling Mountain: The cicada is endowed with the symbolic meaning of resurrection and eternal life. From the late Zhou Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, people always placed a jade cicada in the mouth of the deceased, in the hope that the deceased would be blessed and have eternal life. At that time, Chen Gong also raised a question: What is eternal life?
Later scholars criticized Qin Shihuang for seeking immortality and Taoism, crossing the ocean at great cost to the people, but when people's hearts are enveloped by gold and silver treasures, and desires for power and wealth, when you stand at the peak of destiny—
They stood at the edge of a steep cliff, and the mist-shrouded Ling Mountain, which they had gazed at from the bottom of the mountain, was now beneath their feet. The deep abyss was covered by thick clouds, and the echoes of falling rocks gradually faded away. The mist seemed like a beast ready to devour people, yet Chen Gong stood behind them all, speaking lightly and slowly, like a drifting ghost that could push them at any moment.
"When you stand at the pinnacle of fate, how do you maintain your true self? Unlike these falling rocks, which shatter and disappear," Chen Gong did not leave a definite answer, because when someone asked, he replied, "This is the answer you will seek throughout your life."
Just as the great road is formless, it becomes the eyes that overlook the world in the distant horizon, witnesses the passing people on the forest mountain paths, and becomes the traces trodden on the stone bricks in the streets and alleys.
Jia Xu was thinking when Guo Jia suddenly jumped out from the window and shouted loudly, startling Jia Xu who jumped and almost hit him with the book in his hand.
This time it was Guo Jia who got scared and he raised the yellow mud block in his hand and shouted surrender.
Jia Xu asked, "What is this?" Guo Jia raised his eyebrows and said triumphantly, "It's called beggar's chicken. I managed to grab it just as the seniors finished roasting it!"
The two of them squatted together, earnestly unwrapping the yellow mud and uncovering the fragrant lotus leaves. The chicken wrapped in lotus leaves was tender, juicy, and aromatic. Guo Jia couldn't help but swallow his saliva, and he used bamboo chopsticks to peel off a chicken leg and give it to Jia Xu.
As Jia Xu took a bite, he heard Guo Jia say, "It was quite a commotion when catching the chicken. You wouldn't believe it, Senior Zhang was actually scared of the chicken and ended up climbing up the wall. But he still got pecked on the butt by the flying chicken!"
Upon hearing the words "catching chickens," Jia Xu keenly sensed that something was amiss, so he asked, "Where did you... catch the chickens?"
Guo Jia, unconcerned, took a bite of the chicken and said, "In the backyard."
Upon hearing Guo Jia's answer, Jia Xu's heart sank, and he put down the meat, saying seriously, "These chickens were raised by Teacher Cui to nourish his wife after she gave birth."
Guo Jia also stopped his hand and then thought for a moment before stuffing another bite into his mouth, saying, "Then tomorrow, I'll go down the mountain and buy another nest to compensate Teacher Cui."
Before tomorrow arrived, Teacher Cui brought a group of seniors who looked like quails to Jia Xu's courtyard. Before they even arrived, they heard a vigorous shout, "Guo Jia! Get out here!"
Guo Jia didn't escape, quickly wiped his hands and rolled out. Over a dozen people lined up in two rows and were scolded by Teacher Cui. During the process, someone whispered, "As Teacher Cui reaches middle age, his combat power becomes even more fierce."
Halfway through scolding, Teacher Cui realized that Jia Xu was also in the crowd, so he pointed at Jia Xu and asked, "Wenhe, why are you getting scolded with this group of fools?" Jia Xu remained silent for a while before replying, "Not knowing where the food comes from, the student also partook." Teacher Cui deflated a bit and said, "Ignorance is not a crime," then immediately arranged for everyone to take over the academy's cleaning duties as punishment.
Guo Jia hesitated for a moment before choosing Jia Xu and said, "The two of you go to the library and copy books for me!"
The library was lit with an everlasting lamp, and Jia Xu sat earnestly at the desk, holding a pen to start copying. Guo Jia, on the other hand, started complaining about his sore hands and legs shortly after starting to copy, and he leaned over to Jia Xu, seeking comfort.
Jia Xu doesn't know what Guo Jia means, but his constant restlessness is truly annoying, so he turned away and didn't look at him.
Guo Jia wasn't upset about being rejected by Jia Xu. Like maltose sticking to Jia Xu's hand, he reached out to take the pen from Jia Xu's hand, but Jia Xu suddenly raised his hand, causing Guo Jia to miss, and he ended up pressing Guo Jia down on the table.
Due to inertia, Guo Jia also fell on top of Jia Xu, and the bamboo slips and inkstone fell to the ground, rolling far away, while the two were within arm's reach.
It's so close that Guo Jia can see the tiny hairs on Jia Xu's face illuminated by the candlelight. Guo Jia brushes his lips against Jia Xu's cheek, then presses his face next to Jia Xu's, softly saying, "I'm sorry, Wenhe, don't be mad at me."
The touch was so light, as if it were an illusion. Jia Xu grabs Guo Jia's hair and pulls his face away, saying, "I'm not mad, you're not allowed to act cute anymore."
Unconvinced, Guo Jia buries his face again, hugging Jia Xu's waist and rubbing back and forth. A tingling sensation runs from the waist to the top of the head. Jia Xu pulls Guo Jia away again, angrily saying, "If you do this again, I'll really be mad!"
Guo Jia reluctantly let go of his hand and knelt down, gazing eagerly at Jia Xu with his affectionate hazel-green eyes.
It was no secret in Yingchuan that Guo Jia could "see" the future. Since he was able to speak, every word he uttered would come true in the near future. For a long time, Guo Jia's words became a "curse" in the hearts of the people, but due to the reputation of the Guo and the Xun, no one dared to confront him directly.
That is, until a wandering Taoist arrived.
The Taoist passed by the Guo Family Gate and saw the aura swirling above the house. He calculated and asked the servant at the gate, "In the year of Ren Zi, the month of Water, the day of Gui You, and the year of Ding Mao, is there a young master born in the mansion?" The servant was greatly surprised that the unremarkable-looking Taoist directly stated the birth information of their young master, and quickly sought the advice of the master of the house. When the Taoist asked whether every word spoken by Guo Jia would come true, Guo's father and Guo's mother were even more astonished.
The diviner calculated a simple decision: "Young master, the heavenly stems contain a pair of Geng metal, which generates a mutually beneficial relationship. The earthly branch contains the fire of the Snake, which also generates a mutually beneficial relationship. The end soil also assists the original vitality of the Geng metal. The young master's destiny is very prosperous, but the young master has opened the Sky Eye, which will consume his life."
Guo's father asked cautiously, "Is there a solution?"
Guo Jia is a child born in a life-threatening situation for Madam Guo, and has always been fragile, causing great distress at any slight injury.
The diviner shook his head, and Guo's mother nervously clutched the handkerchief in her hand. The diviner took a copper coin from his sleeve and tossed it into the sky. As it landed, he carefully observed the pattern and said, "Before the young master reaches adulthood, it is absolutely forbidden to speak of anything 'seen.' Light consequences will deplete one's lifespan, while severe ones will lead to sudden death."
As the diviner departed, he added, "The Sky Eye is a double-edged sword. It is crucial to properly guide the young master and prevent him from taking the wrong path."
Afterwards, the elders in the family repeatedly warned Guo Jia not to speak of the things he had seen. Over time, everyone forgot about the "curse," but its cost was realized one day. Guo Jia's grandmother, as usual, was about to go to the mountain temple to worship, but she was stopped by Guo Jia who had returned from skipping school. Only after he uttered the words "mountain path," did Guo Jia suddenly start vomiting blood and then developed a high fever that wouldn't subside. That night, Yingchuan experienced an unprecedented heavy rain, causing a landslide on the mountain path that killed many people.
After this ordeal, Guo Jia fell ill for a long time, and even made a trip to the gates of hell. His family no longer expected Guo Jia to have any great ambitions, they only wished for his safety.
As he grew older, Guo Jia could see more and more things, and the more he saw, the clearer it became to him what price he had to pay.
When trying to change his fate, the price had already been secretly marked by fate.
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