Xie Tao sat in the lobby of the small tavern, glancing back at the two pairs of couplets posted on the tavern’s entrance door.
This was Xie Tao’s first time seeing them. Instead of being posted outside, the couplets were affixed inside, and there were even two pairs of them.
One pair had red backgrounds with black characters, while the other had white backgrounds with black characters.
On the red couplet, it was written:
Front foot in, you’re a troubled soul in the mortal world.
Back foot out, you’re just a laughing stock online.
????
Xie Tao doubted if she had read it correctly. Could someone really write couplets like this??
She looked at the adjacent white couplet:
Upper couplet: When all evils are done, please come inside.
Lower couplet: Destiny brings people from afar to meet their end.
????
What on earth was this??
Xie Tao glanced upwards and saw the horizontal banner shared by the two pairs of couplets: Welcome.
“…”
She couldn’t help feeling like she was in a bizarre dream.
“Aren’t these couplets quite literary?” A lazy male voice came.
When Xie Tao turned around, she saw a young man wearing a dark green hoodie and dragging a pair of flip-flops on his feet, placing a glass of water on her table.
He patted his chest and chuckled, “I wrote them.”
“…”
Xie Tao didn’t know how to react.
She held the cup of slightly purplish water, but didn’t dare to drink.
“Let me introduce myself,”
The young man sat across from her, crossing his legs and propping his chin with one hand. He looked at her and said, “I’m Xie Lan.”
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“…Xie Tao,” she answered honestly.
The young man raised an eyebrow at hearing this, “Same surname, and both with two characters, what a coincidence.”
Xie Tao smirked. In a place so mysterious, she felt a bit uneasy.
“What kind of place is this?” she asked.
Xie Lan reached out, and his thermos appeared in his hand out of thin air.
He leisurely unscrewed the lid, took a sip, then said, “Don’t worry, this is a place that values love and peace very much.”
??
Xie Tao felt like she couldn’t understand what he was talking about at all.
“A guest has arrived.”
At that moment, a slightly hoarse voice rang out.
When Xie Tao looked up, she saw a middle-aged man in a moon-white robe pulling back the curtain and walking out from behind.
The man had deep facial features, and although his face bore the marks of time, his eyes were still very clear and penetrating.
Those eyes didn’t look like the eyes of someone who had lived more than half a life.
When the man walked over, Xie Tao asked, “Are you the owner here?”
“I’m not the owner,” the middle-aged man smiled and shook his head, then pointed to the young man sitting across from Xie Tao, peeling peanuts, “He is.”
“…”
Xie Tao stared at the young man who was throwing peanuts into his mouth, feeling that him being the owner was a bit unbelievable.
“Do you want some, little sister?”
Xie Lan peeled a peanut and looked up to see Xie Tao’s doubtful eyes.
Xie Tao was about to say no need, but before she could speak, Xie Lan threw a peanut into her mouth.
She bit the peanut subconsciously, her almond-shaped eyes wide open.
Fried, and quite fragrant?
“The fact is, I indeed am the owner here, but I became the owner quite passively, um… you can understand it as a nominal owner, just a temporary kind,” Xie Lan said casually while peeling peanuts.
“Oh…” Xie Tao munched on the peanut, nodding her head, somewhat understanding.
“His surname is Xi, just call him Old Xi.”
Xie Lan, still peeling peanuts, took a moment to point at the middle-aged man who sat down beside him.
“…Hello, Uncle Xi.”
Xie Tao hesitated for a moment, still not calling him “Old Xi.”
“Can I ask a question?” Xie Tao hesitated for a while but finally spoke up.
“You want to ask about that day’s incident, right?”
Xie Lan threw another peanut into his mouth, “The girl who choked you that day was actually being controlled. If I hadn’t arrived in time, you might have lost your life.”
“But I’m saying, who did you offend? Why would someone go to such lengths to target you?”
No wonder Zhao Yixuan said she didn’t remember choking her at all.
Xie Tao was somewhat lost in thought.
It seemed there were many things beyond her imagination in this world, things beyond nature.
“Their goal isn’t you, but someone else,” Old Xi sorted out his slightly wrinkled robe, his tone as calm and serene as ever.
“Be clearer, Old Xi,” Xie Lan was somewhat impatient.
He was still completely in the dark.
That day, Old Xi had hurriedly urged him to save someone without explaining the situation clearly.
Xie Tao also didn’t understand what he meant.
“Somebody has bound another person’s fate to yours.”
Old Xi lowered his eyelids, concealing his meaningful expression.
The steam still wafted from the teacups on the table, the thin smoke twirling and quickly dissipating, as the three of them sat opposite each other in the tavern’s main hall, the surroundings exceptionally quiet.
“The person’s target is not for you, but to eliminate the one who has bound their fate to yours.”
“As long as you die, he will die.”
Old Xi’s words were brief but clear enough for Xie Tao to grasp their general meaning.
But… this sounded utterly incredible.
“How can someone else’s fate be tied to mine?”
She murmured, holding her cup.
“There are many things in this world you don’t know about, just like you’re sitting in this tavern now, but in the next second, you might not be here anymore.”
Xie Lan ruffled the girl’s hair, messing it up before letting go.
But to Xie Tao, it seemed as if a wave of light and shadow flashed before her eyes, and the next second, when she looked up, she found herself sitting on a bus stop bench, with traffic flowing in front of her and various neon silhouettes and skyscrapers opposite.
If it weren’t for the slightly purple-colored water she was still holding, she would have almost thought everything she had just seen was an illusion.
The water in her hand felt still warm, and as she stood up, looking around at everything, she was completely dazed.
“Don’t be scared, little sister Tao Tao, Old Xi has already separated your fate from that person’s, see you next time!”
Xie Lan’s voice seemed to come from a particularly distant place.
At that moment, she felt a burning pain on her right wrist and saw a blue light slowly emerge from her wrist and then disappear.
“Also, the water in your hand is not poisoned, and it’s super good for beauty and health, don’t waste it.”
Xie Lan’s voice came again, like earnest advice.
“…”
Xie Tao felt overwhelmed by the amount of information she had received that night.
She stood there dumbly for a good ten minutes until her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she belatedly reached in to take it out.
There was a new message on the WeChat interface.
From Wei Yun.
“Calligraphy practice.”
This was the message sent before her reply.
Holding the strangely colored water in one hand and her phone in the other, Xie Tao recalled all the unscientific people and events she had just witnessed. Standing in the slightly cool night breeze, she struggled to type with one hand:
“You might not believe me if I say this, but I think I just saw a ghost…”
A few minutes later, she received a reply:
“Indeed, I don’t believe it.”
