Ye Zhengyi sighed with emotion, but neither the skinny man nor I was buying it. We both watched him coldly.
The smile on Ye Zhengyi's face still held, but it had grown somewhat strained. He sighed, let the smile fade, and slumped his shoulders and head.
"To be honest, I never expected things to come to this. I really was outmaneuvered by Liu Che's apprentice. I only became sure of that after seeing you," Ye Zhengyi admitted.
I frowned. "Liu Che's apprentice?"
Ye Zhengyi had deceived me before, so I was paying close attention to his choice of words.
"His apprentice. That fake Taoist priest." Ye Zhengyi nodded. "Xuan Qing, I think his name is. It was him. Fate and fortune..."
"What exactly happened?" I interrupted his latest sigh.
Ye Zhengyi cleared his throat. "Well..." His expression darkened and brightened in turn for a while before he finally said, "I wasn't so sure before. But now that I think about it... it should be his ability. As far as I know, only Heaven can determine people's fates like this and force them together. In other words, it's what people call 'destiny.' That destiny is decided while a person is entering and leaving the underworld."
He explained in detail, "After death, when people enter the underworld, they return to Heaven's hands, and it can arrange their identity in their next life. There's nothing all that mysterious about it; it's a matter of probability. Haven't you modern people come up with all sorts of theories? And all kinds of other explanations? There's a reason behind them. People can overcome fate, but among ten thousand people, there may not even be a few who manage it. For most people, their lives are set from the moment they're born. A child from a poor