"Today is your last day receiving the Fortune Lady's guidance, so you no longer need to pair up with your original destined partners."
After everyone finished eating, Aunt Liu made the announcement.
Under Aunt Liu's arrangements, the twelve prospective newlyweds split into two groups.
The brides would head into the village to visit model families living blissful lives under the Fortune Lady's blessing and receive premarital guidance.
The grooms would first go together to the ancestral hall to offer incense to the Fortune Lady, praying that she would choose them as her husband and descend into their bride's body.
The brides would then receive a numbered wooden token from the families they visited, while the grooms would need to find other wooden tokens in the Fortune Lady Temple.
The following day, the final day, couples with matching token numbers would marry under the Fortune Lady's gaze.
"Can we exchange tokens with one another?" Yuan Sisi asked.
Aunt Liu said, "Yes. Everything will be determined by the numbers on the tokens you hand in tomorrow morning."
"What if we don't have a token?" Wan Yingjun asked casually, crossing his legs.
Aunt Liu gave him a meaningful look.
"If you don't have a token, you'll have no choice but to remain in the temple and serve the Fortune Lady."
Wan Yingjun let out a laugh, clearly not believing he would be the one left without a token.
After the rules were explained, Xu Yuan still reluctantly said goodbye to Wan Yingjun.
Yuan Sisi affectionately linked arms with Li Qing. "Finally, we don't have to team up with them anymore! Hey, what happened to you yesterday? Why didn't you show up? Thank goodness you're all right! Let me tell you, Wan Yingjun and Zhou Qing came first yesterday. He screwed over Gong Yao and Wu Nianfang, so they came last..."
Gong Yao got screwed over?
Li Qing raised an eyebrow slightly. "That wasn't necessarily what happened."
Yuan Sisi paused, then immediately corrected herself. "You're right. After all, he's the legendary Lord Gong Yao, haha! Ugh, before he showed up, I actually thought Wan Yingjun was pretty charming. Now he just seems petty and small-minded. I don't know what spell he's cast over Zhou Qing and Xu Yuan..."
Walking behind them, Zhou Qing said coolly, "I heard every word of that."
Xu Yuan rolled her eyes. "It's my choice!"
"Sisi, don't say that. Wan actually takes pretty good care of us..." A somewhat timid female voice came from behind them.
Without the slightest embarrassment about bad-mouthing people to their faces, Yuan Sisi kept chattering away. "But thank goodness I didn't team up with Zhao Yu yesterday! Luckily, Li Zi found my room first."
Li Qing's gaze shifted, and he finally looked at Yuan Sisi.
"...Li Zi."
"Yeah, Li Zi. He's not as handsome as Gong Yao or that Wan guy, but he's quite a gentleman. Just a little timid... Um... what's wrong?"
Li Qing looked away, turning his gaze forward again. "Nothing."
"Let me make this clear first. I'm absolutely not giving Wan up to anyone," Xu Yuan announced loudly.
"I-I'll pass. Ren Ke is actually pretty nice too."
Zhou Qing scoffed. "Then let's each see what we can do. Though I think Wan seems more interested in Li Qing than any of us."
Li Qing: "?"
When the conversation turned to him, he replied politely, "Really? I hadn't noticed."
Yuan Sisi burst out laughing. "Yes, exactly! That attitude right there. I know exactly how men like him think. You barely acknowledge him, and you're close to his sworn rival, so you make him want to conquer you more than any of us do."
Li Qing thought it over and nodded. "I understand. But why is he Gong Yao's sworn rival? Do they know each other?"
"Because Gong Yao is handsome, of course," Yuan Sisi said wistfully.
Li Qing said, "I see. Jealousy and competition are indeed very common in the courtship behavior of male animals."
Yuan Sisi sounded a little envious again. "Ah, I'd really love to team up with Lord Gong Yao too. If I had even one chance to marry him in this lifetime, I could die happy!"
Wu Nianfang, who had remained silent all this time, said flatly, "Gong Yao has teamed up with him."
The moment Wu Nianfang spoke, Yuan Sisi sobered up. "I know, I know. I won't go after Gong Yao."
Then she chuckled again. "But if Lord Gong Yao happens to get the same number as me, I'll just have to say sorry to our little Li Qing~"
As they chatted and joked, the six of them arrived at Fortune Star Village.
Fortune Star Village still retained its old architectural style, with every household living in a single-story house with a small courtyard. Aunt Liu had said that all the happy model families had a shrine to the Fortune Lady outside their doors, and the brides could choose any household to enter.
There were no other requirements once they entered a model family's home. They simply had to follow their host's lead and avoid touching anything they shouldn't. The rules were very simple.
The group scattered, and Li Qing also picked a model family's home with a shrine outside its door and went inside.
The woman of the house seemed to have known someone would come. She welcomed him in with a beaming smile, saying warmly, "Today is your last day at the Fortune Lady Temple? Then you'd better seize the opportunity and pray properly!"
The woman seated him in the living room, brought him a cup of tea, and began her introduction. "That's how it happened for our family back then. My husband and I were both very devout, so the Fortune Lady descended into my body, and our family became the only one blessed that year!"
Then the woman launched into a lengthy explanation of the rules women in Fortune Star Village had to follow. At the end, she added that she was the "Fortune Lady married into the family" and had also borne a son, so she received better treatment than the women in other households.
Li Qing listened quietly without comment.
When the woman finished, she stared straight at Li Qing and asked, "Is the tea not to your liking?"
Li Qing said, "Hm?"
"Why aren't you drinking it?"
Li Qing lowered his eyes to the teacup in front of him.
The white teacup was filled to the brim with a pitch-black liquid that gave off a strange smell.
Li Qing picked up the teacup and took a sip.
The woman's eyes widened with excitement, and she almost seemed ready to stick her head into his cup. After watching him take two or three sips, her eyes and the corners of her mouth curved with satisfaction.
Li Qing set down the teacup and said softly, "Thank you for your hospitality."
A speck of white light dissipated at his fingertips without anyone noticing.
After a while, a boy came running over. The woman immediately beckoned him closer to greet Li Qing.
Li Qing looked at the child-his eyes and the corners of his mouth also curved strangely, making him look almost as if he and the woman had been cast from the same mold.
Perhaps there really wasn't the slightest trace of his father in him.
He stayed until noon, when the woman finally handed Li Qing a token with the number 5 written on it.
"We'll be neighbors in the future," the woman said with a smile.
Li Qing accepted the token and thanked her, then said, "No, we won't."
The woman's smile froze on her face.
"P-9SD3002, Wen Ya. Is your current life what you wanted?"
The woman was taken aback at first. Then she gave him a complicated look before smiling again:
"Of course. I like my life now. This place is much... more fun than that temple."
Li Qing nodded slightly, then turned to take his leave.
Before leaving, he happened to glance at the wooden door of the woodshed beside the small courtyard.
Through a crack in the wooden door, he saw a pair of eyes filled with venomous hatred.
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