There was a saying in the Analects: "Life and death are decreed by fate; wealth and honor rest with Heaven."
Even Confucianism, such a positive, forward-looking tradition, advised against fighting Heaven.
Why did I have to pit myself against Heaven's will?
The Analects also said, "Without understanding Heaven's mandate, one cannot be a gentleman."
I liked to think I counted as something of an educated man.
I was pretty good at talking myself around.
Since this was Heaven's will, I soon came to terms with it.
Once you stopped clinging to something, letting go came naturally.
Of course, letting go wasn't the same as fatalism.
Confucianism didn't believe in fatalism.
Heaven's mandate and predestination were fundamentally different.
Many people thought Buddhism and Taoism were fatalistic.
Actually, it wasn't until much later that I learned Buddhism and Taoism weren't fatalistic either.
Otherwise, you could just leave everything to fate. Why the hell work so hard at spiritual cultivation?
As the old saying went, "Do all you can, then submit to Heaven's mandate. Fail to give your all, and you'll have regrets; refuse to trust your fate, and your efforts will be in vain."
In other words, work hard when you should, and let go when you should.
Perhaps that was what Karl Marx meant by "contradictions are universal."
At that point, I realized I seemed to have caught the Old Taoist's bug: every so often, I liked to wave the banner of Karl Marx.
I shook my head, chased away those strange thoughts, and brought myself back to reality.
What should I do now?
Master had told me always to keep the words "the Dao and virtue" in mind.
The Dao gave life, and virtue nurtured it. The Dao and virtue were the foundation of everything.
Those who refused to see reason, lacked virtue, and defied the Heavenly Dao would inevitably face karmic retribution and reap the bitter fruit of their actions.
Right then, there was something urgent I needed to do immediately.
Move!
Stay away from people without virtue, so I wouldn't be close enough to get caught in the fallout when Heaven punished those women.
There was no time to waste. I had to move as soon as possible-the farther away from them, the better.
With my mind made up, I immediately went online to look for a place.
A search turned up a room for rent near Paya Lebar MRT Station, in a villa, no less.
The rent for the room worked out to 2,500 yuan a month, and it could accommodate three people. It was also closer to school, so we could save quite a bit on transport.
I asked Du Le whether he wanted to move there with me.
I asked him because he was a decent, down-to-earth guy, and he'd even treated me to durian.
When something good came along, I thought of him first.
He didn't have much money left either. Moving there would cut his rent by more than half.
Du Le said he needed to ask Sun Qirui what he thought.
I had no choice but to explain the hexagram and facial readings I'd done that day, going through everything with him: Sun Qirui had somewhere of his own to go, so we didn't need to worry about him.
But that blockhead Du Le just wouldn't believe me. He insisted on asking Sun Qirui.
All I could do was let him.
The next day, a wide-eyed Du Le sidled up to me, all secretive and furtive, and said, "Your prediction was right!"
That came out of nowhere, with no context, and I couldn't figure out what he meant.
Du Le waggled his eyebrows and whispered, "Sun Qirui's got an American girlfriend. She's rich and lives in the apartment building diagonally across from ours. He wants to stay close to her, so he's not moving."
That perked me right up. "We've only been in Singapore a few days! That's pretty damn impressive. How did he get together with her?"
Du Le shook his head with a wicked grin.
I couldn't tell whether he didn't want to tell me or didn't know either.
Sun Qirui had graduated from a junior college. His English probably amounted to "hello, bye, yes, no, sorry, thank you"-roughly that level.
At a stretch, he might also manage "good morning" or "how are you."
I really wasn't trying to put him down.
Even I, who had passed both the CET-4 and CET-6 English exams, was only any good at written tests.
My listening and speaking were a complete mess.
Neither of us could possibly manage everyday conversations entirely in English.
Besides, it had only been a few days. Even winning over an ordinary girl with no language barrier wouldn't have been easy.
Let alone a rich one!
Let alone one who spoke English!
How on earth had Sun Qirui overcome all those obstacles?
He was one talented son of a bitch!
My curiosity soared to unprecedented heights.
I had to find a chance to ask him for some pointers.
Not because I wanted to go down that road myself.
I just wanted to satisfy my baffled, nearly exploding need to know.
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