"Uh... I didn't use any divination for that..." the old Taoist muttered awkwardly. "At most... I used a little knowledge of face reading."
"You didn't use divination?" I was baffled. "If you didn't use divination, how did you know which university I graduated from?
"What does that have to do with face reading?
"Was it written on my face?"
The old Taoist rolled his eyes and teased, "Pretty much."
I couldn't wrap my head around it. "I had my university's name written on my face?"
The old Taoist explained with a smile, "One look at your face told me you had a good education.
"But you also looked young and green, clearly a student.
"Yet you'd just walked out of a very ordinary school.
"That meant you'd either just graduated or hadn't graduated yet, and that school wasn't your university.
"Besides, you looked like a quiet, dutiful sort, not someone flamboyant and especially outgoing.
"Someone like you probably wouldn't look too far from your university for an internship.
"Within that range, there weren't many options!
"Once I had the answer, I could certainly have cast a hexagram to confirm it, but there was no need in your case."
"Uh..." That worked too?
"Heh!" the old Taoist asked smugly. "Wasn't that as good as having it written on your face?"
I still didn't understand. "Even if there weren't many options, there were still two universities.
"The other one isn't in the C9 League, but it's still a campus of a university in the 985 Project, the 211 Project, and the Double First-Class Initiative. Why couldn't I have graduated from there?
"Can face reading really tell you someone's admission score that precisely?"
"..." This time, the old Taoist was speechless.
I still hadn't caught on and pressed him. "What? Why couldn't I have graduated from the university next door?"
The old Taoist stared at me for a long time before asking quietly, "Have you... ever been to the university next door?"
"Of course!" I said confidently.
I hadn't been there many times, but our universities did occasionally hold events together.
"Do you think you look like one of their graduates?" the old Taoist asked.
How was I supposed to know? I couldn't read faces.
The old Taoist scoffed. "Then do you know that people are products of their environment?"
"Yeah, so what?" I asked indignantly. "That doesn't mean everyone at a university looks the same, does it?"
Seeing that I still wasn't getting it, the old Taoist offered an example. "Asian people don't all look alike either, but you can still tell the difference between Asian people and African people, can't you?"
His example floored me. "The difference between our university and that Double First-Class Initiative university next door is like the difference between Asian and African people?"
"Uh... more or less." The old Taoist nodded.
"How come I never noticed such a huge difference?" I asked, my eyes wide.
"Uh..." The old Taoist asked me, "You know your university specializes in engineering, right?"
"Yeah, and?" I asked.
The old Taoist asked another question. "And theirs leans toward the humanities. Did you know that?"
"Uh..." I really hadn't noticed. I didn't know much about universities.
The old Taoist asked again, "What's your university's motto?"
That one I knew. "Rigorous standards, masterful skills."
We championed a meticulous craftsman's spirit.
The old Taoist asked again, "What's their university's motto?"
"Uh..." That I didn't know.
The old Taoist answered his own question. "Their motto is: a vast and noble spirit.
"Tell me, would people educated under those two philosophies-rigorous standards and a vast and noble spirit-have different bearings?
"Wasn't the university you graduated from as good as written on your face?"
"Uh..." I seemed to understand, yet not quite. "Was that... interpreting a hexagram?"
"Interpreting, interpreting, interpreting-interpreting what?" the old Taoist said. "Anything and everything can be a tool for me to use.
"If you become fixated on the Five Elements, you become their slave.
"Who's in charge, the person or the art? That's the first thing you need to understand."
"Oh..." I still didn't fully understand, but I felt there was some sense to it.
The old Taoist continued, "Divination is there to help us think, not to turn us into its puppets.
"If you can make divination work for you, you have another tool at your disposal.
"If you can't keep a grip on it and insist on blindly believing, you're better off not believing at all."
"Hmm..." I mulled it over.
"Do you know why getting your fortune told wears your fate thin?" the old Taoist suddenly asked.
"Huh?" I hadn't kept up with his train of thought.
The old Taoist explained with obvious delight, "In an isolated system, without outside intervention, everything spontaneously slides from order into disorder, from neatness into chaos. That process is called entropy increase."
That left me even more confused. "Entropy increase?
"The Second Law of Thermodynamics?"
The old Taoist said smugly, "Exactly. See? Talking to someone educated saves so much trouble. That's why all the disciples I take on love reading."
I said, "..."
What did entropy increase have to do with fortune-telling?
The old Taoist continued, "It's incredibly easy for life to descend into chaos. It takes no effort whatsoever.
"But maintaining order requires effort.
"The endless proposals at work, the endless dishes at home, the arguments or coldness that can erupt between couples at any moment... all that chaotic uncertainty is high entropy, and a tremendous source of anxiety.
"So inner stability is what counters entropy increase.
"Cultivation is about cultivating that inner stability."
My powers of comprehension really were nothing to brag about. "And how does that relate to getting your fortune told wearing your fate thin...?"
The old Taoist rolled his eyes at me. "If you blindly believe in divination and live as its puppet, you increase the uncertainty in your life. Entropy increase becomes even worse, so the more you have your fortune told, the thinner your fate gets."
"Oh..." I finally understood. "Fate itself doesn't get thinner with each reading. The key is whether you're stable inside.
"If your inner core isn't stable, the process of fortune-telling makes your inner world more and more chaotic?"
"Exactly!" The old Taoist repeated, "Fate itself doesn't get thinner. What matters is what you do with it.
"Are you the master of your fate, or are you being mastered by it?"
I nodded to show I understood.
Divination was a tool. You couldn't blindly believe in it. That was the foundation of everything.
If you couldn't handle it properly, you were better off not believing.
I understood that point about divination, but I'd heard Taoists could catch ghosts, and I didn't really understand what influence ghosts and gods had over people.
The old Taoist waved a dismissive hand. "If you've done nothing to trouble your conscience, you needn't fear a ghost knocking at your door.
"Ghosts and gods are very polite too. They don't bully innocent people.
"All you need to do is conduct yourself properly."
I'd thought I might get to hear some supernatural stories, but my master brushed the subject aside just like that.
Before I could ask anything else, the old Taoist abruptly changed tack on his own. "In cultivation, you must cultivate your own mind and your own independent views.
"Especially if you want to learn the arts, you must cultivate your mind first. You can't live by what other people say."
"Huh?" His thoughts really did leap all over the place...
Remember that. Have your own independent views.
The old Taoist suddenly asked another question. "Do you know what sort of person Old Man Sai was, from the story of Old Man Sai losing his horse?"
What sort of person was Old Man Sai?
I hurried to keep up with the old Taoist's leap of thought.
Old Man Sai? An old man?
That was what came to mind.
It couldn't possibly be that simple.
"Old Man Sai... was someone who took things in stride?" I stole a glance at the old Taoist and ventured an uncertain guess.
With his eyes closed, the old Taoist swayed his head as he recited, "Among those who lived near the frontier was a man skilled in the arts. For no reason, his horse fled into the lands of the northern tribes. Everyone came to console him. But the old man said: how can this not turn out to be a blessing?"
"Skilled in the arts?!" I seized on the key phrase and cried in disbelief, "Old Man Sai was skilled in... the arts?!"
How was that possible?!
So many of the old Taoist's claims challenged my worldview.
Under his relentless barrage, my worldview was already teetering on the brink.
Before you continue