Written in fate

Wang Xiaoliang stared straight at Li Jun, then glanced at the familiar, yellowed, thread-bound booklet in his hand.

It was his Book of Fate!

He had buried that book beneath his pillow.

How had Li Jun found it?

Anger surged from deep inside him, mixed with the shame of having his privacy violated.

"You..."

He had barely uttered a word when Li Jun spoke first.

Li Jun showed no embarrassment at being caught, much less the slightest guilt. He simply tossed the Book of Fate onto the desk with a smack, then leaned back in his chair.

"I was wondering why you've been acting so weird these past few days, cleaning the room and hanging up that stupid door curtain like some girl getting ready for her wedding."

"So it was all for this crappy book."

He reached out and tapped the Book of Fate on the desk.

"This thing is why you won't testify about Feng Yuan's case, too, isn't it?" Li Jun's question struck right at the heart of the matter. "You really believe this stuff? Wang Xiaoliang, we're university students."

"What gives you the right to go through my things!"

"Go through your things?" Li Jun sounded as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world. "Your pillow was about to fall onto the floor, and half the book was sticking out. I was helping you tuck it back in and happened to see it. What, have you done something shameful you're afraid people will find out about?"

He spoke with complete conviction, as though Wang Xiaoliang were the one being unreasonable.

Wang Xiaoliang's chest heaved with anger, but he could not find a single word to refute him.

He drew a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. There was no point arguing with Li Jun about who had gone through whose belongings. What mattered was that he knew.

"Don't you believe in fate?" Wang Xiaoliang stared into his eyes, asking a question he himself had been wrestling with.

"Of course I do."

That answer took Wang Xiaoliang somewhat by surprise.

"I believe in fate, but I've never believed it can be changed."

"Fate is set in stone."

"You remember my high school classmate Zhao Wei, right? He got the highest score in the province on the college entrance exam and sailed straight into Tsinghua University. His dad is an official at the city's education bureau, and his mom is a distinguished teacher at a top provincial high school. From the moment he was born, he had a clear road to an elite university laid out beneath his feet. That was his fate."

"I studied my ass off just to get into a top provincial high school, and even then, I could only trail behind him."

"Li Xiaoman in the room next door already had a job waiting for him after graduation while he was still in school. Why? His whole family-his grandpa, his dad, his uncle, his aunt-all work for the Tobacco System. He's set to make his living there for the rest of his life. That's his fate, too."

Everything Li Jun said was true.

These were living examples right beside them.

Wang Xiaoliang could not argue with him.

A trace of pain surfaced on Li Jun's face. He seemed to have recalled something unpleasant.

"And Old Third..."

Old Third.

In truth, both of them had deliberately avoided that name over the past two days.

"Old Third grew up as the pride of his whole family, his whole village, even his county."

"But what did he become once he got to university? A laughingstock."

"His grades put him at the bottom here, and his lack of worldly knowledge made him feel small. That inferiority was carved into his bones."

"He studied like his life depended on it, but his grades still weren't good enough. He had no experience, no perspective. Apart from sheer stubborn determination, he had nothing."

"He did everything he could to please his girlfriend, saving money out of his living allowance to buy her bags, makeup, and a phone. And what happened? She turned around and got together with someone else."

"With graduation coming, we were all looking for a way forward. He wanted to stay in a big city, but how hard is it to find a decent job these days? He couldn't accept going to a construction site, a factory, or delivering takeout-spending four grueling years at university acquiring knowledge, only to end up doing manual labor anyway. And he was even less willing to go back to the little county town where he'd been born and raised."

Li Jun stopped there. He picked up the cup of water on the desk, now completely cold, and took a long gulp.

"Old Third was a good person. He was good to everyone, always ready to help. But what did that get him? He just had a lousy fate!"

"That's fate!" Li Jun's voice suddenly rose. He pointed at his own chest, then at Wang Xiaoliang.

"You! Me! Our parents are ordinary people. They're about to retire and live on those measly pensions. They can't do a damn thing to help with our futures! We have to fight for everything ourselves, claw our way toward it! That's fate, too!"

"Now tell me, how do you change it? Huh? Tell me how we change Old Third's fate, or yours and mine!"

"Can Old Third lie in that bed again, alive?"

The barrage of questions hammered into Wang Xiaoliang.

Wang Xiaoliang was utterly stunned.

His mouth opened, but no sound came out.

Vice President Song Yi's talk of "Defying Heaven to Fate Changing," and the stories in the Four Lessons of Liaofan, seemed so pale, so distant, so insubstantial before the brutal reality Li Jun laid bare.

Yes... how could it be changed?

Old Third had worked so hard, but what had he gotten in the end?

Hadn't he and Li Jun worked hard, too? They had squeezed through the brutal competition and made it into a reasonably good university. But what about their futures? They were still lost in uncertainty.

Watching Wang Xiaoliang stand speechless under his questioning, the agitation in Li Jun's eyes slowly faded, replaced by a mocking look that said, "Just as I thought."

"Speaking of Fate Changing," Li Jun lowered his voice, but it carried a deadly temptation, "the opportunity is right in front of us."

He paused, then continued meaningfully, "Feng Yuan's side has already taken the first step. Passing the makeup exams won't be a problem now. All that's left is our second step. As long as we testify in court, those jobs are a done deal."

"A permanent staff position. A secure job that pays no matter what. Isn't that Fate Changing? Isn't that more practical than believing in this crappy book?"

Li Jun's words circled in Wang Xiaoliang's ears like the whispers of a devil.

A secure job for life.

Those few words held an enormous appeal for students like them, about to graduate with their futures uncertain.

With one, they would not have to struggle in despair the way Old Third had.

With one, they could let their parents, who had toiled all their lives, enjoy their old age in peace.

Wasn't that... changing fate?

Wang Xiaoliang's resolve wavered violently.

Perhaps... Li Jun was right.

Reality was just that cruel. To gain something, you had to pay a price-even if that price was your conscience.

Just as he was about to be persuaded, the words "Follow Only the Way" flashed through his mind again.

What was the Way?

Lying against his conscience, using a lie to help the university fight Old Third's parents? Was that the Way?

Was a job gained through such means really "Fate Changing"?

A sliver of clarity seemed to emerge amid Wang Xiaoliang's tangled thoughts.

"I... still won't go."

The last trace of patience vanished from Li Jun's face.

He stared at Wang Xiaoliang for a full ten seconds, his gaze suggesting he was looking at a hopeless fool.

"Fine."

He forced the word through clenched teeth.

"Suit yourself."

With that, he turned away without another glance at Wang Xiaoliang, sat back in his chair, put on his headphones, and opened his game.

The air was thick with the sense that something between them had broken.

Wang Xiaoliang stood where he was, his heart a tangle of emotions.

He knew something between him and Li Jun was no longer the same.

But he did not regret it.

Now that Li Jun knew the book existed, there was no point hiding it anymore.

He walked to his desk, pulled out the chair, and sat down, drawing the Book of Fate that Li Jun had tossed there back in front of him.

Li Jun's question still rang in his ears.

"How do you change it?"

Yes, how?

Wang Xiaoliang took a deep breath. He desperately needed an answer now.

Not lofty philosophical principles of the kind President Song had offered, but a concrete, workable method.

With something approaching reverence, he opened the book.

His finger came to rest on a new page.

Several lines of bold, powerful brushwork met his eyes.

[Fourth Art of Changing Fate: conduct yourself with the discernment to recognize opportunity, and wealth may be sought.

Gain wealth with the intent to harm others, and you defy the Way of Heaven, inviting certain retribution: either repay many times over, or suffer diminished fortune and injury to both body and mind.]

He turned those lines over and over in his mind.

Conduct yourself with the discernment to recognize opportunity, and wealth may be sought...

The sentence meant that with keen insight and the ability to spot opportunities before others, wealth could be pursued.

This...

This mysterious Book of Fate actually hadn't dismissed wealth as a mere worldly possession. Instead, it acknowledged that pursuing wealth was legitimate?

The next sentence shocked him even more.

Gain wealth with the intent to harm others, and you defy the Way of Heaven, inviting certain retribution!

Acquiring wealth by harming the interests of others went against the Way of Heaven and would inevitably bring a backlash and retribution!

Wasn't that exactly what testifying in court would mean?

A job gained that way was "gaining wealth with the intent to harm others"!

And the consequences were-"either repay many times over, or suffer diminished fortune and injury to both body and mind"!

Wang Xiaoliang's heart tightened.

This book... this Book of Fate had actually laid out how to make money, along with the principles and prohibitions governing it, in perfect clarity!

It was answering Li Jun's thunderous question in a way that left no room for doubt.

Fate Changing was possible.

Wealth could be sought, too.

But it had to accord with the Way.

And violating those principles, taking crooked paths, would only exact an even more painful price.