After hanging up, Wang Xiaoliang stayed still.
His phone rested on the quilt, its screen going dark.
His mind was full of Huang Xueli's troubles.
Wang Xiaoliang rolled over.
He wanted to help his buddy. Huang Xueli always offered him advice when he was in trouble, but now he seemed powerless to help.
He had offered a few words of advice, but even he had found them unconvincing.
He couldn't sleep.
Wang Xiaoliang sat up, opened the bedside drawer, and felt around for the Book of Fate.
He held it under the bedside lamp and turned to the latest page.
[Forty-Nine Arts of Fate-Changing: When an undertaking fails, the cause must lie within oneself. Acknowledge your faults and reflect inwardly; restrain yourself and return to the right path.]
Wang Xiaoliang read the words twice.
The meaning wasn't difficult: if something failed, the reason had to lie within you. Only by daring to admit your mistakes, reflecting deeply, and curbing your faults could you return to the right path-or, in other words, find the right approach.
He closed the book but didn't rush to put it away, keeping it clasped in his hand.
He switched off the light.
The room went dark. Leaning against the headboard, he began to ponder.
That sounds reasonable at first, but on closer thought-it doesn't hold up.
Whatever you do, subjective factors are one side of it, and objective factors are another. Sometimes it isn't that you haven't tried hard enough. The timing is wrong, the circumstances are wrong, or you've met the wrong people. How can you pin all those external things on yourself too?
Take Huang Xueli's situation.
Could his marriage to his wife be considered a "success"?
*Legally, they're husband and wife, but what about in practice? They live under the