I was a fortune teller for a few years

Chapter 1: The Woman Seeking Divination

The Temple of the Eight Immortals, located just outside the East Gate of Xi'an in Shaanxi, is said to be the site of the ancient and famous Chang'an Tavern. This place became famous because it was here that Han Zhongli, one of the Eight Immortals, enlightened Lü Dongbin.

Legend has it that before becoming immortal, Lü Dongbin was a scholar who came to the capital to take the imperial examinations. After meeting Han Zhongli and having a dream, he realised that life is fleeting, like a passing cloud or a dream. He then abandoned the examinations and followed his master into the mountains to cultivate the Tao and seek immortality. After becoming immortal, Lü Dongbin often manifested here to bring blessings to the people.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, part of the Tang Xingqing Palace was used to build the Hermitage of the Eight Immortals, mainly to worship the Eastern Emperor and Lü Dongbin. Through successive renovations over generations, it gradually became the Ten Directions Forest Monastery of the Quanzhen Taoist sect. Later, when the Eight Nation Alliance attacked Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi fled to Xi'an with Emperor Guangxu. While in exile, she gave 1,000 taels of silver to the then abbot, Taoist priest Li Zongyang, to rebuild the Eight Immortals Hermitage and renamed it the 'Imperially Commissioned Wanshou Eight Immortals Palace'.

Today, the area around the Eight Immortals Palace is filled with antique vendors and fortune telling shops. Many claim to be disciples or successors of various masters, but many are fraudulent.

I also run a fortune-telling business in a small room of just over ten square metres on the second floor of the Ancient City. Since I'm not famous and have no advertising, I don't have a stall on the ground floor to attract customers, so very few come to see me.

A new day begins, and as usual I wake up at six o'clock, pay my respects to the portrait of the ancestral master in my room, and then begin my meditation and standing posture practice. My master taught me this years ago and it has become a habit.

As the clock strikes seven, the delicious smell of breakfast wafts in through the window. I slip on my sandals, go downstairs to buy two fried dough sticks and return upstairs to enjoy my breakfast at the table.

Suddenly there's a knock at the door. Who could it be so early in the morning? Maybe it's the landlord, whose short stature and fleshy face always give me a headache. Although I've been in Xi'an for almost ten years, his rapid-fire Shaanxi dialect and unreasonable behaviour still bother me.

I open the door with trepidation to find a plump, middle-aged woman. What could she want so early in the morning? I ask with a puzzled expression, "Hello! Can I help you?"

She looks at me and peers around the room, "I'm looking for Master Zhang to have my fortune told." Hearing this, I almost jump for joy; the Ancestral Master has finally taken pity on me and sent a customer so early.

Before I can thank the Ancestral Master, I hastily invite her into the room. She looks at my breakfast on the table and says, "You haven't eaten yet. Go ahead, I can wait. When is Master Zhang coming?"

As I put my breakfast away, I reply, "I'm the person you're looking for, but I'm not a master, just a junior student of the I Ching..."

"What? It's you?" she interrupts me in surprise.

"Is there a problem?" I ask, confused. "No, no!" she replies quickly. I smile and say, "You're worried that I'm too young and might deceive you, aren't you?"