Since then, ten days quietly passed by.
It was now April of 2014.
The spring was still strong, the mountain flowers were in full bloom, and the grass and trees grew.
In this April world, students wanted to fly to the sky, burrow into the ground, fall in love, or stay up all night playing games.
Unfortunately, the monthly exam was fast approaching.
Chen Siyu, the twin sister, approached Jiang Ning and asked a question:
"Jiang Ning, have you ever felt trapped, like you're constantly treading water, wanting to move forward but unable to?"
"What do you think is happening to me?" she asked, her face mournful, with the sadness of a young girl.
Jiang Ning, chewing gum, said, "Bored."
Chen Siyu: "...Don't you feel it?"
Xue Yuantong said, "He doesn't, he's happy every day and busier than anyone else."
They had agreed to hang out together over the weekend, yet Jiang Ning had stood her up, leaving Xue Yuantong to wait in vain; she swore never to trust Jiang Ning again.
Chen Siyu, not getting the answer she wanted, appeared somewhat disheartened.
She had wanted to ask her deskmate Bai Yuxia, but Bai Yuxia was engrossed in solving practice questions, and Chen Siyu didn't want to disturb her, so she gave up.
"Jiang Ning, will the weather be good tomorrow?" Xue Yuantong asked.
Lately, there had been those annoying drizzles.
Xue Yuantong was the type of kid who hoped for clear skies when going to school and for rain on days off.
In fact, she could check the weather forecast on her phone; Xue Yuantong used to use an app called "Moji Weather."
It was quite accurate, but Xue Yuantong felt cheated.
One morning, she checked the weather in the app, which predicted a clear day, so she didn't bring an umbrella and followed Jiang Ning to school.
But when school ended in the afternoon, it surprisingly started to rain.
Xue Yuantong was infuriated, feeling betrayed by the app's weather forecast!
She angrily opened the weather app to confront it, yet when she did, it was now correctly showing that it was raining.
After being deceived a few times, Xue Yuantong realized the app's forecast was updated in real-time.
From then on, whenever she wanted to know the weather, she would ask Jiang Ning directly.
Because on that rainy day, Jiang Ning happened to have brought an umbrella.
He always brought an umbrella accurately, definitely not by coincidence, so Xue Yuantong adopted a clear awareness:
"Jiang Ning is more reliable than the weather forecast."
Jiang Ning looked out the window at the sky, his gaze piercing through ten thousand meters of airspace, but of course, just using his eyes, he couldn't accurately predict the weather.
He also needed to use a bit of Divination Skill; he used to be a Nascent Soul Perfect Cultivator, and although he had lost his Cultivation, many of the techniques he acquired had not left him.
Divination Skill, the kind of ability that did not heavily rely on Cultivation, was still at Jiang Ning's disposal.
He pinched his fingers, and after a calm two seconds, he said,
"Tomorrow will be clear and windless."
Xue Yuantong stared at him unblinkingly, and suddenly exclaimed in surprise,
"Jiang Ning, Jiang Ning, you can tell fortunes!"
Jiang Ning's demeanor just now was too professional.
It reminded Xue Yuantong of her childhood, when an elderly person got lost in her village, and the whole village mobilized to search for three days and two nights without finding any trace of the person.
Later, with no other options, the family sought help from a fortune-teller in town.
The fortune-teller was well-known far and wide and charged five hundred yuan per session.
At that time, Xue Yuantong accompanied her family to the fortune-teller's store; she sat in her mother's arms and saw the fortune-teller pinch his fingers and utter four words:
"Southeast, reed leaves."
Following the fortune-teller's directions, the family searched by the riverbank to the southeast of the village, and under the reeds, they found the lost elderly person.
"Fortune-telling?" Jiang Ning said.
Then, with a smile, he added, "Not bad, of course I can tell fortunes."
Xue Yuantong looked at him seriously, her eyes filled with immense interest.
Jiang Ning was very mysterious, difficult to figure out.
Xue Yuantong felt that in terms of depth, Jiang Ning wasn't even half her measure.
However, she never disdained to ask for knowledge, acknowledging that Jiang Ning's admirable qualities were worth learning.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Have you been captivated by my charm?" Jiang Ning said.
Xue Yuantong immediately retorted, "Not at all."
She turned her head away, pretending to read seriously, but soon, she leaned in again.
"Alright, considering you look like a novice, I'll let you read my fortune."
Xue Yuantong rested her hand on the table, palm facing up.
She understood that fortune-telling definitely involved looking at the palm's lines.
Jiang Ning picked up her small hand, pried open her fingers, and pinched her flesh twice; it was soft.
Bai Yuxia picked up a test paper; she had figured out the right answer to a question, but she felt there was another approach, yet couldn't come up with it.
This was quite frustrating, and though Bai Yuxia appeared calm on the surface, she was quite earnest at heart.
Just as she turned around, intending to ask Jiang Ning for help, she saw Jiang Ning holding Xue Yuantong's hand, kneading it, with the two of them very close together.
Bai Yuxia's gaze froze; she knew Jiang Ning and Xue Yuantong were close, often going to and from school together, yet this was the first time she saw them in such close contact.
Immediately, she joked with a smile, "Did I come at the wrong time?"
Jiang Ning continued his actions without disturbance and said calmly, "No trouble, go ahead if you have something to say."
Bai Yuxia was observant and chose not to ask about the test paper at that moment; instead, she looked puzzledly at their hands.
Xue Yuantong boasted, "Jiang Ning is amazing, he can tell fortunes! I'm having him read mine."
"Fortune-telling, what about?" Bai Yuxia asked.
"Hmm, what delicious food my mother will make tonight," Xue Yuantong replied.
Bai Yuxia didn't want to speak anymore; she said goodbye and turned back to her paper.