Restaurant

Xie Cheng Dong walked to the upper floors as the stall keeper greeted him warmly. "The weather is very cold today. Waiter, get our guest some hot wine. Would you like to have your meal upstairs?"

Xie Cheng Dong reached the second level wordlessly. There were three private rooms on this floor, each separated by a screen. One of the rooms was filled with six men eating and drinking wine. These men seemed like they were tipsy.

Xie Cheng Dong chose a room which gave him a view out the window and picked several dishes. Within the adjacent room was a Daoist who wore his Daoist robes and kept his hair in a bun. He offered to read fortunes of several men.

A scholar laughed, "We are scholars and we don’t believe in such things."

The Daoist then replied to him, "You’ve always been intelligent since you were young, but lost your mother when you were seven years old. Your stepmother convinced your dad to forbid you from studying, hence you fled to your uncle’s house."

"Your uncle found some money and sponsored your studies. As soon as the dynasty resumed its peacefulness, you took the imperial examinations, and became an Elementary Scholar at the age of seventeen. You st