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…Rong Guang remembers the fortune-teller.
It was during their first campaign as generals - the first campaign of their own.
Rong Guang had plenty of things to care about at the time. That episode got carved into his memory only for its plain weirdness. When armies could not resist their advance, it was …unexpected to face defiance from an unarmed man in a random village on their way.
Rong Guang was not sure what that wandering astrologist’s problem was. It was not like they did anything to him. He was free to leave. Instead, the man managed to pick a fight with Pei Ming - Rong Guang never knew how, because he walked in already in the middle of what was probably supposed to be a horrible prophecy.
"And since you like glory so much? You will have glory, resounding and immortal. With a million mouths, never silent, it will repeat that which you abhor most about yourself. A mirror will be held eternally in front of you to show you the very thing you loathe to see. And if you take your eyes out, you will still hear the same "beautiful tales" from every stranger".
Pei Ming did not reply - probably thought it best to ignore the guy who evidently had no regard for his own fate.
[ Pei Ming knows he should not take it seriously. But for a moment there, instead of the soothsayer in front of him, he sees something unimaginably old and bleeding. He cannot quite make out its form: an old wound? A disfigured face? The only thing he is sure of is that it is irreversible. And it bleeds .]
Rong Guang, however, could not leave it at this. He had things to say on the matter.
"So you admit he will achieve such greatness that he will be remembered forever” - he pointed at the soothsayer as if pinning his words in place and not letting him take them back. “In which case - what does it matter if people talk? They always talk, you want them to be quiet about him who break the world apart and remakes it? Do you think the legendary kings of old got where they got by people-pleasing and hoping no one would gossip about them? Since you began prophesying, go on - will General Pei here be as powerful as them? Or more?"
"More powerful than any king you've heard of" - the soothsayer shot right back, with unexpected scorn in his tone that did not allow to dismiss his words as flattery. He sounded grimly confident.
Rong Guang grinned. Not that he believed in fortune-telling. It was just funny that the seer repeated what Rong Guang already knew in his heart.
"Don't get too happy too soon" - scoffed the man, displeased with Rong Guang's reaction.
"Oh, and why not? Should I beware of..." - Rong Guang made a comically scary expression, bending his fingers like claws - "horrible death? Well then, how will I die?"
The soothsayer stared at him as if overcome by a toothache.
"In your love's arms".
Mei Nianqing does not always need to look for one’s destiny in star charts. With long and bitter experience, he learned to pay attention to certain marks in people. Some things he would not miss if he wanted to.
The gleam in the face of someone destined for godhood. Great destiny claws its way into existence; it does not care about anything else, and can never hold back.
The rot underneath noble choices. Contradictions, ignored, can only result in tragedy.
The devotion that takes too much upon itself. Devotion can never see when it is not enough.
Maybe it is not so bad to die before your dreams turn into nightmares, thinks Mei Nianqing. But - he knows it by the boy's stupidly pleased face - this one will not have it easy.