Chapter 168: Chapter 109: Dense White Mist
Yan Fei was only a bit confused when he got up, but this confusion was soon overwhelmed by the joy that Wen Rou was about to arrive. In the morning, Yan Fei went to the Company, found Lu Pingping, and told her that he would be taking time off to travel around the country with friends and it would be a while before he could return.
This was because Yan Fei and Lu Pingping had already made preparations to counteract the scheming of that small group against them; therefore, he had the time to go on a trip. Otherwise, he wouldn’t dare to leave at this critical moment, fearing that if anything happened and he couldn’t be found, he would be filled with regret.
Lu Pingping usually didn’t inquire about Yan Fei’s daily activities, but after seeing the excited expression on his face, she couldn’t help revealing her inner doubts and asked, “Fei, is the friend you’re traveling with a female?”
Initially, Yan Fei had an unconscious reluctance to talk about other women in front of Lu Pingping, but his poor acting was spotted by her. He felt a bit embarrassed but still responded, “Yes, the person I’m traveling with is a woman. I met her while I was in Africa; she’s a nurse in the Doctors Without Borders organization and helped me when I faced danger. She is a Chinese American who has never been to China. After hearing me talk about China’s history and beautiful scenery, she wanted to come and see it for herself.”
Looking at the expression on Yan Fei’s face, Lu Pingping joked, “Do you like her?”
Yan Fei scratched his head and chuckled, “I do like her, but I don’t know if she likes me.”
Looking at Yan Fei, Lu Pingping showed a strange expression and said, “Fei, are you serious? Are you not afraid of the fortune-telling prophecy that the Taoist priest gave you when you were a child?”
When Yan Fei was still studying, he encountered an old Taoist priest while playing near his home. The priest looked very pitiful, as if he was about to starve to death. Taking pity on him, Yan Fei gave him the bread he was carrying. After the priest finished eating the bread, he grabbed Yan Fei’s hand, insisting on telling his fortune as a way to repay his kindness. At that time, Yan Fei, curious about everything, agreed to let the priest tell his fortune.
After examining Yan Fei’s palm, face, and asking for his birth date, the priest’s face showed a look of horror. After hesitating for a while, he finally told Yan Fei the result. The priest said that Yan Fei would lead a life of constant upheaval and have no permanent home, and that he was afflicted by the solitary star of calamity, destined to bring death to his family and friends, fated for a life of solitude.
Although Yan Fei was naive at the time, he was also somewhat knowledgeable and did not believe the priest’s exaggerated statements. He thought the priest said such things to swindle him out of money, so he chased him away.
However, not long after the priest told Yan Fei’s fortune, Yan Fei’s parents both fell ill and died. Strangely enough, in the following six months, the few remaining relatives and friends of his family also met with accidents, all of them dying. Even some of his close friends from high school experienced family disasters; some were in car accidents, others in fires. While no one died, none came out unscathed.
Faced with these real-life examples, Yan Fei, who did not believe in ghosts and gods, started to believe the priest’s words, thinking himself to be the solitary star of calamity, doomed to a life of loneliness.
Then, Yan Fei focused on his studies and had a major breakthrough in the college entrance exams, unexpectedly getting into the Genius Class at Zhendan University where he met Lu Pingping. As the two of them were the most ordinary students in the class, they inevitably grew closer. However, every time Yan Fei thought about his destined solitary star, he subconsciously kept his distance from Lu Pingping. If not for Lu Pingping taking the initiative, they would never have become close friends.
During their time in the Genius Class, Yan Fei carefully observed Lu Pingping’s situation and, noticing that she hadn’t encountered any mishaps for several years, let go of his concerns, discarding his belief in fate as baseless, considering everything that happened before as mere coincidences. Thus, he slowly became true friends with Lu Pingping.
But in the fourth year of University, Lu Pingping’s father, Lu Shuchun, was caught for corruption, and her mother died from the shock, leaving Lu Pingping alone. Almost overnight, Lu Pingping fell from grace and hit rock bottom.
Seeing the tragedy that befell Lu Pingping’s family, Yan Fei immediately thought of his solitary star destiny, believing that it was his fate that had caused Lu Pingping’s misfortune. He began to distance himself from her, and when Lu Pingping came for advice before heading north to Shanghai after graduation, Yan Fei didn’t hold her back. He believed that the farther Lu Pingping was from him, the better her life would be.
In the years that followed, Yan Fei never contacted Lu Pingping, fearing that his destiny would affect her again. After graduating, he stayed home and didn’t go out, not wanting to impact anyone else’s life. It was only after Yan Fei acquired his Drone Avatar that he felt his luck had turned, finally breaking free from the shackles of destiny. With the past events long gone, he finally let go of his fear of his fate and relegated it to the category of feudal superstition.