Draw lots
After spending the whole day shopping and eating, Qiao Yu returned to the hotel feeling like her legs didn’t belong to her anymore.
“…The combat power of moms shopping? It’s really strong.”
“Yeah.”
Qiao Yu cast a cold glance at Cong Ye, who had nonchalantly taken a seat in her room and joined the conversation, frowning.
“What are you doing here again? I don’t have the strength or the energy to play poker with you today.”
“Let me rest here for a bit, alright? It’s so uncomfortable to go back and be all alone. Besides, isn’t Lin Qing also here? You didn’t ask her to leave either.”
“…”
Qiao Yu and Lin Qing were both startled, their gazes meeting for a split second before quickly looking away.
Since Lin Qing was supposed to sleep over tonight, wasn’t it perfectly normal for her to be here? — Yet, these words tied Qiao Yu’s tongue into a knot, and she couldn’t voice them out. Damn it, Cong Ye was definitely asking a rhetorical question, using Lin Qing as a shield!
To avoid this topic, she simply gave up the idea of kicking Cong Ye out, gesturing to him with a ‘please, do as you wish’ motion.
Achieving a temporary victory, Cong Ye stretched with a triumphant smirk.
“Ah, I’m dead tired today… It would be great to have a rest tomorrow…”
“Forget it; tomorrow’s schedule is already set, and we have to wake up early.”
Lin Qing’s sudden declaration made the two exhausted individuals look over in alarm, making Cong Ye stutter, “No, no way, I clearly remember hearing my mom say there wasn’t much happening tomorrow morning—”
“While we were shopping for clothes today, Auntie was persuaded by the tour guide, and then suddenly there were plans for tomorrow.”
“If she hasn’t told you by now, she’s probably planning to surprise you with an early morning wake-up call.”
How typical of President Cong to pull a stunt like this…!
Qiao Yu closed her eyes in pained resignation, thinking about how the young have no say, and asked gloomily.
“So, where are we going tomorrow…?”
With two pairs of eager eyes on her, Lin Qing, the only person in the know, struggled to suppress a laugh as she spoke.
“We’re going to Chuyi.”
The next morning at a little past seven, when the sky wasn’t fully bright yet, Qiao Yu and the others were already shivering as they set off.
It felt like a throwback to school days’ routine, Qiao Yu sat listlessly on the bus.
Luckily, after a long day’s trek the previous night, she was so exhausted that she wasn’t troubled with restlessness from Lin Qing’s influence as before, and managed to sleep soundly through the night.
As for the moment when she half-awoke to find herself nearly embracing Lin Qing in her arms and got so frightened that she fell off the bed, Qiao Yu had conveniently erased that incident from her memory.
“…After all, it’s already February, can this still be considered Chuyi?”
“Why not? Chuyi is about the first temple visit of the year, and we haven’t been to the temple in these past two months.”
Father Qiao spoke with conviction. Mother Qiao was nodding in agreement.
The seven of them were split into two cars arranged by the hotel, and now in the car, there was only Qiao Yu, a young person lacking any enthusiasm, listening to her parents going on at length about how the temple they were going to visit was so historic and had such thriving incense offerings.
“Yuyu, remember to draw a fortune slip later to check your luck! I heard the fortunes there are really accurate!”
“Okay, okay.”
Qiao Yu pursed her lips, noncommittal.
If there truly were gods in this world… then the closest thing to that omniscient, omnipotent figure was probably the system in her mind.
“? Host, did you call me?”
“If I make a wish to you, could you help make it come true?”
“Well, that depends on what kind of wish it is…”
“Like what?”
“Like if you ask me to help you post a saved draft, then no problem!”
(If you're not reading on littlepandatranslations.com, it means this has been stolen)
“Alright, alright, I’ll be counting on you then.”
Qiao Yu silently ended her less-than-reliable conversation with the “god” and leaned back in the back seat of the car, closing her eyes to rest.
Before long, they had arrived at their destination. Qiao Yu got out of the car and met up with Lin Qing and the others. She couldn’t help but be amazed at the imposing temple gate and the huge lanterns in front of her.
If before she had not fully grasped the reality of being on an overseas trip, now Qiao Yu truly realized she was in a foreign land, enveloped in the rush of Japanese cultural essence. It was only 8 o’clock, yet the temple was already bustling with visitors, and everyone walked through the gates together.
The path from the temple gate to the main hall was long, with eye-catching shops lining both sides of the street. Since it was early, not all shops were open yet. But there was still enough to keep Qiao Yu deeply fascinated.
“That looks like mochi… kinda want to try some.”
“Didn’t you eat quite a lot for breakfast already?”
“So noisy, I’m still growing.”
Qiao Yu retorted, bickering with Cong Ye as Lin Qing strolled leisurely beside her.
Her interest wasn’t in food; Lin Qing looked at the rows of cherry blossom trees on both sides of the road and sighed with a touch of regret, “If we had come one or two months later, it would have been cherry blossom season, but we’ll miss it.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Cong Ye nodded in agreement, “If we came later, we could also check out the summer festival. This timing during our winter holiday, we’re really missing everything.”
“Summer festival—you mean the fireworks show, right?” Qiao Yu, having done her research, joined the conversation, “I’ve seen lots of pictures online, and it’s really beautiful.”
Lin Qing shrugged helplessly, “It’s a pity we’ll miss it.”
“We can always come next time.”
Cong Ye, ever the nonchalant young master, said lightly, raising an eyebrow at Qiao Yu.
“Like, during the summer holidays, you could come with Lin Qing to see the fireworks show—right?”
Even though Qiao Yu knew behind his breezy smile was a heart yearning for gossip, she silently nodded, following her own wishes.
“There will be another chance.”
She offered Lin Qing a comforting smile, like a promise.
Lin Qing’s regret dissipated like smoke, softly uttering an acknowledgment, her eyes and brows curved in relief.
After a good while, they finally entered the temple. Their group said they came for Chuyi, but in essence, they were more like tourists there to sightsee and join the bustling crowd. So, they didn’t light incense with the solemnity of the locals but simply tossed coins into the offering box from behind the fence.
Qiao Yu soon spotted the fortune-telling stands that Father Qiao had claimed to be very efficacious. The temple had many such little stands, and they were bustling with people drawing lots, a popular activity it seemed.
“Give it a try!”
Upon a command from Mother Cong, with nothing better to do, several people began to queue up and moved forward. Qiao Yu, although not particularly enthusiastic about such activities, was cooperative enough and chose a fortune-telling stand to join in the fun.
In front of her, Lin Qing had just shaken the fortune sticks and pulled out a slip of paper corresponding to the number she had drawn. She looked at it nervously.
Judging by her expression, it wasn’t a bad fortune. Curious, Qiao Yu leaned in and asked, “What does it say?”
“It’s a suekichi (future good luck).”
Lin Qing said as she handed the slip to Qiao Yu, who looked down to examine it. It was a quatrain poem.
【First loss, gain later,
Like the waning moon that fades away,
The jade rabbit awaits rebirth,
To shine brightly and fill the room.】
“…It seems kind of subtle.”
Suekichi, neither good nor bad, was quite vexing in itself. There was an explanation on the back of the lot, but Lin Qing couldn’t understand Japanese, so she had to return the lot to Qiao Yu’s hands.
“At least it’s good luck! My dad said that the odds of drawing an unlucky lot here are as high as 30%. So, when you think about it, getting this is pretty good! I might even draw bad luck—ah.”
As she comforted Lin Qing, she tossed in a coin and picked up the lot-shaking cylinder. But before she could shake it, a number plaque slipped out—it was twenty-eight.
Qiao Yu accepted the outcome with indifference and went with the flow, opening drawer number twenty-eight.
“…It’s bad luck.”
She looked at her fortune slip with mixed emotions, feeling like her jinx had materialized faster than anything else.
(If you're not reading on littlepandatranslations.com, it means this has been stolen)
As soon as Lin Qing heard the outcome, she came over, her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the text on the slip.
【Quick wishes lack a boat to cross,
Deep waves will surely lead one astray.
One must return to the old path,
Only then can disaster be kept at bay.】
“…”
Her expression was more solemn than Qiao Yu, who had actually drawn the unlucky lot. Lin Qing took the fortune slip and pondered over it, turning it over and over, while Qiao Yu didn’t seem to care much. Instead, she felt a warmth toward Lin Qing’s worried look.
Trying to comfort Lin Qing with a laid-back tone, Qiao Yu started to explain with the science of probability, but she was suddenly interrupted by a slap on the shoulder.
“Hey, Qiao Yu, what did you draw? I got a bad one!”
“Wow, with that tone, I almost thought you struck it big with the first lucky draw.”
The only person who could be so boastful about drawing an unlucky lot was naturally Cong Ye. He didn’t seem to take the result to heart at all. Grinning, he leaned in to give Qiao Yu’s slip a quick glance. After a moment of thought, with a pretense of depth, he asked: “What were you thinking about just now when you were drawing the lot?”
“No, I wasn’t thinking about anything…”
It was just that while talking to Lin Qing, she had drawn her lot without paying much attention. Qiao Yu said this with a sense of helplessness as she spread her hands out resignedly.
“I see, so maybe it’s telling you to be careful not to get lost while you’re out having fun.”
“…I see.”
That was indeed a thoughtful fortune. To worry even over such a small matter.
“Meh, it’s not important!” Cong Ye quickly gave up on pondering and handed the lot back to Qiao Yu. “Anyway, if you draw an unlucky one, just tie it up over there on that rack!”
Qiao Yu followed the direction he pointed and saw many lots already tied onto the side of the iron rack.
“I’ve already tied mine up! I heard that by doing this, you leave the bad luck here, and the gods will bless you!”
Cong Ye said this as he pushed Qiao Yu towards that direction. With no choice, Qiao Yu walked over to the rack and started to tie her lot to it.
“Lin Qing, what did you draw? Ah, suekichi huh.”
Unexpectedly, suekichi was the best result out of the three. Cong Ye looked at it sentimentally and gave it back to Lin Qing with care: “Then you don’t need to tie it up. This is good luck; you should take it home and keep it safe.”
Lin Qing nodded, feeling somewhat relieved as she saw Qiao Yu still struggling with the iron rack not far away.
When she was shaking the lot-drawing cylinder, her thoughts were focused on her relationship with Qiao Yu.
Lin Qing didn’t really believe in these things; even if she had drawn an unlucky fortune, it wouldn’t shake her faith in their romance.
But when it comes to love, even the tiniest bit of positive sign is taken as a good omen. Even just a suekichi was comforting to Lin Qing.
If only Qiao Yu’s bad luck was just superstition, and my good fortune would come true.
Lin Qing laughed at her own double standards. She carefully put away the divination paper and silently prayed for Qiao Yu to have the luck to turn bad omens into good ones.
At that moment, calls to move on came from the adults. Cong Ye bounced over to retrieve Qiao Yu, who had just attached a paper slip to the lot, and the three of them joined the larger group amid laughter and chatter.
“What did your unlucky fortune say?”
“I forgot, but I remember the last line was something like… ‘Mandarin ducks flying separately’ or something.”
“… That sounds even unluckier than mine…”
As the three of them gradually walked away, nobody noticed that the lot Qiao Yu had just tied wasn’t secured properly. The unlucky lot came loose from the rack and fell off, a gust of wind blowing it away to who knows where.
Originally, it was just for Chuyi, but it turned into a tour of several nearby attractions, all thanks to an overly enthusiastic guide. Qiao Yu returned to the hotel, dragging her weary body along.
Although she managed to satisfy a craving with some mochi and ningyoyaki from a temple stall, and they were quite tasty, the gratification in her stomach couldn’t mask the exhaustion in her limbs, making her collapse on the sofa as soon as she returned.
They had come back earlier today than yesterday, now just past eight in the evening, not yet bedtime. But the three people resting in Qiao Yu’s room didn’t have the energy to do anything else.
Is this the price of traveling?… Qiao Yu sighed deeply, starting to think that Mi Yi’s choice to rest at home might actually be a stroke of wisdom.
Cong Ye glanced at the time, muttering that he needed to take a soak in the hot spring to “replenish his blood,” and dragged himself out of Qiao Yu’s room.
His words reminded Qiao Yu that despite having been here for two days, she hadn’t yet visited the hotel’s famous hot spring due to time constraints, only showering in her room.
(If you're not reading on littlepandatranslations.com, it means this has been stolen)
This wouldn’t do—visiting a hot spring hotel without taking a dip in the hot spring was like going to a ramen shop and not ordering ramen!
Realizing this faux pas, Qiao Yu mustered the energy to get up, intent on following local customs and enjoying the experience.
As she rose, Lin Qing on the bed also made a move. She deftly took an elastic band off her wrist to tie her hair up, revealing the nape of her white neck—an enthralling sight that Qiao Yu couldn’t help but gaze at.
“Qiao Yu, are you planning to go to the hot spring?”
Caught off guard while staring blankly, Qiao Yu instinctively nodded at Lin Qing’s sudden question. Seeing Lin Qing’s smile and the playful bob of her tied-back ponytail, adding a touch of playfulness that was different from her usual demeanor, Qiao Yu felt charmed.
“Me too. Shall we go together?”
“Ye—yeah, let’s g—go—”
Mid-sentence, Qiao Yu faltered, freezing like an old computer that had crashed, stuck with her mouth formed in the shape of the word “go” and unable to finish her sentence.
“……………Together?”
She repeated the word slowly, as if her mind were jammed, while Lin Qing had swiftly taken out her change of clothes, all packed and ready to go, nodding at her casually as if nothing was unusual.
Qiao Yu was tongue-tied, feeling a layer of cold sweat spreading from her forehead to her back in an instant.
To go to the hot spring… with Lin Qing…?
Her mind went blank, the words “hot spring” in bold, black typeface magnified endlessly in her thoughts, making her dizzy.
Whether this was a good or bad thing, Qiao Yu’s overheated brain couldn’t make any sense of it at that moment.
