The Future

 

Average minds know the past, but never know the future; Great prophets, however, can tell you what will happen in the future. Both fortune-tellers from Gypsy and palm-readers from China are well-known for telling the fortune, which is a kind of skill or trick and is even regarded as superstition in the eyes of many people.

 

I would visit Yuantong Temple when I was in Kunming. One day, I caught sight of an elderly man with a long white beard near the gate. The sheet of paper which said palm reading was placed on the ground right in front of him. I went up to him. He enquired me about the date and time of my birth and then examined my right palm for a short time.

 

“You’re not rich enough, but it’s easy for you to bring fortune to your husband,” he said.

I smiled, but said nothing.

“Your son is plump,” he kept telling me, “he’ll be famous and be holding an important position if he steps into the military circle.”

“Holding an important position? How can he make it?” I asked.

“By writing. As you know, a pen can be used as a sword,” he answered.

He looked me up and down, saying “The older you get, the more popular you will be.”

“How come I get more popular when I get older?” I asked in return. “I’ll retire from work when I am old,” I said.

“You’re unique – quite different from others,” he explained. ”You’ll be successful if you keep doing what you like for 20 years,” he continued.

“20 years?” I laughed.

“You’ll have a daughter,” he shifted to another topic.

“A daughter?” I got a little bit surprised.

“I’ll be fined and fired if I have another child,” I said in a doubtful tune.

“No, no! The arrival of the daughter will neither bring you any trouble nor affect your career,” he answered.

 

Many years passed, and my family remains a nuclear family. My son has really grown stocky, but where is my daughter? Perhaps she is on the way to the world!

                           （感谢TomCabin对本文的指正）