Hui Yin waited with bated breath for the old man's answer.

But he simply shook the beer bottle next to him and peered inside it with one eye, trying to see if there was a drop left.

"Hmph, what took you so long? Are you stupid? You should have realized who I was after I gave you my name."

Hui Yin's mouth dropped. She was stupid? What kind of person would immediately connect his name to the god of marriage?! It was already supreme intelligence on her part to be able to guess his identity only after their second meeting!

But the old man took no notice of Hui Yin's sensitive feelings. He continued without paying heed to her facial expression, "I gave you the red cord because I saw that you were in love with that boy. I even blessed your marriage. But tsk, I didn't expect you to be another one of those fickle people who could turn my blessing into a curse! If you hadn't saved me again, I would certainly not interfere in your business."

He gave her a very disapproving look.

A chill ran down Hui Yin's spine. She turned a blessing into a curse? What did this senior mean?

Yue Lao accurately guessed the girl's thoughts. He sighed. Humans, in the end, were creatures of change. Just as the moon waxes and wanes, no one could possibly predict the human heart. That old boy Shaoyou had indeed written the truth in his poem:

Clouds float like works of art,

Stars shoot with grief at heart,

Across the Milky Way the Cowherd meets the Maid.

When Autumn's Golden Wind embraces Dew of Jade,

All the love scenes on earth, however many, fade. [1]

He could glimpse in her heart that the girl who wanted to be with the boy she loved deeply desired nothing more than to run away from him now. She still loved him...but that love had been tainted by hate and fear.

"If you want to run away from him, then it's too late now. The two of you are bound. The red thread of fate has already fettered your soul to his!"

His statement came like a thunderbolt from the sky that struck down Hui Yin. Her lips parted, but no sound came out.

At the beginning, she had her suspicions after guessing the old man's identity. Yue Lao was famous as the ancient Chinese god who was said to be in charge of all marriages with his magic red strings. There was even a saying that goes 'marriage of a thousand miles bonded by a string'. How could Hui Yin not connect it to the promise bracelets he had given her and Lu Shen, whose color was the same as the blood running through her veins?

But she had not wanted to entertain this terrifying thought. Who hadn't heard of the ancient myth about Yue Lao? It was said that back in the Tang Dynasty, a young man named Wei Gu encountered an old man reading a book after passing by the city of Songcheng.

He was reading it under the moonlight, which caught Wei Gu's interest. At the end Yue Lao had pointed to an old woman carrying a three-year old child and told Wei Gu that the young child was going to be his wife in the future. Wei Gu had his servant stab the girl with a knife, and fourteen years later, the governor of Xiangzhou gave his daughter to him in marriage.

Wei Gu later found out that she had a large scar on her back, where she had been randomly stabbed fourteen years ago! historical

Once Yue Lao had ordained it, it wouldn't matter if the soulmate in question was a friend or an enemy. They might be beautiful or hideously ugly, wealthy or poor with only a single penny to their name. Once your fate was tied to theirs with an invisible red string, you are destined to marry that person!

Yue Lao didn't mind pushing a drowning man into deep waters.

"You could try to run away from him, but since you're tied together, how far do you think you could go? You may spend a thousand lifetimes trying to escape your fate, but you will ultimately end up running straight into his arms. Why do you think that when you were reborn, you woke up beside him? His soul is your anchor. No matter where he is, the string cannot be broken. It will get jumbled and tangled up, but eventually the two of you will cross paths."

It was a dark and relentless fate. If you love the person you were bound with, then it was a blessing. But if you want to gain your freedom and run away from that love...the red string becomes a curse.

Like a candle being put out, the hope in Hui Yin's heart was extinguished. Even the air surrounding her felt colder as if the iciness of winter had followed her around, obliterating the warmth of the sun.

What was the point?

Everything that she did and was planning to do, what was the point of it all? When all was said and done, it was she who tied herself to Lu Shen. Who told her to fall head over heels for that man, to the point of making the deity of love and marriage shackle their souls together?

Hui Yin could only blame herself for all that had happened.

Yue Lao saw the bleakness in the girl's gaze and nodded inwardly. She had to learn that not everything could be changed so easily. It was the same for her heart.

Loving a person so deeply and then hating him the next, what kind of person could do it in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea? If she really wants to let that boy go and move on with her life, then she needs to be freed of her hatred first.

"Girl, don't look so depressed. Didn't I, your grandfather, promise you a reward? I can break the old thread tying the two of you together. Furthermore, I could replace it with a new one. But it will come at a high price."

[1] In this, he was talking about the poem 'Immortals at the Magpie Bridge' by Qin Guan from the Song Dynasty. Qin Guan's courtesy name is Shaoyou.