Chapter 10: Qimen Fortune Teller Qi Tiezui The Eighth

Chapter 10: Qimen Fortune Teller Qi Tiezui The Eighth

Qimen (1) Fortune Teller Qiu Tiezui (2) the Eighth was a peculiar man in the lower three clans.

The Huo and Xie families were big families, who devoted themselves to expanding their businesses. From eastern Inner Mongolia to Lingnan, both families had their tracks all over these areas, but Qi Tiezui went in the complete opposite direction.

Ever since Qi Tiezui started his business, he had only one shop, which was a fortune-telling booth in the old tea camp in Changsha.

This fortune-telling booth was in the depths of an alley, and behind it was a small incense hall where he did the fortune telling.

If people wanted to buy antiques, they needed to pay six pennies before the fortune teller would take them into the inner hall. There was a large hall in the back that was full of treasures.

Under normal circumstances, this kind of small shop would easily be eliminated, but the Qi familys shop had been open for several generations. Business was booming, and the small incense hall flourished.

Some people found it very strange and didnt know why his business was so good. Later, they learned that Qi Tiezui had a strange rule.

If people wanted to buy antiques, he would do fortune telling for them. He was the number one fortune teller in Changsha, and his predictions were extremely accurate. He only did it for people who bought antiques, and called it Buy antiques, get free fortune tellings.

Nowadays, we might call that competitive differentiation or derivative value.

The people who robbed graves and sold antiques were rather superstitious. Qiu Tiezui was very famous, so even if there were some people who didnt actually want to buy antiques, they would go to him for fortune telling and buy an item randomly. That was why his business was always popular.

So, how accurate were his predictions? People said his skills were divine.

If the underling had asked the melon farmer to pay rent, then he definitely wouldve died. And if he didn't have the money he got from the incense burner, the money in the box would have definitely been taken.

Afterwards, the guy asked Qi Tiezui how exactly he had predicted it, and Qi Tiezui told him that the money he got for selling the incense burner was also the money the broker paid in order to buy the incense burner.

Buy the incense burner sounded like Buy the road (3), which meant that he would encounter a robber, who would steal the money he got from the incense burner.

And the broker hadnt done the fortune telling. Didnt do the fortune telling sounded like Didnt count the melons. (4)

Qi Tiezui said, Youve committed the sin yourself, but your ancestors know that its your first offense, so they gave you a way out. You must be careful in the future and not make this kind of mistake again.

The guy listened and never dared disobey Qi Tiezui again. The story of this incident was also spread, and soon, all of the people in the city had heard about it.

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TN Notes

(1) The Chinese characters actually mean Qi Iron Mouth. Iron mouth is an idiom meaning someone who can tell fortunes very accurately.

(2) Qimen, which refers to Qimen Dunjia, is an ancient form of divination from China. Wiki link

(3)(4) These sentences are pronounced similarly in Chinese.