苏萨尔显然是兄弟中最成熟稳重的,十六岁,正是原君的年纪,"帅气"二字用在他身上恰到好处.和这样的年轻人交谈,如同置身于春风之中,苏萨尔大多数时候都会认真倾听,适时提问,甚至还会配合叶苏孟的笑话,活跃一下餐桌上的气氛.看起来,他将来可能会成为一名优秀的外交官,政治家,或者枢机主教.他温润如玉,宛如一块东方白玉.
西泽尔却沉默不语,低着头切着盘子里的蔬菜,仿佛他不是来吃饭的,而是一位雕刻蔬菜的艺术家.显然,他对叶素恩的话题不感兴趣,但他的脸色却很轻松,没有一丝不耐烦.
而普林尼则是个活泼的少年,在众人之中,他对叶素梦讲述的东方故事最感兴趣,他睁着大大的眼睛,目光随着叶素梦的讲述而变化,有时还会急促地发问,显得有些焦躁不安.如果叶素梦真是个讲故事的人,他无疑会喜欢普林尼,因为很明显,这少年是那种每天一大早就坐在茶馆里,兜里揣着银两准备酬谢,就为了听一出戏的评点的贵客.只是年龄显然是个问题,这样一个心智尚未完全成熟的少年,如果落入了那个凶猛如虎的小公主的手中...叶素梦的爷爷不禁对小普林尼的未来表示出些许担忧.
教皇没有说什么,只是微笑着听着,他不像是这场婚礼中男方的父母,而更像一个晚餐同伴.
"我们也好久没联系了,叶先生也不是觉得她们两个不适合做纯洁公主吗?"听到岩羊的出现,教皇终于提起了正事.
"一个东方贫弱小国,能得到教皇的青睐,已经是莫大的荣幸了,我又岂敢妄加评判教皇诸位尊贵子弟的优劣?"叶苏梦连忙说道.
"看来,这难题是我抛给叶先生的."教皇笑道,"这样吧,我听说叶先生擅长占卜,不如就请叶先生为我的三个小儿子一人占卜一下,通过占卜来决定一个合适的人选吧?"
叶苏眠搓着双手,露出惊恐的神色,"我知道占卜在教皇国是异端,我哪敢炫耀一点小术?"
"Practicing divination is not a heretical crime, attaching divination to heresies and compelling people is. Mr. Ye is the price of divination and uses oriental divination techniques, so let's take it as an eye-opener. Okay?" The Pope looked interested.
"Then I'll be respectful." After a moment of silence, Ye Suliang pulled out three red gold coins from his sleeve.
The coins were octagonal in shape, with a male body, Fuxi, on the front and a goddess, Nuwa, on the back, both with human faces and serpent bodies, with the serpent's tails crossing over the edges of the coins and entangling together.
"Is this the so-called 'Fuxi Money'?" The Pope asked.
"Yes. This is not a coin of the Tongliu, but was minted especially for divination. Three pieces of Fuxi money, every six throws is a 'trigram', and each time you get a 'line yáo rhetoric' for divination, and judge the future based on the lines." Ye SuMeng put the three pieces of money into the old bamboo tube and placed it in front of Su Sal, "Your Highness, please."
"Do I throw it myself?" Su Sal grabbed the bamboo tube, a little hesitant.
Divination is a common practice in the East, many people carry a few coins with them, and sometimes a lesson is taught about whether it is better to go out and meet a friend in the morning or in the afternoon, but in the West it is a forbidden art, and divination is not included in theology; priests only explain the Bible to make their followers religious, but do not foretell the future. Those who did prophesy were often witches, godforsaken, filthy women who hid in dingy basements and carried crystal balls, the eyes of the devil, which they used to peek into other people's lives. Those who sought divination were often extremely confused, and to inquire about the witches was to be tempted by the power of the demons, to trade something precious from the demons for a half-understanding of the future.
Susal looked cautiously at his father, still unsure whether this mysterious "Oriental divination" was theologically considered an evil force.
"Just relax and throw it as a little game. Our country's divination pay attention to the change of good and bad luck of the yin and yang of the easy, the cycle of heaven, there is no absolute good and bad luck, please rest assured that your highness." Ye Su Meng warm words of relief.
"There is no need to be afraid, Susar, as long as you harbor righteous faith, no demon can pull you away from God's embrace." The Pope said.
Susar nodded slightly and shook the bamboo tube in his hand. Everyone's eyes looked at the mouth of the black, tiny bamboo tube that could stream out destiny, as if it were the well of destiny, the devil's pupil. The reddish-golden Fuxi money flew out like golden sunlight sliced by a sharp blade, flipping in the air with unpredictable arcs, and Nuwa, the symbol of yin, and Fuxi, the symbol of yang, flipped and changed in everyone's eyes as if plucked by the finger of a god.
After a series of clinking sounds, the money settled, Ye Sumeng glanced at it, and casually dipped the tip of the knife in the sauce and drew a line down the center of the white napkin, "The first line gets 'Shao Yin', Your Highness, please continue."
Su Sal rolled six times in a row, Ye Sumeng drew six lines on the napkin, some were broken in the middle, some were continuous in the middle, broken as yin continuous as yang, and there was a distinction between old yang and less yang, and old yin and less yin.
"Rather like arithmetic." Pliny's eyes glowed with interest at this Oriental trick.
"It's not bad to say it's arithmetic, Your Highness Pliny is really smart, the ancient people in the East used yin and yang to calculate the whole world." Ye Sumeng smiled, "His Highness Susar's original hexagram is 'Kan is water', but according to our oriental saying, when water is full, it overflows, and to the point of strength, it will collapse, so the old yang turns to less yin, and the old yin turns to less yang, and after this turn, His Highness Susar's change of hexagram is 'Zephyr winds are greater than '."
"What is the meaning of each of the variations of this trigram?" The Pope asked.
"This trigram is the root of life, and the change of trigram is the Lord of the future." Ye Suemeng said.
"Then how to explain Susar's fate?"
"According to the ancient book of the East, Zhou Yi, I took the lines of the upper moving lines for His Highness Susar to see the future, the lines are 'Nine three: dong radius, fierce.' This line means that the beams of the house are bent by the pressure, a sign of great evil." Ye Sumeng said indifferently.
In an instant Su Sal's face changed. He was originally a little uneasy about divination, and only relaxed to try it after hearing Ye Sumeng say that there was no absolute good or bad fortune in oriental divination, but even if he was a westerner, he was still able to think that a bent roof beam being pressed was a sign of great evil, and the lines were so short as to have only three words, so sinister that they didn't even have a chance to be turned around.
Ye Suemeng smiled slightly, "Your Highness Susar please listen to me in peace, this line is a sign of evil for the vast majority of people, but not necessarily for Your Highness Susar."
"I've heard that the soothsayers of the East sometimes say some moderating words in order not to call people too frustrated?" The Pope said.
"Will do." Ye Suemeng nodded.
"So is Mr. Ye trying to comfort Susal?" The Pope didn't seem to be at all bothered by the results of this sinister divination.
"I don't know if the image of a ruler and a minister can comfort His Highness Susar?" Ye Sumeng asked.
"The elephant of a ruler and his subjects?" Susal froze for a moment.
"'Zephyr Wind Great Excess' is the hexagram of Lord Junzi, the so-called room beams, not the beams of the house, but what we in the East call 'building beams'. It refers to the mainstay of the country, His Highness Su Sal is the eldest son of the Borgia family, and this hexagram is between good and bad, good in this hexagram, His Highness will get the position of 'Lord Gentleman', and will bear the weight of the country; bad in this hexagram, the upper and lower sides are all yin, and the middle is all yang, which means that the talent of this pillar is weak in the two sides, but strong in the middle, and I'm afraid that it can't be overburdened. In this hexagram, it is said that 'Li You You Xiang, Hen', if you want to turn bad into good, you have to 'have to go'."
"What does it mean to 'have something to go'?" Susal asked.
"This hexagram, Zephyr Wind Dacross, has water and wood. Oriental monarchs often say that the king is the boat and ship and the people are the water, and that water can carry a boat and also capsize it. When water has a flowing channel it is calm and carries the boat, and when there is no flowing channel it breaks the dike and overturns the boat. So His Highness Su Sal will become a minister of the state or even ... in the future," Ye Sumeng raised his eyebrows, his tone was far-reaching, "when the position of a more honorable figure, it is important to remember to comply with public opinion. It's a good thing that Lord Susar's original hexagram is 'Kan is water', and his life is simply a feminine image."
The Pope gently high-fived, "That's wonderful, so that means my son Susar will be a future pillar of the Papal States?"
"Exactly this meaning." Ye Sumeng nodded and smiled.
Susal and Pliny looked at each other, their complexions softened and they gently let out a breath of relief.
"Which of the following Highnesses would like to try?" Ysumeng looked around at the boys.
Ceezer looked down at his dinner plate, and before he could speak, Pliny had reached out and grabbed the bamboo tube.
"Roll six times in a row." Ysumeng said.
"This hexagram, 'Qian is Heaven', changes to 'Heavenly Zephyr Crawl', and the lines read, 'Nine-four: Crawl the tiger's tail, sue, and end in good fortune.' " Ye Sumeng glanced at the trigram Prinny had thrown out, "Congratulations, Your Highness Prinny, both this trigram and the variant are auspicious. Qian for heaven is the most yang and rigid trigram, it means that your highness's life is fundamentally grand and majestic, with extremely thick roots; the meaning of the lines is that stepping on the tiger's tail and knowing to be vigilant, it is ultimately auspicious." He lowered his head and counted the years with his fingers, "Taking the oriental stem and branch chronology to count, together with His Highness Pliny's trigrams, His Highness will have a small calamity when he is fifty-four years old, but the so-called 'the calamity of a foot of water can be crossed by stepping on it', it is just a foot wide stream like that, and by then the vigilance of the heart can be answered by the 'Heavenly Zephyr Crawl' trigram, and ultimately get auspicious."
"What about before the age of fifty-four?" The Pope asked.
"All of them are very auspicious, Your Highness, this hexagram is the most yang, like a group of dragons opening up the way, the rigidity of the air, there is nothing that can't be reached, nothing that can't be broken.
"Well, then let Pliny live like a brave man until he is fifty dead years old, but in the year of fifty-four be careful to be on the alert for calamities like a little woman." The Pope looked kindly at his infant son, "Here is the little lion of our Borgia family!"
"Yes! Father!" Pliny nodded vigorously and leaned forward on his upper body as the Pope reached out across the table to stroke his head of blonde hair. The little lion-like boy looked to be very much in his father's favor.
Ysumeng slid the bamboo tube along the tabletop toward Sizer, "Your Highness has been very quiet."
"I don't want to divine." Xizier shook his head and pushed the bamboo tube back to Ye Suemeng.
"Is it because you think my divination results are not accurate, or you don't want to know your future?" Ye Suemeng asked with a smile.
"Why would a person want to divine the future?" Xizier lifted his eyes to look at Ye Sumin. His pupils seemed like the black night, cenotic and distant, nothing. There wouldn't be anyone who would like to look straight into such eyes, eyes that had nothing in them, like walking into an empty and unpopular house.
"Averting bad luck," Ye SuMeng said casually
"If the sinister future can be avoided, is it still the future?"
Ye SuMeng froze, "If the auspicious time can't be avoided, then there is no need for divination, if a person's life has been written on God's script, clear to the things loved and hated, where they are born and where they die, how many people have the real courage to ask their own script? Perhaps the matter of continuously asking the script is written on that script."
"So divination, it's just a paradox." Sizer said faintly, "Just a game to console yourself."
"Ceezer, Ceezer, don't say that. This is not a game, Mr. Ye is the most famous divination master in the East, if it wasn't for him acting as a messenger this time, he might not have agreed if you guys wanted to beg him for divination." The Pope's tone had been kind and patient, "Cherish this opportunity"
"Yes, father," Sizer nodded slightly and reached out to grab the bamboo tube on the table.
But a hand pressed on the bamboo tube in advance, preventing Sizer from picking it up.
Ye SuMeng's hand was as withered and thin as a pine branch, its skin cracked and aged like the scales of a snake. The bottom of this old man's eyes suddenly flooded with a cold light, putting it as if it was a clear river, under the water were countless swords and knives that had sunk into it since a thousand years.
"His Highness Sizzle asked an interesting question, allow me to say a few words for the Holy Throne (Author's note: Although the background of the story of "Throne of Thorns" is hollow, it is born out of the medieval Papal States, and all the various terms and many details strive to conform to the real. The "Pope" is more strictly translated as "Pontiff", and he is the head of the religion, a title and nature completely different from that of a secular monarch. He is called "Papa," meaning "Father," and his honorific title is not "Your Majesty," as it is usually translated. Your Majesty", but 'Your Hloiness', which is more properly translated 'Holy Throne' or 'Holy Father', and the former is used here. (The former is used here.) and Your Highnesses explained it first." Ye SuMeng said, "In fact, not only in the West, but also in the East, divination is a taboo art. The Heavenly Dao is majestic and inherently unpredictable, and predicting evil and good fortune can only be a tricky way. My teacher once said that divination is the art of stealing heaven, using human power to steal a sliver from the will of heaven, however, the diviner is bound to damage the fundamentals of his own life. That is why the lines of Zhou Yi are often ambiguous and unpredictable, because the ancient sages deliberately did not allow the world to understand the Way of Heaven, for fear that they would be revolted by the Way of Heaven if they peered into the future with the power of a human mole cricket. My teacher once advised me that the art of divination is humanistic in its depths, but demonic in its depths, and that it is best to avoid it at all costs. All the ancient masters of divination knew that they would not die well, and that the art of stealing the heavens would not have a place to bury their bones in the end."
"Eastern culture is truly subtle. Since the ancient sages knew this, why did they need divination?" The Pope asked.
"Because some people seek what is not a good end." Ye Su Mian poured out only one piece of money from the bamboo tube and threw it to Xizier, "Please try a throw, Your Highness."
Xizier caught the money and turned it over in his fingertips, murmuring.
"Throw!" Ye Su Mian reversed his tone, his tone was aggressive and unquestionable.
When his words settled, Cizer threw the money. The money crossed the candlestick and "Splat!" Landing on the tablecloth in front of Ye Su Mian, Xizier's face was expressionless, "I'm sorry, I still don't understand what Mr. Ye is talking about, this kind of game is better left alone."
叶素蒙低头看着面前的钱,"我位正南,正南为雷位,王爷将钱抛给我,过烛火,又是'雷火',上下为雷卦,得'雷属火'.钱跃火,上位变卦,'阳主过去,阴主将来',取六十二卦,'黄离元极'."
"今日是西泽殿下您的生日."叶苏萌抬起头,目光高傲而冰冷.