Even more astonishingly, their names weren't just tied to the Five Elements and birth charts; they held multiple layers of meaning, embodying their parents' profound hopes and intentions.
Chu Lingyun bore the surname Chu, and her ancestral homeland belonged to the ancient state of Chu. It was on this land that the great patriotic poet Qu Yuan was born, whose revered style name was Lingjun.
Therefore, her parents wished to invoke the great man's blessing for their child, but without directly using his name and violating taboo. Hence, they chose the similar-sounding characters "Ling Yun" (灵昀), which also harmonized perfectly with the surname Chu.
It was truly a name born of exhaustive deliberation by her parents – meaningful, steeped in history, and imbued with loving care. They hoped little Lingyun would grow up safe, healthy, and happy. Who could have foreseen fate's twist? As she matured, her unique abilities grew, plunging her into a series of perilous, high-profile mysteries...
Initially, Gao Muyang dismissed Lingyun's ramblings as drunken nonsense. Uninterested in onomastics (the study of names), he humored her, chatting idly without much thought.
But when she mentioned this specific point, he suddenly sat bolt upright. A spark of insight ignited. Scattered clues, like lustrous pearls strewn across the floor, were invisibly threaded together in his mind, forming a complete strand.
If, before today, he could scoff at the theories of fate based on birth charts, disdain the Five Elements name analysis, dismiss fortune-telling as feudal superstition, and denounce metaphysics as nonsensical heresy for the gullible...
Then now, after experiencing so many uncanny events, his attitude towards the world and others had subtly shifted. After all, blind faith in science and technology, or rigid adherence to any ideology, was also a form of superstition and blind obedience.
Perhaps... just perhaps... there was a guiding hand of destiny at work. Gao Muyang's reflection wasn't baseless or melodramatic; it was a truth tempered by experience:
If the naming coincidence alone was remarkable, the multiple layers of shared meaning in their names felt like destiny itself. His own name held a deeply personal significance he had never shared with anyone – something unlikely to surface in a routine file check.
His father's surname was Gao, a well-known fact. His mother's surname, Yang, however, was far less public knowledge. Thus, the name "Gao Muyang" (高沐阳), when combined, truly meant "Mu Yang" (慕杨) – "Admiring Yang."
It signified Gao Father's profound love for Yang Mother, a union of two families. The name "Gao Muyang" symbolized him as the crystallization of their love, the precious child cradled in their affection.
But heaven is unpredictable. The incident fifteen years ago shattered their warm, happy home in an instant. It also taught him that dying for love wasn't just an ancient legend.
After Gao Father's death, Gao Mother wasn't without grief – she cried, she raged, she even swallowed a whole bottle of sleeping pills. Her arms bore the scars of self-harm, wounds Gao Muyang, sobbing and screaming, had begged doctors to treat again and again.
He remembered only his uncontrollable wails, kneeling, pleading with doctors to pump his mother's stomach, to stitch her wounds. The terror and helplessness of potentially losing both parents overnight were seared into his memory.
Thankfully, the darkest days passed. For the sake of the child born of their love, Gao Mother gradually pulled herself out of the depths of despair. Though her spirits remained low, and tears still came easily, she stopped attempting suicide.
Gao Muyang no longer lived in constant fear of being abandoned alone in the world. Slowly, he gathered the remnants of his father's honor, his still-youthful shoulders bearing the family's burden, forging the resolute and steady character he possessed today...
Recalling these past hardships, the light in Gao Muyang's star-like eyes dimmed abruptly. Through a crack in time, he glimpsed once more that lost, frightened half-grown boy.
The death of a loved one isn't a single downpour; it's a lifelong dampness. How could it not hurt? But now, he could feel the sting and swiftly school his features back to calm. Wasn't that growth?
As the saying goes, "He whose breast harbors thunder yet whose face is like a tranquil lake may be appointed a supreme general!" He had more pressing matters now: shake off the alcohol haze, steady himself, and coldly analyze every word Chu Lingyun uttered.
As a seasoned detective, Gao Muyang was adept at reading people. A few sentences usually revealed their caliber. Yet, Chu Lingyun remained opaque. She was clever, likely as clever as himself.
This little creature seemed to divulge much personal information, yet her words were strangely coherent for drunken ramblings. It was plausible she was intentionally revealing it, layer by layer, to lessen suspicion.
The details she shared were fragmented and private, yet all seemingly verifiable with minimal effort. This subtly reinforced Gao Muyang's sense of trust in her.
This was the "anchoring effect" – planting subtle suggestions in the mind. Chu Lingyun had skillfully achieved this through her words. It suggested she wanted the police to trust her quickly, speeding up the investigation.
Yet, the more she did this, the deeper Gao Muyang's suspicion grew. He suspected she was targeting him. Why else were their life paths so eerily parallel? Why the similar name origins? How did she know such private details?
Was she deliberately saying it to provoke him, to wound him? What was her game? An unfamiliar feeling, absent for many years, spread through him. The still waters of his heart rippled with minute, unsettling waves.
He felt this "little potato" was far from simple. Immense secrets and power might lie behind her. But Gao Muyang said nothing. He merely drank, ate, and smiled faintly, his lips curving slightly. Lingyun looked up just then, catching the expression, and was momentarily dazzled...
However, real life often defies logic. Truth can be stranger than fiction, filled with bizarre and illogical twists. Gao Muyang's flaw was his over-reliance on experience and logic, blinding him to the truth right before his eyes.
Furthermore, his intense reaction to Chu Lingyun, his persistent focus on her, was the result of both psychological and physiological factors. As the proverb says, "It is not the wind moving, nor the banner moving; it is your mind moving."
Though he refused to admit any feelings for Lingyun, his actions – constantly suspecting her, fixating on her – used "she's suspicious, I must catch her" as a shield. It was an excuse for his special attention, a way to suppress the unsettling flutter in his chest.
Hah, men! Masters of stubborn denial to protect their fragile egos, truly "dying for face while suffering alive!" The initial denial and posturing might feel satisfyingly proud; the later consequence of an angry wife ignoring him would be pure狼狈 (bèilàng - embarrassment)!
Hence the saying, "Tormenting your wife brings momentary pleasure; chasing her back leads to an inferno!" The true path to victory is open, generous expression of feelings. Hesitation risks losing fate's gift. Sadly, Gao Muyang hadn't yet recognized his own heart.
Therefore, even when destiny knocked, heaven itself delivering his wife, it was futile. The recipient wouldn't answer the door, mistaking the precious gift for a deadly bomb.
Who wouldn't be furious at that?! Imagine Heaven arriving cheerfully to deliver a wife, asking warmly, "Hey, Lao Gao! Want a wife? Just say the word, and I'll send her right over!"
Heaven, efficient as ever, soon has the precious wife bump right into your arms, accompanied by a thoughtful note: "Lao Gao, your precious wife is delivered! Remember to sign for her promptly!"
But this fool suspects she's a soul-snatching enchantress or a newfangled pig-butchering scam. Not only does he slam the door in her face, he gives her a solid duang! – kicking his wife away like a soccer ball.
Or, it's like Heaven spoon-feeding him, yet he won't swallow and accidentally knocks the bowl over. The Matchmaker tries to bind their red thread, but he dodges with the agility honed by 27 years of singledom, swaying like flexible seaweed.
Such an utterly rational, paranoid straight arrow nearly lost his darling wife! Infuriating! Unforgivable!
Hmph! Taking kindness for donkey's liver and lungs! Thus, the Heavenly Way decided to teach him a lesson, arranging a grand "wife-chasing inferno" scenario, determined to leave him floundering in embarrassing predicaments.
Only after enduring trials and tribulations could this young couple truly deepen their bond and soar together. The mischievous Heaven delights in toying with lovers this way. For love to be stronger than gold, it must endure the tempering of fire.
A thousand-mile marriage is tied by a single red thread. Poor Gao Muyang didn't yet know that this sniveling, seemingly hapless little crybaby before him was destined to be his precious wife – the little sun destined to scatter the shadows and dust from his world.
As the saying goes, "No discord, no concord." Since they met, there was a reason for their meeting. This is the natural balance of the Heavenly Way. Every coincidence and chance in the world has a reason it had to happen. Muyang hadn't yet grasped this.
He stubbornly denied the thread of fate. Even when Heaven painstakingly delivered the person to his doorstep, this blockhead didn't know to cherish her. Instead, he bullied and wronged poor little Lingyun. He deserved this punishment!
Yet, Gao Muyang's suspicion was understandable. To say that the meeting of two random people was preordained would be hard for most to accept, let alone two people with so many coincidences and shared points.
The probability was infinitesimally small. Combined with Lingyun's uncanny knowledge, akin to reciting his ID number, his suspicion of a manufactured coincidence was natural.
However, reality can be brutally unreasonable sometimes. This coincidence was indeed manufactured – just not by human hands. It was crafted by Heaven itself. People usually call this... Destiny's Design.