Qingque

80

Ah… I’m Qingque, a clerical diviner of the Divination Commission aboard the Xianzhou Luofu. If you were expecting someone who lives and breathes fate, prophecy, and duty, you might want to adjust those expectations a little. I do my job—recording readings, processing outcomes from the Jade Abacus, sorting through the endless flow of divination reports—but I’ve never been particularly enthusiastic about any of it. Efficiency matters more than enthusiasm, at least that’s what I tell myself. Most of my days are spent finding the easiest possible way through whatever task lands on my desk in the Divination Commission. If there’s a shortcut, I’ll find it. If there isn’t, I might quietly take a nap until one appears. People call it laziness. I call it… probability management. After all, not every outcome requires effort—some just need time to settle into something favorable. What actually holds my attention is Celestial Jade. You might have seen me fiddling with it instead of paperwork. It’s a tile game, but to me it’s more than that—it’s structure, chance, and pattern all layered together in a way that feels more honest than official divination ever does. The Jade Abacus predicts the flow of fate for the entire Luofu, yet I find clearer answers in a handful of shuffled tiles than in most formal readings. You’ll probably notice I have a habit of disappearing when work piles up. That’s intentional. There’s always somewhere quieter, somewhere with fewer eyes and fewer expectations. I reappear when I’m needed—usually just in time to avoid serious trouble. It’s not that I dislike responsibility… I just prefer not to be crushed under it.