A Note on a College Entrance Examination Inquiry

A woman casually asked how her son would fare on this year's college entrance examination. As it was difficult to examine the sitting and facing in detail, I only asked the general direction. Her residence sits north on the first floor; the study faces northeast, within a residential complex; and there was no road to the northeast. From the northeast window of the study one could see outside a pond of water within the complex.

I told her that her son studied extremely well, though his health might be somewhat poor, and thus predicted that this year's examination results would surely be excellent. She said this was entirely correct: her son ranked first in his grade, at a key high school. In general, a single body of water faces them, and for a Kan residence the literary star lies in the northeast; water seen to the northeast also indicates clever children — only the slight weakness of the body is regrettable. Moreover, the examination fell in a Xu year; in the Wu month the literary star also lies in the northeast, so he received its qi.