Mia and her boyfriend, Alex, had been together for five years, ever since their university days. Their journey from a sweet campus romance to navigating professional life together was smooth. Friends saw them as a perfect match, and both their families were starting to nudge them towards marriage.
Yet, just as everything seemed to be falling perfectly into place, a strange sense of panic began to creep into Mia's heart.
"Is he really 'The One'?" Once the thought surfaced, it grew like a wild vine, wrapping around her mind.
Alex was good to her—caring, patient, and their life together was calm and warm. But it was this very calmness that unsettled her. The marriage she had envisioned was supposed to have more sparks, more fireworks. Their relationship felt more like warm water—comfortable, but lacking a boiling point.
She started tossing and turning at night, replaying memories, trying to find definitive proof that he was her 'one and only.' Instead, she found traces of 'habit.' She couldn't bring herself to talk to her friends about it, and she certainly couldn't let Alex know about her wavering heart. The burden of this secret anxiety was hers alone to bear.
One day, while browsing a psychology forum, she saw a post about a divination website that combined Eastern wisdom with psychological guidance. The poster mentioned that it didn't give simple yes-or-no answers but offered a new perspective. Mia was intrigued.
Late that night, she opened the website. With a sense of reverence, she typed out her question: "Is my current partner my true love?"
The hexagrams on the screen shifted and settled on "Liu Lian" (Lingering).
The interpretation slowly appeared:
"Destiny is like a tangled thread. The path ahead seems foggy, but the real issue is a knot in your own heart. Do not seek outside, but look within. The answer you seek lies not in whether he is 'perfect,' but in whether you are ready to face an 'uncertain' future with an 'imperfect' person."
"Do not seek outside, but look within..." Mia repeated the words, letting them sink in.
It was a moment of epiphany. She had been trying to fit Alex into a 'Mr. Perfect' template, expecting him to fulfill all her fantasies of marriage. She had forgotten that love isn't about finding a perfect person, but about learning to see an imperfect person with perfect love.
She thought about how Alex had stayed up all night to care for her when she was sick, how he had secretly saved up to buy her an expensive painting set to support her hobby, and all their countless, ordinary, yet cozy evenings together. Those weren't signs of a lack of passion; they were evidence of a deep love that had woven itself into the fabric of her life.
Her anxiety stemmed from a fear of 'uncertainty,' not from doubts about their relationship.
That evening, she took the initiative to talk to Alex about her fears. After listening, he didn't blame her. He just held her tight and said, "The future is definitely uncertain. But the only thing I'm certain about is that I want to face it with you."
In Alex's warm embrace, Mia finally found her inner peace and resolve. She knew she had already found 'The One.'