Chapter Sixty-Six: Psychological Bullying

The conversation had already shifted to why Li Xuelin had set his sights on Xu Wenrui, and Duan Yong’s task was essentially complete. He wasn’t sure how best to continue questioning Li Xuelin, but hearing that Li Xuelin had picked up the thread, he gave a perfunctory snort, waved his hand impatiently, and gestured to Kang Ge by his side: “Enough! Left Guardian, you ask him what foolish things he’s done! You know what should be asked, I don’t want to talk to him anymore. The more I ask, the angrier I get.”

Li Xuelin, seeing Duan Yong speak with such conviction and looking genuinely angry, became a little nervous. His eyes looked at Duan Yong with a pitiful expression, as if he were afraid this great “Master Baili Jiufang” would abandon his salvation in a fit of anger.

Of course Kang Ge understood Duan Yong’s intention. If it weren’t for the need to keep up appearances in front of Li Xuelin, he might have already let a satisfied smile slip at how well this charlatan was playing his role.

“Alright, don’t worry. I’ve been following the Grandmaster for quite some time; I can get to the bottom of things,” he replied with a show of respect, bowing slightly to Duan Yong.

Duan Yong nodded in response, got up, and paced over to the window, clearly wanting nothing more to do with Li Xuelin’s sordid tale. Naturally, Kang Ge took over the questioning, while Yan Xue, constrained by her “celestial maiden” role, maintained an inscrutable expression, playing her part to perfection.

“So you say the male student you set your sights on is a little tyrant? When you came to the Grandmaster for help, I wasn’t present, but I did hear the Grandmaster mention your situation later. He went to great lengths to change your fortune and solve your problem, tried many different methods, but I never heard him say you needed to find a little tyrant for your luck to turn!” Kang Ge spoke with such certainty, it was as if he were intimately familiar with how Duan Yong had deceived Li Xuelin before.

“The Grandmaster never said so, that was my own idea! The Grandmaster said I lacked the fire element in my five elements, so I needed someone with a fire destiny to help me change my fortune, and he did say something about a scapegoat, so I figured the rest out myself!” Li Xuelin, seeing how much the “Left Guardian” was trusted by the Grandmaster, grew even more deferential. “In front of you, I wouldn’t dare lie. I know I couldn’t fool people as skilled as you, so I’ll just tell the truth!

The first time I saw that male student, he reminded me powerfully of my ex-wife—not in looks, they look nothing alike, but the feeling was exactly the same. The moment I met him, I immediately thought of her.”

“You knew he was popular the first time you met him?” Kang Ge asked.

“No, I didn’t. It was just that strange, uncanny feeling that made me want to ask around about him.” At the mention of his ex-wife, Li Xuelin’s expression darkened. “You’ve never met her, but she was the kind of person, as the saying goes, all glitter outside, all rot within! Beautiful face, but a vicious heart.

Back when we got married, she didn’t lack for good days with me. Later, business went bad, I made less and less money—not that I wanted that, I tried everything I could to turn things around. Who could have known things would go so wrong after that? Not only did I fail to earn money, I got extorted. It was a tough time for me.

Tell me, if something like that happened, wouldn’t most wives try to comfort their husbands? But not her. In public, she played the part of the perfect wife, but behind my back, she’d mock me with words that cut straight to the bone.

She never swore, sometimes she’d even be smiling, but her words were like knives, stabbing right into my heart. It’s not just because I divorced her that I say this behind her back—even if she were standing here now, I’d say the same thing. She was a master at cutting to the quick—there’s no worse kind of person than one who wounds others’ hearts without mercy!”

“I suppose it’s not hard to understand you’d feel that way about your ex-wife—you lived under the same roof, you’d know her best. But that student, you probably didn’t even know his name at first, so how could you know he’s just like your ex-wife?” Kang Ge pressed, skepticism plain in his voice.

“How could I not know! Once you’ve suffered at the hands of that kind of person, the next time you meet one—no, even just catch a whiff—you’ll know it’s the same kind!” Li Xuelin’s words squeezed through his teeth, his expression showing just what he thought of his ex-wife.

“That woman never hit me, never cursed me out, but every word she said was like a nail, making me bleed.

When things were good, she never complained, everything was fine. But when my luck turned, every day she’d say something sarcastic, always saying I wasn’t a real man, that maybe she should go out and earn the money while I stayed home and freeloaded. Or she’d tell me to look at myself in the mirror—see a pig-faced loser. Or she’d call me a turtle, slow and useless, always hiding in my shell when things went wrong...

She never had a kind word for me. At first, I argued back, then I realized she did it on purpose, trying to provoke me into asking for a divorce. After that, I just endured it, until finally she couldn’t stand it and asked for a divorce herself—and took all my money with her!”

“Enough! That’s your doomed relationship with your ex-wife—what’s it got to do with that male student?” Kang Ge interrupted.

“How is it not related! That student is exactly another version of my ex-wife—a man this time! I’m not lying! I saw him outside the school losing his temper with a girl, all bluster and completely unreasonable. It was a hot day, she brought him hot water, and he accused her of trying to cook him alive. Then he said her brains must be full of tofu.

It was early summer, not hot at all! You tell me, is that any way to talk?”

“You certainly paid close attention, listening in on other people’s lovers’ quarrels so carefully,” Kang Ge chuckled. “If your ex-wife left such a mark on you, didn’t that girl remind you of her more? Sounds like you just picked that male student and won’t let go—whether he’s like your ex-wife or not, it wasn’t the Grandmaster who pointed you to him.”

“I never said it was! I’ve always said the Grandmaster never told me to find someone like that! I just thought, since I had to find someone with a fire destiny to change my fortune, if I found someone as vicious and mean as my ex-wife, I’d be ridding the world of a pest. That can’t count as doing evil, can it?” Li Xuelin hurried to justify himself. “I wasn’t joking when I said that student is like my ex-wife!

The way he argued with his girlfriend, it was clear to me he was forcing her to break up with him. That girl looked so pitiful, just like I used to be—pressured to speak first, but too afraid to say the words, skinny and frail, it made me burn with anger!”

Listening to Li Xuelin’s description, Yan Xue thought the girlfriend in question must be Deng Chun, not Wu Beibei. It was clear Li Xuelin had taken notice of Xu Wenrui since the breakup incident with Deng Chun.

“And he’s not just that way with his girlfriend—he treats everyone like that!” Li Xuelin, perhaps worried his revered Grandmaster would blame him, tried his best to prove his judgment wasn’t unsound. “I saw him once with another boy who was bringing him something, helping him out. But instead of being grateful or even polite, he sneered at the boy, making my blood boil.

He said things like, ‘Is it only at top schools that you get so much work and pressure? At regular schools it’s all easy, you can just coast and graduate, that’s why you have so much free time.’ Then he said, ‘If you stick close to me and things go badly, at least I can help you out.’ Worst of all, the boy said his mother sent him to deliver the stuff, and the student said, ‘What, does your mom want me as her own son? Tell her to mind her own son; whether I amount to anything or not, I don’t need another mom!’ Isn’t that outrageous?”

Yan Xue and Kang Ge exchanged a glance, betraying nothing, but inwardly they had a good idea of the situation.

“When was this? Did the student seem possessed at the time?” Kang Ge asked.

“That was a while ago—let me think, over a month, I’d say. At that time, the student didn’t seem possessed at all, not in the least. If he’d shown any signs, I wouldn’t have dared follow him for so long!

The Grandmaster said my luck was down, told me to stay away from places full of bad energy, so I was careful. At that time, the student was completely normal. Only then did I start finding him annoying, started asking around about him, found out he was a minor celebrity, and, as luck would have it, a fire destiny. That’s when I started keeping an eye on him.”

“At the time, did the boy delivering things to him say anything back?” Kang Ge pressed.

Li Xuelin looked at him suspiciously, then at Duan Yong, as if doubting the Left Guardian’s abilities. “Why do you want to know that? Aren’t we talking about me right now?”

“Of course we are!” Kang Ge showed no embarrassment. “You said yourself that later, the student seemed to become possessed, and whatever it was followed him to you, making you feel creeped out and afraid. I need to determine exactly when the possession began, so I can see where the problem lies. If you want to root out evil, you start at the source—you know that. If I don’t understand the process, how can I fix it? And if I can’t solve the problem, you can forget about changing your fortune or exorcising anything—just live with it. You seem resourceful enough, figure it out on your own if you’d rather.”

“That’s not what I meant! Master Guardian, did you see something in me?” Li Xuelin, slightly annoyed at first, grew anxious at Kang Ge’s words.

He didn’t know Kang Ge well, but the fact that “Master Baili Jiufang” hadn’t contradicted a word, or even intervened, seemed to show complete faith in the Guardian’s abilities, and that was enough to make Li Xuelin shift his attitude.

“I’ll show you the way later. Right now, answer me,” Kang Ge said sternly, glaring at him.

Intimidated, Li Xuelin quickly replied, “I remember the boy who delivered the stuff didn’t say anything at all. The student just said all those hurtful things, but the other boy ignored him, just said he’d delivered the stuff, finished his errand, and left. He said he didn’t have time to waste on that sort of thing.

After that, I never saw him pay any more attention to the student. He just dropped off the things and left. Was there something odd there? Now that you mention it, thinking back, it was after that unpleasant encounter that the student started acting weirder and weirder, like something had gotten into him!”

Kang Ge considered the timing, nodded to Li Xuelin, and then glanced at Duan Yong, who immediately turned away from the window and rejoined them.

“Let me tell you, you misunderstood my instructions completely. I have to make this clear!” Duan Yong said, following their prior plan. “When I said a fire destiny, I meant you needed someone with a fire destiny to buy you three feet of red cloth. As the scapegoat, it was the paper figure I prepared with rituals. I never told you to harm anyone! Harming people accrues karmic debt—it damages your virtue. If you harm someone in this life, you’ll be a pig or a dog in the next, understand?”

“I understand, I understand!” Li Xuelin replied, utterly convinced, a fine sheen of sweat breaking out on his forehead as he listened. “Lucky I didn’t act rashly, or I’d be finished now!”