Chapter 89: You’re the One Spoiling Everything!

“What just happened... what just happened a moment ago?”

When Chen Yu finally came to her senses, she found everyone staring at her in stunned silence. “Where is that man named Yang?”

No one answered. The reporters exchanged glances, then suddenly turned and left, each running faster than the last.

Chen Yu looked utterly bewildered. She turned back to her cameraman. “Why did they all run off?”

The cameraman’s expression was just as complicated. After hesitating for a long while, he handed her the camera. “You... you should see for yourself.”

Still in a daze, Chen Yu opened the camera. One look was enough to drain the color from her face. “How could this happen?”

The cameraman wore a gleeful, spiteful look as he watched her. He was already secretly sending messages on his phone, reporting everything that had happened here to others.

Upstairs, Duan Bowen was staring at Yang Meng in sheer terror. “Mr. Yang... w-what on earth just happened?”

Yang Meng shrugged. “Were you blind? Didn’t you see it yourself? That ugly female reporter over there was busy pouring out her soul, wasn’t she? So many people recorded it. Just ask someone for a copy of the video and watch it at your leisure. Tsk, tsk. So this is the ‘saintly’ reporter with a reputation for conscience? Today has truly opened my eyes.”

Duan Bowen said helplessly, “Mr. Yang, what I want to ask is: how did you do it?”

Just now, in full view of everyone, Chen Yu had launched into a “self-criticism” that was practically a complete exposé of the television station’s dirty secrets: how, in her early years, she had advanced from an ordinary text reporter to a program reporter by getting involved with the head of the production team; how she had taken bribes and hidden the truth to fabricate reports; how she had cultivated an image as a devoted philanthropist and organized several charity drives for poor mountain regions, while most of the donated money ended up as property registered under her relatives’ names.

This was fraudulent fundraising. This was a crime.

Worst of all, these activities had never been especially well hidden, and yet she had remained perfectly safe all these years. The reason was simple: she had powerful backing.

Not only was she the bedmate of one of the station’s top officials, but he also got a cut of the dirty money. How could anything ever happen to her?

These were the sort of things that ought to have stayed buried in the stomach forever, yet today Chen Yu had seemed to be possessed by something, spilling them all out like beans from a bamboo tube, even describing in detail how she had slept with that official’s son while he was dozing.

Tsk, just hearing it was enough to make your ears feel filthy. If anyone tried to write it out, it would never pass review. Better not mention it.

The problem now was that Chen Yu had said all this in front of a crowd of reporters, and there were also plenty of bystanders eager for a spectacle. Even if the reporters hesitated out of concern for their professional image, what about the onlookers? They would absolutely post it online.

Chen Yu now had only one road left: a dead end.

Everyone found it strange. How had Chen Yu, after being poked once by Yang Meng, suddenly begun spilling everything like water from a broken bamboo tube? She could deny it, of course, but what she had confessed was so detailed that it could not withstand the slightest scrutiny. Everyone knew that Chen Yu and the power behind her were finished.

That was why the reporters had run so decisively. This was explosive news.

Not report it? The internet would already be full of it. Let the world burn.

Besides, they wanted to keep their distance from Yang Meng. There was something uncanny about him. Many were beginning to suspect that this mess had all been his doing. No need to suspect it—of course it was him. Everything had started from that single poke of his finger.

But there was no evidence, and that made the whole thing maddeningly unscientific.

In any case, reporters were all shrewd old hands. When faced with something like this, it was best to stay far away. Who didn’t have a little dirt in their own past? What if Yang Meng poked them with one finger too and they started confessing everything as well? Then they’d be ruined too. As the saying goes, better safe than sorry. Keeping their distance could never be wrong.

Besides, Yang Meng was the sort of man who would not bend for money or force. Who knew whether, if pushed too far, he might make them sign confessions of their own? No, no—they would not go looking for trouble. So all the reporters fled. After all, they already had their big scoop. Let Yang Meng play by himself.

“Shocking Scandal at Handong Television Station.”

Mm, that was a good headline.

While currents of turmoil swirled over there, things on Yang Meng’s side were much more relaxed. No one interrupted them as they walked and talked.

Yang Meng looked at Duan Bowen and said, “Secretary Duan, since you covered for me just now, I’ll tell you. Martial arts is the collective term for warriors and occult practitioners. Things like exorcism, divination, spirit dancing, talisman drawing, and alchemy all fall under the methods of occult practitioners.”

Duan Bowen shook his head. “Brother Yang, that’s going a bit too far. That’s clearly superstition...” He stopped himself there, after all, because he had seen a ghost with his own eyes.

Yang Meng smiled. “Just because you don’t believe it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Take spirit dancing, for example. By the Qing Dynasty, it was still used by the imperial physicians of the Qing royal family. As for talismans and incantations, those were even more powerful. The Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan once bestowed an official title called ‘Zhuyou.’ Everyone capable of Zhuyou was among the most educated people of their time and was held in great esteem. The healing methods they used were called Zhuyou techniques. From ancient times, this has been one of the thirteen branches of traditional Chinese medicine: the art of curing illness through talismans and incantations. Even in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Zhuyou techniques still counted as formal medicine. In classics like the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon, there are detailed discussions of Zhuyou knowledge.”

“And alchemy—many people think it was just something mad Taoists did while swallowing mercury pills, but that’s not true at all. Great medical masters like Sun Simiao studied alchemy. Was Sun Simiao a mad Taoist? In fact, alchemy was also one of the methods of occult practitioners. The most famous example should be Ge Hong, the little immortal of elixirs from the Eastern Jin, right? He and his wife, Bao Gu, went to Mount Luofu to refine elixirs. The moxibustion we use today was something his wife came up with; and Ge Hong himself was even more impressive. Our country’s first clinical emergency manual, Recipes for Emergencies Held Up the Sleeve, was worked out by him while he was refining elixirs. The cooling herbal teas that southerners love to drink were also first developed during his alchemical studies, and now they’ve even become intangible cultural heritage. Oh, and Master Tu Youyou won a Nobel Prize for treating malaria by improving the activity of sweet wormwood extract, but the earliest proposal of sweet wormwood juice extraction was still Ge Hong’s: ‘Take a handful of sweet wormwood, soak it in two pints of water, wring out the juice, and drink it all.’ He did it that way to make his alchemy more convenient. His disciple, the Wild Man of Huang, later crossed the sea to the southern oceans and continued refining elixirs and healing people; that’s the ‘Yellow Great Immortal’ worshiped so fervently in Hong Kong today. And the Hundred-Herb Oil he refined is still an indispensable household remedy for the people of Lingnan, carrying on for nearly two thousand years. It’s even Huizhou’s first national-level intangible cultural heritage project. So, Secretary Duan, do you still think things like alchemy, spirit dancing, and talisman drawing are just superstition?”

After hearing all this, Duan Bowen could only shake his head, at a loss for words. What Yang Meng had said was utterly unlike everything he had been taught for so many years. In fact, it felt as though his entire worldview was beginning to collapse.

But Yang Meng went on as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “And whether it’s spirit dancing, Zhuyou, or alchemy, to put it bluntly, those are only superficial tricks of the true practitioners. The real methods of the arts can reach the heavens.”

Duan Bowen’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”

Hu Erleng chimed in too. “I say, Mengmeng, after a heartbreak, how did you become so mystical and cryptic? That’s not the way you used to talk.”

Yang Meng rolled his eyes at Hu Erleng. “Shut up. You idiots aren’t as inquisitive as Secretary Duan, are you? When have you ever asked me questions like this? Secretary Duan, you don’t think I’m teasing you, do you? You’re well read—surely you know about the Giant Claquers?”

Hu Erleng blinked. “The Giant Claquers? Never heard of them. Is that a man or a woman? Are you making up some nonsense to fool me?”

Yang Meng said helplessly, “Erleng, if you don’t speak, no one will take you for mute. I’m asking Secretary Duan.”

Duan Bowen smiled. “Is Mr. Yang testing me?”

After thinking for a moment, he answered, “The Giant Claquers... the Giant Claquers... I remember now. They were the mighty giants from the fable about the Foolish Old Man Moving the Mountain. The Foolish Old Man’s persistence moved the Heavenly Emperor, so the Emperor ordered the giant Claquer to send his two sons to carry the two mountains away!”

Yang Meng asked back, “Do you think it was possible for Claquer’s two sons to move two enormous mountains?”

Duan Bowen froze, then burst out laughing. “Isn’t that just an old fable made up by ancient people?”

Yang Meng shook his head. “You think it was all made up? Then let me tell you: if it were truly done by a master of the arts, none of this would be strange at all. You’re curious how I know all this, aren’t you? Fine, I’ll tell you. I’m accomplished in both scholarship and martial ability—I practice both the martial and the occult. I know a little of the occult methods as well, and just that little bit is enough to make your jaws drop.”

Duan Bowen stared at him. “Mr. Yang, by your logic, does that mean there are really gods in this world?”

Listening to Yang Meng, he now felt that the worldview he had built over more than twenty years was starting to shake. What Yang Meng had said was simply too disruptive to common sense.

Yang Meng looked at Duan Bowen, then calmly took a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, drew a deep drag, and said with an unfathomable expression, “Do you know what a god is? A god was once a human being too. But he accomplished what humans cannot do, and so he became a god.”

Hu Erleng, who had been silent all this time, suddenly slapped his own thigh hard. “I’ve heard that line before! It’s from the movie Initial D! Finally, a line I can actually understand! If we’d been talking like this from the beginning, how great would that have been? I couldn’t even get a word in!”

Now even Yang Meng felt a little awkward. He blinked and looked at Duan Bowen. “Ahem, just understand the spirit of it. That’s enough.”

Duan Bowen nodded frantically. “Yes, yes, I understand, I understand.”

Yang Meng could no longer hold it in. He kicked Hu Erleng in the backside. “Are you sent by heaven just to undermine me?”