Chapter 23: The Auxiliary Qi of Harmony

  Winter has arrived, and I've put on my thick winter clothes. Another year is about to pass by. One evening, Jin Gang Pao came to find me again, and his first sentence shocked me, "Old Yu, I'm going to retire from the army!"

  "Why?" I asked.

  "I've had enough, I don't want to be it anymore." Today's Jin Gang Cannon looks like it has no spirit.

  "Get out, I don't even know you. If I take off my uniform, it's like taking my life." Jin Gang had always been proud of this military uniform. He thought that wearing a military uniform made him look more dignified than wearing casual clothes. Although the uniform was size 3-5.

  The guy hung his head and said nothing.

  "Come on, tell me why." I urged.

  "A few days ago, I received a call from home. My dad was helping someone quarry stones in Shiwuzi and his fingers were blown off when he was setting off explosives. I didn't take time off to go back. Seeing him so distressed, I felt helpless too. It seems this guy still has some filial piety. Then, sitting there, I tried hard to calm down the turbulent energy inside me. At present, I don't have enough ability to control something as small as a teacup, even though I had only poured half a cup of tea beforehand. Today's forced efforts really made me feel uncomfortable."

  "A real man doesn't show his true self." Old Wang spoke up. This person is not simple, many people would have a pause in their thinking when they encounter something that they can't accept, but this old man almost immediately regained his composure the moment I put down my teacup.

  "Mr. Wang, if I'm not mistaken, you should be a national civil servant, right?" I forced myself to suppress the discomfort in my heart and barely opened my mouth.

  The old and cunning Wang finally showed a shocked expression after hearing this. "Young brother, from now on I won't hide anything either, as you said, it's indeed my little daughter who has gotten into trouble. If young brother can help me this time, Wang will definitely give a generous reward."

  I don't know if the old man is talking about a thick report or a late report, but to be honest, I hope he's talking about the former. If it's the latter, who knows when we'll get it, maybe next year or next month.

  "Then you have to tell us the whole story from the beginning, I need to discuss it with my brother." I said, pointing at Jin Gang Pao who was sitting beside me and had always been treated as a useless person by them.

  Old Wang finally opened up about what had been happening to his daughter. It turned out that Old Wang was an important figure in the provincial finance department, with two daughters under his care. The elder daughter was over a decade older than the younger one and had already gotten married. The younger daughter worked as a journalist at a certain TV station, often coming into contact with all sorts of people and frequently visiting seedy alleys due to work requirements. As for how she contracted this strange illness, even Old Wang couldn't explain it clearly. Everything had been normal initially, but for some reason, the younger daughter suddenly fell ill half a year ago. At first, she would lock herself in her room, writing and drawing furiously, only to tear up what she wrote and burn what she drew. As a result, no one knew what she was writing or drawing. Later on, she stopped writing and drawing altogether, simply sitting blankly, until eventually, she began sneaking out at night. She would always head towards an abandoned primary school on the outskirts of town. Each time, Old Wang had to personally go fetch her back, as no one else could manage it. Over these past six months, Old Wang's nerves had been stretched taut from dealing with his precious daughter's antics. They had visited every major hospital in the provincial capital and even made several trips to Beijing and Shanghai, only for the diagnosis to be depression. Despite taking a lot of medication, there was no discernible effect. In desperation, Old Wang secretly invited a few monks to perform an exorcism. Who knew that this would make things worse? Upon seeing the monks, his daughter's condition took a turn for the worse, her eyes blazing with fury as she wildly flailed about and bit people. This petite, weak woman suddenly possessed superhuman strength, sending the monks fleeing in terror. One of them even got bitten on the head, probably dooming him to a life of not being able to show his face in public without wearing a hat. Just when Old Wang was at his wit's end, Yang, who often received special treatment from him, caught wind of this and recommended me to Old Wang.

  After listening to Wang Lao's account, I furrowed my brow and thought for half a day. Based on Wang Lao's description, his daughter's situation was likely caused by some kind of evil spirit. As for what it is, it's hard to say for now. Just as I was deep in thought, Yang Zong rushed over to me and said, "Xiao Yu, let's go down and have a few more fish." I understood that there was more to his words, so I stood up and followed him out of the private room.

  Yang took me to a quiet place, pulled out a small notebook from his shirt pocket, scribbled a few lines, tore off two slips and handed them to me. "Xiao Yu, these are two 50,000 yuan bank drafts. You must help with Director Wang's matter. If it's really cured, I'll thank you again."

  My god, this unassuming old man is actually the hall chief. I looked at the two bank drafts in Yang's hand, and it was neither possible to accept nor refuse. If I accepted them, it would be like accepting a deposit from someone, no matter what happened to Wang Hall Chief's daughter, we would both have to go through with it. If it were some kind of ghost or monster, that would be easier to deal with, using my skills and the Nine Yang, I would have some confidence, but if it were something even more powerful, I wouldn't even dare risk my life. But if I didn't accept them, this was 100,000 yuan we're talking about, enough for me and Jin Gang Pao to smoke "five blocks" for a lifetime, not to mention that Jin Gang Pao has a half-dead father and two idiot brothers at home. This 100,000 could change the fate of an entire family. I hesitated for a moment, before slowly reaching out to take the drafts from Yang's hand.

  Now looking back, the reform and opening up indeed have great significance for social progress and national prosperity. However, it also made my generation's thinking stuck on the idea that money is almighty. At that time, I was wearing a military uniform, but my heart was not noble. I always thought that money could change everything, if it couldn't, it was because there wasn't enough of it.

  But at that time, I didn't know that for Yang's trivial 100,000, I almost made a huge mistake and created an eternal regret. I also didn't think that to make up for this mistake, I spent nearly ten years of my life, sweeping away the dust with nine yang, rushing into Kunlun, holding the ancient sword Ganjiang, ascending Mount Hua three times, borrowing the energy of the Five Peaks to observe the world, relying on the secret method of controlling the air to reverse yin and yang!