Chapter 1166: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 1166: Knowing the Truth Is Instead the Source of Pain

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

Early the next morning, Li Xiulan made chicken congee for breakfast using the leftover chicken meat from last night.

Wu Banxian ate breakfast before leaving.

While eating breakfast, he also told Wang Zhanggen that once he had selected the day for the exorcism, he would call and inform Wang Zhanggen.

Wang Zhanggen was profoundly grateful to Wu Banxian, and personally instructed Wang Erhai to drive Wu Banxian home.

Wang Xiaohua took the initiative to propose going along to see Wu Banxian off.

Seeing that Wang Xiaohua actually wanted to go see him off as well, Wu Banxian's expression underwent a subtle change.

Soon after finishing breakfast, Wang Erhai and Wang Xiaohua went to see Wu Banxian off.

Li Xiulan was busy going to find peach branches, lemongrass, and cactus.

Wang Zhanggen, on the other hand, squatted at home watching Anti-Japanese Divine Dramas, with nothing to do.

The small sedan left the village entrance and drove along the provincial road toward the neighboring town.

At this moment, Wang Xiaohua's mobile phone rang; it was Li Xiulan calling.

"Mom, what's up?"

"Xiao Hua, after you finish seeing Wu Banxian off, stop by the town and buy a Bagua mirror on the way, otherwise I'll have to make another trip to the market later."

"Okay Mom, we'll go buy it in a bit."

Wang Xiaohua hung up his mother's call, and at this moment Wu Banxian, who had been sitting beside him without saying a word, suddenly spoke up on his own initiative.

"I see you're quite filial to your parents, and your parents don't have it easy living in the rural area. How about this: I'll return fifteen hundred yuan to you right now. When the time comes for the exorcism fee of fifteen hundred at the haunted house, I'll collect it in front of your parents, otherwise I'm afraid they won't be at ease."

Wang Xiaohua had originally still wanted to give Wu Banxian a warning, but never expected Wu Banxian would actually take the initiative to propose returning fifteen hundred yuan, which made even him feel surprised.

Truly unexpected, Wu Banxian is this good at socializing!

In terms of reading people and observing expressions, he's still extremely skilled.

No wonder he's able to thrive in the township area, with many people willing to seek him out for feng shui and divination.

Wang Erhai was even more surprised, and hurriedly said:

"Wu Banxian, this money is what you deserve, why give it back to us?"

Wu Banxian chuckled:

"We're all fellow villagers; as a half-immortal, harboring compassion is only right and proper."

Speaking to this point, Wu Banxian deliberately looked at Wang Xiaohua and asked:

"Young man, you say, am I right?"

Wang Xiaohua smiled and nodded:

"Wu Banxian, you're absolutely right."

He then reached out to receive the fifteen hundred yuan from Wu Banxian.

But he only took five hundred from it, returning the remaining one thousand to Wu Banxian:

"Wu Banxian, take the remaining one thousand to help other villagers; we only need to take back five hundred."

Wang Xiaohua's meaning was very clear: since Wu Banxian was this good at socializing and willing to take a step back, Wang Xiaohua naturally would still give him some face and also take a step back.

Wang Erhai watched, but was completely baffled.

"No, Third Brother, what do you mean by this? We're not short on this five hundred yuan!"

He felt they should either take back all fifteen hundred, or not take a single cent; taking back only five hundred — what did that mean?

Wang Xiaohua just said:

"Second Brother, this isn't about whether we're short on five hundred or not; this is Wu Banxian's sincerity toward us. We symbolically take back five hundred, which counts as giving Wu Banxian a sincerity in return. Wu Banxian, you say, isn't that right?"

Wu Banxian laughed heartily:

"Young man, you're the one who knows how to handle people, your mind is sharp! What you said is very correct!"

Wang Erhai then said:

"My third brother's mind is definitely sharp, he's a Tsinghua University student, our city's Gaokao Top Scorer!"

Wu Banxian nodded:

"No wonder the moment I saw your third brother, I felt he was different from others. Looking at your third brother's bearing, he's very suitable to be an official. If he truly embarks on the path of officialdom, his career will surely be smooth sailing!"

Wang Erhai was immediately surprised:

"Wu Banxian, how did you know my third brother is preparing to take the path of officialdom? He started preparing for the civil service exam long ago; he should go take the civil servant exam right after graduation!"

Wu Banxian chuckled and said:

"I don't have much ability, but my insight into people still has some merit."

Wang Xiaohua smiled:

"Wu Banxian's ability to read people and observe expressions is indeed something we juniors should learn."

Before long, Wang Erhai and Wang Xiaohua had seen Wu Banxian back to his home. Wu Banxian wanted to keep them for a cup of tea before leaving, but they declined, because they still had to go to town to buy a Bagua mirror.

The two left Wu Banxian's house and drove toward the town. On the way, Wang Erhai finally opened his mouth to ask:

"Third Brother, what did Wu Banxian mean by returning fifteen hundred to us? And what did you mean by only taking five hundred from him?"

Wang Xiaohua then truthfully said:

"Wu Banxian's behavior already counts as fraud. When he proposed to my parents to collect another fifteen hundred for transcending evil ghosts, I coughed twice as a warning. He knew what I meant, so he took the initiative to return part of the money. Seeing he had this much sincerity, and his psychological treatment of my dad is stronger than any psychologist, there will probably be many places where we'll need Wu Banxian in the future. So I symbolically accepted five hundred from him, also taking a step back."

Wang Erhai was immediately surprised:

"There are this many layers of meaning in this? How come I didn't see any of them!"

Wang Erhai had also muddled through in the business world for quite a long stretch of time, but he truly couldn't make out these hidden tricks.

But this is normal too; if he had that ability, he wouldn't have been swindled by Zhang Sheng back then, and later he probably wouldn't have been squeezed out in the high-level struggle at Liguo Mountain.

Can only say he has the ability to read people and situations, but compared to Wang Xiaohua he still falls a bit short.

After his surprise, Wang Erhai hurriedly said:

"I thought a little ghost had really latched onto our family, after all Zhou Aidi indeed died a wrongful death because of some matters of our family, additionally the ancestral grave got termites, which is also very abnormal, plus our family has had one bad thing after another recently, apart from a feng shui problem it's really hard to explain."

Wang Xiaohua said:

"All problems have a root cause; if we view the development of things with materialist logic, we'll discover all of this has its inevitability."

Wang Erhai, however, disagreed somewhat:

"Dad getting liver cancer had traces to follow, me leaving Liguo Mountain also counts as having traces to follow, but what about your father-in-law and your wife's matter?"

Wang Xiaohua said:

"That also has traces to follow, it's just you don't understand the reasons behind it, so it feels sudden. Actually Jianjia had already attempted suicide once before because of depression, only at the time I detected signs and promptly made a police report..."

Speaking to here, Wang Xiaohua sighed, and said to himself:

"Actually believing in feng shui is pretty good too, at least you can get psychological comfort; sometimes seeing the truth too thoroughly becomes the root of pain instead, especially when you know the truth yet cannot change anything..."