The plump boy’s mother was covered in tears as his classmate told his tale. She was understandably heart-stricken by the torment her son had to endure, even though we have doubled over in laughter on the inside ourselves. Still, our best efforts to squelch our laughter failed.

Zheng Shuang, Zhu Jun, the plump boy’s mother, and his classmate were confused to see us struggling against our urges to guffaw with laughter! “Oh my God! So much for aiming at the moon!” Yuan Chongxi burst out laughing, slapping on his lap. “Good Heavens! Look at how desperate he was! The methods that he’d been trying,” Lin Feng quipped as well.

I held off all remaining urge to continue laughing. “Auntie,” I said to the plump boy’s mother, “Rest assured that I can help your son. Have no fear! If he is indeed a studious student, he might already be able to go back to school tomorrow!” The boy’s mother twinkled with hope and joy! “But please,” I said to her again almost immediately after a split second pause. “Indulge me. How much money has your son been asking from you these recent months?” “Close to 3000 yuan, I guess!” The mother replied to the best of her memory.

My companions and I shared knowing looks at each other. “Let’s get to work then! 2000 yuan it is!” Lin Feng remarked, “Things are getting urgent for the patient. At this rate, he can’t even eat!” I asked Yuan Chongxi to get some iced refreshments for our guests while the plump boy’s classmate asked testily, his doubt clearly evident, “Is this the blowback of some curse?” “You’ve read too much fantasy novels,” I said, amused by his demeanor. “Your son had looked for a help of a medium called Bai Chuanwei, only because of his unrequited infatuation with some girl,” I revealed to the patient’s mother, “Your son paid him 2000 yuan in return for ways to bewitch the girl using some unknown devilry. But not only the girl refused to accept his plush toy, your son even lost the gift! Unbeknownst to him, curses like this are two-edged swords. They affect not only their victims but the users as well. What happened to your son is case in point!” I paused and looked at Zheng Shuang and Zhu Jun. “Bai Chuanwei is at his wit’s end, so it seems. What a pity that his skills have to be used for matters as petty as this!”

Yuan Chongxi left his seat again and came back with a bottle of Chinese red tea. I extracted my Spirit Gourd and began chanting some spells that would help restore him and blew a gust of air at the patient’s face. The plump boy immediately collapsed down on his back and fainted. We waited until he woke up and I passed him the cup of tea, which he emptied half the glass in a single gulp!

I sat with the patient and patted on his shoulder. “There are things which are meant to be while some are not, Brother,” I said to him, “If she is meant to be yours, rest assured that she would be yours when the time comes. What do you think will happen if the girl were to one day break free from the enchantment? Would she still trust you? Would she remain by your side? At worst, you lose both your money and her.” The plump boy became stunned. I would have thought that he had seen the truth in what I told him, but he instead leaped to his feet and asked his classmate, “Where’s my plush toy!?” I grimaced quietly; it’s plain and obvious he did not learn anything from what I said.

I sighed. “You won’t listen, do you? Very well, I’ll be frank then! Look at yourself! What makes you think that the girl will like you? You’d even tried to control her with depraved witchery! Do you actually intend to be a rapist, or did you actually overestimated yourself? Love conquers all, you say? But what makes you think you can conquer Love and win her heart? This is not a matter of perseverance. It’s just that girls do not like plump boys with terrible attitudes! At this rate, if you do not improve, you’ll only be a bachelor till you’re old! Understand?” The head of the boy’s mother sank so low it almost passed her shoulders, her expression sour at my blistering beratement of her son.

My bombardment of scathing remarks incensed the plump boy. He sprang up at barked angrily at me, “JUST WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE! NEED I LISTEN TO YOUR PREACHING! DAMN YOU!” He waved his fists in my face, trying to intimidate me. I merely sighed. Silly boy, you just have to be so rash… I mused. A blurry figure whisked by me suddenly, winds whistling at my ears, like a dark apparition. The plump boy yelped suddenly in pain and the imprint of a hand blazing red on his cheek could be visibly seen.

Lin Feng flexed his wrist and was muttering, “Damn, what a beefy cheek…” Everyone else present shook their heads wearily. Enraged beyond measure, the plump boy scrambled to his feet and charged furiously at Lin Feng after realizing that it was the latter who had slapped on his face. He lunged at Lin Feng with a reckless abandon that both Yuan Chongxi and I could only bury our faces in our hands with embarrassment. Lin Feng merely raised a leg and delivered another simple and direct kick and, expectedly, the plump boy’s battle cries turned into painful whimpers as his ferocious charge turned into a miserable roll on the ground, the poor boy clutching at his leg.

The boy’s mother could only watch with anguish as the plump boy was badly trounced by Lin Feng. Finally, when he was soundly defeated, both in spirit and flesh, the poignant woman, her eyes watery with tears, clambered over to help her more-than-100-kg heavy son to his feet. But out of shame and embarrassment, the plump boy merely refused to acknowledge the truth in what I said; he refused to agree with me, although he knew I was right. He just needed Lin Feng to pummel the truth into him.

After the plump boy simmered down, I said to him again, “The man who had taught you the spell to bewitch girl is actually the leader of an evil cult. He is responsible for a number of innocent deaths and the Tangshan police is hunting him. Tell us, where did you find him?”

Zheng Shuang and Zhu Jun immediately produced their police badges. The plump boy, now shaken by what I said and the presence of the two policemen, began to blubber, “I’ll lead you to him…”

The plump boy led us to a row of cheap tenements for rental. He began telling us of his first meeting with Bai Chuanwei. They had met by chance when the plump boy was on his way to school and Bai Chuanwei could immediately guess what the boy was frowning about. The boy then paid him 2000 yuan as deposit, and Bai Chuanwei taught him a way to obtain the girl he was infatuated to. They agreed to a final payment of 3000 yuan if the plan succeeds and the payment was to be done at one of the tenements here.

But once again, our attempt to capture Bai Chuanwei went into shambles. He was long gone by the time we reached. An interrogation of the owner of the tenements revealed that the tenant had left without a word. In fact, he had never seen Bai Chuanwei again since the latter had met him to pay the 500 yuan rental for the room. To be truthful, I had already seen this coming.

As we were leaving the tenements, Yuan Chongxi was patting on the plump boy shoulder while telling him, “The way you tried to woo your girl was, to be frank, terrible, Brother. It’s no wonder why Brothers Shiyan and Lin Feng berated and walloped you. Even I in my darkest hour was nowhere close to what you were trying to attempt…” “I know that what I am doing is no good. But I really like her…” said the plump boy, now looking sullen and morose. I would have not paid any more heed to meaningless chat Yuan Chongxi was having with the boy, when I suddenly heard him saying, “Actually, you were not the only ones to chastise me.” I was stunned by these words that I could hardly move an inch. With great effort, I yanked myself to consciousness and I immediately grabbed hold of the plump boy’s shoulders. “Wait!” I shouted, “You just said that we were not the only ones to chastise you! You mean that they are others who know about you using this witchcraft?!”

My sudden manhandling of the plump boy frightened him so bad that he nearly collapsed. “Yeah, Brother Shiyan,” he mewled meekly, “When Master Bai was giving me his instructions, there were men just beside me who mocked him and me, saying that we were despicable…” “Wait!” I cut him off directly, “There were people beside this Master Bai? How many are they?” “Yeah,” said the plump boy, his head bobbing, “There were three other men beside Master Bai that day. But they were dressed so strangely that you might have thought they were actors just finished performing at a filming set.”

We retreated back to the Center later that day, although I spent the rest of the day mulling over what plump boy had recounted. We understood enough about Bai Chuanwei to know that he usually operated alone. But why were there another three men? Moreover, it was clear from the plump boy’s accounts that the three men were hardly fearful of him; in fact, they even dared to insult him openly. This alone indicated that the three were more higher-ranked than Bai Chuanwei. Something about these three men reminded me of the person who issued us the challenge…

Could it be… I thought suddenly. Could it be that Bai Chuanwei was the one who issued the challenge?! Were the three men the reinforcements that he had summoned?