Shi Pengpeng, despite her exceptional skills, had always reserved them for dealing with spirits and never deigned to use them against ordinary people.
However, someone like Liu Yuguang was more despicable than some demons and ghosts.
She had already gathered evidence of Liu Yuguang’s slander from her colleagues’ chat records and initially planned to reason with him properly.
But now it seemed that some people couldn’t be reasoned with at all.
So, if she accidentally dropped something while in a bad mood, it was understandable.
Five minutes later, Liu Yuguang was drenched in cold sweat, his face pale, eyes tightly shut, flailing his limbs wildly, and screaming in terror, “I won’t do it again, I swear I won’t!”
Shi Pengpeng glanced at the little coal ball on the ground, “What nightmare is he having?”
“Amitabha,” the coal ball recited as if listing treasures, “Whipping, electric shocks, kidney removal, live burial, tongue extraction…”
Just hearing this made Shi Pengpeng uncomfortable, and she frowned, “You sure know a lot of tricks, huh?”
“It’s just talent,” the coal ball said proudly, “These techniques seem to be ingrained in my memory. I can easily evoke those emotions.”
“Enough,” Shi Pengpeng interrupted, pulling the red string and lifting the coal ball back into her hand, “You little demon, you almost escaped. Good thing I caught you in time.”
The nightmare spirit: “…”
This master, do you have to be so meticulous?
Just pushing all the blame onto it like that.
Shi Pengpeng pressed a pressure point on Liu Yuguang, and with a slight force, he let out a scream and woke up from the nightmare.
Still terrified, he looked at Shi Pengpeng with fear, pleading, “Pengpeng, I won’t do it again. I’ll admit to anything, just say the word!”
“Stop acting so pitiful,” Shi Pengpeng said coldly, “Do you admit to spreading rumors about me and Yan Jing?”
“W-what rumors? I didn’t spread any rumors,” Liu Yuguang stammered, “I-I saw the two of you going to a hotel.”
“?” Shi Pengpeng didn’t expect Liu Yuguang to still dare to lie through his teeth.
Furious, she also felt something was off, “Say that again.”
Liu Yuguang looked even more frightened but still managed a forced laugh, “You know what kind of person you are. If it weren’t for seducing Yan Jing, how could you have gotten the resources from Cat’s Paw?”
“Still so stubborn?” Shi Pengpeng glanced at the coal ball, “Looks like you’re not very effective, huh?”
“That shouldn’t be!” The coal ball felt its professional competence was being questioned and hurriedly defended itself, “After such a nightmare, a normal person wouldn’t recover from the psychological trauma for at least half a year. He doesn’t seem like a tough guy; he even wet himself in the dream!”
Shi Pengpeng: “Then why is he still insisting on spreading rumors?”
“I think it’s just his inherently bad character,” the coal ball thought for a moment and said, “His dreams, apart from the parts I fabricated, are also filled with lies and delusions.”
“His character is indeed terrible…” Shi Pengpeng pondered, but Liu Yuguang’s lies always had a purpose, usually to gain benefits, and more often than not, it was a tactic known as “smoothness.”
A smooth person would never insist on being so stubborn in a situation that clearly disadvantages him, unless…
Little Coal Ball chimed in with a resentful jab, “I think lying has become his physiological instinct. He’s just someone who can’t tell the truth!”
“Hmm?” Shi Pengpeng suddenly had a thought.
Could it be that Liu Yuguang genuinely “can’t” tell the truth?
She performed a hand seal and pressed it against Liu Yuguang’s pulse.
After a moment, she noticed thin red veins appearing in his eyes, and a faint ominous aura lingering around his spiritual core.
“Signs of possession.”
Shi Pengpeng conjured a talisman to temporarily dispel the ominous aura around his spiritual core and asked, “Have you encountered any strange people or events recently?”
Liu Yuguang visibly panicked and nodded vigorously, but what came out of his mouth was, “N-no, everything around me is fine. You don’t need to…”
It seemed he really couldn’t speak the truth.
Shi Pengpeng then turned to Lin Qing beside her.
Liu Yuguang had been frequenting this bar recently, so the owner might know something.
“Nothing strange,” Lin Qing said.
“Though there is one happy event-he managed to win over the most beautiful female customer in our bar, Little Rabbit.”
He added with a sigh, “You have no idea, Little Rabbit is practically the living advertisement of our bar. So many male customers come here just for her. But Little Rabbit, well, she’s all looks and no judgment when it comes to men.”
“She doesn’t care for the rich or the handsome ones, but falls for those who are all talk, always bragging. How can those kinds of men be reliable? She changes boyfriends every now and then, ruining her own reputation…”
Shi Pengpeng’s heart stirred, and she asked, “Do you know where she is now?”
“She’s in the bar,” Lin Qing replied.
“We just came back from dinner together. I had some business to discuss with Liu, so she wasn’t interested and went out to play by herself.”
Hearing this, Shi Pengpeng thought, “Oh no,” her top-tier fake boyfriend bait was still at the bar counter.
She immediately stopped caring about Liu Yuguang, kicked him aside, and hurried out of the reception room.
The door of the reception room swayed shut, and both Liu Yuguang and Lin Qing slowly opened their eyes, looking at each other in confusion.
“What happened?” Lin Qing was puzzled.
He felt like he had just had a long dream, but his mind was foggy, and he couldn’t remember anything for the moment.
Looking around, the room was empty.
The girl who had come in to confront Liu Yuguang was gone, as if nothing had happened.
Could it have all been a dream?
Liu Yuguang’s face was twisted, and the cold sweat on his forehead hadn’t dried yet.
As the main subject of the nightmare, he remembered everything that had happened in the dream clearly.
In the dream, Shi Pengpeng had asked him if he had encountered anything strange recently.
He said no, but it wasn’t because there wasn’t anything strange-it was because, even in the dream, he couldn’t tell the truth.
Liu Yuguang had always been slick, skilled at sweet-talking and never ashamed of it.
In fact, he prided himself on it.
But recently, he noticed that lying seemed to have become an instinct for him.
Sometimes, even when he just wanted to speak normally, the moment he opened his mouth, he couldn’t help but exaggerate and twist the truth.
After noticing this, Liu Yuguang consciously tried to restrain himself, but he gradually realized that the more he tried to control it, the more out of control it became.
It’s just that he had always been glib and rarely spoke the truth in his daily life, especially when dealing with clients.
He was always full of exaggerated claims, so few people noticed anything unusual about him.
In fact, because he became even better at boasting and flattering, he managed to secure more clients, even convincing the notoriously difficult Lin Qing.
However, Liu Yuguang had always felt a vague unease.
After all, there was a fundamental difference between “being good at lying” and “only lying.”
It wasn’t until just now, when Shi Pengpeng pointed it out in his dream, that he suddenly realized he might have encountered something sinister.
But that wasn’t the most terrifying part.
What truly chilled him to the bone were the various tortures he endured in the dream-cruel and vivid, as if they had actually happened…
Just recalling it made Liu Yuguang feel dizzy, and he couldn’t hold back any longer.
He vomited with a loud “Ugh—”
“Brother Liu, are you okay?” Lin Qing wanted to help him up, but seeing the foul-smelling mess on the floor, he stopped in disgust and called for someone to clean it up.
Lin Qing’s wife, who had been checking accounts next door, hurried over when she heard the commotion.
She was startled upon entering: “What happened here?”
She was softer-hearted than Lin Qing and didn’t wait for the staff.
She stepped forward to help Liu Yuguang, asking, “Do you need to go to the hospital?”
“No, no, thank you, sister-in-law,” Liu Yuguang waved his hand.
Even at this moment, he was still thinking about his collaboration with Lin Qing and wanted to finalize the contract as soon as possible.
He ingratiatingly said, “They say you used to work in a nightclub, but I don’t see it at all. You’re so virtuous…”
Both Lin Qing and his wife’s faces instantly darkened, especially his wife, who immediately let go of Liu Yuguang: “What did you say?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Liu Yuguang knew he had messed up.
He quickly tried to backtrack: “No, it wasn’t me. It’s just what people are saying.”
“Is that so?” Lin Qing’s wife, who managed such a large nightlife business, wasn’t easily fooled.
She sneered, “Then tell me, who’s saying it?”
Lin Qing was even more furious.
He had always known Liu Yuguang had a dirty mouth, but it was usually directed at others.
He had just laughed it off, sometimes even joining in the crude jokes.
He never expected Liu Yuguang would dare to insult his wife to her face.
He grabbed Liu Yuguang by the collar: “Go on, say more.”
“No, no…” Liu Yuguang was on the verge of tears.
He was used to spreading rumors, and such words came easily to him.
But now, when asked for the source, he couldn’t come up with anything.
“Slap “
Lin Qing’s wife stepped forward and slapped him.
At the bar.
Yan Jing had ordered a few snacks and was waiting for Shi Pengpeng to return.
Suddenly, a sweet voice approached: “Handsome, are you alone?”
Yan Jing looked up and saw an extremely beautiful woman.
Her face was delicate, her skin exceptionally fair, like smooth jade.
Her narrow, almond-shaped eyes sparkled with a seductive charm.
Her figure was slender, and she wore a form-fitting dress that accentuated her gracefulness.
Yan Jing only glanced at her, his expression indifferent: “What do you want?”
The woman leaned on the bar with one hand, her body slightly tilted forward.
Her suggestive gaze was filled with implication as she drawled, “Could you buy me a drink?”
Yan Jing was baffled: “Don’t you have your own money?”
The woman thought to herself: This guy looks like he’s wearing expensive clothes. Is he really this stingy?
“What a waste of such good looks!”
Just as the bartender returned from serving other customers, he noticed the woman and exclaimed, “Oh, Xiao Tu is here!”
He turned to Yan Jing and said, “Weren’t you looking for Brother Liu? This is Xiao Tu, Brother Liu’s girlfriend. Brother Liu is always stuck to her like glue. If she’s here, Brother Liu must be around too.”
Yan Jing was slightly surprised.
Judging by her appearance alone, this woman didn’t seem like the type who would be interested in Liu Yuguang.
But he had no interest in prying into others’ private lives, so his expression softened a little as he said, “Order whatever you’d like to drink.”
“So you’re looking for Liu Yuguang?” Xiao Tu gestured to the bartender with her usual signal, but her eyes never left Yan Jing.
“What’s the matter? You can tell me.”
“It’s just a small thing,” Yan Jing replied vaguely, not wanting to elaborate.
“Where is he?”
“You’re so cold, handsome,” Xiao Tu pouted, her expression a little aggrieved.
She stretched her leg forward slightly, the tip of her high heel brushing against his leg.
“If you don’t tell me what’s going on, how can I tell you where he is…”
Yan Jing noticed her movement out of the corner of his eye and sidestepped to avoid it, his voice cold as he warned, “Please don’t use your shoes to touch someone else’s pants.”
Xiao Tu:”……”
What an unromantic man!
Her lips twitched, and then she let out a soft laugh. “I just wanted to be friends with you. Why are you so distant…”
At that moment, the bartender finished mixing her drink and handed it over, giving her a knowing smile.
“What’s this, Xiao Tu? Are you breaking up with Brother Liu?”
Xiao Tu hadn’t been frequenting their bar for long-only a few months but she had already gone through more than ten boyfriends.
“What, is that not allowed?” Xiao Tu cooed, taking a sip of her drink and raising her glass as if to toast Yan Jing.
“You heard it, I’m about to be single again.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Yan Jing frowned, then added with a hint of pride, “I have a girlfriend.”
“Oh, I see…” Xiao Tu’s eyes widened in realization, but she didn’t back down.
Instead, she seemed even more intrigued, her dewy eyes fluttering slightly.
“Handsome, I’m sure your girlfriend isn’t so strict that she won’t even let you make friends, right?”
Yan Jing’s expression darkened, and he was about to retort when a hand rested on his shoulder, stopping him.
“She is, actually.” Shi Pengpeng looked at Xiao Tu with the air of a rightful queen.
“I keep a close eye on him. When we’re out, I don’t even let him talk to people like you.”
Xiao Tu:”…”
Yan Jing was also taken aback.
He awkwardly picked up his glass and took a sip of his drink, suppressing the upward curve of his lips before speaking with feigned restraint, “You heard her. She keeps me on a tight leash.”
Shi Pengpeng: “???”
Why does he look so pleased?
And wasn’t that not exactly what she said?