Chapter 71: Xishu Academy’s Metaphysics Club Vice President

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Chapter 71: Xishu Academy’s Metaphysics Club Vice President

When Yu Shenliu returned, Chen Yuan was casting a divination for himself.

He had been feeling that something was off for a while, and after receiving Huo Jian’s call, that feeling had only grown stronger. Just as Chen Yuan could tell from Huo Jian’s casual remarks that the boy had a talent for metaphysics, he couldn’t afford to ignore his own vague intuitions either. If he had this kind of feeling, then something unusual was bound to happen. So after hanging up, Chen Yuan took out his divination tools and cast a hexagram for himself.

Seeing Chen Yuan put away the coins he had used, Yu Shenliu made sure he wouldn’t disturb him before asking, “How did it turn out, Yuanyuan?”

“Earth above Water. Water lies within the earth. Danger lies hidden beneath the surface. There will be a scare, but no real danger. If we get through this ordeal, it is the seventh of the sixty-four hexagrams, the Shi Hexagram ,” Chen Yuan replied.

Yu Shenliu tugged at the corner of his mouth, then spread his hands. “Other than ‘a scare, but no real danger,’ I don’t really understand much of that.”

He was being perfectly honest. Although the Book of Changes was once something every gentleman was expected to study, it was far too abstruse and profound, and had long since been removed from the list of required texts. Yu Shenliu himself had never studied it back then, only having a rough understanding of its historical significance and the like. So whenever Chen Yuan talked about the hexagrams of the Book of Changes , Yu Shenliu really had no idea how much meaning a single hexagram could contain.

Chen Yuan shook his head slightly before explaining, “The other details aren’t important. In this context, the hexagram means that something is going to happen. But as long as we stand on the right side, gain the support of most people, and handle things with prudence and restraint, then even though we’ll encounter trouble, the final outcome should be a scare without real danger, and we’ll make it through safely.”

After hearing Chen Yuan’s explanation, Yu Shenliu nodded to show that he understood, then sat down in the chair beside him. “What made you suddenly think of casting a divination?”

“Xiao Jian called me just now.” Chen Yuan put all his things away before sitting in another chair and answering Yu Shenliu. “There’s a metaphysics club at his school, but it seems to be somewhat unorthodox. I promised him I’d go over and take a look. But I’ve run into too many incidents of this kind lately, and I’ve been having a feeling about it. I wanted a definite answer, so I cast a hexagram to see what was going on.”

Such a vague hexagram, and he called it seeking a definite answer? Yu Shenliu thought about it and decided that, compared with Chen Yuan’s vague premonition, having an actual hexagram to go by was indeed much more precise. Still, from his perspective, calling this a definite answer somehow felt like a violation of his conscience. Perhaps metaphysics really was something best left to the professionals. Ordinary people simply couldn’t make head or tail of it.

“So when are you planning to go see him?” Yu Shenliu thought back for a moment. Being familiar with Chen Yuan’s schedule, he knew that with Chen Yuan’s highly regular routine, it seemed impossible to find time to visit Huo Jian without disrupting his usual schedule.

That was exactly what Chen Yuan had been hesitating over. He thought for a moment before finally answering uncertainly, “The day after tomorrow… maybe?” It happened to be Saturday, and he didn’t open his shop on Sundays. Although someone might still come looking for him, not many people knew his phone number, so there shouldn’t be too much trouble.

“Then I’ll go with you.” Yu Shenliu nodded. “I’ll bring Xiao Jian some things while I’m at it.”

The excuse only made his real intentions more obvious. When you liked someone, you wanted to be with them every waking moment. That was exactly how Yu Shenliu felt now. He was clinging on and refusing to let go.

It was a good thing Chen Yuan had a personality like this. Otherwise, with someone even slightly more feisty, it would be a wonder if Yu Shenliu hadn’t already been kicked ten thousand miles away. No one could put up with this kind of clinginess for long!

“All right.” Chen Yuan nodded, agreeing, then continued thinking about the issue that had occurred to him earlier. The Shi Hexagram called for stability and for gaining the support of the majority. Given the current uncertainty, what he could do to prepare was probably to make an effort to build his reputation and establish himself as an authority in the eyes of most people, while continuing to conduct himself with restraint.

High-profile in what I do, low-profile in how I conduct myself?

Meanwhile, after receiving the definite news, Huo Jian was so excited that he practically told everyone he knew that his master was coming. His smugness was unmistakable.

Who Huo Jian’s master was was something practically everyone at Xishu Academy knew. He was the famous fortune-teller who had made quite a name for himself throughout Xishu Province: Chen Yuan, Chen the Half-Immortal.

But this Master Chen’s activities were limited to Jincheng City, and he rarely ventured beyond the area around his own shop, so it was extremely difficult to meet him under any other circumstances. More importantly, even if someone wanted to hire the master, they had to get on his waiting list. Demand far exceeded availability, and not just anyone could get a spot.

Still, although many of the students were interested in Master Chen, most wouldn’t spend a thousand yuan to hire him for no particular reason. Most were simply there to watch the excitement.

Unfortunately, a separate issue had arisen in the meantime.

Quite a few people knew that Huo Jian’s friend had been planning to buy a talisman from the Metaphysics Club to attract romantic luck. Huo Jian had stopped him, however. His reason was that his master, Chen Yuan, thought there might be something wrong with the talisman and had advised him not to use it.

Invoking Chen Yuan’s name had indeed convinced his friend to abandon the idea of buying the talisman at the time, but it had also offended quite a few people in the Metaphysics Club. It wasn’t about the few dozen or few hundred yuan involved. They felt that Huo Jian, or rather Chen Yuan behind him, had crossed into their territory.

There was truth to the saying that practitioners in the same line were natural rivals. For the most part, people in the metaphysics community could coexist peacefully because they shared certain unwritten rules. But when their own interests or differing beliefs were involved, sparks could easily fly.

Although Chen Yuan’s reputation was far greater than that of their little Metaphysics Club, the club members clearly didn’t believe that meant Chen Yuan would automatically have the upper hand. They had confidence in their own methods. To some extent, they even suspected that Chen Yuan might be nothing more than a charlatan, albeit a particularly skilled one.

After all, these days, even someone without any real ability could put on the appearance of a great master. Until they had seen his true abilities for themselves, who knew what the outcome would be?

Chen Yuan hadn’t asked Huo Jian to come meet them. He and Yu Shenliu headed straight for Huo Jian’s dormitory. Since Chen Yuan had already informed Huo Jian that he would be coming today, Huo Jian made sure to set aside enough time to receive them even though he was busy over the weekend.

They were halfway there when a girl suddenly appeared and blocked their path.

“Coming from the southeast, two men. You’re the two, right?” The girl lifted her chin, crossed her arms over her chest, and stood with her legs spread in front of Chen Yuan and Yu Shenliu, throwing the words at them without so much as an introduction. The two were left utterly bewildered.

“Hm?” Yu Shenliu made a puzzled sound.

Immediately afterward, more than a dozen people suddenly emerged onto the sparsely populated road and surrounded them, standing behind the girl with an aggressive air. They, too, looked down their noses at Chen Yuan and Yu Shenliu.

“Vice President, you’re amazing! You actually knew they were here!” someone exclaimed.

The remark made Yu Shenliu’s mind turn. Could this group, like Chen Yuan, actually predict their arrival? Seriously, he had thought encountering one extraordinary person like Chen Yuan in this lifetime would be more than enough. And now, in such a short span of time, he had run into an entire group of them? It seemed this Metaphysics Club at Xishu Academy really did have some tricks up its sleeve.

He waited for the girl to respond further, only to see her gaze move back and forth between him and Chen Yuan as she scrutinized them carefully. She said nothing.

Just then, a voice rang out. “Your divination skills aren’t quite there yet. You could only tell something vague?”

It was Chen Yuan. After saying this to the girl, he smiled lightly and cupped his hands in greeting.

“I’m Chen Yuan.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the girl’s expression turned rather ugly.

It seemed Yuanyuan had come out on top in this round? Yu Shenliu didn’t really understand the specifics of the exchange between the two sides, but from their reactions, he could tell who had the upper hand. So he casually sized up the group of people around them.

The girl was actually the vice president of the Metaphysics Club. She believed Chen Yuan was nothing more than a charlatan who had made a name for himself through empty claims, so she had cast a divination beforehand and come over intending to give Chen Yuan a show of force.

Who could have expected Chen Yuan to expose, with one offhand remark, that she hadn’t actually known which of the two men was Chen Yuan?

It was the first time she had ever felt so humiliated. Just when she thought she had gained the upper hand, her advantage had been casually wiped away.

Once Yu Shenliu confirmed that the group were all students, he lost interest as well. He said, “Yuanyuan, Xiao Jian is still waiting for us.”

The implication was clear: they should leave.

Chen Yuan nodded and smiled at the girl before walking around the group and continuing on with Yu Shenliu. He had no intention of teasing these youngsters. In any case, Chen Yuan was far more mature than they were, and at that moment, he was looking at them from the perspective of an elder, even though quite a few of them were actually older than him.

If they were juniors, why bother holding it against them?

Besides, the girl was only the vice president, so where was the president? Chen Yuan didn’t think she was a bad person. If anything, she seemed rather straightforward. So unless the president showed up, this matter probably wouldn’t be settled.

If that was the case, why waste time here going back and forth with them?

But to the girl and the others, Chen Yuan’s attitude hardly seemed like a gracious attempt to avoid confrontation. After Chen Yuan had walked a good distance away, the girl stomped her foot hard, her face shifting between green and white with anger.

“Damn it! So what if you’re better than me!” she shouted before abruptly turning around to face the club members who had followed her, originally intending to watch her show off her prowess, only to witness her make a fool of herself instead.

At that moment, the club members were variously staring at the sky or the ground, pretending nothing had happened, while at the same time sneaking glances at the girl.

Come to think of it, this was probably the first time the vice president had suffered such a crushing defeat, wasn’t it?

“What are you looking at!” Her face flushed red as she glared fiercely at them. “I can’t deal with him, and you definitely can’t either. For the sake of our Metaphysics Club’s reputation, hurry up and go get the president!”

“Doesn’t the vice president have the president’s phone number?” someone timidly asked. Why did they need to go get him?

She had misspoken again in her panic. The girl choked for a moment, then snapped even more fiercely, “Look at you, so clever!”

With that, she pulled out her phone and began calling the president of the Metaphysics Club.

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