Chapter 699: Your Idea?

Chapter 699: Chapter 699: Your Idea?

"Right now, the Hundred Buddha Painting is a source of psychological comfort for Aunt Shen. Even though she slept well last night, if you were to secretly remove the painting tonight, I guarantee she’d immediately have a relapse. It might even be worse than before because she’d have lost her source of security."

"Also, we absolutely cannot let Aunt Shen know the truth right now. She must not find out that this was all a setup we arranged," Li Xu instructed.

"Once Aunt Shen has had some time to adjust and has truly overcome her mental hurdle, the Hundred Buddha Painting will become optional. This is what we call ’stabilizing her spirit.’ Once her spirit is stable, it’s like laying a solid foundation. Then we won’t have to worry about her finding out the truth later. Even if she does, she’ll only appreciate the great lengths we went to for her benefit. She won’t be so easily triggered into a relapse."

"It’s the same principle as taking traditional Chinese medicine."

Li Xu gave an example. "The first dose is effective, and the symptoms lessen, but you still have to complete several courses of treatment to stabilize the condition and pull out the illness by the roots. You can’t just say the first dose worked and then stop taking the rest of the medicine. The moment you stop, any lingering trace of the illness will surge back, and you’ll have a relapse. Treating an illness of the mind is the same way."

"I understand, Brother Li. Thank you so much."

Cui Guanghui said gratefully, "Once my mom’s condition stabilizes a bit more, we must have you over for a home-cooked meal. My dad has already said that we must properly thank you, our great benefactor."

"You’re too kind. I’m a doctor; it’s just my job."

Li Xu smiled and hung up the phone.

When Li Xu put down his phone and turned around, he saw Song Sisi staring at him with wide eyes.

"Hey, what are you spacing out for? What’s wrong?"

Li Xu waved a hand in front of Song Sisi’s face and asked with a smile.

"The city-wide sensation, the Consecration and Blessing Ceremony at Golden Ray Monastery... that was your idea?"

Song Sisi asked, finding it a little hard to believe.

She had always known Li Xu was an exceptional physician and that he knew some Zuyou Skill. Sometimes he would use some "hocus-pocus" methods to treat patients.

But she hadn’t paid it much mind before, thinking they were just minor psychological counseling techniques.

But now, Li Xu had managed to get Guangshun Group to mobilize all the eminent monks of Golden Ray Monastery for such a grand ceremony, all just to treat one person’s "illness of the mind"?

Using Buddhist teachings to cure an illness... it was simply miraculous!

The scale of it, the sheer extravagance, was completely beyond her imagination!

"Tell me exactly what happened, from start to finish..."

Song Sisi’s curiosity was completely ignited, and she pestered Li Xu for details.

Li Xu couldn’t say no to her, so he explained in detail Shen Wen’s condition and the process of how he used the Zuyou Skill principles of "shifting essence and transforming qi" and "using one emotion to overcome another," leveraging the Hundred Buddha Painting and the ceremony to achieve his therapeutic goal.

"Holy crap..."

Song Sisi was dumbfounded, feeling like she was listening to a fairytale. "So that’s how you treated her? No injections, no medicine, just a ceremony and a painting, and you cured psychological trauma that Western medicine was helpless against?"

"Traditional Chinese medicine... is just too incredible. You’re not just treating an illness; you’re orchestrating human psychology."

Song Sisi’s admiration for Li Xu reached a new peak.

...

「After work that evening.」

While changing her clothes, Song Sisi said to Li Xu, "Li Xu, Xiao Yu invited me out for dinner tonight. She said she wants to try that new Chongqing old-style hot pot place. You’ll have to figure something out for dinner yourself. I won’t be joining you."

"Go on, have fun. Don’t eat anything too spicy, be careful of inflammation."

Li Xu smiled and waved his hand dismissively.

When Song Sisi arrived at the hot pot restaurant and sat down, she found Lin Xiaoyu across from her, engrossed in her phone.

"Huh? Sister Xiao Yu, what are you watching? You’re so absorbed you didn’t even notice your tripe is getting overcooked."

Song Sisi leaned over for a look and saw that the video Lin Xiaoyu was watching was the one that had gone viral online that day—the Consecration and Blessing Ceremony at Golden Ray Monastery.

"Sisi, you’re just in time. Look at this video."

Lin Xiaoyu pointed to the grand scene on the screen and sighed with emotion. "Golden Ray Monastery’s Consecration and Blessing Ceremony was so magnificent. I heard the donation money alone was several million. Look at the woman in the very front, isn’t that the wife of Guangshun Group’s chairman? As expected of Guangshun Group, they’re so rich, putting on such a huge spectacle."

"Of course. They’re the leading enterprise in the province, after all."

Song Sisi agreed with a smile, picking up a piece of duck blood and swishing it in the spicy red broth.

"If you ask me, this is just a case of getting desperate and trying anything."

As a journalist, Lin Xiaoyu had seen plenty of things like this and spoke with some disdain, "I heard this Mrs. Cui has been sick for a long time and couldn’t be cured anywhere. Now she’s running off to pray to Buddha. If Buddha could cure illnesses, what would we need hospitals for? Doctors could all be laid off, and everyone could just go to a temple and burn some incense when they get sick."

"But what if Buddha really *can* cure illnesses?"

Song Sisi retorted with a playful smile.

"???" Lin Xiaoyu looked up at Song Sisi, her head full of question marks. "Sisi, are you okay? You’re studying Traditional Chinese Medicine with Doctor Li, how can you believe in this stuff too? That’s not very materialistic of you!"

"Sister Xiao Yu, do you know who was the mastermind behind this city-wide sensation of a ceremony? Do you know whose idea it was?"

Song Sisi picked up the duck blood and placed it in Lin Xiaoyu’s bowl, smiling as she kept her in suspense.

"..."

Lin Xiaoyu pondered for a moment. Seeing the smug look on Song Sisi’s face, an absurd but highly plausible idea suddenly flashed through her mind.

She asked tentatively, "It couldn’t be... Doctor Li, could it?"

"You guessed it. It was him."

Song Sisi snapped her fingers and said, her face beaming with pride, "The idea came from Li Xu."

"Doctor Li’s idea? He’s a TCM doctor. Why is he doing the work of a priest?"

Lin Xiaoyu asked, completely bewildered.

"Li Xu said it’s not superstition at all. It’s one of the thirteen authentic departments of Traditional Chinese Medicine—the Zuyou Skill."

Song Sisi smugly repeated, word for word, the theories of "shifting essence and transforming qi" and "psychological suggestion" that Li Xu had explained to her that afternoon.

"Amazing. That’s absolutely amazing. It’s basically a brilliant psychological operation."

After hearing the explanation, Lin Xiaoyu’s eyes lit up like two-hundred-watt light bulbs.

As a journalist and editor, her sharp professional instincts immediately sensed the immense news value in this story.

’A Divine Physician of Chinese Medicine ingeniously uses the Zuyou Skill, staging a grand ceremony to cure the psychological ailment of a wealthy socialite.’

’A headline like that would be an absolute viral hit, getting over a million views!’

’It has high-society gossip, mysterious Chinese metaphysics, and it’s also a perfect popular science piece on TCM psychology.’

"Sisi, this material is fantastic! I’m going to write a feature article tomorrow and do a proper report on this."

Lin Xiaoyu slapped the table excitedly.

"Stop! Absolutely not."

Song Sisi jumped in fright and quickly stopped her. "Sister Xiao Yu, you absolutely cannot report on this."

"Why not? This is such a great opportunity for positive publicity."

Lin Xiaoyu was baffled.