Ten minutes later, sitting in the office chair behind the desk in the small office next to the reception room, Shen Qiang smiled as he watched the people coming and going on the street below and spoke very calmly on the phone, "The basic situation is like this: they came to my door to extort me, forcing me to sell my own business. Luckily, I'm a cultivator—if I were an ordinary person, my family would surely be ruined and I personally devastated."

Qian Shanxue's voice was cold, yet inexplicably carried a hint of amusement.

"So you had them cut off their own arms and then called me to investigate?"

Shen Qiang laughed, "I had no choice, I couldn't reveal my identity, so I had to turn to you, my female superior who abhors evil as a deadly foe. I thought you certainly wouldn't let them get away with their outrageous behavior, right?"

Over the phone, Qian Shanxue laughed, "Not seeing you for a few months, you seem to have become a different person. Despite having already taken a great advantage, you still won't let things go."

Shen Qiang laughed, "It's not that I can't let things go, but I feel that if I didn't tell you about this matter, you would feel that I didn't respect you enough. Moreover, from another perspective, now that no one knows I'm part of the Dragon Group, I can see the Cultivation World even clearer."

Qian Shanxue fell silent for a moment before saying, "Are you implying something?"

Shen Qiang chuckled and replied, "Those guys in the Cultivation World are even crazier than what you've seen. Take the Long Yan Sword Sect for example, they're considered reputable in Provincial City, but their methods, no different from gangsters, involve threats and bribes, forceful buying and selling."

"If I didn't tell you about this, I feel you would never find out because you're a Colonel in the Dragon Group. In your eyes, they are very disciplined, as they wouldn't dare show their true colors in front of you."

"But it's different for a small businessman like me. Without the Dragon Group backing me, without powerful combat power, they dares to swagger into Xiduobao."

Qian Shanxue laughed, "The result is that you cut off their arms."

"After they felt my greatness, they decided to repent, to atone for their sins—that was their decision. I respected them and then lent them a knife."

Hearing Shen Qiang's words, Qian Shanxue laughed and said, "Shen Qiang, no matter how you put it, the fact is they not only failed to harm you, but also lost their arms. And now you're calling me, wanting me to investigate them—don't you think you're being a bit too overbearing and excessively bullying?"

Turning around in the swivel chair, Shen Qiang, looking at the bustling crowd on the antique street below, smiled and said.

"Colonel, I'm different from you. You're the kind of strong person who could wear your underwear outside your pants and not seem at all out of place. So to you, those little fish probably don't seem worth the trouble at all, and you've likely never been bullied."

"But I'm not the same."

"In elementary school, I was the shortest in my class and had the least amount of pocket money. Many of my classmates liked to bully me."

"The moment that struck me the most was during a classroom question from the teacher. I raised my hand, answered correctly, and was praised by the teacher who asked several underperforming students to learn from me."

"But the result was, after class, they cornered me in the bathroom and beat me up."

"Their reason was that I was too showy, asking me if I thought I was smarter than them."

"After that, I didn't raise my hand to answer questions for many days. Even when the teacher called on me and I knew the answer, I would say I didn't because I thought that by doing so, they wouldn't bully me anymore."

Shen Qiang, with his eyes narrowed in a smile, said, "But a few days later, they beat me again, the reason being I looked like an idiot."

"This left me very confused." Shen Qiang paused for a moment and then laughed, "Later on, I tried to strike a balance between not looking like a fool and not showing off, but the result was that they bullied me even more happily."

"When I was fat, they called me a pig; when I was skinny, they called me a monkey; when I was neither fat nor skinny, they called me an idiot. If my shoes were worn out, they said my family was too poor to buy new ones; if I bought new shoes, they ridiculed them as cheap stall goods, and even if I bought real designer brands, they would dismiss them as fakes with a curl of their lip."

"I starved myself to give them my pocket money, and they would complain it was too little and still call me a pauper. I lent them my homework to copy, and they could copy it wrong, but still, it was my fault because I hadn't carefully checked their work."

"So every day, I was bullied by them, and I always felt it was my fault, that I shouldn't be this way or that if I didn't do that, they wouldn't hit me."

"But when I got to fifth grade, one day I suddenly realized that they bullied me, not because I had done anything wrong, but because I didn't know how to fight back. They just wanted to bully me because it made them feel powerful."

"As for reasons, they could find them anywhere, it didn't matter. They could beat me up for not cleaning the blackboard properly when I was on duty for them, or they could slap me because when I gave them money with a smile, I didn't meet their expectations."

Speaking to the silent phone, Shen Qiang smiled as he looked out the window, "After realizing all this, I made a bold decision. Since tolerance and grinning couldn't earn their respect, then I would try a different approach."

"So the next day on the playground, when they tried to bully me again, I smashed their heads with a brick I had in my backpack, leaving them bloodied and crying for their parents. After that, no one in the entire school, whether students or teachers, dared to boss me around."

"I didn't have to care about anyone's opinion. If I wanted to answer a question, I would; if I didn't, I would ignore it completely. I was rude and impolite, yet I heard no voices of dissent. They would avoid me as much as possible because they didn't know when I might snap and beat someone up again."

"Not just that, those who used to take pleasure in bullying me would now politely address me as 'Brother Qiang' whenever they saw me, and even if my pants were ripped, no one dared to laugh."

Qian Shanxue sighed, "Shen Qiang, you're not a primary school student anymore, you're a cultivator, and you're..."

"Don't lecture me with high-minded principles," Shen Qiang interrupted, "The Cultivation World, society, companies, there's no difference from primary school. If everyone thinks Shen Qiang is easy to bully, then they will only become more aggressive. And the reason I'm making this call isn't to ask for your help with the Long Yan Sword Sect. I'm just clarifying the situation so you don't feel I'm disrespecting you."

After a moment of silence, Qian Shanxue said, "Do you really have to go head-to-head with the Long Yan Sword Sect?"

Shen Qiang laughed, "If life only offers the choices of being bullied or bullying others, I would rather give up everything and choose the latter. As for the Long Yan Sword Sect, if they can show a just side, admit their disciples' faults with the due apology, and expel those three scoundrels from their ranks to be severely punished by the Dragon Group, then I think I might forgive them."

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