Face to Face

Chapter 16 - Face to Face

"Who are you?"

Li Bai didn't move at all.

"Our boss wants to see you about something. Please come with us."

The man in the black suit holding the mobile phone had clearly confirmed Li Bai's identity; he was exactly the person they were looking for.

Li Bai guessed and asked, "The Yao Family?"

With such uniform attire and the ability to find his residence, it was highly unlikely to be some netizens who were unaware of the truth.

The man in the black suit holding the mobile phone gave a chilling smile and said, "You'll know when we get there. Please!"

Li Bai saw the man's eyelids involuntarily droop slightly and knew his guess was correct.

The information conveyed by micro-expressions, micro-movements, and even changes in gaze was sometimes even richer and more detailed than that conveyed by language.

The body is always more honest than the mouth, which wasn't just an old saying. At least in the field of psychology, it had scientific backing.

"Then let's go!"

Realizing he was at the center of a storm, Li Bai decided to settle things with the Yao Family.

Yao Bing had been driven mad, and the Yao Family was bound to react. The fact that they only came looking for him today clearly meant they had many reservations.

The four men in black suits, as if afraid Li Bai would run away, surrounded him and walked towards a black Audi A6 parked not far away.

The atmosphere inside Zijing Villa, number 69, was extremely heavy.

Xuan Jing, who was guarding her son's side, had red eyes and wiped away tears from time to time. Although the Yao Clan's current pillars consisted of four brothers, she and the second eldest, Yao Donghu, only had Yao Bing as their child. He was naturally their pride and joy, doted on endlessly. If anything were to happen to him, it would be like cutting off their lineage. What would be the point of the family business they had worked so hard to build?

"Boss, the person has been brought here."

Four bodyguards in black suits escorted a young man into the villa. Two of them remained at the entrance.

Xuan Jing was startled by the sound. Clutching a tissue, she rushed out of her room on the second floor. The moment she saw Li Bai, she snarled through gritted teeth, "It's you! You're the one who ruined Bing Bing! Guards, beat him to death!"

As she spoke, she lunged forward, wanting to tear Li Bai, who had been brought by the four bodyguards, apart.

However, none of the Yao Family's bodyguards moved.

The mistress was just venting. If someone were actually beaten to death inside the villa, none of the people present would fare well.

"Heisha, stop her! This is ridiculous!"

Yao Donghu, who had put aside his company business and stayed at home, had the bodyguard captain, Xie Heisha, restrain his wife.

He stared at Li Bai, suppressing his emotions, and said, "Doctor Li, you probably already know about my son's situation. So, shouldn't you give me an explanation?"

"You must be Yao Bing's father? I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean, nor do I know what explanation you want."

Li Bai shrugged nonchalantly, as if he hadn't seen Yao Donghu's grim expression.

"The mental evaluation report for Yao Bing was written by you, wasn't it? Why are you pretending to be confused?"

Seeing Li Bai continue to play dumb, Yao Donghu finally lost his temper and roared.

"That's right, it was written by me. But what do you want me to do? Write a report stating he doesn't have mental illness? That's perfectly fine. I'll just write another one."

As soon as Li Bai finished speaking, Yao Donghu, who was about to erupt further, inexplicably fell silent.

The crime committed by Yao Bing was no small matter; it was a major case punishable by death. Rewriting the report to state he didn't have mental illness would be like pushing his son onto the execution grounds!

"I, I, I..."

Yao Donghu, Yao Bing's father, had fire building up in his chest. His face turned from pale to purple, with nowhere to vent. He glared at Li Bai as if he could devour him.

"Let's not beat around the bush. Young Master Bing didn't have mental illness to begin with. Did you have something to do with him suddenly going mad during your evaluation?"

As an observer, Xie Heisha, the Yao Family's bodyguard captain, could see clearly. The root of the problem wasn't the report at all.

He would only dare to say such things inside the Yao Family villa. If he were outside, he wouldn't admit it even if beaten to death.

Although bodyguards weren't thugs, Xie Heisha didn't mind venting his boss's anger by beating up this audacious young doctor.

"This is no fun!" Li Bai sighed inwardly. He had originally planned to play a few more rounds with the Yao Family, but this bodyguard in black had exposed the truth in one sentence, naturally making it impossible to continue.

He brought his left thumb and index finger together, and a wisp of Spiritual Power flowed out from his upper dantian's sea of consciousness. Li Bai prepared to cast a secret technique to resolve this karma.

"Is this Doctor Li from the Seventh Hospital?"

Suddenly, an old man walked down from a room upstairs.

Li Bai followed the sound and exclaimed in surprise, "Professor Hou!"

The incantation was quietly canceled. The people in the villa didn't know they had narrowly escaped disaster.

The man was Professor Hou Xiaozheng, the chief physician of the Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine Psychiatry Department, and was very famous in the field of psychology.

Li Bai, a general outpatient doctor whose registration fee was only ten yuan, was far from comparable to experts who charged a hundred yuan or more. He hadn't expected the professor to recognize him.

"It's nothing. I just want to ask Doctor Li a few questions."

Professor Hou walked down the stairs. The tense and oppressive atmosphere in the first-floor hall vanished instantly.

Doctors were professionals who snatched lives from the King of Hell. No matter how rich or powerful a person was, they wouldn't dare to offend an expert doctor like Professor Hou lightly. Yao Donghu, who had invited him, didn't dare to act presumptuously. He gave a look to the bodyguard captain Xie Heisha, who wisely took a step back. The pressure that had been looming over Li Bai suddenly dissipated.

"Professor Hou, please ask. I will tell you everything I know, without holding anything back."

Li Bai maintained the respect due to an elder in front of the senior expert.

"Did you use Hypnosis on Yao Bing?"

Professor Hou believed Yao Bing's sudden outburst of rage was abnormal, and this young colleague in front of him might be the one who could unravel the mystery.

Li Bai nodded and said, "That's right. I used Hypnosis to temporarily suppress Yao Bing's acute schizophrenia episode."

"During the diagnostic assessment, Yao Bing suddenly had an episode. What exactly happened? Can you explain it?"

Regardless of whether Yao Bing was a good person or a bad person, Professor Hou held no prejudice. He only wanted to understand the mechanism behind this mental illness patient's episode from a professional standpoint. Having an additional special case study might be beneficial for other similar patients.

Yao Donghu's spirits lifted. When an expert makes a move, you know if they have the skills. Neither he nor Xie Heisha had focused solely on threats and intimidation, but Professor Hou immediately grasped the crucial point.

"It was just a normal induced observation. The specific cause is probably not something that can be determined quickly. The only certainty is that it takes more than one cold day for the river to freeze three feet deep."

Li Bai's gaze shifted towards Yao Donghu. On the surface, he was saying, "This isn't my fault," but in reality, he was subtly passing the buck.

Who could have imagined that Yao Bing would encounter the Demon Race's innate divine ability, "Spiritual Eye Illusion"? Even with Professor Hou's high level of expertise, he wouldn't be able to find any clues, leaving Li Bai free to speak nonsense.

Professor Hou pondered for a moment and nodded, clearly agreeing with the reasoning that it takes more than one cold day for the river to freeze three feet deep.

After all, he hadn't found anything unusual in the recording of the entire diagnostic assessment process. It was perfectly normal for a professional induction to trigger a patient's symptoms. This wasn't just true for mental illness; diagnostic methods for other physiological illnesses also used such approaches. If there was an illness, even without induction, it would manifest eventually.

Yao Donghu asked, "Professor Hou, it wasn't his fault?"

"No, Mr. Yao, don't overthink it. Induced diagnosis is a very common method in experimental psychology."

Aside from the Hypnosis that had already lost its efficacy as a sedative, Professor Hou found no other traces of Hypnosis on Yao Bing.

Although Hypnosis was magical, its effects didn't last very long. Now, three or four days had passed, and any Hypnosis should have worn off on its own. However, Yao Bing remained extremely agitated, clearly indicating that his condition wasn't caused by Hypnosis.

"Alright! Heisha, escort Doctor Li out for me. We have offended you greatly this time."

Yao Donghu seemed to accept Professor Hou's judgment, as if he had calmly let Li Bai go. The previous tense confrontation seemed as if it had never happened.

"Yes! Doctor Li, please!"

The bodyguard captain, seeing his boss give him a barely perceptible nod, immediately understood.

Li Bai had expected a confrontation that would end in a complete breakdown of relations, but he hadn't anticipated that Yao Bing's father would let him off so anticlimactically. As he walked out of Villa No. 69 of the Yao Family, clutching the thick red envelope he'd been given, Li Bai felt puzzled by the sudden change in their attitude. Was it just a bluff?

Human hearts are hard to fathom. Even he, a master's in psychology, found it difficult to grasp the true intentions of the Yao Family.

"Watch out!"

As he walked on the road leading to the main gate of Zijing Villa community, a gust of wind attacked Li Bai from his rear right.