Wang Yang did not expose him. Instead, he smiled and said:
"I'm only suggesting a possibility. If that wasn't what you had in mind, Chief, so much the better..."
Ang Ta was about to argue when Wang Yang waved his fan:
"How about this: 'Correct the faults you have; let those you lack spur you onward.' If you really did think that way, correct it. If you didn't, take it as encouragement and a warning. Really, it was just an offhand remark. There's no need to take it seriously."
That miraculous line, which blocked him at both ends, left Ang Ta stunned.
All the indignant protests and forceful arguments he had prepared beforehand suddenly refused to leave his mouth!
At first hearing, Wang Yang's words sounded perfectly reasonable. Why, then, did he feel such an indescribable sense of suffocation?
He wanted to think it through and argue further, but the other man had already said there was no need to take it seriously. If it wasn't serious, what was there to argue about?
But... was that right?
The breadth and profundity of the Chinese language had tangled Ang Ta up until he was rather dazed.
Xiao Baoyue, meanwhile, thought: "Correct the faults you have; let those you lack spur you onward." Those eight characters are formidable. Say that, and you're practically invincible. He gets to say both the good and the bad, and whichever way it goes, he's right! Only this great swindler could dream up something so cunning!
Baoyue had yet to grasp all the variations of that saying. In particular, when spoken by the critic, it became a weapon for both attack and defense. For instance, Wang Yang might tell Baoyue, "Stop putting on that foxy seductress act." Baoyue: "When have I ever put on a foxy seductress