Zuo Xiaoduo stole a glance at Ye Changqing. He clearly wanted to hear what happened next and was using this as an excuse to bring it up.
"Well... there were other reasons..."
Ye Changqing said, "I'll tell you the full story another time. Let's get down to business."
Zuo Xiaoduo rolled his eyes. Wasn't what I was talking about business?
But he only said that in his head.
"What Vice Principal Gao faced this time was a calamity of annihilation. Favorable timing, advantageous terrain, and human harmony-all three turned against him at once. How could he escape unscathed? And the greatest backlash came from his inexplicably placing himself on the opposite side of Sun Moon Pass...
"Then there were his various actions that shook the Talent Base. He had lost far too much support. This was the loss of human harmony.
"Next, he began plotting his Feng Shui Formation nearly twenty years ago, without knowing that he had long since fallen into someone else's calculations. What he thought was seizing the initiative was instead losing his opportunity.
"His ancestral home had been his weak point from the very beginning. This was the loss of advantageous terrain!
"Then came the scheme against Vice Principal Xiang. He thought he was directing the game, when in truth he was a pawn marked for sacrifice in advance. He suffered a devastating injury on his own ground. This was the loss of favorable timing...
"Fortunately, he himself was being used by others. Most crucially, his lawful wife was virtuous, loyal, and filial. She shielded him from and bore much of the calamity and evil on his behalf, leaving him a thread of survival, a sliver of opportunity... The saying that unseen forces bring recompense for good and evil truly is no empty claim."
Zuo Xiaoduo