Chapter 1104 - 825: Sect Guard Senior Sister Suppresses Xiao Zong Sect Master (Part 2)

"...Weng Pinting!!"

Bi Yanling chose to vent her emotions and started screaming.

"What gives you the right to talk to me like that?! You’re just a Psychological Consultant who couldn’t even stay in Beidu and got kicked out. What do you know about what goes on in our universities?!"

Too easy.

Nan Zhubin clicked his tongue as he watched Weng Pinting, looking a bit bored.

And Weng Pinting really didn’t bother with any more tug-of-war; she was just pouring out ammunition.

"That’s about enough. You want to wave your faculty position around now? Don’t you have any idea how you got into our university in the first place?"

"You’ve got no overseas exchange experience; your first, second, and third degrees aren’t from any top 985 either. Forget Beidu— even if you went to the coastal first-tier cities, at best you’d get a ’up-or-out’ contract as academic cannon fodder. Do you really think your current position is something you can use to attack other people?"

From another angle, Weng Pinting sliced Bi Yanling open again.

"If it weren’t for your husband getting one of the university’s talent recruitment slots back then, with priority job placement and a special path opened up for you, do you really think you could’ve gotten in?"

"Mr. Chang’s research quality is indeed pretty good, but let me guess— he ceded quite a few first-author slots to you, didn’t he? Otherwise, with the way you are now, dumping all the work on your students, at most you’d get an administrative post in the university; you’d never have snagged a faculty appointment."

"You’re still sharing Mr. Chang’s projects, right? But you don’t do the work yourself. You’re busy playing on social media, writing bestsellers, and dumping all the research tasks on your own students— even on Mr. Chang’s students."

Weng Pinting said calmly, "Honestly, you’re really holding your husband back."

Another clean, fast cut. Nan Zhubin couldn’t help tilting his head back again.

"...Weng Pinting!!" On the other end of the line, Bi Yanling finally reacted again, even if it was just more of the same.

After a deep breath, Bi Yanling finally squeezed out a different line: "...What do you mean by all this?!"

Even though it didn’t really mean much.

"I mean your reasoning doesn’t hold up."

Unlike Bi Yanling, the further the conversation went, the weaker Weng Pinting’s aggressiveness became in her tone and wording.

"If you’re going to keep clinging to that set of self-righteous ’reasonable’ behavior of yours," Weng Pinting said flatly.

"You need to understand that there will always be someone whose reasons are more numerous than yours, and bigger than yours."

"...Weng Pinting!!"

She’d already finished the combo, and the damage was done. Weng Pinting raised her hand slightly to move the phone away from her ear, and once she confirmed that nothing meaningful was coming from the other side of the conversation—

—Click.

She pressed the hang-up button.

The office went quiet for a moment.

"Tsss—huu—" Weng Pinting let out a long breath, her complexion a shade rosier.

"Alright, that’s it for now."

...

Nan Zhubin blinked.

To be fair, although he’d long heard, through various channels, about Weng Pinting’s past battle records and stories,

this was the first time he’d seen her dissect an opponent face-to-face like this.

He’d done his fair share of using words as knives to slice people up in person, but Weng Pinting’s offense seemed to operate on a completely different logic.

Nan Zhubin relied on his Micro-expression Analysis, establishing an emotional baseline on the spot, then pulling and probing to weaken the opponent’s psychological defenses and locate their weak spots before striking.

Whereas Weng Pinting, using all kinds of information collected in advance, had already constructed a conceptual model of her opponent. Once things started, it was cut after cut; and when she was done, she still had energy to spare— enough to keep whipping the corpse.

It seemed highly worth studying...

Nan Zhubin suddenly froze. Come to think of it, he hadn’t had a real verbal conflict with anyone in a long time; life had been very peaceful recently.

On one side, Nan Zhubin was letting his thoughts run wild.

On the other, Shi Qianqian blinked. Even though she was the sect’s Senior Sister of Skill Transmission, what she’d been taught wasn’t this particular set of skills, so she wasn’t quite sure how to read the current situation.

Although she trusted the Sect Guard Senior Sister more than the Sect Master himself, in the spirit of academic discussion, she still couldn’t help breaking the silence first.

"Senior Sister... so this matter—is it considered over?"

Facing the reverent look on Shi Qianqian’s face, Weng Pinting shook her head instead. "Not that fast. Let’s call it temporarily wrapped up."

"After all, Bi Yanling does hold an associate senior title. How could one phone call possibly take her out?" Weng Pinting’s tone was tinged with melancholy. "As far as the university’s concerned, I’m still an outsider..."

Shi Qianqian opened her mouth: "Then what was the point of that phone call just now..."

"To blow off steam. I finally feel comfortable now." Weng Pinting said it with an easy nonchalance.

Bai Qinghua seemed like he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t help shrinking back into his gaming chair.

Seeing Shi Qianqian’s big blinking eyes, Weng Pinting let out a laugh.

"Besides that... it was also to let Bi Yanling know what the situation is now."

Weng Pinting shook her head. "She’s done so much already; we can’t just not respond at all, can we? But speaking to the dean as a teacher is enough. The trouble is Dahui isn’t here, and you don’t carry enough weight..."

Weng Pinting patted Shi Qianqian on the head. "So someone has to tell Bi Yanling, prod her a bit, make her aware of where things are going next."

Like a cat, Shi Qianqian tilted her head against Weng Pinting’s palm. "So how will things go after this?"

"If Bi Yanling has any brains at all, then our teacher will have to see the dean a few more times, or the dean will come to see our teacher. After a few talks, she’ll settle down..."

This was the usual scenario after a conflict between research groups, when one side yielded.

From then on, within the territory of the main sect, Xiao Zong would just steer clear, and everyone could coexist in peace.

Shi Qianqian didn’t seem to have much faith in Bi Yanling. After all, the origin of this conflict itself seemed to lack basic logic, leaving her utterly baffled.

"Then what if Teacher Bi has no brains?" Shi Qianqian said something so pointed, yet still used an honorific.

"Then we’ll just have to put in more effort afterward." Weng Pinting looked over at Bai Qinghua. "Of course, we could also make it a once-and-for-all solution."

Bai Qinghua rummaged around by the computer desk and fished out a can of coffee.

"Pingting, that was rough, huh. You run into this kind of thing right after you get back..."

Weng Pinting didn’t drink it; she handed the coffee over to Shi Qianqian instead.

Then she put her hands on her hips and swept her gaze around the room.

"You cleaned up pretty fast," Weng Pinting said.

Her expression carried a restless energy, as if what she’d just done was only the warm-up, and the real work was just about to begin.

Bai Qinghua froze.

-----------------

In the following days, the atmosphere in Bi Yanling’s research group became visibly taut.

The office had always been quiet, but now even the sound of typing on keyboards was suppressed to a minimum.

It was clearly Friday, but there wasn’t a trace of pre-weekend ease among the students in the group. Even by lunchtime in the afternoon, each of them still seemed glued to their chairs, eyes locked on their computer screens.

But from the way their gazes occasionally drifted, it was clear— their minds weren’t on what was in front of them.

"Didn’t I tell you before that this experiment wouldn’t work? It’s been a week and this is what you bring me? Do it again!"

"How did you choose these variables? The draft you sent me for review before looked fine, didn’t it? Who told you to change it on your own? Do it again!"

"It’s been a month, and your experiment has only advanced this much? What have you been doing all this time?"

"Is this your attitude toward research? Who do you think you’re studying for? Do you really not want to graduate?"

"You’re already at this stage, and I still have to push you along? Are you still thinking about taking breaks, about having fun?!"

"Go back and think things over!"

One student after another got up and walked over to Bi Yanling, and one after another walked away.

But Bi Yanling’s tone only got higher and higher, and the fire in her chest seemed to burn ever hotter.