Chapter 1958 — I Was Only Joking

"Mm..." Sun Jingyan nodded shyly. Her disguise had long since been seen through by Wei Zhao, and so in his presence she no longer had to exhaust herself putting up her guard. It was like a child who had been drifting about in the world outside finally finding a harbor from the wind — a feeling of utter ease.

Half an hour later, Wei Zhao arrived at the residential compound where Sun Jingyan rented her apartment. It was a cluster of apartment buildings; though Wei Zhao knew the address, he had never actually been there.

He parked the car in the space below the building, took the elevator up, and pressed the doorbell of Sun Jingyan's home.

After a moment, Sun Jingyan's voice came from inside. "Who is it?"

"It's me, Wei Zhao," Wei Zhao said.

The door opened, and Sun Jingyan looked at Wei Zhao with a hint of delighted surprise. "You came!"

Wei Zhao studied her, a faint smile flickering at the corner of his mouth. This girl — wearing pajamas at home, yet her face carefully made up with light makeup. Clearly she had dressed up for his arrival. It left Wei Zhao both surprised and a little helpless. Sun Jingyan — had she gone and turned a pretense into the real thing?

Was it the pressure from the Sun family, or was it Sun Jingyan's own wish?

Wei Zhao did not much care for relationships that came with an ulterior purpose. If Sun Jingyan's approach to him was at Old Master Sun's behest, then Wei Zhao would feel uncomfortable.

"Dressed up pure and fresh like this, you actually look quite pleasing to the eye — much better than that mature, staid look you had before," Wei Zhao said.

"The company's sold, I've got nothing to do all day, so of course I'm not going to keep dressing up like anything." Sun Jingyan was delighted at his words. "Do I really look pretty today?"

"You do," Wei Zhao nodded, and said, "But next time I come, there's no need to dress up so deliberately. It's unnecessary. You're already quite good-looking as you are — no makeup needed."

Having her thoughts seen through so plainly, Sun Jingyan was at once a little embarrassed. "I went out earlier to buy food... that's why I put on makeup. You think it was for you? Get over yourself!"

"Ha, then where's the food? I happen to be a little hungry," Wei Zhao said.

"The food... I already ate it all..." Sun Jingyan huffed.

"Ate it all?" Wei Zhao looked at Sun Jingyan with a look that was neither quite a smile nor quite not.

"I really did eat it all — I even threw out the packaging!" Sun Jingyan said.

"Wei Zhao, are you doing this on purpose? Why are you so annoying?" Sun Jingyan could tell Wei Zhao was deliberately teasing her, so she simply dropped the act and said angrily, "Fine, I dressed up for you, all right? Satisfied now?"

"Uh..." Wei Zhao had not expected to send Sun Jingyan storming off twice in a single day. A little embarrassed, he rubbed his chin and said with a wry smile, "Jingyi, I was only joking..."

"So was I," Sun Jingyan said.

"Heh, all right, let's get down to business. By the way, could you channel some of your qi to me?" Wei Zhao asked.

"My qi? Channel it to you?" Sun Jingyan was briefly stunned, and then her expression turned exceedingly strange. "You're serious?"

"What is it?" Seeing her expression, Wei Zhao had a vague feeling that he had overlooked something.

"The people of our Sun family — once we cultivate the first level of the mental method, our qi can only be used by one person. If we never reach the second level, then for the rest of our lives we can only channel qi to that one person..." Sun Jingyan said. "Don't you know this?"

"Ah!" Wei Zhao had indeed heard of this, but he had overlooked the condition, thinking it would be no matter for Sun Jingyan to send him some qi. Now it seemed that if he wanted Sun Jingyan's qi, it would amount to binding her lifelong happiness to him. Until Wei Zhao had made up his mind to accept this girl, he certainly could not do something so rash.

So Wei Zhao was at once rather embarrassed. "I forgot about that. But don't misunderstand — I only wanted to study your qi, nothing more..."

"Oh, I see..." Sun Jingyan breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time felt a little disappointed.

A moment ago she had even been wondering: if Wei Zhao insisted, would she just go along with him and channel her qi to him? That way, she could openly cling to him forever, because she would have entrusted her whole life's happiness to Wei Zhao — and for her whole life, Sun Jingyan could serve no one but Wei Zhao...

"Then — if you channel your qi to me, your qi automatically becomes the same as mine. So any qi you cultivate from now on will automatically turn into that kind of qi too?" A very important question had suddenly occurred to Wei Zhao, and he asked at once.

"That's right!" Sun Jingyan nodded. "This mental method of our Sun family is very odd — it's purely a support-type method. Once the qi in my body becomes your qi, then whatever qi I cultivate afterward will all be the same kind of qi!"

"So that's how it is..." A glimmer of understanding and delight passed through Wei Zhao's eyes. If it was truly as Sun Jingyan said, then there was no need for him to study her qi at all. No wonder, when he first sensed the qi in Granny Sun's mind, it had carried no ill intent — and had even felt familiar.

So that feeling had not come from Sun Jingyan at all — it came from Uncle Qing! Since Granny Sun was Uncle Qing's wife, the qi Granny Sun cultivated would naturally be the same as Uncle Qing's! Having worked this out, Wei Zhao silently cursed himself for a fool. He had gone looking far and wide when the answer was right beside him — if he had just tested Uncle Qing's qi back then, wouldn't he have known everything?

"Yes, why do you ask..." Sun Jingyan saw that Wei Zhao seemed very pleased, and was a little puzzled.

"Heh, Jingyi, thank you. You've solved a big problem for me!" Wei Zhao laughed. "So your Sun family's mental method is this strange — no wonder I could never see through your strength."

From the moment he first met Sun Jingyan, Wei Zhao had never been able to gauge her strength. He could only say that the mental method Sun Jingyan cultivated belonged to the support type — and yet not entirely the support type. She had no strength rank at all; it was a purely support-type mental method.

"Mm, it's nothing..." Sun Jingyan shook her head, though she did not understand what exactly she had helped Wei Zhao with.

"By the way, Jingyi, could you give me a copy of your mental method?" It suddenly occurred to Wei Zhao that if Granny Sun kept cultivating, might she not be able to keep helping Uncle Qing?

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