Chapter 2050 — The Strange Bead

Though pill fire could be condensed, alchemy demanded an unbroken, single breath from start to finish—there could be no interruption. It was impossible to refine halfway, then stop to rest for a few days and recover before picking up again; that would certainly fail.

The moment the process halted, the pill was essentially ruined. There was simply no dividing the refining into multiple sessions.

Looking at Han Jingyi lying flushed-faced on the bed, Wei Zhao broke out in a cold sweat. This was far too easy to misunderstand!

Outside the room, Detective Shu 007 stared wide-eyed and said to Gu Mengyao in utter disbelief, "Sister Yaoyao, Brother Chewing Gum and that Han Jingyi—looks like they really got it on!"

"…" Gu Mengyao had heard Han Jingyi's cries as well. In fact, after Wei Zhao and Han Jingyi went into the room, she and Shen Yushu had been afraid of disturbing them and had not even dared turn on the television—which made every sound in the quiet villa stand out all the more. They could vaguely make out the conversation inside Wei Zhao's room.

Yet for all its ambiguity, Gu Mengyao still trusted Wei Zhao's character. "Xiaoshu, don't talk nonsense. It's not what you're imagining!"

"But it really does sound like that!" Shen Yushu insisted. "By Detective Shu 007's powers of judgment, something definitely happened in there!"

"…" Though Gu Mengyao did not believe Wei Zhao was the sort to bring Han Jingyi into a room and do something sordid, Xiaoshu's words did make her curious. She wanted to go see for herself.

But before Shen Yushu could knock, Wei Zhao opened the door first. Seeing Xiaoshu standing there, he blinked in surprise. "Xiaoshu, what are you doing here?"

"Uh… I just heard Han Jingyi say she was about to give out, that she couldn't hold on, so I got worried and came to check on her!" Shen Yushu said.

"Only worried about her?" Wei Zhao asked with a half-smile, watching Xiaoshu crane her neck to peek inside the room.

"Uh… yes," Shen Yushu said. Naturally she would not admit she had come to catch them in the act.

"Then go on in and look, since you're so anxious." Wei Zhao smiled and stepped aside, letting Shen Yushu into the room.

"Sniff, sniff—" Shen Yushu wrinkled her nose, hoping to catch some peculiar scent in the room, but after sniffing around she was rather disappointed. She smelled nothing at all.

Her gaze drifted to the bed, and when she saw Han Jingyi lying there, her heart gave a jump. But seeing that Han Jingyi was still clothed, she frowned and thought: Is there really nothing to it, or were they quick enough to get dressed already?

Shen Yushu walked over to the bed and at once spotted a patch of wetness on the sheets. Startled, she blurted, "Holy crap, Brother Chewing Gum, did Han Jingyi make this?"

"Yes," Wei Zhao said with a nod, thinking nothing of it.

Shen Yushu, however, thought differently. She had read about such things as female ejaculation in books and assumed Han Jingyi possessed that kind of profound skill. So, in a spirit of inquiry, Shen Yushu bent over the wet patch on the bed and sniffed it, then said in a strange tone, "There doesn't seem to be any smell?"

"That's Jingjing's sweat—what smell would it have?" Wei Zhao was sweating himself, wondering what on earth Shen Yushu was thinking.

"Ah? It's sweat!" Shen Yushu realized at once that she had let her imagination run astray. Still, she pressed on: "Why did she sweat so much? Did she catch another cold, and Brother Chewing Gum cured her, so she sweat it all out?"

"…It's from the exhaustion of condensing pill fire!" Wei Zhao looked at Shen Yushu and smiled. "Xiaoshu, you weren't thinking something unwholesome and unhealthy again, were you?"

"Of course not. Xiaoshu just came on Sister Yaoyao's behalf to check on Han Jingyi. She can refine pills, so she'll be a great help to Brother Chewing Gum in the future—neither Sister Yaoyao nor I want anything to happen to her!" Shen Yushu said, perfectly self-righteous.

"Is that really so?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Of course!" Shen Yushu nodded.

"All right, let her rest a while. We shouldn't disturb her," Wei Zhao said.

Han Jingyi was so exhausted that she had fallen asleep the moment she hit the bed, and Wei Zhao did not want to wake her. He had intended to use the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art to help restore her strength, but since she was already asleep, that could wait until she woke.

At this point Wei Zhao no longer wished to keep anything from Han Jingyi. He also meant to let her study the mental cultivation method for condensing pill fire that he had obtained from Zhang Liju's tomb. This genius girl had held nothing back from him, telling him all about such a remarkable piece of research—if Wei Zhao kept hedging and hiding things now, that really would be unfair.

And it was plain that Han Jingyi bore him no ill will whatsoever; on the contrary, she seemed to rely on him a great deal, telling him alone about her good news rather than anyone else. So Wei Zhao had come to feel a good deal of fondness for Han Jingyi as well.

"Mm…" Having discovered nothing, Shen Yushu could not help feeling a little disappointed. She came out of the room, met Gu Mengyao's inquiring gaze, and shook her head.

Gu Mengyao smiled at Xiaoshu's expression. She had guessed long ago that nothing could be going on between Wei Zhao and Han Jingyi—and so it was.

Sitting down on the sofa with Xiaoshu, Wei Zhao took out the round bead he had obtained at the Lion-Tiger Park and began to study it…

The thing was very strange. Its surface resembled some kind of calcified substance; it was quite round but had little luster, rather dim. Yet inside the bead, Wei Zhao could clearly sense a very high concentration of energy!

That energy differed from ordinary heaven-and-earth spiritual qi, though; it was more like some special true qi that had been infused into the bead. What it was for, he had no idea.

Still, by intuition Wei Zhao was certain this was most likely a good thing!

But even a good thing was useless if he did not know what it was. He could only snap a photo with his phone and email it to Old Man Wei. The old man was widely experienced and just might know what this thing was and what it was used for.

In the email, Wei Zhao also told Old Man Wei where the object had come from and about the energy contained within it.

To Wei Zhao's disappointment, however, the old man's reply came quickly—but his answer was that he did not know, had never seen it, and had never heard of such a thing!

"How is it?" Shen Yushu was anxious to know just what this thing was.

"Not much… the old man doesn't know either." Wei Zhao shook his head. "Looks like this thing really is a bit out of the ordinary?"

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