Chapter 163 — Wei Zhao's Ace

"Miss Gu, I must be responsible for your safety." Wei Zhao shed his usual flippant manner and spoke with great seriousness: "Only after Qing Bo has escorted you both safely home will I be at ease."

"But..." Gu Mengyao had not expected that even after she apologized, Wei Zhao would still refuse her so bluntly, and she felt suddenly awkward. This was the first time she had ever bowed her head to him, and yet he...

Gu Mengyao was somewhat vexed, but she knew Wei Zhao was only thinking of her safety and Xiaoshu's, so she stamped her foot and, for once in her life, did not retort with a sarcastic remark.

Ordinarily, Gu Mengyao would have been unhappy long ago. I've already apologized to you — what more do you want? And you were the cause of all this in the first place. If you hadn't been flirting with some middle-aged woman, would I have gone looking for a male escort?

In Gu Mengyao's eyes, Sun Jingyan had become a middle-aged woman.

Wei Zhao had already called Qing Bo and told him the location; Qing Bo said he would come over at once.

Shen Yushu stuck out her tongue. "Brother Chewing Gum, Yaoyao and I are actually at a bar for the first time..."

"Hah, there's something off about this bar. Next time, try another one." Wei Zhao nodded and said nothing more. There was nothing wrong with Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu coming to a bar to have fun — for girls from wealthy families, a first visit to a bar was already quite something. As for their mischievous notion of calling in male escorts, Wei Zhao could only respond with speechlessness.

In truth, whether it was Gu Mengyao or Shen Yushu, neither was bad at heart. Miss Gu had a bit of pride and a bit of self-esteem, cold on the outside but warm within. Little Miss Chen was a pure mischief-maker, but easygoing enough.

Having spent a long time with them, Wei Zhao found that the resistance and perfunctory attitude he had felt when he first arrived had faded away.

Hearing Wei Zhao say they could come again next time, and that he did not seem at all angry over the trouble stirred up by this visit to the bar, Shen Yushu was a little surprised. She blinked. "Brother Chewing Gum, you're not angry?"

"Why would I be angry?" Wei Zhao laughed. "You two go back and get some rest early. I still have a few things to deal with and may not be back until very late, so don't wait up for me."

"Oh... then be careful..." Shen Yushu nodded.

Seeing Wei Zhao and Shen Yushu chatting so casually, Gu Mengyao felt a little uncomfortable. Why did Xiaoshu seem to get along with him so well, while between her and Wei Zhao there seemed to be something standing in the way?

But what did it matter whether she and he got along? He was plainly just a lackey her daddy had hired for her. Even if they did not get along, he still had to obey her. Why should she feel uncomfortable?

Qing Bo arrived quickly, and he did not come alone. Several men followed behind him; one could tell at a glance that they were trained fighters, but all of them specialized in external martial arts, and their strength was not especially great. They were more than enough against ordinary people, but against that refined man from before, they would be no match.

"Mr. Lin, sorry to have put you to trouble." Qing Bo nodded to Wei Zhao. "Won't you come with us?"

"I have a few things to take care of here," Wei Zhao said. "Qing Bo, take them and go first. As for the matter here, I will find a time to tell Uncle Chu about it."

"All right." Qing Bo said no more and left the bar with Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu. In fact, he understood as well — if Wei Zhao had not run into something urgent, he would never have asked Qing Bo to come and take Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu away. It would have been better for Wei Zhao to escort them back himself.

As things stood, Wei Zhao had clearly run into some trouble. Since he did not speak of it, Qing Bo could not press him with questions.

Only after watching Qing Bo and Gu Mengyao leave the bar did Wei Zhao rise and walk in the direction the refined man had gone. Passing through the bar counter, he saw the refined man and a rather ordinary-looking man already standing there, waiting.

"Mr. Lin, I am Su Jiaonang, the manager of this bar. About what happened earlier, I am extremely sorry..." the ordinary-looking man said when he saw Wei Zhao approach.

"Cut the crap. Where is Li Cihua?" Wei Zhao cut him off directly. This sort of nonsense he had no desire to hear at all.

Cut off by Wei Zhao, Su Jiaonang's face flushed slightly with a trace of anger, but he quickly recovered his composure. "Mr. Lin, please follow me."

The man before him was someone the boss had invited, and he had just heard from Li Yao — that is, the refined man — that Wei Zhao's strength was likely no less than his own. So Su Jiaonang did not dare act rashly.

Wei Zhao followed Su Jiaonang and Li Yao to the door of an office. Su Jiaonang knocked, and from inside came the voice Wei Zhao had heard on the phone earlier: "Come in."

Su Jiaonang opened the door and gestured him through. "After you, Mr. Lin. The boss is waiting inside."

Wei Zhao walked straight in. In the room sat a pot-bellied man, and behind him stood a gaunt, skeletal figure with entirely unremarkable features — the sort no one would look at twice, the sort who, set down in a crowd, would vanish from sight at once.

But Wei Zhao's expression tightened. The energy rippling off this skeleton man faintly exceeded his own... By the look of it, the fellow must be at the peak of the late Yellow Rank.

"Elder Jiao, I can sense the energy coming off them. Can they sense mine?" A rather important question had just occurred to Wei Zhao: was this kind of perception mutual?

"I shouldn't think so," Elder Jiao said mildly. "The way his body takes in energy is different from yours. Theirs is called zhenqi. Every cultivation method produces its own kind of zhenqi, usable only by the practitioner and transferable to no one else. The energy in your body, now, is universal..."

"I see. So the energy in my body can also be converted into the zhenqi he needs — is that it?" Wei Zhao asked.

"In theory, yes." Elder Jiao adopted the tone of a teacher with a promising pupil. "And that is precisely why you can sense his, while he cannot sense yours."

Wei Zhao was delighted to have his answer. It seemed that from now on he could play the pig to eat the tiger and put on whatever airs he liked: he could see through others' strength while they could not see through his... Why, this was a top-grade cheat indeed. If the other party proved too strong, if he could not win, then he need only run for his life.

Wei Zhao's gaze rested on the skeleton man for only an instant. The skeleton man gave him a faint smile. In his eyes, Wei Zhao was merely at the peak of the early Yellow Rank; and in the ordinary course of things, since he had already concealed his own aura, it should have been impossible for Wei Zhao to see through his strength.

So the skeleton man paid it no mind, assuming Wei Zhao had simply been glancing about at random.