"No," Leng Leng said with a helpless shake of her head.

"I did manage to pick up a piece of jade here, though. It feels about the same as the last one—have a look." A small piece of jade suddenly appeared in Wei Zhao's hand.

"Really?" Leng Leng was startled. She took the jade at once and sensed it carefully; sure enough, it was brimming with spiritual energy—another top-grade spirit jade!

The way Leng Leng looked at Wei Zhao changed on the spot. Just what kind of luck did this man have? She had searched high and low for so long without finding a thing, yet the moment he set out he stumbled onto a top-grade spirit jade. He had already found one before, and now another—this was luck beyond all reason. People really were not to be compared.

"Where did you buy this jade? Are there any more?" Leng Leng asked hurriedly. Never mind that she was injured and needed spirit jade to replenish her spiritual energy—even in ordinary times she would never let a top-grade spirit jade like this slip by.

"Of course not. My eye for jade is very discerning. Pure jade with this kind of luster is hard to come by—finding even one piece is a stroke of luck," Wei Zhao said, shaking his head.

"Luster? This jade has a luster?" Leng Leng was rather puzzled. When she chose jade, she only ever looked at whether the spiritual energy was abundant; she never paid attention to appearance, much less carefully distinguish its luster.

"Of course. Luster is one of the most important criteria for choosing jade. Don't tell me you never look at it?" Wei Zhao said, surprised in turn.

"Uh, I don't really understand that sort of thing." Leng Leng shook her head, unable to grasp the significance but impressed all the same. Even though there was only this one piece, she was still delighted—now she would not have to worry about running short of spiritual energy, and the stone that had been weighing on her heart finally settled. She asked at once, "This jade must be very expensive, right? How much did you pay for it? I'll find a way to pay you back."

"Listen to yourself. With the kind of relationship we have, what need is there to talk about money? Never mind a mere piece of jade—even if you wanted something far more valuable, I'd get it for you without a second thought," Wei Zhao said, seizing the chance to declare his resolve.

"Really? Anything at all?" Leng Leng gave him a meaningful look.

"Of course," Wei Zhao said with a decisive nod.

"Then what if it were something very useful to you—or even of great use—would you still be willing to give it to me?" Leng Leng asked. She had assumed Wei Zhao simply did not understand the value of these two top-grade spirit jades, still less what they were good for, and took them for ordinary jade ornaments—which was why he had handed one over without hesitation. If it were something else that mattered greatly to him, he probably would not be so quick to give it away.

Leng Leng had expected that after posing such an awkward question, the other party would surely hesitate. To her surprise, Wei Zhao nodded firmly without even thinking: "I would."

Never mind that he was now courting Leng Leng—back on Thunderclap Plain Island, when he was about to step into the lightning tribulation point to break through to the Profound Ascension realm and had only a single Thunder Profound Pill in hand, he had given it to Qin Yue without hesitation. And Qin Yue was not even a friend to him, merely a passerby with some connection to him.

Wei Zhao had never been a stingy man. Whenever there was something good, so long as it benefited those around him, he would bring it out and share it with everyone without hesitation. Friends and underlings alike—so long as they could be trusted, they were no different from his close female confidantes in his eyes, and he would never hold anything back.

And the way things were going now, Leng Leng might well become one of his confidantes too. Naturally he would not be the least bit stingy with her. Whatever she wanted, so long as she truly needed it, he would move heaven and earth to get it for her even if he did not have it on hand—of that there was no doubt.

Hearing this answer and seeing the earnest expression on Wei Zhao's face, Leng Leng fell silent, somewhat moved. She could not be certain whether Wei Zhao was merely paying lip service or truly meant it, but judging by how they had gotten along so far, she believed it was most likely the latter.

In her view, Wei Zhao was probably not the sort of man who abandoned all principles just to win a girl's favor. Leng Leng might not consider her experience in the Jianghu particularly rich, nor would she claim any gift for reading people, but she could feel things with her heart—at least she sensed not the slightest ill will from Wei Zhao. Otherwise she would not have let him get away with those intimate gestures today.

Looking at Leng Leng's expression, Wei Zhao suddenly understood what this little cold miss truly cared about. The reason she appeared so icy in temperament and so full of vigilance, forever keeping people at arm's length, was ultimately a lack of security. This girl, cold on the outside but warm within, was in truth very much afraid of being deceived, and even more afraid of rashly giving her heart only to be toyed with and come to a bad end.

Wei Zhao thought for a moment, then smiled. "Actually, there's an established custom these days: when a man and a woman break up, in many cases the man leaves with nothing at all."

"Nothing at all?" Leng Leng was taken aback, and could not help saying with a strange expression, "Why leave with nothing? If it's just to punish the man for his faults, isn't that rule a bit too cruel?"

"Uh, you've misunderstood me. It's not that kind of 'nothing.' By leaving with nothing, I mean that after the breakup the man takes none of the property—everything is left to the woman," Wei Zhao explained, caught between laughter and tears.

Of course, he said all this purely to comfort Leng Leng, so he picked only the pleasant things to say. He did not mention that while there were indeed many men who left with nothing, there were also plenty of bastards who demanded their rings back after a breakup. The same rice nurtures a hundred kinds of people—such was the way of the world.

"Oh, so that's what it means." Leng Leng blushed a little too, but still asked in puzzlement, "But if they've already broken up, why leave everything to the woman? Are all men sick in the head or something?"

In the little Jianghu world of the Taigu where she lived, once a man and a woman fell out, fights often broke out over who got what—each eager to take back everything in the other's hands. Such cases were commonplace, and she had never heard of a man being so generous as to leave everything to the woman after they had gone their separate ways.

"You can't call it being sick—it's simply a prevailing social custom. At least it's far better than tearing each other apart over property the moment you break up, isn't it? A man ought to bear a little more responsibility toward a woman," Wei Zhao could only go on choosing the pleasant things to say, though he felt a good deal inside.

If one really spoke of responsibility, what he had done for those confidantes of his was far from enough. He might not be a bastard, but he could hardly be called responsible either; by comparison, it was those confidantes who had given more for him. Once Gu Mengyao and the others were rescued and awakened, he would truly have to make it up to them properly.

For the fastest updates, please read without pop-ups.