Chapter 27

"Could you be a bit clearer? How exactly are my mental powers and the mecha connected?"

Wu Ying sat in the pilot's seat, facing nothing but the transparent panel that provided the mecha's view. That was it. She sat in the chair, while Asher claimed she had already merged with the mecha through a mental link.

She felt nothing at all.

"Wu Ying, it's you who connects with the mecha through mental power, not your mental power independently fighting the mecha."

Asher struggled to recall the knowledge points he'd learned as a child and then explained them to her in simple terms. He practically broke it down piece by piece, and Wu Ying had no choice but to put his rough explanations into practice.

Her mental power was too soft. More than linking with the mecha, it was like clinging to it, too weak to make any difference.

Wu Ying closed her eyes and focused on the thought of raising her hand. She seemed to glimpse the mecha's internal structure—a dazzling, surreal world—and then, suddenly, the mecha's arm moved.

Asher, watching from the side, saw Wu Ying abruptly raise her hand from the pilot's seat. Perhaps his teachers had been right: being good at something didn't mean you could teach it. A teacher's worth was greater than he'd ever imagined.

...

"Okay, okay, let's stop here for today. I'm so tired."

Seeing her prepare to exit, Asher reached out and pressed her back down. "You didn't complete today's task."

What? There was a task? She had no idea. And she had other things planned for today.

"But I've already tried my best. The progress is too slow, and I still have classes to finish."

Wu Ying's face fell. The mecha was truly too difficult; she couldn't find any logic in it. "This is such a waste of time. Let's just learn it another time."

"With an attitude like that, you'll never learn. You just made some progress. What you should be doing now is pressing your advantage, not making excuses to delay."

"I'm not. I've been studying seriously, but I can't understand what you're saying. I don't even know where that 'progress' you mentioned came from. Practicing like this without any meaning is just a waste of time, isn't it?"

"Then all the more reason to keep practicing. You need to seize the fleeting opportunity to improve. Are you really going to give up on a hard-won breakthrough like this?"

Asher's gaze was stern, his tone heavy. "Wu Ying, you're too soft. If your earlier complaints were based on softness and laziness, then I'll need to reconsider their validity."

"Hey, are you even being reasonable? Tell me yourself—didn't I follow every step you said? Even when I didn't understand, I didn't just give up or mess around. I tried my best to understand what you meant. Have I been slacking off or ignoring you this whole time?"

Wu Ying insisted that taking a break now was the reasonable thing to do. "Success doesn't come from simply pushing past your limits. You've heard of balancing work and rest, haven't you?"

"Move aside. I'm getting off."

Asher tried to understand her words, but they clashed with the philosophy he'd held for years. "The premise of balancing work and rest is that you have something to show for your work. And right now?"

"Does that mean if I just sit here, something will come of it?"

"It will."

Wu Ying felt she couldn't communicate with him at all. Asher had probably been a grind-set since childhood, with the motto: if you can't die from training, train until you die.

"Then if I continue later, I won't be able to make any more progress?"

Asher fell silent. Her current progress was essentially no different from starting over from scratch. He suddenly realized his insistence was meaningless to her.

He no longer blocked her, and Wu Ying exited smoothly. As she left, she glanced back at the mecha—Asher was still inside, lost in thought.

In the evening, Wu Ying slowly dawdled her way to the training room. Asher hadn't stepped out all day. She'd originally planned to put it off until tomorrow, but after thinking it over, she came anyway.

When she entered, Asher was piloting the mecha inside, its massive frame making every move a threat. Wu Ying took a few steps back. She remembered how she'd only managed to lift the mecha's arm a centimeter on pure instinct.

Asher probably had never faced such a setback before. Wu Ying clung to the doorframe, peeking in as he showed off his flashy moves.

He must have noticed her. The mecha came to a stop, and in a moment, Asher emerged from the cockpit.

His eyes were like torches, locking firmly onto Wu Ying. She hesitated before walking over. She should have been full of confidence, but under his gaze, she somehow felt a twinge of guilt.

Asher ignored her flickering expression and said calmly, "Let's start over. We'll try a different approach."

Compared to before, he now seemed like someone who'd just brought back the true scriptures—confident and assured as he looked at her.

"Okay."

Settling back into the cockpit, Wu Ying adjusted her posture and pretended to get a feel for the sensors, not noticing that Asher had already quietly released his own mental power.

After consulting and deliberating, Asher had decided on a rather risky method.

In a split second, Wu Ying suddenly felt the space around her tighten, as if something had burst open beside her, pressing down on her limbs uncomfortably.

"Don't be nervous. I'm guiding you. Just take your time and feel it."

"What do you mean?"

Before she could finish, she felt as if she'd been seized. Her mental power was suddenly swept up and carried along by something, and the mecha slowly began to move. It felt strange—wonderful. Never before had she been able to so vividly perceive another person's presence beside her, his existence as overwhelming as the mental power that enveloped her completely.

It was confining, searing—his mental power was even more forceful and overbearing than he was, dragging her along without any regard for her will.

Even though she was still sitting, she felt as if she were walking. Though her body remained in the cockpit, she felt like she could touch the ceiling above. The panel before her slowly faded, replaced by the open training room. Looking down from a great height, she suddenly realized she had a new body.

So this was the mecha? An immense extension of human senses. Wu Ying felt like she'd become a giant. The doors were tiny, and with just one step, she could charge right out.

Asher watched from the side, forcing his mental power to suppress itself to the gentlest state possible. Fortunately, Wu Ying didn't even think to resist—she just followed him like a lost lamb.

Her mental power was too soft, lacking even the will to fight back. No wonder she couldn't lift the mecha; the laziness in her bones was laid bare through her mental power. Asher frowned, pushing aside the sticky, clammy sensation of her perception. He had to give his full, undivided focus.

This move was dangerous, but it was also effective enough.

Wu Ying's mental power gradually grew accustomed to the sensation, and finally, the mecha could move. It wasn't as flashy as when Asher piloted it, but being able to run and jump was already more than enough for her.

She could just practice more slowly later.

"Hmph. I hope your 'later' starts tomorrow."

"Hey, why are you so strict? I really do have class tomorrow—I showed you my schedule, didn't I? Still don't trust me?"

Asher finally stepped out of the training room, walking ahead at a leisurely pace. Wu Ying had to jog a few steps just to keep up.

"Are you still mad?"

She walked beside him. Even though she didn't think she was in the wrong, considering how Asher had neglected his own rest to teach her, she still wanted to cheer him up.

Asher sat down on the sofa, and Wu Ying shuffled over to him, her pretty eyes curving into a smile as she propped herself on the armrest and leaned toward him. "Don't be so petty. Honestly, neither of us should be angry. Think about it—we just had different approaches, not that one of us was wrong."

She analyzed it for him with all seriousness, and Asher couldn't help but watch to see what she'd come up with. Receiving his response, Wu Ying got even more animated.

"We just had a minor disagreement about how to approach life and time management. Being together isn't simple—people will fight and bicker. But the fact that we can calm down and start fresh means things can only get better."

His eyes were like a deep, bottomless black abyss. It was the first time Wu Ying had observed him so closely. Asher truly had inherited every genetic advantage—a top-tier bone structure paired with handsome, refined features, all of it quietly watching you, making it impossible not to feel your heart stir.

Wu Ying leaned in a little closer, her eyes roaming over his face without the slightest pretense. "We're different people, but that's exactly what makes this meaningful. We need to keep communicating like this to build a better life together. Even if we argue, it's fine. See—after our fight, we found a new method."

Asher gazed at Wu Ying's candid, innocent smile. The new method had come from him making several phone calls, but the problem had been solved nonetheless. If Wu Ying had kept it to herself, the two of them might still be going in circles.

She always found a way to argue her case. This time, she'd argued his too.

Asher accepted her reasoning. He gave a slight nod, his dark gaze drifting away from her face, and silently smoothed his sleeves.

Wu Ying patted him on the shoulder, got up, and hurried off. Asher caught a glimpse of her heading toward the greenhouse in his peripheral vision.

She'd always treasured those fragile flowers.

Before long, Wu Ying reappeared, her hands behind her back and a mysterious smile on her face. "Based on your performance today, there's a surprise."

She walked slowly, her amber eyes sparkling with anticipation of his reaction. Asher could already smell her surprise in the air.

"What surprise?"

Asher decided to play along. Wu Ying tilted her head slightly to the side with a playful air. "Guess."

She suddenly took a big step forward, crouching in front of Asher, and brought out what she'd been holding. A bouquet of fresh flowers, carrying a charming fragrance—yellow roses, pink tulips, green daisies, with stems of varying heights echoing one another, all wrapped in delicate floral paper. She presented it to Asher.

His eyes hadn't even left Wu Ying's face when a wave of fragrance hit his nose, a fresh, verdant scent that told Asher—look at her. She was the main event.

"Do you like it? These are my most favorite things. I wrapped them just for you, to comfort you and to thank you."

Giving away the thing she treasured most—that was proof enough of her sincerity and weight of her feelings.

"I like it."

Asher looked at the flowers, a little at a loss. He'd thought of Wu Ying and her connection to flowers, but the sight before him was still too beautiful for him to have prepared for.

"Come on, take them. Feeling a little happier now?"

Asher first tried to gauge how to hold the bouquet with his eyes, but before he could figure it out, Wu Ying shoved the flowers into his hands without ceremony.

It took both her hands to carry them, yet Asher's single hand held them all at once.

*