"How did I know?" Peng Mingzhu repeated the question that Wei Li asked with light laughter. "Are you really interested?"
"I want to learn," Wei Li answered as he wanted to show his seriousness while at the same time he could not understand how she could laugh at such a serious moment.
"Alright," Peng Mingzhu nodded in agreement to answer his question. "It's quite easy. Have you ever been in love?"
Shaking his head, Wei Li answered, "No, I have not been in love. As the crown prince of an empire, love, and marriage is not something that I can so easily do as each of my actions would and will affect the country."
"Right…" Peng Mingzhu mumbled under her breath. "Well, if you've been in love, you'd be able to tell whether someone is true to you or not. Well, at least, if you've ever been in a relationship that would make you extremely paranoid, that is."
Every word that Peng Mingzhu spoke, there was a smile with them; as though they would hide the pain behind her words.
Even though she did not speak in detail and many people in the room took them as a jester yet at the same time truth, Wei Kangnuan thought differently. He just knew too well that making light of everything was a way that she used to protect herself.
Pretending as though everything did not matter - that was what he noticed every time she spoke of anything traumatizing.
Through habit, he managed to discover that she seemed to make light of everything.
Perhaps because of that, he started thinking, 'Ah, something bad has happened before.'
Well, at least to when she spoke of things that would normally make a person traumatized. Whether it be familial matters, relationship matters, or domestic matters, there will always be something that would make a person scared and hate them. However, Peng Mingzhu was just too different.
She was not scared, not angry, and did not avoid.
"Should I try falling in love to become better at solving such cases?" Wei Li asked with a frown as though he would truly entertain the idea if Peng Mingzhu agreed.
"I wouldn't suggest you do such a thing," Peng Mingzhu answered with a smile. "Not only would you be hurting the girl, but you'd also be hurting yourself. And you might ask me, 'Why?' Well, that's something you'll experience yourself if you ignore my words. After all, I'm speaking from experience. Besides, what you need isn't experienced, but sight. You're just a bit blind; though still better than the majority of the population, I guess."
"What about me?" Wei Kangnuan asked her with a teasing smile. "What do you think about my sight?"
"Less than mine," Peng Mingzhu curtly answered. "Though definitely much better than the rest of the world by a huge margin."
Hearing her praise, Wei Kangnuan began to spread his smile across the entirety of his face.
The mere fact that her words that were stating facts were taken as praises instead and even managed to make him grin crazily…
It just showed Peng Mingzhu how much he loved her…
"Going back to the case, I'd suggest you guys not continue to jail the poor man," Peng Mingzhu suggested. "In the long run, he'd be quite a good subordinate."
"There's still a chance that he can betray us due to having been exposed by us," Wei Li rejected while explaining why.
"He won't betray us if we show him his wife's true colors," Peng Mingzhu told Wei Li. "In this world, the thing that hurts most is betrayal, especially from the people we love. No matter how much we love them, there is a line that can't be crossed no matter what. Love is not life, but merely happiness. And it is because we are freeing him from the bitterness of love that he thought was his life that will make him loyal to us."
"Xiao Nuan, do you agree with Miss Wu?" Wei Li asked Wei Kangnuan for his opinion.
"En, quite a lot," Wei Kangnuan nodded while still seated in his chair behind the study desk.
Considering the fact that his brother has agreed and since he trusted in his brother more than anyone else, Wei Li finally relented even though he still held doubts, "Alright. What do we have to do to expose her?"
"Say, how old do you think this woman is?" Peng Mingzhu asked Wei Li.
"Huh? Is she not a middle-aged woman? Perhaps around thirty or perhaps around forty years of age?" Wei Li answered unassuredly as he could not really guess her age.
"Wrong," Peng Mingzhu told him straightforwardly. "Wei Kangnuan, why don't you tell them her real age? I'm sure you've known since the first moment you saw her. Perhaps, that is what you saw that even caused you to know that she was lying about her real identity."
"Ah Nai, you're just too smart," Wei Kangnuan praised with a bright smile as he looked at her beautiful face. "If I had to guess, she's probably around twenty four years of age. Just about the same as mine...and yours…"
When Wei Kangnuan said the last two words, he turned his head to look at Peng Mingzhu flirtatiously.
"Wei Kangnuan, please pay attention to the case on hand and not to the childish feelings in your heart," Peng Mingzhu lectured him. "If you still want to be tempted to flirt with me, I can swear on my life that I can destroy those feelings of yours any second now."
Despite her sentences being spoken with a smile, her tone was so threateningly scary that Wei Kangnuan decided it was time to stop flirting with her.
For some reason, he had no doubt that she could really easily destroy those romantic feelings of his and throw him down the chains of depression.
"How can that be?" Wei Li asked with a frown. "Ren Lin is already an adolescent and not only that, based on the man in the prison, she should be passed that age. Aside from that, just look at her skin and her face!"
Peng Mingzhu shook her head and grinned, "You'll soon know the answer at a later time. For now…"
As Peng Mingzhu slowly said her last two words, she walked up to the woman who was still bound and struggling to loosen herself from the tight ropes on her hands and feets. On the face of the woman, there was also a rag that was used to cover up her mouth; a muffler of some sort.
In a rough movement, Peng Mingzhu removed the rag from the woman who was still staring at her with widened eyes that stared at her as though she was the most horrific thing she has seen in years.
"Am I scary?" Peng Mingzhu questioned in a light tone. "You're looking at me like I'm such a monster."
The woman wanted to answer so badly, "Yes," but she was so scared that her voice failed to come out.
Of course, Peng Mingzhu knew what she wanted to say. However, she did not care and ignored them. Instead, she pulled out a watch on a string.
Swinging the watch in front of the woman, Peng Mingzhu asked in a comforting and soft voice, "Now, stare at this thing swinging in front of you. Don't lose focus and just count down slowly from 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1…"
As the woman began to lose her senses and her eyes became unfocused, Peng Mingzhu praised, "You're doing a good job. Continue that way. Just continue to follow the thing swinging in front of you."
After a short while, the woman who was originally staring at Peng Mingzhu in fear, lost her consciousness.
"What did you do to her?" Wei Li asked with curious eyes. 'How did she make the woman faint without causing physical harm?'
"In my place, we perform hypnosis on people," Peng Mingzhu educated Wei Li since he asked.
"What is hypnosis?" Wei Li continued to ask. 'Ah, I really want to learn this thing called hypnosis also.'
Since Peng Mingzhu was in a good mood after her successful forced hypnosis session, she decided to explain what hypnosis was Wei Li, "Hypnosis is a trance-like mental state in which people experience increased attention, concentration, and suggestibility. While hypnosis is often described as a sleep-like state, it is better expressed as a state of focused attention, heightened suggestibility, and vivid fantasies. People in a hypnotic state often seem sleepy and zoned out, but in reality, they are in a state of hyper-awareness."
Then, she continued to explain, "While there are many myths and misconceptions, hypnosis is a very real process that can be used as a therapeutic tool. Hypnosis has been shown to have medical and therapeutic benefits, most notably in the reduction of pain and anxiety. It has even been suggested that hypnosis can reduce the symptoms of dementia."
"What is dementia?" Wei Li asked with bright eyes, learning from someone who Wei Kangnuan constantly praised.
"Dementia is a general term for loss of memory, language, problem-solving and other thinking abilities that are severe enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer's is the most common cause of dementia," Peng Mingzhu answered, not feeling annoyed in the least.
"What is Alzheimer's then?" Wei Li continued to ask, still in his attentive form though he was beginning to frown at all these new words that he had never heard before.
Thankfully, he had an amazing subordinate, Luo Xing, who was very good at memorizing things, especially writing down information at a fast pace.
"Alzheimer's is a type of dementia that affects memory, thinking and behavior. Symptoms eventually grow severe enough to interfere with daily tasks," Peng Mingzhu patiently answered, not caring at all about the woman laying on the floor since she was confident in herself that the woman would not come out of her subconscious state anytime soon. "Alright, so back to hypnosis…"
Then, in a teaching voice, Peng Mingzhu began to explain, "There are many types of hypnosis as there are a few different ways that hypnosis can be delivered. However there are three main types that are commonly used."
"What are they?" Wei Li asked with intrigue and continued interest.
"One is called Guided Hypnosis; This form of hypnosis involves the use of tools such as recorded instructions and music to induce a hypnotic state. Online sites and mobile apps often utilize this form of hypnosis," Peng Mingzhu first told the most famous one.
"What are on...line and mo...bile...apps?" Wei Li was having an increasingly hard time trying to pronounce these foreign words.
"Oh, those," Peng Mingzhu commented while embarrassed herself. 'Ah, I was so focused on reciting the internet information that I completely forgot that there are some things these people don't have…'
"Just ignore those," Peng Mingzhu then tried to move on.
However, just like a super good student, Wei Li wanted to know what they were, "Why? I am sure they are important since those were the ones you stated. Not only that, you said that Guided Hypnosis was the most famous method used."
Sighing, Peng Mingzhu explained, "I can't tell you what they are because even if I explained, you wouldn't be able to understand it. Unless you managed to see one for yourself, you wouldn't be able to understand what I'm telling you about online and mobile apps. So, that's why I'm telling you to ignore it."
"Why can't I see them?" Wei Li questioned with a frown. "Since you're here and you know about them, I'm sure you have them on hand or somewhere near or you can build one...or…"
"There's no or and what else there is," Peng Mingzhu denied. "I can't magically make one appear. Anyways, just ignore it."
"Alright…" Wei Li replied sulkingly.
"Let's move onto the second method," Peng Mingzhu stated after clearing her throat. "Second, is Hypnotherapy; This is the use of hypnosis in psychotherapy and is practiced by licensed physicians and psychologists to treat conditions including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders."
"Miss Wu, please hold up, there are too many words that I do not understand, nor know or even heard of," Wei Li stopped her upon hearing the mass amount of vocabularies that he did not know at all.
"Hm… How about this?" Wei Li tried to make a suggestion. "I'll write a book on hypnosis for you to study. Once you finish the book and still want to learn even more about it, I'll write more books about it for you. I'll also test you on the subject if you'd like."
"Yes, I'd love that idea!" Wei Li exclaimed happily.
Wei Li may be extremely paranoid about trusting people, but when it came to learning and educating himself, he was too much of a sucker for it. So much that it annoyed his family.
"What about me?" Wei Kangnuan asked with a pouting face.
"Just study the book that I'm giving to Wei Li," Peng Mingzhu immediately told him. "I'm too lazy to make another book specifically for you."
"Alright…" Wei Kangnuan accepted his sad and poor fate with a pitiful expression as though he would cry anytime soon due to her abuse.