Chapter 3619 — Stealing Jade Again

Yet for all his bewilderment, Li Zhengming could not help but heave a sigh of relief. He had witnessed Wei Zhao's strength on his very first day at the Welcome Newcomers Pavilion; anyone who could defeat Meng Zhou in a single move was plainly no easy mark. If Wei Zhao truly meant to make trouble for him, he would have had no choice but to let himself be beaten into a pig's head, or else his concealed strength would have been exposed—a loss far outweighing any gain!

Abandoning the prime ore node that Li Zhengming had seized, Wei Zhao casually picked a somewhat remote and unoccupied one. It was not tucked into the farthest corner, but it drew nowhere near the same attention as before; with a little caution, he could be sure of working in safety.

But no sooner had Wei Zhao set down his basket than someone cut in ahead of him, fixing him with an unfriendly stare. "You there," the man said, "I've got my eye on this ore node. You planning to fight me for it?"

Wei Zhao frowned slightly. The man was one of the many "newcomers of former terms" digging jade here in Mining Zone Seven. Because he had spent yesterday deliberately observing his surroundings, Wei Zhao had some impression of these unfamiliar faces—but from what he recalled, this man had not been working this node yesterday.

Still, people often moved back and forth among several different nodes, which was perfectly normal. Wei Zhao did not take it to heart; he was not set on this particular node anyway, so he nodded and at once headed for another one nearby.

Yet before long Wei Zhao realized something was off. Every time he reached any node at all, someone would immediately dart over and get there first. And these nodes he had chosen were all quiet, sparsely peopled spots, picked precisely for convenience—and by yesterday's observation, all of them had been deserted. It felt as though everyone in the mining zone had been deliberately set against him!

Could it be that Meng Jueming and his companion, unable to dig up jade in Mining Zone Ten, had deliberately enlisted people to make his life miserable?

Recalling Li Zhengming's earlier behavior, Wei Zhao quickly guessed the truth. These people really had taken Meng Jueming's orders and were ganging up on him on purpose! It was not only Li Zhengming—everyone else present was one of Meng Jueming's underlings!

As a veteran steward of the newcomers at the Welcome Newcomers Pavilion, Meng Jueming had left his mark on more than just Wei Zhao's cohort; even these "newcomers of former terms" all bore his stamp to some degree. And with his vast connections throughout the Spirit Jade Hall, these men would naturally do all they could to curry favor, if only to escape this sunless drudgery sooner—especially since squeezing Wei Zhao was no more than a trifling chore they could manage with one hand tied behind their backs!

True, the mining zone had no hard rule that a node belonged to one man alone. Faced with someone stealing his node, Wei Zhao could not stop him outright, but he could perfectly well stay put and refuse to leave; that way the other man would be helpless too—surely no one would rashly attack him just to grab a node. With so many skilled Foundation Establishment guards glaring like hawks, striking out on one's own was simply courting death. Slap on the charge of inciting a riot in the mining zone, and a man could be cut down on the spot with no one to plead his case.

But if he truly had to share a node with another, that would run entirely counter to Wei Zhao's aim of finding a quiet corner. Not only would his efficiency in digging jade suffer, but more importantly, it would amount to a man posted at his elbow, watching his every move up close—and then Wei Zhao could forget about secretly stashing any spirit jade at all.

So faced with this, Wei Zhao—contrary to his usual domineering manner—retreated again and again, until at last he was pressed hard into a node in the farthest corner, and only then did no one come to disturb him anymore.

This was the sorriest node in all of Mining Zone Seven. Not only was its yield of jade far below the others, but from the look of it, no one had worked it in a very long time.

"What in the world did this unlucky newcomer do? To have that pack of Foundation Establishment failures gang up on him, and he doesn't even dare squeak—how pathetic is that?"

"Hey, word is Meng Jueming put out the word. The kid didn't know any better and went and offended someone like Meng Jueming. Serves him right, the unlucky bastard!"

"That sorry node he's got—hasn't been touched in years, has it? You think he can still dig up any jade there?"

"Who cares whether he digs up jade or not? It's got nothing to do with us anyway! That node's so far out of the way I can't even be bothered to walk over and take a look. If he can't dig up any jade, all the better—saves us the trip!"

……………………

The guards watched this scene with clicks of the tongue, every one of them wearing the look of a man enjoying a good show, with not the slightest intention of stepping in.

This lot, assigned to guard the mining zone, were bored out of their skulls day after day and loved nothing better than a bit of harmless spectacle. Of course, if things went too far—say, if Wei Zhao were not even left his last node, or if someone actually came to blows—then they would have to intervene.

After discussing it a while, the guards' attention soon drifted away from Wei Zhao again. And because his spot was so very remote, even the guard nearest to him stood at least forty or fifty paces off, quite unable to notice any small trick on Wei Zhao's part—which was exactly what Wei Zhao wanted.

That being so, he could go on working just as he had in Mining Zone Ten, and there would be no problem at all.

Digging away with his head down while smoothly swapping the real for the fake whenever the guards were not looking, Wei Zhao could not help laughing to himself. Meng Jueming might be an enemy, but looking back on one thing after another, the fellow was practically the benefactor of his life—gifting him a cave residence, gifting him spirit jade, gifting him a mining zone, and now, at the first hint of trouble, promptly solving it for him as well. If this were the mortal world, he really ought to hand the fellow a few good-guy cards!

Over on Wei Zhao's side, everything was going smoothly and his spirits were high—but by contrast, Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou, toiling away in Mining Zone Ten, were in no such good mood. Not merely unhappy, in fact: their mood was downright foul.

The same mining zone, the same nodes, and Meng Jueming again throwing himself into the work in person—yet after another full day of labor, the two of them had the same result as yesterday: nothing at all! They had dug up a few more pieces of waste jade, but as for good jade, still not a single piece!

After yesterday's lesson, Meng Jueming no longer clung to the hope that he had simply misjudged. Now he and the equally bedraggled Meng Zhou sat slumped together, the pair of them a thoroughly wretched sight. RP