Chapter 3959 — Framing a Fall Guy

"Where were you when the mine collapsed?" Ma Jian pressed on, his face cold.

"Mine No. 10," Wei Zhao replied.

"Very good. So you were with Meng Jueming when it happened, were you?" Ma Jian asked, his tone laden with meaning.

"That's right." Wei Zhao nodded at once. Both guards had seen it; there was no hiding it, and in truth there was nothing to hide.

"Good that you admit it." Ma Jian gave a dark smile, then shifted tack. "Do you have any explanation for what caused the collapse? From what I understand, Mine No. 10 was precisely the epicenter—meaning that at the time, the only two people closest to the point of collapse were you and Meng Jueming."

Wei Zhao shook his head faintly. "I'm sorry, I'm no expert. I have no idea why the collapse occurred. Being closer to it makes no difference on that point."

"No idea?" Ma Jian cast him a scornful glance and declared with great certainty: "Then allow me to enlighten you. According to the experts of the Spirit Jade Hall, the direct cause of this collapse was a spiritual energy explosion. Yet given the concentration and activity of the spiritual energy in Mine No. 10, that place could not so much as breach the lowest-grade protective formation, let alone produce an explosion. The only explanation for such an anomaly is that someone tampered with it—and that is what ultimately triggered the blast."

Wei Zhao said nothing, though a ripple of unease stirred within him. He could not tell whether the man's words were true or false, but at first hearing, Ma Jian's argument did seem to carry some weight.

If that were so, then the plan to bury Meng Jueming in the collapse—which had looked like such a resounding success—could not be called flawless after all. At the very least, it had left a crack.

"Oh? It seems I've struck a nerve?" Ma Jian's eyes lit up, and he smiled smugly. Then he changed direction once more. "That you and Meng Jueming don't get along is no secret in the Welcome Pavilion. And at the time of the incident you just happened to be together—in Mine No. 10, a dead shaft no one visits from one year to the next. That makes me very curious. Tell me, what were the two of you doing there?"

"Mining," Wei Zhao answered without so much as lifting his eyelids.

"Mining?" Ma Jian blinked, then the corner of his mouth curled into a mocking arc. "Wei Zhao, I seem to have forgotten to tell you beforehand—joking is a cardinal sin in the Law Enforcement Hall, especially for a suspect like you. You'll die very badly."

Mining in the mines was the most standard, unassailable answer—but it depended on who was saying it. For a figure of Meng Jueming's stature to personally descend into a mine, and into the godforsaken dead shaft of Mine No. 10 at that—if that wasn't a joke, what was?

"Honored Enforcement Officer, there is one thing you seem to have misunderstood. I was indeed mining at the time—but I never said that included Meng Jueming," Wei Zhao said evenly.

"Then what was Meng Jueming doing? Surely you don't mean to tell me the two of you were enjoying a friendly, cordial exchange, or that he was there cheering you on?" Ma Jian said with a sneer.

Wei Zhao glanced at him, his expression as still and unruffled as before. "He was threatening me. He said he was about to be promoted to Third Pavilion Master of the Welcome Pavilion, and he wanted to force me into his service. Otherwise, he would have Senior Brother Ku removed and install Murong Zhen and Meng Zhou as the new stewards of the Azure Cloud Pavilion recruits—so that we would never have a day of hope again."

"Oh? So the atmosphere between you must have been rather unpleasant. Any normal person would refuse to swallow such a threat, and you least of all—the Welcome Pavilion's famously foremost new disciple. I'm told Meng Jueming could never keep you down, so surely a few words weren't going to subdue you this time either. Am I right?" Ma Jian smiled insidiously, giving nothing away.

"What are you getting at?" Wei Zhao's eyes narrowed slightly. With the conversation at this point, Ma Jian's dagger was surely about to show.

Sure enough, Ma Jian went on with ill intent: "May I venture this conjecture—because Meng Jueming pressured you, you harbored a grudge; or perhaps you wished to eliminate the threat. So you secretly sabotaged the protective formation of Mine No. 10, triggering a spiritual energy explosion, and used the collapse to do away with Meng Jueming?"

Clap, clap, clap! Wei Zhao gave a faint smile and applauded a few times, then said unhurriedly, "Fine imagination—but pinning a collapse that happens once in a thousand years on a mere new disciple like me is rather too bold a leap, don't you think? Besides, as I recall, the Law Enforcement Hall looks only at evidence. If you can produce none, may I take these words of yours as slander and countersue before the Hall's superiors?"

"You want evidence?" Ma Jian's face twisted into a savage grin. "Then I'll give you evidence. Few people go to the dead shaft of Mine No. 10, but you seem to have forgotten one thing—besides you and Meng Jueming, there were two guards in the mine who witnessed everything! They testified in person that before the collapse, you were wandering all over Mine No. 10, completely out of character, not mining properly at all. Need I say it? That was your preparation for triggering the collapse. Is this evidence not enough?"

Wei Zhao fell silent. Ma Jian's words and conjectures were undoubtedly prompted by Xu Lingchong's instructions to make trouble for him—but for that very reason, it was like a blind shot that had hit the murderer dead on. However far-fetched the reasoning and the so-called evidence might appear, in the end it came almost exactly to the truth.

Even now, Ma Jian himself had not realized that this elaborate framing of his was, in fact, the truth.

A deeply buried killing intent flashed past. Wei Zhao suddenly raised his head and looked the man straight in the eye. "I'll say it again: your imagination is truly fertile—only rather too fertile. The reason I was wandering about was purely that Meng Jueming kept pestering me. He wouldn't let me mine in peace, badgering me the whole time. I had no choice but to endure it."

"Hmph. Facing disaster and still trying to quibble—what a fantasy. Do you think I'll believe you?" Ma Jian laughed on, cold and cackling.

Wei Zhao looked at him with a half-smile, and said mildly, "Believe me or don't, it's all the same to me. A mere new disciple, I took a casual stroll around Mine No. 10, and lo—a collapse, and Meng Jueming dead by it. Tell that tall tale to anyone, and you may guess what they'll think."

It was the truth, yes—but no sane person would believe such an absurd truth. If a mere new disciple could so easily shatter layer upon layer of protective formations and cause a mine collapse, then that pack of fools at the Spirit Jade Hall would long since have been disbanded by the Council of Elders. R1152