Chapter 4646 — A Domestic Drama

Kang Jingming nodded with a sinister smirk, then rose from his seat without a sound and slipped out of the hall. No one knew what he did out there; he was back before long, and those not in the know simply assumed he had gone to relieve himself.

"Well? How did it go?" Xu Lingchong demanded before Kang Jingming had even sat down.

"Heh heh, all taken care of. Just sit tight, Young Master Xu, and enjoy the show in a moment!" Kang Jingming smiled smugly. This sort of thing was second nature to him. Never mind that Wei Zhao now had beauties crowding around him, seemingly enjoying every man's dream and making all the men under heaven green with envy—he would not be smiling for much longer. Soon he would be weeping instead.

"Good. When this is done, I will credit you with the chief merit!" Seeing Kang Jingming so full of confidence, Xu Lingchong felt reassured. After all, the scheme the fellow had just proposed was truly vicious—just enough to leave Wei Zhao utterly humiliated without driving him to desperate retaliation. For the purpose of completing the higher-ups' assignment, it was nothing short of perfect.

From beginning to end, no one paid the slightest attention to the little byplay between Xu Lingchong and Kang Jingming. The welcome banquet went on. After three rounds of wine, the mood grew ever more congenial, laughter and chatter rising and falling as toasts flew back and forth. The women officials of the West Island were especially bold, refusing no toast from the men of the North Island; the atmosphere was far more heated than expected, a scene of harmonious friendship between the two islands.

At Wei Zhao's table, the company was not so uninhibited as the crowd below, but there was still talk and laughter, and now and then a peal of silvery, pleasing laughter rang out.

Just then, a woman suddenly burst in through the main doors. At first she drew no notice—most of those present were rather drunk by now, and even the guards at the gate had unconsciously let down their vigilance. Besides, she was a woman, and the West Island had always been lenient toward women.

But the scene that followed brought the merry atmosphere of the banquet hall to an abrupt halt. After casting a glance around, the woman walked straight toward the head table in the center, weeping as she came, and at last stopped beside Wei Zhao, her face full of grievance as she sobbed before him.

At the sight, everyone in the hall fell silent of their own accord, staring wide-eyed at one another. What on earth was going on?

Nor was it only the gathered crowd—Han Jingyi, Shangguan Lan'er, and Ning Xuefei could not help exchanging looks as well, gazing at the woman in astonishment and then turning their eyes to Wei Zhao in silent question.

Wei Zhao was equally baffled. He gave the women a helpless shrug, having no idea what this woman who had appeared out of nowhere wanted.

In the end it was Yan Xinlan, the West Island's deputy island lord, who broke the deadlock, speaking in a low, stern voice. "Who are you?"

"I am but an ordinary woman, and I did not mean to spoil everyone's pleasure today. But I truly had no other choice—my child cannot be born without a father!" Having said this, the woman suddenly threw her arms around Wei Zhao and wailed, "Wei Zhao, I've finally found you! How cruel you are—how could you just abandon us, widow and orphan? How are the two of us supposed to live?"

At these words the whole hall erupted in uproar, every gaze fixed on Wei Zhao in dumbstruck disbelief. So this North Island envoy, handpicked by Shangguan Tianxia himself, was nothing but a heartless cad!

"Hah? Is this... yours, little junior brother?" Shangguan Lan'er looked back and forth between Wei Zhao and the woman in shock, clapping a hand over her mouth in astonishment.

Ning Xuefei watched the sudden intruder with a look of open suspicion—she was not so naive and simple as Shangguan Lan'er. Han Jingyi, meanwhile, wore a peculiar expression; raised in the mundane world, she had seen plenty of bizarre scandals, though she had never expected one to turn up on Cloud Terrace Island.

In an instant all the pressure in the hall converged on Wei Zhao, the crowd poised to denounce a faithless lover. Watching from his corner, Xu Lingchong smirked with villainous glee. Say what you would—this trick seemed to be working rather well indeed!

In the mundane world such underhanded tactics were utterly commonplace, tricks worn threadbare by every spoiled rich brat. But on Cloud Terrace Island, where customs were still rather simple and honest, they were a rare novelty. After all, in places like the North Island and the West Island—one with far more men than women, the other with far more women than men—couples of cultivators who found their way to each other were few to begin with, let alone anyone using an unborn child to extort a man...

Watching the scene unfold, Xu Lingchong reckoned that no matter how Wei Zhao responded, the damage to his relationship with Ning Xuefei was all but certain. Kang Jingming's scheme was downright vicious—the fellow really did have a flair for ruining other people's good fortune!

Yet under all those watchful eyes, Wei Zhao showed not the slightest trace of alarm. He let a thread of true qi circulate through his body; the woman yelped in pain and hastily let go. Then, with perfect composure, he swept his gaze over the crowd, letting it drift, deliberately or not, to Xu Lingchong and Kang Jingming. Instinct told him these two were surely behind this.

"Wei Zhao, come back with me, won't you? I'm begging you—I'll give you anything. I don't care if you want several women, only please don't abandon me, don't abandon our child..." the woman went on, weeping and sniffling.

Wei Zhao frowned to himself. This woman who had appeared from nowhere was actually a rather fine actress—in the mundane world, she would have had the stuff to compete for any number of awards.

Listening to her impassioned, tearful lament, the expressions of those present grew ever more subtle and peculiar.

Whether or not they knew Wei Zhao well, there was at least one thing everyone could see: the fellow's luck with women was genuinely excellent—or more precisely, so excellent it was an outrage.

Look at the women around him—each and every one a beauty rarely found in this world, and, more absurd still, each of ever nobler station than the last. To win the favor of any single one of them would be enough to make a man die content, let alone so many at once.

Were any other man present to have such confidantes as Shangguan Lan'er and Ning Xuefei at his side, casting aside all other commonplace beauties would have been the most natural thing in the world. To refrain from being a faithless lover under such circumstances—would that not be an offense against heaven itself?

Envy, jealousy, hatred—though the North Island contingent stood in awe of Wei Zhao, on this matter all men stood on the same side. A faithless wretch like Wei Zhao, who did not know how blessed he was, was squarely their enemy.

Thanks to this woman's sudden intrusion, the once-festive welcome banquet had turned strange in an instant—inexplicably shifting from diplomacy between two islands into a domestic drama. R1152