Chapter 2061 — So He Regretted It After All
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Still, Wei Zhao had to admit that Han Jingyi's interruption could not have come at a better moment—it handed him exactly the excuse he needed to step down gracefully. Otherwise, he would surely have hemmed and hawed a while longer.
"Whoever backs out is a turtle and a scoundrel!" Right Panhu declared, with all the finality of a blade striking stone.
"Fine. The truth is, Jingjing just happens to be short a pill cauldron, and you insist on trading, so I suppose I have no choice." Wei Zhao sighed. "Jingjing, bring the cauldrons over."
"Here!" Right Panhu, terrified that Wei Zhao might change his mind, shoved the two pill cauldrons straight into Han Jingyi's arms the instant he heard the agreement. In Instructor Bai's class, after all, he was not afraid Wei Zhao would pocket the cauldrons and refuse him the materials—and if he did, Right Panhu would not mind lodging a complaint.
Han Jingyi carried the two cauldrons over, beaming with delight. Wei Zhao, meanwhile, opened the folder of textbooks he carried and drew out a stack of documents—none other than the copy Instructor Bai had transcribed for him, containing the oral formulas for the Dan Fire Condensation Method and the auxiliary mental formulas for pill refiners.
"Here it is. Take it." Wei Zhao handed the documents to Right Panhu. "Copy it once, then give it back to me. The original belongs to Instructor Bai—I have to return it to him."
"Of course, of course!" Right Panhu nodded again and again.
Taking the documents, Right Panhu could hardly wait to open them. But the moment he did, his expression shifted abruptly. He began flipping through the pages with feverish haste, and the faster he flipped, the uglier his face grew—until, by the final page, Right Panhu's complexion had turned a deathly iron-blue.
"Wei Zhao, you swindled me!" Right Panhu raged, beside himself. "This is the material Instructor Bai gave you?"
"It is. If you don't believe me, go ask Instructor Bai," Wei Zhao said mildly.
"You know perfectly well I can't go ask Instructor Bai!" Right Panhu's eyes fairly spat fire. His two pill cauldrons—true, the hidden Right family still had a few first-rank and second-rank cauldrons in reserve, but this was no way to squander them!
"Oh, and if you still don't believe me, you're welcome to come along when I return the material," Wei Zhao said, still mild as ever.
"That..." Hearing this, Right Panhu knew Wei Zhao was not lying to him—the material really had come from Instructor Bai. And what Instructor Bai had given Wei Zhao was nothing but a beginner's primer on pill refinement, not any kind of advanced technique at all!
When all was said and done, he, Right Panhu, had been duped—duped on a monumental scale! He had taken this beginner's primer in Wei Zhao's hands for some priceless treasure and paid two pill cauldrons for the privilege, only to receive a set of documents worth nothing at all!
"Wei Zhao, you knew perfectly well this was a beginner's primer for pill refiners, that it's worthless to me—so why didn't you warn me?" Right Panhu demanded furiously. "And you cheated me out of two pill cauldrons besides. Did you do this on purpose?"
"Right Panhu, are you brain-dead? I kept telling you not to trade, telling you the hidden Right family surely has no shortage of this sort of thing!" Wei Zhao frowned and gave a cold laugh. "And what did you say? That a thousand pieces of gold couldn't buy your willingness, that you were willing to trade with me! I told you trading with me would be swindling you, and you said not trading would be swindling you. You forced the trade on me—so what was I supposed to do?"
"That..." Right Panhu was struck dumb on the spot, unable to muster a single retort against Wei Zhao's words. Sullenly he muttered, "Then... I don't want to trade anymore..."