Chapter 3574 — Defeated in the Election
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
To make voting convenient, the steward senior brothers of the three pavilions each announced their nominees in advance. For the Soaring Heaven Pavilion it was Kang Jingming; for the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion it was Zhang Lixing, a Heaven-Tier Great Perfection newcomer native to Cloud-Tier Island; and as for the Azure Cloud Pavilion, since it had no hope of winning at all, it did not even put forward a nominee. So barring the unexpected, the newcomers' steward would emerge from between Kang Jingming and Zhang Lixing.
Under the organization of the six steward senior brothers, the voting proceeded in orderly fashion. The final result was: Kang Jingming, twenty-seven votes; Zhang Lixing, eighteen votes.
Kang Jingming's face turned unspeakably ugly at once. Though by the vote count he had far outstripped Zhang Lixing, the problem was that it was still not enough.
The three pavilions had forty-five newcomers in all. To be elected newcomers' steward, one needed at least two-thirds of the votes—meaning that, counting his own ballot, at least thirty votes were required. He was three short.
At this point even the casual observer could see it: all fifteen votes of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion had gone to Kang Jingming; all fifteen of the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion had gone to Zhang Lixing; and the Azure Cloud Pavilion had given Kang Jingming twelve votes. The remaining three crucial votes had gone to Zhang Lixing—and the ones who cast those three crucial votes were none other than Wei Zhao, Xiao Che, and Qiao Hongcai.
Damn it all! Kang Jingming burned with fury yet could not vent it. After yesterday's affair, it had been only to be expected that Wei Zhao's three votes would not come to him; so afterward he had deliberately dragged Xu Lingchong along on another round through the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion, hoping to drum up a few scattered votes to fill the gap. Yesterday those people had all agreed readily enough—yet to his surprise, today every last one of them had voted for the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion's own Zhang Lixing, and his success had crumbled at the final step.
"Hmm... since both men received fewer than two-thirds of the votes, this round of voting is invalid, and the post of newcomers' steward shall remain vacant for the time being. After next month's ranking tournament, we pavilion masters shall confer and select one of these two candidates as steward based on their strength. After all, both candidates were jointly recommended by all of you; it is only that no new steward has emerged due to the vote count. So when the time comes, whichever of the two proves stronger shall take the post."
Though Hu Yunfeng had been instructed by Xu Lingchong to see Kang Jingming elevated, in the full light of day he could hardly, as pavilion master, spout barefaced lies—so this was all he could announce. Yet afterward Hu Yunfeng cleverly added that once the ranking tournament was over, the pavilion masters would select one of the two candidates as steward—which was to say, these people would get no further chance to vote. Who was chosen would be for the pavilion masters to decide.
His words were lofty and impeccable; no one could find fault with them. Truly a hypocrite through and through.
"Thank goodness—at least we did not let this one have his way!" Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai breathed a sigh of relief. They were both of Wei Zhao's faction; had Kang Jingming truly risen to the post, their days would surely have been hard. As it stood, at least for the coming month they need not worry about the matter.
Wei Zhao, by contrast, showed little expression at this. For one thing, he had long anticipated today's outcome; for another, even if Kang Jingming truly became newcomers' steward, he could pose no real threat to Wei Zhao—it would merely mean a little less needless trouble. RS