Chapter 3622 — Zhong Yongliang Offers a Scheme
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Of course, given Kang Jingming's lifelong habit of seeking shortcuts, his comfortable circumstances, enviable as they were, would never satisfy him enough to dig and mine jade honestly. That was why, a few days earlier, he had dragged Xu Lingchong around to build connections—so that once his web of relations was established, he could find opportunities to line his own pockets. That was simply his nature.
It was only that the Spirit Jade Hall's supervision was strict. Even with Xu Lingchong's thick leg to cling to, pulling that off would not be easy for Kang Jingming.
After all, even a veteran like Meng Jueming, with all his connections, dared not lightly lay hands on fine jade; he could only bide his time and skim off a few worthless pieces. And those worthless pieces, apart from fetching a meager reward, were good for little else—even if smuggled out by some scheme, at best they could be used to swindle someone, as he had swindled Wei Zhao a couple of days ago.
"Brother Meng, a couple of days ago you told Young Master Xu you were going to investigate how Wei Zhao managed to dig up fine jade in the dead Mining Zone Ten. I don't suppose there's been any progress?" Kang Jingming asked in turn. True, digging only a dozen or so pieces of fine jade a day seemed wretched enough in his eyes, but if Wei Zhao could be made to dig up not a single piece, would that not be all the more satisfying?
Meng Jueming was secretly delighted—he had been waiting for exactly this question. He heaved a long sigh. "Ah, don't remind me! As you two brothers know, I kicked Wei Zhao down to that godforsaken dead zone, Mining Zone Ten, to begin with, precisely to vent your anger and Young Master Xu's. But who'd have thought he'd dig up fine jade two days running? Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of punishing him? Setting everything else aside, for the sake of the old grudge between you two brothers and him, we can't let him keep living so comfortably!"
Though they suspected him of deliberately claiming credit for himself, Kang Jingming and Zhong Yongliang still nodded, and Meng Jueming went on: "So I set a trap and lured him to Mining Zone Seven, meaning to investigate the strange business in Zone Ten. But today I brought in an expert prospector from the Spirit Jade Hall to take a look, and it turns out there's no fine jade at all in that dead zone, nothing strange about it—the past two days were pure dumb luck on his part. If he stays there, no matter how lucky he gets, he'll never dig up fine jade again!"
"Then isn't that perfect? Just kick him back down to dead Mining Zone Ten. Wouldn't you say so, Brother Zhong?" Kang Jingming's eyes lit up. He was itching to see Wei Zhao come to grief; if Wei Zhao could be made to spend months without digging up a single piece of fine jade, nothing could be better!
Beside him, Zhong Yongliang gave a slight nod but said nothing. He was Wei Zhao's mole, and with the situation still unclear, he naturally could not speak carelessly—one wrong word might help Wei Zhao or might just as easily do him harm!
"Ha, that was my thinking too, exactly the same as you two brothers!" Meng Jueming said with a bitter smile. "But the trouble is, unless we find some way to make Wei Zhao sign the contract himself, if he simply refuses to leave Mining Zone Seven, there's nothing we can do about it!"
"That... is a problem." Kang Jingming frowned, then asked, "So how did you get Wei Zhao to switch out in the first place? From what I know of him, he's no fool. Given how he dug up a dozen or so pieces of fine jade two days running—which by the sound of it is even a bit better than Zone Seven—why would he agree?"