護花近衛 - 第3624章 送財童子 - 清風書屋

"Senior Brother Meng and Junior Brother Meng must have run into Wei Zhao these past two days, haven't you? Did he show any of that furious, red-faced look once he realized he'd been had?" Zhong Yongliang pressed his advantage. He'd wager anything that even if Leader Wei Zhao had discovered all twenty-five pieces were waste jade, he wouldn't let a flicker of it show on his face.

Meng Jueming paused, and he and Meng Zhou thought it over carefully. Then, in unplanned unison, they answered with excitement, "That's right! We didn't see him yesterday, but we did the day before—and it was just like Junior Brother Zhong says. The kid acted completely normal, like he hadn't noticed they were all waste jade at all!"

"There you have it. So we can go right ahead with Junior Brother Meng Zhou's plan—prepare a pile of waste jade and deliver it to him again!" Zhong Yongliang chuckled, eyes glinting.

Meng Jueming was about to nod, but then hesitated. "But what if he's already figured out it's waste jade? Everything we've just said is only guesswork, after all. That kid is a born actor. Maybe he's been looking normal these two days precisely because he's swallowing his pride and his broken teeth along with it. In that case, sending him more waste jade would just be a waste."

This fellow really is a hard one to fool! Zhong Yongliang cursed inwardly and pursed his lips. After a moment's thought he said, "Then it's simple. Have Junior Brother Meng Zhou find an opportunity to sound him out—a little probing and we'll know for sure. And besides, when you get right down to it, it's just a pile of waste jade. Even if it fails, you won't lose much, Senior Brother Meng!"

"Junior Brother Zhong speaks absolute sense," Meng Jueming said with repeated nods.

The man was offering him a strategy. With things having gone this far, if he still didn't nod, he'd lose face—as if he couldn't afford to lose a few pieces of waste jade! In front of Kang Jingming and Zhong Yongliang, he had no intention of losing that face. And honestly speaking, Zhong Yongliang's plan sounded quite reliable. Worth a try!

Once the group had settled on the plan, Meng Jueming immediately arranged for Meng Zhou to go sound out Wei Zhao. And since Meng Zhou had to return to Mining Zone Seven anyway, it was conveniently on the way.

Arriving at Mining Zone Seven, Meng Zhou's first glance swept over Li Zhengming busily working the central mining spot, and a surge of anger rose in his heart.

That spot had originally been a prime mining point that Meng Jueming had set aside especially for him! And now he'd wasted two days of hard labor in the dead Mining Zone Ten, while that deep-scheming brat Li Zhengming reaped the benefits. Of course he was displeased!

True, Li Zhengming had earlier been prompted by Meng Jueming to squeeze Wei Zhao out, but Meng Zhou automatically ignored that particular detail.

What's more, when they'd framed Wei Zhao last time, Li Zhengming had actually accused him of secretly hoarding spirit jade and even dared to search his person. That was practically mutiny! Though he couldn't do anything about it out of deference to Meng Jueming's face, he had long since marked the grudge in his heart.

Meng Zhou was an utterly arrogant and selfish man, so in his view, Li Zhengming was ill-intentioned and harbored ambitions to take his place! He figured that although Li Zhengming had attached himself to Meng Jueming, the best resources would still be given to Meng Zhou first, and only the inferior leftovers would trickle down to Li Zhengming. And if Li Zhengming could find a chance to replace Meng Zhou, the benefits would be self-evident!

"Hmph, just you wait. My time to deal with you will come!" Meng Zhou spat resentfully, then began searching around for Wei Zhao. After all, his current task was to sound the man out—he could still tell which mattered more.

By the time he found Wei Zhao, Meng Zhou's foul mood had been swept clean away, and he couldn't help but gloat.