Chapter 3625 — Not a Single Piece Less
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Twelve?" Wei Zhao looked at Meng Jueming and arched both eyebrows. "Senior Brother Meng, two days ago you had me moved from Zone Ten to Zone Seven and gave me twenty-five pieces of spirit jade. Now you're kicking me from Zone Seven back to Zone Ten—don't you think that price is a bit shameful?"
"How is that the same? Those twenty-five pieces of spirit jade were for buying that little spirit jade of yours—not for getting you to switch zones!" Meng Jueming paused, as if making a tremendous decision. "Still, considering how hard it really is for a newcomer like you to be assigned to Zone Ten, I'll make another concession. Fifteen pieces of spirit jade!"
"Thirty. Not a piece less, or don't bother coming to me again." Wei Zhao's tone was decisive. In any normal negotiation, that kind of demand would have made the other party turn hostile long ago, but he had Meng Jueming's psychology pegged. To get him to take the bait, Meng Jueming surely wouldn't begrudge a dozen or so extra pieces of waste jade.
If he didn't seize the chance to squeeze out a few more pieces at a time like this, the heavens themselves would strike him down!
Sure enough, Meng Jueming's face darkened for a while, and in the end, with a look of gritted teeth, he agreed. "Fine. To quell Young Master Xu's anger, I'll swallow this loss. Twenty-five pieces—that's the absolute limit I can bear! Sign the mining zone contract."
"All right!" Wei Zhao smiled faintly, nodded, and without the slightest dawdling signed the contract. He counted the spirit jade, turned, and left.
In truth, although Wei Zhao knew it was waste jade, he also knew when to stop. After all, he was taking it as if it were good jade—if he insisted on too high a number, it would seem as though he didn't treasure the jade at all.
Only once Wei Zhao was far away did Meng Jueming, who had been deliberately suppressing his fury, let his expression change. He sneered with satisfaction. "That kid sure knows how to haggle. He must have spent plenty of time buying groceries in the mortal world—haggling over every ounce like a champion. A pity he's got nothing but petty cleverness, no real wisdom! Falling into the same pit twice in a row—someone with that kind of intelligence making it up onto our Cloud Terrace Island really is a once-in-a-millennium freak!"
"Heh heh, who told him to run into our Ninth Cousin? If you ask me, it wouldn't be strange if he fell in a few more times! The kid's good for nothing except a streak of dumb luck—how he managed to dig up good jade in the dead Zone Ten before is a real mystery! But now that he's swapped back, let's see if he can still dig up any good jade!" Meng Zhou said with eager anticipation.
"No need to wonder—tomorrow we sit back and enjoy the show," Meng Jueming said, his face full of mockery. The prospecting experts had already condemned Zone Ten to death. He was certain that no matter how outrageous Wei Zhao's luck was, once back in Zone Ten this time, there was absolutely no way he'd dig up good jade. And so now he could hardly wait to savor the sight of Wei Zhao's miserable, dejected face.
The next day, the moment the bell for turning in work rang out, Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou gleefully rounded up the new recruits of Azure Cloud Pavilion and gathered around the work depot, sitting and waiting for the spectacle.
The new recruits exchanged glances. They didn't know much about what had happened these past few days, but thanks to Meng Zhou and Li Zhengming's deliberate spreading of the story, they more or less had a general idea.
Word had it that to help Wei Zhao switch mining zones that day, that poor, long-suffering senior brother had, at great cost, persuaded the legendary Third Pavilion Master of the Welcome Pavilion, Lu Bianren, to step in—only to end up humiliated, sent fleeing in disgrace after a thorough dressing-down from Young Master Xu! RS