Chapter 3655 — Framed Once More
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"You're so dumb you're going to be the death of yourself! Anyway, the little thing's barely breathing—it could keel over any moment now. All we have to do is toss it into someone else's cave dwelling, and when Miss Shangguan comes looking, we lead her right to it. Caught red-handed with the goods—that makes it an ironclad fact, doesn't it!" Meng Jueming chuckled smugly.
"Oh, right! Ninth Cousin, you're brilliant!" Meng Zhou perked up at once, seeing a way out, but then his brow furrowed. "So who should we pin it on?"
Meng Jueming curled his lip. "Isn't it obvious? Let me ask you—who do you hate most?"
"Who else? Wei Zhao, of course!" Meng Zhou's face lit with understanding, and he clapped his hands in excitement. "Right! The fellow's about my height, his shoe size can't be far off mine either, and he's out mining right now, not in his cave dwelling. He's born to take the fall for us!"
"If all goes smoothly this time, we won't just clear ourselves of suspicion—we can take that clueless brat down in one stroke. I'd love to see how he faces Miss Shangguan's fury then!" A ruthless glint flashed across Meng Jueming's face.
"Heh heh! Miss Shangguan's background is far bigger than even Young Master Xu's—Wei Zhao is dead for certain this time!" Meng Zhou breathed a sigh of relief, then added with lingering dread, "Ninth Cousin, you're really clever. If not for you, I'd be the one dead for certain this time…"
"Turning a crisis into an opportunity—that's what real wisdom looks like. You'd better learn from me from now on, kid!" Meng Jueming tilted his chin up proudly.
"Absolutely, I could never learn all there is to learn from you in a lifetime, Ninth Cousin!" Meng Zhou hurried to flatter him, earning a burst of smug laughter from Meng Jueming.
No time to waste—the two of them immediately found a black sack ordinarily used for holding spirit jade, stuffed the Curl-Curl Bear cub into it whole, and then deliberately fetched a lidded basket to carry it in.
The Curl-Curl Bear cub was small, and it lay limp and barely alive, so from the outside no one could tell anything was amiss. On top of that, Meng Jueming knew everyone at the Spirit Jade Hall, so none of the guards suspected a thing—the two of them carried the cub out without a hitch.
Leaving the Spirit Jade Hall, they headed straight for Wei Zhao's cave dwelling. Taking advantage of Wei Zhao's absence, Meng Jueming had Meng Zhou keep watch while he broke the seal on Wei Zhao's cave dwelling, carried the cub out and set it inside, then restored the seal exactly as it had been.
Since the vast majority of the Azure Cloud Pavilion newcomers were out mining, and the only two who weren't—Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai—had recently come into a good deal of spirit jade and were wholly absorbed in their cultivation, they noticed nothing of what was happening outside.
With the deed done, Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou returned to the Spirit Jade Hall—but instead of entering the mining area, they deliberately kept watch at its entrance. They were waiting for Shangguan Lan'er to come looking.
From Meng Jueming's past experience, once this Curl-Curl Bear cub slipped out, its owner Shangguan Lan'er would invariably come searching within a day.
In fact, anyone who had spent a few years at the Spirit Jade Hall knew this Curl-Curl Bear cub.
It was hardly its first visit. Because the spirit qi in the mining area was especially abundant, it held considerable allure for spirit beasts—and the Curl-Curl Bear in particular was a rare spirit beast said to feed on spirit jade. The Spirit Jade Hall's mining area and storehouses were an irresistible temptation to it, so in recent years the cub had found chances to sneak over several times a year.