Chapter 3771 — Did Not Dare Agree
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
His sigh was not without cause. In the month and more since he entered the Welcome Pavilion, he had met with this sort of thing aplenty; in fact, ever since he had first sidled up to Meng Jueming, that bastard Meng Zhou had not only failed to look after him as his underling, but had been fleecing him all along.
Because Meng Zhou had been defeated in a single move by Wei Zhao on the very first day, he could only skulk in the Mountain-Low No. 15 cave dwelling—the shabbiest, most broken of them all—while Li Zhengming, thanks to Meng Jueming's patronage, held the Mountain-Low No. 2 cave dwelling. So Meng Zhou kept pressing him to swap dwellings voluntarily; when he refused, there followed every manner of resentment and hostility.
Then came the mining at the Spirit Jade Hall, where Meng Zhou again pressed him, openly and covertly, to hand over the spirit jade he had dug out; when he refused, again the resentment and hostility.
And after that, at the trial in the back mountain, Meng Zhou pressed him to credit the spirit herbs to his own account—and when, just to hold on to a top-ten ranking, he shorted him by a single stalk, there again came the resentment and hostility.
When there was good to be had, he was never thought of; but the moment there was dirty work—scouting out Wei Zhao's strength, for instance—it was sure as hell going to be him!
With such a record of villainy, to set that bastard Meng Zhou beside Wei Zhao was an outright insult to Leader Wei Zhao. That Meng Zhou, of all the trash, still fancied himself a newcomers' leader—what a worthless piece of shit!
Faced with Wei Zhao's hard questioning, Meng Jueming exchanged a glance with Xu Lingchong before saying, "There is indeed such a rule, but what you are doing now is, by any account, exploiting a loophole. As the managing senior brother of the Azure Cloud Pavilion, it is not for me to rule on this rashly. It happens that Young Master Xu is here; as the saying goes, the bystander sees clearest, and I trust Young Master Xu can give a more reasonable and fair answer. I will explain the situation to Young Master Xu in detail—please wait here a moment."
That said, Meng Jueming paid Wei Zhao and the others no further heed and went aside with Xu Lingchong and his companions to discuss the matter.
"Heh heh, these fellows are slippery as eels—working out the pros and cons before deigning to answer over such a trifle. Truly petty," Qiao Hongcai muttered with a sneer, seeing them arrayed as though facing a formidable enemy.
Xiao Che laughed from the side: "Leader Wei Zhao has got them scared stiff—they're probably terrified there's some scheme hidden in this. 'Judging a gentleman by the measure of a petty man'—that describes this lot exactly!"
Wei Zhao merely chuckled: "It doesn't matter. Anyone with even a slightly normal measure of intelligence could work out that this is in fact something they should be only too glad to have fall into their laps. If they lack even that much wit, then there's no need to give them another thought hereafter—clowns capering on a stage are not worth mentioning."
The long-suffering senior brother watched this scene and could not help but sigh with feeling.
Meng Jueming, as managing senior brother, had once been a man of formidable authority; and he, long-suffering as he was, being a managing senior brother himself, had counted for nothing at all before Meng Jueming these past years—not a shred of resistance could he muster.
Yet now, faced with Wei Zhao, a newcomer who had risen out of nowhere from the mundane world, he was so wary—and not only Meng Jueming himself, but even Young Master Xu Lingchong, whose backing was so deep it was beyond reckoning, had to share in the worry and the dread. Such a sight—in the old days, one would never have dared even to imagine it! (To be continued...)