Chapter 4029 — Clever Ning Xuefei
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Just as he was worrying over how to repay her, Wei Zhao's peripheral vision caught a small wooden box on the cabinet nearby, engraved with the words Hong Clan Merchant Guild—the very two top-grade Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pills she had mentioned, the ones she had won at auction the day before.
Wei Zhao's heart stirred, and he said at once, "I shall keep Miss Ning's help ever in my heart. Should you ever have need in the future, you may seek out Hong Zhong of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild. Whatever pill you wish refined, simply name it—just say that I gave my word."
Ning Xuefei's lovely eyes lit up at once. This was precisely what she had been thinking of; her stepping forward to help Wei Zhao out of his predicament had in fact been prompted by this very consideration. She had not expected Wei Zhao to bring it up himself, and she nodded repeatedly. "Good, good! I certainly won't stand on ceremony."
Wei Zhao chuckled. In temperament and character, this girl was rather like his senior martial sister Shangguan of the Soaring Heavens Pavilion on North Island—she too must come from a prestigious cultivation family. Only Shangguan Lan'er was not quite so scatterbrained.
Glancing at the sky outside, which was gradually brightening, Wei Zhao took out the Thousand-Silk Mask and prepared to put it on, intending to leave straightaway. He had gritted his teeth and pulled off this Thousand-Silk Mask yesterday after entering the room, precisely so that Miss Ning would recognize him as that little clerk and not drive him out; otherwise, as a complete stranger, he could hardly be sure she would not betray him.
Grateful as he was to this Miss Ning, the situation had turned this place into a hotbed of trouble, and staying long would invite problems.
Besides, Wei Zhao had deliberately refrained from asking her identity—he knew only that the Town-North Guard said her surname was Ning. At a time like this, the more one chatted, the less likely it was to do any good; if he wished to repay her, there would be chances enough in the days to come.
"You're leaving already? Let me see you out. There are lots of Town-North Guards about outside right now—ordinary folk can't simply come and go as they please," Ning Xuefei said, making no move to detain him and instead volunteering the offer.
"Then I'll trouble you." Wei Zhao thought it over and did not refuse. She had just given him a perfectly legitimate pretext, but he was still an unfamiliar face; if he were stopped and questioned back and forth, he might well give himself away.
The two set out at once, and sure enough, the guards outside were far stricter than usual—fully armed Town-North Guards stood at every corner, and not so much as a fly could have hoped to slip out.
Yet when Ning Xuefei escorted Wei Zhao out through the back gate, the Town-North Guards did not come over to question him. They merely looked him up and down once, bowed to Ning Xuefei, and waved them through. Clearly, Ning Xuefei's little performance had done its work; otherwise, even with her personally accompanying him, they would never have let him pass without a single question at a time like this.
Having successfully left the Assembly Hall, Wei Zhao breathed a long sigh of relief—not only for his own safe escape, but, more importantly, because the attitude of these guards made it plain that the on-the-spot disguise he had improvised the day before had indeed worked.
In other words, Steward Song and his people must have already concluded that Zheng Tianjie had died when his pill furnace exploded.
Otherwise—whether Zheng Tianjie were still alive, or had been judged the victim of an assassin's strike—there was no possible way these Town-North Guards would have let him out so easily. They would surely have questioned every person going in and out with the utmost severity, and not even Miss Ning would have been an exception. R1152