Chapter 4049 — The Deputy Island Master Who Practiced the Dao on Heaven's Behalf
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
In terms of strength, Zheng Tianshuo could not remotely compare with Zheng Tianjie. Though he bore the halo of being Zheng Dongjue's grandson, the Pill Hall as a whole did not think much of him; he counted for little more than a marginal figure.
But things were different now. Zheng Tianshuo had been transformed overnight into the shining favorite before Zheng Dongjue's eyes, and at once he began to preen and swagger; he was riding high these days, very much in the mold of a second Zheng Tianjie.
None of this, however, concerned Tian Chan. Her loathing for the Zheng family came from the bottom of her heart; she did not even wish to exchange another word with him.
"Old Tian gave you a sour face again, I suppose? Sister-in-law, you're simply too virtuous for your own good. Anyone else would never consent to wait on a raving old man like that—why take the abuse for nothing? How about this: next time you go, let me accompany you?" Zheng Tianshuo went on, still smiling.
Tian Chan gave him a faint glance. "That won't be necessary. If there's nothing else, I'll be going back first."
With that, unwilling to spare him another moment, she stepped around Zheng Tianshuo and walked off without a backward glance.
Watching Tian Chan's lovely, graceful figure recede, a lewd gleam flashed unbidden through Zheng Tianshuo's eyes. Stroking his chin with one hand, he sneered, "Who are you pretending to be, a chaste widow? No matter—the more spirit a woman has, the more fun she'll be later. Nothing beats dumplings for eating, and nothing beats... heh heh, sister-in-law for playing!"
In Zheng Tianshuo's eyes, Tian Chan, in her present state as a widow, was already a duck cooked to the last feather—there was no thought of her flying out of his palm. Once he had securely seated himself as the young heir of the Zheng family, this ravishing sister-in-law would sooner or later submit beneath him.
The thought tickled him so that he burst out laughing, and inwardly he could not help praising his own cousin Zheng Tianjie—the man had truly died at the best possible time!
North Island, the Law Enforcement Hall.
Shangguan Lan'er had returned unscathed, and the perilous trap so plainly aimed at Wei Zhao had collapsed of its own accord; instead it was慕容 Zhen, the accuser, who now found herself in enormous trouble.
To step forward rashly was to court risk—she had felt that ominous premonition back when Kang Jingming first told her to denounce Wei Zhao. But at the time Shangguan Lan'er had been utterly uncooperative, Kang Jingming had made plain he would not show his face, and opportunists like Zha Wu were wholly unreliable; she had acted purely under duress, steeling herself to go in person.
And now look: the frame-up had failed and rebounded upon her. The ill omen had come true—Wei Zhao had sauntered off with Shangguan Tianxia, while she,慕容 Zhen, the whistle-blower, had become a prisoner, locked in a filthy, stinking dungeon, calling to heaven with no answer and to earth with no response!
At the mere thought of the Law Enforcement Hall's cruel and merciless methods,慕容 Zhen could not suppress a shudder of dread. A guilty conscience is frail to begin with, and she was a woman besides; however cunning and vicious she might be out in the world, once inside that sunless dungeon, the fear that clung to her day and night—given time, it would be no wonder if she frightened herself into madness!
Smooth talk though慕容 Zhen might have—claiming she had merely misjudged at a glance, that Wei Zhao had been absent from the Welcome Pavilion of late and the masked man's build so closely resembled his that in her panic she had mistaken the kidnapper for Wei Zhao—before the Law Enforcement Hall there had never been any such thing as a secret! (To be continued..) R752