Chapter 4376 — A Brand-New Beginning
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
"Spare me, Grandmaster of the Eastern Sea... Your disciple... your disciple never spoke ill of the two young ladies... I merely thought they might have been deceived... used by someone..." Qin Deli, seizing on a desperate inspiration, clutched at his last thread of a chance and rushed to defend himself.
At those words, the faint killing intent about the Holy Nun of the Eastern Sea at last dissipated. In her heart, neither Wang Xinyan nor Huang Xiaotao was the sort to make unreasonable trouble—but if it was a question of being deceived and used, that was not entirely out of the question.
"You slanderous wretch!" Huang Xiaotao flared up at once. The creature had deliberately hinted that the two of them had been used, plainly trying to turn the spearpoint toward Wei Zhao—truly a villain who would not give up!
"Indeed. What is your aim in deliberately sowing discord between us and our sister Xiaotao's senior brother?" Wang Xinyan demanded coldly.
"No... that is not it, please calm yourselves, young ladies. The world is treacherous, and a man's face is not his heart—that Ling Yi knew full well you were the Grandmaster of the Eastern Sea's own disciples, yet he still deliberately dragged you off to wreck the Hong Clan Merchant Guild's premises. Any clear-eyed person can see he was using the two of you..." Qin Deli wore the expression of one pleading earnestly out of the goodness of his heart. "Borrowing the tiger's pelt to make a banner—he plainly meant to use you to drag our entire Morning Star Academy into opposition against the Hong Clan Merchant Guild..."
At these words, the faces of all three magnates shifted slightly. From an outsider's perspective, the affair could indeed be read that way; one man alone could certainly never stand against the Hong Clan Merchant Guild, and that Ling Yi had deliberately pulled Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao into it—perhaps he really had harbored some such design.
Qin Deli was adept at reading faces and knew his words had taken effect. He pressed his advantage at once: "As for this business between the Sky-Supporting Escort Agency and the Hong Clan Merchant Guild, whoever is in the right or wrong, our Morning Star Academy has no need and no reason to meddle in it. And besides—that Ling Yi, under the banner of investigating Wei Zhaotong—your disciple would venture to ask: he is nothing but a petty escort guard, where did he get the authority? When all is said and done, it is merely private vengeance, dressed up in fine words to deceive and use the two young ladies. A base man like that deserves death a hundred times over!"
The three magnates nodded slightly. There was no small sense in what he said: even if Wei Zhaotong truly had a problem, the Hong Clan Merchant Guild should deal with it itself—it was not for some utterly uninvolved escort guard to come knocking in the dead of night, wreck the place, and seize a man!
"Hmph, who says Ling Yi has no authority?" Wang Xinyan shot Qin Deli a glare and said coldly, "He is the Hong Clan Merchant Guild's honorary vice-chairman. Wei Zhaotong committed his crimes against the guild's own senior ranks—should he not clean house?"
"Honorary vice-chairman?" All three magnates wore looks of astonishment. An honorary vice-chairman of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild was no small figure wherever he went. That Ling Yi looked utterly unremarkable, betraying nothing of rank or bearing—who would have thought he held such a station!
"That is only what he calls himself. If he truly were honorary vice-chairman, how could he possibly stoop to lodge at the Sky-Supporting Escort Agency and serve as a mere escort guard?" Qin Deli rushed to challenge.
"Some months ago, my senior brother and I were on North Island, dining and chatting with the Hong Clan Merchant Guild's newly promoted vice-chairman, Hong Zhong. Vice-Chairman Hong confirmed this to my face. Are you trying to say that I, too, am lying?" Huang Xiaotao said, eyes blazing with contempt.