Chapter 4378 — Hong Zhong's Reply
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
"Oh? So soon?" Wei Zhao was taken aback. From South Island to North Island was a distance of no less than ten thousand li, and on top of that there was the time Hong Zhong would need to react once the letter reached him. Even if this were merely an exchange of word back and forth, with no face-to-face negotiation with the other headquarters higher-ups on Middle Island, it still should not have been this quick. Only a few days had passed, after all.
"Heh, there is perhaps something you do not know. Our Hong Clan Merchant Guild has its own transmission channels internally. They cannot carry a person along the way those high-grade teleportation arrays do, but they are quite sufficient for sending urgent goods and materials, and ordinary correspondence goes by this channel as well—there is no need to rely wholly on flying spirit beasts. Nor is it only the Hong Clan Merchant Guild; certain other top-tier powers maintain such dedicated channels too. Ordinary powers, of course, have nothing of the kind," Chai Laoshi explained with a smile.
"I see." Wei Zhao nodded in sudden understanding. Any teleportation array was a strategic resource, and even a channel that carried only goods and materials was no different. It was like the treasure ships—a mark belonging solely to the top-tier powers, which ordinary powers could not even dream of.
Yet even setting aside the time saved in correspondence, for Hong Zhong to react so swiftly already showed how seriously he took this matter.
Chai Laoshi waited at his side, eyes wide with eagerness. Wei Zhao smiled; he knew the man was frantic to learn the outcome. There was certainly no chance of him getting any work done now, so Wei Zhao opened the letter then and there and read it through.
In the letter, Hong Zhong's first words were an apology. Wei Zhaotong might have begun to rot only in recent years, but judged by Hong Zhong's own eye for character, such a lapse could only be called a failure of discernment—that he had nearly introduced such a scoundrel to Wei Zhao as a friend.
It was fortunate Wei Zhao had not opened by invoking Hong Zhong's name to cultivate Wei Zhaotong. Otherwise, given the old fox's ways, Wei Zhaotong would never have let him glimpse any of what followed, and he might well be kept in the dark to this very day, still believing Wei Zhaotong to be a kind and honorable man.
The attitude Hong Zhong revealed in the letter gratified Wei Zhao considerably: he endorsed with both hands and both feet every measure Wei Zhao had taken against Wei Zhaotong.
This was in truth no small thing. Hong Zhong had never been to the Weihu sea region, and everything he knew—including that ledger of evidence—rested on Wei Zhao's word alone.
On one side stood Wei Zhao, whom he had known only a short while; on the other, a friend of many years. Anyone else would likely have found the choice hard and hedged, smoothing things over. For Hong Zhong to declare his position so plainly and firmly showed not only his own clear-headed sense of right, but above all his unreserved trust in Wei Zhao.
"How... how is it?" Chai Laoshi could scarcely contain himself, and asked cautiously from the side. How the Hong Clan Merchant Guild dealt with Wei Zhaotong would decide his prospects outright.
Especially if Wei Zhaotong could not be dealt with this time—once Wei Zhaotong recovered his footing, he might not dare touch Wei Zhao, the honorary vice president, but to dispose of a mere Chai Laoshi he would have means and to spare. The consequences then would be unthinkable; he might not even keep his life!
"I cannot say it is good." Wei Zhao shook his head helplessly.