Chapter 4952 — What Do You Mean by That?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
"President Zhuang, what do you mean by that?" Chang Minghui's gaze fell upon Zhuang Yifan. He did his utmost to appear savage and arrogant, but Wei Zhao could plainly see in his eyes an indescribable wariness. Quite apart from anything else, at least in this Yellow-Rank sea region, Zhuang Yifan, president of the Alliance, still commanded no small reverence.
"Heh. Town Lord Chang, I was about to ask you the same thing." Zhuang Yifan still held his wine cup, took a most contented sip, and did not even glance at Chang Minghui. "Forcing your way into the Alliance branch's stronghold, striking at my honored guest without leave—and doing it right before my eyes, no less. That hardly seems appropriate, does it?"
"So President Zhuang means to shelter this brat surnamed Lin?" Chang Minghui was not cowed, and continued to glare at Wei Zhao with an ill-favored expression.
"What do you think?" Zhuang Yifan smiled noncommittally.
Chang Minghui was abruptly at a loss for words. He was accustomed to crushing others with his sheer presence, but before Zhuang Yifan that was utterly useless. In both strength and authority, Zhuang Yifan stood a cut above him—what did he have to crush the man with?
He had not truly believed Zhuang Yifan would protect Wei Zhao so staunchly, for by any reckoning, offending Chang Minghui over a mere Wei Zhao was a poor bargain. With profit foremost, a man like Zhuang Yifan would never act on sentiment. But who could have foreseen this turn?
He could hardly fall out with Zhuang Yifan to his face. That would only bring suffering upon himself. Chang Minghui was, after all, a man who had risen to become town lord of Dingcheng—he was never as simple and brutish as he appeared.
"President Zhuang, you are the Alliance's president. You must handle matters fairly and justly. Otherwise, with rumors flying everywhere, I fear your face would not look good either," Chang Minghui could only say, forcing himself to be patient.
"Quite right, fairness and justice are called for. Does Town Lord Chang mean to suggest that I, Zhuang, am not fair and just enough?" Zhuang Yifan replied with a smile.
"Of course not enough. Right here on your Alliance branch's own ground, my wife and son were beaten half to death by this brat—my wife especially, who I believe your esteemed President Zhuang went to great lengths and great expense to invite here. She came to harm in this place, and from what I hear it happened right under your nose. Shouldn't President Zhuang offer a word or two of explanation?" Chang Minghui said coldly.
"Oh, so that is what Town Lord Chang means. That is simple enough. In truth, by both feeling and reason, I ought indeed to have held her back. But Town Lord Chang surely knows your lady's temper better than I do. She declared publicly that I was not to interfere, and that life or death was her own affair. Tell me, what was I supposed to do?" Zhuang Yifan smiled, unconcerned.
"She truly said that?" Chang Minghui was stunned. He had been quite certain that Zhuang Yifan must have been pulling strings behind this; otherwise, with Zang Zili's early Mountain-Opening strength, she could never have suffered such a loss.
But thinking it over now, Zang Zili's misfortune had come precisely of her early Mountain-Opening strength. With her temper, she would never have regarded a mere early Mystic Ascension cultivator as worth her notice—especially after seeing her own son beaten into that state. Her declaring such a thing in public was all but inevitable. If she had not, she would not have been Zang Zili.
Who could ever have imagined that a mighty early Mountain-Opening expert—a figure of the giant stage—would suffer such a loss at the hands of a mere early Mystic Ascension cultivator? The odds of capsizing in a ditch like that were so small as to be negligible. Not only would Zang Zili never have believed it, but even Chang Minghui himself would not have.