Chapter 3271 — Xu Shilan's Discovery

"Mm." Wei Zhao nodded and said, "Once you've made your call, get some rest too. I'll go make preparations—there's work to be done tomorrow."

"All right," Cheng Yiyi answered.

After Wei Zhao returned to his room, Cheng Yiyi dialed Feng Tianhu's number.

"Yiyi? Why didn't you answer my calls earlier?" Feng Tianhu asked.

"I was with Wei Zhao and the others. It wasn't convenient to pick up," Cheng Yiyi said, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. It was also the most effective excuse.

"Oh." Feng Tianhu showed not the slightest suspicion. "How are things going over there? Have you signed with that entertainment company yet?"

"No. Something major has happened here..." Cheng Yiyi lowered her voice.

"Oh? What major thing?" Feng Tianhu was slightly taken aback.

"It's like this..." And Cheng Yiyi told Feng Tianhu the whole story: how He Tianzu of the Overseas Cultivators' Association had come to harass Xu Shilan, how Wei Zhao had provoked He Tianzu, how a conflict had broken out on the road, and how Wei Zhao had fled in disarray.

Feng Tianhu was utterly shocked when he heard it! Yes, as he listened to Cheng Yiyi's account, it sounded a little like a tale from the Arabian Nights!

"Are you serious? Wei Zhao... no match for a single expert at the peak of the late Heaven Rank? How is that possible?" One could hardly blame Feng Tianhu for not believing it. After all, the rumors about Wei Zhao had been so fantastically exaggerated that the gap between before and after was beyond anything Feng Tianhu could imagine!

"It's true!" Cheng Yiyi said with certainty. "A matter this big—how could I lie to you?"

Feng Tianhu thought so too. On a matter like this, lying would have gained Cheng Yiyi nothing. Besides, whether the news was true or false, word would soon come down from the High Ancient circles, and then a single hearing would settle it!

So he raised no further doubts, but said, "Fine, I understand. Keep lying low at Wei Zhao's side. In the end, find a way to ask Wei Zhao why he couldn't even beat a single expert at the peak of the late Heaven Rank—and what the truth is behind those earlier rumors of him killing experts in an instant?"

"Understood. I'll do my best to draw Wei Zhao out," Cheng Yiyi said with a nod.

"Mm, I'll hang up first, then..." Feng Tianhu had not yet recovered from the shock. He needed to digest this news properly, and do a little investigating on the side! Though he did not believe Cheng Yiyi would deceive him—after all, she had no reason to.

Still, the matter was too grave for Feng Tianhu to simply take it on faith. He decided to wait and see. After all, so many Heaven Rank experts really had died! If Wei Zhao had not killed them, then who had?

Cheng Yiyi hung up and turned to leave the washroom—but the moment she turned, she saw Xu Shilan standing in the doorway, her face a mask of shock and fury! Cheng Yiyi's heart lurched. "Xiaohan, you... you're awake?"

"Yiyi, who were you just calling? You actually sold Wei Zhao out?!" Xu Shilan glared at Cheng Yiyi in fury. She had just groggily gotten up to use the toilet, and the moment she reached the washroom door, she heard Cheng Yiyi apparently talking to someone on the phone. At first Xu Shilan had paid it no mind and was about to walk in—but the instant she heard Wei Zhao's name, she froze in her tracks!

And what she heard next was even worse. Xu Shilan was appalled: Cheng Yiyi was actually tipping off the person on the other end of the line, leaking the ins and outs of Wei Zhao's situation!

Of course, Xu Shilan had the presence of mind not to stop Cheng Yiyi on the spot. She did not know who was on the other end of the line. If she intervened right then, would she not be beating the grass and startling the snake? Would the person on the line realize Cheng Yiyi had been exposed? Would they immediately move against Wei Zhao?

So Xu Shilan waited until Cheng Yiyi hung up before demanding furiously.

"Xiaohan, listen to me—it's not what you think..." Cheng Yiyi was somewhat panicked. She had not expected Xu Shilan to wake up at this moment, or to be standing at the washroom door, taking in everything she had said.

"Not what I think? Could what I heard with my own ears be false?" Xu Shilan said coldly.

"Xiaohan, let me explain..." Cheng Yiyi did not come clean to Xu Shilan. She had made up her mind earlier, but as time went on, Cheng Yiyi had betrayed Feng Tianhu as well. She did not want to hurt the bond between herself and Xu Shilan, and so she said no more.

"How are you going to explain?" Xu Shilan shot back.

"Actually... it goes like this. It starts from that time, at the orphanage..." Cheng Yiyi knew she could not hide it from Xu Shilan today, so she resolved to tell the truth, beginning with the time she had shielded Xu Shilan from the Black Horse Society's Grand Elder's strike at the orphanage...

When she came to the time Cheng Yiyi had stepped forward to protect her, Xu Shilan's furious expression instantly softened! Yes—Cheng Yiyi had risked her life to protect her back then, and that could not have been faked. Xu Shilan had always been deeply grateful to Cheng Yiyi.

So it turned out Cheng Yiyi had known all along about the Black Horse Society Grand Elder's attempt to assassinate her mother, the old director of the orphanage! And she had known about the earlier assassination attempts as well! It was just that Cheng Yiyi had never been able to bring herself to kill her!

As Cheng Yiyi recounted her origins and her hardships in a gentle voice, Xu Shilan's heart softened too! Cheng Yiyi was a girl with a bitter fate, and what left Xu Shilan most helpless was that Cheng Yiyi's boss turned out to be her own third uncle!

This kind of infighting within a family left Xu Shilan with no temper to speak of—only a deep, deep helplessness!

"So that means Wei Zhao knew about all this beforehand, and these words are what Wei Zhao told you to say to Feng Tianhu?" Xu Shilan asked. She did not call Feng Tianhu third uncle either, because she felt he did not deserve to be her third uncle.

"Yes. Wei Zhao said this matter can't be concealed—sooner or later others will find out, so there's no point hiding it," Cheng Yiyi said with a nod.

"Then I've wronged you," Xu Shilan said with a sigh. "Yiyi, honestly, I really don't want to lose our friendship. Thank goodness you didn't disappoint me."

"Actually, I've already done many things to let you down, Xiaohan! I'm more than content that you can forgive me. As for going back to being as close as sisters—I wouldn't dare hope for that..." Cheng Yiyi said cautiously.

"Yiyi, you're overthinking it. The way things look now, you're not bad at heart. You were simply forced by circumstances for your brother's sake, and you never truly hurt me, so I don't blame you." Xu Shilan shook her head. "By the way, where's Wei Zhao?"