Chapter 3631 — If You Lose, I'll Cover It

"Good jade from Mine No. 10? Is this guy out of his mind?" The onlookers who had been drawn over immediately scoffed.

"That's not necessarily true! Weren't people saying just a few days ago that someone dug up good jade in Mine No. 10, and quite a lot of it? Could this be the very same fellow?" a well-informed voice in the crowd retorted.

Meng Jueming turned to look at the speaker and laughed with contempt. "Then how about a bet with me? If Wei Zhao digs up more than three pieces of good jade today, I lose ten spirit jades to you. But if he doesn't get three, you don't owe me ten—just five, no, three will do! What do you say? Got the guts to take that bet?"

"I—I'm not betting." The man immediately backed down. He had only ever heard people talk about Wei Zhao digging up good jade in Mine No. 10; how would he dare stake his hard-earned blood money from months of mining on something like that?

"Tch! If you don't have the guts, what the hell are you yelling about, you spineless coward!" Meng Jueming jeered, and after making the man flush crimson, he turned and jabbed a finger at someone nearby. "You! The look on your face says you believe Wei Zhao can dig up good jade. How about a bet with me?"

"I wouldn't dare..." The man Meng Jueming pointed at hastily shrank back, drawing a round of unrestrained laughter from the others.

Meng Jueming curled his lip in disdain and swung his finger toward the rest. "You! You! And you! Got the guts to take a bet? Put up three and win ten—a chance like this doesn't come twice! Miss this village and there's no such shop!"

One after another, the people Meng Jueming pointed at turned into turtles pulling in their heads, not daring to make a sound.

What a joke! For miners like them, a whole month of hard labor might earn three spirit jades at best. Who would be stupid enough to throw a month's blood and sweat at a stranger like Wei Zhao? Over three pieces of good jade from dead Mine No. 10—a bet that was obviously a guaranteed loss. Anyone who took it would have to be an idiot!

"A bunch of gutless cowards!" Meng Jueming swept the crowd with a triumphant glance, his gaze finally coming to rest on two people. "Xiao Che, Qiao Hongcai! Aren't you two supposed to be Wei Zhao's loyal supporters? Don't tell me you're not betting either. Could it be you've lost respect for your leader Wei Zhao and, seeing how things are going, want to defect to Meng Zhou's side? It would sound ugly if word got out, but it's not a bad choice—a wise one, really. I won't stand in your way!"

Singled out in public by Meng Jueming like that, every eye in the crowd instantly fixed on the pair, and Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai were at a loss.

They had never signed up to mine in the mining district, so under normal circumstances they would never have shown up here. This time, Meng Jueming had specifically instructed Meng Zhou to call them over, precisely so they could witness Wei Zhao's humiliation firsthand—in plain terms, to kill the chicken to scare the monkey.

Since this was the wish of Meng Jueming, the managing senior brother, Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai naturally did not dare defy it. Besides, Wei Zhao's affairs in the mining district had been causing an uproar lately. Seeing for oneself beat hearing about it, and as Wei Zhao's associates it was only reasonable for them to come and show some concern for his situation—they just never imagined something like this would happen.

With everyone watching, Meng Jueming was forcing them to declare themselves. If they pulled their heads in like the others and said they wouldn't bet, they would not only lose face but also chill the hearts of Wei Zhao—and of Senior Brother Kubi, who had it rough enough already.

After all, they owed their current cultivation cave dwellings entirely to Wei Zhao's good fortune. If they failed to stand up for him now, wouldn't that make them ingrates? Were they really supposed to defect to Meng Zhou, just as Meng Jueming said?

But if they said they would bet, they simply didn't have the capital. Together, Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai had barely two spirit jades on hand—and even those Meng Jueming had handed out earlier. The spiritual energy in them had been mostly used up. If they lost the bet and couldn't produce the spirit jades, wouldn't they be handing people a rod to beat them with? Then no matter how Meng Jueming chose to deal with them, they wouldn't have a single word of complaint!

Besides, judging by Wei Zhao's current situation, once this bet was accepted, the loss was all but certain—there wasn't even the faintest sliver of a chance.

To bet was to have no capital. Not to bet was to be an ingrate.

For a moment, Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai were caught between a rock and a hard place.

Amid the crowd's mocking, half-smiling spectatorship, Meng Zhou chuckled. "Sure, you're both trash, and your judgment of people is a hopeless mess, but for the sake of our brotherhood and out of respect for Cousin Ninth, I suppose I could grudgingly take you in. Just be diligent from now on and bring me tea and water every day! Wahahaha!"

Bring tea and water? That was the work of a menial servant! As dignified Heaven-rank experts, they were mighty figures admired by tens of thousands wherever they went—how could they serve as someone's errand boys? And besides, it was utterly impossible for them to ever reconcile with Meng Zhou!

The whole crowd burst into laughter, and Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai's faces instantly flushed bright red. They wanted to retort, but didn't know what to say. After all, without spirit jades on hand, even if they wanted to accept the challenge, they didn't have the nerve.

Just as their humiliation was about to reach its peak and Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai braced themselves to grit their teeth and endure the shame, a familiar voice suddenly came from somewhere not far outside the crowd: "Take his bet. If you lose, I'll pay the spirit jades."

A stir ran through the crowd. When they saw who it was, Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai were overjoyed, while Meng Jueming's face darkened abruptly. "I was wondering who had the nerve to talk so big. So it's Senior Brother Kubi!"

Senior Brother Kubi walked over and looked at Meng Jueming. "Senior Brother Meng, I'll pay the spirit jades for their bet with you. That shouldn't be a problem, should it?"

Meng Jueming was instantly delighted. He curled his lip and grinned. "Of course there's no problem! If Senior Brother Kubi is so eager to gift me spirit jades, I'm only too happy to accept! But you're a managing senior brother after all. Since you're going to back these two, betting just three-to-ten is far too cheap. How about this—I'll do you a favor too. Five-to-fifteen. You only need to put up five spirit jades on their behalf, and if they win, you take fifteen. How's that?" (To be continued..)RT