Chapter 3967 — Hosting the Birthday Banquet

"Oh, is that so? Then you can set your mind completely at ease. This young lady is an excellent judge of character—I won't be fooled by just anyone so easily." Shangguan Lan'er curled the corners of her lips as she spoke.

She had deliberately left the words vague, but what reached Xu Lingchong's ears was a meaning quite clear indeed: that this young lady had exacting standards, and there was no chance she would be taken in by some penniless newcomer like Wei Zhao.

He little realized that this was all just his own wishful thinking. In Shangguan Lan'er's heart the meaning was precisely the opposite—the "just anyone" in that sentence referred to none other than the young master Xu himself!

"That's good, that's good." Xu Lingchong was, as they say, blind to what lay right before his own eyes. Had the person across from him been anyone else, he likely would have sensed something amiss long ago; alas, the one before him was Shangguan Lan'er, and where the woman of a man's dreams is concerned, a man's wits are always in the negative. Young Master Xu was no exception.

What a fool this one is! Shangguan Lan'er was secretly laughing to herself. She was quite content to let it be—let this idiot Xu Lingchong deceive himself, then. The truth of her relationship with Wei Zhao was a secret between the two of them, and she had no intention of letting a nuisance like Xu Lingchong learn a thing about it.

"Oh, that's right, Lan'er, the higher-ups have decided to let me host and arrange your birthday banquet. If you have any ideas or requests, just tell me—whatever your wish may be, Senior Brother will do all in his power to make it come true!" Xu Lingchong said, his face alight with excitement.

To be permitted to host and arrange Shangguan Lan'er's birthday banquet meant that he had won Shangguan Tianxia's tentative approval—or at the very least, his tacit consent.

This was the first step toward becoming Shangguan Tianxia's son-in-law. To Xu Lingchong, its significance was in no way inferior to winning the post of chief senior brother of Chongtian Pavilion.

By seizing this opportunity, he could not only cement his relationship with Shangguan Lan'er but also further elevate his standing in the Sandie Pavilion. This, after all, was a grand banquet for the Pavilion's top echelon—to be its host meant direct, face-to-face dealings with every one of the Sandie Pavilion's high-ranking figures. The benefits were too obvious to require elaboration.

To his surprise, the guest of honor herself could not have been less interested. She waved a hand with cool indifference. "Do as you please. It won't be the birthday banquet this young lady wants in any case—in the end it will only turn into one of your little power-brokering affairs. This young lady has no interest."

Long ago, Shangguan Lan'er had harbored all sorts of hopes and fancies about her rare birthday banquets, but gradually she had come to realize that the reality was nothing like what she had imagined.

In the end, it was nothing but a networking gathering for the Sandie Pavilion's high officials and dignitaries, held under the name of her birthday banquet. Whether the guest of honor was present or not made not the slightest difference.

If there was anything at all she looked forward to this time, it was Wei Zhao alone. When the day came, it would likely be this young junior brother and no one else who genuinely came to celebrate her birthday.

Still a little girl at heart, after all! Xu Lingchong smiled faintly, unperturbed. Whether Shangguan Lan'er was pleased or not mattered nothing to him. The one thing that did matter was that this was a golden chance to display his abilities before every high-ranking figure in the Sandie Pavilion—and it must not be wasted.

"That Wei Zhao—shall we have him come to the banquet?" Xu Lingchong suddenly proposed.

"Hm?" Shangguan Lan'er was briefly taken aback. She knew very well that her junior brother Wei Zhao was the thorn in Xu Lingchong's side and the bane of his flesh. Would this creature really be so kind as to volunteer an invitation for Wei Zhao to attend her birthday banquet?

"Didn't you say, Lan'er, that you wanted to repay him for his kindness? Ordinarily a bottom-tier newcomer with no standing like him would have no right whatsoever to attend such a high-class banquet of the upper circles. If you give him this chance, then together with the help you gave him before, the debt of gratitude ought to be squared, no?" Xu Lingchong explained with a sinister smile.

That was, of course, not his true intent. A flash of inspiration had struck him, and he had suddenly hit upon a brilliant scheme for dealing with Wei Zhao.

However savage Wei Zhao's strength might be, in the end he was nothing but a mere newcomer of the Qingyun Pavilion, utterly beneath the notice of high society.

But if Wei Zhao were invited to a birthday banquet thronged with the Sandie Pavilion's top echelon, and made to disgrace himself before all of them—given a proper humiliating dressing-down on the spot, so that Shangguan Lan'er could see this creature's true, lowly, and pitiful face—would that not be killing two birds with one stone?

Moreover, once Wei Zhao left a bad impression in the eyes of the Sandie Pavilion's elite, then even if he entered the inner sect thereafter, he would have no prospects of advancement whatsoever.

"All right then, let's do it that way." Shangguan Lan'er agreed at once, without hesitation.

She could not be bothered to guess at whatever despicable motive Xu Lingchong might be harboring. Wei Zhao would surely be able to handle himself when the time came; and at the very worst, with her—the guest of honor—present, there was no way he would suffer any great loss.

"Very well." Xu Lingchong smiled a deep, dark smile, thinking to himself: then let us sit back and enjoy the show.

Meanwhile, in another quarter: several days had passed since Meng Jueming's death, and the struggle for power within the Yingxin Pavilion had finally begun to take shape.

Of all the positions in the Yingxin Pavilion today, the one that drew the most attention was none other than that of the Third Pavilion Master—a weighty seat that had belonged to Meng Jueming, and that had been abruptly left vacant by his death.

Some had once supposed that the former Third Pavilion Master, Lu Bianren, might have a chance to make a comeback. He had, after all, been driven out by Meng Jueming in the first place; now that Meng Jueming was gone and the newcomers of the Qingyun Pavilion were in a state of panic, it was not impossible that the higher-ups might recall this former official to steady the situation.

Yet the appointment that came down from within the Qingyun Pavilion today left every jaw hanging.

Lu Bianren—the former Third Pavilion Master whom Meng Jueming had driven out, reduced to the bedraggled state of a stray dog—had now received his newest posting: promotion to the post of second senior brother and steward of the Qingyun Pavilion.

This appointment truly caught everyone off guard. Even the long-suffering Senior Brother and Wei Zhao—fellow disciples of Lu Bianren's faction—were nearly struck dumb when they first heard of it.

The second senior brother and steward of the Qingyun Pavilion occupied, within that pavilion, precisely the position Xu Lingchong now held in the Chongtian Pavilion. Strictly speaking, it was a post of the same rank as Third Pavilion Master of the Yingxin Pavilion, so Lu Bianren's transfer could be counted a lateral move.

If one spoke of real authority, however, the power of the Qingyun Pavilion's second senior brother and steward far surpassed that of so conspicuous a backwater post as Third Pavilion Master of the Yingxin Pavilion. Thus for anyone at all, the transfer from Third Pavilion Master of the Yingxin Pavilion to second senior brother and steward of the Qingyun Pavilion was a genuine promotion.R1152