Chapter 3990 — A Curious Calm

In Xu Lingchong's mind, the scene he had just witnessed was swiftly and quite naturally reconstructed into something else entirely: that scoundrel Wei Zhao had caught Shangguan Lan'er off guard and stolen a kiss from her by force!

The instant this thought took shape, Xu Lingchong was overcome with grief and indignation. Damn it all—he had chased this girl for years without so much as once holding her little hand, and now this posturing nobody Wei Zhao had beaten him to the prize. This was beyond all endurance!

Shangguan Lan'er had always been marked out in Xu Lingchong's heart as his own woman, a matter bound up with his future prospects and grand designs. No one was permitted to lay a finger on her; anyone who so much as touched a single hair on her head would be locked with Young Master Xu in a feud to the death.

And so, the moment he had caught the faintest hint of anything, Xu Lingchong had schemed to sabotage the relationship between Shangguan Lan'er and Wei Zhao, strangling this near-impossible possibility in the cradle. He had thought himself secure beyond all worry—only to have something of this sort happen right under his nose!

True, no formal betrothal had ever been settled between him and Shangguan Lan'er, but under the long-standing tacit understanding of both families, Xu Lingchong had long since taken her as his own. As things stood now, how was he any different from a cuckold who had been made a fool of by Wei Zhao?

"Wei Zhao, this young master will make you wish you were dead!" In that instant Xu Lingchong was goaded by his own imaginings into losing all control; eyes bloodshot, he looked ready to strike at Wei Zhao then and there.

In truth, he had not entirely lost his reason. So long as he proclaimed far and wide that Wei Zhao had molested and violated Shangguan Lan'er, then even if he ground Wei Zhao to dust on the spot, he would bear no responsibility whatsoever.

Wei Zhao was startled. Before he could wonder why the man had suddenly flown into such a rage, he hurriedly moved to retreat with Shangguan Lan'er in tow. After all, the other man was a genuine master at the peak of Foundation Establishment, while Wei Zhao himself was only at its middle stage. Unless he resorted to a trump card like a top-grade true-qi bomb, rushing to meet the man head-on would surely leave him hard-pressed.

Yet Shangguan Lan'er stepped in front of him first, planting herself directly in the way, and cried out at Xu Lingchong: "What do you think you're doing? Junior Brother is an important guest of this young lady. If you dare lay a hand on him, I'll go tell Grandfather!"

Xu Lingchong's figure halted. The look he sent Wei Zhao over Shangguan Lan'er's shoulder grew all the more venomous, and half in self-mockery, half in jeering, he said: "Junior Sister Lan'er, if he is your important guest, then what am I, your senior brother?"

Unexpectedly, Shangguan Lan'er's young-lady temper flared up as well, and she gave him not the slightest quarter: "What business is it of yours, what goes on between me and Junior Brother? Do I owe an outsider like you any explanation?"

At these words Xu Lingchong's fury turned to laughter. With a kind of nervous tic, he pointed at Wei Zhao, then at himself, and sneered: "I'm an outsider, and you and this lowborn piece of trash are family? Fine. Very fine. Well said!"

"Who are you calling lowborn trash? I'll give you one chance—apologize to my Junior Brother this instant!" Shangguan Lan'er was furious now too. She had never had many friends to begin with, and after all that had happened before, Wei Zhao's place in her heart had long since surpassed that of any ordinary friend. As for a nuisance like Xu Lingchong, in her eyes he did not even deserve to be called a friend—her position could not have been clearer.

Unexpectedly, Xu Lingchong's expression abruptly turned cold and indifferent. "The important personages downstairs have all arrived. Junior Sister Lan'er, if there is nothing further between you and this lowborn trash, you had best go down as soon as may be. We should not keep so many great personages waiting."

Watching Xu Lingchong's receding back, Shangguan Lan'er's pretty face flushed crimson with rage. When she had played along with Wei Zhao's act earlier, saying she disliked him had been her own affair—but for this odious Xu Lingchong to dare insult Wei Zhao to his face was simply unforgivable!

Unfortunately, the man was, after all, one of the few great young masters of the Chongtian Pavilion, and its managing senior disciple besides; even she, the eldest young lady of the Shangguan clan, could do little against him. Avenging Wei Zhao would not be easy.

"Junior Sister, I'm sorry. I've caused you trouble," Wei Zhao said with a sigh from behind her.

"Not at all! Don't you go reading too much into it, Junior Brother. I'd been wanting to fall out with that odious creature for a long while—it was only out of regard for Grandfather and the others that I never said so outright. Today is just as well; it saves him from pestering me at every turn hereafter." Shangguan Lan'er hastened to explain and console him.

Wei Zhao shook his head inwardly. Xu Lingchong was hardly the sort to give up so easily. To this young master of the Chongtian Pavilion, Shangguan Lan'er's allure had never been a simple matter of feminine beauty.

Even if Shangguan Lan'er had openly broken with him, he would not let go so readily—or more precisely, the family power behind him would never permit him to let go.

A situation like the one moments ago, had Xu Lingchong simply gone on raging out of control, might actually have been easier to handle. The guards here were strict and thick on the ground; if the man had come only for him, Wei Zhao believed he could have held out until the guards arrived to break things up—and by then Xu Lingchong would have found it awkward to extricate himself.

But look at how things stood now. Xu Lingchong had seemed to lose control, yet recovered his calm almost at once—and that was all the more terrifying. It proved that this Young Master Xu's depths far exceeded those of ordinary men. This present calm was precisely the herald of the coming storm!

"Junior Sister, I think you had best be careful from now on. When you deal with Xu Lingchong in future, it would be wise to keep your guard up," Wei Zhao warned.

After what had happened today, he, Wei Zhao, was bound to be the chief target of Xu Lingchong's revenge. But even with the protection of her grandfather Shangguan Tianxia, the young lady might not be entirely safe; let her vigilance slip but a little, and this scheming Young Master Xu might well turn to desperate measures.

Shangguan Lan'er was taken aback for a moment; then she brandished her fist, bared her two little canine teeth, and declared: "This young lady isn't afraid of him! If he dares harbor any crooked designs, I'll cut it off!"

Beside her, little Curly Bear obligingly mimed the motion of chopping something, which left Wei Zhao breaking out in a sweat. He had not realized before that this mistress and her pet were in truth a pair vicious enough.

Talking as they went, the two made their way downstairs. Since Xu Lingchong had said the important personages had all arrived, it would hardly be proper for the two of them to go on lingering alone together on the third floor. (To be continued..) R752