Chapter 4044 — Framing Wei Zhao

"A letter? How would I write one?" Shangguan Lan'er turned her head to look at him.

"It's simple. Just tell your grandfather that Wei Zhao led men to kidnap you," the masked man in black coaxed.

At those words, Shangguan Lan'er's eyes curved into a lovely crescent moon. Seeing the masked man staring at her so eagerly, she suddenly smiled and said, with a helpless air, "But I've hardly read any books. I don't know how to write!"

Gah! The masked man nearly choked to death on the spot. You, the honorable Eldest Miss Shangguan, the apple of Shangguan Tianxia's eye—and you claim you can't write?

The masked man was dumbstruck for a good while, unable to tell whether she was lying. After all, some cultivators had trained since childhood, so it wasn't impossible that one might be illiterate. So he said, "How about this, then: you tell me, I'll write it, and you can sign it at the end and put your mark on it. That should be fine, shouldn't it?"

But Shangguan Lan'er kept shaking her head. "I can't do that either. I've never signed or marked anything in my life. Back at the Sandie Pavilion on North Island, who would dare ask this young lady to sign or put her mark on anything?"

"You—" Even through the black cloth mask, one could feel the man's face twitching. "Then tell me, do you still want your grandfather to know Wei Zhao kidnapped you, so he'll come here and save you?"

"Not really. It's quite fun here. Let's wait a few days and decide then. Let Grandfather worry a bit too—it'll keep him from nagging me to cultivate all day long." Shangguan Lan'er wore an expression of one who had settled in for the long haul.

Pfft! The masked man nearly choked on his own spit. Now he was completely out of tricks. Impervious to reason and persuasion alike—how was he supposed to deal with this little girl?

At that moment, outside the ruined martial arts grounds, the two masked men from before had already taken off their masks. Had anyone from the Welcome Pavilion been present, they would surely have been astonished, for these two were none other than Kang Jingming and Murong Zhen.

"Once that little girl's handwritten letter is in Shangguan Tianxia's hands, this time Wei Zhao will be like mud dropped into a pair of trousers—whether it's crap or not, it'll look like crap. Steward Kang, what a clever scheme!" Murong Zhen said with an excited laugh.

"You flatter me. It's Miss Murong whose daring truly commands admiration—to dream up something as audacious as kidnapping Shangguan Lan'er." Kang Jingming replied smugly, while turning his head to watch for activity at the ruined grounds. "It's just that I never imagined the girl would be this foolish, unable to catch even such an obvious hint. Now all we can do is pin our hopes on that fence-sitter Zha Wu."

"Rest assured, Steward Kang. Zha Wu may be a fence-sitter with not a shred of loyalty to speak of, but the smaller the man, the more pragmatic he is. If only to save his own skin, he won't dare ruin our grand plan," Murong Zhen said confidently.

As the two were speaking, Zha Wu came out from the other side, head hanging, wearing an expression of utter dejection and speechless frustration.

"Zha Wu, how did it go? You got it done, right?" Kang Jingming asked.

"Ah, don't even mention it..." Zha Wu looked utterly glum.

After hearing Zha Wu's report, both Kang Jingming and Murong Zhen were struck dumb at the same time. Just how had Shangguan Tianxia raised his only granddaughter? She had already been kidnapped—how could her heart still be this light? Was she missing a few screws?

Kang Jingming thought it over and made a prompt decision. "The longer this drags on, the more trouble we'll have. We can't keep waiting like this. Miss Murong, go back and report right now. Wei Zhao has been coming and going mysteriously these days, no one knows where he's holed up. As long as he's not in the Welcome Pavilion, whatever you say will hold water!"

"This... all right then!" Murong Zhen hesitated for a moment, but in the end nodded in agreement.

Stepping forward to denounce Wei Zhao was in fact a rather risky business, but Kang Jingming had already spoken thus; she could hardly reject it outright. Once the two of them fell into a quarrel and turned on each other, it would all be over. After all, Shangguan Lan'er's status was no trifling matter—every extra moment they waited added another measure of danger.

Murong Zhen set off at once for the Sandie Pavilion and went straight to the Enforcement Hall to denounce him, declaring that she had inadvertently witnessed Wei Zhao leading men to kidnap Shangguan Lan'er!

The moment those words were spoken, the entire Enforcement Hall was shaken. Last time it had been an attempted assault by Xu Lingchong; how long had it been since then, and now she had been kidnapped? Was this year some ill-fated zodiac year for Shangguan Lan'er, beset by disaster upon disaster?

It wasn't only the report itself that was shocking—the Enforcement Hall's reaction, or more precisely the reaction of Hall Master Gongyang Jun, was even more astonishing. Within a mere half hour of receiving Murong Zhen's accusation, without even notifying Shangguan Tianxia, her own kin, the Enforcement Hall issued a wanted notice far and wide, calling for Wei Zhao's arrest!

Such a decisive, swift response stood in stark contrast to the way things had seemingly sunk without a trace after Nan Tianyong's murder—one was heaven, the other earth. Even Murong Zhen, the accuser, found it all incredible as she watched.

She had assumed the Enforcement Hall would at least conduct a careful investigation, and had even prepared a speech in advance, only to find everything going so smoothly—so smoothly that it left her rather disgruntled. All that preparation for nothing; before she could even perform, she was told to say no more. Still, thinking of the business with Xu Lingchong before, it was understandable enough. When Shangguan Lan'er was involved, speed was the order of the day.

Once the wanted notice went out, the whole of the Sandie Pavilion was in an uproar again. And what was even more surprising was that a mere hour after the notice was issued, Wei Zhao—utterly unaware of any of it—was caught on the spot.

Only when he saw his own wanted notice and was subdued by the combined efforts of a host of Enforcement Hall experts did Wei Zhao finally realize that all of this was a conspiracy aimed squarely at him. These past days, busy studying forging techniques with Scrap King, his thinking had drifted somewhat out of step with the outside world.

In the past, given Wei Zhao's consistently cautious ways, he ought to have been on his guard the moment he first discovered Shangguan Lan'er was in danger. He would never have swaggered back to the Welcome Pavilion like this, much less belatedly pushed his way forward to look at his own wanted notice.

But now it was all too late. In the hands of the Enforcement Hall, with his own strength, Wei Zhao had no hope of fighting his way free. Everything from here on depended on Gongyang Jun's whim.

Judging from his dealings with Gongyang Jun at the birthday banquet last time, and from Gongyang Jun's arrogant, domineering nature, Wei Zhao's instinct told him this was not the sort to relish scheming and intrigue. If he wanted to deal with Wei Zhao, he needn't go to such elaborate lengths, nor drag in a sensitive figure like Shangguan Lan'er as a pawn.

As long as Gongyang Jun was not the mastermind behind it all, Wei Zhao still had a glimmer of hope! R1152