Chapter 4919 — A Real Good Man

Wei Zhao did not even spare the two of them a glance. He turned to Ni Caiyue, who was still desperately hiding behind his back, and said, caught between laughter and tears, "They ran off ages ago—what are you still hiding for?"

"Huh? They ran?" Ni Caiyue poked her head out for a look, and sure enough, the old owl and Old Li were nowhere to be seen. Only then did she finally breathe easy, patting her chest as she said, "Great, we scared them off after all. Those two are just like Chang Laiting—mean, really mean!"

Wei Zhao's eyes slid sideways again. Being around this little Ni girl, though her wits often left him speechless with laughter, also brought frequent unexpected delights—every so often she would strike some pose that made a man's nose bleed. The crucial thing was that the girl had no idea she was doing it, all adorably clueless.

"Thank you for rescuing me, young hero—otherwise I'd have been done for this time!" Ni Caiyue thanked Wei Zhao, still shaken. Thank goodness she'd known he and his companions were here; otherwise she wouldn't even have had anyone to call for help, and the consequences of falling into the old owl's and Old Li's hands did not bear thinking about.

"Mind telling me what this is all about? Didn't I just help you flatten Chang Laiting? How did you get chased down again?" Wei Zhao asked, somewhat at a loss for words.

"These two are called the old owl and Old Li. They're in with Chang Laiting—they came in together with him. But for some reason, when Chang Laiting came after me, it seems like he shook the two of them off?" Ni Caiyue said, tilting her head.

"That's normal. Chang Laiting was after the Nourishing Mystic Grass on you—that's the kind of thing you want as few people knowing about as possible. Bringing those two along to chase you would only mean splitting a share with them," Wei Zhao said, curling his lip.

Of course, it was also because little Ni was truly hopeless in a fight—scare her a little and she'd surrender on the spot. Otherwise, had she been more troublesome, Chang Laiting likely wouldn't have abandoned these two henchmen.

"Huh? So that's how it was—I thought the two of them had gotten lost!" Ni Caiyue wore an expression of sudden enlightenment.

"Apart from you, I doubt there's a single person who could make it here who'd just casually get lost. You can rest easy on that count," Wei Zhao said, unable to hold back a laugh.

"Is that so?" Ni Caiyue blinked, apparently failing to catch the teasing in his words—she nodded in agreement instead.

Wei Zhao shook his head, speechless. This little Ni girl really had perfected adorable cluelessness to an art form. He could only go on asking, "So just because they ran into you, they chased you like that? Don't tell me you've got some deep grudge with them—otherwise there'd be no call for such deadly enmity, surely?"

Ni Caiyue was, after all, one of the Three Fairies, and nominally Chang Laiting's dao companion. As Chang Laiting's lackeys, the two of them ought not to have dared move against her so rashly.

"Mmm… after they ran into me, they didn't try to grab me at first. They just asked where Chang Laiting had gone. But then I let something slip by accident, and they found out about the Nourishing Mystic Grass—that's why they chased me like madmen. It was terrifying…" Even now Ni Caiyue was still frightened by the memory.

Wei Zhao simply did not know what to say. This little Ni girl was a born friend-of-the-enemy—she could let slip even a thing like this. Truly, she had only herself to blame for being hunted.

Still, when you thought about it, like master, like lackey. Chang Laiting's two henchmen were just like him: profit-grubbing lechers and scoundrels. Running into those two really was little Ni's bad luck.

"All right, whatever—those two have been chased off for now, so you should be fine, right? I need to go." Wei Zhao glanced at Ni Caiyue and immediately made to set off in search of Wang Xinyan and the other two.

But before he could take a step, Ni Caiyue grabbed hold of his sleeve. In her fluster her left foot caught her right, and she tore a whole section of his sleeve clean off on the spot, while at the same time tumbling bodily into Wei Zhao's arms.

"No—don't go!" Ni Caiyue's first reaction was not to push Wei Zhao away, but to look up at him pitifully.

"Hey, hey—don't go teasing me now." Wei Zhao could only tilt his head back and look at the sky. There was no help for it: at this moment little Ni was pressed right against his chest, and one glance downward would easily catch sight of things he ought not to see.

Even so, with soft jade and warm fragrance in his arms, Wei Zhao still had the reaction any normal man would have. The girl's figure was, after all, truly incendiary. He could only awkwardly shrink his body backward.

"Ah!" Ni Caiyue gave a soft cry, then flushed scarlet and hurriedly pushed Wei Zhao away. Stiffening her neck, she said, "Nonsense! How could a girl like me tease a man like you?"

"Who says a woman can't tease a man? There are female scoundrels too, you know," Wei Zhao said, shaking his head with a laugh.

"Huh? Female scoundrel?" Ni Caiyue blinked, tilting her head and thinking it over for a good long while before she understood. She waved her hands hastily. "I… I'm not a female scoundrel…"

"Not a female scoundrel? Then why did you tease me for no reason at all, and tear my sleeve off too? This is a fresh change of clothes—now you've gone and turned it into a Beggar Sect uniform," Wei Zhao said helplessly.

"I wasn't teasing you! I just wanted to hold you back—who'd have thought your sleeve would be so flimsy…" Ni Caiyue pouted, the picture of injustice.

She had tripped over her own feet, and now it was his sleeve that was flimsy? Faced with logic of such formidable power, Wei Zhao truly had no way to retort. He could only say, "Fine. Then what did you grab me for?"

"I'm afraid they'll come grab me again, so… young hero, could you take me back?" Ni Caiyue said pitifully.

"Take you back?" Wei Zhao frowned, spreading his hands. "Not right now. I still haven't found my companions."

"Then I'll just come along with you—that way they won't dare grab me," Ni Caiyue said, immediately climbing up the pole he'd offered.

"What?" Wei Zhao was taken aback. On second thought, he had no other plans at the moment—once he found Wang Xinyan and the other two, he meant to leave this place, and bringing along one little Ni girl wouldn't be much trouble. So he nodded helplessly. "Suit yourself, then."

"Wonderful! Young hero, you really are a good man!" Ni Caiyue was overjoyed.

"A good man who hides it very deeply?" Wei Zhao glanced at her.

"Yes, yes—a good man who hides it very deeply!" Ni Caiyue nodded again and again.

Wei Zhao stumbled and nearly fell flat on the ground. Meeting such an odd little thing with such a unique way of thinking, he had truly come to understand what "caught between laughter and tears" meant. He had saved her twice now, and all he got in return was "a good man who hides it very deeply." Did he really look that much unlike a good man?

With Ni Caiyue trailing after him like a shadow, Wei Zhao set off along the edge of the basin to search for Wang Xinyan and the others, keeping an eye out for Nourishing Mystic Grass along the way, of course.

But Wei Zhao had clearly gotten his hopes up. This time he was destined to have no luck with the Nourishing Mystic Grass. Not only had he come up empty-handed in the City of Thunder Burials, but even after wandering around the area for two whole hours he still couldn't find any. His luck was truly rotten.