護花近衛 - 第1097章 皮家來人 - 翰墨軒

"And where exactly am I supposed to keep an eye out?" Wei Zhao frowned. "Have you developed a dependency on me?"

"It's not that..." Qiu Lingshan felt a little embarrassed at Wei Zhao's words. True enough—she had indeed come to lean on Wei Zhao somewhat, regarding him as an all-capable man who would answer whenever she asked.

"All right. Anything else?" Wei Zhao asked flatly.

"No... nothing else..." Qiu Lingshan always felt short of confidence before Wei Zhao.

Wei Zhao said nothing more and simply hung up.

Holding the receiver, Qiu Lingshan felt rather helpless. Originally she had meant to ask Wei Zhao whether there had been any ill effects after he boosted her strength, but judging by his tone just now, he seemed not to have been affected at all.

Although she had told Wei Zhao about the matter, Qiu Lingshan still felt somewhat uncertain. After all, the old cases had all come with concrete details, but this case remained murky and elusive, and Wei Zhao seemed to have no intention of helping. That left Qiu Lingshan rather disappointed.

The Xiao family had spent these days steeped in a low, subdued mood.

Without Uncle Pi to back them, the already declining Xiao family had slid further toward a dead end. Their old connections had one and all drifted away, and even their in-laws, the Kang family, had decisively broken with them!

Xiao Ji sat in the villa's main hall heaving sighs, while Xiao Ben was equally at his wit's end. The Xiao family's situation was going from bad to worse by the day, and they still owed Wei Zhao a vast sum. Though Wei Zhao had not come to their door to demand payment, the Xiao family's circumstances were none the better for it!

"Second Brother, it looks as though the Xiao family's grand estate is going to be destroyed in my hands. I can't accept it!" Xiao Ji's eyes were bloodshot; he had not slept well for days. "It's all because of that whore Gou Huli—she dragged the Xiao family into making such an enemy for nothing, and then had the nerve to drive blind and cripple Uncle Pi. I'll go kill her right now!"

With that, Xiao Ji stood up, ready to go settle accounts with Gou Huli.

"Brother! Calm down!" Seeing his brother in this frenzied state, Xiao Ben hurriedly rose and held him back. "Brother, what are you doing? You know as well as I do that the Xiao family has reached a moment of life and death—and you're still fighting among ourselves? Going to settle scores with Sister-in-law? What meaning is there in that?"

Xiao Ben was a clever man. Though at first, while the old master was alive, he had done his utmost to contend for the position of head of the family, after the old master's passing he too had come to recognize the Xiao family's crisis. To turn on one another now could only hasten the family's destruction!

Besides, his brother was not especially bright and came to him about everything, needing his counsel—which made Xiao Ben all but the de facto head of the family, and there was no need for him to contend for anything! Moreover, with the Xiao family in its present straits, who had the leisure to fight over the position of head?

"Second Brother, I'd like to calm down, but how can I? The Great Clan Assembly is almost upon us. My guess is that this time the Yu family will certainly have us expelled from the ranks of the great clans! After this, the Xiao family will no longer be a great clan..." Xiao Ji sat back down, his face bitter.

"Brother, matters have already come to this. Even if you killed Sister-in-law, what would it change?" Xiao Ben waved a hand. "The only ones we can likely count on are the Wu family. But whether those two boys Xiao Wangdao and Xiao Wangba really have a solid connection with Wu Chengtian, I can't say. I've heard that Kang Jinglong of the Kang family is on very good terms with Wu Chengtian—I'm afraid he'll stir up trouble from within!"

"Then what are we to do now?" Xiao Ji was completely out of ideas.