Chapter 2097 — What Terrible Luck!
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"How could I be so unlucky?" Zhao Qibing was furious to hear that his tire had inexplicably blown out. He could clearly have beaten Wei Zhao, and now victory had slipped through his fingers!
"This car—which disciple was in charge of its maintenance before?" Old Master Zhao was furious as well. This race was as good as lost; the stakes the Hidden Zhao Family had put up could not be won back, and now they did not even have a chance at second or third place!
Old Master Zhao had wanted the championship—how could he be content to let it go? Yet there was nothing to be done. A blown tire was an act of heaven, an accident; they could only blame Zhao Qibing's terrible luck!
"Ha, I was wondering how that car was going so fast—so it really was a defective vehicle!" Han Xiaohu curled his lip with gleeful schadenfreude. Though he did not know whether Wei Zhao had been up to tricks, in any case Zhao Qibing's crash was a tremendous stroke of good fortune for Wei Zhao!
Old Master Zhao's face darkened. How could he fail to hear the gloating and deliberate mockery in Han Xiaohu's words? He gave a cold snort and said, "A man may stumble, a horse may slip—it's only natural for a car to have problems. What's so surprising about that?"
"That's not it, though—didn't you say yourself earlier, Old Master Zhao, that Elder Yu and Elder You had inspected the car and found no problems?" Han Tianba said with a smile as well.
"They are not professional auto engineers—how could they spot a hidden defect in the car?" Old Master Zhao said with a frown.
"Heh heh, I'd guess the workers who did the modifications just weren't up to standard?" Han Tianba said with a pointed implication.
But no matter what was said, however unhappy Old Master Zhao might be, he had to hurry and summon the family's disciples to take Zhao Qibing back for treatment. There was no way this race could continue—the Hidden Zhao Family withdrew early because of the crash!
This event had been designed for the Hidden Zhao Family's benefit, and yet the Hidden Zhao Family had lost everything!
Meanwhile, up at the mountaintop, Wei Zhao had smoothly crossed the finish line. This result brought joy to some houses and sorrow to others. Han Tianba was naturally overjoyed, and Han Xiaohu was thrilled along with him—but the other hidden families were not so happy!
They had agreed that each family would take a turn as host, one round apiece—and yet they had lost the very first round. What was most infuriating was that the winner was the Hidden Han Family, the very family they had all united against! If they had known the Hidden Han Family would win, why set up a racing competition at all?
But the rules of the competition had already been set—surely they could not go back on them at the last moment? And besides, if they reneged after the first round, how would any of the later rounds ever be contested?
So, according to the rules of the competition, Wei Zhao was the victor and took all the stakes except those for second and third place!
Second and third place in the race were swept by the Hidden You Family and the Hidden Pi Family respectively. The wager the Hidden You Family put up was a small Qi-Gathering Pill, while the Hidden Pi Family put up a kind of body-tempering elixir for external-style experts!