Chapter 3587 — The Vanished Spirit Jades
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
At this, Meng Jueming fixed Meng Zhou with a cold stare and said with a savage look, "Meng Zhou, I'll give you one chance to come clean. Did you pocket the two spirit jades for yourself? You never actually planted the spirit jades in Wei Zhao's grotto in the first place, did you?"
"Huh?" Meng Zhou, who had been thoroughly dejected, was startled by these words and hastily waved his hands. "Cousin Ninth, what are you saying? Do I look like that sort of person to you?"
"You may not look it, but now the two spirit jades have vanished into thin air. That Wei Zhao boy doesn't have them, and neither does anyone else. So the only possibility I can think of is that you tampered with things in the middle and pocketed them for yourself!" Meng Jueming said in a harsh, stern voice.
Granted, Li Zhengming was also a participant in this scheme to do Wei Zhao in, but from first to last he had merely supplied one spirit jade. As for Meng Jueming himself, he had taken advantage of Wei Zhao's having left first to secretly disable the sealing ward on Wei Zhao's grotto. In the end, the one actually responsible for planting the spirit jades to frame him was Meng Zhou. If there truly was a traitor in their midst, Meng Zhou was the likeliest candidate!
Meng Zhou was so frightened he was on the verge of tears. "Cousin Ninth, you can't wrong me like this! I really didn't steal and hide the spirit jades! If you don't believe me, search me!"
Meng Jueming shot Li Zhengming a glance, and Li Zhengming at once understood and searched Meng Zhou on his behalf. He searched him from top to bottom, but no spirit jades were found.
Seeing this, Meng Jueming's gaze softened somewhat, and Meng Zhou finally let out a breath of relief—only to hear Li Zhengming ask, still unwilling to let the matter drop, "Could he have hidden them somewhere else outside?"
"Li Zhengming, what do you mean by that? You dare suspect me too?" Meng Zhou flew into a rage, seized Li Zhengming by the collar, and roared, "You little wretch, are you trying to set me against Cousin Ninth so you can reap the profits while the fisherman watches the cranes fight?"
"No, no, Brother Tong, hear me out—I'm just bitter about losing my spirit jade, that was truly not meant as a jab at you!" Li Zhengming hurriedly protested. But as for what he really thought in his heart, no one could know except himself.
Sure enough, after hearing Li Zhengming's words, the look Meng Jueming turned on Meng Zhou sharpened once more. Seeing this was bad, Meng Zhou quickly shoved Li Zhengming away and explained, "Cousin Ninth, one of those two spirit jades was my own! Do you really think I'd betray you just to covet this half-used jade of Li Zhengming's? Even if I were a fool, I would never do something so idiotic!"
"That is true enough," Meng Jueming said with a thoughtful nod. He did not trust Meng Zhou's character, but to betray him merely for the sake of half a spirit jade was far too poor a bargain. After all, given Meng Zhou's relationship with him, more spirit jades would come his way easily enough in the future; there was simply no need to take such a risk.
"So you see, I think it's very likely that while we were away at the market, an outsider slipped in. After all, the sealing ward on the grotto was gone—stealing those two spirit jades would have taken no effort at all!" Meng Zhou pressed his advantage, anxious that Meng Jueming might keep suspecting him.
"That... does have some possibility," Meng Jueming admitted, stroking his chin and nodding. But if that were truly the case, the matter would be very difficult to investigate, and the odds of recovering the two spirit jades were exceedingly slim—negligible, in fact.