Chapter 3614 — A Bag of Waste Jade
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Back in his cave dwelling, Wei Zhao took out the twenty-five pieces of spirit jade and examined them one by one. Understanding dawned at once. Just as he had suspected, all twenty-five were waste jade holding no more than a thread of spiritual energy.
In fact, this was only natural. Given the state of his relationship with Meng Jueming, even if the man's whole story about searching for little spirit jade had been true, such a windfall would never have fallen to Wei Zhao's lot. Twenty-five pieces of good jade for one low-grade spirit jade—Wei Zhao had never believed in pie falling from the sky.
And yet, though Meng Jueming had indeed swindled him out of his little spirit jade for twenty-five pieces of waste jade, and though on the face of it he had taken a heavy loss, for Wei Zhao, master of the jade pendant's space, this was exactly what he had wanted. Otherwise he would never have foolishly agreed after guessing the man's intent.
Since the jade pendant's space could rapidly recharge spirit jade, any piece of waste jade that came into Wei Zhao's hands was thoroughgoing good jade. Never mind twenty-five waste pieces for one—even two waste pieces for one would have been a sure profit with no loss.
What Wei Zhao needed now was precisely this kind of waste jade with nothing but a pretty shell. Compared with the two pieces of spirit jade he could secretly stash after a hard day's digging in the mining zone, Meng Jueming's scheme—hatched with such pains to cheat him—made the man a veritable benefactor delivering goods to his door: twenty-five pieces in one go, the fruit of nearly half a month's labor. The more such visits, the better!
Compared with that, the matter of swapping mining zones was not worth mentioning. Wei Zhao's previous good jade had never really come from luck in the first place; with the jade pendant's space, that cheat of cheats, he could dig up good jade anywhere.
What was more, judging by the daily haul of Meng Zhou and Li Zhengming, Mining Zone Seven not only produced good jade, the odds of digging up waste jade with nothing but a pretty shell were clearly higher as well. So once Wei Zhao grew familiar with the terrain and the guards' positions there, secretly stashing spirit jade would be even easier than in Zone Ten.
Early the next morning, Wei Zhao headed to the Spirit Jade Hall to report in as usual, and happened to run into Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou at the entrance. Without betraying a thing, he stepped up and greeted them. "Morning, Senior Brother Meng."
"Morning." Meng Jueming studied Wei Zhao's expression closely, yet could find not the slightest hint of anything amiss on his face. He exchanged a startled look with Meng Zhou. Could it be that this fellow still had not discovered the trick in those spirit jade?
Because Meng Jueming had long since given the word to Dai Wuchang and the others, Wei Zhao obtained his pass token for Mining Zone Seven without a hitch. Without another word he entered the mine tunnel, and from first to last said not a single extra sentence to the two of them, showing not the least sign of anything out of the ordinary.
"Judging by the kid's reaction, he can't have found out that the whole bag is waste jade—otherwise there's no way he'd be this calm!" Meng Jueming turned and muttered to Meng Zhou.
"Heh, the way he carried on before, I actually thought he was pretty sharp—so it was all just an act! A whole night gone and he still hasn't caught on to that bag of waste jade. Even a pig wouldn't be this slow—he's dumber than a pig!" Meng Zhou snickered with gleeful malice.
"Not necessarily. I wouldn't say the kid is truly stupid—perhaps he's just beside himself at coming into so much spirit jade all at once. Anyone would be giddy with joy, wouldn't they?" Meng Jueming, at least, did not underestimate Wei Zhao too much, and stood there stroking his chin in thought...