護花近衛 - 第3678章 內訌 上 - 翰墨軒

"Then that's all we can do. If only Leader Wei Zhao were here—he might not be able to take on this many at once, but he'd find a way somehow." Qiao Hongcai sighed.

Somewhere along the way, his way of addressing Wei Zhao had shifted from the old polite "Brother Lin" to "Leader Wei Zhao"—crude to the ear, perhaps, but warmer, and touched with reverence.

Xiao Che gave a bitter laugh. "I'd rather he weren't here, honestly. If his herbs got taken too on our account, the whole lot of us would come out of this trial with nothing at all."

"What a waste—the herbs they took from me will surely end up in Meng Zhou's hands. And that means even if Leader Wei Zhao doesn't get dragged down with us, it'll be hard for him to fight for first place."

Qiao Hongcai let out a dejected sigh. His luck in this trial had actually been rather good—in barely two days he'd already neared five hundred points. If he could deliver his haul unscathed, he still had every hope of contending for a top rank.

But now it was all moot. Not only had he lost every last spirit herb, but his loss had served the enemy and become a burden on Wei Zhao.

"Even if Meng Zhou takes first in the end, Leader Wei Zhao still has a shot at the top three. But if this share of mine gets split up along with the rest, he'll be lucky to stay in the top three at all. So these herbs on my back absolutely cannot fall into their hands!" Xiao Che glanced at the basket behind him, his expression resolute.

He had been ambushed by Meng Zhou and his crew later than Qiao Hongcai, so he'd had more time to gather spirit herbs, and his score now stood at five hundred twenty-three points.

In an ordinary year such a score would be middling at best, but this year was different. Meng Zhou's gang had begun rallying by midday of the second day of the trial. They had succeeded in robbing Qiao Hongcai, true, but it was a highly risky gambit—their own gathering time had been cut drastically. In other words, their current scores were hardly impressive, and those who could clear the five-hundred mark were likely few and far between.

If Xiao Che got out of this safely, his five hundred twenty-three might well land him in the top five—even the top three was not out of the question. In that case, despite Meng Zhou's first place, this lot would still be denied their clean sweep by Wei Zhao and Xiao Che. Penny wise and pound foolish.

But if Xiao Che's share were taken as well, everything changed. With Meng Zhou's first place secured, they could simply divide those five hundred-odd points however they liked, and the whole gang could monopolize the top three.

And then not only would Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai come away with nothing—even Wei Zhao would end up with only the three spirit jade prizes for fourth through tenth place. Set against the bumper harvest of Meng Zhou's crew, it would be a truly pitiful sight.

So Xiao Che could not, under any circumstances, let Meng Zhou's gang succeed—not merely for his own sake, but for Wei Zhao's.

"By the way, did you notice? Neither Meng Zhou nor Li Zhengming is carrying a basket," Xiao Che said suddenly as they hurried along.

Qiao Hongcai blinked, thought back, then said, "Now that you mention it—I hadn't caught that at all! Could the two of them have been robbed by Leader Wei Zhao earlier, not even leaving them a basket?"

"Impossible. Those baskets are the property of the Rear Mountain Hall; nothing can go wrong with them. Even if taking each other's spirit herbs is allowed, the baskets have to be kept. Yours is still on your back, isn't it?" Xiao Che jutted his chin at Qiao Hongcai's back.

Though every last spirit herb had been stripped from it, Qiao Hongcai still wore his basket—it simply showed a score of zero.