Chapter 3686 — A Sore Loser Plots to Cheat
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Strings could not be pulled under the elders' noses—and yet, to stand by and watch first place go to a creature like Wei Zhao, neither Meng Zhou, the party concerned, nor Meng Jueming himself could swallow that gall.
Time waited for no man. Since the examiner had confirmed Wei Zhao's score, the final ranking had naturally fallen into place. But just as Hu Yunfeng braced himself to announce it before the crowd, Xu Lingchong at his side shot him a look.
"What are young Master Xu's orders?" Hu Yunfeng bobbed and scraped.
Xu Lingchong glanced at him, his face blank. "I don't care how you do it—Wei Zhao must not take first place. Otherwise, how would I have any face left before so many new disciples?"
"This..." Hu Yunfeng was instantly in a bind. He stole a look at the three elders not far off. Head of the Welcome New Pavilion he might be, but in the Rear Mountain Hall he was nothing at all. If he dared openly move against Wei Zhao, he might be booted out of his post the very next moment.
And yet Xu Lingchong's grandfather, Xu Yuanzheng, was his most crucial patron. Offend this young Master Xu, and his own fate would be no better.
As Hu Yunfeng stood caught in his dilemma, Meng Jueming suddenly came trotting up from below, leaned close to him and Xu Lingchong, and whispered, "Young Master Xu, Pavilion Master, I have a way to keep Wei Zhao from taking first."
Hu Yunfeng brightened at once. "What clever scheme? Out with it."
"It's come to this—Wei Zhao's score is set in stone; we can hardly press it down anymore. But that doesn't mean he's entitled to first place. We need only fabricate a score higher than his, and that will overshadow him, won't it?" Meng Jueming proposed.
Xu Lingchong and Hu Yunfeng exchanged a look. Hu Yunfeng said doubtfully, "Fabricate a higher score—will that even work? Wei Zhao has a full eighteen hundred, and all the other new disciples' scores have already been reported once. Those can't be changed, can they?"
"Eighteen hundred is high, true enough, but Meng Zhou's sixteen hundred isn't much lower. We need only find one new disciple willing to contribute two hundred-odd points to Meng Zhou, and won't that put him above Wei Zhao?" Meng Jueming said cautiously. With his present influence among the new disciples, this would not be hard to arrange.
Xu Lingchong was somewhat moved. So long as that blind, insolent fool Wei Zhao did not have the last laugh, he cared not who took first.
But Hu Yunfeng remained dubious. "By the rules, once we're back in the Rear Mountain Hall the trial is over. No seizing points from one another, and no handing herbs around to rig the rankings in disguise. Can we really get away with this?"