Chapter 3689 — The Little Bear's Word Decides
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"Wahhh, wahhh!" Not only did the little bear refuse to come down, it kept crying out again and again, as if it were trying to say something.
Shangguan Lan'er blinked, taken aback. No one else could understand the little bear's whining, but she had grown up playing with it since childhood. She wouldn't claim to grasp its meaning one hundred percent, but eighty percent was surely within reach.
"Are you saying you want Wei Zhao to come in first, and that Meng Zhou is a bad man?" Shangguan Lan'er asked, her delicate brows knitting together as her doubtful gaze settled on Meng Zhou.
Given how attached the little bear was to Wei Zhao, its wish for him to take first place was easy enough to understand. But to leap from that to calling Meng Zhou a bad man—that was rather strange.
After all, the little bear was nothing like scheming humans. It always said exactly what it meant, and it would never stoop to belittling Meng Zhou just to help Wei Zhao win. If it said so, there had to be a reason.
Feeling Shangguan Lan'er's meaningful gaze fall upon him, Meng Zhou broke out in a cold sweat on the spot. His only thought at that moment was: Oh no—could the truth have come out, and this little creature has remembered what happened that day?
Such a thing was not impossible. Though the little bear was still in its infancy, its spiritual intelligence already rivaled that of a human child. It was hardly surprising that it might recall that day's events now.
"Tell me—what exactly did you do to my Xiaobai? Xiaobai would never slander you out of thin air!" Where the little bear was concerned, Shangguan Lan'er's expression turned grave at once, and she fixed Meng Zhou with a demanding stare.
She had never much cared for taxing her brain, but that did not mean she lacked one. Looking back now, the search for the little bear that day had indeed been rather odd—at the very least, the accounts given by Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou must have contained falsehoods. Only it had been growing dark, and the little bear had been found safe and sound, so she had let the matter drop.
"N-no... nothing of the sort!" Meng Zhou stammered in hurried denial. If what happened that day were dug up, his end would be ugly indeed.
"Nothing?" Shangguan Lan'er eyed him half in doubt, then turned to the little bear. "Xiaobai, why do you call this one a bad man? Did he do something bad to you?"
"Wahhh, wahhh!" The little bear launched into another round of gestures with paws and feet, and in the midst of it pointed at Meng Zhou several times for good measure.
Meng Zhou's heart leaped into his throat. Even Meng Jueming, standing some distance away, broke out in a cold sweat at the sight, terrified that the case would be cracked wide open in front of this great crowd. If that happened, they would truly be in for it.
As for Wei Zhao, he watched it all unfold with cool composure, like a spectator at a play. If the little bear truly could recall the particulars of that day, then Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou were doomed beyond all hope of rescue—and that would save him no small amount of trouble.
Shangguan Lan'er mulled it over for a long while before she finally grasped the little bear's meaning. With a helpless sigh, she said, "Xiaobai, are you saying that this Meng Zhou fellow's aura is revolting—like he kicked you in a dream—and that he's not a good man?"
"Wahhh, wahhh." The little bear nodded vigorously.
Oh, thank goodness! So the little creature had not remembered anything after all—it simply found him instinctively repellent!
Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou exchanged a glance, both letting out a breath of relief, their hearts still pounding with lingering fear.
Spirit beasts like the little bear were far more perceptive than ordinary folk. Even without a clear memory, something deep in its subconscious would still be on guard against whatever had once harmed it.