Chapter 3971 — Seeking the Scrap King
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Yet Murong Zhen suddenly spoke up: "Actually, in this lady's view, Li Zhengming's defection to Wei Zhao may not be quite the settled matter it seems."
"How do you mean?" Meng Zhou asked, puzzled.
"This lady said it just now—the moment Li Zhengming went over, Qiao Hongcai immediately challenged him. That was meant as a show of dominance, yet Li Zhengming turned around and beat him. What do you suppose Qiao Hongcai must be feeling now?" Murong Zhen mused darkly. "And what's more, this lady also heard that no sooner had Qiao Hongcai been defeated than Xiao Che issued a challenge of his own. What that signifies, I need hardly spell out."
"You're saying Li Zhengming is being squeezed out by Wei Zhao's core henchmen acting in concert?" Meng Zhou's eyes lit up.
Such a thing was hardly impossible. Were he, Meng Zhou, in Qiao Hongcai's or Xiao Che's position, he would likely have adopted the same tactics to shore up his own standing. Otherwise he would never have spent all that time before suppressing Li Zhengming in front of Meng Jueming.
"Precisely. So this is our opening—we can work to turn Li Zhengming back to our side!" Murong Zhen said, eyes gleaming.
"Fine by me, I've no objection." Meng Zhou glanced at Murong Zhen and went on: "This sort of thing is your specialty, surely. No need for me to show my face."
Except in dealing with the rare oddity, Murong Zhen's beauty schemes were, in the Yingxin Pavilion—where year in and year out no woman was to be seen—effective the vast majority of the time.
"There's no problem with this lady taking the lead. But Li Zhengming has endured in silence this long; he is no shallow sort. Whether he can be turned back depends entirely on your sincerity," Murong Zhen said with pointed meaning.
Back in the rear mountains, she had seen with perfect clarity how Meng Zhou treated Li Zhengming. In her view, Li Zhengming had thrown in with Wei Zhao purely because Meng Zhou had driven him to it. If Meng Zhou did not change his madman's ways, then no matter how great her exertions, they would likely come to nothing.
Meng Zhou's face stiffened. After a moment he said in a low voice: "You just go and work your charms on him. When the time comes, I'll know what to do."
"Very good. Then wait for this lady's good news." Murong Zhen smiled, then turned and swayed away, hips swinging. So long as Meng Zhou was willing to bow his head and apologize to Li Zhengming, she was confident that with her charms, hooking Li Zhengming would be no trouble at all.
Yet after returning, Murong Zhen did not go straight to Li Zhengming. After all, the man had only just gone over to Wei Zhao; even if he was being pushed out, it was still only a hint of trouble, not yet deeply felt.
Better to let him stew in it for a while—especially once he had crossed blades with Xiao Che, the conflict between the two sides would surely intensify. If she, Murong Zhen, appeared only when Li Zhengming was thoroughly miserable, she would achieve twice the result with half the effort and take him in hand with ease.
Of course, though the matter of turning Li Zhengming was set aside for the moment, Murong Zhen was not idle. Her pressing task now was to keep Kang Jingming firmly hooked—after all, he was the meat already in her mouth, and there was certain profit to be had.
Soon enough, thanks to Murong Zhen's artful pandering, her efforts were not wasted: Kang Jingming wrung a modest little sweetener for her.
With Xu Lingchong's tacit approval, Kang Jingming took the initiative to suggest to Hu Yunfeng, Pavilion Master of the Yingxin Pavilion, that Murong Zhen be made second senior brother in charge of newcomers at the Qingyun Pavilion.