Chapter 4331 — Who the Hell Are You!
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"That's right—it was his own cargo to begin with. Not only did he eat it back himself, he could even shake down the escort agency for a sky-high compensation, and no one could find a single fault in it. They'd have to bow and scrape and apologize to him besides. To work a no-capital scheme so flawlessly—hell, I'm starting to suspect this fellow might be in the same line of work as us!" The man in black laughed with a sly grin.
All around them were outsiders drinking and eating, yet in a place like this he spoke without the slightest restraint—and the others who heard showed not a flicker of anything odd in their expressions. That alone showed how lawless the Zhenduan sea lanes were: folk there had long since grown inured to such things and took them as a matter of course.
Wei Zhao, however, was utterly stunned by these words. He had never imagined that the mastermind behind it all would turn out to be Wei Zhaotong himself!
He had found it strange all along. Their original escort route had been kept profoundly secret—outsiders could never have known it. Especially with the sea fog so thick, unless the pirates had known the sailing route in advance and lain in wait there, the odds of them spotting the cargo ship in that vast, blinding murk were next to nothing.
Yet the truth was that these pirates had been waiting, fully prepared, like a hunter by a stump for the rabbit to come to him. They had needed neither hesitation nor pursuit—the moment Wei Zhao and his companions "delivered the goods to their door," they simply rushed aboard and took possession. The whole affair could be described in four words: clean and neat.
Never in his wildest dreams had Wei Zhao expected the catch to lie here—that from first to last, this whole farce had been staged by the Hong Merchant Guild itself!
Swallowing one's own cargo, then going to the escort agency to demand compensation—that was already beyond any ordinary inside job. It was nothing less than a pit Wei Zhaotong had dug, baiting the Qingtian Escort Agency into jumping in, and when it was done he could still stand on the side of righteousness. He would have them bow and apologize—and along the way, Wei Zhao and his companions had been buried in the same pit.
Wei Zhao truly never would have imagined that Wei Zhaotong, guild master of the Hong Merchant Guild's branch in the Weihu sea region, could be such a despicable, shameless piece of work!
And this was a longtime friend whom Hong Zhong had solemnly introduced to him. With precedents like Cai Zhongxuan of the Middle Isle before him, Wei Zhao had assumed all of Hong Zhong's friends would be of the same caliber. Never had he thought Wei Zhaotong's character could rot to such a degree. So even a seasoned, prudent figure like Hong Zhong, it seemed, had his moments of misjudgment.
On second thought, though, Hong Zhong had said when making the introduction that although Wei Zhaotong was an old friend, they had not seen each other in quite a number of years. People always change, and given enough time, it was no great wonder that Wei Zhaotong had let profit blind his eyes.
That being so, Wei Zhao saw no reason to spare this creature any face. His original plan had been to wait until the docks were reopened and then take a ship straight back to the Weihu sea region—but now he was going to change his mind.
Had he not run into these two pirates, Wei Zhao would have planned to take a little stroll after his meal—after all, a visit to Zhenduan City was a rare thing. But he had now abandoned that notion. He meant to keep a close watch on the two pirates behind him.
Wei Zhao ate quietly on his own in front, waiting for the pair behind him to make their next move. A full half-hour passed before the two of them finally ate and drank their fill.