Chapter 4367 — What Can You Do About It?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
Wei Zhaotong was still stewing in his own lingering dread and gloom when a clerk came dashing in, panic written all over his face, crying that someone had come to wreck the place...
"What do you think you're doing?!" Wei Zhaotong hurried out after the clerk, and the moment he laid eyes on Wei Zhao and the two women, he froze.
"Doing?" Wei Zhao regarded him with arms folded, relaxed and unhurried, and smiled. "That depends on how you look at it. We've come to investigate the illegal and disciplinary violations committed by Manager Wei, here. Though from where you stand, I suppose you could also call it wrecking the place."
So it really was wrecking the place after all! Wei Zhaotong's mouth twitched. Wei Zhao himself he could afford to ignore, but Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao were another matter entirely—he did not dare underestimate them. These two were personal disciples of the Divine Nun of the East Sea; to offend them was to offend the Divine Nun herself, and that was no laughing matter. Cheng Qitian, who had died so miserably just moments ago, was a vivid cautionary tale.
And so, even though the other side had openly admitted to wrecking the place, so long as matters had not yet slid beyond all control, Wei Zhaotong could only pretend he had not heard.
"Investigate my illegal and disciplinary violations?" Wei Zhaotong feigned astonishment. "Did this old man hear that correctly? Your Morning Star Academy may hold a lofty position, but even so, there is no principle by which you may meddle in the affairs of the Hong Merchant Guild. I'm afraid that hardly conforms to the rules, does it? Do the academy's elders know you are out here carrying on like this? And besides—what illegal or disciplinary violations have I, an old man, ever committed?"
That string of rhetorical questions, paired with Wei Zhaotong's expression of astonished innocence, would have fooled most people easily enough. Wei Zhao and the two women, however, were plainly not about to take the bait.
"You're right enough—the Morning Star Academy truly cannot meddle in this, and has no principle by which to meddle in your affairs. But I can." As he spoke, Wei Zhao suddenly produced a purple-gold jade pendant of exquisite workmanship, within whose heart the characters for the Hong Merchant Guild faintly surfaced.
The others had no idea what it meant, but Wei Zhaotong took one look, and his expression changed on the spot. He was struck dumb.
This was purple-gold jade, exceedingly rare in this world. Small as the piece was, put up for auction it would fetch at least tens of thousands of spirit jades—perhaps even more. That alone would have been nothing; Wei Zhaotong had seen more fine things than he could count. But the trouble was that within the Hong Merchant Guild, a purple-gold jade pendant of this kind carried a very special meaning.
In the Hong Merchant Guild, any high-ranking figure at the vice-chairman level possessed a jade pendant to prove their identity. The chairman's was black-gold jade; the vice-chairmen's, blue-gold jade. The purple-gold jade, meanwhile, represented an outside high-ranking figure who had rendered some special service to the guild—in other words, an honorary vice-chairman!
All three kinds of gold jade were exceedingly rare, and each was specially inscribed with a formation array unique to the Hong Merchant Guild. Outsiders could never hope to counterfeit one. So long as one produced it, therefore, whichever branch one walked into, it was enough to prove one's identity.
Still, the existence of the purple-gold jade pendant was generally disclosed within the Hong Merchant Guild only to those who had risen to the level of branch manager. Ordinary retainers and skilled hands, or common clerks and servants, being of insufficient rank, might go a lifetime without ever seeing one—the vast majority knew nothing of it at all.