Chapter 4579 — Going Too Far
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
The group walked out the gate in oppressive silence. Suddenly Lu Bianren halted and said to Jia Mufan ahead of him, "Senior Brother Jia, now will you tell us what is going on? How did Senior Brother Lin's residence become that bastard's?"
Jia Mufan stopped and swept his gaze across every face before sighing. "The truth is, the very day after the inner court tournament ended, Junior Brother Ma had already set his eye on this place. He came to demand it of me then, but because it belonged to Junior Brother Lin, I refused him on the spot."
"And after that?" Lu Bianren and the others frowned in unison.
"After that, he came to me several more times, but each time I put him off with some excuse. I may as well be frank with you: I am not close to Junior Brother Lin, nor would I call us friends, but he is, after all, a figure valued by both Pavilion Master Shangguan and our own Pavilion Master Yu. As the senior brother and steward of the inner court, how could I go and offend Junior Brother Lin over a matter like this for no good reason?" Jia Mufan said earnestly.
The others nodded one after another, and their gazes toward Jia Mufan visibly softened. They could tell he was speaking plain truth, and that a man of his station—senior brother and steward of the inner court—was willing to open his heart to them like this was no small thing. Whatever else might be said, the man clearly knew a thing or two about handling people.
"If that is so, then how did it still end up in his hands?" Lu Bianren and the others looked at one another in bewilderment. Authority over the allocation of cave dwellings for the Azure Cloud Pavilion's inner court disciples rested entirely with Jia Mufan. If he had refused, would Ma Dangfeng dare seize it outright without justification?
"There is much you do not know. Junior Brother Ma's standing in our inner court is now no lower than my own, and many of the Azure Cloud Pavilion's higher-ups think highly of him. This time he was determined to have it, and he enlisted several of the pavilion's elders to support him jointly, forcing the allocation of this residence under his name at the pavilion's internal council of elders. So there was nothing I could do." Jia Mufan shrugged helplessly.
"Outrageous! This is going too far!" The crowd was instantly aflame with indignation. If Wei Zhao were still here, they believed, even those elders of the Azure Cloud Pavilion would never dare do such a thing. To offend Wei Zhao was to slap Shangguan Tianxia in the face—even Yu Zhenyang, the pavilion master of the Azure Cloud Pavilion, would not dare be so brazen, let alone these elders.
But Wei Zhao was absent now, and Shangguan Lan'er never came this way unless there was cause. That is to say, whatever befell them here would likely never reach Shangguan Tianxia's ears. (To be continued) R752