Chapter 5044 — I'm Quite the Hand

"Sure, sure—come back next time and I'll give you a discount." The shopkeeper and his wife exchanged a furtive grin and lost no time stuffing the money into the drawer.

Wei Zhao gave a faint smile and, under a barrage of mocking stares, led Leng Leng out the door. Not the least bit of anger at being fleeced showed on him; he looked utterly unruffled, as though he had merely enjoyed a perfectly ordinary meal.

"What's the matter with you? How can you be such a spineless wretch? They were obviously cheating you, and you still fell for it? Do you enjoy being a sucker? I can't stand idiots who put on airs of wealth in front of a woman!" Leng Leng's pretty face was frosty with fury. Left to her own devices, she would have smashed that crooked shop to pieces long ago, but this fellow Wei Zhao—who knew what he was thinking—had been quietly holding her back the whole time, refusing to let her lift a finger.

Back in the ancient little jianghu, there had often been second-generation cultivators trying to court her by flaunting their wealth before her eyes. Little did they know that Leng Leng loathed such self-deluding fools; every time she saw one of them, she felt sick to her stomach. She had thought Wei Zhao was different from that lot, but never imagined he too would play the rich fool. She had really misjudged him!

"You think I'm that stupid?" Wei Zhao countered with a smile.

"Huh?" Leng Leng froze, the scolding on the tip of her tongue swallowed back down. Puzzled, she asked, "Then why did you hand over the money so obediently?"

"Come on, let's sit here and let our food settle, and while we're at it enjoy the show inside. Once you've seen it, you'll understand." Wei Zhao gave a knowing chuckle, as though he were privy to some profound secret, and settled himself at his ease on a stone bench by the roadside.

Leng Leng was full of questions, but since Wei Zhao insisted, she had no choice but to sit down beside him and watch what was going on inside the seafood shop.

Sure enough, before long a commotion broke out in the shop. First the shopkeeper and his wife started quarrelling, and as they quarrelled the fight spread to the other employees—especially the gang of little thugs by the door—with both of them cursing at the top of their lungs, demanding to know who had stolen the money from the drawer.

Naturally no one would own up to such a thing, and neither the shopkeeper couple nor the thugs were of a mild temper. Things escalated until they came to blows—and before long they had wrecked the shop themselves.

"What's going on?" Leng Leng was baffled. Had Wei Zhao kept her here on purpose just to watch this? But how could he have known these people would lose their money?

"Look, their money is all here." A black bag had appeared in Wei Zhao's hand at some point, stuffed full of cash—not only the ten thousand-odd he had just handed over, but assorted other notes adding up to forty or fifty thousand. It was probably half a month's takings for the seafood shop—or, of course, the proceeds of a single day's swindling.

"How is that possible?" Leng Leng was startled. She, an expert of the early Foundation Establishment stage, had been right beside Wei Zhao the whole time and had not noticed a thing from beginning to end. Somewhat astonished, she asked, "How did you do that?"

"Didn't I tell you? I'm quite the hand at martial arts—a little trick like this is nothing to me." Wei Zhao laughed heartily.

"Braggart." Leng Leng could not help smiling despite herself. She told herself it must have been her momentary anger that had kept her from noticing. This fellow really was different from the people of the ancient little jianghu—she had wronged him just now.

"Whether I'm bragging, you'll find out in time," Wei Zhao said, offering no explanation. His methods were beyond even Leng Leng's comprehension—probably not even the top elites of Cloud Terrace Island could have figured them out. Who would have guessed that when he took this money, he had not laid a hand on it himself, but had simply drawn it straight into the jade pendant's space?

Still, come to think of it, he really did owe this crooked shop a proper thank-you. He had been worrying about money lately. True, the two swindlers at the start had contributed twenty thousand, and with his own cash he had thirty thousand in all—more than enough if it were just him.

The trouble was that he was now busy courting Leng Leng, and wooing a woman was the kind of business that drained money like running water. Today alone he had blown six or seven thousand on a phone and whatnot, to say nothing of daily expenses. If he was going to buy her anything expensive in the days ahead, the money he had on hand might not be enough. He had been fretting over exactly this when someone had obligingly delivered money to his door.

With his skills, Wei Zhao could get money whenever he wanted, but he was no thief without principles. He could hardly go stealing from ordinary folk for no reason. Only the scum and lowlifes who crossed him were fair game—the two swindlers last time, and this crooked shop today.

Frankly, without these characters Wei Zhao would have had a real headache on his hands. In his eyes, they were nothing less than regular little gods of wealth, scattering money his way.

"I think you've gotten addicted to spinning tales—you make it sound so real, Mister Martial Arts Expert." Leng Leng did not believe a word of it. Suddenly in high spirits, she said, "Well, now that the show's over, let's go on with our shopping. It's not often I come to a place like this—I still want a good look at those pretty clothes."

"Shopping?" Wei Zhao was taken aback. He had assumed that now Leng Leng had obtained the top-grade spirit jade she wanted, she would be eager to hurry back and heal her injuries. He never expected her to be in the mood for this. Women would be women, he supposed—shopping held a fatal attraction for them forever, and even a little ice queen like Leng Leng, who came from the Third Plane, was no exception.

"You don't want to?" Leng Leng glanced at him.

"No, no, of course I do. In fact, I've been wanting to buy you some clothes for a while now, only I didn't dare place an order without knowing your measurements. Today, with you here to try them on in person, it's a wish come true," Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"You want to buy me clothes?" At these words Leng Leng's pretty face suddenly flushed, and she said in a low, somewhat bashful voice, "Isn't it only a husband who buys clothes for his wife? How could I let you buy them for me..."

The customs of the ancient little jianghu were much like those of Cloud Terrace Island, even more conservative. Unless a man and a woman had already pledged their hearts to each other, things as intimate as clothing could not be casually given; to give clothes was, in a sense, the same as a declaration of love. Men had tried before to give Leng Leng such intimate gifts, but she had always insisted on refusing.

"Huh? Where'd you get an idea like that? Isn't it perfectly normal for friends to give each other a few clothes? Everyone does it," Wei Zhao said in surprise.

"Is—is that so? Well, all right then." Leng Leng lowered her head, her face red, quietly convincing herself that this was the secular world and that when in Rome one did as the Romans did; for someone to give another a few clothes was perfectly normal here, and did not really mean a pledge of love. (To be continued.)