護花近衛 - 第5020章 見了鬼了 - 墨香閣

"Who's the shameless little scoundrel? Say that to my face!" The old man, too, hastily stuffed the money away, shouldered his carrying pole, and went hobbling after him, cursing all the way.

One behind the other, the two of them vanished around the mouth of the alley in a matter of moments. In a few short minutes, not a trace of them remained. Wei Zhao was left alone in the deserted lane.

"Heh. Truly something else. Cheated the moment I came down the mountain last time, and now that I'm back in the secular world, cheated again — and the trick's the exact same, beat for beat. Do I really look that much like a born sucker?" Wei Zhao shook his head and laughed at himself.

If he couldn't see through a scam this obvious, he'd have to be a genuine fool. What's more, this con was identical to the one he'd run into on the train when he first came down the mountain. The only difference was that back then Wang Xinyan had been there to warn him, while now she was off on Cloud Terrace Island. How could Wei Zhao possibly have fallen for it?

Clearly, judging by the way these two sold their act — flawless, indistinguishable from the real thing — they had to be professionals. They'd caught sight of the ten-thousand-yuan wad in Wei Zhao's hand and marked him, then staged this little drama.

The pair were probably still congratulating themselves, secretly gloating over having found a nice, gullible idiot. But in another moment they'd find out just who the idiot was.

Wei Zhao casually tossed the so-called ticket — the one supposedly holding ten third-prize wins — into a pile of trash. In his hand, somehow, there was now a thick stack of cash. Besides his own ten thousand, he had quietly lifted everything the other two were carrying as well, and all together it came to a full thirty thousand. He'd been worrying earlier about not having enough money to get by, and now he had enough to last him a good while.

A moment ago he'd been sighing that things had changed beyond recognition. But after this little episode, Wei Zhao felt that the secular world hadn't changed one bit — and he liked it all the better for that.

He pocketed the thirty thousand and made his way out of the alley toward the busy street beyond. As far as he was concerned, the priority now was to find a real-estate agency and rent a place — the sooner he recovered his strength, the better.

But before he'd taken two steps, five men suddenly came crowding into the mouth of the alley. Wei Zhao thought at first that the two swindlers had realized something was wrong and come back to settle accounts with him. A closer look, however, showed that it wasn't them at all — these were plainly five petty thugs.

At their head was a thing with a mop of dyed red hair. He and his crew blocked the way with obvious ill intent. The alley was a dead end, and the only exit was already plugged by them; there was no escaping even if Wei Zhao wanted to. Of course, they were nothing but a pack of small-time hoodlums, not those two Foundation Establishment cultivators. He had no need to run at all.

"Hey, kid. Your brothers here are a little short on cash lately. Thought we'd borrow a few bills from you, spend a little. No problem, right?" Red Hair swaggered over with a cocky, wide-legged gait, his four underlings trailing behind him, each striking a pose more absurdly badass than the last, all trying to look cool and tough.

"Borrow money?" Wei Zhao arched an eyebrow, a half-smile on his lips.

"Yeah, borrow money. Doesn't have to be much — a ten-thousand or twenty-thousand, just to be polite about it. How much exactly depends on whether you know how to play nice, kid." Red Hair had a cigarette clamped between his lips and blew a smoke ring with what he took to be great flair.

"Then I'd better get this straight. Is it just you borrowing money, or are these Four Heavenly Kings behind you borrowing too?" Wei Zhao said mildly.