Chapter 5044 — I'm Quite the Hand
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"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.