Chapter 3655 — Framed Once More

"You're so dumb you're going to be the death of yourself! Anyway, the little thing's barely breathing—it could keel over any moment now. All we have to do is toss it into someone else's cave dwelling, and when Miss Shangguan comes looking, we lead her right to it. Caught red-handed with the goods—that makes it an ironclad fact, doesn't it!" Meng Jueming chuckled smugly.

"Oh, right! Ninth Cousin, you're brilliant!" Meng Tong perked up at once, seeing a way out, but then his brow furrowed. "So who should we pin it on?"

Meng Jueming curled his lip. "Isn't it obvious? Let me ask you—who do you hate most?"

"Who else? Wei Zhao, of course!" Meng Tong's face lit with understanding, and he clapped his hands in excitement. "Right! The fellow's about my height, his shoe size can't be far off mine either, and he's out mining right now, not in his cave dwelling. He's born to take the fall for us!"

"If all goes smoothly this time, we won't just clear ourselves of suspicion—we can take that clueless brat down in one stroke. I'd love to see how he faces Miss Shangguan's fury then!" A ruthless glint flashed across Meng Jueming's face.

"Heh heh! Miss Shangguan's background is far bigger than even Young Master Xu's—Wei Zhao is dead for certain this time!" Meng Tong breathed a sigh of relief, then added with lingering dread, "Ninth Cousin, you're really clever. If not for you, I'd be the one dead for certain this time…"

"Turning a crisis into an opportunity—that's what real wisdom looks like. You'd better learn from me from now on, kid!" Meng Jueming tilted his chin up proudly.

"Absolutely, I could never learn all there is to learn from you in a lifetime, Ninth Cousin!" Meng Tong hurried to flatter him, earning a burst of smug laughter from Meng Jueming.

No time to waste—the two of them immediately found a black sack ordinarily used for holding spirit jade, stuffed the Curl-Curl Bear cub into it whole, and then deliberately fetched a lidded basket to carry it in.

The Curl-Curl Bear cub was small, and it lay limp and barely alive, so from the outside no one could tell anything was amiss. On top of that, Meng Jueming knew everyone at the Spirit Jade Hall, so none of the guards suspected a thing—the two of them carried the cub out without a hitch.

Leaving the Spirit Jade Hall, they headed straight for Wei Zhao's cave dwelling. Taking advantage of Wei Zhao's absence, Meng Jueming had Meng Tong keep watch while he broke the seal on Wei Zhao's cave dwelling, carried the cub out and set it inside, then restored the seal exactly as it had been.

Since the vast majority of the Azure Cloud Pavilion newcomers were out mining, and the only two who weren't—Xiao Ran and Qiao Hongcai—had recently come into a good deal of spirit jade and were wholly absorbed in their cultivation, they noticed nothing of what was happening outside.

With the deed done, Meng Jueming and Meng Tong returned to the Spirit Jade Hall—but instead of entering the mining area, they deliberately kept watch at its entrance. They were waiting for Shangguan Lan'er to come looking.

From Meng Jueming's past experience, once this Curl-Curl Bear cub slipped out, its owner Shangguan Lan'er would invariably come searching within a day.

In fact, anyone who had spent a few years at the Spirit Jade Hall knew this Curl-Curl Bear cub.

It was hardly its first visit. Because the spirit qi in the mining area was especially abundant, it held considerable allure for spirit beasts—and the Curl-Curl Bear in particular was a rare spirit beast said to feed on spirit jade. The Spirit Jade Hall's mining area and storehouses were an irresistible temptation to it, so in recent years the cub had found chances to sneak over several times a year.

And out of regard for its owner, Shangguan Lan'er, everyone at the Spirit Jade Hall turned a blind eye to it; even if they caught it in the act, they would just laugh it off. No one could have guessed that this year it would have the rotten luck to run into Meng Tong, that glutton—it was simply fated to meet this calamity.

Yet perhaps because she had long since grown used to her spirit pet's antics, Shangguan Lan'er, who in past years had always been so anxious about the Curl-Curl Bear's whereabouts, did not show up this time. Meng Jueming and Meng Tong waited in eager anticipation until the mining area shut down for the day, and still there was no sign of the young lady.

Instead of Shangguan Lan'er, the first to arrive was Wei Zhao—though he clearly had no interest in speaking with them, and walked straight past.

Once Wei Zhao was out of sight, Meng Jueming jerked his chin at Meng Tong and instructed in a low voice, "I'll keep waiting here. You follow him and keep an eye on what he does when he gets back and finds the little thing. If he tries to quietly toss it out under cover of darkness, round up the others and catch him in the act—make as much of a commotion as you can!"

"Got it—Ninth Cousin, you think of everything!" Meng Tong answered and hurried after him.

By any normal person's logic, the first reaction upon sensing something wrong would be to quietly dispose of it before anyone was the wiser, to keep trouble from landing on one's own head.

Meng Jueming's concern was well founded. If Wei Zhao really did quietly throw the Curl-Curl Bear cub out, all their earlier effort would be wasted—and worse, the trouble might end up rebounding onto Meng Tong himself. If they couldn't get the young lady to form the preconception that Wei Zhao was the culprit as planned, things would get messy.

Given Meng Tong's strength and skill, tailing Wei Zhao closely would ordinarily have been impossible, but fortunately his cave dwelling was right next to Wei Zhao's, so even though he deliberately trailed him the whole way, Wei Zhao suspected nothing.

It was only after entering his own cave dwelling and seeing the little black-and-white creature on the ground that Wei Zhao froze for a moment. "What kind of spirit beast is this?"

The Curl-Curl Bear was a spirit beast native to Cloud Terrace Island, and with their numbers so few, even local cultivators might not recognize one—so it was only natural that Wei Zhao, a cultivator who had come up from the mortal world, did not.

Still, though he didn't know what kind of spirit beast it was, instinct told him the little thing posed no threat to him—especially since it was now barely breathing, looking for all the world like it was about to expire.

Never mind wondering how the little thing had mysteriously appeared in his cave dwelling; Wei Zhao didn't stop to think. He walked over, propped it upright, pressed his palm to the pulse point at its chest, and began circulating the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, attempting to channel true qi into it. It was, after all, a wondrous creature of this world—he couldn't just watch it die before his eyes.

Feeling the true qi Wei Zhao channeled into it, the barely-alive Curl-Curl Bear cub suddenly opened its eyes and gave two weak cries: "Woo… woo…"

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