Chapter 3689 — The Little Bear's Word Decides

"Wahhh, wahhh!" Not only did the little bear refuse to come down, it kept crying out again and again, as if it were trying to say something.

Shangguan Lan'er blinked, taken aback. No one else could understand the little bear's whining, but she had grown up playing with it since childhood. She wouldn't claim to grasp its meaning one hundred percent, but eighty percent was surely within reach.

"Are you saying you want Wei Zhao to come in first, and that Meng Tong is a bad man?" Shangguan Lan'er asked, her delicate brows knitting together as her doubtful gaze settled on Meng Tong.

Given how attached the little bear was to Wei Zhao, its wish for him to take first place was easy enough to understand. But to leap from that to calling Meng Tong a bad man—that was rather strange.

After all, the little bear was nothing like scheming humans. It always said exactly what it meant, and it would never stoop to belittling Meng Tong just to help Wei Zhao win. If it said so, there had to be a reason.

Feeling Shangguan Lan'er's meaningful gaze fall upon him, Meng Tong broke out in a cold sweat on the spot. His only thought at that moment was: Oh no—could the truth have come out, and this little creature has remembered what happened that day?

Such a thing was not impossible. Though the little bear was still in its infancy, its spiritual intelligence already rivaled that of a human child. It was hardly surprising that it might recall that day's events now.

"Tell me—what exactly did you do to my Xiaobai? Xiaobai would never slander you out of thin air!" Where the little bear was concerned, Shangguan Lan'er's expression turned grave at once, and she fixed Meng Tong with a demanding stare.

She had never much cared for taxing her brain, but that did not mean she lacked one. Looking back now, the search for the little bear that day had indeed been rather odd—at the very least, the accounts given by Meng Jueming and Meng Tong must have contained falsehoods. Only it had been growing dark, and the little bear had been found safe and sound, so she had let the matter drop.

"N-no... nothing of the sort!" Meng Tong stammered in hurried denial. If what happened that day were dug up, his end would be ugly indeed.

"Nothing?" Shangguan Lan'er eyed him half in doubt, then turned to the little bear. "Xiaobai, why do you call this one a bad man? Did he do something bad to you?"

"Wahhh, wahhh!" The little bear launched into another round of gestures with paws and feet, and in the midst of it pointed at Meng Tong several times for good measure.

Meng Tong's heart leaped into his throat. Even Meng Jueming, standing some distance away, broke out in a cold sweat at the sight, terrified that the case would be cracked wide open in front of this great crowd. If that happened, they would truly be in for it.

As for Wei Zhao, he watched it all unfold with cool composure, like a spectator at a play. If the little bear truly could recall the particulars of that day, then Meng Jueming and Meng Tong were doomed beyond all hope of rescue—and that would save him no small amount of trouble.

Shangguan Lan'er mulled it over for a long while before she finally grasped the little bear's meaning. With a helpless sigh, she said, "Xiaobai, are you saying that this Meng Tong fellow's aura is revolting—like he kicked you in a dream—and that he's not a good man?"

"Wahhh, wahhh." The little bear nodded vigorously.

Oh, thank goodness! So the little creature had not remembered anything after all—it simply found him instinctively repellent!

Meng Jueming and Meng Tong exchanged a glance, both letting out a breath of relief, their hearts still pounding with lingering fear.

Spirit beasts like the little bear were far more perceptive than ordinary folk. Even without a clear memory, something deep in its subconscious would still be on guard against whatever had once harmed it.

But so long as it did not clearly recall that day's events, everything would be fine. After all, even a young lady like Shangguan Lan'er could hardly level a baseless charge against the two of them, or target them outright over her pet's mere dislike.

"Fine, then. I'm done here—carry on, all of you." Shangguan Lan'er shot the little creature an exasperated glare. Just as Meng Jueming and the other had supposed, she was Shangguan Tianhua's granddaughter; before such a crowd, every word and deed of hers had to reflect upon her grandfather's image. She could not simply indulge the little creature's every whim.

The bald elder nodded and was about to announce the results just like that, when Shangguan Lan'er pursed her lips at Meng Tong below and said, "I may have no quarrel with you, but if even Xiaobai finds you so detestable, then it proves you're no good man! Hmph!"

"Er..." Meng Tong was on the verge of tears. He had been congratulating himself on escaping disaster, only to be blacklisted on the spot by this young lady. Truly, nothing had gone right for him today.

Still, thankfully, the business of abusing the little bear that day had not been exposed on the spot—which was already a blessing in misfortune. And he could at least console himself with the fact that he had still come away with first place in the trial.

But the bald elder's next words nearly made him spit out a mouthful of blood: "In this trial, the Qingyun Pavilion newcomers Meng Tong and Wei Zhao may have finished with identical scores. Yet looking at the trial as a whole, Meng Tong incited the other newcomers to gang up on Wei Zhao—resorting to trickery, his conduct improper. Therefore, this elder holds that first place in this Qingyun Pavilion trial belongs to Wei Zhao. Does anyone object?"

What the devil? First place to Wei Zhao?

From Xu Lingchong and Hu Yunfeng above to Meng Jueming and Meng Tong below, the whole lot of them were struck dumb. It had been agreed beforehand that Meng Tong was to be first—this was not how the script was supposed to go!

"No objections," the two elders beside him said with a nod. As for everyone else, however great their objections might be, they had not the slightest right to speak—not even Young Master Xu Lingchong himself.

"Then it is settled," the bald elder concluded, his final word driving the nail into the coffin of this newcomers' trial.

Good grief! Xu Lingchong and his crowd were left gaping. The situation had turned so abruptly it made their heads spin.

Xu Lingchong stared at the bald elder in disbelief. This was a public slap in the face—better to have refused him from the very start than to go back on his word like this! How was he, a great young master, supposed to hold his head up now? He had sworn to Hu Yunfeng and the others that he could settle this matter with ease!

The bald elder gave him a look and gestured toward Shangguan Lan'er. The meaning was plain: between Young Master Xu and the young lady Shangguan, the latter's face clearly counted for more. Even if Xu Yuanzheng was a bigwig on the elders' council, how could he compare with Shangguan Tianhua, master of the all-powerful Chongtian Pavilion?

Shangguan Lan'er had declared before everyone that Meng Tong was no good man. If he had still gone ahead and awarded first place to Meng Tong as planned, would that not be openly defying the young lady? (To be continued...)

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