The winds were high, and the sky was dark with clouds. The waning moon wasn’t very bright to begin with, and the cloud cover completely obscured it. It was so dark that they couldn’t even see their hands in front of their faces. Their sole light source was a lone lantern hanging at the front of the boat that bobbed up and down with the waves.
Xiao Chengjun slowly grasped Lou Jing’s hand back. The crossing at Linjiang was done at a sharp bend of the river, and the waters ran quickly here. The boat rocked wildly in the choppy water, making everyone uneasy and fearful.
The boat itself was small and narrow. Of the fourteen Youyun guards that were not on the cargo ship, ten of them boarded one of these boats, and four of them accompanied their two masters on another boat. Two guards sat at the front, and two sat at the back. They didn’t say a word, and the only thing that could be heard was the sound of the boatman rowing them steadily across the river.
“There’s a submerged reef up ahead. You two young men, can I trouble you to help me row the boat? I need to guide the boat in front,” the boatman said, passing two oars to Yun Si and Yun Wu before going up to the front of the boat and taking out a long bamboo pole to feel the riverbed. “There are too many submerged reefs in this area.”
It was very cold sailing on the river. The boatman was wearing a straw outer coat that was able to block out some of the chill. He had been quiet all this while, and suddenly became talkative, which made Yun Qi and Yun Ba exchange a suspicious look.
“Mr Boatman, how long until we reach the riverbank on the other side?” Yun Ba asked, trying to feel this boatman out.
“Shush. Don’t speak,” the boatman said, cutting Yun Ba off. He used his bamboo pole to explore the dark waters, and the submerged end hit a rock with a small “thunk” sound. The boatman pushed strongly off the rock with the bamboo pole, and the boat moved backwards forcefully before being swept to the other side by the swiftly flowing water.
Yun Ba heaved a small sigh of relief. It seemed that he might have been overly suspicious. Just as he relaxed, a large CRACK sounded, and the whole body of the boat shook violently.
Lou Jing grabbed hold of Xiao Chengjun in one swift move. The latter had nearly fallen off the boat. He pulled him into his arms and they fell into the cabin together. They would likely be safe from being swept away by big waves now. Yun Si and Yun Wu, who were at the back of the boat, were not so lucky; they couldn’t catch hold of anything and were tossed straight into the water during the last turbulence.
Yun Ba caught hold of Yun Qi, and when he turned around, the boatman had disappeared.
They were now at the most turbulent part of the river, with countless submerged reefs between them and the riverbank. Before any of them could collect themselves, a huge wave swept over the already unstable boat and capsized it.
The empty little boat was then slammed mercilessly against huge rocks by the waves, and it splintered into wooden shafts.
The icy cold river water was all around them now. Lou Jing swallowed a huge mouthful of water and was unable to react for a while. The next thing he knew, his waistband tightened, and a strong hand grabbed hold of his collar, pulling him toward the surface of the water.
Lou Jing spat out the water in his mouth and concentrated on swimming upwards. The two of them broke the surface at the same time. The moment Lou Jing managed to inhale, he shouted, “Chengjun!”
The waves were roaring loudly around them, and even though they were right next to each other, Xiao Chengjun couldn’t hear what Lou Jing was saying at all. He pointed frantically at a submerged rock not too far away. This was the very rock that the boatman had tapped his bamboo pole on earlier.
With a belt tying them firmly together, they weren’t afraid to lose each other amidst the raging waters. They both put all their efforts into swimming toward the rock.
“Crash!” Before they could swim two strokes, a huge wave crashed down upon them again. They couldn’t see what was before them, but they keenly felt how overwhelming the waves were. The waves pulled them up at least a foot high, and they were about to be sent crashing down again.
Martial arts prowess counted for nothing in the face of this almighty force of nature. Lou Jing could only put all his energies into pulling Xiao Chengjun into his arms before the explosive wave threw them violently down.
They were like little worms in the turbulent river water. Lou Jing turned with all his might, putting Xiao Chengjun on top of himself. His own back smashed hard into the rocky reef below them.
Ccbatfg teuf kjnf ibbxfv ab remx atfw lcab lar atgjii, yea atlr alwf, Wljb Jtfcupec gfjmtfv bea, ugjyyfv tbiv bo Obe Alcu klat bcf tjcv jcv mjeuta tbiv bo j gbmx beamgbqqlcu klat atf batfg. Lf rbwftbk wjcjufv ab klatrajcv atf qeii bo atf kjnf atlr kjs.
Obe Alcu rtbbx tlr tfjv, ktlmt ofia gjatfg vlhhs. Lf xlmxfv boo j rabcf lc atf kjafg, mtjccfifv tlr lcafgcji obgmf, atfc oilqqfv atfw ybat bea bo atf gjulcu kjnfr.
Xiao Chengjun let go of the rock outcropping at just the right time, letting himself be pulled upward by Lou Jing onto higher ground.
This place was probably a huge rock that stuck out of the river. The fiercely flowing water didn’t reach as high as this stone and simply flowed past it. The two of them heaved a sigh of relief in unison. They were safe, for now.
“Mmph…” Lou Jing gave a low groan, then collapsed onto the rock.
“Zhuoyu!” Xiao Chengjun caught hold of Lou Jing just before he hit the ground, then quickly sat down with him in his lap. He wiped the water off Lou Jing’s face. “Are you injured? Where does it hurt?” he asked urgently.
Lou Jing held his left shoulder and inhaled sharply. The pain there was excruciating, and he couldn’t speak for a while because it hurt too badly. He had struck his left shoulder hard on a piece of coral, and had very likely broken his arm.
Xiao Chengjun reached out to wipe away the beads of water on Lou Jing’s face. “Zhuoyu…” he said.
“I’m fine… my arm is probably hurt,” Lou Jing finally said, drawing ragged breaths after the first wave of pain passed.
Xiao Chengjun carefully held his left arm and positioned it in front of Lou Jing’s chest to prevent it from being further injured.
“Ah!” Lou Jing couldn’t help shouting in pain.
Xiao Chengjun’s heart broke on seeing Lou Jing in such agony, but there was nothing he could do. He could only hold him tight and gently kiss his forehead, which was covered in a sheen of cold sweat. “It’ll be light in two more hours. Yun Yi and company will come looking for us then,” he said comfortingly.
Lou Jing nodded, then leaned on Xiao Chengjun’s chest and nuzzled him. “Are you cold?” he asked.
The two of them were soaked through, and the cold went right into their bones when the chilly night winds blew.
Xiao Chengjun took off their outer robes, wrung them out, then put them on one side to dry. He did not, however, loosen the belt that connected the two of their waistbands. “Thank goodness for this belt, if not we might both be dead,” he said.
Now that he thought about it, if they hadn’t been tied together and been able to help each other, it would have been very difficult for them to escape alive. They were calm now, and were intensely relieved and joyful that they had made it out relatively unharmed. They held each other quietly, warming each other with their bodies.
Xiao Chengjun felt the person in his arms heat up, and his heart sank. He reached out to touch Lou Jing’s forehead. “You’re running a fever. Do you have any external injuries?” he asked. Given Lou Jing’s strong constitution, it was very unlikely that he would get a fever just from being blown by the cold wind; he must have more injuries that he didn’t speak about.
Lou Jing nuzzled against Xiao Chengjun’s icy cold neck. “I’m just channeling my neili to warm you up,” he said.
The Anguo Gong family’s Internal Martial Arts were not just able to make one move lightly, leap higher and run faster, they also allowed one to channel neili and manifest it externally once one had reached a certain level of mastery. One such use of this was what Lou Jing was doing presently – using his own body as a living hot water bottle. Xiao Chengjun finally relaxed a little when he heard this, then decided to simply pull open their wet robes and place their chests together, skin to skin, the better to warm each other up.
The rough river waters crashed again and again against the huge rock. The two of them were like a lone boat on a dark, stormy sea, alone and helpless. Thankfully, they had each other for comfort, and they didn’t feel as frightened as they ordinarily would have been in this situation.
Before long, the sky started to brighten. Xiao Chengjun enveloped Lou Jing in his half-dry outer robes and took a short nap, but was very quickly awakened shortly after by the bright sunlight.
He looked around and realised that they were actually in the middle of a rock pile. The jagged rocks around them were dark-coloured, and some had green moss growing on them. Some splintered wooden planks from their boat were sandwiched in between the cracks in the stone, and others floated in a pile of debris around their rockpile. He suddenly spotted a human leg bobbing up and down amidst the debris. The body that the leg belonged to was blocked from view by the boulders.
Xiao Chengjun got a shock and pulled out the treasure sword at his waist. That leg moved, then slowly climbed upwards. When Xiao Chengjun saw who it was, he exhaled in relief; it was Yun Qi, the one who specialised in healing external injuries! He sheathed his sword and quickly called him over.
“I’m amazed the sword’s still on your hip,” Lou Jing remarked, leaning on his husband’s body and looking at the gleaming treasure sword. “Eh? Isn’t this Scarlet Cloud?”
The sword had been wrapped in cloth previously, so Lou Jing hadn’t noticed that the sword was the Scarlet Cloud. The sword’s jewel-encrusted hilt was now in full view, and he now recognised the sword as the one he gave to the Empress. No wonder it was able to cut the mountain bandit’s huge sword back in the temple.
“Father Empress was worried, and he made me take this sword along,” Xiao Chengjun said, making sure that the sword was firmly back in its sheath. Thankfully, the sheath of this sword had a mechanism to keep the sword firmly in it unless the owner deliberately unsheathed it. If it had been any other sword, it would probably have been swept away by the raging waters long ago.
Yun Qi immediately knelt in greeting when he saw them. At the same time, he gave the unconscious Yun Ba a quick push to wake him up. They had both been at the head of the boat, so they hadn’t suffered any serious injuries. They had just been knocked out by the waves.
“This subordinate got a knife into that boatman. I doubt he got very far,” Yun Ba said. He had just gone to scout around the area and returned to give his report. “This area is the heart of the river. I haven’t seen any sign of Yun Wu and Yun Si.”
Yun Wu and Yun Si were at the back of the boat, and there was no telling where they had been swept off to. Xiao Chengjun sighed, then caressed Lou Jing’s pale face.
Yun Qi pared down two planks of wood to make a splint, then bound them to Lou Jing’s arm to set it. The injury was serious and affected his muscles and bones, but the bone wasn’t completely broken, just fractured at some parts. Lou Jing would need to nurse this injury for some time.
The boat that Yun Yi and company had been on had drifted quite far away from the one Lou Jing and Xiao Chengjun were on due to the strong winds and waves. Their boatman had also tried to harm them during the journey, but Yun San managed to subdue him and forced him to look for their masters’ boat at knifepoint. Unfortunately, all was dark, and they were unable to see anything at that time.
Yun Er and Yun Shi took the bamboo pole from the boatman and started navigating themselves. Yun Jiu remained in the cabin with the boatman to interrogate him. Even though the boatman was very familiar with the lay of the land, there were unfortunately many rockpiles around this area, and they had to search them one by one to look for Lou Jing and Xiao Chengjun. At the same time, they had to be on constant lookout for submerged reefs. The water was roaring loudly all about them, and they couldn’t make themselves heard above the noise, so they couldn’t try to call out to them either. They searched frantically for two hours until the sky started to brighten.
When the Youyun guards finally saw two people standing atop a huge rock, they nearly cried with joy and relief. They all knelt and sought punishment for their failure to protect their masters properly the moment they got onto that rock.
Xiao Chengjun carried Lou Jing over to sit in their boat. Yun Jiu tied the boatman to the front of the boat to point the way to safety, and they finally made it to the opposite bank. Yun Shi’er and Yun Shisan were waiting for them at the dock with their horses.
“Who hired you to harm us?” Yun Jiu asked the boatman fiercely, waving his sword menacingly. They’d found a guest inn to rest in, and Yun Jiu had immediately carted the boatman off to the firewood storeroom to interrogate him.
“Spare me! I… I was only following orders…” the boatman stuttered, trembling in fright from head to toe. After going back and forth a few times, he only kept repeating that someone had asked him to throw the people on this boat into the rapids in the middle of the river, and if he succeeded in doing so, he would receive five hundred taels of silver.
“Who was it?” Xiao Chengjun asked, pouring some medicated oil into his hand and rubbing it on Lou Jing’s badly bruised back.
Lou Jing had not just injured his arm – his back was also black and blue. He was presently lying chest-down on a bed in the inn, moaning and groaning theatrically as Xiao Chengjun applied medicine to his wounds.
“It was a Linjiang County constable,” Yun Jiu answered. That boatman had accepted this business precisely because he knew the man.
“A constable?” Xiao Chengjun’s hands paused. He had originally thought that his whereabouts had somehow been leaked, and that this incident had to do with the assassins who had followed him out of the Capital. However, if it was a Linjiang constable who asked the boatman to do this, the mastermind might not be the same fellow any more. Who could be behind it?
“Ow…” Lou Jing groaned. Xiao Chengjun had subconsciously applied more force when he had been distracted earlier. He immediately withdrew his hands from Lou Jing’s body, and Lou Jing took the chance to squirm over and lay his head on Xiao Chengjun’s lap.
Xiao Chengjun was silent for a moment, then poured out more medicated oil to gently massage Lou Jing’s back. “Have you found Yun Wu and Yun Si?” he asked.
“We don’t have news of them yet,” Yun Jiu said despondently. The sixteen of them had grown up together, and they were like real brothers to each other. Now that two of them were missing, and no one knew whether they were alive or dead, the remaining fourteen of them were very upset.
The winds were high, and the sky was dark with clouds. The waning moon wasn’t very bright to begin with, and the cloud cover completely obscured it. It was so dark that they couldn’t even see their hands in front of their faces. Their sole light source was a lone lantern hanging at the front of the boat that bobbed up and down with the waves.
Xiao Chengjun slowly grasped Lou Jing’s hand back. The crossing at Linjiang was done at a sharp bend of the river, and the waters ran quickly here. The boat rocked wildly in the choppy water, making everyone uneasy and fearful.
The boat itself was small and narrow. Of the fourteen Youyun guards that were not on the cargo ship, ten of them boarded one of these boats, and four of them accompanied their two masters on another boat. Two guards sat at the front, and two sat at the back. They didn’t say a word, and the only thing that could be heard was the sound of the boatman rowing them steadily across the river.
“There’s a submerged reef up ahead. You two young men, can I trouble you to help me row the boat? I need to guide the boat in front,” the boatman said, passing two oars to Yun Si and Yun Wu before going up to the front of the boat and taking out a long bamboo pole to feel the riverbed. “There are too many submerged reefs in this area.”
It was very cold sailing on the river. The boatman was wearing a straw outer coat that was able to block out some of the chill. He had been quiet all this while, and suddenly became talkative, which made Yun Qi and Yun Ba exchange a suspicious look.
“Mr Boatman, how long until we reach the riverbank on the other side?” Yun Ba asked, trying to feel this boatman out.
“Shush. Don’t speak,” the boatman said, cutting Yun Ba off. He used his bamboo pole to explore the dark waters, and the submerged end hit a rock with a small “thunk” sound. The boatman pushed strongly off the rock with the bamboo pole, and the boat moved backwards forcefully before being swept to the other side by the swiftly flowing water.
Yun Ba heaved a small sigh of relief. It seemed that he might have been overly suspicious. Just as he relaxed, a large CRACK sounded, and the whole body of the boat shook violently.
Lou Jing grabbed hold of Xiao Chengjun in one swift move. The latter had nearly fallen off the boat. He pulled him into his arms and they fell into the cabin together. They would likely be safe from being swept away by big waves now. Yun Si and Yun Wu, who were at the back of the boat, were not so lucky; they couldn’t catch hold of anything and were tossed straight into the water during the last turbulence.
Yun Ba caught hold of Yun Qi, and when he turned around, the boatman had disappeared.
They were now at the most turbulent part of the river, with countless submerged reefs between them and the riverbank. Before any of them could collect themselves, a huge wave swept over the already unstable boat and capsized it.
The empty little boat was then slammed mercilessly against huge rocks by the waves, and it splintered into wooden shafts.
The icy cold river water was all around them now. Lou Jing swallowed a huge mouthful of water and was unable to react for a while. The next thing he knew, his waistband tightened, and a strong hand grabbed hold of his collar, pulling him toward the surface of the water.
Lou Jing spat out the water in his mouth and concentrated on swimming upwards. The two of them broke the surface at the same time. The moment Lou Jing managed to inhale, he shouted, “Chengjun!”
The waves were roaring loudly around them, and even though they were right next to each other, Xiao Chengjun couldn’t hear what Lou Jing was saying at all. He pointed frantically at a submerged rock not too far away. This was the very rock that the boatman had tapped his bamboo pole on earlier.
With a belt tying them firmly together, they weren’t afraid to lose each other amidst the raging waters. They both put all their efforts into swimming toward the rock.
“Crash!” Before they could swim two strokes, a huge wave crashed down upon them again. They couldn’t see what was before them, but they keenly felt how overwhelming the waves were. The waves pulled them up at least a foot high, and they were about to be sent crashing down again.
Martial arts prowess counted for nothing in the face of this almighty force of nature. Lou Jing could only put all his energies into pulling Xiao Chengjun into his arms before the explosive wave threw them violently down.
They were like little worms in the turbulent river water. Lou Jing turned with all his might, putting Xiao Chengjun on top of himself. His own back smashed hard into the rocky reef below them.
Ccbatfg teuf kjnf ibbxfv ab remx atfw lcab lar atgjii, yea atlr alwf, Wljb Jtfcupec gfjmtfv bea, ugjyyfv tbiv bo Obe Alcu klat bcf tjcv jcv mjeuta tbiv bo j gbmx beamgbqqlcu klat atf batfg. Lf rbwftbk wjcjufv ab klatrajcv atf qeii bo atf kjnf atlr kjs.
Obe Alcu rtbbx tlr tfjv, ktlmt ofia gjatfg vlhhs. Lf xlmxfv boo j rabcf lc atf kjafg, mtjccfifv tlr lcafgcji obgmf, atfc oilqqfv atfw ybat bea bo atf gjulcu kjnfr.
Xiao Chengjun let go of the rock outcropping at just the right time, letting himself be pulled upward by Lou Jing onto higher ground.
This place was probably a huge rock that stuck out of the river. The fiercely flowing water didn’t reach as high as this stone and simply flowed past it. The two of them heaved a sigh of relief in unison. They were safe, for now.
“Mmph…” Lou Jing gave a low groan, then collapsed onto the rock.
“Zhuoyu!” Xiao Chengjun caught hold of Lou Jing just before he hit the ground, then quickly sat down with him in his lap. He wiped the water off Lou Jing’s face. “Are you injured? Where does it hurt?” he asked urgently.
Lou Jing held his left shoulder and inhaled sharply. The pain there was excruciating, and he couldn’t speak for a while because it hurt too badly. He had struck his left shoulder hard on a piece of coral, and had very likely broken his arm.
Xiao Chengjun reached out to wipe away the beads of water on Lou Jing’s face. “Zhuoyu…” he said.
“I’m fine… my arm is probably hurt,” Lou Jing finally said, drawing ragged breaths after the first wave of pain passed.
Xiao Chengjun carefully held his left arm and positioned it in front of Lou Jing’s chest to prevent it from being further injured.
“Ah!” Lou Jing couldn’t help shouting in pain.
Xiao Chengjun’s heart broke on seeing Lou Jing in such agony, but there was nothing he could do. He could only hold him tight and gently kiss his forehead, which was covered in a sheen of cold sweat. “It’ll be light in two more hours. Yun Yi and company will come looking for us then,” he said comfortingly.
Lou Jing nodded, then leaned on Xiao Chengjun’s chest and nuzzled him. “Are you cold?” he asked.
The two of them were soaked through, and the cold went right into their bones when the chilly night winds blew.
Xiao Chengjun took off their outer robes, wrung them out, then put them on one side to dry. He did not, however, loosen the belt that connected the two of their waistbands. “Thank goodness for this belt, if not we might both be dead,” he said.
Now that he thought about it, if they hadn’t been tied together and been able to help each other, it would have been very difficult for them to escape alive. They were calm now, and were intensely relieved and joyful that they had made it out relatively unharmed. They held each other quietly, warming each other with their bodies.
Xiao Chengjun felt the person in his arms heat up, and his heart sank. He reached out to touch Lou Jing’s forehead. “You’re running a fever. Do you have any external injuries?” he asked. Given Lou Jing’s strong constitution, it was very unlikely that he would get a fever just from being blown by the cold wind; he must have more injuries that he didn’t speak about.
Lou Jing nuzzled against Xiao Chengjun’s icy cold neck. “I’m just channeling my neili to warm you up,” he said.
The Anguo Gong family’s Internal Martial Arts were not just able to make one move lightly, leap higher and run faster, they also allowed one to channel neili and manifest it externally once one had reached a certain level of mastery. One such use of this was what Lou Jing was doing presently – using his own body as a living hot water bottle. Xiao Chengjun finally relaxed a little when he heard this, then decided to simply pull open their wet robes and place their chests together, skin to skin, the better to warm each other up.
The rough river waters crashed again and again against the huge rock. The two of them were like a lone boat on a dark, stormy sea, alone and helpless. Thankfully, they had each other for comfort, and they didn’t feel as frightened as they ordinarily would have been in this situation.
Before long, the sky started to brighten. Xiao Chengjun enveloped Lou Jing in his half-dry outer robes and took a short nap, but was very quickly awakened shortly after by the bright sunlight.
He looked around and realised that they were actually in the middle of a rock pile. The jagged rocks around them were dark-coloured, and some had green moss growing on them. Some splintered wooden planks from their boat were sandwiched in between the cracks in the stone, and others floated in a pile of debris around their rockpile. He suddenly spotted a human leg bobbing up and down amidst the debris. The body that the leg belonged to was blocked from view by the boulders.
Xiao Chengjun got a shock and pulled out the treasure sword at his waist. That leg moved, then slowly climbed upwards. When Xiao Chengjun saw who it was, he exhaled in relief; it was Yun Qi, the one who specialised in healing external injuries! He sheathed his sword and quickly called him over.
“I’m amazed the sword’s still on your hip,” Lou Jing remarked, leaning on his husband’s body and looking at the gleaming treasure sword. “Eh? Isn’t this Scarlet Cloud?”
The sword had been wrapped in cloth previously, so Lou Jing hadn’t noticed that the sword was the Scarlet Cloud. The sword’s jewel-encrusted hilt was now in full view, and he now recognised the sword as the one he gave to the Empress. No wonder it was able to cut the mountain bandit’s huge sword back in the temple.
“Father Empress was worried, and he made me take this sword along,” Xiao Chengjun said, making sure that the sword was firmly back in its sheath. Thankfully, the sheath of this sword had a mechanism to keep the sword firmly in it unless the owner deliberately unsheathed it. If it had been any other sword, it would probably have been swept away by the raging waters long ago.
Yun Qi immediately knelt in greeting when he saw them. At the same time, he gave the unconscious Yun Ba a quick push to wake him up. They had both been at the head of the boat, so they hadn’t suffered any serious injuries. They had just been knocked out by the waves.
“This subordinate got a knife into that boatman. I doubt he got very far,” Yun Ba said. He had just gone to scout around the area and returned to give his report. “This area is the heart of the river. I haven’t seen any sign of Yun Wu and Yun Si.”
Yun Wu and Yun Si were at the back of the boat, and there was no telling where they had been swept off to. Xiao Chengjun sighed, then caressed Lou Jing’s pale face.
Yun Qi pared down two planks of wood to make a splint, then bound them to Lou Jing’s arm to set it. The injury was serious and affected his muscles and bones, but the bone wasn’t completely broken, just fractured at some parts. Lou Jing would need to nurse this injury for some time.
The boat that Yun Yi and company had been on had drifted quite far away from the one Lou Jing and Xiao Chengjun were on due to the strong winds and waves. Their boatman had also tried to harm them during the journey, but Yun San managed to subdue him and forced him to look for their masters’ boat at knifepoint. Unfortunately, all was dark, and they were unable to see anything at that time.
Yun Er and Yun Shi took the bamboo pole from the boatman and started navigating themselves. Yun Jiu remained in the cabin with the boatman to interrogate him. Even though the boatman was very familiar with the lay of the land, there were unfortunately many rockpiles around this area, and they had to search them one by one to look for Lou Jing and Xiao Chengjun. At the same time, they had to be on constant lookout for submerged reefs. The water was roaring loudly all about them, and they couldn’t make themselves heard above the noise, so they couldn’t try to call out to them either. They searched frantically for two hours until the sky started to brighten.
When the Youyun guards finally saw two people standing atop a huge rock, they nearly cried with joy and relief. They all knelt and sought punishment for their failure to protect their masters properly the moment they got onto that rock.
Xiao Chengjun carried Lou Jing over to sit in their boat. Yun Jiu tied the boatman to the front of the boat to point the way to safety, and they finally made it to the opposite bank. Yun Shi’er and Yun Shisan were waiting for them at the dock with their horses.
“Who hired you to harm us?” Yun Jiu asked the boatman fiercely, waving his sword menacingly. They’d found a guest inn to rest in, and Yun Jiu had immediately carted the boatman off to the firewood storeroom to interrogate him.
“Spare me! I… I was only following orders…” the boatman stuttered, trembling in fright from head to toe. After going back and forth a few times, he only kept repeating that someone had asked him to throw the people on this boat into the rapids in the middle of the river, and if he succeeded in doing so, he would receive five hundred taels of silver.
“Who was it?” Xiao Chengjun asked, pouring some medicated oil into his hand and rubbing it on Lou Jing’s badly bruised back.
Lou Jing had not just injured his arm – his back was also black and blue. He was presently lying chest-down on a bed in the inn, moaning and groaning theatrically as Xiao Chengjun applied medicine to his wounds.
“It was a Linjiang County constable,” Yun Jiu answered. That boatman had accepted this business precisely because he knew the man.
“A constable?” Xiao Chengjun’s hands paused. He had originally thought that his whereabouts had somehow been leaked, and that this incident had to do with the assassins who had followed him out of the Capital. However, if it was a Linjiang constable who asked the boatman to do this, the mastermind might not be the same fellow any more. Who could be behind it?
“Ow…” Lou Jing groaned. Xiao Chengjun had subconsciously applied more force when he had been distracted earlier. He immediately withdrew his hands from Lou Jing’s body, and Lou Jing took the chance to squirm over and lay his head on Xiao Chengjun’s lap.
Xiao Chengjun was silent for a moment, then poured out more medicated oil to gently massage Lou Jing’s back. “Have you found Yun Wu and Yun Si?” he asked.
“We don’t have news of them yet,” Yun Jiu said despondently. The sixteen of them had grown up together, and they were like real brothers to each other. Now that two of them were missing, and no one knew whether they were alive or dead, the remaining fourteen of them were very upset.
