"Yes!" Xuan Yao nodded. After thinking for a moment, he added, "To be precise... according to the Demon Fox Bureau's report, it was about an hour before dawn today. Not long after the Golden Wings delivering the message returned, it set off again."
Ding Wei stepped up to the cage, clearly doubtful. "Other than your matter, what else did he have to report? Reporting one thing after another like this—what could not have been reported together? Why repeatedly disturb the Venerable? Something must have happened afterward. Did you people do something to him again?"
"We did not do anything..." Xuan Yao began to defend himself, but suddenly grew uncertain. There were some things he did not know whether he should mention.
Ding Wei guessed that he had recalled something and said heavily, "Speak!"
Xuan Yao hesitated. "Sir, after we first discovered that he had made a report, Demon Fox Bureau steward Long Fanhai brought wine and food to call on him, intending to find out why he had reported it. At the time, he pinned a label on Long Fanhai, saying Long Fanhai wanted to pry into the communications between that side and the Venerable, and that he would report it truthfully to the Venerable!"
Ding Wei's expression changed slightly as he rebuked him furiously, "Idiots! What were you doing? Who told you to investigate correspondence with the Venerable?"
Xuan Yao tried to explain, "Sir, it was not like that..." But this matter, hovering in the gray area between ambiguity and certainty, truly could not be explained clearly. He could only recount the course of events as Long Fanhai had reported them and let Ding Wei judge for himself. In the end, he emphasized, "Niu Youdao said at the time that he was joking..."
"A joke? Let us hope it