Funeral Vigil (4)

Luo Xiangfeng had a rather impatient temperament.

Luo Yan had wanted to stop him from becoming the one to test the waters for everyone else, but unfortunately, she hadn't had time to speak.

The others stopped what they were doing in unspoken unison, openly or discreetly watching Luo Xiangfeng.

The first person to start the task had the most choices, but that was only an apparent advantage. Even if he was the fastest, there was nothing he could do if the others hoarded the shrouds, copper coins, and other items.

The disadvantage, however, was obvious: there was no guidance ahead of him. He could easily break a rule without realizing it, doing all the work for everyone else.

But there was no getting around it. Someone always had to be the "first." Luo Xiangfeng knew he was being impulsive. Maybe the role of bandit was affecting him.

He carried the corpse in one arm and the bucket in the other, then went to an open patch of ground and first stripped off the corpse's tattered old clothes.

The corpse's water-swollen body was hideous. Dark stains like river silt clung to its cheeks, neck, arms, and even beneath its fingernails. Quinn, his fellow bandit, handed him a clean, washed rag.

Luo Xiangfeng glanced at Quinn, who responded with his trademark sunny smile, as if he'd brought him the rag not to watch him meet his doom, but because he genuinely wanted to help.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, he spread the corpse's old clothes on the ground, then used water and the rag to clean the grime from its surface.

As the seconds ticked by, nothing happened.

Some people's expressions darkened in secret, while Luo Xiangfeng let out a long breath of relief.

Whether it was luck or not, he'd made the