"Are you Wenzhao?"
Xu Zhibao looked at him with some surprise.
Xu Wenzhao stepped forward and stopped before Xu Zhibao, looking him over from head to toe. Then he suddenly broke into a grin:
"Brother Zhibao, you've gotten thinner and darker. But you look far more spirited than before."
Xu Zhibao could not help smiling at that. He reached out and patted his shoulder. "You've grown up too. You're half a head taller than before—I nearly didn't recognize you."
Xu Wenzhao scratched his head and smiled a little sheepishly. Then the smile on his face faded somewhat.
"Brother Zhibao, I heard what happened in the hall just now... Don't take it too much to heart. Father and the two elders know full well that this wasn't your fault. Those Red Lotus Sect people had planned it all along. The fact that you got the goods and the Li Family's eldest young master safely to Qingyang Prefecture was already no small feat."
Xu Zhibao fell silent for a moment, then sighed softly.
"That may be true, but those five... they went out with me, after all. Yet I couldn't bring them back."
Xu Wenzhao shook his head and looked at him earnestly, his gaze carrying the particular sincerity of youth.
"Brother Zhibao, do you remember when we went catching fish by the river as children? You stepped into a deep pit trying to scoop up a big fish and nearly drowned. I ran back to call for help, and only then did they pull you out. Do you remember the first thing you said after you came up?"
Xu Zhibao froze for a moment. After thinking back, he said uncertainly:
"I said... 'I'm never going to that river again'?"
"No."
Xu Wenzhao shook his head.
"You said, 'Once I learn how