From the ship, no one could see what was happening beneath the water. Ye Chuqi had San San's live feed in front of her, so she could see clearly. Everyone else could make out only vague shapes below the surface and the crimson blood that kept welling up, signs of a fight raging beneath the waves.
A young woman from the Thirteen Misty Islands party stepped back, her face pale as though she could not bear the sight of so much blood. "This... this is too cruel..."
Ye Chuqi glanced at her. The Thirteen Misty Islands party had more than a dozen members. Apart from two who were a little older, they were all in their early twenties. Gaines had said this was their first journey into the wider world since coming of age. In other words, they had seen very little.
There were only two young women in the party, and neither looked well. But the other one, uncomfortable as she was, kept her eyes fixed on the sea.
Ye Chuqi turned to Gaines and asked in puzzlement, "Aren't the Thirteen Misty Islands out at sea? Don't you hunt like this there? How do you get food? Surely these young lords and ladies don't think the food on their tables grows in the kitchen?"
Had they spent over twenty years without leaving home, wandering only around town, never even going to the shore to see a real hunt?
Gaines smiled without answering. In truth, these young lords and ladies had never been out to sea to see much of anything. At most, they had spent time in coastal waters—and then only for leisure. They almost never took part in hunts, because hunting was beneath their station.
They did not actually believe food grew in kitchens, as Ye Chuqi had