Xiao Tianmu shook his head. "I'm a blind man. Tell me, who in an army camp would take in a blind man? I've lived here for over twenty years. I'm an Azure Cloud native, born and bred."
Hu Xiaotian smiled. "How did you and Brother Zhou meet?"
"He saved my life!" The answer was simple, but it explained perfectly why he was willing to risk himself to help Zhou Batian.
Hu Xiaotian asked, "Were Jia Dewang and Jia Liu both men from the Tigerhead Battalion?"
Xiao Tianmu said, "Jia Liu was. Jia Dewang wasn't. Jia Liu escaped from Wolf-Sealing Valley with my elder brother and is hiding in Red Willow Village for the time being."
Hu Xiaotian said, "Brother Zhou told me he stayed here to wait for a chance to take revenge?"
Xiao Tianmu said, "In the battle at Wolf-Sealing Valley, those bandits nearly wiped out all the brothers under his command. Only six survived. Apart from my elder brother, who went into jail to hide, the others are all concealed within Azure Cloud County."
"Why not flee?"
Xiao Tianmu said, "If they fled, they'd never clear their names for the rest of their lives. My elder brother has always treated his soldiers as his own brothers. This time, he'll have his revenge even if it costs him his life!"
Hu Xiaotian said, "As an officer of the Tigerhead Battalion, he was worried someone would discover his whereabouts, so he came up with the idea of hiding in jail. You handle matters outside and find a way to pass along any important news."
Xiao Tianmu said, "Getting into jail in Azure Cloud isn't difficult. Xu Qinglian's greed knows no bounds, and he never lets an opportunity for extortion slip past. When a man's eyes are fixed solely on money,