At that moment, the tall figure shrouded in a cloak spoke. "Could they be people on that boy's side, putting on an act?"
It was a man's voice, deliberately lowered to sound hoarse. He had not revealed his face since entering; even beneath his hood, he wore a cloth over his face. But both women before him knew who he was.
Feng Chi hesitated. "I suspected that at first too, but after the higher-ups looked into it, they felt that, from ransoming and selling people to all those unexpected incidents, the changes in such a short time were far too complicated for a staged scheme. It doesn't quite add up. Of course, they haven't ruled out that suspicion either. Anything is possible."
Xiang Lan'er spoke up. "There's no need to doubt it anymore. I can say for certain that he and that old man aren't working together."
"Oh?" Feng Chi immediately asked, "What makes you say that?"
Xiang Lan'er pressed her lips together. The way she had obtained that answer was rather hard to speak of. In the end, she glossed over it with a quiet remark. "It's inconvenient to explain. I'll take responsibility for that conclusion. You can report it without concern."
Since she had said she would take responsibility, neither of the other two had anything more to say.
Still, Feng Chi asked curiously, "Miss, how did you get him to let you go?"
Xiang Lan'er said, "What else could I do? I agreed to his condition: take him into Mount Wukang with me."
"Uh..." Feng Chi was speechless.
The man in the cloak said gravely, "No. It can't be done, either. Bian Jixiong already knows that this 'Shi Chun' exists, and he knows the man saddled him with a brothel girl for a daughter-in-law. I heard he