"Hey, so it really is you two kneeling here?"
At the mountain gate, Wu Jinliang, who was being escorted up Mount Wukang, turned to look at the two people kneeling on the steps, making a fuss over his discovery.
Shi Chun was there too. He also turned to study the pair who had remained on their knees, though he said nothing.
Xia Fuli, who led the group, wore a stiff expression. He had only gone down the mountain, yet now he had two extra people to bring back. Leaving them behind would have been inappropriate. The man had already made his meaning so clear that leaving the pair in the city would amount to handing them over to Bian Weiying. If anything else happened, wouldn't that make him look complicit?
He had avoided the main gate when taking his men down the mountain precisely because he knew who was kneeling there. Now he could no longer spare much thought for that.
Bian Weikang and Xiang Lan'er, still kneeling, were somewhat dumbfounded. They thought their eyes were playing tricks on them. Before they could understand what was happening, Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang had been taken through the mountain gate and escorted up the mountain.
What was going on? The kneeling pair's thoughts were in disarray. They had yet to get up the mountain themselves, so how had those two managed to go up first?
The scene itself was rather bewildering too. Their two benefactors were barefoot and filthy, and they were being hauled up the mountain by others.
Bian Weikang jolted in alarm and shouted, "Elder Xia, this has nothing to do with them! Whatever wrong was done, all the fault lies with me alone. There is no need to make things difficult for them!"
He tried to stand and