Li Xian blinked twice after hearing Ke Yi's explanation. He had no idea why Ke Yi had suddenly brought this up and felt rather bewildered.
Seeing his confusion, Ke Yi silently sighed and changed the subject:
"So what's going on with this Instance?"
Li Xian briefly gathered his thoughts, then explained the sequence of events he had pieced together.
"This ship we're on now probably traveled this same route years ago."
"Back then, the Captain took twenty-five crew members aboard and set out to fish. Some time later, a crew member named Zhang Rui discovered that the wages specified in the contract didn't match what they'd originally been promised, and an argument broke out."
"The Captain had run up enormous debts, so he flatly refused to raise their wages and threatened to throw Zhang Rui into the sea... Not long afterward, one crew member's fishing net tore, and he hauled up only a single fish."
The abrupt turn in the story left Ke Yi momentarily stunned:
Wasn't that the detail he'd recalled earlier when Li Xian questioned him? What did it have to do with the truth behind the entire Instance?
Li Xian's next words answered his questions outright:
"What he hauled up-was actually the player the big fish ate on the first day."
Ke Yi's brow instantly furrowed. Brief as Li Xian's statement was, it contained an enormous amount of information and raised all sorts of questions...
"That crew member... really mistook a person for a fish?"
"Not only that, he took that player away and gutted them."
Li Xian tilted his head and glanced at Ke Yi:
"Did you see that happen?"
Ke Yi carefully recalled the scene. He hadn't considered that little incident important, so he hadn't paid much attention, merely glancing over a few times before