At the front, Qiu Luo worked his throat. He tried hard to avert his gaze and stare straight at the deck. Sweat rolled down his temple as he forced the words he had prepared onto his tongue. "R-reporting to the envoy, it was halfway through the hour of the Dragon. The seven of us aboard saw two small boats appear in the mist far to the southwest on the river. They-they had been sent by Wild Goose Dock, so we waved to them."
Everyone on deck listened in silence, several gazes resting on him.
"But-but the nearer boat signaled back with flags, very urgently. I read the signal. It meant 'go,'" Qiu Luo said. "I didn't understand at first, but I only froze for a moment... and those two boats j-just disappeared."
Qiu Luo stopped. Now he recalled the chill that had gripped his entire body when he witnessed that scene.
Someone suddenly said quietly, "Did one of those boats have blue ink painted on its bow?"
Qiu Luo faltered, recalling it. "Y-yes."
He looked toward the speaker. The man rested a hand on a broad, thick saber. He was the Fox Gang's deputy leader, and he too was looking coldly at Qiu Luo. "Unfortunately, those were my brothers."
For a moment, Qiu Luo did not know what to say. He suddenly realized that the situation on this deck was not so clear-cut-they had not gathered to wait for him and the others to be interrogated, nor were they divided into "the heroes of Wild Goose Dock" and "him."
It was a deeply complicated situation. These Water Gang members remained apprehensively silent before this legendary wind envoy, yet anger simmered in their hearts. That anger was not necessarily all directed at the wind envoy who had suddenly arrived; a considerable