Hou Niao pointed out the sights along the way, as familiar with them as treasures in his own home, yet said nothing whatsoever about how they would recover the ship and cargo from the Wind-Chasing Pirates.
The two cousins knew something of this fellow. He never followed convention, sometimes acting wildly, sometimes backing down, so that you never knew what was really going through his mind.
But at least before reaching Profound Connection, everything he had done seemed reasonably dependable?
Perhaps, given this fellow's bizarre standards for making friends, he knew the leader of the Wind-Chasing Pirates? Dugu Lan supplied herself with an explanation. Otherwise, there was no explaining why he dared take the two of them there alone. Unless seawater had rusted his brain, that had to be it.
Xiao Qiang agreed with her judgment, but her mind was somewhere else entirely. "Senior Brother Hou, your wife is very beautiful, but what exactly do you like about her?"
... And so the journey passed amid the two women's endless chatter. Dugu Lan kept steering the conversation toward the Wind-Chasing Pirates, while Xiao Qiang kept lingering on Bai Qingqian.
Dugu Lan knew her younger cousin still could not forget this man, so she kept trying to turn her away from such dangerous thoughts. Xiao Qiang, however, cared nothing at all about the ship and cargo, almost giving the impression that she wished the princely household would divorce her.
Each of the three talked about their own concerns and sang their own tune, yet they actually conversed quite happily along the way, even if their words fitted together about as well as an ox's lips and a horse's mouth.
They were not moving very fast. Rather than going to recover a ship and cargo, they seemed more like they were on