"Aaaargh! I'll kill you!"
"Get up and fight me one-on-one!"
Yinyue's face was as black as the bottom of a pot.
If her ropes were undone, and if she had a knife in her hand, she would definitely chop Shen Luolun into pieces and mince him!
"All right, all right, that's enough from both of you."
A certain Miss Lan began playing the impartial mediator.
She chided Yinyue, "Why are you being so fierce? It's frightening. No wonder people call you a sow. Keep this up, and you wouldn't want everyone to know people call you a sow, would you?"
Yinyue: (▼へ▼メ)
Do I want to be fierce? Just look at who called me a sow in public.
She chided Shen Luolun, "You too. Mind your language in public. What if a child heard you? They might think you were indulging some kind of special kink. If you want to call her a sow, do it in private."
Shen Luolun: (•́ω•̀ ٥)
You didn't come out to stop me when I was calling her a sow just now, did you?
Seeing that neither of them had anything to say, Miss Lan thought her reasoning had won them over and smiled in satisfaction.
Sure enough, it felt good to occupy the moral high ground.
Afterward, as Yinyue had wished, Lan Yan placed a restriction on her.
"Miss Lan Yan, could you interrogate her now? I'd like to know how the crew members are doing so we can rescue them as soon as possible."
Su Qing stepped forward and pleaded.
"Ahem, all right."
Lan Yan composed herself and said to Yinyue:
"Since I've placed a restriction on you, you can rest assured that I won't kill you for the time being."
"Cooperate obediently and behave yourself, and at most you'll suffer a little physical pain. You'll be out after twenty-odd years in prison."
"Understand?"
Yinyue's expression turned ugly.
Twenty-odd years in prison?
How was that any different from killing her?
Just as she was about to negotiate terms with Lan Yan, she caught sight of those dark eyes, deep and bottomless.
An inexplicable chill swept through her body, cold enough to pierce her bones.
Yinyue had a premonition that if she dared to bargain with Lan Yan, she would definitely die!
Her survival instinct in overdrive, Yinyue hurriedly nodded.
Seeing how sensible she was, Lan Yan smiled in satisfaction.
"Mm, good attitude. I like it."
"Now, tell me where those crew members are."
"Remember, no hiding anything or playing tricks. The restriction I placed on you can detect your body's reactions. I'll know if you lie, and the consequences... Hmph!"
Yinyue naturally understood and hurriedly revealed everything about where she had hidden the crew:
"I hid them in a cave near Yilong Wharf..."
The cave was not far from here, and they could go there at any time.
Once Su Qing knew the location, he was eager to find the Millelith and rescue them, but Shen Luolun stopped him and told him to wait. The Millelith couldn't help right now.
"Master Shen, what do you mean?" Su Qing asked in confusion.
Shen Luolun then told him what had happened at Yilong Wharf. The Traveler had already gone to resolve the problem, so he asked Su Qing to wait a while.
Su Qing was shocked.
The Millelith had actually been bewitched by a bowl of beef noodles, and so had the residents of Yilong Wharf.
It was simply unbelievable.
He was extremely curious about what kind of beef noodles could possibly taste that good.
No one noticed that Yinyue's expression abruptly changed when she heard that the Traveler had already gone to deal with the Emotion-Forsaking Beef Noodles.
"By the way, after all that fighting, we still don't know what happened between you and this man. Why did Yinyue seem to hate you so much?" Shen Luolun asked, pointing at the corpse on the ground.
When he and Lan Yan had arrived, they had been focused on rescuing and capturing people. Now that it was over, he suddenly remembered that they didn't seem to know the full story yet.
Su Qing's face had been slightly flushed with eagerness to rescue the crew. After hearing Shen Luolun's words, anger and sorrow tore at each other, finally turning into a complicated pain in his eyes.
"I worked with... Yinyue. The man we killed was my shopkeeper."
Hm?
I need to sit up for this.
Lan Yan and Shen Luolun pricked up their ears.
"It started when I returned to Yilong Wharf and saw the shopkeeper..."
After narrowly escaping death and returning to Yilong Wharf, Su Qing had rushed straight to the pharmacy's branch there, intending to report what had happened to the shopkeeper. Unexpectedly, he had happened to run into him on the way.
Su Qing had been overjoyed, like a wronged child seeing a parent. He had just been about to speak to the shopkeeper, but the man had avoided him as though he had seen a ghost.
Confused, Su Qing had chased after him and grabbed his hand. The shopkeeper had tried hard to shake him off but couldn't, so he had reluctantly listened as Su Qing told him how the Treasure Hoarders had hijacked the medicine boat.
Su Qing had expected the shopkeeper to be grief-stricken, but instead of grieving, the man's face had shown anger and displeasure that Su Qing couldn't understand.
He had coldly replied that he knew, his tone making it seem as though the hijacking of the medicine boat was an insignificant matter. He had then told Su Qing to go back and wait for news before hurrying away, as though he wanted nothing to do with him.
The shopkeeper's indifferent attitude had deeply hurt Su Qing, leaving him both resentful and bewildered.
He resented the shopkeeper's heartlessness and wondered why the man wasn't even a little sad that his boat and employees were gone, or showing the slightest agitation.
The more Su Qing thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
He couldn't help wondering whether the shopkeeper was so guarded that he rarely showed his emotions, or whether... there was something going on that he didn't know about.
Su Qing was more inclined to believe the latter.
He had worked at the pharmacy for years and had seen everything the shopkeeper did. At most, the man was a little shrewd and stingy.
Wondering if there was more to it, Su Qing had decided to follow the shopkeeper.
He had never expected that while following him, he would see his enemy again-Yinyue.
Yinyue was actually meeting the shopkeeper in secret?!
Su Qing could hardly believe it, and the flames of vengeance ignited in his heart.
He wanted to charge over and kill Yinyue to avenge his grievances!
But when he thought of the enormous gap in their strength, Su Qing came to his senses. He put aside the urge to act for the time being and chose to stay put.
Unexpectedly, this allowed Su Qing to overhear a dirty truth that completely broke his heart.
The hijacking of the medicine boat had been no accident. It had been planned all along: the shopkeeper had leaked its route to the Treasure Hoarders in advance so they could raid it!
The Treasure Hoarders had approached the shopkeeper in private and offered him a large sum to buy a batch of medicinal herbs for them. Blinded by greed, the shopkeeper had accepted.
But everyone knew what the Treasure Hoarders' reputation was like. Anyone who dared work with them would be reviled for all time!
To prevent more people from learning of his collusion with the Treasure Hoarders, the shopkeeper had decided to eliminate all loose ends. He joined forces with them to commit murder and arson and plunder the medicine boat.
In the shopkeeper's plan, everyone aboard the medicine boat would be killed by the Treasure Hoarders, while he would happily run off with the money.
But who would have thought the Treasure Hoarders wouldn't keep their word!
Not only had they failed to kill the people aboard the medicine boat, but they had also let Su Qing escape. The shopkeeper had gone to confront Yinyue, only for her to use the matter to threaten him. She demanded that he return the money and "contribute" another batch of medicinal herbs, or she would report him to the Millelith.
The shopkeeper had been so angry he laughed. He said that, at worst, they would destroy each other and that he would make the whole affair public.
Yinyue didn't want to push him too far, so she pretended to drop her threats.
After the shopkeeper left, Yinyue called out to Su Qing, who had been hiding nearby.
Su Qing was shocked. Yinyue had known he was eavesdropping all along, and he had no choice but to come out.
Yinyue didn't seem surprised to see Su Qing, as though she had expected him.
She promised Su Qing not only a chance at revenge but also the position of shopkeeper.
Su Qing knew she intended to use him to kill the disobedient shopkeeper.
But he didn't refuse, because the flames of vengeance had already been lit in his heart. No matter what it took, he would execute every culprit, even at the cost of his own life!
After they reached an agreement, Yinyue arranged to meet the shopkeeper.
Su Qing saw the shopkeeper again, but this time he was in a different frame of mind.
Su Qing angrily demanded to know why the shopkeeper had plotted to kill for money. The people aboard the medicine boat had all worked at the pharmacy for years. Did he have no regard for them at all?
The shopkeeper was startled. Su Qing actually knew the truth.
Quick-witted as he was, he instantly realized that Yinyue had set him up.
The shopkeeper cursed them both, wishing them horrible deaths.
Then he turned to run, but Su Qing caught him, and the two grappled.
In the confusion, the shopkeeper revealed the truth to distract Su Qing so he could escape.
The pharmacy had been spending more than it earned for the past few years, losing money every day. On top of that, the Ministry of Civil Affairs had been vigorously promoting workers' insurance in recent years, requiring employers to purchase it for their workers. The large and prosperous pharmacy had naturally become a focus of attention. At the end of every month, the shopkeeper looked at the enormous bill and wished everyone would die, so he wouldn't have to pay so much.
But the Ministry of Civil Affairs was no pushover. If he dared not pay or dismiss workers at will, labor laws would put him in prison for life.
While the shopkeeper was troubled over this, the Treasure Hoarders came knocking.
And so, a vicious plan took shape in his mind...
Sure enough, Su Qing grew even angrier after hearing this. His fighting became wild and disorganized, giving the shopkeeper an opening to knock him to the ground.
Having gained the upper hand, the shopkeeper gloated that he had once thought highly of Su Qing and considered grooming him as his successor. But when faced with real financial interests, not just Su Qing, but everyone on the boat could be sacrificed.
When he learned that the medicine boat had been plundered, he had grinned from ear to ear, delighted beyond words.
The shopkeeper called Su Qing and the others parasites who did nothing but suck his blood and take his money. Their deaths were no different from the deaths of animals, and they deserved it!
Su Qing completely lost his mind and pulled out a dagger...
And so, what happened afterward followed.