Bai Ruozhu followed Jianqi down to the ship cabin. Because they appeared so suddenly and Bai Ruozhu remained silent, the ship workers below did not realize she had gone down.
Very soon, she heard a lot of chatter.
"It must be the rfolk who ate the man; don’t they supposedly live by eating people?"
"This is too scary, isn’t there anyone to manage this? Who knows who’s next?"
"Just because Bai’s disciple likes him, he can let him go around killing people?"
"Bai isn’t soone who doesn’t know right from wrong. Don’t forget how Bai treated us when we were sick. Without Bai, we might have been thrown into the sea to feed the fish."
"I never said Bai was wrong. I’m just afraid Bai is tricked by the rfolk. Haven’t you heard about how dangerous rfolk are? People who encounter rfolk at sea never return."
Everyone chid in, their tones filled with fear and anger, along with strong rejection of the rfolk.
Bai Ruozhu was sowhat annoyed. She felt that these people’s rejection of rfolk was a rejection of her family mber, Achun, which made her sowhat resentful.
However, after thinking it over, she realized these people did not harbor malice; their judgnt had been clouded by long-standing rumors, and they could hardly be blad.
Bai Ruozhu signaled to Jianqi, pretending they had just co down and heard nothing.
She deliberately made the sound of footsteps, causing the discussion inside to instantly cease.
"Who is the missing person? Who saw him last?" Bai Ruozhu walked into the room and asked.
This was a communal sleeping area, sowhat ssy, and due to her sudden appearance, several people jumped nervously from their beds.
It’s unclear if it was a guilty conscience or just becoming nervous upon seeing Bai Ruozhu.
After a while, an older ship worker finally spoke.
"The missing one is a young man nad Wang Lu. He’s a sailor on the deck who handles the sails, around twenty-five or twenty-six. He’s a strong big guy."
Bai Ruozhu pondered carefully. It seed there was indeed such a person, but she didn’t have an impression of every sailor, so she couldn’t fully confirm which one Wang Lu was.
"Many of us sailors saw him last. It wasn’t until yesterday while working that we couldn’t find him, realizing sothing was wrong," said a sailor.
Bai Ruozhu frowned slightly, "Who was Wang Lu closest to? Wasn’t it strange not seeing him before?"
"Wang Lu kept to himself and wasn’t particularly close with anyone," the previous sailor replied.
"Was his character bad?" Bai Ruozhu pursued.
"Not at all. He was just particularly quiet, introverted, and didn’t like talking to people," replied another.
"Did he have any hobbies in daily life?" Bai Ruozhu asked.
The sailor chuckled, "We’re all quite busy with labor, what hobbies could we have?"
"What do you do when you’re not busy? There’s no recreation, like playing leaf cards or betting on dice?" Bai Ruozhu asked.
The sailors laughed sheepishly and praised Bai Ruozhu for her foresight, admitting that’s how they spent their leisure ti.
"Occasionally, we also drink a little and chat casually," another sailor carefully added.
Bai Ruozhu thought for a mont and asked, "Does Wang Lu drink with you?"
Everyone shook their heads. "He’s too quiet, won’t even touch alcohol."
Bai Ruozhu didn’t continue questioning, instructed them not to worry too much and said the boat would keep looking to see what was going on with Wang Lu.
After leaving the room, Bai Ruozhu said to Jianqi, "Keep an eye on those few people, see if anyone acts abnormally."
"Understood," replied Jianqi.
Later, Jiang Yichun led a search on the boat, but indeed they couldn’t find Wang Lu, or any trace at all. It didn’t seem like it was a murder. Could Wang Lu have committed suicide by jumping into the sea?
Yet there are night guards, if soone had jumped into the sea there would be a disturbance, how co no one noticed?
"Achun, do you think it could be Du Zhongshu sneaking onto the ship again?" Bai Ruozhu rubbed her temple. The sea is already fraught with danger, why do these chaotic incidents keep occurring?
"No, don’t overthink it. Even if he survived before, his injury wouldn’t heal properly in three to five months, he wouldn’t dare co back," Jiang Yichun reassured.
Bai Ruozhu nodded, being sensitive due to previous events.
So, in the days following that, Wang Lu seed to have evaporated into thin air, leaving not a trace.
Bai Ruozhu was busy arranging disinfection for the boat, finally getting past the conjunctivitis. Gao Zhou, however, was quite lazy, didn’t care about anything, yet went every day to check Duannian’s pulse.
He actually wanted to know more about Chushuang, but Duannian knew very little, could only repeatedly recount his expulsion while Chushuang blocked the tribesn.
But this past was sothing Duannian didn’t want to rember, yet he had to bring it up daily, causing him considerable pain.
Not daring to lose temper with Gao Zhou, he took it out on Bai Ruozhu instead, since Gao Zhou was Bai Ruozhu’s father-in-law and nominal foster father.
Thus, whenever Duannian saw Bai Ruozhu, he would push for answers on when the toxin could be cured or sarcastically criticize Bai Ruozhu as a quack.
Of course, he wouldn’t dare say such things in Wa Wei’s presence, always sending her away before he began finding faults with Bai Ruozhu.
Wa Wei was sent away again that day to the kitchen to fetch a bowl of sweet soup, graciously saying to the kitchen maid, "I’m here to pick up a bowl of sweet soup, is there any left?"
The kitchen maid glanced at her dismissively and said, "No more, it’s all been served to the masters. Next ti, speak earlier!"
Wa Wei cared for Duannian, always trying her best to et his requests. But now Wa Wei wasn’t unreasonable, so she intended to talk to the kitchen maid, hoping to reserve a bowl for tomorrow.
Unexpectedly, after she spoke, the kitchen maid responded dismissively, "Alright, if there’s extra, I’ll save it for you."
Wa Wei, being a smart girl, imdiately sensed sothing was off. What did "if there’s extra" an? If I inford you early, couldn’t you just make more? Unless you’re deliberately refusing .
Before she could probe further, soone passed by and bumped her, rudely saying, "The kitchen’s too small, it’s not a place for a Miss like you. Better go back so your silk shoes don’t get dirty."
If Wa Wei still hadn’t understood the hostility, she’d truly be clueless.
She opened her mouth to say sothing, but considering her position, she didn’t want to cause Bai Ruozhu any trouble, deciding to endure silently.
As she was about to leave, she saw the kitchen maid dump half a pot of sweet soup into the slop bucket, still containing many pearl dumplings.
Wa Wei suddenly got angry, "There’s clearly so much sweet soup, yet you’d rather waste it than give a single bowl. I’ve never heard of such a unreasonable kitchen maid!"
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