The bodies came up onto the bank one after another.

Ning Chen looked at every one of the bodies himself.

By daylight forty-three bodies had been brought up altogether.

All of them were in service uniform, which showed that they were the ship's crew.

Some of them were the assassins, who had killed the rest of the crew.

And the assassins had died under Ning Chen's blade.

For so many men to come aboard disguised as crew, somebody must have covered for them, or the rest of the ship could not have failed to notice.

The only man with that much power aboard was the captain.

The man in charge of the ship was called Ye Liao, and Ye Liao had come to pay his respects when Ning Chen boarded.

But Ye Liao was not among the bodies.

A captain makes his living on the water all year round, so how well he swims goes without saying. Getting out alive would be the easiest thing in the world for him.

Ning Chen found the landing master and gave his order. "Send a letter by carrier pigeon to the Inspectorate and have them arrest a man called Ye Liao."

The landing master bowed. "Bear with me, my lord. We have no pigeons that fly to the Inspectorate... I can only send word to the capital prefect's office."

Ning Chen frowned slightly.

I do not altogether trust the capital prefect's men.

But there was no other way now. "Send word to the capital prefect's office, then."

"Yes."

Ning Chen stayed at the post station by the landing until the afternoon of the next day.

The bailiffs who had gone searching along the river all came back.

They brought back more than ten bodies.

Ning Chen went and looked at them. There was no Pan Yucheng and no Feng Qizheng, and it made him let out a long breath.

Which means Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng are alive.

But where have they gone?

Can they have been taken?

Ning Chen told the landing master to find out who these bodies were, and went…