The three of them looked closely and saw Yu Daohen with a sinister smile.
"Drag this corpse up first, I'm freezing to death," he said.
Seeing this, Su Lai breathed a sigh of relief. The three dragged the corpse up, and Su Lai reached out to pull Yu Daohen up as well.
Yang Yan looked at the talisman stuck to the bottom of the corpse's foot, then at Yu Daohen, his brow furrowed. He asked, "Su Lai, how many times have you fished this corpse up?"
Su Lai was also a bit confused. "Three times. But strangely, this corpse isn't considered particularly malevolent, yet it feels incredibly heavy."
Yu Daohen touched the jade pendant at his waist, a smile on his face.
If it weren't for Lord Rui waking up in time, he probably wouldn't have been able to retrieve this corpse.
Seeing Yang Yan's furrowed brow, Su Lai asked, "What's wrong?"
Yang Yan shook his head, a smile on his face. "Nothing. Let's return the corpse to its parents first."
Yang Yan's momentary solemnity was fully captured by Yu Daohen.
Su Lai, with Pan Ning, steered the small boat towards the shore, while Yu Daohen and Yang Yan waited on his boat.
"Brother Yang, did you find something wrong with this body?" Yu Daohen asked Yang Yan beside him.
Yang Yan smiled. "Lord Yu, why do you ask?"
Yu Daohen did not hide anything. "I have a characteristic: I'm good at observing people. Though your solemnity flashed by, I'm sure I didn't misread it."
"Lord Yu is indeed as reputed," Yang Yan said with a smile, then his expression turned serious. "I saw a body-immobilizing talisman at the bottom of the corpse's foot just now."
Upon hearing this, Yu Daohen's face suddenly turned serious. "Brother Yang, are you sure you didn't misread it?"
Yang Yan nodded affirmatively. "Although we corpse fishers don't deal with talismans, I know a bit about them. That one was indeed a body-immobilizing talisman. Lord Yu should know its effect, right?"
Yu Daohen remained silent, but his fists clenched.
A body-immobilizing talisman wasn't an offensive one. While many sects in the martial world knew it, it was popular among the Fu Sect, the Celestial Master Mansion, and the Yan Shu Sect!
The effect of this talisman was to make the body heavier.
The presence of this body-immobilizing talisman on the corpse clearly indicated the intention.
Someone wanted to kill Su Lai!
Yang Yan also knew what Yu Daohen was thinking. "Lord Yu, although the Celestial Master Mansion, Fu Sect, and Yan Shu Sect are strong suspects, we cannot rule out other sects."
"I know. We mustn't alert them. Let's first figure out how to break Su Lai's 'Death Lock'," Yu Daohen nodded, though he already had an answer in his mind.
But he still couldn't figure out why Qiangzi would harm Su Lai so grievously.
Or perhaps he was overthinking it, and it wasn't Qiangzi's doing at all.
Seeing Yu Daohen trembling, Yang Yan felt happy that his junior brother had found such a loyal friend in Lord Yu. He smiled, "I didn't expect Su Lai to have such a loyal and righteous friend like Lord Yu."
Yu Daohen shook his head and sniffled. "Uh, actually, I'm just too cold!"
"..." Yang Yan was instantly speechless.
After Su Lai and Pan Ning settled their payment, the three of them sat around the stove, warming themselves, eating fish, drinking wine, and occasionally smoking a cigarette. It was quite enjoyable.
Meanwhile, Pan Ning was piloting Su Lai's small boat, following behind them.
Yu Daohen looked at Su Lai with some confusion. "How long has that kid Pan Ning been with you?"
Su Lai remained silent, looking embarrassed. Yang Yan directly answered, "Half a year."
"Half a year?" Yu Daohen looked at Su Lai, bewildered. "Half a year, and he still knows nothing?"
Yu Daohen saw no trace of annoyance on Pan Ning's face. It could be said that in the past six months, this kid hadn't learned anything; he was a complete outsider.
"You'll have to ask Master Su about that. I don't understand why he would take such a talented disciple," Yang Yan said, shaking his head and teasing the embarrassed Su Lai beside him.
Yu Daohen looked at the embarrassed Su Lai.
Seeing this, Su Lai could only confess truthfully. "Alas, I didn't want to take him, but the price he offered was too high to refuse."
Hearing this, Yu Daohen was almost furious. "Foolish! Can you just take any disciple, especially in your line of work as corpse fishers? How can you casually accept a disciple for money?"
Corpse fishers often had to cooperate in pairs, essentially entrusting their backs to each other.
This guy was truly daring to entrust his back to a complete novice who knew nothing.
"His apprenticeship fee was one million."
Yu Daohen was about to continue scolding when he heard the one million and immediately shut his mouth, smiling. "Well, people can be taught slowly. After a year or two, he should know something."
Yang Yan: "..."
Su Lai: "..."
Yang Yan realized that birds of a feather flock together; these two were cut from the same cloth.
"Come, let's drink," Su Lai said, picking up the wine pot.
Yang Yan and Yu Daohen raised their wine cups with resignation, clinked them together, and then took a large gulp.
After sailing upstream for over two hours, Yang Yan reached his destination.
Yang Yan steered his small boat and bid them farewell. Pan Ning, that displeasing kid, was also given half a month's leave by Su Lai.
Now only Yu Daohen and Su Lai remained on the boat, steering it towards his residence.