Qi Qi's voice drifted out: "Good, hero..."
"Sixth Brother spoke!"
"This kid must have been scared out of his wits. He didn't cry or shout the whole way, I thought he was mute."
"Listen to what he wants to do."
"Kid, what are you trying to say?"
Qi Qi groaned, barely managing to stay upright against the side of the boat despite the churning in his stomach. The bottom of the boat felt wet, but he persisted in squatting down: "Hero, please loosen your purse, I'm going to throw up..."
Outsider: "..."
The sack was loosened and pulled down a few times, revealing a round-faced beauty with long hair. Her face was deathly pale, and she vomited into the river with a loud "whoosh".
After vomiting in the dark water for a few minutes, Qi Qi felt a little better. He thanked the person and took the water handed to him to rinse his mouth.
Then someone holding a torch approached him closely, scrutinizing him: "Who are you?"
The ship was indeed small, but there were several smaller boats beside it, each carrying wounded people who had received basic treatment. In the distance, two large ships were firing rockets at each other, making a very loud noise and sending flames soaring into the sky.
Facing the gazes of those around him, Qi Qi calmly adjusted his clothes.
It seems like I'm the only prisoner here... This group probably isn't after money, otherwise they wouldn't have set the ship on fire. They set the fire to destroy the ship and cargo. I just don't know what they want with the prisoner.
Qi Qi cautiously asked, "May I ask which heroes you gentlemen belong to?"
The bearded man in front of him, whose arm was covered in blood, had sharp eyes. He placed a large cleaver, still covered in blood, against Qi Qi's neck. The cleaver was so heavy that it made Qi Qi's shoulder slump.
"Don't try anything funny, just tell me what you're asked!"
Qi Qi cursed inwardly, thinking, "How am I supposed to know whether you're going to kill someone with status or someone without if you don't tell me?"
"explain!"
Despite the pain in his shoulder, Qi Qi tentatively said, "Hero, I am a law-abiding citizen... Actually, I was captured and brought to this ship. I am not with them."
"Oh?" The burly man sneered, pressing his knife down even harder. "Not with them? According to my men, that boat is full of their own people, there are no independent travelers!"
Qi Qi couldn't help but let out a low cry of pain.
Is that damn cleaver 50 pounds? My shoulder's going to shatter!
"I really was captured. Hey sir, do I look like a bad guy? I'm the son of a moderately wealthy family in Jiangnan. I was taking a walk by the river when I suddenly saw these scoundrels doing something bad. They were afraid I'd tell on them, so they kidnapped me and dragged me onto their boat..."
"Sixth Brother is lying! He was clearly captured by the Fourth Prince's confidant at night, who put him in a sack and brought him to the boat. He's been locked up in the Fifth Prince's room for the past two weeks, and none of us have been able to find out anything about him."
A man lying on the ground nearby, who was about to die, suddenly spoke up.
Qi Qi: "!!!"
Dude, who are you?! Why are you suddenly exposing them? So you guys really did plan this assassination all along, and even planted a spy on the ship!
The other wounded nearby began to accuse him: "Sixth Brother, that pretty boy, dared to lie to you!"
"My mother said that the better-looking someone is, the more likely they are to lie. This pretty boy never tells the truth. Sixth Brother, chop him up!"
Qi Qi was shocked. Why was he so quick to threaten to kill someone? "Don't kill me! Don't kill me! I only said one sentence..."
"If you don't tell the truth, I'll kill you." The bearded man's eyes grew even colder.
Qi Qi blinked his big eyes, trying to make them understand that he was a good gigolo: "...Okay, I'll tell you, I was really captured, but...actually, I was the Ninth Prince's spy, secretly investigating the Fourth Prince's bad deeds for him. I didn't expect to be discovered by him that night and dragged onto the ship."
"A spy? You?"
The group looked at Qi Qi with disdain, glancing at his thin frame and scoffing.
"Still not telling the truth? Then why have you been staying in the Fifth Prince's room for so many days?"
Qi Qi: "...The Fifth Prince is very cunning. He is afraid that I will reveal the Fourth Prince's affairs, so he has been punishing me."
"Punishment?" The bearded man sneered again, brandishing his broadsword and slightly opening Qi Qi's collar. "A punishment that leaves him completely unharmed?"
He even pinched Qi Qi's arm, confirming that this pretty boy didn't know kung fu.
At this moment, the wounded man on the ground spoke up again: "Sixth Brother, what he said is true."
Sixth Brother: "?"
The wounded man blushed inexplicably: "That pretty boy was locked in a room by the Fifth Prince and they did that kind of thing to him every night. He cried and screamed loudly every night. All the brothers know about it."
The screams were so pitiful that they spread like wildfire throughout the ship, with everyone saying that the Fifth Prince had a peculiar habit of tormenting people over this kind of thing.
Upon hearing this, the eight or nine people on the small boat couldn't help but glance at Qi Qi's buttocks, which he dared not sit on the ground and had been squatting, and then they all fell silent.
So this spy wasn't the kind who was good at fighting, the kind who was practical, but rather... that kind of spy?
After waiting for a while, Qi Qi realized that these people were neither lecherous nor indiscriminate killers. He immediately covered his face and sobbed, "The Fifth Prince, he... he's not human... he tortures me every night... being a spy is not easy, it's so hard for me..."
The bearded man's expression was complicated: "What are you crying for? A real man doesn't cry!"
Qi Qi: "...Could you please put the knife down first, hero? It hurts!"
The knife went down.
At this moment, the bearded man and his companions relaxed their gazes slightly: "You say you're a spy for the Ninth Prince? Have you uncovered any secrets?"
Seeing their misunderstanding, Qi Qi decided to play along and feign difficulty: "To answer your question, it's not that I don't want to talk about it, it's just that I've only been in this job for a short time and haven't even started investigating yet. That night, I just received my orders from the Ninth Prince and was arrested by the Fourth Prince, who mistook me for some important person. They all think I have some secret, but I'm truly innocent. I was arrested before I even started anything, and... where can I go to seek justice..."
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