"With a new layer of shame acting as protection and motivation, I hurriedly fled the place, laid low for a while, and when three weeks were up, I went to the agreed-upon location.
I found Yao Chang was already there, it was early dawn at the time. It went without saying Fu Yong wasn't there.
We were a bundle of nerves but we decided to wait. Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes to hours, and before we knew it, it was already midnight and Fu Yong still wasn't there.
Unwilling to admit that maybe something had happened to him, or ..."
"That the cauldron had been taken.." Xiao Gun added after a slight pause with some strain in his tone.
"We decided to wait for a few more days. Only when it reached the sixth day and he still wasn't there were we ready to admit that something had happened to him.
Failures in reaching him via the communication talisman and other means were had laid in place more than confirmed it.