"Baiting them out would expose the decoy to danger." Dai Xin said, "Would it be possible, young master Fengxian, for you to track them from a place where they were recently spotted?" He set his tea cup down and looked around the rest of the shop. "Or, perhaps we might search a tavern or the poorer streets of Mingdu for an informant? If the bandits have made the surrounding roads their target, they would perhaps need a fence to sell their ill-gotten gains, or someone looking out for them in town to tell them when the merchants are going or coming."

Having found no reason to be suspicious of anyone else in the shop, he returned his gaze to the table and bowed his head slightly to Liu.

"I am afraid that, like Miss Kyang, most of my encounters with the typical highwayman have been defensive. And I am not a hunter--I can offer little more to this attempt than my fists, though I give their service gladly. If Mingdu were a larger place, with a seedier underbelly, and contacts to a crime family or triad, perhaps I could offer more help. I have worked for such organizations in the past and know a little more of their dealings."