Chapter 427: Despair

Her brother’s accusation rendered her speechless. Even so, the keen instinct given by God made her stand by the side with a weird smile on her face, not having any ounce of guilt or liking towards their savior, who was watching her argue with her brother. She could not help but continue pestering him with unreasonable arguments. “I didn’t say that so many lives are not worthy of several thousands of gold coins. It’s just that he wants rewards yet speaks eloquently at the same time. It just feels so hypocritical…”

“You’ve misunderstood me, Miss Helene. It’s your brother who took the initiative to repay me upon returning to Venis City, it’s because of this that I hope I can ask your father to help me buy a ship. To help me buy and not give it to me for free,” Zhang Lisheng suddenly interrupted Helena’s words and reached into his canvas T-shirt. He groped around his waist and took out a few baby fist-sized pieces of ‘dog-headed gold’. “I came across these pieces of gold in a river by accident when I was hunting with those vicious midgets. Gold is a very valuable thing in my hometown, and the old man, who taught me how to speak your language, also said that gold is a ‘good thing’ in your hometown. I believe this much gold should be enough to exchange for a ship right?”

The gold nugget had been washed in the river for thousands of years so its ugly rock appearance had already been worn out. Under the sun, it exuded a seductive luster as the sun’s rays shone upon it. With just a single glance, one could tell that this was solid pure gold from the purity of color itself.

“Mr. Lisheng, this gold of yours must be pure gold. From the amount of it, it must be enough to exchange for tens of thousands of gold coins. It’s definitely enough to buy a medium-sized merchant ship!” Annete looked at the shining gold nuggets in the young man’s hands and glared at his sister. “But, as I’ve told you before. You don’t have to buy the merchant ship at all. As long as we reach home safely, my father will be willing to give you one for free.”

“There’s no need for politeness, Young Master Annete. I’ll have to spend these pieces of gold that I obtained for free anyway.” Zhang Lisheng kneaded the gold in his palms together and pulled them into the shape of a rope, like a dough, and tied it on his waist before pulling his tucked shirt out to cover the gold belt. “I might as well just use it to buy a ship.”

“No! Mr. Lisheng, you saved my life! My sister’s life and the lives of the people on this entire shup. If you wish to have a ship, my father will definitely give it to you.” When Annete saw the young man’s hands that could shape the piece of gold easily, his eyes shone brightly and his face flushed as he answered.

Seeing the boy repeatedly insisting, Zhang Lisheng was stunned. Bursting out into a chuckle, he shook his hand and said, “Young Master Annete, we’ve just escaped from the island of the little midget for less than a day and we don’t even know what the future holds for us. The topic of buying a ship is just casual talk so you don’t have to be so serious. Anyways, I’m going to the cabin to sleep. According to the habits of my hometown, it’s time for me to say ‘good afternoon’ to you.”

He put his palms together and saluted to both of them, before turning around to walk freely into an empty cabin on the deck.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Lisheng.” Looking at Zhang Lisheng’s swaying disappearing back, Annete replied loudly. He then turned his head to look at his sister angrily before whispering, “Helena, I know you’re very annoying but I can’t believe that you’re actually so insensible! Casting aside all the others, don’t tell me that the two young Bailile’s lives from Venis City of the Kattaman City State are not worthy than a ship? Do you know how embarrassing it is to me, no, to the entire family if this news spreads out? A stranger rescued the life of the two Bailile’s heirs from the Hellfire tribesmen’s hands and yet he’s rejected when he wanted to get a ship as a reward? Oh dear Lord! This joke will be circulated in the aristocratic circle of Venis City for hundreds of years! Even though your personality is usually not that nice, you shouldn’t be so unreasonable either! Or don’t tell me that you have already become crazy after having been imprisoned in the livestock prison by the Hellfire tribesmen?”

The girl knew that she was at the wrong so she first chose to lower her head in silence but when she heard the young man become more emotional and exaggerated in his speech as he talked, she hesitated for a while before whispering, “I’m not crazy, Annete. I just, just feel that the outlander called Lisheng seems to be full of malice against us.”

“Full of malice?” The young man was stunned and replied, even more infuriated, “If he has any malicious intent towards us, he didn’t have to do anything and could have just watched us being barbecued and eaten by the Hellfire tribesmen one by one. Mr. Lisheng has saved our lives, Helena. Just like what Teacher Hanino has said, the reason he saved us is for the sake of himself as well. He has indeed saved us. He has saved us when we had nothing and when we stole a ship to escape. If he had malicious intent, what was it that he was trying to do then? I know that the people and things that you’ve predicted in the past have come to be fulfilled in the past but you’re not correct every time, aren’t you? Stop playing that ‘witch’ trick anymore. Everyone knows that you have the talent to become a ‘caster’ and you’ll become a witch in the future but you don’t have to keep reminding everyone that you’re different…”

“I’ve never wanted to show that I’m different from others! It’s you who think too much, Annete, it’s you who think too much!” The repeated accusations of her twin brother finally enraged Helena and caused the girl to burst out in anger as she shouted loudly.

“It’s me who thinks too much…or you, Helena?!” the young man shouted back and turned around to stride away while panting heavily.

When the sailors by the side heard the quarrel between the brother and sister duo, they had an expression that said they were already used to it. Those who were on duty just pretended that they were blind or deaf and continued to do their work. Those who were not on duty walked away as though nothing had happened, looking for a cabin to rest. At once, the deck became vacated and only the swimming fishes in the sea accompanied the wooden ship to sail in the sea slowly.

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Just like this, the fugitives ate the marine fish caught by the sailors, drank the clean water produced by the captain, and relied on the navigator to do his best to integrate the routes analyzed from the sky, ocean currents, and fish distribution, as they drifted along the vast sea for more than a month in this increasingly difficult voyage.

In the beginning, there was still laughter amongst the sailors who were on duty on the deck during the day but when it came to night, cries in their sleep could often be heard resonating from the cabin.

After the ecstasy of their successful escape slowly scattering away, the horror of having fallen into the cannibal Hellfire tribe gradually started to ferment. The tormenting nightmares made the mainlanders slowly lose their spirit and completely lose their mood to even put on a smile. The voyage that was seemingly never-ending added an extra shadow of despair on this dispiritedness.

Human beings were such fickle and fragile animals. The sailors, who had had their hopes in their navigator not long ago, began to become angry over Hanoo’s incompetence more than twenty days later.

Even their many years of experience in maritime career had become vain, which should have made them become more sensible to realize that in the absence of a nautical chart, and in the circumstance of not knowing their specific position, the fact that they did not encounter any sea monster or hidden reef sailing through the dangerous Hellfire sea region for such a long time was already enough to prove that Hanoo was an experienced and excellent navigator.

In truth, humans would only believe in the ‘truth’ they were willing to believe in!

When Anduki saw how the crew was starting to get agitated, he promptly used the authority of being a captain to change the three shifts of sailor duty into two shifts. In addition to fishing and mobilizing the sails, all sailors were needed to constantly scrub the deck with sea water. Even if there was no brush, they were required to use a unused thick rope to kneel on the floor and scrub it clean, as long as the deck was polished as bright as a mirror.

The reason he made such a demand was because they would become prone to an epidemic disease after sailing on the sea for so long. For this reason, they must do their utmost to maintain the cleanliness. However, in truth, the real reason was that he wanted to exhaust the sailors with all kinds of work so that they could sleep directly after a long day of work and no longer have any energy to let their minds roam free.

Using the navigator’s most common tactic to vent his henchmen’s energy, Anduki managed to maintain another twenty days of calmness until all of a sudden, a terrible thing happened quietly — the ship sailed into a sea region desolate of sea produce and the catches harvested by the fugitives begin to decrease day by day, until it finally became zero!

“There’s still no fish at all! It has already been three days! We can’t even catch the smallest sea bream! If this continues to go on, by the time all the bait have been finished up, we can do nothing but wait for our death. If I knew that I would starve to death like this, I might as well just be fed well by those Hellfire tribesmen and eaten by them…” The sun had already risen to the top of their heads. A short sailor, who was standing by the ship’s side since early in the morning, pulled up the fishing line with longing for countless of times already every time he saw the wooden block that acted like a float bobbed in the waves. However, after he saw that there were only a few droplets of bitter water on it, he clenched his teeth and kicked the ship’s side while howling loudly.

Such complaints could often be heard on the deck in recent days. Anduki had stopped them several times at first but in order to prevent the sailors from accumulating their grievances and then erupting all at once, which would definitely cause an irreparable situation, he no longer gave a damn.

However, when the captain heard the faint howl of the sailor from the steering cabin, he, who had aged a lot during this short span of two months, could not help but had a worried expression on his face. With a sigh, he crouched down and turned to look at his navigator, who was observing the ocean currents outside. “Hanoo, the sailors are getting more and more irritated and desperate. Hunger can make one go crazy and if we don’t catch any more fish, I’m afraid a riot will erupt soon. Have you found the reason why the sea fish swam away from us?”

“Captain, I’ve told you many times. It’s not that I can’t find the reason why the fish swim away from us. It’s just that there are too many reasons that I found. We’re sailing in the Hellfire sea region after all so whatever strange thing can happen!” Hanoo, who had more white hair now, answered in a hoarse voice.

“Yeah, we’re sailing in the Hellfire sea region and it’s already been a full 65 days!” Anduki became silent for a while before smiling wryly. Counting the shallow nicks on the rudder, he whispered, “This is already a miracle. Since the Gods are not willing to give us more grace, perhaps everything should be over now…”

His words were filled with despair, which also represented the tormented emotions of most people on the ship. In a cabin on the deck that was only occupied by a person, Zhang Lisheng was lying in a hammock and right now, he was filled with disappointment.