Unwilling to accept it!
Mo Zi felt the large ship beneath her feet slowly moving aside, while the direction of that pitch-black ship opposite remained utterly unchanged, as if certain her ship would definitely yield.
Because that ship flew the Great Qiu wolf banner high.
The wolf was their god. The eagle was their heaven. The god protected. Heaven unified.
Before the ship even arrived, arrogant laughter could be heard, accompanied by wild boasting: “They say Great Zhou is a land of propriety and etiquette—I think they’re more like sheep on our grasslands, all soft and woolly, ready to be squeezed at will. Such a big ship—one wave could drench our boat from top to bottom, yet they’re actually dodging us. So damned spineless, a whole ship of cowards, all that flesh grown for nothing. Might as well let us cook and eat them—at least they’d have some use. Haha!” Those words carried on the wind, heard clearly. Every person from Hongyu’s face changed color. Perhaps not everyone knew the wolf banner represented Great Qiu, but these words about cooking human flesh—besides the brave and warlike people of Great Qiu, who else would be so brazen on another nation’s soil, treating Great Zhou as their own domain?
“Exactly. What propriety—all just stinking dog farts. Yuling claims to have the strongest naval forces, but what happened when they met us? Nothing but soft-legged shrimp and shell-less turtles, utterly worthless in a fight. Though they do specialize in producing beautiful men and women—after playing with them enough, roasting them tastes damned good. Not like these over-pickled cabbages—wilted and flavorless, terrible to eat.” Another voice was equally coarse, harsh, and savage.
At this moment, that ship had reached the sand ship’s side and accidentally scraped against it. Their ship shook slightly, eliciting another burst of even more unbridled laughter.
“Brothers, if they were Zhou people, they’d be saying, ‘Oh my, you’ve frightened my little heart.'” “Save me, no please! Haha, just like whores calling for customers.”
“Quick, quick, quick, hold me up, I don’t want to die!”
One after another, deliberately effeminate voices, doing their utmost to humiliate.
“Those bastards—” Chou Yu was about to curse loudly. He yielded to no one in cursing.
“No one respond—just keep to our own course.” Mo Zi’s eyes remained straight ahead, her fingers gripping the wooden railing white-knuckled as she said loudly.
Everyone held a breath of frustration stuck in their chests. But soldiers obeyed military orders like mountains, and shipbuilders obeyed ship orders like water—neither too heavy nor too light, just unable to touch ground. They had to listen to the ship’s head to feel secure. Because of this pent-up frustration, operating the ship seemed insufficiently flexible and powerful. Harmony dropped to its lowest point as the ship swayed left and right without advancing.
“Oh, they said something about their mothers—there really is a damned woman’s voice! Woman, show your face and let the men have a look. If you’re decent-looking, come along with the men. Serve us well and you won’t lack for anything—isn’t that better than these spineless boatmen?”
Mo Zi stood on the other side. The sand ship was larger and higher than the opposing vessel. After they drew alongside, she could only see that ship’s outer edge, not the people speaking.
Chou Yu flipped down, his teeth grinding audibly, growling in a low voice: “Brother Mo, if we don’t teach them a lesson, they’ll think everyone on our ship is dead.”
Mo Zi’s brow furrowed, her expression stern, her eyes dark and heavy: “They’re envoys—what are we? If we step forward on behalf of the Great Zhou court to teach them a lesson, would the Great Zhou court step forward to speak fairly for us? At the slightest mistake, we’d be the first scapegoats.”
Chou Yu suddenly understood why Mo Zi, usually so tough on ships, had said to yield.
“Why so quiet?” The loud voice shouted again: “If you’re lacking strength, big brother will give you some meat and bone to gnaw on. The flavor’s a bit off, but it’ll grow your courage.” With that said, something was tossed into the air. Forming a rainbow arc as it fell, it struck the canvas sail, bounced up and rolled several times across the deck.
Mo Zi’s gaze suddenly sharpened, staring at the red mark on the white canvas.
That was blood. Fresh blood, still flowing.
Immediately after, she heard panicked footsteps. Among the shipyard workers near the mast, some faces went pale, some couldn’t bear to look and turned their faces away, and others rushed to the gunwale to dry-heave over the river.
On the deck, that thing was an arm—bloody, skinned, with several places where flesh seemed to have been gouged out, revealing ghastly white bone. The arm included the hand, which still had skin, death-gray in color, five fingers curled like claws, containing fierce hatred.
“Your Great Zhou commoners probably couldn’t taste this in their entire lives. This sheep originally came from Yuling. Yuling has many flower towns—the meat has a faint peony fragrance!” The voice’s position hadn’t changed. That ship had stopped advancing. Hongyu’s forbearance and silence seemed to have made provoking them interesting.
“This sheep” meant a person. A Yuling person. The blood was still dripping—it had just been severed not long ago. Earlier, the old general from Yuling had been lying on the ice, but his subordinates were nowhere to be seen. Most likely they had failed to ambush the Great Qiu envoy ship and suffered this cruel fate.
“Damn his ancestors eighteen generations! These beasts!” Chou Yu’s eyes were bloodshot, his fists clenched, trembling with rage.
Mo Zi could hear her own breathing shift from steady to heavy. The sparks in her chest had been flying about individually, but suddenly they collided in pairs, bursting into explosions that instantly ignited into a prairie fire.
This was going too far!
“Chou Yu, go to the cabin and bring out a spare cotton robe. So when the person leaves, we won’t have wasted their kind gesture!” After Mo Zi finished speaking, she leaped over the railing. Jumping from this height was no challenge for her.
Chou Yu knew Mo Zi had her own plan. Without a moment’s hesitation, he responded and jumped down from the other end.
On that ship, the mocking laughter continued endlessly, becoming increasingly unbearable to hear.
Mo Zi stood still before that severed arm, calm as a pool of spring water.
The frightened shipyard workers around her all calmed down, slowly gathering around with Mo Zi as their center, forming a circle.
They were waiting. Waiting for Mo Zi’s next words.
Chou Yu brought the cotton garment. “Brother Mo, what’s this for?” The severed limb on the ground was shockingly red and terrifying—even this old veteran of the rivers couldn’t bear to look at it much.
Behind Chou Yu followed grandfather and grandson Min Yu and Min Song. Clearly they too couldn’t stand listening anymore—their expressions were extremely grim.
“Give it to me.” Mo Zi took it, then said to everyone: “Each person take a hook pole and stand at the gunwale near the Great Qiu ship. If the ship tries to leave, ask them to wait politely.”
Everyone responded in unison, grabbed iron hooks, and rushed to the gunwale. Min Song, not to be outdone, took the lead standing up front, his brows furrowed in cold defiance.
“Hey, what are you doing? Looking for death?” The mocking tone changed to a cold voice.
“Great! My hands have been idle—when we butchered those people earlier I didn’t get my share. Now I can stab to my heart’s content. Brothers, draw your blades!” A chorus of metal clashing sounds.
As Mo Zi crouched down to carefully wrap the severed arm in the cotton robe, she called out: “Great Zhou is a land of propriety and etiquette—how could we receive such a generous gift without reciprocating? Advance envoys, please wait a moment while we prepare.”
“Little lady’s voice is so pleasant, it makes our hearts itch. Don’t worry, little lady—take your time prettying yourself. No need to have people hook our ship—we’ll wait for you.” Endless wild laughter.
“What does Brother Mo plan to do?” Though Master Min was furious, he also knew that failure to endure small matters would ruin great plans. He feared that in her youth she might rashly provoke disaster they shouldn’t invite.
“Old Master, please don’t get involved—allow this junior to handle it.” She didn’t want to implicate this highly respected elder with a resounding reputation in the shipbuilding community. Moreover, if Hongyu had no choice, at least Risheng would be safe.
Mo Zi beckoned and called over Fei Xia and Shui She: “There are still ice blocks on the small boat. I’ll trouble you two to go underwater and use them to block the connection point of that ship’s stern right swing rudder. You can break it first, then block it—make it look like they struck an ice block, just like we’ve practiced underwater on regular days. I’ll try to stall them on this end.” It wasn’t exactly teaching—during warm weather, she and the three brothers had practiced quite a few methods for damaging ships without arousing suspicion.
If Great Qiu was still using her design, this mongrel hybrid ship’s stern would inevitably have double swing rudders for stable downstream sailing and upstream turning. But the disadvantage was that once one side became immobile, it would lose a certain sense of balance and become difficult to steer. It wouldn’t kill them—it would just make them spin in circles.
A small prank, playing them back.
The two brothers already had perfect understanding and immediately took ice and chisels underwater.
Mo Zi waited a bit longer, then walked toward Min Song and Chou Yu. From her higher position, she finally got a clear look at those Great Qiu people. As it turned out, they weren’t even proper advance envoys—just a dozen or so warriors in black iron armor. The real advance envoys sat in the cabin. Through the windows, she could see quite a few figures dressed magnificently in fur robes. The advance envoys paid no attention to those outside—clearly tacit permission.
“Not a little lady—somewhere between man and woman.” The voice that had been most arrogant from the start came from a massive man covered in facial tattoos with turbid yellow eyeballs, arrogant and crude. He wore pitch-black iron armor with two large sabers hanging at his waist. Though he had to look up to see Mo Zi and the others, his spirit was not at all weak.
Mo Zi was about to speak when her peripheral vision suddenly caught a flash of bright red. She turned to look and drew in a sharp breath.
A row of corpses hung from the mast!
Stark naked. Some had been completely skinned, some were missing arms and legs, but all the heads were intact, still wearing Yuling soldiers’ helmets. Every pair of eyes glared open—not one closed. Blood still dripped intermittently, falling on the black sail where it was swallowed without a trace.
“Zan Jin.” Mo Zi spoke in a low voice. Her palms were sweating. Not from fear, but from tension.
Zan Jin had always been there. He just wasn’t as talkative as before. Beside her were Min Song and Chou Yu; behind her was Zan Jin—all outstanding good men. What was she tense about?
Mo Zi’s gaze focused, then she smiled.
The black-armored warriors all stared blankly, momentarily silent as crows.
What kind of beauty was that?
Have you seen the first ray of sunlight at dawn? Have you seen the boundless golden radiance of a full moon hanging in the sea sky? Have you seen the instant when a grassland eagle spreads its wings to pounce on a rabbit? Have you seen the rainbow after sweet frost descends from the desert sky?
It was that kind of beauty.
No need for “making fish sink and geese fall.” No need for “nation-toppling beauty.” Those words describing women’s delicate and radiant beauty—none fit.
Mo Zi was Mo Zi. The beauty she displayed unreservedly on the ship was utterly unique in all the world.
No one dared, could, or would desecrate it!
“This little one, I claim! Whoever dares compete with me, I’ll kill him!” The tattooed man was the first to react, immediately pointing at Mo Zi and shouting.
Mo Zi smiled coldly.
When she smiled coldly, all the Hongyu workers saw and smiled coldly along with her. Courage had already been born—how could they retreat!
A cold smile was naturally different from Mo Zi’s earlier calm and breezy smile—too obvious. Even an idiot could see the contempt within it.
The tattooed man couldn’t bear the huge contrast and roared strangely: “Little one, smile like before. This smile—I don’t like it.”
Mo Zi laughed heartily. The next second she withdrew it completely, not a trace of expression remaining.
“Please accept this gift.”
No sooner said than done.