Yun Ye took out that small hourglass and placed it on the table. More than two hours had passed, and the sand in the hourglass had only flowed down a tiny bit. Li Yuanxiang brought his fat face close, carefully examined the hourglass, and cautiously asked Yun Ye, “Why set the time so long? Aren’t you worried about accidents?”
Yun Ye put down the pork trotter in his hand and sighed, “This world is getting harder and harder to navigate. Even an idiot like you has become shrewd, so a woman with heroic ambitions like Gaoshan Yangzi must not be underestimated even more. I’d stake my reputation that as soon as that woman puts out to sea, she’ll immediately transfer to small boats and have the large ships tow them—this is to guard against eventualities.”
“Only after seven or eight hours will she feel safe and board the large ships. Only then will the gunpowder explosion take effect. The Lingnan Naval Forces have fewer than thirty ships left that can set sail, and after last night’s consumption, the weapons on the ships have been used up completely. Quanzhou has become a mess with no way to resupply, and the weapons on the Great Emperor aren’t suitable for ordinary warships. I can only watch helplessly as that woman leaves. Unable to personally execute this wretch—Yun Ye’s heart is unwilling!”
Li Yuanxiang shook the hourglass with his fat hand twice, discovered this couldn’t make the sand flow faster, and put the hourglass back on the table. Patting his belly, he said to Yun Ye, “That’s your problem. Let’s agree in advance—don’t mention me in the memorial. Act as if I never came. Whenever I see my second brother, my calves start trembling. If I can avoid seeing him, I won’t see him.”
Yun Ye raised his head and glanced at Li Yuanxiang, saying, “You dared to deceive Teacher Li Gang. At his great age, he personally taught you, yet you dared to toy with him. Even if His Majesty can forgive you, how could the academy easily let you off? At the academy, behavior like yours would be punished with building rockeries. Will you go on your own, or shall I send someone to escort you there?”
Having said this much, a trace of gratitude actually appeared on Li Yuanxiang’s round face. Cupping his hands toward Yun Ye, he said, “This is exactly why I’m grateful to the academy. My mother comes from a humble background. My birth was completely an accident. Any bit of cleverness must be hidden away, lest people think I have ambitions. Getting this fat was completely my mother raising me like a duck—when I couldn’t eat anymore, Mother still forced me to continue eating. This was my mother’s method of protecting me. She believed fatties would appear stupider.”
“After entering the academy, I actually really enjoyed studying—truly. But look at those brothers of mine. Each one can’t wait to dress themselves up as geniuses. The so-called ‘dragon begets nine sons, each son different’—if there are clever ones, there must be stupid ones. Their foundations are more solid, so I had no choice but to play the fool.”
“Teacher Li Gang is a generational master of learning, extraordinarily accurate at judging people. The old gentleman saw my predicament and proposed to personally instruct me. Actually, the old man didn’t teach me anything—he just had me follow him around all day. This way I could also take fewer beatings. If I wanted to survive and live comfortably, I had to leave early. Getting to my fiefdom early was better than anything. So two years ago, during the regular enfeoffment, the old gentleman kicked me out of the academy. Therefore, I became the first person in these years to be enfeoffed as a prince at age eleven.”
“I’m too grateful to Teacher Li Gang to be grateful enough—how could I have the slightest disrespect toward the old gentleman? So your punishment is completely unreasonable.”
The sorrowful fatty’s face was streaming with tears. One could see he was extremely respectful of the old teacher. They say imperial princes are born with golden spoons in their mouths, but from Li Yuanxiang’s situation, sometimes that’s not necessarily so.
After handling the affairs of the prefectural governor’s mansion, the hourglass had already flowed halfway. Feng Ang had already begun presiding over Quanzhou to clean up the mess. Yun Ye took the mere fifteen ships he had left and put out to sea. For some reason, Li Yuanxiang clung to the ship refusing to disembark. Pang Yuhai, his head wrapped in white cloth, also insisted on going to sea no matter what. Li Yifu and Yumin were of the same mind.
In a day and a night, having witnessed too many tragedies, these three youths’ hearts were filled with rage. Yun Ye didn’t believe Gaoshan Yangzi and her group dared go to Yizhou across the strait—that was the Feng family’s lair. Feng Ang had already moved his family members to Yizhou. The Feng family’s descendants numbered no fewer than ten thousand. Gaoshan Yangzi wouldn’t dare go there seeking death.
The greatest possibility was going with favorable wind and water, using the fastest speed to leave. At this time, the farther from the Great Emperor the better. So Yun Ye’s fleet also followed this principle, going with the wind.
The hourglass kept flowing. The sand on top had only a thin layer remaining, and by this time it was already dawn. The sky was whitening on the horizon, sunrise imminent. Having sailed all night in darkness, everyone was without the slightest fatigue, all watching the hourglass. When the sand finished flowing, that would be the day the pirates lost their heads.
Dongyu on the mast held up a telescope observing in all directions. He looked very carefully, not letting any trace or clue slip by. Watching the last grain of sand flow down, everyone leaned over the ship’s rail looking all around, very much wanting to see pillars of smoke shooting skyward.
No movement. This disappointed many. Ren Xiong waved his hands explaining, “This is impossible. I hid the gunpowder extremely secretly. Even if the pirates tore apart the ships, they might not necessarily discover it. The time-incense used was also from home, the kind without smell. Setting it for ten hours absolutely couldn’t be wrong. The time-incense was lit in advance—they definitely wouldn’t discover it.”
Just when everyone was looking at each other in bewilderment, Dongyu began roaring and shouting. Everyone looked up to see Dongyu pointing his hand to the left. They all surged to the left rail, and saw large clouds of smoke rising in the sky to the left. Cheers immediately arose. Without anyone directing him, the captain changed course, heading straight for where the smoke pillar was rising.
From early morning to afternoon, Yun Ye had no heart for meals, only wanting to see Gaoshan Yangzi lose her head soon. He hoped heaven would leave her corpse for him—the Lingnan Naval Forces’ rebuilding needed her head to sacrifice to the battle flags.
Floating corpses kept appearing. Rotten planks drifted everywhere. Yun Ye gave orders to turn over every corpse and look, especially female corpses. Yun Ye’s orders were thoroughly executed. The Lingnan Naval Forces soldiers also worked very carefully.
Six female corpses were found—this didn’t match the number of eleven women. Cheng Jiu’s corpse was also found, with a large hole rotted in his lower abdomen and a plank stuck in his chest. Lu Chengqing’s corpse was also prominently visible. He had too many wounds on his body, and the person had already been swollen by soaking in seawater.
The final tally yielded only over twenty-three hundred corpses. Dongyu dove into the water but had difficulty diving to the seabed. The seawater in this area was very deep. Without the diving equipment of later generations, it was impossible to see the seafloor.
The five warships circling everywhere searching for survivors brought good news—they had found no fewer than twenty living people, including two women. Only Gaoshan Yangzi’s whereabouts were completely unknown.
From the prisoners’ mouths they learned that after putting to sea, Gaoshan Yangzi indeed wasn’t on the ships but instead ordered everyone to carefully check the warships over and over for hidden damage. This process lasted a full five hours. Only after confirming there was no danger did Gaoshan Yangzi return to the ship.
“All dead, all dead. The ships were blown to fragments. The people who survived are all here. Not counting these Tianzhu devils, we’re finished. If you’re a man, give your grandfather a quick death.”
Yun Ye very much liked tough men. Since he made this request, Yun Ye threw them all into the sea. Sharks were swimming everywhere in the sea, some so fierce they were even ramming the ships with their heads.
The sky had darkened. Yun Ye once again looked at this sea area. The nearest island was two days’ voyage from here. Gaoshan Yangzi, who was injured before boarding the ship, had no possibility of surviving this disaster.
Quanzhou’s affairs were numerous. Not only must he await the Inspector coming from the capital, he also had to accept the Ministry of War’s inquiry. The Emperor’s special envoy would also rush over. The Ministry of Justice’s constables needed to investigate Qin Yuan’s matter, and the Directorate of Waterways had already begun investigating. As the person in charge, Yun Ye couldn’t drift at sea for a long time. After searching for Gaoshan Yangzi for two days, he had no choice but to leave this sea area and begin the return voyage. Gaoshan Yangzi’s organization had been thoroughly destroyed, and she herself had probably already been buried at sea.
Yun Ye departed. On the sea surface only broken wood chips remained. Yun Ye’s ship sides were hung full of corpses, and those sharks also closely followed those corpses soaking in the seawater and left. A pair of blood-red eyes alertly observed all around, and a pair of hands swollen from soaking in seawater tightly grabbed a plank and flipped up onto it. After getting on the plank, she again pulled up a woman. After the last woman came up, they collapsed limply on the plank and fell unconscious.
Not knowing how much time had passed, Gaoshan Yangzi woke up. The sun in the sky had already set. She didn’t know how long she had actually slept, only felt unbearably hungry and thirsty.
Xiumei was still unconscious. The other maidservant was also unconscious. Gaoshan Yangzi wanted to swallow some saliva, but her throat was as dry as a desert. Flying fish only came out during the day—at night there would be no flying fish on the sea surface. Without thinking, she used her dagger to cut open that maidservant’s throat, holding down the constantly struggling maidservant and gulping down her salty, fishy blood.
Xiumei also woke up, looking in terror at Gaoshan Yangzi who was like a demon. She saw Gaoshan Yangzi lift her blood-covered face, open her bloody mouth and say to her, “Come here, keep drinking. If we want to get out alive, we must drink blood.”
Xiumei seemed to be under a spell as she crawled over, used her sleeve to cover the maidservant’s wide-open eyes, and bent over the wound Gaoshan Yangzi had cut open, sucking greedily. She suddenly felt that blood was actually very delicious.
The maidservant died. Xiumei wanted to push the corpse down, but was stopped by Gaoshan Yangzi. The corpse could remain unspoiled for one day. At this time, having a bit more food was always good.
Gaoshan Yangzi’s arm had swollen up. She untied the gauze. The wound was starting to discharge yellow fluid. Xiumei washed the gauze clean with seawater, then soaked it in seawater to help Gaoshan Yangzi wash the wound. Gaoshan Yangzi sat cross-legged on the plank, letting Xiumei continuously pour seawater on her wound. The seawater stung the wound very painfully, yet she had no reaction, only looked up at the bright moon in the sky, not knowing what she was thinking.
Xiumei re-bandaged Gaoshan Yangzi’s wound, pressed her face against Gaoshan Yangzi’s bare shoulder and back, and said in a low voice, “If we can’t catch fish tomorrow, will you drink my blood?”
“No. Drinking blood today was an expedient measure. Tomorrow we’ll catch flying fish—it’s very easy…”