In the early morning of the second day, a large stone and a sack were missing from the pier outside Suzhou. Someone heard the sound of a heavy object falling into the river. Immediately afterwards, they heard that the young master's third concubine had returned to her home in Quanzhou to visit relatives. It was unknown when she would return, and the date of her return was uncertain.
In the same dusky morning mist, on an island far away from Quanzhou City, taking advantage of the cover of the night before dawn, many ferocious bird-eating seagulls rushed down from the clouds and landed on the island, densely covering the entire ground. These seagulls greedily lowered their heads, using their blood-stained beaks to peck and tear at something. Because there were too many birds, the fight for food was especially violent. From time to time, seagulls would wantonly bite each other in order to fight for food territory. For a moment, the dusky island's surface was filled with bird feathers flying chaotically, flesh and blood splattering everywhere.
What they fought for food was not the young birds and turtle eggs that they normally enjoyed, but … human corpses.
The entire island was actually littered with corpses! The pungent smell of blood rose into the sky. Fortunately, it was early spring, so there was not too much of a rotten smell. But even so, with so many corpses, it still attracted the attention of many seagulls within a radius of several hundred miles.
What a feast.
On the island, one could faintly see a pier like building, but right now there were no signs of people. The dead people had their eyes wide open in fear, their white eyeballs unable to move, covered in a layer of mucus formed after death. It seemed that they never thought that someone would come to the island and kill them.
With a chi sound, a seagull accurately pecked at the eyes of the corpse that could not close their eyes. With a bloody eyeball in its mouth, it proudly twisted its neck, and then immediately lowered its head, as if afraid that its companions would fight with it for food. Spreading its wings, it moved to another place, hiding under a reef and began to eat. But it found that this food was a bit hard, and it grabbed its neck, anxiously cackling.
The island was covered with corpses, flesh flying to reveal white bones, internal organs pecked out, blood, death, flying, fighting flocks of birds, the aura of death and fear pervading the sea.
…
…
With one hand, he pushed the corpses above him away with some difficulty and carefully chased away those damned seagulls beside him. A pair of eyes nervously peered out from the gap. After confirming that the group of soldiers had left by ship, this island pirate who had survived the disaster crawled out of the corpses of his companions with lingering fear.
The man had been stabbed in the shoulder and was badly mutilated. If it were not for his identity, which allowed him to sense the murderous aura of the soldiers very quickly and pretended to be dead and used the corpse of his comrade to cover himself, he might have died long ago.
The soldiers who had come to the island should have been the pirates' companions, but they suddenly became violent. The viciousness of their actions was difficult to describe. It was not until everyone on the island was dead that the leader of the pirates realized that the Ming family had come to silence them.
The person who had luckily escaped had a dark complexion. It was obvious that he had lived on the sea for many years. His face was normal, his expression was determined, and his eyes were slightly narrowed. After experiencing such a disaster, he did not seem to panic. He panted as he sat among the corpses of his companions, forcing himself to calm down. He tore off the clothes of his companions beside him and tightly bandaged his own wounds. Then, he began to get up and search for fresh water and food on the island.
When the soldiers left, they thought everyone was dead, so they did not destroy the water and food. They gave him a chance to live.
After he recovered his spirit, the sky brightened.
…
…
Facing the rising sun, the man slowly sat on the dock and looked at the flock of birds that flew and landed not far away. He looked at the wretched appearance of his companions who had been with him for many years after their deaths. His lips began to turn white, but he resisted the urge to vomit. With a flip of his hand, he picked up a jug of water and poured it into his dry mouth.
The people who had died were all his companions, but he would not bury them. For one, too many people had died. It was impossible for him to bury so many bodies by himself. For pirates, if they could not be buried in the sea after they died, it was not necessarily a bad ending for them to be taken into the sky by these seagulls. Thirdly, these pirates had done a lot of evil in their daily lives. Murder and rape were common occurrences. Now that they had been killed by people and then eaten by birds, it could be considered retribution.
He was called Qing Wa'er, a native of Quanzhou. His family background was ordinary, and his ability was ordinary. He spent his years on the sea as a sailor. Sometime last year, the large ship he was on was robbed by pirates. He didn't know what method he used to luckily survive. Furthermore, he joined the inner circle of the pirates and began to become partners with them. On the roaring sea outside Quanzhou, he did those ugly things.
The pirates on this island were the largest on the sea, but, strangely, they did not do much business. Furthermore, the leader seemed to be purposely hiding the movements of this group. After staying on the island for half a year, Qing Wa finally discovered that the main business on the island was robbing the Ming family's cargo ships heading to the Western Ocean.
Each time they robbed a ship, they did not leave anyone alive, particularly the court officials responsible for escorting the ships.
In just half a year's time, because of Qing Wa's cool-headedness and cold-bloodedness, he received the appreciation of the leader and became a small leader among the pirates. He began to gradually understand more details and began to have the opportunity to come into contact with some very important matters. Unfortunately … at this time, on this night, a group of powerful navy found the small island and slaughtered everyone on the island in an incomparably bloody manner.
The morning sun brushed against his face, but it was not refreshing because he was surrounded by dead bodies and flesh. Qing Wa'er's throat gurgled. He recognized the pirate not far in front of him who was being eaten by birds on his thigh. It was Cai Zi, who lived in the same cave as him.
Qing Wa's eyes blinked weakly and stood up with some difficulty. He walked to the side of Cai Zi's body and used the wooden stick in his hand to chase away the wretched seagulls. Looking at Cai Zi's body, he was speechless for a moment. In the end, he slowly said, "If I go back alive, I will take good care of your parents."
After saying this, he decisively threw down his comrade's body and followed the hidden little path under the dock in another direction. The ships on the island had all sunk, but the pirate leader had left a backup plan there. He didn't know if the wooden boats were still there.
Qing Wa did not walk quickly, but he was particularly determined. He had to quickly return to land. Although he had survived, the subsequent reports had not been sent out. The commissioner's side should already be anxious.
As he walked, he wiped away his tears and forced himself not to turn his head to look. Although the pirates behind him all had their own paths to death, after being together for half a year, even if he had a heart of stone, he still couldn't help but have some feelings.
At this moment, a flame of anger rose in Qing Wa'er's chest. He was about to get proof that the Ming family was colluding with the pirates … that group of soldiers last night had a powerful battle power. Just which faction did they belong to? Since they had come to the island to silence witnesses, it had to be some big shot in the military who could mobilize the powerful navy along the coast … was it the Ye family? However, he did not have the right to make a judgment. He only hoped to quickly send this report back to Suzhou.
The crying Qing Wa'er was one of the five crows of the Fourth Bureau of the Overwatch Council stationed in Quanzhou. He was the secret agent who had once reported to Fan Xian the connection between the Ming family and the pirates.
— — —
Far from this bird island, outside Suzhou in Jiangnan, in the beautiful Ming Garden that seemed unwilling to be tainted by a trace of the secular world, the current master of the Ming family, Ming Qingda, was standing respectfully in front of a chair and replying to the question of the person in the chair.
The person in the chair was a woman, an old woman.
Even in front of the Eldest Princess, Ming Qingda had no need to be so reserved and courteous. In front of this old woman, he had to lower his head because this old woman was the true most powerful person in the Ming family … the matriarch, his birth mother.
Many years ago, if this old woman had not been vicious and merciless, poisoned the most favored mistress to death, and then chased the Seventh Prince out of the family after the old master's death, the Ming family's large fortune would probably have long fallen into that person's hands. What share would Ming Qingda have?
Each time Ming Qingda looked at his old mother, he could not think of the words "old and virtuous". Instead, he thought, "Being old and not dead is a thief … my seventh brother's body has probably already turned to white bones somewhere." Although he felt at ease, he also felt a chill. As long as this old woman was alive, he could not be considered the true master of the Ming family.
"Your actions are too slow." The old Ming matriarch looked at her son and said in a cold and merciless voice, "If you wanted to wash yourself clean, then you should have started acting two years ago."
Ming Qingda was known to be intelligent, otherwise he would not have been able to control such a large business of the Ming family. However, in front of his mother, he had been criticized badly. His face heated up and he furrowed his brows. "Why two years ago?"
"Because two years ago, the Palace decided to have Fan Xian marry Lin Wan'er!" A cold light flashed through the old woman's eyes as she spoke in a hateful voice.
Ming Qingda's expression was respectful, but he had other thoughts in his heart. Even if they had guessed at that time that Fan Xian would go to Jiangnan to take charge of the palace treasury, who knew he was the Emperor's illegitimate child? Who knew he was a descendant of the Ye family? Who knew he would one day lead the Overwatch Council? This old woman, it looked like she was truly muddle-headed.
The old woman scolded, "If I hadn't asked the military for help this time, if the Overwatch Council had found that island, given Fan Xian's personality, how would he have dealt with you?"
Ming Qingda laughed coldly in his heart and didn't say anything. With a respectful expression, he replied, "It is truly unfilial of me to make mother worry."
(To be continued, if you want to know what happened afterwards, please log on to WWW. CMFU. com. More chapters. Support the author. Support original reading!)
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