Her brother's accusation made the girl speechless. However, her God-given keen intuition made her unable to feel guilty or have a good impression of her savior who was standing by the side with a strange smile on his face, watching the dispute between her and her brother. Unable to help herself, she continued to pester him endlessly, "I didn't say that so many people's lives are not worth a few thousand gold coins.
It's him who wants to be rewarded but also likes to say 'beautiful words' which makes people feel that he's a hypocrite … "
"You've misunderstood, Miss Helena. It was your brother who took the initiative to say that he wants to repay me when he returns to Venis City. For this reason, I hope to ask your father to help me buy a ship.
I'm buying it, not giving it to you, "Zhang Lisheng suddenly interrupted Helena's words and reached into his canvas T-shirt. Fumbling around his waist, he took out a few pieces of 'gold nuggets' the size of a baby's fist." I accidentally found these gold nuggets in a river when I was hunting with those brutal dwarves.
Gold is a very valuable thing in my hometown, and the old man who taught me your language also said that gold is also a 'good thing' in his hometown. I think this much gold should be enough to exchange for a ship, right? "
After being washed by the river for tens of thousands of years, the ugly rocks on the surface of the gold nuggets that had been worn away emitted a tempting luster under the sun. With just a glance, one could tell that it was pure gold.
"Mr. Lisheng, these gold nuggets of yours should be pure gold. Judging by the weight, they should be able to be exchanged for at least tens of thousands of gold coins. It's definitely not a problem to exchange for a medium-sized merchant ship." Annete looked at the glittering gold nuggets in the young man's hand and glared at his sister fiercely. "But like I said, you don't need to buy a merchant ship at all. As long as we reach home safely, my father will be very willing to give you one."
"Don't be so polite, Young Master Annete. I'll only squander these unearned gold in my hands." Zhang Lisheng pinched the gold in his palm together with his bare hands and pulled it into a belt like kneading dough to tie it around his waist. Then, he pulled out his shirt from his pants to cover the gold belt. "I might as well use it to buy a ship."
"No, Mr. Lisheng. You've saved me, my sister, and the lives of the entire ship. As long as you want a ship, my father will definitely give it to you." Upon seeing the young man casually shaping the gold like a powerful machine, Anito's eyes lit up and his face flushed red as he exclaimed loudly.
Upon seeing the young man's insistence, Zhang Lisheng was stunned for a moment before chuckling and shaking his head. "Young Master Annete, we've just escaped from Shorty's island for less than a day. We still don't know what the future will be like. I'm just casually saying that I want to buy a ship, so you don't have to take it so seriously.
Alright, I'm going to sleep in the cabin. According to our hometown's custom, I'll have to say 'good afternoon' to you and Miss Helena. "Chao Fei placed his palms together and turned around to walk to an empty cabin on the deck.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Lisheng." Looking at Zhang Lisheng's swaying disappearing back, Annete retorted loudly before turning his head to look at his sister angrily. Lowering his voice, he said, "Helena, I know that you're very annoying, but I can't believe that you're actually so unreasonable!
Putting the others aside, don't tell me that the lives of the two young Bailile in Venis City of the Kattaman City State are not as valuable as a ship? Do you know how humiliating it would be for me, no, my entire family if this were to spread out?
A foreigner who saved the lives of the two heirs of the Bailile Trading Company from the hands of the Hellfire tribesmen and wanted to simply ask for a ship as a reward was rejected. Oh, God! Such a joke can be circulated in the aristocratic circle of Venis City for hundreds of years!
Y-Even though your usual character is not good, you're not this unreasonable! Don't tell me that you've gone crazy from being locked in the 'livestock pen' by the Hellfire tribesmen … "
The girl knew that she was in the wrong so she chose to remain silent first. However, when she heard the young man's words becoming more and more enthusiastic, she hesitated for a while and could not help but explain softly, "I'm not crazy, Annete. It's just that I feel that the foreigner named Lisheng seems to be filled with malice towards us from the bottom of his heart."
"Filled with malice?" The young man was stunned for a moment before replying angrily, "If he has any malice towards us, he could just watch us turn into barbecued meat and be eaten by the Hellfire tribesmen one by one as long as he does nothing.
Mr. Lisheng has saved our lives, Helena. Even though it's just like what Teacher Hanino said that he saved us for his own sake, he has still saved us after all. He saved us when we had nothing and had to steal a ship to escape. If he has any malice, what is he plotting against us for?
I know that you've predicted some people and things in the past, and they've all come true, but you're not always right, are you? Don't play the 'Witch' game anymore. Everyone knows that you have the talent to become a 'Spell Caster', and you'll become a Wizard in the future. You don't need to constantly remind people that you're different … "
"I've never thought of showing that I'm different! It's you who always thinks too much, Annete! It's you who always thinks too much!" The repeated accusations of the twin brother finally ignited Helena's anger. The girl exploded and screamed.
"Now, am I the one who thinks too much or are you the one who thinks too much, Helena?!" The young man roared back and turned around to leave in big strides while panting heavily.
When the sailors by the side heard the quarrel between the siblings, they put on a habitual expression while the ones on duty pretended to be blind and deaf and continued with their work.
Those who were not on duty gradually dispersed as if nothing had happened, minding their own business as they went to find their own cabins to rest. Not long after, the deck became empty, leaving only the fish swimming in the sea accompanying the wooden boat as it slowly sailed through the wind and waves.
Just like this, the fugitives ate the fish caught by the sailors and drank the clean water made by the captain. Relying on the navigator's painstaking efforts to analyze the route based on astronomical phenomena, ocean currents, and the distribution of fish, they drifted in the vast sea with increasing difficulty for more than a month.
In the beginning, the sailors who were on duty on the deck during the day would still laugh and chat with each other. However, at night, the sound that resonated from the cabin would always be their cries in their sleep.
After the ecstasy of successfully escaping from the cannibal Hellfire tribe faded away, the fear of falling into the cannibal Hellfire tribe began to gradually ferment. The continuous nightmares caused the mainlanders to slowly become dispirited all day long, completely losing the mood to smile. Not only that, the long voyage that seemed to have no end had cast a shadow of despair on this dispiritedness.
Humans were such fickle and fragile animals. The sailors who had placed high hopes on the navigator not long ago began to feel angry about Hanoo's' incompetence 'more than 20 days later.
Even though their many years of sea career should have made them completely rational to realize that Hanoo was an experienced and excellent navigator without encountering any sea monsters or reefs while sailing in the dangerous Hellfire sea region for such a long time without a nautical chart and without knowing the specific direction, it was still useless.
In fact, people would only believe in the 'truth' that they were willing to believe!
Upon seeing that the sailors were gradually becoming restless, Anduki promptly used his authority as a captain to decisively order to change the three shifts of sailors into two shifts. Not only that, other than fishing and maneuvering the sails, all the sailors on duty would also have to continuously scrub the deck with seawater. If there were no brushes, they would have to kneel on the ground and use the discarded cables to wash the deck. In short, they would have to scrub the deck until it was as bright as a mirror.
The honorable reason for making such a request was that they would be prone to diseases after sailing at sea for a long time, so they would have to try their best to keep it clean. However, the real reason was that they wanted the sailors to be exhausted from working so hard that they would fall asleep right after they finished their work. They would no longer have the energy to let their imagination run wild.
Using the navigator's most commonly used trick to vent the energy of his subordinates, Anduki allowed the peaceful days on the wooden ship to continue for another 20 days or so. All of a sudden, an extremely terrible thing happened quietly. The ship sailed into a sea region that was barren of marine products. The fishing catches that the fugitives harvested every day began to gradually decrease until it finally reached zero!
"There's still no fish taking the bait. It's been three days already, but we can't even catch the smallest sea louse. If this goes on, we'll only be able to wait for death when the bait is all eaten up.
If we knew that we'd starve to death like this, we might as well be eaten by the Hellfire tribesmen … "The sun had already risen above their heads. A short sailor, who had been standing on the ship's side fishing since early morning, suddenly gritted his teeth and shouted loudly after seeing the wooden blocks that acted as floats trembling slightly with the waves for the umpteenth time. He pulled up the silk line longingly but only managed to harvest a few bitter water droplets.
Such complaints often resonated on the deck in recent days. After stopping them a few times in the beginning, in order to prevent the sailor from accumulating resentment and erupting all at once, which could easily lead to an irreparable situation, Anduki had long stopped caring about it.
However, he could faintly hear the sailor's roar in the steering cabin. The captain who had aged a lot in just two months could not help but have a worried expression on his face. With a sigh, he hunched his body and turned to look at the navigator who had just finished observing the ocean currents outside. "Hanoo, the sailors are becoming more and more irritable and desperate.
Hunger will drive people crazy. If we still can't catch any fish, I'm afraid that a riot will break out soon. Have you found the reason why the sea fishes are staying away from us? "
"Captain, how many times have I told you? It's not that I can't find the reason why the sea fishes are staying away from us, but there are too many reasons that I can find. We're sailing in the Hellfire sea region after all, so anything strange can happen," Hanoo, who had a lot of white hair on his head, answered in a hoarse voice.
"That's right! We're sailing in the Hellfire sea region and we've been sailing for a total of 65 days." Anduki became silent for a while before suddenly smiling wryly. Counting the shallow scratches on the rudder, he whispered, "This is already a miracle. Since God is unwilling to give us more grace, perhaps everything should come to an end …"
His words were filled with despair, which also represented the tormented emotions of most of the people on the wooden ship at this time. Only Zhang Lisheng, who occupied a cabin on the deck alone and was lying on the hammock, was feeling disappointed.
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