Chapter 23: Lying on a Spear, Awaiting the Dawn
“General Qi, Yunzhi will be fine. Those pirates are holding him as a hostage; they won’t hurt him,” Duanmu Ling, who had already recovered, said to Qi Xiao on the main warship.
At this moment, Qi Xiao was holding a map, standing on the highest deck of the ship.
He nodded at Duanmu Ling. He understood the logic, of course, but even so, he couldn’t stop himself from worrying.
That day, although they had won the battle, they had lost all their ships. They had relied on sheer willpower to swim to an uninhabited island. After staying there for several days, Langxuan’s ships had come to pick them up. Now they had new ships, gunpowder, and weapons. Everything seemed to have returned to normal, except that Fu Yunzhi was now in the hands of the pirates.
The scene of Fu Yunzhi being taken away replayed in Qi Xiao’s mind over and over. He hated himself so much for his carelessness and his eagerness for a quick victory. If he had stayed by Fu Yunzhi’s side that day, how could this have happened?
“We will reach King’s Island in a day,” Qi Xiao said, pointing to a small island on the map.
Duanmu Ling looked at it. “Will there be a storm?”
“If there is a storm, it will only delay us by half a day at most.”
Duanmu Ling thought for a moment and said cautiously, “General Qi… I understand your eagerness to find Yunzhi as soon as possible. I also wish I could sprout wings and fly to the island. But there are still many, many people on this ship, thousands of people who follow your command…”
“I know what I’m doing,” Qi Xiao said. “If we encounter a storm, I will certainly wait for everyone to recover their strength and ensure the ships and equipment are in order before we proceed.” With that, he smiled. “I am Qi the Yaksha, after all.”
“Duanmu Ling!”
Qi Shaoling walked over to them with a cloak.
“You’ve just recovered. Don’t stand here in the wind.”
Duanmu Ling happily draped the cloak Qi Shaoling had brought for him over his shoulders.
“General Qi, I’ll be going now.”
After Qi Shaoling led Duanmu Ling away, Qi Xiao looked at the surface of the sea. The wind was picking up. A storm was coming.
“A storm is coming,” Haoyue said.
Fu Yunzhi looked out the window. The black cloth had been taken down, and he could see the coast and some scattered houses outside.
A storm…
I hope everything goes smoothly for Qi Xiao and the others.
Fu Yunzhi’s shackle had been removed, and he had been given the freedom to move around, although someone would follow him wherever he went. For the past few days, he had been wandering around the island but had found nothing. The island was full of houses where the pirates’ families lived, and many ships were docked by the beach. It seemed no different from any other coastal city, with the men going out to sea and the women doing handicrafts.
The pirate king’s residence stood in the center of the island, surrounded by the houses of the leaders. Fu Yunzhi’s room was in the house of one of those leaders—Qu Zheng.
Qu Zheng was not at home all day, and Fu Yunzhi didn’t know where he went. But for him, this was the best possible situation. The mere sight of Qu Zheng now made him want to vomit. He loathed him with every fiber of his being.
Fu Yunzhi looked at the markings on the candle and walked to the bed. “Haoyue, I’m going to sleep. You can leave now.”
“Eh?” Haoyue looked at the sky, worried. “So early? Is Young Master Fu not feeling well?”
Fu Yunzhi shook his head.
“You may go.”
“Yes.”
Before leaving, Haoyue extinguished all the candles. Fu Yunzhi lay on the bed, carefully observing the silhouettes outside the door. If he remembered correctly, not long after he fell asleep, the guards watching him would change shifts. If he wasn’t mistaken, after he was asleep, the guards who knew martial arts would be replaced by ordinary servants.
After the shift change, Fu Yunzhi silently opened the window and jumped out.
He was wearing dark clothes today. Carefully avoiding the guards, he came to a deep mountain on the west side. There were mountains on this island, and more than one, but in the past few days, he had noticed that the only one that was guarded was this Tongzi Mountain on the west side.
Once he was there, he no longer hid, instead striding openly towards the stone gate that led into the mountain.
“Who’s there?” A guard pointed his spear at Fu Yunzhi.
Fu Yunzhi waved the token in his hand and said, neither humbly nor arrogantly, “Master Qu sent me.”
The guard took the token. The character “Qu” was carved on it. He examined it for a long time and said to his companion, “It’s real.”
Fu Yunzhi didn’t know how they verified it, but he was absolutely confident he could bluff his way through. After all, the token was real, a genuine article! That day when Qu Zheng had been handsy with him, pressing his whole body against him, Fu Yunzhi had smoothly lifted the token from his waist. He had to thank Duanmu Ling for this. On the ship, Duanmu Ling had been bored and had played “catch the thief” with him several times, which had somehow taught Fu Yunzhi the art of “taking things on the sly.”
He had just taken it on a whim, not really expecting it to be useful. He never thought he would be so lucky that Qu Zheng hadn’t used his token these past few days and still hadn’t discovered it was missing.
“Master Qu has instructed that my presence here must not be known to anyone else. It must be kept a secret from the king and the other leaders. Do you understand?”
The guards all agreed and respectfully returned the token to him.
Fu Yunzhi took a lantern from the guards and headed into Tongzi Mountain. For the past few days, the guards hadn’t restricted his movements in the city at all, because there were truly no secrets there. If he wanted to get useful intelligence for the war, he had to go to a restricted area, like the king’s residence or this mountain!
The mountain was quiet, and the air was fresh. The distant forest was a hazy green, and the nearby cypress trees were as green as jade, but Fu Yunzhi was in no mood to appreciate the scenery. Following a mountain path that had many footprints, he came to a large pool. The water in the pool was murky and had a foul smell.
Fu Yunzhi squatted down and tested the water with his hand. It was very cold.
Just then, a few ripples appeared on the surface of the water not far from him.
There was something in the water.
Fu Yunzhi cautiously took a few steps back.
Splash—
The thing in the water emerged.
Fu Yunzhi recognized it at a glance. It was a sea monster! And it was the giant one that had dragged him and Qu Zheng away that day!
Then, to his astonishment, one after another, giant sea monsters emerged from the pool. In an instant, the surface of the water was covered with these terrifying fish.
Fu Yunzhi counted. There were at least a hundred of these monsters with their lethally venomous barbs!
One of the sea monsters opened its mouth wide and swayed its huge body towards him. It was a gesture of begging for food. The sea monsters must have mistaken him for the person who fed them.
Fu Yunzhi frowned. These pirates are truly vicious! To raise so many sea monster fish, if they released them in a future battle with Langxuan, wouldn’t they have a fifty percent better chance of winning? These sea monsters were so huge and had deadly poison; they would be extremely difficult to deal with.
I absolutely cannot let them succeed!
Fu Yunzhi looked at the sky. It was getting late, and this was not a place to linger. He had to get back before dawn. He absolutely did not want to be discovered now. He was already planning to come back again. Next time, he would definitely bring something that could kill these sea monster fish!
After leaving the stone gate, Fu Yunzhi returned the lantern to the guards and said haughtily, “Keep a close watch on these fish for me. I will come back to inspect them in a few days.”
The guards bowed and scraped. “Yes, yes, please tell Leader Qu not to worry. We know the war is coming, and we will watch these beasts carefully. We guarantee we’ll raise them to be fat and strong, and they will definitely be of great use!”
“Hmph.” Fu Yunzhi knew that these mountain guards rarely left to go into the city, which was why they didn’t recognize him and thought he was one of Qu Zheng’s trusted men.
So stupid.
Fu Yunzhi turned and left.
After returning to his courtyard, he carefully opened the window. Just as he was about to jump in, he saw a figure in the room.
Qu Zheng was sitting at the table, watching Fu Yunzhi’s leg hanging over the windowsill with a smile. “Yo, Young Master Fu is in a good mood, going out to admire the moon in the middle of the night.”
For a moment, Fu Yunzhi’s heart panicked, but he immediately composed himself and swung his leg over the windowsill naturally. “What’s wrong with admiring the moon?”
“Why didn’t you invite me to admire the moon with you?”
Fu Yunzhi sat on the bed and said coolly, “I’m going to sleep. Leader Qu, please leave.”
“I came to visit so late at night because I have something to tell you, Young Master Fu,” Qu Zheng said.
“Tomorrow, you will be offered to the king. Our king… heh heh, don’t say I didn’t tell you, he likes beautiful women, but he likes beautiful men even more. He also has some special ‘hobbies.’ I advise you to be prepared.”
Fu Yunzhi raised an eyebrow. “So?”
He didn’t believe that Qu Zheng had come over in the middle of the night just to give him a warning.
Qu Zheng also sat down beside him and said with a pleasant expression, “You are very much to my taste. If you agree, I can ask the king to give you to me. That way, the king won’t be able to humiliate you, but you must accept that you are my man.”
“I can love you just like Qi Xiao does, and give you wealth and glory.”
“On this island, besides the king, no one dares to defy me. If you follow me, you can establish yourself and do as you please on the island.”
Fu Yunzhi was silent for a moment, then said, “Qu Zheng, the things you’re saying…”
“Make me feel so fucking disgusting.”
Qu Zheng was stunned, the smile on his face instantly cracking.
“Fu Yunzhi! Don’t be ungrateful!”
Fu Yunzhi pulled the covers up, avoiding Qu Zheng’s gaze. “Leader Qu, please leave.”
“Do you know what the consequences are of being offered to the king? Once you enter his room and climb into his bed, not many people come out alive. Even if you manage to keep your life, it would be… heh heh, better to be dead.”
“Being offered to the king or to a dog is better than being with you,” Fu Yunzhi said with disdain.
Qu Zheng was so angry he couldn’t speak. He raised his hand to teach Fu Yunzhi a lesson, but wouldn’t that just make himself look even more pathetic? He even wanted to kill the person in front of him for insulting him, but if the king found out, there would be more trouble.
After a moment of silence, Qu Zheng’s face twisted in anger, and he stormed out.
Fu Yunzhi lay on the bed, the arrogant expression on his face gone.
A king with special hobbies…
He buried his head in the pillow. More than fear, he felt anger and humiliation. To be offered like a woman to another man, what was this? What Qu Zheng had said to him, he really thought of him as a woman.
I don’t know when Qi Xiao will be able to get here…
