Chapter 448: Racing Against Time

Palm Tree Inn.

Gao De arrived at the front desk.

He had only booked the room for three days, but clearly the matter here would take more time, so he needed to extend his stay for another week.

Handing over two Jin Quehua coins plus one silver dragon coin, Gao De waited as the landlady wrote his receipt, reviewing his schedule for the day.

After the Rose Inn, he visited every other mid-range inn in the city—no further leads.

It seemed that, aside from her first night in Lagos City at the Rose Inn, Aisha had since moved to a new lodging.

This was somewhat impossible to trace.

Fortunately, the Rose Inn's waitress had provided a crucial clue—the shipyard.

Although Aisha knew nothing about shipbuilding, her inquiries strongly suggested she had some need related to a shipyard.

But it was already late, so Gao De decided to visit each shipyard in the city tomorrow.

As a traditional fishing metropolis, Lagos City had a well-developed supporting industry, with no fewer than twenty shipyards.

This was clearly a massive undertaking.

More importantly, while small shipyards were manageable, the large ones were all backed by city nobles.

In such a situation, he was back to his earlier dilemma—his identity as a Sea Sentinel apprentice mage was likely insufficient; those large shipyards might not honor him at all.

This left Gao De slightly troubled.

But trouble was trouble—he still had to walk the path tomorrow. Step by step, that was all he could do.

Gao De thought this to himself.

"Hello." At that moment, a dry voice came from beside him.

"Excuse me, has the inn recently hosted this woman?" Gao De instinctively turned his head and saw a man in a black cloak standing before the counter, sliding a parchment across to the landlady.

The parchment bore a drawing.

Gao De glanced at it casually—then his spirit jolted.

Because the image on the parchment was unmistakably familiar.

It was Aisha, the sister Anna was searching for!

Was someone else looking for Aisha besides himself?

Was he an old friend of Anna's father?

That was Gao De's first thought.

But he quickly dismissed it.

"Never seen her," the landlady, still bent over writing the receipt, answered firmly without looking up.

Gao De's lips twitched slightly: Not even pretending?

"Cough, cough." The man remained calm, merely coughing softly, tapping the counter once—suddenly, a silver dragon coin appeared atop the parchment.

Clearly, the man understood: without offering something valuable, even if the landlady had hosted the woman, she wouldn't tell him a thing.

Nothing gets done without money.

Unless, like Gao De, you show up in a Sea Sentinel uniform—using that "tiger skin" saves you a lot of expense.

The landlady appeared absorbed in writing the receipt, yet as if endowed with divine sight, she sensed the "silver coin tactic" had been deployed. The next moment, she lifted her head, stared at the silver dragon coin on the parchment, chuckled, and with a casual sweep of her finger, slid the coin into the drawer.

Then, after carefully studying the portrait several times, she gave her definitive answer: "Never seen her."

"Thank you," the man said without reaction, rolled up the parchment, bowed slightly, and left the inn.

After the man departed, the landlady finished the receipt and handed it to Gao De. "Sir officer, here is your receipt."

"Thank you for the trouble," Gao De said, pocketing the receipt.

After leaving the inn, the man glanced back once at the Palm Tree Inn.

Seeing Gao De ascend the stairs, he finally turned away.

For a moment, he had felt the man seemed to notice him.

But afterward, he detected nothing unusual—the man appeared merely an ordinary guest; after returning to the inn, Gao De had already changed out of his Sea Sentinel uniform, leaving no trace of a mage.

So he let it go.

Matters at hand were urgent.

It wasn't that his vigilance was lacking.

He was simply in the Jin Quehua Dynasty for the first time, knowing no one here—so under normal circumstances, who would pay attention to him?

He opened the door.

The girl was frowning at her clothes.

When she left home, she brought nothing but herself.

So the outfit she wore had been on her for several days.

Normally, in this world, for most people, going a week without changing clothes was perfectly normal.

But Anna had always changed her clothes at least once a day, so now, even though the clothes weren't truly dirty, she found them unpleasant, her nose wrinkled high.

"Big brother!" Hearing the door open, Anna immediately looked up, her big eyes wide and sweet as she called out.

What an utterly adorable little girl. Gao De thought, walking to the bedside, crouching down to her level, and speaking in an extremely "stern" tone:

"Anna, about your sister—what else are you hiding? You must tell me today."

Seeing the girl's face shift from delight to gloom, her eyelashes trembling slightly, Gao De sighed, his heart softening. His tone grew gentle: "Downstairs, I met a man who didn't look like a good person—he had your sister's portrait and was asking about her whereabouts."

"Ah?!" Anna froze, then lowered her head, unable to meet Gao De's gaze, looking utterly pitiful.

"Big brother, help my sister—don't let him find her," her voice turned plaintive: "He's a bad man!"

Gao De crouched lower, gazing up at the girl's doll-like face—her beautiful eyes now filled with tears.

He bit his lip gently. "So Anna must tell me what she's hiding—if I'm to help you."

Perhaps their brief time together had truly earned Anna's full trust—she lifted her head again, earnestly saying:

"Sister really brought me here to escape danger—that's true. But we didn't owe anyone money. A bad man wanted to steal our family's treasure. Even after we fled here, he kept chasing us, never giving up."

"But Sister didn't come to Lagos City to find work," Anna added, glancing nervously at Gao De, her voice dropping to a whisper: "She came to find a way to hide from the bad man. I lied to you, Big Brother. I'm a bad child."

Gao De studied Anna deeply, his gaze probing—trying to discern whether this was truth or another layer of lies.

He watched carefully for a while—he had always been good at reading people—but for a little girl, that skill seemed less effective.

He didn't stare long. Soon, he spoke: "So it seems your sister asked about shipyards not to find work, but to buy a ship?"

Asking about shipyard locations—excluding deception—the logical conclusion was that she intended to visit one.

And for an outsider to travel all the way to Lagos City seeking shipyards, aside from employment, what else could it be but buying a ship?

Moreover, buying a ship perfectly matched Anna's claim of "seeking a way to hide from the bad man."

If the "bad man" was truly this relentless, how would you act if you were in their place?

Gao De's own choice had been to avoid all transport, relying on his 【Self-Adaptation】 ability to stow away from Shengxi City, becoming truly untraceable.

Aisha had no 【Self-Adaptation】 ability—so avoiding all transport was impossible.

But another method could achieve a similar untraceability: make the transport your own possession.

That is, buy a ship and sail away.

Of course, sailing wasn't something one person could manage alone—you'd need to hire crew—but once aboard, and if the captain didn't reveal the destination, at least you could remain unseen for a considerable time.

A reasonable, clever plan.

"Maybe… that's it?" Anna blinked, uncertain. "Big Brother, what should we do now?"

"It must be," Gao De mused, then added: "Don't worry too much—we already have two advantages."

"Huh? Two?" Anna tilted her head, tears still on her cheeks, her expression both puzzled and endearing.

"First," Gao De raised one finger, patiently explaining: "The Palm Tree Inn is centrally located in Lagos City. This man only just now came here to investigate your sister's trail—that means he's likely just beginning his search."

"In an unfamiliar city, the most visible, central inns are naturally the first targets for trackers. At the very least, we know he hasn't yet asked at the Rose Inn—he hasn't obtained further information."

"And now," Gao De looked out the window at the night sky, "it's already evening. He can only resume his inn inquiries tomorrow."

This world wasn't like his past life, where service industries had been pushed to extremes—24-hour front desks were commonplace.

Here, inn front desk staff were usually the owners themselves; even if they hired workers, they rarely paid extra to keep someone on overnight due to low nighttime traffic.

Most guests arriving at night had to ring a bell or shout to wake the sleeping staff for service.

If you just wanted to stay, fine—but waking someone up just to ask a question? Who'd give you a good face?

So the man would definitely wait until morning to continue his inn inquiries.

"That's our first time advantage."

"Second, we've already finished the inn search phase and moved to the next stage," Gao De pulled a parchment from his robe, "we can both determine our target tonight—gaining nearly a full day's head start."

As he spoke, Gao De unrolled the parchment.

On it were the shipyard details he'd gathered: size, main vessel types, addresses—listed in descending order of scale.

"How do we pick the target?" Anna asked, eyes wide with confusion.

"Look—if your sister truly plans to buy a ship to escape by sea, then larger ships require more crew. But your sister only wants to hide from the bad man, not start a business—she won't need a large vessel."

"So we can eliminate these large shipyards first," Gao De's finger traced the top entries on the parchment.

"Also, since you fled here, your sister likely has little money—she'll seek value for her coin."

"And as an outsider, she'll probably seek smaller, less formal workshops—those places rely heavily on every sale, so they won't scrutinize buyers' identities too strictly."

Anna nodded eagerly, convinced every word Gao De spoke made perfect sense.

"So," Gao De's finger stopped on one name on the parchment, "this shipyard's main vessel is a two-masted sailing ship—a small ocean-going type used by minor traders and explorers. Moreover, it's bankrupt, has stopped building ships, and is now liquidating its inventory at low prices, even selling the entire yard."

Under these conditions, their prices would be the most affordable.

And they wouldn't care about the buyer's outsider status—they were shutting down anyway. Even if authorities wanted to punish them, there'd be no one left to punish.

"That's right, that's right." Anna squinted her big eyes, staring at the shipyard Gao De pointed to, and enunciated its name slowly.

"Harland D. Shipyard."

"Then we'll rise early tomorrow and head straight to Harland D. Shipyard." Gao De was always direct—he made the decision immediately.

"My lord, yesterday a foreign young lady did come wanting to buy our last remaining Harland D. brigantine, but she didn't have enough money and said she needed a few more days to raise funds before leaving."

After a brief hesitation, the chubby owner of Harland D. glanced again at Gao De's crisp Sea Sentinel uniform, then finally spoke up and revealed some information.

A Sea Sentinel apprentice mage wasn't a major figure, but he was still a Sea Sentinel mage—and a bankrupt shipyard owner like him had no reason to provoke someone like that for no good reason.

Besides, it wasn't important information anyway.

"Didn't have enough money yesterday?" Gao De's eyes flickered with interest—he was nearly certain he'd found the right person.

"Do you know how to contact her?"

Harland shook his head. "The young lady left no contact details and didn't pay a deposit, so I even warned her to hurry—if another customer came along, I couldn't hold the ship for her."

"I see." Gao De fell into thought.

Clearly, Amy was extremely cautious.

But this caution now prevented Gao De from finding her any further.

As Gao De pondered, he idly scanned the shipyard's surroundings.

Harland D. Shipyard sat near the port of Lagos City, to allow newly built ships direct access to water and the sea.

Around it stood numerous lumber yards, rope workshops, and sailcloth factories, forming a fairly complete shipbuilding supply chain.

Thus, the air carried the scent of fresh wood, the pungent tang of tar, and the saltiness of seawater.

The largest and most central facility in the shipyard was the dry dock.

There were also corresponding lumber processing zones and workshops, but since Harland D. Shipyard had gone bankrupt and ceased operations, all were now empty and eerily quiet.

As Gao De breathed in the shipyard's distinctive odor, a sudden thought surged from deep within his mind.

"Boss, are you trying to sell the shipyard at a low price? Have you found a buyer yet?"

"A few potential buyers, but all of them are crooks—offering prices so low, even dogs wouldn't look!" At the mention of it, Harland perked up and couldn't help complaining.

"What's your minimum price? If I wanted to take over the shipyard, how much would you accept?" Gao De asked suddenly.

(End of Chapter)