Chapter 20: The Pirates' Accomplices

The Fujian junk anchored at Jellyfish Island for three or four days.

A vast quantity of coconuts, taro, breadfruit, mackerel, octopus, coconut crabs, and fresh water filled every hold.

By conservative estimate, these supplies were enough for two months of sailing.

The parts damaged in the typhoon had been repaired, and the leaking compartments had been fixed; the ship was ready to set sail.

On the fifteenth day of the fourth month, the Fujian junk weighed anchor and departed the island, heading due west.

That evening, Lin Qian was writing his ship's log by candlelight as usual, and asked casually, "Miss Catalina, your family are Spanish nobles, aren't they?"

"No." Catalina had no idea what Lin Qian was plotting, but she would not cooperate with him regardless, so she denied it flatly.

Lin Qian gave a cold snort: "Your full name is Catalina Fajardo de Mendoza. If I remember correctly, only nobles may add the 'de' to their names."

"What do you want?" She had only revealed that name once, while being pursued by the San Felipe, and she never imagined that Lin Qian could have remembered it even at such a desperate moment.

"A noble should have considerable savings. How much ransom is your father willing to pay for you? I'm writing a ransom letter right now and wanted your opinion." Lin Qian's tone was calm, as if asking what they should have for dinner.

Catalina angrily accused him: "Shameless pirate! My father won't give you a single real!"

"You'd better pray your father is willing to pay, or your fate might not be too pleasant... How about a hundred thousand pesos? Can His Excellency the Governor-General afford that?"

"Bandit! Devil! Butcher! Damned barbarian!" Catalina kept cursing.

Lin Qian sneered: "Barbarian? Compared with the Spanish, I am shockingly civilized."

"Slander! Spain is the most civilized country in the world. You're nothing but a stinking pirate — what right do you have to accuse us?"

"May I ask what the Spanish are doing in the New World at this very moment? You don't actually think your countrymen are amiably trading with the Maya, do you? When you first arrived in the New World, the Inca treated you as gods. And what did you give the Inca in return? Plague and slaughter." Lin Qian stated this calmly.

"You... you're lying! It's not like that." Catalina was utterly astonished.

In the stories, brave adventurers always ended up with gold and glory.

But after hearing Lin Qian's words, Catalina realized that she had never once wondered where the gold came from.

Did that dazzling, glittering metal grow on trees, waiting for adventurers to pluck it?

"A hundred thousand pesos it is, then." Lin Qian muttered to himself, and taking out a quill pen, wrote a ransom letter in elegant language.

After learning of Lin Qian's plan to swallow up Manila, Catalina had wanted to find a chance to die together with Lin Qian.

But whenever it came to the critical moment, she could not bring herself to do it — her heart was full of fear, mingled with some complicated emotions.

Lin Qian had no mind to spare for Catalina's thoughts. As the ship drew closer to the island of Luzon, his nerves grew tauter day by day. The plan ahead was complex and delicate — not the slightest mistake could be allowed.

At the end of the fourth month, Lin Qian's Fujian junk caught up with a fishing boat east of Luzon.

The fishermen thought they had run into pirates, and the whole crew had already resigned themselves to fate, abandoning all resistance.

When they learned that Lin Qian did not want their lives and only wanted them to deliver a letter to the Governor-General of Manila, they were overjoyed.

Two days later, that letter, solemnly written with a quill pen, was placed upon the desk of the Governor-General's official residence in Manila.

Alonso Fajardo de Tenorio, the incumbent Governor-General of Manila, slammed his fist heavily upon the desk. A delicate porcelain brush-rest crashed to the floor and shattered into pieces.

"That damned Ming pirate!" Alonso ground the words out between his teeth.

In the office, the captain of the San Felipe — Juan — stood in terrified silence.

"You told me my daughter died in a storm at sea?" Alonso looked at Juan, his gaze sharp as a blade, making Juan feel deeply uncomfortable all over.

Juan dared not raise his head. Staring at the floor, he steeled himself and said, "I did see that pirate ship sailing into the storm. As God is my witness, in a storm as terrible as that, no ship could have survived."

"Then is this a letter from hell?" Alonso slapped his palm down on the letter, and the teak desk boomed loudly.

Alonso then spoke to a Chinese man who stood hunched in the corner: "Zhao! I had you investigate earlier — do you have results now? Who exactly is this Ming pirate?"

The one addressed was the captain of the Han Merchants Guild, whom the Chinese called Guild Head Zhao. At these words his body trembled, and he said, "I have finished my investigation. The ship permit for that vessel listed Macao as its destination. When it called at Manila, the registration information was false. The captain's surname is Lin — I believe his name is Lin Qian..."

"Lin Qian?" Alonso murmured the name, his expression shifting slightly: "A descendant of Lin Feng?"

Guild Head Zhao: "N... not necessarily. There are many Chinese with the same surname who share no kinship. He need not have any connection to Lin Feng."

"Then this is simple." Alonso breathed a sigh of relief, and pointed at the letter: "This pirate is extorting a hundred thousand pesos from me. I have decided to satisfy him."

Juan was somewhat startled: "Spending such a huge sum requires the approval of the Crown."

One corner of Alonso's mouth curled up in a cold smile: "I have no intention of actually giving it to him."

Alonso unfolded the letter. Attached behind it was a sea chart, showing the route between Manila and a small island to its southeast — an island marked "Jellyfish Island."

"This pirate thinks himself clever, telling me to place the silver coins on that island. But he doesn't know that to the south of that island, ring-shaped coral reefs are everywhere, enough to conceal an entire fleet. Vice Admiral!"

Juan snapped to attention and said loudly: "Your Excellency the Governor-General!"

"You will take the San Felipe, along with the San Juan and the Nuestra Señora del Rosario, and lie in ambush among those reefs. Send these pirates to the bottom of the sea! Remember — unless absolutely necessary, do not open fire. The safety of my daughter takes top priority!"

"As you command, Your Excellency the Governor-General!"

"Furthermore, dispatch the Santa Justicia to patrol the waters east of Manila. That is where the fishing boat carrying the letter encountered the pirates' vessel."

"Yes, Your Excellency the Governor-General!"

Juan withdrew. Alonso turned to Guild Head Zhao and said irritably, "You can get out too."

Guild Head Zhao hesitated a moment, then ventured tentatively: "Those fishermen who delivered the letter — could they perhaps be..."

Alonso's gaze was icy: "They are accomplices of the pirates. They must be hanged. Do not make me say it a second time."

"Y... yes..." Guild Head Zhao bowed and nodded, backing out of the Governor-General's office.

Pen