Chapter 54: Casting Nets to Scoop Up Cold Moonlight

After bidding farewell to the fat councilman.

Lin Qian returned to the inn to pack his things, preparing to set out back to the Santa Ana.

Zheng Zhilong did not stay at the fat councilman's place but came out together with Lin Qian.

After walking a stretch of road, Zheng Zhilong told him about how, during the meeting, the councilman had used his eyes to confirm the information with him.

Lin Qian expressed his gratitude—without Zheng Zhilong's nod of acknowledgment, the councilman likely would not have believed it so quickly.

Back at the inn, Lin Qian asked as if casually: "Brother Yiguan, with this matter settled, I wonder what plans you have in mind for the days ahead?"

Hearing this, Zheng Zhilong knew the moment had come to pledge his loyalty. He knelt at once and said: "If you will have me, Zheng Zhilong is willing from this day forth to serve at your side, toiling like a horse or dog in your service!"

This was exactly what Lin Qian had been waiting to hear. Beaming with smiles, he helped him up: "From now on, we are brothers of one family, together carving out a world of our own on the seas!"

Zheng Zhilong hailed originally from Fujian. From childhood he had envied the glory of the sea merchants, and at sixteen he had followed his maternal uncle to Macao to make his way. He had seen all manner of people, yet not one could compare with Brother Lin.

Now, being taken aboard by Lin Qian, he felt much like a worthy minister who had found an enlightened lord.

Zheng Zhilong sighed inwardly: "I imagine Zhuge Liang felt much the same when he met Liu Bei."

The three of them spent the night at the inn, and the next day packed everything properly and checked out.

Afterwards they went to Qingmei Workshop, to make one final attempt at recruiting Su Kang.

But this physician had an odd temperament—he would rather endure the extortion of officials in Guangzhou city than go aboard Lin Qian's ship.

Even when Lin Qian offered the sky-high price of ten taels of silver a month, Su Kang remained unmoved.

The girl called Mei'er seemed quite tempted, but a slender arm cannot twist a thick thigh—she could not persuade Su Kang.

Lin Qian had no choice but to drop the matter.

Afterwards, the three hurried to Poshan Wharf and took a Tanka boat to the Santa Ana's anchorage.

It was not yet noon now, so they should be able to return to the ship before dinner.

Following behind the three's boat were twenty more Tanka boats, carrying roughly a hundred-plus Tanka boat people.

Because the Tanka practiced collective responsibility, and the court encouraged mutual denunciation and reporting, Bailangzai and his sister could only seize every opening to talk to people about coming aboard.

In the end, only this hundred-plus Tanka folk agreed.

Fortunately, these people were already enough to ease the ship's manpower shortage. Once they reached Nan'ao Island and gained a firm foothold, there would be no shortage of people seeking to join them.

With the bone-sucking, marrow-grinding Ming government as the shining precedent before them, Lin Qian only needed to promise lower taxes—for the Tanka folk and even ordinary commoners, that was already a fatal attraction.

In the evening, amid a sea and sky of rosy glow, the Tanka boat fleet reached the galleon.

The Tanka folk took their personal belongings, abandoned their Tanka boats, and boarded the Santa Ana.

The masterless Tanka boats drifted on the waves, gradually floating farther away with the swells, vanishing into the sea and sky.

Lin Qian ordered the ship to sail west for four hours.

Lei Sanxiang and the others used this time to settle the newly boarded Tanka folk, organizing every two boats' worth of Tanka people into one group, each overseen by an old boat hand.

Afterwards they arranged hammocks, bunks, and distributed dinner.

They labored until the small hours of the night before everyone was settled.

The next day, Lin Qian ordered the Santa Ana to continue sailing west for half a day, anchoring at Hailing Island.

This was a small coastal island west of Macao, sparsely populated, with its guard station in ruins. Tanka folk traveling between the pearl grounds and Guangzhou often spent the night here.

Anchoring here served two purposes: one, to avoid the fat councilman's eyes and ears; two, to wait for Bai Qing.

The mother of the Bai siblings had been left behind at the pearl grounds and could not simply be abandoned. So Lin Qian had agreed with Bai Qing that she would first return to the pearl grounds to fetch her mother, while also trying to win over the Tanka folk there, and then meet up here.

A few days later, in the early morning.

A fleet of Tanka boats sailed toward the harbor.

Lin Qian came to the ship's rail and extended his telescope.

In his field of view, he could see roughly a dozen or more Tanka boats.

As the fleet drew closer, the faint sound of a saltwater song drifted over.

"The rich feast on wine and meat while the poor grieve, casting nets to scoop up nothing but cold moonlight..."

Singing this song was a prearranged signal, used to identify one another.

But the melody was exceedingly bitter.

Saltwater songs have no fixed tune—the melody follows the singer's heart.

Hearing such singing made Lin Qian feel vaguely uneasy. He raised his telescope for another look and saw that among the Tanka folk rowing the boats, most had white cloth wrapped around their arms.

Bailangzai came to the ship's side, his face full of joy at first—but seeing this sight, his expression suddenly changed. Both hands gripped the railing tightly, knuckles turning white, breathing heavy, staring fixedly at the approaching boats.

The Tanka folk aboard the Santa Ana also gathered at the rail, gazing toward the incoming boats with grave expressions.

At last the Tanka boats drew up close, and the Tanka folk, carrying their meager belongings, came up the rope ladders.

Every Tanka person coming aboard had white cloth bound around their arm, and some wore white headbands—they were in mourning!

Bai Qing was the last to come up the rope ladder, her expression bitter and pained. She walked before Lin Qian and introduced: "Helmsman, these are the Tanka folk from the pearl grounds. Hearing of your righteous deed, they volunteered to come aboard."

Bailangzai looked left and right, and seeing no sign of his mother, his face had already turned deathly pale. He stumbled over to his mourning-clad elder sister and asked in a trembling voice: "... Elder Sister... where's our mother?"

Bai Qing's body shuddered. She raised her head to the sky and said softly: "She's dead... she threw herself into the sea..."

"Wh—... How..." Bailangzai was as if struck by lightning, standing frozen on the spot.

Bai Qing took a deep breath, forcing back her tears: "Four days ago, the pearl grounds issued a great pearl-diving levy. In past years it was a fixed quota per boat.

This year, the eunuch in charge said that since the summer waters were warm, they should harvest more—changing it to a quota per person...

Our mother... our mother... our mother didn't want to drag us down, so that very night she threw herself into the sea..."

Bailangzai could not believe it. As if grasping at a lifeline, he pulled a small pouch of pearls from his chest, held it up with both hands, and offered it to his sister: "Sister, don't we have pearls? Mother doesn't need to worry—we have pearls!"

Bai Qing shook her head: "Too late... by the time your sister rushed back to the pearl grounds, Mother had already been in the sea for two days..."

Bailangzai was like a man run through the heart with a blade. His body went limp and he collapsed to the deck. The pouch of pearls fell onto the deck, scattering with a clatter across the boards, slipping through the gaps between the planks and into the sea.

Bailangzai noticed none of it. His eyes were hollow and vacant, and tears streamed down his face in a daze.

The Tanka boat people around them, all dressed in mourning, were also wiping away tears—clearly, their own family members had died the same way.

"Stop crying!" Bai Qing wiped her tears, yanked her younger brother up, and scolded him, "Our mother was killed by corrupt officials. If you're a man, come with your sister and avenge our mother!"

Bailangzai woke as if from a dream, wiped his tears, and said, "Right, revenge!"

Then Bai Qing looked at Lin Qian, made up her mind, and fell to her knees with a thud, saying, "Helmsman! You are Bailangzai's sworn elder brother, and the elder brother I, Bai Qing, admire most. Today our mother was killed by corrupt officials—I beg you, elder brother, to help us siblings take revenge!"

Having said that, she didn't wait for Lin Qian's response—thud, thud, thud—she kowtowed three times in a row.

She kowtowed with such force that the deck trembled slightly. When she straightened up, blood was already streaming down her forehead.

Bailangzai followed his sister's example, kneeling to kowtow three times until his head was bloodied and bruised.

Seeing this, the Tanka boat people who had come with Bai Qing all did the same.

It wasn't that their knees were weak.

Rather, it was because the pearl grounds were heavily guarded—the pearl-ground eunuchs couldn't even be approached.

If these Tanka boat people rushed over recklessly, let alone taking revenge, they couldn't even get close to their enemy.

At this moment, these people could only place their hopes on Lin Qian.

The scene fell silent for a moment, with only the sound of waves striking the hull.

Everyone turned their gaze toward Lin Qian.

And Lin Qian sank into deep thought, remaining silent for a long time.

Everyone understood in their hearts that attacking the pearl grounds was a near-certain death sentence—and even if they succeeded by sheer luck, it would still be the great crime of rebellion.

When they were sea bandits, the court might turn a blind eye.

But once they attacked the pearl grounds and killed a court eunuch, bearing the crime of rebellion, the court could not possibly sit idly by—then they would be hunted to the ends of the earth.

Seeing Lin Qian remain silent for so long,

Zheng Zhilong realized that Lin Qian had been boxed in by the Tanka boat people—agreeing meant rebellion, refusing meant betraying his brothers, trapped on both sides.

It was time for him to offer a way out.

"Helmsman..."

Zheng Zhilong had barely begun when Lin Qian cut him off.

Lin Qian's gaze slowly swept across the crowd, and then he said in a deep voice, "This blood debt—I, Lin Qian, will settle it!"

Yahei

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