Chapter 65: Pig's Head

Next, Li Kuiqi pointed out over a dozen islands in succession, and Lin Qian rejected each and every one.

Every rejection came with a lengthy justification, well-reasoned and well-supported, leaving Li Kuiqi unable to find the slightest opening to argue.

Finally, unable to contain himself any longer, he slammed the table: "Brother Lin, do you truly think I can't guess what you're up to?"

Lin Qian looked utterly bewildered: "What does Brother mean by that? All I seek is a place to shelter myself."

Li Kuiqi said: "Brother Lin wants to stall for time, waiting for someone to rescue you, is that it? Even if your men are right outside the door this very moment, I can still kill you first!"

"And then be hacked to death by my men?" Lin Qian's face also turned cold.

Between men, sometimes it all comes down to who is more willing to risk it all.

In the course of their exchange, Lin Qian had already sized up Li Kuiqi's measure.

Li Kuiqi thought highly of himself — men like that all treasure their own lives, and he had only brought one ship to the island, clearly not here for mutual destruction.

Even if he managed to kill Lin Qian by some stroke of luck, the thousands of islanders would remain, and they made their home on the island, with nowhere else to go.

Li Kuiqi still could not force them to relocate.

On the contrary, without Lin Qian's restraint, the islanders would plunder freely in the surrounding areas, drawing the imperial army to sweep the nearby seas — which would be even worse for Li Kuiqi.

So killing Lin Qian was not only meaningless, it would be shooting himself in the foot.

It was precisely because Lin Qian saw through this that he could push back so hard.

Sure enough, Li Kuiqi's momentum deflated by half, and he sneered: "So you're saying Brother Lin is dead set on occupying Nan'ao Island and making an enemy of Ship Lord Li?"

Seeing this, Lin Qian instead calmed down, merely toying with his teacup in silence.

Li Kuiqi clenched both fists tightly, his tiger eyes fixed on Lin Qian, and said through gritted teeth: "Ship Lord Li commands over a thousand warships and tens of thousands of sailors — you had better think this through carefully!"

Before Lin Qian could answer, someone outside shouted: "Big Brother, that cannon ship is heading our way."

Li Kuiqi rose to his feet, staring at Lin Qian with a fierce gaze, his thoughts unreadable.

Bailangzai stepped forward, drew his dagger, and gripped it in his hand.

Li Kuiqi pondered briefly, then slammed his fist onto the table — with a sharp crack, all four legs of the tea table snapped off, and his fist punched a hole straight through the tabletop.

Tea splashed everywhere across the table, and the tea set shattered into pieces on the floor with a clatter.

"Look out for yourself!" Li Kuiqi left those harsh words behind and walked out the door.

After the footsteps faded into the distance, Lin Qian rose and swept a cold gaze over Garrison Commander Huang.

Huang Hetai flinched in fright and hurriedly said: "It was him who told me to call the headman over. I didn't know the two headmen were at odds. Next time that man comes, I will certainly inform the headman in advance."

Lin Qian leaned close to his ear and said coldly: "No matter. Mid-Autumn Festival is almost here — tomorrow I'll have someone deliver a generous gift to the Garrison Commander."

The words were pleasant enough, but the threat in them was thick, and Huang Hetai felt goosebumps all over his body.

Only after Lin Qian walked out the door did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.

After leaving, Lin Qian strode quickly out of the Regional Commander's residence and arrived at the pier.

That Haicang ship had already weighed anchor and raised sail, slowly putting out to sea.

Li Kuiqi stood at the stern, locking eyes with Lin Qian, his face full of arrogance.

At this moment, the Santa Ana was rounding the ridge of Mount Guolao.

Li Kuiqi caught sight of the Santa Ana's hull from afar, and his arrogance swelled even further. He pointed at the Santa Ana, then pointed at himself, and finally looked at Lin Qian with a provocative stare.

The Haicang ship had all three sails unfurled and quickly sailed far away. Li Kuiqi's face could no longer be made out through the telescope, but a pair of tiger eyes still glared at the shore, murderous intent blazing.

By then, his men had already found a small boat.

Lin Qian put away his telescope and, with the rest of his men, stepped onto the small boat.

Bailangzai worked the oar, and the small boat turned nimbly, heading toward the galleon.

The first thing Lin Qian did upon boarding was order a pursuit in the direction Li Kuiqi had departed.

But the Haicang ship was fast, and the sea was vast — there was no trace of it to be seen.

The Santa Ana sailed for four hours in the direction where the Haicang ship had vanished, yet still found no sign of it on the sea's surface.

The sky had turned overcast by then, rain threatening, and visibility over the sea was dropping lower and lower.

Continuing the chase would likely yield nothing, so Lin Qian ordered the galleon to turn back.

By the time the galleon came ashore, the gloomy sky finally released its rain.

Lin Qian had the crew buy a live pig from a merchant, slaughtered it on the spot, and made it the crew's dinner.

The crew had no idea what the occasion was, but fresh pork was always welcome, and they all went up on deck to help with the butchering.

After dinner was prepared, Lin Qian also called Bai Qing aboard to share the braised pork together.

Over the meal, Lin Qian asked casually: "The Regional Commander's residence at Shen'ao Harbor — is there any way to sneak in?"

The next day.

The sky was clear after the rain, not a single cloud in sight.

In a side room of the Regional Commander's residence, Huang Hetai woke early, feeling refreshed and clear-headed.

Recalling the previous day's ordeal, he still felt a lingering fear — two sea bandit headmen, and neither one was someone he could afford to offend.

Thankfully, it was all over now.

Headman Li had slunk away in defeat.

Headman Lin had not made things difficult for him either.

What a stroke of luck.

He had just started to get out of bed to dress when he turned over and felt a patch of icy-cold wetness.

Unease rose in Huang Hetai's heart. He felt again — the wetness was somewhat slippery. Reaching further forward, his hand touched an ice-cold limb.

Huang Hetai sprang up from the bed as if pricked by a needle and threw back the bedcovers in one motion.

The sight before him frightened him so badly his eyes nearly split open.

There lay a dead pig's head on the bed, surrounded by dark-red pig blood that had soaked through the bedding entirely.

A wave of rank, fishy stench hit him in the face.

Huang Hetai immediately began dry-heaving uncontrollably. He rushed into the courtyard and only recovered after gulping down several breaths of sea breeze.

"Garrison Commander Huang." A soldier came up to greet him.

"Get lost!" Huang Hetai roared.

Seeing that the Garrison Commander was in a bad mood, the soldier promptly scurried away.

Huang Hetai understood—this was Lin Qian's warning to him.

Only now did Huang Hetai feel waves of lingering fear.

Unlike the Regional Commander, he couldn't raise his own private troops. The little bit of grease he could skim was barely enough to support himself.

If he wanted to stay alive, he could only submit to the manipulation of Lin Qian, that sea bandit chieftain.

Huang Hetai looked up at the sky and sighed deeply: "What a sin!"

After Mid-Autumn Festival, the fortress on the island had begun to take shape.

Lin Qian went ashore every day to inspect.

At his request, watchtowers were built on the hilltops of both Guolao Mountain and Dajian Mountain on the island.

People took turns on duty around the clock, all twelve double-hours.

Not only was every movement in Shen'ao Harbor within view, but the sea lanes for dozens of li around were also fully visible.

Beside the fortress in the middle of the island, a fence wall was built, and people patrolled and kept watch near the wall day and night.

The blacksmiths hurriedly forged a batch of spearheads, which were mounted on wooden shafts to serve as simple long spears—enough for basically every man in the squad to have one.

Further out, by the woods at the south of the island, strings of broken porcelain shards were strung together on thin ropes—if an enemy touched them, they would make a sound, serving as an early warning.

All of this was preparation against a possible attack by Li Kuiqi.

Lin Qian had once sent someone to ask Huang Hetai, but Garrison Commander Huang didn't know where Li Kuiqi's base was either.

All he knew was that Li Kuiqi commanded over a thousand sea bandits, and that every three months they went to Tuolin Bay to deliver protection money (baoshui) to the Regional Commander's men.

Tuolin Bay was on the shore just north of Nan'ao Island.

The fact that Li Kuiqi went there every three months meant his area of activity wasn't far from Nan'ao Island—they had to be on careful guard.

Perhaps thanks to the sound defenses, the island had been very peaceful lately.

The watchtowers on the two hilltops did frequently spot merchant ships passing by, which made quite a few people's hearts itch.

However, Lin Qian felt that with Li Kuiqi lurking outside, it was best not to invite trouble, so he didn't permit his men to plunder.

While checking the defenses, Lin Qian also inspected the construction of the fortress every day.

It had to be said, the craftsmen of this era were very conscientious—from workmanship to materials, everything was done meticulously, and the buildings they completed had almost no quality problems.

There weren't many shops on the island yet. Besides a few blacksmith forges, only a handful of gambling dens, brothels, and medical clinics had moved into the commercial area.

Most of the other merchants came by boat early in the morning, sold their goods, and then took a boat back in the evening.

No one had yet realized the economic value of this place.

While on his inspections, Lin Qian noticed that some shops in prime locations sat empty. Feeling it was a waste, he simply took out his own silver to buy them and hired people to run businesses there.

Once the businesses did well, he would reward them to brothers who had rendered meritorious service.

As of now, Lin Qian had already opened one restaurant, one inn, and one sweet-soup shop.

He was just pondering whether to open a ready-made clothing store as well—

when a sailor came running up quickly, his face full of urgency: "Helmsman, Zhou Zhiku and the others are in trouble!"

Yahei

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