Chapter 72: The Lagoon

The officers' mess of the Santa Ana.

Lin Qian listened with a furrowed brow as Bai Qing finished recounting the night's events, his expression grave: "We have you to thank this time, but don't take such initiative on your own again."

Bai Qing acknowledged the order solemnly.

Lei Sanxiang: "Sister Bai, did you see Scholar Zhou and the others in the ship city?"

Bai Qing shook her head: "I didn't dare get close, for fear of alarming the enemy, but I saw Second Brother Chen's corpse. I imagine Quartermaster Zhou and the other surviving crewmen should be there too, cough, cough..."

Bai Qing broke into a fit of coughing after speaking. She had spent the night in wet clothes catching a chill, and had pushed herself to stay alert — now her body was beginning to give out.

Lin Qian ordered his subordinate: "Go fetch Doctor Su."

The subordinate acknowledged and withdrew.

Lin Qian added: "Tell Uncle Chen to brew a bowl of brown sugar water, with plenty of ginger slices."

"Understood." A crewman outside acknowledged and went to pass the word.

Before long, a crewman came up carrying a steaming bowl of brown sugar ginger water and handed it to Bai Qing.

Bai Qing took it, blew on the steam, and took a sip. A thin sheen of cold sweat broke out on her forehead.

Chen Jiao murmured: "Years back, I heard someone mention the Southern Sea Ship City. At the time I thought it was just a newly written storybook tale — never imagined it was real."

"What did the stories say?" Lin Qian pressed.

Chen Jiao smiled bitterly: "Some said it was the Dragon King of the Sea's coral palace, others said it was the Sea Yama's hall of judgment, and still others claimed it was a ghost fortress built by Chen Youliang's remnant forces who fled to sea two hundred years ago... All just wild country rumors."

Bai Qing cradled the brown sugar water: "The Tanka have similar stories too — saying the ship city is where souls go to rest and the like. But the moment I saw Second Brother Chen's corpse, I understood. Souls going to rest, my foot — the ship city is plainly full of wicked men."

Lin Qian massaged his brow, turning these folk tales over in his mind.

The common folk of the Great Ming were deeply superstitious, and these stories passed from mouth to mouth down to the present day had been seasoned with who knows how much embellishment.

But they were not entirely without value.

Chen Jiao's mention of "the Dragon King of the Sea's coral palace" had caught Lin Qian's attention.

As Lin Qian saw it, the ship city ought to be built within a coral reef lagoon.

Such coral reef lagoons are generally ring-shaped, with raised ridges encircling a stretch of sea within — hence the name "lagoon."

The surrounding coral reefs block the waves, making it a natural sheltered harbor, which is how the ship city can keep from breaking apart in the swells.

The stretch of hidden reefs Bai Qing passed through when entering the ship city — those were coral reefs.

Coral reefs usually vary in height, and the channel Bai Qing came out through happened to be the low point of the reef.

But a coral reef's wave-breaking capacity is limited after all — should a typhoon strike, the ship city could hardly escape destruction.

So the ship city most likely was not the twisted, tangled mess Bai Qing had described.

Rather, it should be a ship camp, with planks laid between vessels, forming an effect like the chained warships of the Battle of Red Cliffs.

It had been a dark, windy night, and Bai Qing had been on edge — it was only natural she might have misjudged what she saw.

When there was no typhoon, the ship city would be assembled, the ships gathered in the lagoon for revelry; when a typhoon came, they would break apart into individual units and each return to shore to ride out the storm.

And it was precisely this tidal, come-and-go nature that had kept Li Kuiqi's lair hidden from everyone throughout all his years ranging the coasts of Fujian and Guangdong.

With this thought, Lin Qian walked to the window and looked out at the sky.

It was now the eighth month. After a full summer of scorching sun, the southeastern sea surface had reached peak temperature.

With cold air pressing southward just now, warm and cold currents were converging over the ocean — the perfect conditions for spawning typhoons.

Moreover, because the subtropical high-pressure belt had retreated eastward and shifted south, typhoons under its influence were more likely to track through the three provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, and Zhejiang.

This was what was called an autumn typhoon.

Once a typhoon struck, the ship city would inevitably break apart to take shelter, and where Scholar Zhou and the others would be transported — no one could know.

There was no time to waste — they had to move quickly to rescue them!

Just as he was mulling this over.

Zheng Zhilong suddenly spoke up: "Sister Bai, you said earlier there were women on the ship city?"

Bai Qing nodded: "Mm, and quite a few of them too — you could hear their caterwauling from far off, like cats in heat."

Zheng Zhilong thought a moment, then asked: "About how old were those women? What did they look like?"

Lei Sanxiang couldn't listen any longer and grumbled: "Brother Zheng, what kind of time is this to still be thinking about women? If you're really that hard up, once this business is done, I'll take you somewhere."

Zheng Zhilong said: "Third Brother misunderstands. I'm not asking about the ship city's women out of lust."

Then Zheng Zhilong clasped his hands to Bai Qing: "Sister Bai, I know this is rather forward, but with matters of great importance at hand, I can't stand on ceremony. Please answer truthfully."

Bai Qing smiled: "Brother Yiguan knows his manners. But I was raised by my mother as a boy from childhood — I don't have the same man-woman scruples as you landsmen. Brother Zheng, ask whatever you like."

She paused, thought carefully for a moment, then said: "It was too dark to see clearly, but from the sounds of their cries, they should all have been young women — decent figures, and they put plenty of effort into their wailing."

Lin Qian suddenly asked: "Were there any flower boats around the ship city?"

Zheng Zhilong shot Lin Qian a glance and thought to himself: "The helmsman guessed what I was thinking from just a few questions I asked?"

Bai Qing stared at her brown sugar water, silently recalling.

Zheng Zhilong described what flower boats looked like: "The big ones are tower boats, grain boats, or Guangdong junks; the small ones are black-canopied boats. There's usually a madam standing at the bow, and a pair of red lanterns hung at the door..."

Bai Qing waved a hand to stop him: "I know what a flower boat looks like."

She thought for a moment, then slowly shook her head: "No."

Zheng Zhilong was somewhat surprised and pressed: "Please, sister, think again. Those young women on the ship city must have come from flower boats."

"No. Not a single flower boat." Bai Qing's tone was firm.

Zheng Zhilong was about to ask again when he heard Lin Qian clap his hands: "That's exactly right — there shouldn't be a single one!"

Zheng Zhilong was confused and hurriedly asked: "How is that right? If there isn't a single flower boat, then where did those women come from?"

"From shore!" Lin Qian said slowly.

Zheng Zhilong's eyes lit up: "Right! Why didn't I think of that? That's it! They came from shore — we should be looking on shore. Blindfolded on the way in, blindfolded on the way out — that's far safer than flower boats!"

Chen Jiao listened and fell into thought.

Lei Sanxiang was completely baffled, scratching his head and asking, "What are you two talking about? How did you get onto the subject of women? What's this about blindfolds or no blindfolds? What does it all mean?"

Zheng Zhilong said, "It's about the courtesans..."

At that moment, a woman's voice came from outside the door: "Are... are you all done talking?"

Everyone recognized it as Su Qingmei, the daughter of Doctor Su.

Zheng Zhilong abruptly shut his mouth, his face turning bright red.

Bai Qing couldn't help but chuckle softly at the sight.

Lin Qian said, "Miss Su? Please, come in."

Su Qingmei entered carrying her medicine box, head lowered and face flushed, saying, "Helmsman, my father has too many patients to get away. He heard about Sister Bai's symptoms and said it's just a chill. He also said that since Sister Bai and I are both women, it would be more convenient for me to examine her, so he sent me to take a look."

Lin Qian smiled and said, "Much obliged."

Su Qingmei sat down at the table, took a pulse pillow out of her medicine box, and set it on the table, asking Bai Qing to place her wrist on it for pulse diagnosis.

Bai Qing placed her hand on it and said with a weak smile, "Thank you for the trouble, young Doctor Su."

Su Qingmei secretly made a funny face at her, then composed her expression and began to take her pulse.

Everyone fell silent—with a young girl present, no one dared to bring up the matter of flower boats and courtesans again.

After a moment, Su Qingmei withdrew her hand, examined the tongue coating, asked Bai Qing about her symptoms, and after pondering for a while said, "Sister Bai has wind-pathogen invading her body and insufficient internal qi, causing sluggish circulation of qi and blood. She should be treated with a pungent-warm exterior-releasing formula."

Confusion appeared on everyone's faces.

Bailangzai said, "Young Doctor Su, my sister's illness isn't serious, is it?"

Seeing everyone's expressions, Su Qingmei realized they weren't testing her medical knowledge, and quickly said, "Not serious at all, not serious at all. It's just an ordinary chill. Drink some cassia twig decoction to induce sweating and she'll be fine."

Bailangzai let out a sigh of relief.

Su Qingmei wrote out a prescription for cassia twig decoction and handed it to Bailangzai: "Fill the prescription according to this formula. Soak your feet before going to sleep, and make sure to keep the blanket on at night. Also, until she recovers, avoid raw, cold, greasy, and cooling foods—and that sampan congee... she shouldn't eat it either."

Bailangzai carefully put away the prescription, nodding in agreement to each point.

After finishing the consultation, Su Qingmei bade everyone farewell and was about to leave the ship when Bailangzai took out a silver ingot from his chest to give her as the consultation fee.

The young girl made a show of declining a few times, then accepted it with a cheerful smile.

After Su Qingmei left, Lei Sanxiang hurriedly urged, "That young lady's finally gone. Brother Zheng, continue with what you were saying about the courtesans."

But just as Zheng Zhilong was about to speak, Su Qingmei came back, muttering to herself, "Oh no, I forgot to take my pulse pillow."

She had just reached the doorway when she overheard Lei Sanxiang's words.

Instantly, Zheng Zhilong's face turned red once again.

Yahei

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