Chapter 255: Extreme Joy Begets Sorrow

Current Location: > > >

As it turned out, Yu Chengde's line of thinking was correct. Later that evening, Yu Sibao managed to find a fissure in the corner of a cabinet.

What followed was an arduous and grueling process of prying the door open. Using that tough, thick-steel military spike, it took Yu Sibao a full two hours to finally pry an opening along the seam between the cabinet panels.

The opening wasn't large, but it was enough for Yu Sibao to reach his head and arm inside.

The hard labor finally reached its harvest time: aside from the documents and letters that had turned to sludge, a lychee-wood case was subsequently dragged out.

The case was small, but heavy. After dragging it onto the deck, Yu Sibao first surfaced to catch his breath. When he dove back down, he reached out and gave a light twist, snapping off the delicate brass lock, the size of a fingertip, on the case.

Inside the case lay twelve neatly arranged gold ingots.

Each of these top-quality gold ingots weighed ten taels. Even by the Great Ming gold-to-silver exchange rate, the value of twelve gold ingots exceeded one thousand taels of silver.

When Yu Sibao brought the gold ingots aboard in three trips, everyone, including his father Yu Chengde, went wild.

When the scene they had imagined countless times truly appeared before them, even the seasoned and worldly-wise Yu Chengde could no longer hold it together. Laughing heartily, he announced a long-held wish of the crew: buy a new ship!

One thousand taels of silver could buy a fine 300-liao vessel built entirely of hardwood. And after announcing this news, Yu Chengde naturally would not shortchange the mates who had followed him for years—braving the sea together, enduring hardship together, and fighting pirates together.

So, following the ancient partnership customs among fishermen, he publicly promised: once the new ship was bought, every brother would get a share.

With that, all problems vanished. The overjoyed fishermen brought out the last bit of coarse rice on board to treat the hero of the hour, Comrade Yu Sibao—the Green Fish had already lingered out at sea three extra days, and since yesterday, the others had been eating nothing but fish.

After finishing the last bit of rice, Yu Sibao dove back into the seabed once again under the midday September sunlight.

Over the course of the afternoon, the young man thoroughly searched the sunken ship's sterncastle and the nearby seabed. This time, the haul wasn't nearly as much: a brass telescope, six or seven fine knives, axes, and short javelins, a few pieces of blackened loose silver, some ordinary porcelain for eating and drinking, and finally two iron ball cannonballs... that was everything.

Seeing the earthenware and porcelain his son had finally salvaged, Yu Chengde decisively halted the salvage operation and gave the order to set sail for home the next morning.

First, the Green Fish's supplies were exhausted; they couldn't hold out much longer. Second, based on Yu Chengde's experience: since his son hadn't found large quantities of silver, this sunken ship must have capsized here not long after setting out with its cargo.

If that were the case, those valuable goods, like raw silk and satins, would have long since been ruined; and Yu Chengde wouldn't let his son risk crawling into the dangerous cargo hold anyway.

So, it was time to head back. This voyage of the Green Fish had already dragged on several days longer than usual, and the wives and daughters at home must be worried sick by now.

Thus, early the next morning, everyone happily set sail for home. As the fishermen scraped the rust off those knives and axes, they debated the philosophical question of whether the new ship should be called Green Fish or Big Green Fish. Laughter rang out continuously from the bow, right up until the moment they returned to their fishing village dock.

Having set out at six, it took the Green Fish less than three hours to cover the ten-plus nautical miles. Before ten in the morning, Yu Chengde, standing at the bow, could already make out his own fishing village's dilapidated dock in the distance.

Chengwei Village lay on the eastern shore of Putian, facing Nanri Island from afar. The entire village had only eleven households and two fishing boats—a barren little fishing village that couldn't be any smaller.

But when the eager Yu Chengde spotted his own dock, his heart instantly went "thump," and he inwardly cursed—something was wrong with the atmosphere among the villagers who usually came out to meet the boat. When the ship drew a bit closer, Yu Chengde fixed his gaze and saw: the person sitting on the dock, hair disheveled and wailing loudly—who else could it be but his own old wife?

... As soon as the Green Fish hastily pulled up to the dock, before Yu Chengde, who had jumped ashore, could even demand an answer, his dark, gaunt, deeply wrinkled old wife threw herself at him, clutched his thigh, and cried out: "Husband, how could you only come back now~ Third Sister was just taken away by that cursed Wang Fuqi!"

"... On what grounds does he seize someone?!" Hearing this terrible news, Yu Chengde's already ruddy face flushed even more with blood.

"Wang Fuqi said since you were gone so many days without returning, you must have perished at sea, so he took Third Sister to settle the thirteen taels of silver our family owes him."

Hearing this, Yu Chengde felt a wave of dizziness hit his head, but then he immediately snapped alert. He reached behind his waist and gripped the handle of that military spike, then, grinding his teeth, he turned his head and asked a man beside him—around thirty, with an honest face, long arms, and long legs: "Monkey, you just watched that bastard take Third Sister away?"

The man called Monkey gave a bitter laugh upon hearing this, then pointed at a large, dark bruise on his own face: "Wang Fuqi brought five men. The village only has these few old and weak—we couldn't stop them!"

Just then, a white-haired old man leaning on a cane squeezed through. The old man immediately grabbed Yu Chengde's hand tightly and said: "Chengde, quickly take the fish from the boat to Wang Fuqi's place and ransom Third Sister back. Any later and it might be too late—that beast plans to sell Third Sister to the brothel in town tomorrow."

... At this point, Yu Chengde instead became calm. He pulled out an ingot of silver from his bosom and waved it: "Ba Grandpa, Chengde has silver now. Don't you worry."

The moment they saw Yu Chengde produce that silver ingot, the doomsday-like scene instantly fell silent. The impoverished fishermen's faces soon revealed smiles; they knew that with silver, Third Sister could be saved.

And Yu Chengde was already making arrangements. First, he tossed a piece of broken silver to a hunchbacked villager, buying from him the only pig in the entire village. Then he brought out more silver and bought up all the village's chickens.

What followed was a feast for the whole village.

Yu Chengde seemed to be acting strangely today, as if having money had gone to his head. Every last person in the village, including the fishermen from the boat, was being ordered around by him in a flurry. Under his rallying cry of "Eat your fill, then we go to Wang Fuqi's and trade for Third Sister's return," everyone, smiling, began busying themselves with slaughtering the pig and chickens, washing rice, and cooking.

While everyone was bustling about, Yu Chengde quietly pulled the middle-aged man called Monkey aside to a secluded spot. Then, staring him in the eye, he asked: "Monkey, that business you mentioned last time about the Kun People of Yizhou—is it really true?"

| |

| | |

,,,,

Big Bookbag Network - No pop-ups, no ads, fast updates! This site provides all kinds of popular and exciting fantasy, romance, time-travel, martial arts, historical, military, online gaming novels, as well as various txt downloads.

Since all novels are uploaded by users or sourced from the internet, if your rights are infringed, please notify us and we will handle it promptly!

copyright? 2012-2018 all rights reserved.