Chapter 150: A Voyage at Sea The black and white animals are all rather abnormal…
“I spent some time at sea and saw land before the ship was completely destroyed. It turned out to be full of foreigners. I gradually learned their language and seized the opportunity to go to university.”
Yu Deng glossed over what happened afterward, and Yao Xiaoyu assumed that her life was going smoothly, unaware of the many events that had occurred behind those few casual words.
Young Yu Deng was very bold. Without any knowledge of navigation, he boarded a small boat and sailed forward, looking at the land that was vaguely visible. Then, he lost his way in the strong wind and white fog. When the sun came out again, he was surrounded by water.
Are you scared? Of course.
Are you afraid? Definitely.
But the human will to survive is very strong.
When food ran out, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea became food. Blood could be collected and used as fresh water when there was no rain. If you couldn't tell which way to go, head towards the brightest star in the night. Yu Deng was glad that he had used most of his savings to buy a knife. Alone on the sea, gold and silver were the most useless things.
Life at sea was not easy. Yu Deng was mistaken for food by large creatures in the sea, and her eyes were almost snatched away by seabirds. She was in dire straits many times due to the shortage of supplies, and there were many times when she looked at the sea surface without any markers and wondered if she was trapped in a maze and despaired.
Once, when she was starving, she used her last strength to catch a shark. She thought she was lucky, and she had heard that shark fin was valuable. She happily cut the meat and skillfully bit into it... and her mouth was filled with the smell of urine!
Tears burst out—no, water is a very precious resource on the sea surface, and Yu Deng'en dared not waste it. From then on, she also fully understood why only shark fin was famous: this fish is only edible in this part!
But there were also some happy things: once when Yu Deng was in dire straits, she saw a big black and white fish that made a soft whimpering sound. She called them black and white fish at the time, but when she went to university, she learned that this kind of fish had its own name, orca.
At that time, Yu Deng thought she was completely finished, so she simply lay down on the boat and waited for the fish to swallow her whole: although it made no difference whether a good-looking fish or an ugly fish ate her, the former would make her feel better.
But the fish didn't attack her; they just circled around her, and their numbers kept increasing. Their postures and movements were quite familiar to Yu Deng. She thought for a long time before she could recall the corresponding scene: her friend had a cat, and the way her friend treated the cat was exactly the same as how these fish treated her.
Thinking of her friend's high-pitched cry for "Little Tanuki," and looking at the large black and white fish around her, almost forming whirlpools and still whimpering, even knowing she might be dead at any moment, Yu Deng's mind still uncontrollably drifted to a somewhat strange question:
Humans call her Tanuki the little cat, so what do these big fish call her?
Little one?
Matching the whimpering sound with those three words, Yu Deng, though weak from hunger, couldn't help but laugh. Her lips, long dehydrated, cracked, and a few drops of blood, carrying a familiar metallic taste, flowed into her mouth, making her even hungrier and reminding her of stories she had heard before.
In the village where she lived, there was an old man who had been to school. Because he was too old to do manual labor, he made a living by writing letters to others and couplets for the New Year. Sometimes when he was free and in a good mood, he would tell stories from books. Because he didn't use any difficult-to-understand classical Chinese, he was very popular in the village.
Once, the old man told a story about a monster that grew bigger and bigger the more it ate, but it could never fill its stomach, so it was always eating. One day, the Heavenly Dog was eating the moon, and the monster also wanted to eat it. The Heavenly Dog got angry and sealed the monster in a place. The monster was so hungry that it ended up eating itself.
[...The gluttonous beast first ate its own tail, but it was still hungry, so it started gnawing on its own feet. It ate and ate until only its head remained, but it was still starving...]
Yu Deng felt like she was the sealed Taotie, but in the end she didn't eat the flesh on her body to fill her stomach. It wasn't that she couldn't bring herself to do it, but rather that the whimpering fish had thrown their flesh onto the boat to satisfy her hunger.
She wolfed down her food, then looked gratefully at the orcas that were calling to her incessantly. Thinking of the kittens she had seen cuddling, she reached out to touch the big fish... and then the fish, in their excitement, spun and leaped, capsizing her boat.
Yu Deng: ...
To be honest, Yu Deng didn't find it strange at all. After all, in her understanding, black and white animals were somewhat abnormal. The village chief's grandson wanted to keep a cat, but the village chief's family didn't want to spend the money, so they kidnapped a black and white cat instead of buying one. From then on, their family never had peace and quiet. Every few days, the village chief would sit at the door and say strange things.
"I was so stupid... really... I only knew that you could bring home a stray cat from the street for free, I never thought about the abnormality of a black and white pairing..."
Yu Deng scrambled back onto the boat that the orcas had nervously flipped over, thankful that he had brought everything with him, otherwise he would have died even if he survived now—and then came two days of what could only be described as a fantastic journey.
There's a modern variety show called "Riding the Waves," but that's just a metaphor. Yu Deng, however, actually experienced a real journey of riding the waves with the orca pod. Her boat was in the middle of the orca pod, and she didn't need to row at all; the boat would speed up. All sorts of creatures that used to threaten Yu Deng would wisely give way, allowing Yu Deng to fully experience the joy of riding on the coattails of the orcas.
Of course, it's not always safe: sometimes, when the orca gets excited, the energetic orca will lift the entire boat, including her, onto its head, leap off, and dive down, making Yu Deng, who was passively riding the drop tower, realize what it means to be safe when there is no danger, and that the orca is the greatest danger.
Aside from occasional minor annoyances, Yu Deng's two days with the orcas were generally a lighthearted and joyful comedy. When they had to part ways, the various kinds of fish meat weighed down the boat, making it tremble precariously. Yu Deng didn't dare to make any big movements, for fear that the boat would capsize—there was still a wine barrel on board that the orcas had pushed over, which hadn't been soaked by seawater.
Because of the orca's affection, when she saw the Japanese pirates whaling, Yu Deng went over and let them into the Dragon Palace. She hadn't originally planned for it to be so intense, but the way those people looked at her after they discovered her gender was really... Fortunately, fighting these people was no more difficult than fighting a big fish, it was just that the spoils were rather meager.
Yu Deng picked and chose, reluctantly taking some onto his own ship. Before he could decide whether to go to the Japanese pirates' territory to rest or continue following the stars, the storm came.
Fortunately, she landed in the eye of the typhoon, the only safe zone.
Unfortunately, her boat was dilapidated and wouldn't last long.
Then, Yu Deng's ship broke apart, and she clung to a plank, drifting at sea for three days. Just when she was about to die, she finally saw land.
Yu Deng struggled to get ashore, but before she could find any fresh seafood to eat, she heard voices. She instinctively rolled behind the rocks before realizing something was wrong—the series of chattering didn't sound like someone from the Flower Garden.
She cautiously peeked out and saw the golden retriever and the red retriever munching on something, then silently lowered her head again.
People from inland areas might think these blue-eyed and green-eyed people are monsters, but from Quanzhou Port in the Ming Dynasty to the Thirteen Factories of Guangdong in the Qing Dynasty, she had seen all sorts of heads of different colors when she was a child. It's just that fewer foreigners have come in recent years, but it's not really anything strange.
After the couple who were taking a walk left, Yu Deng grabbed some seafood to fill her stomach. Then, while trembling, she smoothed her hair and tidied her clothes, slowly walking along the edge of the crowd. When someone asked her something curiously, she would shake her head and wave her hands blankly, pretending to be mute by making "ah ah ah" sounds, but her heart was quite unsettled.
If this were her country, no matter how many foreigners gathered, there would still be more Chinese faces than foreigners. But now, all I see are foreign faces. She must have been swept away to another country.
After relying on eating wild fruits and bird eggs and begging to make her way to the big city, Yu Deng completely proved her guess. Then she quickly readjusted her plan—it is said that there are Chinatowns in foreign countries, so she had to find that place first and learn the local language.
Just like her journey into the city, the search for Chinatown was far from peaceful, filled with exciting gunfights, theft and robbery, lustful encounters, human trafficking and cannibalism, opium dealing... These are just some of the things Yu Deng experienced, and they happened on many occasions.
Perhaps due to her long life at sea and the blessing of Mazu, although she stumbled every three steps and limped every five, and her wounds never healed, she was not missing any limbs. She also learned skills such as controlling bullets and firing guns, washing three plates in a second, quickly finding her way to the underground market, randomly grabbing nearby objects for unrestricted combat, and judging the decisions her opponents were about to make based on body language and eye contact.
Although language skills were not unlocked on the skill tree, Yu Deng evolved into a multi-talented mute on her way to Chinatown!
The journey was full of ups and downs. After finally shaking off the storms and arriving in Chinatown, Yu Deng thought that the hard times were over and she could finally live a peaceful life. However, life is a constant battle, and she fell into a trap right from the start with a heartless boss who preyed on his own people.
Yu Deng: ...
Having grown accustomed to quickly resolving trouble, Yu Deng didn't want to cause any more problems. The boss drank his foot bath water, and that was the end of it—that was what the boss wanted to do to Yu Deng, and Yu Deng retaliated in kind.
Yu Deng, who was leaning on the boss's stick, originally wanted to look at other jobs, but while eating a hamburger, she encountered a robber. Yu Deng sighed and skillfully sent the burly man with a stocking over his head to meet his faith. Then, the manager grabbed her hand and begged her to work in the store, even though Yu Deng said that she was an illiterate mute and didn't care.
This is the eldest sister-in-law; she's tried it, and she understands "help"! Keeping her here will ensure the safety of the store!
Yu Deng was hired without any trouble. As a security guard, his job was to sit at a table in the corner and guard against robbers like the ones we see today.
The surprises didn't end there. Another hostage, who had been taken away by the ambulance, came back some time later. To thank Yu Deng for saving her life, the little old lady offered to tutor her for free.
Yu Deng, whose head was throbbing from dealing with the dictionary, readily agreed. She attended classes diligently every day, and after successfully overcoming the language barrier, the old lady asked her if she wanted to go to university—such a smart girl, it would be a real pity if she didn't go to university, and she was willing to write her a letter of recommendation!
The idea of pursuing higher education is ingrained in the Chinese people. Yu Deng, stunned by this unexpected surprise, seized the opportunity without hesitation and became a proud college student. Through various events, he also built up a family business and achieved some success.
Yu Deng looked at the well-behaved and pretty girl in front of her and continued to talk about the details of how she became a supermarket stocker in order to get a job with room and board. Well, she didn't mention the little things like how someone tried to molest her and then kill her instead.
...
"What are you thinking about?"
Ye Junshu looked at Yao Xiaoyu, who was lost in thought, and asked her with some curiosity. He had originally come to this blind date under the guise of curiosity, and he had even planned how to politely send her off. But it turned out that Yao Xiaoyu really just wanted to know about the lifestyles of different countries.
Fortunately, he didn't speak that quickly.
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