Ye Jing suddenly fell silent.
Now he believes that the old man was truly kind-hearted.
In their culture, that would be considered meddling in other people's business.
Grandpa Yan didn't notice the change in Ye Jing's expression and continued to recount his glorious deeds at the dock.
Because of Shen Zhou's death, everyone was in low spirits. Li Jianguo went down to the bottom of the deck, found the innermost bedroom, and collapsed onto the bed. He still couldn't accept the reality that Shen Zhou was dead.
Chi Xiaoyu then took Ya Ya, whose eyes were red from crying, to the bathroom in the room to wash her face.
Only Grandpa Yan, Ye Jing, and Qiao An'an remained on the deck.
Qiao An'an wasn't feeling great either, but as the matriarch of these children, she had to take responsibility. She interrupted Grandpa Yan, who was talking animatedly, "Grandpa, you've worked at the dock for so many years, you should understand ships well, right? Our propeller is broken now, can you fix it?"
When Grandpa Yan heard Qiao An'an mention his boat, he immediately used his professional knowledge to answer her question: "It can be repaired, but new spare parts are needed."
Qiao An'an felt that what Grandpa Yan said was as good as nothing: "This is at sea, where am I supposed to get spare parts for you?"
Grandpa Yan replied, "The biggest problem now is that the yacht can't move forward anymore. We don't necessarily need to fix the propeller. As long as we can get the yacht moving forward, that's fine."
Qiao An'an couldn't refute this: "As long as you can make the yacht move forward, that's fine."
Grandpa Yan told Qiao An'an that this was a yacht that combined a power unit and a sailboat. Since the propeller was broken and the power system couldn't be used, they could raise the sail on the yacht: "But if we use the sail, the speed will be a bit slower."
Qiao An'an had no concept of the ship's speed: "How much slower?"
Grandpa Yan replied that if a power system were used to cross the Yellow and Bohai Bays, it would take about ten hours, while if a sail were used, it would take at least half a month, depending on how favorable the winds were.
Although it is much slower to travel with a sail.
But it seems they have no other choice now.
Qiao An'an left Ye Jing behind to help Grandpa Yan raise the sail.
She went to the yacht's kitchen. The self-heating hot pot and instant noodles they had brought were almost gone, so she needed to check the food on the yacht to see if the supplies were enough for them to eat for half a month.
In the kitchen cabinet, there were two 20-pound bags of rice and several large packets of instant noodles.
I saw rice and instant noodles.
Qiao An'an felt much more at ease; at least they wouldn't starve.
She didn't plan to eat the instant noodles on the ship. After they landed, they still had to walk more than 300 kilometers to reach the capital. Now that they had no truck, they didn't know how long it would take to walk those 300 kilometers. She planned to save the instant noodles and the self-heating hot pots that were left in their backpacks to eat after they got ashore.
We'll eat these two bags of rice at sea.
There's a freezer in the kitchen filled with frozen meat—beef, lamb, pork, and chicken—weighing about 30 pounds in total. It's definitely not enough for six people for half a month, but they can catch fish at sea to supplement their protein intake, so it's barely acceptable. Besides meat, the freezer also contains some frozen dumplings, wontons, and steamed buns, but not a lot—just enough for breakfast for a few people for the next few days.
Not many seasonings are needed; half a month is enough.
The only downside is that there are no vegetables.
It's only half a month, so if you're worried about your kids getting a sore throat, just make sure they drink plenty of water. They've already endured it all this way, so another half month won't make a difference.
When Qiao An'an finished inspecting the kitchen and came out onto the deck, Ye Jing had already helped Grandpa Yan raise the sail. Qiao An'an greeted Ye Jing and Grandpa Yan, saying, "It's very late, you should go to your rooms and rest."
Grandpa Yan waved his hand: "When the wind direction changes, the sails need to be adjusted so that we can cross the Yellow and Bohai Bays as quickly as possible. I sleep on the deck so that it's convenient to adjust the sails."
Qiao An'an also wanted to cross the Yellow Sea and Bohai Bay as soon as possible and get to the capital. She thanked Grandpa Yan for his hard work, took a quilt from the cabin for him, and then went back to her room to rest.
Qiao An'an's room was a standard double room.
She had originally planned to sleep in one bed and Ya Ya in another, since they had been sleeping separately for the past few days.
But as soon as she finished washing up and lay down on the bed, Ya Ya climbed into her blankets and kept snuggling into her arms: "Sister Xiaoyu said that everyone will die, it's just a matter of sooner or later. Will Mommy die too? Will Mommy leave Ya Ya?"
Qiao An'an was taken aback by Ya Ya's question. She didn't know if all mothers were the same, afraid to get sick or die. It wasn't that she was afraid of dying after becoming a mother, but that her child would become a helpless orphan after she died.
She hugged Ya Ya and thought for a moment before answering, "Mommy will wait until Ya Ya can live independently and no longer needs Mommy before I die."
Ya Ya reached out her little hand and covered Qiao An'an's mouth: "Ya Ya will always need her mother. Even when she can live independently in the future, Ya Ya doesn't want her mother to die. Ya Ya wants her mother to live forever."
Qiao An'an took Ya Ya's hand and kissed it: "If I stay alive forever, won't Mommy become an old monster?"
The wind at sea was gentle that night.
There was hardly any shaking inside the cabin, but apart from Ya Ya, no one could sleep peacefully.
Especially Li Jianguo.
The next day, when everyone came out for breakfast, he still stayed in his room and didn't come out.
Grandpa Yan took the dumplings Qiao An'an handed him, pointed with his chin to the innermost room, and asked Qiao An'an, "Should we call him for breakfast?"
Qiao An'an served a bowl of dumplings to Chi Xiaoyu and Ye Jing, then cut a few cooked dumplings in half, put them in a small bowl and handed it to Ya Ya before saying, "Don't worry about him, he'll come out to eat when he's hungry."
The meat in the freezer isn't enough to last them for half a month.
After finishing breakfast, Qiao An'an lay on the edge of the boat and began to study how to fish.
Upon hearing about fishing, Ye Jing immediately perked up: "We can make fishhooks from sewing needles, hook some chicken meat on them, and fish in the sea."
Qiao An'an wasn't very confident about this method: "Although I don't know much about fishing, I have seen that fishing requires not only hooks, but also fishing lines, floats, and fishing rods. How do you plan to solve these three things?"
Ye Jing found a bundle of plastic rope in the kitchen, twisted it into a thinner strand, threaded it through the eye of a needle, and then took a few pieces of foam from the white foam insulated box and threaded them onto the plastic rope. He tied one end of the rope to the railing of the yacht, then baited the hook and cast it into the sea: "I'll pull the rope up when a fish bites."
To Qiao An'an's surprise, several pieces of styrofoam actually floated on the sea surface, drifting with the waves.
It looks quite professional.
Qiao An'an gave a thumbs up and said, "Amazing! I'm waiting for you to catch a big fish!"
Grandpa Yan shook his head and said, "This isn't a small ditch or river, this is the ocean. You can't catch fish in the ocean with the kind of crayfish fishing gear you use."
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