When he came out of the dark layer, Chen's legs and feet were numb. He could not walk for a long time. He could hardly stand up straight. In the end, he almost had to be carried into the cabin by the person who brought him there.
This is a merchant ship. There are some sundries loaded below the deck, but not much. This shows that this ship mainly does business in the north.
The man pushed him into the cargo hold and said to the sailor on the boat, "Uncle cousin, this is my family member. He is going to visit his relatives in the south. Please take good care of him on the way."
"That's not true, nephew," the middle-aged man said, wearing a brown shorts, his skin was tanned and shiny, and his full mouth of white teeth were particularly conspicuous when he smiled, "Since you are one of my family, I will naturally help you keep an eye on it, so you can rest assured."
Shen listened to their polite words, leaned against the door for a while, and waited until he felt better before walking in.
The cargo hold was dim, with only a dim oil lamp lit. A few men were sitting on the deck, and a skinny woman was leaning against the porthole. The porthole was very small and not a single ray of light could get through, making the hold even more depressing.
Seeing him come in, several men couldn't help but show some hostility on their faces. Most of these people were escaped slaves, or passengers who couldn't afford to stay in the cabin.
At a glance, they were all dressed in coarse linen clothes. Although Shen's clothes were ordinary casual clothes, they were made of wrought-iron fabric. Mixed in with them, he seemed out of place.
"An official?" The leading man sneered, looking over and sizing him up and down, "Why would an official come to sit in the cargo hold?"
However, Shen looked at himself and found that he was still wearing the outer robe that Shen Luo had given him, so he quickly took it off and hung it on his forearm.
It would take at least a month to get from Tongzhou to Yuhang, and it was better to have less trouble than more. He did not want to have a conflict with these people, so he gestured to them in a amiable manner.
"What do you mean?" The man laughed, turned his head and looked at his companion, and said in a very sarcastic tone, "Are you still a mute? In this day and age, even a mute can become an official?"
Several men beside him also laughed in response, and teased him, "Hey, dumb Mingfu, who can you redress for?"
Shen listened to their laughter without getting annoyed, and chose a clean spot in the corner to sit down.
"Oh, look, they don't even want to be with us. They seem to dislike us."
"Bah," the man next to him spat coldly at Chen Que, "How many officials are clean? They are all greedy ghosts who eat human blood and exploit human marrow. If it weren't for these officials, how could I have fallen to this point?"
Seeing that Chen had been ignoring them, these people said a few words, then felt bored, fell silent after a while, and talked about other things.
"When we get to the banknote customs, you must be careful. We don't have any money in our hands. The people from the Ministry of Revenue will come on board to check. If we are caught, it will be a serious crime."
"Old Four, do you think this is reliable? Is life really better in the south than in the north?"
The leading man replied, "The mountains are high and the emperor is far away. People say that Jiangnan is a land of fish and rice. It's better than staying here. It's not enough to be used like a donkey or a horse for a lifetime. The master beats me up at any time. What kind of life is that?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a sailor bending over and entering the cabin, holding a mattress in his hand. He walked straight towards Shen Que, put the bedding down, and then stuffed a Hu pancake into his hand.
"The soybeans in here are really good stuff," the sailor said, and he opened the Hu pancake to show him the filling inside. "Here, there's also donkey meat, which has just been roasted outside and smells delicious."
The men at the front all flared their nostrils when they heard the sound. They didn't have much dry food with them, and even had to break the bread into four pieces to save it. They didn't know how long it had been since they had smelled meat, and now seeing the fresh meat, they were so greedy that they were drooling.
Shen paid no attention to them, but took the things and thanked them.
"We should try not to go out during the day, it's good for you and us, as for the night, it's not impossible to go out for a stroll, but the wind and waves are strong at night, the boat may not be stable, if you accidentally fall into the ditch, it will be troublesome, don't you think?"
Shen, however, nodded obediently.
The sailor finished speaking, but did not leave. He stood there and coughed twice because his throat was a little itchy, his eyes not fixed on him, as if waiting for him to understand.
Chen immediately understood. This Hu Bing quilt must not be given to him for nothing. It is true that he benefited from his senior brother's secret help, but he couldn't deny him any benefit.
Then he took out two coins of silver from his purse and put it in the middle-aged man's hand.
The man immediately took the silver in his palm, weighed it twice, and then put it into his bag with great satisfaction.
When he turned around, he saw that the men in the cabin were all looking at them. He frowned and said fiercely, "What are you looking at! Be quiet!"
These men were afraid of being kicked off the boat by the sailors, so they were very obedient and looked away when they heard the words.
The water bag was filled up by Chen Luo. On the way, he huddled in the dark layer and dared only lick a few sips when he was extremely thirsty. Now that he could finally drink, he did not dare to drink in a hurry.
Chen took two bites of the Hu pancake with the cold water, then chewed it carefully and swallowed it slowly.
He really had no appetite and didn't dare to eat more, so he gritted his teeth and finished a corner to fill his stomach, then wrapped the pancake in oil paper.
After traveling for several nights in a row, Chen huddled in the mezzanine, not knowing whether it was day or night. The bumpy journey was uncomfortable and he couldn't sleep well. Now he stood up and spread the mattress next to a pile of cargo boxes, just blocking the sight of the group of men.
The mattress was made, and Shen lay down on it, feeling a little melancholy.
He had never left Beijing since he was a child. When he stepped on the boat, he always felt that he was not standing on solid ground and his heart was empty. This old mattress must have been left in the cabin for too long. It had a musty smell and was damp and hard.
Fortunately, Shen was not a delicate person and could endure anything. After lying down for a while, he stood up and folded Shen Luo's outer robe to use as a pillow. Then he curled up in the corner and fell into a deep sleep.
The boat rocked at night.
Shen was awakened by a strong feeling of nausea. He didn't open his eyes, but he heard a rustling sound by his ears.
Someone was speaking in a low voice.
"He's soundly asleep. He must be soundly asleep. I've been squatting here watching him for a long time, but there's no movement at all."
"Did you take off his clothes? I think his clothes are worth a lot of silver."
"Isn't it a bit of a bully to take it all? You should at least leave some coppers for people to buy biscuits, right?"
"What are you afraid of? We are on the water, can he still go to the police to report it? If he is not convinced and makes a fuss, we can just tie him up and throw him into the river..."
Several people were plotting enthusiastically when they suddenly heard a sound in the corner, like the sound of a broom falling to the ground.
Then there was another muffled sound, the woman under the porthole snorted, and the man cursed: "Bitch, why are you meddling in other people's business?"
The noises made by these people were not very loud. If one was a deep sleeper, he would probably still be fast asleep.
But Chen Que's hearing has always been very good, and he had been trained by Lin Xie these days. So when he heard the slightest sound in the yard at night, he would open his eyes in surprise, stare at them for a while, and then curl himself up in the mattress.
Therefore, all the conversations in the cargo hold that were so close to him fell into his ears.
Then, a figure tiptoed towards him. The person was breathing heavily, and there was a slight smell of sweat on his body when he approached.
The man had just squatted down and had not had time to reach for the purse on Chen Que's waist when Shen Que suddenly jumped up and grabbed his wrist.
Then there was the sound of a sharp blade being unsheathed, and as it cut through the darkness, a faint ray of cold light appeared wherever it passed.
Shen raised his elbow and hooked his neck with ease. Almost in an instant, the unsheathed scimitar was at his neck.
The man was so frightened that he dared not even speak.
The others who were waiting behind heard the strange noise and asked hurriedly, "What happened? Did you succeed?"
Before he could finish his words, the man who was speaking was kicked down by Shen Que's leg, and he fell face down on the cargo box with a dull thud.
The companions then realized that something had gone wrong, but in order to conceal the fact, they even turned off the lights. Now the cabin was in complete darkness, and they had no practice, so if they tried blindly, they would probably only get beaten.
He hurriedly turned around to look for a tinderbox, but the oil lamp had just been lit when he turned around again, only to find that his accomplices had already fallen all over the deck, and the one held by the mute with a knife was their "Fourth Brother".
The fourth brother felt embarrassed when he was stared at like that, and he growled in a low voice: "Damn it, he has a knife!"
It seemed that the reason he was defeated was simply because he didn't have a suitable weapon in his hand.
These men had originally thought that he was an easy target, and that he looked a little weak, so they thought he was just a civil servant who had fallen on hard times. But now that they knew he was a powerful man, they immediately changed their tune and called him, "Mute young man, we were really blind to your talent just now. We thought you were a poor old man because you looked so literary, but who knew you were actually a martial artist!"
"Put the knife down first, and let's talk it over. If someone dies, it will be troublesome for everyone, right?"
However, Shen had no intention of killing anyone, so when he saw them begging for mercy, he put away his knife.
The fourth brother escaped from the knife edge, and now he no longer had any anger. He rubbed his neck with lingering fear: "What I, Wang Silang, despise the most in my life is those civil servants. Apart from flattering and taking bribes, what else can they do?"
"The honor of a military officer is earned through blood and sweat," he said, and then glanced at Chen Que, "This is the glory of a man of steel, right, sir?"
Shen wanted to say that he was not a demoted military officer, but none of these people could understand what he was saying, so he had to remain silent and let them misunderstand.
He didn't say anything, and they found it boring to hear these people talking to themselves, so the men invited him back to the simple couch.
"We were blinded by greed just now. Thank you for your mercy, young man."
Before he finished speaking, he heard the slightly younger man behind him muttering, "It was you who proposed to steal people's things, and now it's you who is following them like a dog. You said you would share the cake with me after the deed is done. I've been thinking about it for several hours, and I'm starving. Where's the cake?"
Upon hearing this, the fourth brother gave him a slap on the top of his head: "Still thinking about the cake, you fool!"
However, Shen remained indifferent. Upon hearing this, he took out the Hu pancake wrapped in oil paper. He couldn't finish it, but it didn't want to be wasted, so he broke it into pieces and shared it with them.
The men took the meat-filled pancakes and thanked him repeatedly, calling him a "good man" and a "dumb young man".
There was only one piece left… Shen glanced at the skinny woman who had been huddled in the corner, walked up slowly, and handed her the remaining cake.
The woman looked up at him, but didn't take his cake and said nothing.
Suddenly, there was a noise outside, and a sailor lifted the curtain and shouted inside: "Girl, come out quickly, don't make the men wait anxiously."
After shouting several times, the woman finally moved slowly. Just as she reached the door, the sailor pulled her out and scolded her viciously: "What are you dawdling for? Even a tortoise can crawl faster than you."
Chen was surprised and didn't quite understand the identity of this woman. But when he saw the malicious smiles on the men in the cabin, he vaguely guessed it.
Seeing him in a daze, the man called Lao Si enthusiastically explained to him, "She is a boat prostitute, a lowly woman who escaped from a brothel. She has no money to pay for her services and wants to go south, so she has no choice but to go back to her old job and sell her body to take this boat."
"Why would you care about her, sir? She's just a piece of trash that was ruined by someone else," the other man stared at the small piece of cake left in his hand, "She can obviously speak, but she pretends to be dumb in front of us. It's better to feed this cake to a dog than to feed it to her."
Seeing this, Shen Que handed him the cake. The man's eyes lit up immediately and he hurriedly said, "Thank you, young man!"
"You're so greedy, you bastard!" The fourth guy behind him scolded him.
Chen opened the heavy curtain and walked out of the cargo hold. Outside, there was wet mist everywhere, and the wind blew the rain away.
However, Shen was so dazzled by the rain that he could hardly open his eyes. He groped for a long time before he finally found a cabin.
When he lifted the bamboo curtain, he saw that there were seven or eight sailors crammed into the small cabin, including the man who had just brought him the mattress, and all of them were half naked.
On the low couch lay a half-naked woman with a man on top of her. When she saw him come in, she didn't react at all. She looked at him numbly but didn't move at all, like a dead object.
"Who is this? Do you know the rules? You don't even know how to say hello. Is this the place you're supposed to be in? Who led you aboard?" An unhappy voice said.
"I," the middle-aged sailor shouted, "he is a mute. My nephew entrusted him to me. Do you expect a mute to take care of you?"
The man laughed when he heard this: "I think so. Although he is dumb and his tongue is not very good, his lower body should be fine. I guess this kid smelled something delicious and wanted to try some meat with us."
"Okay, you can go to the end of the queue and take out a few copper coins as a token of appreciation. Since you are the one brought aboard by Ma Laoer, we won't ask for more from you."
"Fuck you," Ma Lao Er spat at him, "You're the fucking Lao Er!"
The men immediately burst into laughter.
No one saw what Shen Que was doing, so Shen Que had to step forward and block the woman, speaking lip language and gesturing with his hands.
These people finally looked at him and said, "What are you talking about? Can you understand, Lao Er?"
"A dumb man speaks dumb words," the men all laughed at him, "I finally have a good eye today."
"Did he say he would pay for the girl's passage?"
As soon as this person said this, there was another burst of laughter in the cabin: "Although he may be mute, he still knows how to be a hero and save the damsel in distress!"
Shen did not want to be in the limelight. His current situation was worrying, and he should not stand out. It would be better to hide in the cargo hold and not see people. But seeing this woman being treated like this by them, he could not bear to be cruel.
He straightened his face and said, "Make an offer."
"Are you serious?" The helmsman on the boat asked with a smile, "Ten taels of silver, can you afford it?"
He was afraid that if he gave too much money, he would be blackmailed by these people in the future, so Shen Que pretended to have a toothache and took the silver out of his purse one ounce at a time.
When he got the tenth tael, the helmsman was stunned. He risked his life to go back and forth on the canal, but only earned twenty strings of money. He never expected that this sucker would actually be willing to pay such a large sum of money for this girl.
He was about to reach out to take it, but the girl on the couch suddenly stood up, pushed Chen Que's hand back, and finally spoke: "It's only two or three hundred coins for a person, you are so cruel to ask for this price."
After saying that, she turned around and looked at Chen Que: "If you are sincere, just lend me one or two taels of silver to pay the boat fare, and don't let them cheat you."
"You bitch! If someone is willing to give, what's it to you?"
But Shen was not stupid, and upon hearing that, he stuffed a tael of silver into her hand, and took the rest back.
As a result of her interference, most of the money he had earned flew away. The helmsman was naturally unhappy, but he was doing a legitimate business after all, and he had a wife and children at home waiting to eat, so he didn't want to cause trouble on his employer's ship.
In addition, Ma Lao Er mediated, and in the end Chen added another 10 taels of silver, and the deal was finally settled.
When we got out of the cabin, it was raining even harder outside.
The woman was wearing a tattered dress and followed Shen Que closely. She stopped talking, as if the eloquent woman just now was just his illusion.
The author has something to say:
More than 4,000 words, which is equivalent to double the update. I am so hardworking (hands on hips)
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