The wave that had just been surging skyward vanished the next second, but soon the next wave came slamming in.
Ye Yi could only gather wave after wave. Standing in the storm, she didn’t even know how many times the waves had soaked her, her clothes were drenched through.
If she took them off now, she could wring water out of them.
When a wave came, she gathered the wave. When the boat sank lower, she gathered the seawater.
Like this, for some unknown length of time, it felt to Ye Yi like a very long while, the storm kept raging, with no telling how much longer she could hold out.
Her body doused with seawater, she shivered all over, water dripping from her hair without pause, her body impossibly heavy, her legs going weak. Finally, in one wave, she couldn’t hold on and collapsed onto the deck.
Her head began to spin. Before passing out she still thought: No, she had to get up, there were still waves to gather, she couldn’t just fall like this.
Her body moved a little, but her consciousness slid uncontrollably into a faint.
When she was aware again, the first thing that came to mind was: She was still alive?
She forced her eyes open. The first thing she saw was a shabby room piled with all sorts of strange things.
Where was this? How had she gotten here?
Had she transmigrated? She strained to lift her wrist, saw the wristband, and let out a breath, still there, good. So not a transmigration. She looked down, what was she wearing? Where were her clothes?
A whole pile of questions puzzled her.
She struggled to sit up, only to find she had no strength at all, her head and face very hot, she must be running a fever.
At that, she used all her strength to slowly sit up, weakly took the small medicine kit from the system Backpack, found fever reducer, cold medicine, anti-inflammatories, and mineral water, and took the medicines.
Swallowing the pills, she found her lips terribly cracked, seemingly split open. Water stung when it touched them, and her throat was swollen too, the few pills took her a good while to get down. Finally she carefully sipped some water to moisten her lips and throat.
These actions used up nearly all her strength. She lay back down, closed her eyes to rest, and half-consciously felt as though someone were talking beside her.
But she had no strength to open her eyes, and could only keep sleeping to recover.
After some unknown length of time, Ye Yi woke feeling refreshingly sore all over, her head especially clear. She touched her head, the pills had worked, the fever had broken.
She slowly sat up, and only now had the energy to take in the room.
She was sleeping on a mat, the room had no bed. By her feet were several wooden crates that had clearly seen long use, and on the boards lay lots of fish and some seaweed. She also saw her own clothes.
She got up, picked them up, braced one foot against the door, and only then, at ease, took off the clothes she was wearing and changed into her own. She folded the borrowed clothes neatly on the boards, then turned, pushed open the wooden door, and walked out.
What met her eyes were rows of wooden huts and boats sitting on the sea. She widened her eyes and looked carefully.
“You’re awake?” A young girl’s voice suddenly sounded to Ye Yi’s right.
Ye Yi jumped, turned to look, a blue-eyed girl with braided hair, holding a basin of laundry, stood in the doorway looking at her curiously.
“You are…?” Ye Yi asked hoarsely. The girl spoke the same language as her, only her looks were a little different, maybe she had some foreign blood.
“I’m Xiaoye. What’s your name? Which sea are you from?” Xiaoye introduced herself easily, then added enviously, “Your luck’s amazing, surviving a storm that big.”
She’d heard from her brother that thankfully they’d set out late and hadn’t run into the storm, otherwise they might not have made it back.
Recalling the location on her wristband, Ye Yi said hesitantly, “I’m Ye Yi, from the Crescent Sea.”
She didn’t know if saying that was right, would it expose her identity? She could only watch the girl’s reaction uneasily.
“I’m from the Moonrise Sea. Sister Ye, are the people where you’re from all beautiful like you?” Xiaoye stared enviously at Ye Yi’s face. This sister had such big eyes, black like her brother’s.
Her mouth was small, her long black hair flowing in the wind, her fair skin as if glowing, the prettiest sister Xiaoye had seen in all her life.
Hearing the girl’s sincere praise, Ye Yi didn’t know how to respond, and could only awkwardly touch her hair and say with feigned calm, “Probably. I’ve never seen anyone else.”
Could she say that this girl was the first human she’d seen in this map?
Remembering she still didn’t know how she’d gotten here, Ye Yi asked in return, “Was it you who saved me?”
More importantly, she wanted to ask: who had changed her clothes?
Xiaoye shook her head. “It was my brother who saved you.”
“Then… my clothes.”
“Of course it was…” Looking at Ye Yi’s nervous expression, Xiaoye burst out laughing. “I changed them for you. Relax!”
“Thank you.” Ye Yi smiled shyly, then, remembering her boat, quickly asked, “Did you see my boat?”
“My brother towed it off to be repaired, it might take a few days.” With that, Xiaoye set the basin on the boards, took the clothes from it, and hung them on the line.
Ye Yi crouched, picked up clothes, and helped hang them, when a coarse man’s voice suddenly came: “Xiaoye, how come you deigned to come out today? Let big brother get a good look at you.”
With that, he even reached out to touch Xiaoye’s face.
Xiaoye immediately pulled away and said nothing, crouched to quickly pick up the basin, and, not even bothering to hang the clothes, grabbed Ye Yi to head back inside.
Before Ye Yi could figure out what was happening, a man blocked their way. “Oh-ho, who’s this? So fair and pretty, how have I never seen you? Why not come home with big brother?”
The man reached to touch her again. Ye Yi dodged, and hearing his lecherous tone, her face went cold at once. In all her life no one had spoken to her like this, he really was asking for a beating.
Xiaoye turned to shield Ye Yi and said furiously, “She’s not from our sea. Say whatever you want about me, but you can’t talk to Sister Ye like that.”
When her brother got back, she’d definitely tell him—Lin Meng really was getting more and more out of line.
Seeing Lin Meng about to say more, she threatened, “My brother’s coming back soon. Forgotten the injuries you got last time? Want another beating from him?”
At Xiaoye’s mention of last time, Lin Meng’s face twisted, his good mood clearly gone. A bit afraid of Lin Yiyan coming back, yet feeling he’d lose face before a beauty, he could only leave with harsh words: “As if I’m scared of your brother. I’ve got business, so I’ll go for now. Tell your brother to wait at home, I’ll come find him soon.”
With that, he glanced at Ye Yi again, swallowed greedily, and left.
Ye Yi’s face was cold the whole time. Seeing the man’s expression at the end, she couldn’t help taking out the iron gun, raising it to give him a scare.
Killing, she probably couldn’t do it, but scaring someone she could.
The man was simply the scum of scum. She truly couldn’t stand anyone looking at her like that, utterly disgusting.
Before she could fire, Xiaoye beside her quickly pressed the gun down, shook her head at Ye Yi, pulled her to the hut, and shut the door.
Puzzled, Ye Yi looked at Xiaoye and asked, “Why stop me? One look and I can tell that’s not the first time he’s treated you like this.”
“Killing one man is easy, but after killing him, my brother and I would have a hard time surviving in this sea.” Xiaoye explained. If not for the many people connected behind him, she and her brother would have killed him long ago.
Ye Yi nodded in understanding. That was how a society of connections worked, still, it felt stifling. She asked, “So you two just keep putting up with it?”
Given a life like this, she probably couldn’t endure even a single day.
“No choice, unless we leave this sea.” Xiaoye said helplessly. She and her brother had grown up here since childhood, where else could they go if they left?
“All right, enough of this.” Not wanting to keep dredging up the painful memories of these years, Xiaoye changed the subject. “Sister Ye, are you hungry? Let me make you something to eat!”
Ye Yi patted her stomach. Better not to mention it, the moment it came up, her stomach growled. Embarrassed, she looked up at Xiaoye and smiled.
Hearing the growl, Xiaoye smiled, turned to a hollow, thick tube, took out a bunch of dry grass-like plants, struck a stone to light them, and put them into the tube.
She turned and picked up an iron frame holding a few black stones, and wedged it inside the tube.
Then she set a huge shell on top of the frame, took out something white and soft like meat, smeared it over the shell, and the shell immediately sizzled with oil.
Ye Yi crouched beside her, watching curiously. What were those plants? Were the stones flint? The white meat-like thing, could it be oil? But it looked different from the oil she knew.
She watched Xiaoye casually pick up an unidentified sea fish, slice it thin, and put it straight on the shell to fry. Before long the fish curled up, giving off a peculiar fishy aroma.
Once it was all fried, Xiaoye, as if unafraid of the heat, picked up the shell with her bare hands and put out the fire in the frame.
She handed the shell full of meat to Ye Yi. “Eat!”
Ye Yi couldn’t believe it was ready to eat, only one side had been fried, shouldn’t it be fried on both? Could the fish be cooked through like this? Undercooked fish gave her a stomachache, which was why she never ate sashimi, but she was too embarrassed to say so.
She could only carefully take the shell, and the moment she touched it, her fingers were scalded. She set the shell on the boards with a whoosh and quickly pressed her fingers to her earlobe to cool them.
Seeing Ye Yi’s reaction, Xiaoye asked apologetically, “Too hot? Are you hurt?”
“It’s fine.” Ye Yi said with feigned composure. She could do this, she couldn’t be outdone by a girl clearly younger than her.
She flipped the fish over, quietly warmed it with the shell’s residual heat, and ate it, silently praying: Please don’t give me a stomachache!
Soon a whole shell of meat was in Ye Yi’s stomach, right in front of Xiaoye.
Just as she finished, she heard the door open, someone was back?
She turned to look at the doorway. A tall man with a full beard and bronze skin, wearing only a pair of smooth trousers, stood there.
Who was he?