Ye Yi hadn’t rowed long before she felt very hot. She let go of the oar, stopped, and took off her down jacket and sweater. Seeing the system Backpack had no room, she got up and put them in the cabin.
She’d wanted to take them off earlier, but in front of Xiaoye things couldn’t just vanish into thin air, so she’d kept them on, and then forgotten.
Back to rowing, she rowed a while, rested a while, rowed a while, rested a while, until she felt she was some distance from Xiaoye’s sea, then stopped.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead, truly too hot. The weather here really was strange.
She stood, shook out her aching arms, ducked into the cabin, plopped down on the boards, and took out mineral water for a few sips to quench her thirst.
She’d sweated too much just now and needed to replenish water. Weather this hot really was unsuited for being outside, the cabin was cooler.
After resting a bit, she took a compressed biscuit from the system Backpack and ate it with water. Having finished half, she lay back on the down jacket, closed her eyes, and rested to recover the strength rowing had used.
It was too hot now, when it cooled off she’d row farther. Then she’d make grilled meat and fish soup to restore herself, she’d weathered the storm, but her body hadn’t recovered and needed a good boost.
Thinking of fish soup, her mind jumped to water. With it this hot outside, it was the perfect time to collect drinking water from seawater.
She rolled over, got up from the boards, and sighed at herself: truly a life of toil, never a moment of ease.
She stepped out, took out the small iron pot, glass bottle, and plastic bag, piled them on the deck, deftly set up the simple distillation rig, and then only had to wait.
In just that short while, sweat trickled down. As she stood to head back into the cabin, she looked up at the calm sea and suddenly spotted a black dot in the distance.
Hm? What was that? It hadn’t been there before, had it?
Unable to bear the sun, Ye Yi ducked to the cabin door and stared hard at the distant dot, not seeing clearly what it was left her uneasy.
After a while, as the dot drew nearer, she saw it was a small boat.
Recalling the figure she’d seen leaving the Moonrise Sea, could it be that person? Their boat was heading straight for her. What did they want?
Her heart began to race. She quickly ran to grab the oar and started rowing away from them.
Not knowing who they were, distancing herself was the best option.
Ye Yi rowed, but felt the distant boat drawing ever closer. She rowed with all her strength, yet was still caught up.
There stood the man she’d met at Xiaoye’s home, on the bow, staring at Ye Yi with a lewd face, greeting her flippantly, “Oh-ho, we meet again.”
Ye Yi didn’t even want to speak, his voice alone made her nauseous. How had this man chased her all the way here? On reflex she took the iron gun and bullets from the system Backpack.
“Beauty, don’t be nervous. Surviving all alone at sea, how lonely, big brother’s here to take you back to enjoy the good life.” Lin Meng wore a smug, victory-assured smile. Thinking he’d soon have the beauty in hand, he couldn’t help laughing.
Ye Yi said nothing, loaded a bullet, raised the gun, and fired straight at Lin Meng.
Scheming after her, had he asked her gun’s permission first?
Lin Meng didn’t expect her reaction. Failing to dodge, he was hit in the leg and fell onto the deck, screaming, “Ah, my leg! Uncle Lin, come save me!”
The middle-aged man called Uncle Lin walked out onto the deck at the sound. Looking at Lin Meng wailing on the deck, he shook his head, waved disappointedly to his men, and had Lin Meng carried into the cabin.
He himself stood on the deck and said coldly, “Little girl, best come back with us obediently, that way you’ll suffer less.”
Ye Yi ignored him. She wasn’t stupid, caught by them, would she come to any good end?
She raised the gun and fired at them again, but this time luck wasn’t with her as the first, the man called Uncle Lin nimbly dodged.
The men on the deck each pulled a lot of black objects from their pockets and hurled them at Ye Yi.
Ye Yi couldn’t dodge in time and was hit twice, the pain nearly bringing tears. On reflex she took the iron bed from the system Backpack and blocked it in front of her.
No time now to care whether the bed was heavy, staying alive mattered more.
Hiding behind the iron bed, Ye Yi felt much easier at once, the other side couldn’t see where she was. She’d pop out on the left, fire a shot, then appear on the right, fire a shot, shoot and shift, capturing the essence of guerrilla warfare.
The people on the opposite boat were thrown into disarray, several were hit and fell wailing.
For a moment no one dared keep throwing stones at Ye Yi, they all crouched, staring at the iron bed that had suddenly appeared on her boat.
The man called Uncle Lin stared at the bed that had appeared from thin air, his eyes going blank. He was sure his eyes were fine, that black thing had suddenly appeared in front of the girl.
Was she the incarnation of a god, or a devil?
Ye Yi didn’t care about their reactions. Seeing the leader frozen there, the timing was perfect, she fired one right at him.
The crash-course marksmanship was somewhat useful after all, only her aim was a bit off, she’d clearly aimed for the upper body, but the bullet hit the lower.
Her weapons and theirs were on unequal footing, it was simply a one-sided crushing. And here she’d been so scared earlier, thinking they were some formidable foe.
Looking at the opposite boat with hardly anyone unhurt, she prepared to fire again to finish them, when footsteps suddenly came from behind her.
Ye Yi turned warily, but it was too late. A young man swung something like an iron blade at her.
On reflex she crouched, dodging the first swing. The second, coming straight at her head, she couldn’t dodge. She could only raise the iron gun to block the blade, and the next second her other hand quickly touched it. “An iron blade detected. Gather?”
“Gather.”
The blade vanished from the man’s hand in an instant. He stared at Ye Yi in terror and shouted, “Devil!”
Ye Yi looked at the blue glow that fell to the deck. Before she could press her advantage, the man, terrified, scrambled to the side of the boat, jumped into the sea, and swam frantically toward the opposite boat.
Did she look like a devil?
But that one cry of “devil” scared everyone on the opposite boat from crouching to kneeling on the deck, kowtowing without stop, murmuring who knew what.
Ye Yi picked up the blue light, tossed it into the system Backpack without a glance, and crouched back behind the iron bed, careful not to touch it. Today’s sun was truly vicious, the bed was scalding, hot enough that slicing some meat onto it would make grilled meat.
After a while, the other side was still kowtowing. Ye Yi couldn’t help standing up. How long would they keep at it? If she wasn’t going to fight, she’d just leave.
Just as she was about to say something—
She saw another boat rowing over. Reinforcements?
She crouched again to hide, filled the magazine with bullets, counted the rest, about 8 left. Gripping the gun, she prepared to strike first while the enemy was off guard.
The later boat soon rowed over. Ye Yi quietly lifted her head for a peek, why did it look a bit familiar?
And there were only two people on it. Could two people count as reinforcements?
Squinting, seeing them draw ever closer, she raised the gun and rested it on the iron bed, ready to take them by surprise.
Hm? That person on the boat looked a bit familiar. Looking closely, wasn’t that Xiaoye’s brother? What was he doing here?
Rushing over to help, Lin Yiyan was baffled too as he neared Lin Meng’s boat. He saw only a bunch of grown men kneeling on their boat, kowtowing endlessly toward Ye Yi’s boat.
What had happened? Something about how this was unfolding felt off.
He rowed away from Lin Meng’s boat toward Ye Yi’s, and before he neared it a woman’s voice came:
“Are you here to help them?” Ye Yi asked loudly, deciding to ask amicably first, he was her savior, after all.
“No.” Lin Yiyan answered loudly. There was no choice, at sea, if you didn’t speak up you couldn’t hear each other.
Then he said, “Xiaoye said she saw Lin Meng’s boat set out and was afraid you’d be in danger, so she had me come check.”
He didn’t expect Xiaoye to guess only the first half right, the second half was rather off from his guess.
Hearing Xiaoye’s name, Ye Yi lowered the gun, but not her guard entirely, her palm still gripped it tight.
“Thank Xiaoye for me.” She thanked him loudly. Xiaoye really was kind.
Lin Yiyan kept rowing closer. Lin An, who’d come with him, looked at the beautiful woman before him and asked curiously, “What’s the deal with that lot?”
“Don’t know. Probably done too many guilty deeds and got their comeuppance.” Ye Yi fudged offhandedly. Was she supposed to say she’d single-handedly taken down that whole crowd?
Even if she said it, would anyone believe it?
“Then it’s a fine comeuppance.” Seeing Ye Yi unwilling to say more, Lin An chuckled and elbowed Lin Yiyan. “Right?”
Lin Yiyan shot him a look and asked mildly, “What do you plan to do with these people now? Let them keep kowtowing?”
With that, his gaze rested on Ye Yi, waiting for her reaction.
Ye Yi looked back calmly, meeting Lin Yiyan’s eyes. “Have them hand over the supplies on their boat, and they can go. Of what we get, seventy percent mine, thirty percent yours, as payment for coming over.”
She hadn’t counted on the nonsense she’d made up being believed, for this matter, everyone understanding what was really going on in their hearts was enough, no need to say it aloud.
Payment given, all settled, no one owing anyone.
Lin Yiyan looked at Ye Yi one last time, said neither yes nor no, just briskly picked up the oar and started rowing toward Lin Meng’s boat.
Ye Yi sat quietly on the deck, watching them climb onto the opposite boat, not knowing what Lin Yiyan said to the leader. She only saw the leader wave a hand, have the unhurt men move all the boat’s supplies onto Lin Yiyan’s boat, and then row off at top speed.