Daomu Biji: The Southern Archives

As we get to this part of the story, some things that happened later need to be mentioned first.

We all know that Zhang Haiyan definitely went through a series of adventures after he boarded the Nan’an, and it would inevitably be some time before he and Zhang Haixia were reunited.

Since it would take at least a few months to travel between Malacca and Xiamen, he wouldn’t get any news from Zhang Haixia during that time. As a result, he would have to try his best. Although these superfluous thoughts were comforting to the heart, the results were disastrous.

In fact, just when Zhang Haiyan gave up resisting and was about to board the ship to comply with the contract, Zhang Haixia was sent downstairs and out to the streets.

At that moment, two things happened almost simultaneously.

During that ten-minute period of time just before they met He Jianxi, we can infer that Zhang Haixia had discovered some “abnormalities” from which he perceived a certain danger.

It’s important to know that Zhang Haixia graduated as the most outstanding crucial talent in the Southern Archives. If it weren’t for Zhang Haiyan, he would have entered the South Sea Maritime Affairs Office as a chief officer, and might have been in charge of a confidential department by now.

But during the time he hung out with Zhang Haiyan, he seldom encountered strong opponents, so he didn’t get the chance to show off. Even Zhang Haiyan had almost forgotten how smart this little brother was. He was so smart, in fact, that he could be considered a monster.

Due to his current position, the situation, and other reasons, he didn’t warn Zhang Ruipu about the danger, but obviously thought that it was very serious.

In those few minutes, he wrote something down and hid all the information in the stack of money. He placed it among the pile of banknotes and handed it to He Jianxi. He hoped that the message could be delivered to Zhang Haiyan even if there was only a slight chance.

Later, after Zhang Haiyan learned about the theory Zhang Haixia had come up with in those few minutes, he compared it with what he had discovered and found that they were almost the same. That was when Zhang Haiyan truly realized what kind of effect Zhang Haixia had on his life, and how he had always been there to protect him. He had also realized that Zhang Haixia must have felt that they would never meet each other again.

The process of how this farewell banknote arrived in Zhang Haiyan’s hands was very legendary, but we won’t talk about if for the time being.

Meanwhile, Zhang Haiyan, who was waiting in line to get on the ship, also officially started boarding. At that moment, the Nan’an entered the berth from the outer harbor.

The dock was crowded with people and all kinds of goods. A huge heat wave engulfed everyone, causing the smell of human sweat to fill the space. The most terrifying thing was the noisy voices, which made it impossible to hear anything.

The sea breeze fluctuated between strong and weak. Zhang Haiyan’s military uniform was soaked and he was fanning himself with his cap. Zhang Ruipu had been very generous to give him a ship ticket and a letter of invitation. Even though it meant that he was able to stay in the best guest room, he still couldn’t skip waiting on the dock that was looking more and more like a battlefield.

When the huge Nan’an appeared in Zhang Haiyan’s field of vision, he couldn’t help but be amazed at the behemoth. He looked up at the black hull and the four large chimneys above, and began to realize that this world was completely different from when they had first arrived at the South Sea.

Xiamen used to be a distant shore that Zhang Haiyan couldn’t reach and dearly missed. But with this kind of huge ship, Xiamen didn’t seem so far away anymore.

Zhang Ruipu’s entourage didn’t follow him on board, but watched him go silently. Zhang Haiyan pretended that they were there to send him off and waved vigorously as if he was bidding farewell to his relatives, but the two young men almost immediately disappeared into the crowd.

Zhang Haiyan breathed a sigh of relief. He turned his head and saw a sailor walking toward him. The sailor nodded to him and said, “Nice to meet you, Mr. Zhang. You are Mr. Zhang Ruipu’s nephew, right? I’m here to serve you exclusively.”

Zhang Haiyan looked at the sailor, who looked back at him with a crafty gleam in his eyes. It’s so nice to be rich. You can have informants working for you everywhere.

He took the VIP passage, where the sailor checked his ticket repeatedly before letting him through. The civilian passage below was very crowded. He looked down and realized that it would be impossible to be idle on the Nan’an this time around. The investigation would be more difficult than he had initially thought.

“The ship is like a small society. You’re now walking to heaven, while the area down below is the mortal realm,” the sailor said.

No. I don’t think I’ll get to enjoy living in heaven. Zhang Haiyan was well aware that it was impossible for him to enjoy anything during these first three days before the ship departed. He couldn’t even get a good night’s sleep.

“Tell me about the ship so I can finish what Mr. Zhang Ruipu has asked of me.”

The sailor’s job included working as a guide and giving introductions about the ship, so he was familiar with the process. While looking for passages for Zhang Haiyan to pass through faster, he said, “The Nan‘an is a huge ship. It’s the biggest ship on this route, which means that it has larger steam engine boilers and can sail very fast.

“Like all ships, it has three types of cabins: first-class, second-class, and third-class. In essence, there are passages connecting the first-class and second-class cabins so personnel can walk through. Many people in the second-class cabins are those who wanted to book rooms in the first-class cabins but couldn’t get tickets. The third-class cabins are relatively independent with isolated activity areas. The conditions of the third-class cabins are way below those of the second-class cabins.” The sailor smiled at Zhang Haiyan. “But you can have some fun in the third-class cabins, so some guests may not necessarily choose to stay in the first-class cabins.”

“Oh?” Zhang Haiyan sort of knew what he was talking about.

“It’s lonely living on the sea, after all. Moreover, the sea changes people. Good people become cruel, and good women become sluts. This is what living on the sea is like.” The sailor said softly. “Trust me, it's different.” With that said, he pointed at the third-class cabin area where some women were dressed in bright colors. “They work on the shore and go back to Xiamen once a year. They don’t stay idle on the ship. Their husbands tacitly approve of it.”

Zhang Haiyan looked at them from a distance. Those women were pretty, but the man with luggage beside them had a rickety body and dark eyes.

“Because the ship has structural problems, the stability of the bow and stern is worse. The third-class cabins are distributed among these areas. There’s a four-story building on the ship’s deck with cabins that are basically the first-class activity areas. The ballroom, swimming pool, salon, and all kinds of facilities are located there. There are bridges, observation decks, and a reporting room at the top. There are dressing rooms, restaurants, terrace bars, and indoor courts below.” The sailor said as he described the first-class area. “I don’t like these places anyway. The people in the first-class cabin may be more interested in them.”

Zhang Haiyan looked up and saw that the first-class cabin had a coat of white paint on it that made it look much cleaner.

If he were investigating the case with Zhang Haixia, he would definitely enjoy it all and let himself go. But now the sailor’s words were merely a way to help paint a clear picture of the ship in his mind.

He began to form a simple plan.

The last time the Nan’an had docked at a port was when it sailed from Xiamen to France. The ship went to four ports along the Malacca route, and stayed in Malaysia for a whole month while it waited for cargo from all over Malaysia to fill the ship. The crew members even had a chance to take a vacation, so anyone who disembarked from the ship spread the plague all over Malacca.

Judging from the situation on the ship, there hadn’t been an outbreak on the ship itself. So why did the Nan’an keep spreading the plague, but nothing happened to her?

There were two possibilities:

1. Those people were infected on the ship, but someone controlled the situation so they didn’t get sick until they got off the ship.

2. Whoever spread the plague had the ability to make people get sick when they disembarked and left.

Those who got sick lived in villages that were in different areas, so that meant they had been carefully selected. These people were low-level businessmen, so they all stayed on the lower deck. That meant that the person spreading the plague should be hiding in the lower compartments, and should be someone who was good at talking and becoming familiar with others.

It was a simple deduction. Even if there wasn’t a plague on this kind of ship, the spread of diarrhea and dysentery in the bottom compartments was also a common occurrence.

The ship’s doctor would regularly give the guests pills and concoctions, which could easily control the time at which they would get sick. In addition, a ship’s doctor would glean a lot of information from them because people respected them. Based on all this, the ship’s doctor was the first suspect, so Zhang Haiyan had to go to the infirmary as quickly as possible.

But he only had three days!

“Who are those people in front of us?” Zhang Haiyan noticed that the way was blocked, and there was a long line in front of them.

The sailor followed his gaze.

There was a group of white people in front of them, who seemed to be Americans. Their clothes were very dirty, and there was only one young white man among them wearing a suit and glasses. He seemed like the type who specialized in paperwork.

There were many local porters walking up with their luggage. The group of white men was already very large, and the ship’s passage became extremely crowded with the addition of the porters and luggage.

The pile of luggage was very huge, and Zhang Haiyan wondered what was in them. The young white people checked them over carefully and told the porters not to be careless with them.

The white people were very relaxed as they talked and laughed amongst themselves.

“These are valuable guests of some valuable guests. They’re all Mr. Warner’s entourage.” The sailor said. “He was doing an inspection of relics in Malacca, but now they’re going to Xiamen. They have an entire floor of first-class cabins booked for themselves. Look at their luggage.” The sailor whispered. “We all know that there are muskets, rifles, and submachine guns inside. It’s been said that they’re going to South China to do research. These Americans are all veterans. Look at the foreigner with glasses. He’s afraid that the gunpowder inside will accidentally light itself.”

“I’m talking about that woman.” Zhang Haiyan stared at a Chinese woman standing among the group of foreigners.

She was a petite Chinese woman who was curvy and slim, but not tall. A sari was wrapped around her face and hair, and seemed to be used for sun protection.

When the sailor finally noticed the woman, his expression changed a little. “Why is she only getting on the ship now? We thought she was already on.”

“Who is she?”

The sailor’s tone changed. “This is the shipowner’s daughter, Miss Dong. She’s our young boss. This time, she arrived in Malacca from other places, so she’s taking her family’s ship back to Xiamen. Thanks to her, the food on the ship is European wine and cured meat from the Malacca shipping warehouse, so we don’t have to eat food coming from the plague areas.”

Zhang Haiyan squinted. “Is she friends with Warner?”

“If they’re not friends, how can he board the ship with firearms?” The sailor said. “Don’t mess with her. She’s a Datuk (1) in Malacca. Even Mr. Zhang Ruipu has to get customs clearance orders from her.”

Zhang Haiyan squinted his eyes even more. “You all have to listen to her?”

"Of course. All the ships on half the route listen to her.”

Zhang Haiyan patted the sailor on the shoulder. He already had a bold idea in his head.

They waited in line for about an hour before they finally reached the waiting area under the ship deck’s open awning. As all the first-class guests rested there, the sailors gave them some welcome tea. They also had them take a disinfectant while they disinfected the carry-on luggage.

Miss Dong didn’t take advantage of her special privileges, but also took a break and had tea in this area.

The Americans were all sitting at one table while she had a table all to herself. She was staring out at Perak’s tropical scenery with her beautiful eyes.

When Zhang Haiyan made a move to go up, the sailor motioned for him to rest. He told him that there was no possibility of cutting the line, so he had to wait patiently here. The sailor then left to go and receive the next batch of guests.

As soon as Zhang Haiyan saw the sailor leave, he immediately stood up, walked to Miss Dong’s table, and sat down next to her.

Everyone was shocked. Zhang Haiyan immediately saw that all the Americans beside him were looking at him and had put their hands in their pockets. He could hear the sounds of guns being cocked.

Oh, Zhang Haiyan found it interesting. Rich people.Miss Dong should be an extremely wealthy person. She has a lot of bodyguards.

Zhang Haiyan looked at Miss Dong's eyes. She didn't look at him at all, but continued looking out at the tropical scenery in the distance. A big white man stood up and walked towards them.

"Friend, are you sitting in the wrong place?" The big guy asked.

Zhang Haiyan ignored the big man, and said to the woman in front of him, "Miss Dong, I'm here to save you. You’re in great danger."

Miss Dong turned her head and looked at Zhang Haiyan just as the big white man grabbed Zhang Haiyan's neck.

"Miss Dong, do you want me to throw him out?"

Zhang Haiyan felt the man’s grip strength and knew he could break his neck in three seconds. All he would need to do was grab the man’s wrist, turn around, and twist the wrist directly up behind the man. Then, he would reach around with his other hand and hook his neck. When he pulled the man’s wrist in one direction and his neck in another direction, the man’s neck would snap.

But he couldn’t do this, because he would immediately be shot to pieces by those around him.

Miss Dong looked at Zhang Haiyan and shook her head, "You may not be able to get him off the boat, Mr. Hudson. And he’s s a first-class guest." As she said this, Miss Dong leaned back in her chair. "Please explain what you just said."

"I'm from Penang, Miss Dong. I see you’re trying to keep a low profile, but you’re heavily guarded." Zhang Haiyan looked at the Americans nearby. "If I’ve guessed right, you must have a particularly valuable item with you that has to be transported back to Xiamen. That’s why you’ve taken your own ship and secretly prepared so many people to guard it."

Miss Dong didn’t speak, so Zhang Haiyan continued to spin his tale, "It's true that this news has been leaked out long ago. I came from Penang, and when I was there, I happened to hear a group of people in a pub say they were coming to hijack this thing. I’m the kind of person who's enthusiastic to help others, so I’m careful to eavesdrop and watch out for things. I memorized what all those people look like."

Miss Dong was still looking at him, and seemed to show a glimmer of amusement at the corner of her eyes. "And then?"

"Then, I thought about it for a long time. I can't let these people succeed, Miss Dong. I’m a first-class guest, as well as an officer. I have an obligation to protect the safety of Chinese people. So, for your safety, I have a proposal. Lend me a few people to walk around the ship and help me widen the search area. I’ll definitely find those people for you. Before the ship leaves, let’s get rid of the hidden dangers."

Zhang Haiyan patted the big man behind him, "I think this one is good."

Zhang Haiyan was confident. First of all, he had analyzed Miss Dong’s situation. There were more than ten foreigners around her that were personally protecting her, and they had all responded very quickly. Miss Dong was just a rich second generation, so it was unlikely that she was afraid of a vendetta. That meant she probably had a very special thing on her body, which was extremely valuable. The defensive measures weren’t set up for revenge, but for a robbery. So, even though his statement appeared to be abrupt, Miss Dong would take it seriously if the piece of property was really valuable. In this way, he could use her privileges to investigate the ship as much as he wanted without having to sneak around.

To be honest, if he wanted to detect the plague in three days, he had to get assistance from the ship.

Miss Dong turned her head and looked out at the scenery again. If Zhang Haiyan could see her face, he would realize that she was impatient, but she still acted just as Zhang Haiyan had expected. She thought for a while, and then said, "You're sure? You talk a big talk. If you can't find those people, how will this gentleman explain this matter?"

"Hahaha, if I can't find it, then we’ll just say it was a bunch of drunks talking nonsense. I’ll punish myself with three cups of wine, and Miss Dong can just treat me as being wrong and diligent."

"This kind of statement makes it sound like you want to use this excuse to investigate what you want to investigate while on board, hoping to defraud the privileges I give you. It’s quite convenient." Miss Dong looked at Zhang Haiyan, who was shocked and embarrassed.

This was a little too accurate.

Zhang Haiyan was biased when it came to wealthy daughters. He was willing to admit that he never thought Miss Dong would humiliate him without hesitation. While he sat there not knowing how to answer, Miss Dong beckoned to one side. The white man with glasses who had been checking over the goods when he was queuing up before came over.

"Steven."

When the white man named Steven approached, Miss Dong whispered a few words to him and then said to Zhang Haiyan, "No matter what your purpose is, sir, I don’t have the time to play games with you. But adhering to the principle of transportation safety first, I’ll give you three days to enjoy this privilege. If you can’t find the people you’ve mentioned before the boat leaves in three days, then I’ll use the shipowner’s power to arrest you and send you to jail in Xiamen. If you resist arrest, I’ll have my people kill you on the spot. Do you agree?"

Zhang Haiyan was shocked.

At this time Miss Dong's room was ready. She took the key, stood up, and then looked at Zhang Haiyan, "You have ten seconds. Answer me."

The situation was originally under Zhang Haiyan's control, but now Miss Dong had taken control of everything.

Zhang Haiyan didn't have time to think about it as he saw Miss Dong turn around and move to leave. He immediately stood up and said, "I’m confident. What if I find those people?" At this time, he was willing to put up a strong front.

"We’ll talk about it then. If you can even find them. Steven will follow you and help smooth things over." Miss Dong drifted away, and the Americans followed close behind. Once they were gone, only the white man with glasses was left looking at him coldly.

Zhang Haiyan waited until he couldn't see Miss Dong anymore before relaxing. He then said to Steven, "Wealthy daughters have become clever recently."

"Your last name." Steven asked in very fluent Chinese.

"My last name is Zhang."

"Mr. Zhang, I’m going back to my room to clean up now. We’ll meet back here in an hour. That’s when I’ll officially start timing. You have to find that group of thugs you mentioned within those 72 hours." Steven grabbed his luggage, saluted, and then walked into the first-class cabin.

Zhang Haiyan sighed and looked out at the scenery. Seagulls were flying, the sun was beating down, and the third-class guests were still getting on the ship. "Well, bad-guy-spreading-the-plague. I'm here."

Room 345 was the first-class room on the third floor. It was only when he entered the room that he truly realized what first-class entailed.

The room was too luxurious.

It was a suite that had a separate dining room in addition to the living room. This was very luxurious for a ship with limited space. A waiter’s room was located opposite his room, which made it very convenient for communication. If the rooms were all the same style, then based on the size of his room, there could only be one on each floor.

The sailor from before knocked on the door and brought in another package. "These are some daily necessities that come when the room is booked. Mr. Zhang Ruipu asked me to give it to you when you boarded the ship."

Zhang Haiyan opened the package and saw a design drawing of the ship inside. There was also a telegram address and two packages of cigarettes, which were the foul-smelling ones he liked best before switching to the ones Zhang Haixia recommended.

A note was attached: We look forward to your good news. Feel free to contact us by telegram. I’ll take care of them.

Zhang Haiyan lay down on the spring bed, opened one of the cigarette packs, and put one in his mouth while he looked at the ceiling.

What Zhang Ruipu said was right. He knew his every move, so everything Zhang Haiyan did on the ship wouldn’t escape his eyes.

He got up and took a shower, then washed his clothes and fixed his hair. For Zhang Haixia, he had to be a model detective.

*

Steven also put on a military uniform, making it obvious that he was a soldier. He didn't want to give off the impression of a clerk when he and Zhang Haiyan were standing next to each other.

The two went to the sailor's cabin first.

The sailors were very busy and scattered across several locations on the ship, so there weren’t many people in the cabin. Zhang Haiyan wasn’t afraid to use this time to run around and familiarize himself with the environment. Like usual, his first step was to try his luck. In an enclosed space like this, there would definitely be a lot of gossip. Sometimes there were hidden clues in these tidbits of gossip, so you couldn’t go wrong listening to it first whenever you went to a place.

His behavior was completely inconsistent with what he had said before, but Steven remained patient. Zhang Haiyan originally prepared another set of excuses, but later found that he didn't need to use them at all. Steven merely introduced him and then asked the others to cooperate with him.

In addition to the kind of strange stories that all ships had, there were three stories about the third-class cabins. But Zhang Haiyan only cared about one of those stories, because it was mentioned a lot and everyone said it had happened not that long ago. These two factors meant that it had happened very recently.

There was a sailor named Song Chai who suddenly disappeared.

Song Chai was a Vietnamese, who disappeared the second week after arriving in Malacca. At that time, the ship was sailing from one port to another. He was there when the ship had set off from the previous port, but then he suddenly disappeared after that. (After the Nan'an arrived in Malacca, it docked for a month. But it didn’t always stay moored at the dock during this time. Sometimes it had to sail to other shallow water ports on the mainland to receive bulk cargo. After sailing here, it wasn’t immediately going to Xiamen, but bypassing Singapore's deep-water port and loading heavy goods for the last time.)

(At that time, the status of Singapore's deep-water port had begun to threaten Malacca. Those familiar with this history may know it well, so I’ll just mention it here for the time being.)

Many people said that Song Chai had been at sea for too long and jumped into the water. It was understandable that he would do that if he was depressed, but when they were tidying up his room, they found a rattan box under the bed. There was a wide-mouth bottle full of flies inside this rattan box.

Most of the flies were alive, and had been caught by Song Chai on the ship. It was easy for rats and flies to survive on this kind of big ship, so there were many different types.

This behavior was very strange, and many people thought it had something to do with witchcraft since it was a Malacca ship. At that time, his roommate told others that Song Chai had been a little weird since the third week after arriving in Malacca. He often went out in the middle of the night, but no one knew what he was doing. It was only a speculation, but they guessed that Song Chai was out in the middle of the night catching these flies.

The later development was a bit outrageous and rumors started spreading that Song Chai had caught the flies to eat himself. Someone had put a spell on him, and he was going to become a lizard.

It was also said that Song Chai thought he was seriously ill and had planted maggots on his body to eat the sarcoma. There was a ghost in that sarcoma that would grow into a person if the maggots didn’t eat the sarcoma.

The most bizarre thing in all that gossip was the box of flies. And based on the information in the archives, the flies in that box were real.

This matter appeared to be true.

He didn’t know if it was a psychological effect, but after Zhang Haiyan heard this, he felt as if there were more flies on this ship than any other ship he had taken before.

****

TN Notes:

(1) Datuk (or its variant Dato or Datu) is a Malay title commonly used in Brunei and Malaysia. Wiki link.