Daomu Biji: The Southern Archives

The policemen looked at each other and then laughed. “Why so anxious? Doing obscene activities during the daytime?”

He Jianxi’s face was flushed, but it was because he was angry and frightened.

When did he have a woman in his bed?

He was positive that there definitely wasn’t anyone else under the quilt just now. Zhang Haiyan was the one who got under it. He saw it with his very own eyes. How did he suddenly become a woman?

Could it be that Zhang Haiyan was a man disguised as a woman? Wait, that couldn’t be right. Wasn’t he half-naked just now?

He Jianxi was utterly perplexed. Moreover, what did he say to him just now? He would claim he was his accomplice? There was too much information, which almost made He Jianxi break out in a cold sweat.

The policemen just thought that the kid was being shy, and they ended up laughing even harder. Then, they heard the woman under the quilt say, “It’s not daytime. There’s no such thing as daytime in the world.”

“You even dared touch a woman on this kind of boat. Watch out, or you might get syphilis.” The police lowered the curtain and continued their investigation.

He Jianxi listened to the sound of the policemen walking away. He wanted to flip the quilt over immediately to see what was going on, but when he turned around, Zhang Haiyan had already returned to his previous position. Not even his cigarette had been extinguished.

Zhang Haiyan looked at him coldly. “You don’t know how to lie to people. How have you even survived up until now?” He was still talking in that sultry female voice.

He Jianxi looked at Zhang Haiyan’s chest. Well, he had never seen a woman’s chest since he had started to learn the ways of the world, but in his mind, a woman’s chest was bound to have something. Zhang Haiyan’s chest, however, had nothing but pectoral muscles.

Zhang Haiyan looked like all of the men he had seen before.

Is it possible that he’s one of those intersex people (1) I’ve heard about before?

He Jianxi’s mind was blown. At that time, he didn’t understand the concepts of gender equality. His first reaction was that an intersex person had slept in his bed. He didn’t know if it was because his head had been hit earlier, or because he couldn’t handle the situation before him, but he started to feel dizzy.

Zhang Haiyan touched his bed and said, “How am I supposed to sleep on this? I found that your bed was very comfortable as I lay on it just now. Can we sleep together? I’ll only be staying here for a few days anyways.”

His voice sounded beautiful and charming, as if he was the only orchid in an empty valley.

He Jianxi tilted his head and fainted on the bed.

Zhang Haiyan sat there stunned for a while. It was his first time seeing someone faint while he was still talking to them.

He sighed.

At this time, he heard the sound of the Nan’an’s horn. He looked out from a crack in the boat’s planking, and saw the Nan’an’s chimneys emitting smoke. It seemed like the ship was about to set sail.

Damn it. Zhang Haiyan knocked on the boat planks. There were police officers outside, so he couldn’t leave yet. And it was still bright out, so he couldn’t get into the water again, either.

In any case, he’d have to wait until evening to find a way. Moreover, it was impossible for the barge to keep up with the iron ship’s speed, even if he hijacked it to chase after the Nan’an.

He didn’t know if Zhang Ruipu’s men had seen him diving into the water just now. If they did, he was worried that Haixia would be in danger.

He closed his eyes and began to recall the old sea map from the conference room that contained information on the various sea routes. His mind raced through it quickly and it only took him a short amount of time to find that he still had one more chance.

If the Nan’an departed now, it would go to the deep-water port in Singapore and then turn back.

The route to San Francisco and the route to Xiamen were headed in the same direction. Brother Long had told him that the Baoen would set off at dusk, so based on his calculations, they would enter the open sea earlier than the Nan’an.

As long as he dove into the area where the coastal water met the open sea, he could float on the Nan’an’s route. If he was lucky, the Nan’an would arrive an hour after that. Although it was impossible to estimate the distance between the two ships accurately at that point, it wouldn’t be more than four kilometers.

In addition, it might happen tomorrow at midnight when the surrounding sea was dark and the lights on the Na’an would be bright. He could swim toward it.

The iron ship moved very fast, so he had only one chance to swim right in front of it and wait for it to come. The Nan’an had very steep sides, so he’d have to find a way to climb up. All of this could only be done if there weren’t any accidents.

This was what happened when playing a dangerous game. From the moment Zhang Haiyan talked to Miss Dong, he understood that this may be the result.

Before, he could always manage to make a narrow escape. But he was alone this time and had failed at the last moment.

He had to react faster and think more comprehensively. He was on his own now.

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TN Notes:

(1) Can also be called androgynous, hermaphrodite, or a whole slew of other politically and not politically correct terms. Here’s more info

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Merebear note: I have absolutely no idea if this follows the book, but chapter 1 of the untranslated manhua for the Southern Archives is here. It’s got some of the stuff from this chapter if you just want a pretty picture to look at lol