Daomu Biji: The Southern Archives

Zhang Haiyan still pretended to be in a coma. He knew that he could wake up now that Warner had dismissed the thought that he wasn’t Steven. But it would seem too suspicious if he immediately woke up.

“What do we do now?” Hudson asked. “That woman’s been hoping we’d agree to a bigger deal. Why didn’t you agree, Mr. Warner? I heard that she promised to take us to look at an ancient underground building from three thousand years ago. Isn’t that our purpose?”

“She only promised to help us enter, but we couldn’t take anything out. What’s the point of that?”

Warner continued smoking his cigar. “At this stage, we can’t easily agree to anything she offers. We have to wait for her patience to run out, and then she’ll show us some sincerity. At that point, it’ll be easier for us to get more generous terms. We can’t think about what she can give. We need to think about what we want so that we can move forward without any obstacles. Before she can agree to our additional requirements, we’re only responsible for bringing her to Xiamen alive. We absolutely won’t take another step before that.”

Hudson nodded.

“Find a doctor to wake Steven up. Ask him what exactly happened.” Warner thought for a while before he handed the newspaper, notes, and sketches to Hudson. “Give these to her and see what she’ll do next.”

Hudson nodded again. “As you’ve said, Mr. Warner, this woman is a monster. I can’t help but feel that she’ll definitely do something.”

Warner touched his pistol. “Even monsters can’t rule the world now.”

Hudson wrote down a note and sent someone to find a ship’s doctor.

Something will go wrong if this continues. Since the ship’s doctors are all dead, a disguised killer might show up instead.

Zhang Haiyan immediately took this opportunity to groan, trying to act as if he was about to wake up. “The person who jumped into the sea did this to me.” He muttered. “He’s still on the ship.” He coughed violently.

Hudson immediately poured a glass of water so that Zhang Haiyan could rinse his mouth. “What exactly is going on?” Warner asked.

“The man who said there were robbers on the ship made me swallow a bag of something.” Zhang Haiyan said with difficulty. “He said that if I didn’t do as I was told, he would cast a spell and break the bag so that the blades inside would penetrate my stomach. It’s sorcery. He wanted me to deliver the notes.”

Hudson and Warner looked at each other, and Hudson said, “Indeed, it seems like there’s something off about this man. Maybe we should look into it?”

“Absolutely not. Otherwise, we may fall for that woman’s trap. We’ll give the information to her. Whether it’s true or not, she’ll feel greater pressure, which will force her to negotiate the terms with us.” Warner leaned back in his chair and looked at the sea outside.

“Can I go find the ship’s doctor myself?” Zhang Haiyan was really lucky this time, and Warner let him go.