Daomu Biji: The Southern Archives

Zhang Haiqi put seven apples on the table across from where Zhang Haixia and Zhang Haiyan were sitting.

She wasn’t wearing many clothes since Xiamen was very hot in the summer. If it wasn’t for the fact that Zhang Haiyan and Zhang Haixia had reached puberty, Zhang Haiyan thought that their godmother would have definitely stripped all of her clothes off by now.

Yes, he remembered that his godmother used to go around naked in front of them when they were little.

Zhang Haiqi was eating the eighth apple by herself. Her words were slurred, her face was red, and she seemed to have drunk a lot of alcohol. “I only made a meal for one person,” she said to the two of them. “Now, I’ll ask you a question. Whoever answers it first gets to eat.” She hiccupped and Zhang Haiyan got a whiff of chicken soup.

He looked at what was on the other side of the table and knew very well that the “meal” consisted of a piece of flatbread and a fried egg.

When he and Zhang Haixia looked at each other, Zhang Haiqi became angry and immediately threw the apple at Zhang Haiyan’s face. “You’re grown men now. Stop making eyes at each other!”

Zhang Haiyan immediately sat up straight and Zhang Haiqi continued, “Alright. These apples on the table are mine. You’re going to steal them away from this room. Both of you are going to do it, but you must find a way to prevent me from being suspicious of you. This is an independent task, so you can’t collude with each other.”

Zhang Haiyan gave an affirmative response, but he didn’t even understand the question.

He reflexively wanted to turn and look at Zhang Haixia, but when he thought of how he was hit by the apple earlier, he immediately stopped himself.

Zhang Haiqi looked at him and lit a cigarette. “I’ll say it again. The apples on the table are mine. You’re going to steal them away from this room. Both of you are going to do it, but you must find a way to prevent me from being suspicious of you. This is an independent task, so you can’t collude with each other.”

Zhang Haiyan understood the question this time and his mind raced as he thought about it carefully. He soon came up with a rough idea of how to do it.

But just as he was getting ready to plan out more details, Zhang Haixia spoke up from beside him, “I’ll give six apples to Zhang Haiyan and let him run out first. I’ll stay here and take the last apple. When you come back, I’ll tell you that Zhang Haiyan took all seven apples.”

Zhang Haiqi looked at Zhang Haixia.

“For Zhang Haiyan, it doesn’t matter whether he takes six or seven apples because you’ll already be angry enough. And he won’t bother clarifying how many apples he’s taken since he’ll definitely be beaten either way,” Zhang Haixia continued.

Zhang Haiyan turned his head to look at Zhang Haixia. “You monster, how can you come up with this method? I was going to say it was the kid next door who stole the apples.”

Zhang Haiqi motioned Zhang Haixia to eat the meal before saying to Zhang Haiyan, “While you’re hungry, think over this issue very carefully. When you need to get out of a sticky situation in the future, you have to know how to get yourself acquitted.”

Zhang Haiayn clutched his belly while he watched Zhang Haixia eat the flatbread. Zhang Haiqi headed upstairs. A few seconds after she was gone, Zhang Haixia immediately tore the flatbread in half and tossed it to Zhang Haiyan.

The situation right now was the same. The number of bodies and crewmen on the ship was fixed, so if he wasn’t among either of them, then he had to be on the ship.

He needed everyone to see that a lifeboat had fallen into the sea so that people would think that some of the killers had used it to escape. That way, he could continue staying on the ship. When the ship arrived in Xiamen, he could return to Malacca as quickly as possible.

But an empty lifeboat was useless. In other words, he wouldn’t be helping Miss Dong in this situation. He was going to help one or two killers escape.

It’s going to be difficult, but I’m not backing down. He looked at He Jianxi, “Can you hold on and hide for twenty minutes?”

“What are you doing now?”

“I don’t have time to explain. Go hide in the lifeboat. The two of us have to survive that crazy woman.” Zhang Haiyan stuffed He Jianxi into the lifeboat and then followed the sounds of gunfire all the way to the cargo hold.

When he snuck close, he heard the gunmen running past and falling to the ground in the distance. It was obvious that the killers had started fighting back.

“Three people have retreated into the cargo hold,” one of the gunmen said. “We were blocked at the door. They have hidden weapons, so Miss Dong wouldn’t let us in. She went in to handle it herself.”

Being in a dark place wasn’t good for a group of people with heavy firepower, since they could easily be targeted and separated. This Miss Dong was really bold if she thought she wouldn’t have any problems dealing with three killers by herself. It was easier for one person to hide in the dark compared to three, so Miss Dong must have been very confident in her stealth abilities.

Shaolin Temple doesn’t teach this, either. I wonder where Miss Dong comes from?

Zhang Haiyan climbed like a gecko to the vicinity of the cargo hold and saw that the door was full of gunmen. It was basically positional warfare at this point. Not only were all of the guns facing the inside of the door, but they were all submachine guns, too. Those inside couldn’t rush out and those outside couldn’t rush in.

Zhang Haiyan looked around and saw that someone else was hiding on the same pipe as him. The two looked at each other very awkwardly.

The killer froze for a moment, and then suddenly moved and raised his hand, shooting a nail from his sleeve. When Zhang Haiyan turned his head to avoid it, the nail hit the metal wall with a clang. The gunmen immediately looked back.

Zhang Haiyan motioned for him to stop making any noise and then mouthed, “Brother, let’s fight hand-to-hand.”

The killer climbed towards him like a gecko, and then he and Zhang Haiyan began grabbing each other’s throats in the small space.

They clawed at each other a few times before they stopped and pulled back. Zhang Haiyan motioned for him to wait and then mouthed, “Brother, if you grab me, I’ll definitely scream, and we’ll be killed by the gunmen. If I grab you, you’ll definitely scream, and we’ll be killed by the gunmen. There’s no need for that. We’re both fools now. We have to work together.”

The other party couldn't read lips and was frowning in confusion. Zhang Haiyan suddenly spit out a blade and watched it slice through the killer’s throat. He had controlled the strength well, so only a third of the blade came out of the back of the killer’s neck. But even though the blade didn’t go through completely, the killer had still died instantly.

Zhang Haiyan crawled forward and quickly caught the dripping blood as the gunmen passed by below them. He then took off the killer’s shirt and wrapped it around his neck to absorb the blood.

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