Chapter 19: Eavesdropping
This kind of jellyfish has another name in Great Ming.
“Is this… jellyfish?” the cook asked doubtfully, “Processing this thing isn’t difficult, just repeatedly soak it in salt and alum, but… I’ve never heard of golden jellyfish, and ones that don’t sting.”
Lin Qian handed that golden jellyfish to the cook: “These jellyfish have lived too long in the lake, their venom has degenerated.”
The cook marveled: “Today I’ve gained some knowledge. The world is indeed full of wonders.”
Lin Qian instructed: “Catch some to bring back on the ship, be careful with your movements, don’t catch too many.”
The cook agreed, leading the ship workers carefully into the lake to catch jellyfish.
These jellyfish were extremely dense, almost no need to catch them actively, just lower the net, and in no time they caught several net bags.
Catherine had been hiding far away all along, and only came close after the ship workers had all gone into the lake, carefully asking: “Your hand, is it okay?”
“This kind of golden jellyfish has no poison, you’ll know if you touch it yourself.” Lin Qian said, handing the jellyfish to her.
Catherine screamed again and ran far away, only realizing after hearing Lin Qian’s laughter that he wasn’t holding anything in his hand, stamping her feet in anger.
When they had just landed on the island, Lin Qian already felt it was familiar.
Only after seeing this jellyfish lake did he realize he had been to this island before; in later generations, this place is called Palau, famous for its non-venomous golden jellyfish, a diving holy site.
Resources on the island are scarce, no freshwater rivers or lakes, but fortunately it’s a tropical rainforest climate with abundant rainfall; just collecting rainwater is enough to replenish.
After half a shichen, Lin Qian called the ship workers to stop and walked towards the beach.
Now knowing the resource situation here, there was no need to bother searching for freshwater anymore.
The group went down the mountain and soon walked back to the beach.
Lei Sanxiang’s team was already waiting by the small boat; their hands and bodies were hung with large and small coconuts tied with rope, looking like there were several hundred.
“There is a coconut grove to the east, we can go pick some more tomorrow.” Lei Sanxiang said excitedly.
Lin Qian ordered some people to transport the jellyfish, coconuts, and other supplies back on the ship.
The rest picked tree leaves, rolled them into funnel shapes, and placed containers below to catch rainwater.
By the time the small boat rowed back, there were already more than a dozen large and small funnels set up on the beach, with some leftover leaves unused.
Lin Qian ordered people to bring the remaining tree leaves back on the ship.
By the time they boarded the ship, it was already evening; the setting sun over the sea surface illuminated the island with magnificent colorful waves.
After dinner, Lin Qian returned to his room to write the sea log; after finishing, he used a bamboo brush to sketch the appearance of that jellyfish lake.
Catherine watched Lin Qian draw from the side, feeling that under the candlelight, Lin Qian’s face appeared even more mysterious.
After some unknown time, Lin Qian finished drawing, closed the log, and blew out the candle.
Only then did Catherine wake as if from a dream, fleeing back to her hammock, feeling her face slightly hot and her heart pounding nonstop.
She tossed and turned sleeplessly all night.
After some unknown time, she was startled awake by Lin Qian’s voice.
“Go take a bath.” Lin Qian said to her in a commanding tone.
On the deck came the sound of dense raindrops; the ship workers were shouting freely in the rain, extremely happy.
Catherine secretly smelled her body odor, her face flushing hot, let out an “oh”, and rolled out of bed.
The moment she pushed the door, she suddenly widened her eyes, screamed as if startled, and closed the door.
“Jerk… they’re all…” Catherine’s face was bright red.
“Just close your eyes.” Lin Qian said, also taking off his upper clothes; after several days without bathing, his body was already sticky and smelly.
Catherine quickly turned away: “In your dreams! I’m not bathing with you all…”
“I had someone hang a curtain on the stern cabin deck, go there.” After Lin Qian finished speaking, he took a towel, opened the door, and went to bathe.
Catherine did much mental preparation, finally closing her eyes to open the door, one hand tightly clutching the front of her black silk robe, the other groping as she climbed the stairs towards the stern deck.
The ship workers’ teasing laughter around made her face even redder.
Finally reaching the stern deck, Catherine opened her eyes a slit; sure enough, no other ship workers here, a rope tied between the stern mast and ship’s rail, with a piece of canvas draped over it, and a towel on the canvas.
A jar was placed by the stern mast; Catherine opened it and saw it contained soap water.
Catherine went behind the sail, took off her black silk robe, draped it on the rope, then scooped out soap water, rubbed foam with her hands, which roamed over her wheat-colored skin.
……
Dense raindrops pounded fiercely on the deck and sea surface, with astonishing momentum.
Suddenly, a ship worker sang loudly in the rain: “Busy casting nets at sea at dawn—”
The ship workers laughed and sang along: “… Return to port at dusk under moonlight! Wind blows the bow, waves hit the planks, singing a fisherman’s song startles the mandarin ducks—”
Their voices rough, off-key, after finishing, the ship workers all burst into loud laughter.
Catherine washed very carefully, only returning to the stern cabin wearing her damp robe after all the ship workers had bathed and returned to the cabin.
Just as she was about to push the door in, she heard voices talking inside.
Catherine immediately crouched down low, hiding by the door to eavesdrop.
“Lin Laodi, when do we set sail?”
“In a few more days, before this departure, we must stock up fully on water and food; we’ll inevitably have to aid Lin Feng’s brothers then.”
“That damn Lin Feng claims he has ten thousand men, several hundred ships, who knows if it’s true or false; if true, we can’t aid them all.”
“Lin Feng is a senior, Old Three, watch your words.”
“Big Brother, in my opinion, Lin Feng is unreliable at all; to accomplish this, we still need to rely on our own brothers.”
“Not mentioning the auxiliary army, just the Spanish guards in Manila number several hundred; with just our one ship acting rashly, aren’t we going to die?”
“Don’t forget, we have Catherine in hand; according to Lin Laodi’s plan, then pretend to demand ransom, and we can draw away most of the Spaniards.”
“Even if the Spaniards take the bait, we lack cannons and can’t attack the city easily; we still need to borrow Lin Feng’s and the Dutch’s strength. Speaking of the Dutch, has there been a letter from Batavia?”
……
The more Catherine listened, the more shocked she was, her whole body trembling slightly, tightly covering her mouth, not daring to make a sound.
The “Lin Feng”, “Manila”, “Catherine”, “Batavia”, “Dutch” that the people inside mentioned, she all understood.
Putting these elements together, she had completely guessed what Lin Qian wanted to do.
She hadn’t expected it to be true; he actually had such great ambition, wanting to annex Manila in one go!
If something happened to Manila, it wouldn’t just affect her family’s honor; Spain’s national strength would suffer a heavy blow.
She absolutely could not let Lin Qian realize his conspiracy, even if it meant perishing together, she wouldn’t hesitate!
Just as she secretly resolved herself, the talking in the stern cabin stopped, and the cabin door was pushed open.
Catherine was startled and stood up.
Chen Jiao, Lei Sanxiang, Zhou Xiucai, Bai Langzai walked out from inside, all eyeing her up and down, making her extremely uncomfortable.
Lei Sanxiang: “Lin Laodi, this big-ass foreign woman is eavesdropping on us.”
Lin Qian’s voice came from the stern cabin: “She doesn’t understand Chinese, let her be.”
Seeing Lin Qian’s sworn brothers leave, Catherine couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
