Hearing the sound, Chen Qing turned her head and noticed that the child she had rescued from the sea had woken up at some point and was now looking at her with a timid expression.
Perhaps because she was still young, she wasn't very good at hiding her true self.
Even though she had a pair of eyes as fierce as a little wolf's, she put on a facade of being timid and weak.
Having survived the pursuit of the Black Blade Pirates with serious injuries and adrift at sea for so long, there was no way she could be a coward.
"Hmm."
Chen Qing glanced at her, nodded briefly, and continued to focus on the seven locked boxes.
The locks could easily be picked, and Chen Qing was quite looking forward to the items inside.
The little wolf was left somewhat bewildered by Chen Qing's reaction, standing there uncertain about what to do.
Just three days ago, she was nothing more than a lowly slave on Slave Island, but now...
She hadn't yet gotten used to the change in her status.
All her ferocity was aimed at the scum on Slave Island and her fellow slaves; faced with someone like Chen Qing, she suddenly felt like punching cotton.
"Gurgle—"
Before the little slave could figure out what to do, her stomach let out a loud rumble.
"There's food in the kitchen."
Chen Qing pried open one of the boxes, which also contained a thin piece of parchment, a compass needle, and a map.
[Profession Scroll · Navigator].
A Profession Scroll, huh?
Chen Qing's eyes darkened as she quickly opened the other boxes.
Without exception, all the boxes contained Profession Scrolls and their corresponding items.
Navigator—compass and map, Doctor—medicine box, Chef—cooking utensils, Shipwright—toolbox, Fighter—weapons, Farmer—soil and a pack of seeds.
The poor sailor had nothing but a Profession Scroll.
Unfortunately, the Mechanic Profession Scroll Chen Qing needed most wasn't there.
There were seven professions in total, and Chen Qing stared at the Profession Scrolls, lost in thought. She wasn't planning on adding more crew to her ship, so she needed any one of these professions.
She wondered how many professions one person could hold.
The little wolf, watching Chen Qing crouching motionlessly, cleverly took the dishes and cutlery from the table to the kitchen to wash.
She had a request to make of Chen Qing.
Not dwelling on this matter for long, Chen Qing tidied up the Profession Scrolls and items and put them away in her room. She then sat at the deck's dining table and began contacting buyers.
Having a private channel made her next actions much more convenient.
She swiftly sent out invitations to those brokers, asking them to bring in suitable customers.
As long as the price was right, Chen Qing would sell immediately.
After handing off the task of recruiting to Qing Xian and the others, Chen Qing once again shifted her gaze to the little wolf.
The little wolf's identity was fishy; Black Blade said she was worth 30,000 goldfish.
How could an ordinary child be worth that much?
However, the skinny child's identity couldn't be too significant; even if it were, it was likely something to be concealed.
Chen Qing began fiddling with her mechanical parts while sitting in a chair. The prosthetics used by the fighters of the Black Blade Pirate Group, though of poor quality, were still deadly enough.
If the one they had encountered had not been Chen Qing but an ordinary survivor, just that prosthetic could have killed someone.
Chen Qing planned to modify this Mechanical Prosthetic into an exoskeleton suit.
At that time, to quickly dismantle the fighter's combat capability, she found the key parts and completely disassembled the prosthetic. Now, reassembling it was a bit troublesome.
After tinkering in the kitchen for a while, the little wolf came out with dinner. By then, Chen Qing had made some progress.
"Um… I used the kitchen ingredients to cook some dishes."
The little wolf placed the tray on the dining table and said softly, standing aside.
"Hmm,"
Chen Qing nodded and looked up. When her eyes fell on the dish the little wolf had made...
The pitch-black mass emitting a strange aura, she had no idea what to say.
Could this thing... really not be deadly if eaten?
But seeing the child's naive and eager-to-please look, and thinking back to when she had cleaned and changed the bandages on her wounds earlier...
Chen Qing sighed, stood up, took the plates and walked into the kitchen, and without hesitation dumped them into the trash.
Less than half an hour later, five dishes and a soup, full of color, aroma, and flavor, were laid out on the dining table.
The little wolf was almost dumbfounded, staring at Chen Qing in utter shock.
Chen Qing seemed like the type to be very proficient in battle—oozing with a sense of security—but not someone expected to excel in domestic chores.
The little wolf had never imagined that Chen Qing could make food even better than the chefs on Slave Island!
"Eat,"
Chen Qing placed a bowl of vegetarian noodles in front of the little wolf, next to a whole basin of noodles soaked in cold water.
The dishes she had stir-fried were very suitable for pouring over the noodles. The little wolf, imitating Chen Qing, scooped up some toppings and immediately started devouring his food.
As the delicious food slid down into his belly, the feeling of fullness made the little wolf want to cry.
He couldn't tell if it was because of the food or Chen Qing, but he knew that this was the first time he had experienced such genuine tenderness.
"..."
The little wolf sniffled, eating faster, seemingly trying to hide his weakness.
"That..."
After gulping down three large bowls of noodles, the little wolf stood at the kitchen doorway, biting his lip and looking at Chen Qing, who was busy cleaning up the dishes, and finally made up his mind.
"Can you take me to Sapphire Island?"
The little wolf asked softly, his heart aflutter with uncertainty.
He was very afraid that Chen Qing might be a bad person.
"If you take me to Sapphire Island, someone will pay you,"
he added hurriedly.
"Someone is trying to kill me,"
he carefully observed Chen Qing's expression and said slowly.
"Like the Black Saber Pirate Group?"
To make washing dishes easier, Chen Qing had rolled up her sleeves and was wiping her hands dry with a towel.
The little wolf quickly stepped forward to help, putting the dishes in the cupboard.
"They were originally supposed to protect me,"
"But someone offered a higher price, so they planned to hand me over to those people,"
"They broke their oath and were punished by the sea,"
Hearing the little wolf's words, Chen Qing knew that things were more complicated than she had imagined.
She subconsciously reached into her pocket, only to find it empty.
Tsk.
"You..."
"They say I am the daughter of Moana,"
The little wolf said with his head down, fidgeting with his fingers nervously, knowing what Chen Qing wanted to ask.
Moana, born in the Deep Blue Sea and from Barinia, was a great pirate known throughout the Deep Blue Sea and Scarlet Sea Domain.
She had countless enemies!