The sea breeze blows on a woman's face, bringing a little moisture. Qingyu closed her eyes and carefully explored the information brought by the wind. Summer is not a good season for ships powered by sails from Quanzhou to South Asia. The monsoon at this time is northeasterly. If it was a return voyage, it will be much more convenient and faster. Now it is equivalent to sailing against the wind, which requires very sophisticated skills for the sailor.
Qingyu jumped off the bow, took over the operation of the middle sail, and began to adjust the direction of the sail. Although the sail of the Fengshen ship was much larger than the sail of a small sailboat she had operated before, the principle was the same. After her adjustments, the speed of the ship increased a little.
Qingyu threw the rope to the sailor, not caring about the look on his face. Since setting sail, she has been familiar with the wind direction and the current. Her ability to sail and navigate, which shows the strength of a veteran, surprised Ding Dong and the sailors. Others have never been on a ship, so they don't think much of a little girl being able to navigate and sail, but Ding Dong, Zheng Xi and the sailors have been on a ship before, and they know that the ability shown by this little girl is something that her father and Ding Budong could not do before.
However, Qingyu did not care about their doubts and surprises. If she continued to hide such a boat of people, I am afraid that they would die without knowing how they died, just as those people on the shore said. Now in this vast ocean, the ship is an independent world. The stronger her ability is, the more these sailors can feel at ease.
Although it has only been ten days since they came out, the sailors have gone from being surprised, doubtful, and apprehensive to being resolute. No matter what strange things this woman does, being able to lead them to their destination is the most practical benefit.
Of course, Zheng Xi was the first one to accept it immediately. The reason he accepted it was this: I have already sold myself to this woman, and if she can be more reliable, I will naturally feel more relaxed, even if she was a monster.Compared to Qingyu's freedom and comfort after returning while at sea, her neighbors were not so lucky.
Yan San and Lu Yao were crawling in front of a wooden barrel and vomiting violently. Qingyu approached them and patted Shiyi who was standing on the side, and said, "Has Shiyi not adapted to it yet?"
After all, Qingyu had trained him to hold his breath. He was young, so after feeling seasick for the first three days, he got used to the dizziness and movement of the boat. Yan San and Lu Yao were not like that and now both of them were vomiting and their faces were blue. The heads and feet of these two grown men are weak and they were worse than the people in the cabin.
In the forecastle of the cargo hold below, many people were lying here and there. Gu Sui leaned on the deck, looking thoughtfully at the man opposite him. They had been on the ship for ten days. The woman surnamed Ling was a kind person.
After leaving the Quanzhou waters, the woman used a sharp sword to cut off the prisoners' shackles, and then after all the sails were raised, she let them rest in the forecastle. Everyone in the forecastle had his own independent bed and his own locker.
The daily food was enough, but the taste was really not that good. However, after they were out in the ocean and the wind and waves started, most of them started to feel seasick, and after eating, they basically vomited.
The prisoners were not much better off and many of them had injuries on their bodies, which made them feel even worse. The man opposite to him had the most injuries on his body when he came up. He did not look very old, and most of the time he sat in an inconspicuous place with his head down. He was so taciturn that he could not utter a word all day.
Even if the injured man felt uncomfortable and wanted to vomit, he did not hold a bucket like others and vomited wildly, but silently suppressed it. Several times, Gu Sui secretly saw him swallowing the food, and he couldn't help but admire this man.
A crisp and smiling greeting entered the forecastle as Qungyu walked in through the cabin door, "The weather is nice today. How are you guys?"
Qingyu was very satisfied to see that there was only a small amount of vomit in the wooden barrel today. In the first two days, this room was so full of vomit that she didn't dare to come in. Later, she found a few wooden barrels and asked everyone not to spit anywhere, but to spit into the barrels.
She assigned Zheng Xi and Shi Fang to clean up afterwards. Doctor Shi, was only pulled to the the task unexpectedly. Zheng Xi found the old man next to a wine barrel when he was cleaning the cargo hold. At that same time, it was also discovered that three barrels filled with white wine were emptied out.
It was unknown how many days Doctor Shi had been drinking. It just so happened that the wine barrels were used as vomit barrels and Shi Fang did the hard labor to pay for the wine he drank.
Not only is Doctor Shi responsible for cleaning, he also has to take over Qingyu's kitchen work. This was originally Lu Yao's job, but Lu Yao lost his ability to work due to seasickness.
Qingyu was in charge of it for the first two days, and later it was handed over to Shi Fang, who brought Ye Shiyi with him. At the same time, Shi Fang is also responsible for medical care on the ship, including but not limited to seasickness, knife wounds and whip wounds.
Qingyu asked Shiyi to bring in the rice bucket, because considering that some people were still seasick, the meals for these people were only porridge and steamed buns, plus stir-fried cabbage and meat.
Qingyu glanced around, nodded with satisfaction and said, "Well, it looks like you'll be able to recover in another day or two."
Shi Fang's seasickness medicine was still somewhat effective. Of course, this was also due to the fact that she gave Zheng Xi one hundred taels of silver to buy medicine. As a result, Zheng Xi really bought back a bunch of medicinal materials. Lu Yao naturally couldn't use so many at the time, so the rest were taken on board by Ling Qingyu as a backup.
"Eat more so you will have strength." Qingyu said cheerfully to everyone then she squeezed in front of the prisoner sitting in the corner. Without waiting for his reaction, she turned up his clothes and looked at the whip wound on his back.
Qingyu frowned unconsciously when she looked at it. The whip wound still looked hideous. Although the wound had closed, the skin on both sides was a little white and mixed with some red. It was still inflamed.
In all these days, only this person's wound had not healed. Although he was the most seriously injured when he came, it has been ten days since he started recuperating. These injured people were not asked to row even when the boat sailed towards the deep sea. He should be healed by now.
This person's injury always recurred for some reason. Could it be...
Qingyu looked back at the people who were eating and laughing and pulled down the injured man's clothes. She moved to Gu Sui sitting opposite from the injured man. She nodded her chin to point towards the injured and asked Gu Sui, and asked, "Do you know what happened to him?"
Gu Sui couldn't help but smile. This woman looked young, maybe sixteen or seventeen years old but her behavior was definitely not like that of a young girl. Her intelligence was something he had never seen before, but she was a woman after all, and her heart was too soft.
It was understandable that she was nice to the refugees like him, after all, they were good citizens and kind-hearted, and would not do ungrateful things. There was no need to be so nice to the prisoners though. Providing them with good food and shelter, two sets of clothes for each of them, and finding someone to help them treat their illnesses and injuries was already too much. He watched coldly and saw that among these people, there were quite a few good-for-nothings.
Gu Sui leaned closer to Qingyu and whispered, "Go and take a closer look at his face."
Qingyu looked at him in confusion but seeing that Gu Sui had no intention of revealing anything further, she moved back. The injured man had been keeping his head down, with his messy hair and beard covering his face. He had no reaction when she took off his clothes or even when his wounds were being treated.
Qingyu thought, "If I were to part his hair, he wouldn't react, right?"
After thinking about it, she finally felt that it was not right for her to do that. She took off her clothes to help him, and she had no evil thoughts. But to lift a man's head and part his hair, Qingyu herself felt a chill. Would this be seen as flirting?
She thought that it would be better to just ask Doctor Shi to come back and check on the injured man. If the old man still can't cure him, she would scold him to stop being a doctor. After that, Qingyu stood up and walked out with Shiyi.
Not long after she went out, another burly prisoner squatted beside the injured man and whispered, "Yang Zhao, big brother said that he will treat you well tonight, or do you want to have sex with that little guy?" As he said that, he glanced at the two young men in the cabin in an obscene manner.
Although his voice was very low, Gu Sui had very good hearing and still heard roughly what he said. He just sneered in his heart and continued to eat his buns. He didn't plan to take action or help out.
In the past ten days, he understood that the rowers were really useless to this boat. They were only useful in shallow seas or when there was no wind. So although Qingyu provided them with good food and drink, she probably didn't care much about them. So Gu Sui also wanted to see what expression the woman would have on her face if she got into trouble because of these good-for-nothings.
Qingyu was sitting on the deck fishing. The sea breeze and the route were just right. The speed of the boat was also good. The people staying below could finally feel some relief since the boat i sailing smoothly now.
A few days ago, she really regretted finding these northerners. It was okay if they couldn't swim, but how could they get so seasick! Not only could they not help at the tasks in the ship, but they also had to ask for her to take care of them. This was absolutely unscientific in terms of human resources.
Qingyu threw the fishing line down and looked at the uniform waves in the distance. She simply told her self that everything will be fine.
Suddenly, Shiyi shouted from beside her, "Sister, the line is moving!" Lu Yao was so dizzy that he naturally had no time to watch Shiyi practice, so the little guy followed Qingyu every day or helped Doctor Shi with his work.
Qingyu was not stingy and taught him when she was free, such as how to sail, how to use a compass, how to read the stars, and how to fish. Shiyi felt that these days were the happiest he has been in his seven years of life.
Qingyu put away the rod and said happily, "Wow, it's a grouper, Shiyi! We have something delicious to eat tonight."
She was tired of eating steamed buns and cabbage every day, not to mention that they were not delicious. However, most of the fish she caught a few days ago were sea fish that were inedible or not delicious. Today, she was lucky enough to catch a grouper. What a treat!
Qingyu instructed Shiyi, "Call Zheng Xi. This fish can't be left to Doctor Shi."
The grouper had to be steamed. If it was handed over to Doctor Shi, it would probably be like before and it would be impossible to tell what it was after he cooked it.
That night, Qingyu, Zheng Xi, Shiyi, Lu Yao, Yan San who insisted on joining in as he was feeling better, Doctor Shi who smelled something delicious, as well as the sailors who were not on duty who followed the doctor gathered inside and outside Qingyu's bedroom to have a good meal.
When Qingyu saw Doctor Shi, she took out a large piece of fish with a gloomy face and left it for Ding Dong and the others. However, she was reluctant to share it with those who were staying in the forecastle. Although the fish she caught was big enough, it could not withstand so many people scrambling to eat it.
The grouper meat was very delicious. No one was polite to Qingyu and they all rushed to grab a piece of it. Qingyu naturally did not give in. Among all these wolves, she still grabbed the most meat from the fish.
Qingyu did not see Zheng Xi cooking the fish in person and did not know that in order to save water, Zheng Xi did not wash the fish but put it directly into the pot, and the steaming water was also seawater. As a result, Qingyu, who ate the most, had diarrhea that night.