Chapter 61: Going to the Island Together, Let’s Live on the Island

“Miao Miao, are you waiting for Eldest Sister?”

“Mm, it’s been five days. Why hasn’t Eldest Sister come back yet?” Bai Miao squatted by the ship’s railing, gripping the bars and peering through the gaps at the horizon. “Do you think Eldest Sister is hungry?”

“She won’t be. We prepared plenty of dry rations for her when she left, and there’s food on that island too. Eldest Sister is very capable; she’ll definitely find something,” Bai Xi said, squatting beside her. Her own heart was fluttering with anxiety, but with a younger sister by her side, she could only suppress her nervousness and offer comfort. “Eldest Sister is very strong.”

“Mm, Eldest Sister is very strong. Nothing will happen to her.” Bai Miao nodded.

Despite their words, neither of them left. They remained squatted in place, gazing longingly into the distance.

Until someone approached.

“Miao Miao.”

Even if the languages were different, the pronunciation of “Miao Miao” was not difficult to master.

Bai Miao turned around. Seeing the clothes held in the visitor’s hands, she jumped up excitedly. “Sister Lin, is this for me?”

“Yes, put it on and try it. See if it fits. If it’s not right, I’ll adjust it.”

“It’ll definitely fit.” Bai Miao opened her arms, letting the other woman dress her.

After the ties were fastened, she spun in a circle. “It fits! It’s just right.”

“It looks good,” Lin Yu said with a smile, then looked toward Bai Xi. “We’ll make a set for you too.”

“Sure,” Bai Xi nodded. “Do you need to measure me?”

“It’s best to measure. We want to make clothes that fit well.”

They had no other tools on hand, so the measurements were done entirely by hand, using arm lengths and palm widths as estimates. Although there would be some deviation, they didn’t require one hundred percent precision. The final product would be perfectly fine to wear.

Ever since they had taken up the task of making clothes, the three women’s hearts had gradually settled. Though they were still dazed occasionally, they no longer dwelled on unrealistic thoughts. If possible, they wanted to stay on the ship forever.

Seeing that they were happier when focused on sewing, Bai Xi simply stopped making her own clothes. She brought out all the available fabric and gave it to them, letting them spend all their time outside of eating and sleeping on the needlework.

This, however, left her with little to do herself.

After her measurements were taken, Bai Xi joined Bai Miao by the railing again. They watched the distance in silence, hoping to see Bai Yu returning on a pirate ship.

Not just for Bai Miao, but even for Bai Xi, this was the first time they had been separated from Bai Yu for so long since they were born.

“Second Sister, a ship is coming.”

Bai Xi squinted, spotting a small dot in the distance. She whispered, “Miao Miao, look closely. If anything feels wrong, I’ll start the engine immediately. We need to stay far away from pirate ships.”

Bai Xi and Bai Miao possessed considerable strength, but alone as they were, they chose to stay as far from pirates as possible.

Bai Miao nodded, watching the distant shape intently.

As the dot grew larger, she suddenly stood up. “Bai! Second Sister, that ship is flying a flag with the character ‘Bai’! It’s Eldest Sister, it must be her!”

“Really?” Bai Xi looked again, watching for a long time until the ship drew closer. Only then did she see the character “Bai” embroidered on the flag.

No one else would use such a flag; it had to be Bai Yu returning.

Sure enough, as the ship neared, they could see Bai Yu standing on the deck, waving her arms at them.

The two sisters quickly raised their hands and waved back.

“Eldest Sister! Eldest Sister!”

“I’m back!” Bai Yu shouted in response.

As the ships drew close enough to see each other clearly, Bai Yu couldn’t wait to share the good news. “Xiao Xi, Miao Miao, I found Third Brother at the pirates’ nest! He was sick, but luckily he was rescued in time. He’s much better now and is recuperating on the island. Let’s go to the island together!”

“Go to the pirates’ island?” Bai Xi asked in surprise. “Is that okay?”

“It’s fine. All the bad pirates have been dealt with,” Bai Yu said. Judging the distance between the two vessels, she climbed the railing and jumped directly onto her own ship. “Right now, there are only some fishermen left there. Because of the pirates’ many crimes, these fishermen have nowhere else to go. So we’ll settle there for now and look for the others’ whereabouts while we’re at it.”

“Third Brother is on the island, but the others aren’t?”

“When Third Brother was captured, he told the others to leave first, but they shouldn’t be far,” Bai Yu said, looking down at her clothes. “I’ll go change first, then we’ll head to the island. Oh, and Xiao Xi, take the others and sew more ‘Bai’ flags. We’ve seized all the pirate ships. Later, we’ll hang ‘Bai’ flags on all of them. It’ll make finding people much easier.”

Bai Xi nodded quickly. “Okay, we still have plenty of fabric. I’ll go upstairs with you.”

Bai Miao followed along.

Bai Yu looked at her, laughed, and scooped her up under one arm, carrying her toward the second floor.

A short while later, Bai Yu came down in clean clothes. She called out to the accompanying ship, went to the bridge, and adjusted the ship’s course toward the pirates’ lair.

The matters on the island weren’t entirely settled yet, but Bai Yu had been anxious to fetch Bai Xi and Bai Miao. After eliminating the pirates on the island, she had set out immediately.

After Bai Yu had left, the fishermen began disposing of the pirates’ corpses.

They harbored a deep, bone-deep hatred for the pirates and felt no sympathy while handling the bodies. They all agreed that such a death was far too good for these criminals.

“After committing so many evils, they should have been executed by a thousand cuts!”

“Exactly, dying like this is too easy for them.”

“They deserve to die, all of them!”

The fishermen cursed repeatedly. As they cursed, someone began to cry, and soon more and more people joined in.

They weren’t crying for the pirates, of course, but for the tragedies of their own families.

If not for these pirates, everyone present would have had a beautiful family. But the pirates had appeared, destroying their homes and killing their kin, leaving them with no chance to return home.

…

“Besides the pirates on the island, I took some men on a circuit around the surrounding waters and dealt with the pirates wandering nearby. However, I suspect some went further out and haven’t been dealt with yet. Once you’re on the island, you must remain cautious. It’s very likely that more pirate ships will return.”

“How many pirates are there?”

“Many, more than I imagined. And they’ve lost all humanity. To plunder more wealth and food, they’ve conducted sweeps of many surrounding islands. Most of the fishermen on the island were kidnapped during those raids.”

“How could they do that? People were just living peacefully at home. They’re as detestable as the people who took us out to sea.”

“We need to find those people too,” Bai Yu said. “I want to discuss this with you. Since those fishermen have nowhere to go and the pirates are no longer a threat, we might stay on this island for a while. Besides looking for our family, we need to find out who exactly took us out to sea. Those people never intended to leave us a way to survive.”

“Right!” Bai Xi recalled the events of that time. “They even threw joss paper at us! They wanted us dead!”

“Mm. At first, I couldn’t figure out who they were, but thinking carefully now, anyone needing to transport goods so covertly must have been carrying something extremely specific,” Bai Yu said seriously. “Xiao Xi, do you remember? That cargo caused the ship to sit very deep in the water.”

“I remember, it was very heavy,” Bai Xi naturally wouldn’t forget. She was no longer completely ignorant of the world, and after thinking for a moment, she suddenly spoke up. “Eldest Sister, do you think those things could have been ironware¹?”

“I think so too. It is very likely those items were ironware,” Bai Yu said. “In times like these, hoarding iron is a major crime. They used us for transport firstly to avoid suspicion, and secondly because iron is so heavy. Concentrating it all in one place would likely attract attention, so it needed to be dispersed.”

Back when they first went to sea, although they had already obtained the Check-in Shell, the items they received were mostly food. At that time, the three sisters were still just ignorant fisherwomen, so they naturally couldn’t guess what was actually being stored on those ships.

Now, they had read many books, and those books were from the “future of the past.” They contained records of many things from “ancient times,” which were similar to the era they lived in now. The books mentioned many things they had never encountered before, including various types of contraband.

“In that case, if we can expose this matter, could we make those people suffer the consequences of their own actions?”

“Perhaps, but we have to find them first,” Bai Yu said, returning to the previous topic. “So we need to stay on this island for a while longer. Is that alright?”

“Of course. Regardless of which matter we are dealing with, it is more appropriate for us to stay here,” Bai Xi had no objections, only one question. “But where will we live once we get there?”

“We will live on the island. I had someone clear out a block of houses before I left. Third Brother will live with us as well.”

As they chatted, the ship drew closer and closer to the pirates’ island.

Because they hadn’t dared to get too close before, their ship had been a considerable distance from the island, and it took some time to reach it now.

As they approached, Bai Xi was still a bit nervous. However, when they got closer and she saw that the pirate ships were all flying white flags, she breathed a small sigh of relief.

A white flag could represent surrender, but here, it also represented their surname.

As the ship officially docked, the fishermen remaining on the island flocked to the shore, chattering away in various tongues.

The languages were still incomprehensible to most.

However, they were not completely unintelligible now.

Bai Yu picked up Bai Miao and held her in her arms, letting her act as a translator to clearly explain each side’s meaning sentence by sentence.

Bai Yu intended to stay on this island; from now on, she was the master of this place.

If any of the fishermen wanted to leave, they could do so at any time. But if they did not wish to leave, they could continue to live on the island. There were fields on the island and the sea was right beside them, so they could still farm and fish as they always had.

As for other daily necessities, Bai Yu would eventually lead people to the nearby inhabited mainland to purchase or trade for them.

After speaking, Bai Yu turned her head to look at Bai Xi. “We should register them, right?”

“Yes. The books say that registering to confirm the number of people and then assigning work based on each person’s situation will increase efficiency,” Bai Xi nodded. “I will take Miao Miao and handle the registration. There are so many fishermen; if we don’t register them, it will be difficult to manage.”

“Mhm, then you handle the registration.”

Bai Yu added, speaking to Bai Miao, “Miao Miao, tell everyone to get some rest. We are going to find Third Brother first.”

Bai Miao nodded obediently and conveyed Bai Yu’s words in different languages.

Amidst the cheers of the crowd, the three sisters walked toward the interior of the island.

Translator’s Notes