Chapter 52: The Fifty-Second Day of Being a Salted Fish

“So, where exactly is ‘there’?” A drunken voice suddenly drifted in from outside the door. A swaying figure stumbled into the room, and the concentration of alcohol in the air spiked instantly. Zhu Rong wrinkled her nose in discomfort, while Geshu Qing simply took two steps back, moving closer to the window.

The window was open, letting in the scent of earth and greenery. It helped dilute the heavy stench of alcohol clinging to Ying Xun.

They weren’t on a starship at the moment, but had instead made a rare landing on a Habitable Planet.

This Habitable Planet was also part of the Sea Eagle Pirates’ territory… or rather, their warehouse.

Normally, they didn’t come here often. Even when they were refitting in the Sea Eagle Nebula, they usually stayed on their starships.

If you lived with your feet on the ground every day, could you even call yourself a star pirate? Star pirates were supposed to drift through the universe!

At least, that was the theory the pirates lived by.

Therefore, a Habitable Planet was nothing more than a storehouse to them. Goods plundered from all over were stuffed here. They only landed when it was time to drop things off or pick things up.

“…It’s better if you don’t know.” Siming shot him a glance.

“Tch.” Ying Xun scoffed. “Could knowing the name of a place really be more dangerous than taking in the likes of you? If you don’t want to say, just say so.”

Siming smiled noncommittally. “Who knows?”

Seeing that Ying Xun wanted to press further, Geshu Qing quickly changed the subject. “So, why did you suddenly barge in without knocking?”

“Never heard of a star pirate who knocks!” Ying Xun said righteously.

His gaze swept over the three people in the room, and he gave a mocking chuckle. “I heard you lot making such a racket over here, I thought a mutiny was breaking out. Came to check on the situation.”

“…There’s no mutiny,” Siming said, exasperated. “The kid was just playing around and didn’t watch her volume. My apologies.”

“Who asked for your apology!” Ying Xun rolled his eyes and took a swig of booze. “…Never heard of a star pirate being so polite. I’m telling you, you guys won’t do. You don’t have the bearing of star pirates yet! You need more practice!”

Siming was momentarily speechless.

Zhu Rong tilted her head and chimed in, “We’re just like this, is that a problem? Is there some rulebook you wrote on how a star pirate should act? I’ve never heard of being a star pirate having so many regulations.”

“Hah! Well said!”

While Siming’s apology had annoyed Ying Xun, being talked back to like this actually made him happy. He gave her a thumbs up. “Not bad, kid! That’s the spirit!”

“…” Geshu Qing and Siming looked at each other, speechless.

Zhu Rong continued, “As for where we came from, if we don’t want to tell you, we won’t. I’ve never heard of a star pirate needing to do a background check going back three generations.”

“Exactly! Makes sense! Beautifully said!” Ying Xun grew even more delighted, clapping enthusiastically.

…This guy has a screw loose.

Geshu Qing rubbed his face.

Ying Xun noticed the gesture and snorted. “I haven’t even gotten to you yet. You don’t look like a star pirate at all!”

“Huh?” Being called out out of nowhere, Geshu Qing froze. “What did I do?”

“I just heard you saying my little sister is vicious! That’s slander! Rumors! Defamation!” Ying Xun shouted at the top of his lungs.

Geshu Qing: “?”

Ying Xun had already walked over to Zhu Rong and crouched down, pointing at her. “Look at her. How is my sister vicious? Look at those eyes, so well-behaved! Those eyebrows, so delicate! This face, so round! This-“

Snap. Zhu Rong expressionlessly grabbed his finger and twisted.

Ying Xun: “Aaaargh-“

“What’s wrong with being vicious?” Zhu Rong looked at him. “Am I not allowed to be vicious?”

“Ahhh, yes, yes, yes! You can be whatever you want! We star pirates can be anything!” Ying Xun’s face was covered in tears.

“Also, who’s your little sister!” Geshu Qing roared. “Even if she had a brother, it would be me! It’s me, you hear me!”

“Oh, oh, fine, fine! Whatever you say!”

Geshu Qing rejected him flatly. “At your age, you’re old enough to be Zhu Rong’s grandfather. ‘Little sister’ my foot.”

“…Hmm?” Ying Xun looked up alertly at Zhu Rong. “Actually, being a grandfather isn’t out of the question. Do you want me to call you my eldest granddaughter?”

“Get out,” Zhu Rong said succinctly.

“As if you’re worthy,” Siming sneered. “Go back to sleep.”

“…I just thought you guys sounded like you were having fun chatting,” Ying Xun said, reaching out to pop his dislocated finger back into place. He turned serious. “Why not include me?”

Geshu Qing’s face was cold. “If you stay here any longer, I’ll snap your neck, pry open your mouth, and use your own fangs to rip open your belly to see what kind of organs are inside.”

“…?” Ying Xun was dumbstruck. It took him nearly two seconds of blank staring to process the words. “Holy crap, that’s vicious.”

Then he turned to Zhu Rong and repeated, “Holy crap, that’s vicious.”

“My apologies for the intrusion.” With that, he backed out of the room and closed the door.

“…”

A moment later, the door pushed open again. Ying Xun poked his head in. “By the way, I originally came to tell you that we’re heading out tomorrow. Get some sleep early tonight.”

“…”

–

“Sea Eagle set sail today,” Goudan reported. “They said they’ve been refitting for a month and it’s time to go for a stroll. Their small objective is to hijack a fleet carrying a shipment for Health Pharmaceuticals.”

“Oh.” Lu Yuan wasn’t surprised at all.

There were only a few types of cargo that star pirate syndicates loved: arms, medicine, and the rarest, most unique specialties of various planets.

Because of this, companies in these businesses almost never took sparsely populated routes. They would rather spend more time traveling through areas with heavy Empire security to ensure their safety.

Unless it was an extremely urgent shipment to a very distant location.

In those cases, these companies would prepare themselves for an encounter with star pirates.

For instance, they might arrange for several fleets to act as decoys.

Occasionally, if the selling price of the cargo was high enough, they were even willing to load several fleets with the exact same goods to ensure that at least one shipment arrived.

This time, Health Pharmaceuticals was in exactly that situation.

They needed to transport a rare plant that only grew on Tuanyang Star on the eastern side of the galaxy to the Capital Star. There, the plant would be processed to extract a substance that was difficult to synthesize even with modern technology.

The only problem was that the Capital Star was on the western side of the galaxy.

The Galactic Center had always been a “forbidden zone” that starships could not traverse. There were also very few Habitable Planets on the outskirts of the Galactic Core. Consequently, a vast area in the center of the galaxy was essentially a no-man’s land.

But if one wanted to get from the east side of the galaxy to the west, the fastest route had to pass through this no-man’s land.

Normally, routes through no-man’s land were avoided.

However, this order was urgent.

And the buyer was very generous.

Thus, business for the Star Pirate Syndicate was coming.

Lu Yuan and his companions had no way of knowing this information. In fact, Siming and the others didn’t know either.

Ying Xun hadn’t given them much detail; he only said they were going to hijack a shipment. As for where the goods were from or how they got the intel, he hadn’t mentioned a word.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust them. In fact, he hadn’t told anyone.

The pirates didn’t care anyway. As long as there was something to plunder, they were happy.

Lu Yuan thought for a moment and asked, “Siming and the others are going along?”

“Yes, they were told to follow,” Goudan nodded. “Siming said he might have less contact with me for the next few days.”

“Understood,” Lu Yuan nodded.

–

Capital Star.

The Imperial Palace.

Several doctors in white coats were gathered around the bed of Emperor Nan Hui. The eldest imperial grandson, Nan Yingxu, was quietly communicating with one of the doctors.

Standing a bit further away, Nan Yingzhe wore a “fitting” expression, his eyes showing a mix of worry and a hint of anxiety.

Suddenly, he raised his wrist, glanced at a newly arrived message, and quickly shut off his Optical Computer.

[Eagle: Set sail. Don’t forget what I asked you to do.]

“…”

Nan Yingzhe’s face remained impassive, but a look of deep thought entered his eyes.

To think that when he asked Ying Xun to hijack that shipment, the condition Ying Xun raised was for him to get hair samples from several members of the Geshu Family.

And then he even sent a reminder… was it that urgent?

Especially since Ying Xun wasn’t a stranger to Geshu Ming. What kind of matter would require the hair of Geshu Family members but couldn’t be told to Geshu Ming?

…Hair is usually used for DNA testing, isn’t it?