Chapter 90

"They are starving, cold, and when they die, no one buries them; when they live, no one supports them. If it were me, I would also rob, wouldn't I? Should I just wait to starve to death?" Hong Tao put down the telescope. The pirates had already spotted their sailboat and started to evacuate from the ship. They couldn't take large goods, and even if they did, there would be nowhere to sell them. They probably just took some cargo money and gold and silver jewelry. But their methods were too brutal; they killed everyone on the ship.

Right and wrong, in Hong Tao's view, had no clear boundaries. Different perspectives led to different outcomes. Currently, these pirates had nothing to do with him; their targets were merchant and passenger ships. But once he led the cooperative to successfully transition from fishermen to artisans, they would become his enemies. He would need to transport goods, and they would rob him. This inherent conflict could never be reconciled. At that time, he would likely have to force children like Bojiao to attack their own kind. Hong Tao believed Bojiao and the others could do it. There were no benevolent Confucians here, only a group of people who worked hard for food and warmth. Anyone who tried to take their labor成果 would face their resistance. All he needed to do was remind them and prepare the tools for killing.

"Then, when we have a new sailboat, can we teach them how to fish? With fish, they won't need to rob anymore." Bojiao was very kind; his vision of the future was limited to a ship of his own.

"Bojiao, a man should not just think about a sailboat for his whole life. If you want to save others, you should first strengthen yourself. Look at Karl. If I didn't have money, could I have bought him back from the Nanzhao people? Even if he were my neighbor or fellow villager, I could only watch him continue to be a slave and die in the ship's hold. It's not hard to save them. Once you learn what I know, you can sail a large ship and take a boat full of Tanka children to Nanzhao to earn big money. Everyone will have food, drink, and money to buy a ship. Do you think they would still risk their lives to rob then?"

Hong Tao began to show his sinister side. Once children like Bojiao had a goal, they would pursue it with all their might, lacking a comprehensive understanding of the world and deep life experiences. Their passion could provide them with boundless strength, pushing them forward, but it could also burn them out. In this sense, Hong Tao was using his own ideology to manipulate others into becoming his pawns, and he was manipulating a child, which was very unethical. Unfortunately, he had no other choice, so he consoled himself: "Maybe what I'm saying is right, and they might even like their future lives!"

"Then I won't steer anymore. I'm going to measure my sea chart. It's Karl's turn to take the watch!" This time, Bojiao understood and immediately took action. His inner world began to burn, and he set his second goal in life, thinking beyond just the row of boats.

"Karl, what would you think if I taught your son to be like me?" Watching the busy and spirited Bojiao, Hong Tao felt an indescribable discomfort but couldn't express it, so he vented his frustration on Karl.

"I would change my son's middle name to your surname. This surname is destined to bring him honor." Karl was making rapid progress in learning to use the sextant to measure angles and draw sea charts. Although he still didn't understand how angles translated into the ship's position, he instinctively felt that Hong Tao's method was very, very magical. This was the biggest difference between an experienced adult and a child; he had the ability to discern.

"Hahaha, that makes me feel much better... Talking to you is truly a pleasure." Hong Tao instantly felt relieved. He had been overthinking, using modern thinking to analyze people of this era, which was clearly inappropriate. Their pursuits were different, and he was being too sentimental about it.

Karl's evaluation of Hong Tao was genuine, not flattery or to save his life. Soon, Hong Tao showed Bojiao and Karl what it meant to be a man of the sea and a captain. The first half of the return journey went smoothly, but when the Explorer turned west at 19 degrees north latitude, a tropical storm hit without warning. The sky instantly changed from sunny to overcast, and strong southeast winds whipped up 3-4 meter waves. The sea was like a pot of boiling water, with waves surging everywhere. The 20-foot wooden Explorer was like an ant in a washing machine, facing waves like small mountains, one after another, crashing onto the deck, sweeping away everything not securely fastened.

"Hold on! Bojiao! Don't let go, just hold on a bit longer..." The Explorer had no safety lines, and Hong Tao had forgotten to install them, which was a major oversight. In such conditions, without safety lines, people on the deck lost most of their mobility and could only cling to anything that could secure them, even lifting their heads was difficult.

"Captain... Captain, can we still go home? Sob... Sob..." Faced with this situation, Bojiao, who had been full of ambition a few hours earlier, was the first to break down. He wanted to retreat to the cabin and cover his head or go to the bow to pray to Mazu. Unfortunately, he couldn't go anywhere and could only cling to the mast, being repeatedly submerged and exposed by the waves.

"Useless! If you don't shut up, I'll throw you into the sea! I don't know Tanka people like you, and you still have the nerve to call yourself a child of the sea! If your mother just played a joke on you, you wet your pants! Next time, I'll take the little fish and shrimp out, and you stay on shore with your aunt." To be honest, waves of this size were common for Hong Tao. Not to mention the extreme conditions in the Drake Passage, even the average wave height in the North Atlantic in winter was higher. Once they entered the open sea, they would face such conditions for most of the time.

If he was afraid of this, he should go back to the shore and play with small boats. Regardless of whether he could overcome it, he had to endure. Once a person's spirit broke, even a light breeze could be terrifying. At this moment, comfort was useless; only stimulation could bring out the wild instincts in people, putting them in a semi-hysterical state. Those who lacked this quality were not fit to be sailors, let alone captains. Familiarity was not enough for sailing; it only led to inertia and did not fundamentally improve one's endurance. Not everyone could face death bravely, and Hong Tao would not choose those who couldn't. It wasn't their fault; everyone had their talents.

"..." Bojiao not only received no comfort from Hong Tao but was also scolded harshly. He finally managed to hold back his tears for the sake of his dignity, burying his face in the mast, not daring to look at the waves that seemed ready to swallow the small boat at any moment, unable to do anything else.

"Karl, you can pray to your Lord now. Pray a lot; we might not live to see tomorrow. You should get used to this feeling. When I take you home, it will be like this every day. Do you still want to go back?" Unlike Bojiao, who lacked life experience, Hong Tao was very polite to Karl. The red-haired man was holding the steering wheel with a serious face, showing no fear. However, Hong Tao needed to make him afraid; pretending or enduring were not the ways to be a good sailor. Fear was acceptable, but not surrender.

"I will pray with you..." Karl, after being prompted by Hong Tao, relaxed and knelt down, holding the steering wheel, muttering prayers.

"Save it. That thing up there and I are mortal enemies. He won't take care of me; this storm might be his doing! No, not mortal enemies, it's been three lifetimes. Damn you! If you have the power, just drown me!" The mention of prayer stirred up Hong Tao's resentment. If it weren't for that voice, he would either be dead and know nothing or still enjoying life on the Ratman Superhero. Thinking of Singh and Rada's beautiful bodies, Hong Tao couldn't help but curse the sky, cursing in Chinese, Latin, German, Russian, and Indian languages... in any language he could speak fluently. He ran to the bow, pulling the sail rope, facing the waves, and continued to curse. Most of his curses were washed away by the waves, but as soon as the waves receded, his hoarse voice would ring out again.

What kind of general, what kind of soldiers; what kind of coach, what kind of players. Personality is contagious. After Hong Tao's outburst, Bojiao and Karl stopped crying and forgot to pray. They listened to Hong Tao's curses and couldn't help but marvel: "He curses so well, with so many variations, most of which I've never heard before! The captain is the captain; he curses better than I do. I can't help but admire him!"

People who have experienced the brink of mental collapse, once they recover, find reality not so bad. It's like the first time you do bungee jumping; standing at a high place with an elastic rope, you'll be so scared that your legs will shake uncontrollably, and you won't dare to jump. But once someone kicks you down, if you don't die from fear, you'll find it not so scary, and you'll just close your eyes and go through it. The next time you come up, you'll be much calmer. If you get kicked down every day, you'll probably start jumping on your own within three days. Since you have to jump anyway, why suffer an extra kick?

ps: Click, collect, and recommend! Throw your Three Rivers votes to Hong Bapi... I don't know if there are any readers who don't know how to vote for the Three Rivers. I'll write down the method for voting for the Three Rivers here. The collective method is as follows: 1. Open the起点 website on your computer, click on Three Rivers, and enter the Three Rivers homepage (for mobile users, use Baidu to search for "起点 Three Rivers," scroll to the bottom, and click on the computer version). After entering, you can see the words "Three Rivers vote" in the lower right corner of the Three Rivers main recommendation. Click to collect, and after collecting, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and see the voting tag behind "Song Dynasty No Cough." Click to vote. 2. The usage time for the Three Rivers vote is from 14:00 in the afternoon to 14:00 the next day. Each account can only vote once within 24 hours, and the vote is invalid after the time limit. Therefore, please collect and vote for "Song Dynasty No Cough" immediately. This vote cannot be accumulated, and each account can vote once a day. As long as the account has spent more than 1 yuan, it can vote. I hope the readers will take the trouble to vote for the Three Rivers.

Page flip AD starts

Page flip AD ends