Daomu Biji: The Southern Archives

As we get to this part of the story, some things that happened later need to be mentioned first.

We all know that Zhang Haiyan definitely went through a series of adventures after he boarded the Nan’an, and it would inevitably be some time before he and Zhang Haixia were reunited.

Since it would take at least a few months to travel between Malacca and Xiamen, he wouldn’t get any news from Zhang Haixia during that time.

In fact, just when Zhang Haiyan gave up resisting and was about to board the ship to comply with the contract, Zhang Haixia was sent downstairs and out to the streets.

At that moment, two things happened almost simultaneously.

During that ten-minute period of time just before they met He Jianxi, we can infer that Zhang Haixia had discovered some “abnormalities” from which he perceived a certain danger.

It’s important to know that Zhang Haixia graduated as the most outstanding crucial talent in the Southern Archives. If it weren’t for Zhang Haiyan, he would have entered the South Sea Maritime Affairs Office as a chief officer, and might have been in charge of a confidential department by now.

But during the time he hung out with Zhang Haiyan, he seldom encountered strong opponents, so he didn’t get the chance to show off. Even Zhang Haiyan had almost forgotten how smart this little brother was. He was so smart, in fact, that he could be considered a monster.

Due to his current position, the situation, and other reasons, he didn’t warn Zhang Ruipu about the danger, but obviously thought that it was very serious.

In those few minutes, he wrote something down and hid all the information in the stack of money. He placed it among the pile of banknotes and handed it to He Jianxi. At that time, he had no other way to convey the information.

Later, after Zhang Haiyan learned about the theory Zhang Haixia had come up with in those few minutes, he compared it with what he had discovered and found that they were almost consistent. That was when Zhang Haiyan truly realized what kind of effect Zhang Haixia had on his life, and how he had always been there to protect him.

Coincidentally, when He Jianxi settled the accounts, he heard the news that the ban on alcohol had been lifted. As a result, there wasn’t a huge profit in smuggling alcohol anymore. His tavern closed, and the severance pay he received contained that stack of money.

It actually took a while for He Jianxi to notice that there was something wrong with the money, since he kept thinking about what he was going to do with his life.

He eventually decided to go to San Francisco to find his cousin who was panning for gold. That was probably the only place where foreign firms needed Chinese accountants.

At that time, small barges leaving from Malacca to San Francisco were called coffin ships. The conditions on the ships were extremely poor, so many people fell ill and died, or went missing because of fighting, robbery, or pirates. The ship owners were known for extortion, human trafficking, and restricting the freedom of the boat passengers. People would also be thrown into the sea whenever shipwrecks occurred. As a result, various tragedies happened one after another.

The purpose of founding the South Sea Archives was mainly to investigate these mysterious maritime cases. When dealing with the ship owners and sailors who killed Chinese people, Zhang Haiyan and the others would resolutely put them to death.

Since they were very good at swimming, they liked to get on the ship in the middle of the sea, and then jump into the water after killing people. That was how they came to be called the "plague gods of the sea". Even to this day, many South Sea legends mentioned a water ghost with blades in its mouth, which was actually Zhang Haiyan.

In the end, He Jianxi bought a ticket that could get him onto a barge called Baoen. The ship was very old, and there were so many passengers that the word “crowded” couldn’t even begin to describe it.

The plague in Malacca meant that these kinds of ships would check the passengers before taking them on. They would even stop at the outermost reefs by the port, where small boats would pick up and drop off the passengers.

He Jianxi arrived at the dock to board the ship the day after he met Zhang Haixia.

Zhang Haiyan, who had been queuing up all night to board the Nan’an, also began boarding.

The dock was crowded with people and all kinds of goods. A huge heat wave engulfed everyone, causing the smell of human sweat to fill the space. The most terrifying thing was the noisy voices, which made it impossible to hear anything.

The sea breeze fluctuated between strong and weak. Zhang Haiyan’s military uniform was soaked and he was fanning himself with his cap. Zhang Ruipu had been very generous to give him a boat ticket and a letter of invitation, which meant that he was able to stay in the best guest room.

When the huge Nan’an appeared in Zhang Haiyan’s field of vision, he couldn’t help but be amazed at the behemoth. He looked up at the black hull and the four large chimneys above, and began to realize that this world was completely different from when they had first arrived at the South Sea.

Xiamen used to be a distant shore that Zhang Haiyan couldn’t reach and dearly missed. But with this kind of huge ship, Xiamen didn’t seem so far away anymore.

Zhang Ruipu’s entourage didn’t follow him on board, but watched him go silently. Zhang Haiyan pretended that they were there to send him off and waved vigorously as if he was bidding farewell to his relatives, but the two young men almost immediately disappeared into the crowd.

Neglected, Zhang Haiyan felt bored and had no other choice but to board the ship alone.

He took the VIP passage, where the sailor checked his ticket repeatedly before letting him through. The civilian passage below was very crowded. He looked down and realized that it would be impossible to be idle on the Nan’an this time around. The investigation would be more difficult than he had initially thought.

He looked around calmly, and saw a group of white people in front of him, who seemed to be Americans. Their clothes were very dirty, and there was only one young white man among them wearing a suit and glasses. He seemed like the type who specialized in paperwork.

There were many local porters walking up with their luggage. The group of white men was already very large, and the ship’s passage became extremely crowded with the addition of the porters and luggage.

The pile of luggage was very huge, and Zhang Haiyan wondered what was in them. The young white people checked them over carefully and told the porters not to be careless with them.

The white people were very relaxed as they talked and laughed amongst themselves. Some of them were even saying that the pieces of luggage that would be brought up later were even bigger than theirs.

Zhang Haiyan followed their gazes and saw a lot of huge, wooden boxes in the warehouse’s loading area that would be pulled onto the ship with slings.

Zhang Haiyan habitually wanted to lean back and discuss this with Zhang Haixia, but was a little disappointed when he realized that Zhang Haixia wasn’t behind him.

When he glanced back, however, he saw that the sailor who had checked his ticket just now was talking with several police officers on the dock, and they kept looking at him.

Zhang Haiyan narrowed his eyes and cursed silently. His outfit had apparently attracted too much attention. Since he was going to stay in the first-class cabin, the sailor probably thought he had stolen the ticket.

He pressed his military cap further down on his head. He knew evading would make things worse, so he decided to head down there and explain to the sailor and the police. But as soon as he moved to leave, someone unexpectedly put their hand on his shoulder.

He turned his head and saw that the blonde American with glasses was shaking his head at him. He looked at the sailor below, who looked back at him in surprise.

“Your country is still developing. There will be people who don’t trust the Chinese. Don’t be offended.” The blonde American youth said in fluent Chinese. “If you go down and explain, it will be considered a provocation, and may make things worse.”

When Zhang Haiyan looked at him, the young American hooked his arm around his shoulders and greeted the sailor below. “Please let our team pass. My friend and I are in a hurry for tea. Can we get on board first?”

The young American obviously had a high status, since the sailor knew him and immediately came up to apologize. “I’m sorry, Mr. Steven.” The sailor looked at Zhang Haiyan, a little surprised. “Is this your friend? You guys—”

“Yes, we have to go up quickly.” Steven nodded.

The sailor immediately notified the people above, who stopped the queue and had the people stand aside.

Steven winked at Zhang Haiyan, and then said to the sailor, “No worries.”

With this special treatment, the two bypassed everyone waiting to get on the ship. Zhang Haiyan looked down, and saw that the crowd was still quite large. As soon as Steven went up, someone brought tea over.

He patted Zhang Haiyan and took a sip of the tea. “We can always talk in our free time, Chinese man. We have a lot of time on this ship.” With that said, he walked away.

Zhang Haiyan leaned against the ship’s high railing, a little puzzled. Why did this white man help him all of a sudden? Was it possible that the white people in the first-class rooms were well-educated? He thought for a while and eventually decided to be more careful, and act as soon as possible.

He lit a cigarette and saw a lonely barge out at sea. It was the Baoen, but he didn't know that yet.

His cigarette butt suddenly dropped to the ground as he clutched his chest and fell. The sailor beside him immediately came over to help, and Zhang Haiyan said in fluent English, “I need to go to the infirmary. I don’t feel very well. It’s my heart. Can you take me there?”