It was already dark at this time, and the lights on the bow, stern and deck were all on.
The ten bodyguards had slept through the day. When they stopped, they all held their swords in their hands and stood ready. Their moves were very bright and bright. Those who can be bodyguards are not night-blind. They are also capable of fighting at night. Often, if you are blind at night, you will not be able to be an escort.
The escorts were stationed all over the deck, using their moves brightly and not daring to relax at all.
Shen Qianzhong was chatting with Cao Jin and his son on the deck, making tea and eating snacks in the night breeze. He did not dare to drink wine for fear of causing trouble.
However, all the sailors were still awake at this time, either playing boxing and guessing puzzles in the cabin, betting some small money to pass the time, or fishing on the deck with the two bosses.
In addition to the monthly salary of shipwrights and sailors, the shipowner will usually allocate a sum of money to the ship boss when leaving the ship for expenses along the way.
The ship boss arranges the purchase, food and other expenses for the sailors along the way. If there is any leftover money, the ship owner usually will not take it back, and the ship boss will distribute the money to the sailors.
Therefore, if they have time, all the sailors will catch some river fresh food, and the money saved will also be a supplement.
Huo Xi stayed in the cabin and did not go out. This time, her parents and uncles did not follow her, which made her feel a lot lonely during the journey. As soon as it got dark, she stayed in the cabin reading a book and being in a daze.
When he was drowsy, he heard the bodyguards shouting: "Who are you!" He suddenly woke up.
He fastened the waist fan given by Mu Yan to his waist, looked around for the cannon, and moved it to the door of the cabin so that it would be easy to use later. The water thief became more and more arrogant. It was already dark, and he still came to rob!
I was so angry that I cursed a few times in my mind. Knowing that my hands and feet were not good enough, I closed the cabin door and lay down on it to listen to what was going on outside.
It took a long time before I heard the sound of fighting.
Somewhat puzzled, I carefully opened the hatch to find out what was going on. As soon as I opened it, Shen Qianzhong came over and said, "Is the boss scared?"
Huo Xi hurriedly asked: "Is it a water thief?"
"No. Master, do you want to go and have a look?"
Not a water thief? Looking at Shen Qianzhong's expression, he seemed to have nothing to do, so he followed him to the deck.
I saw several escorts surrounding a teenage girl holding a package.
Seeing Huo Xi coming, everyone moved out of the way. Huo Xi looked at the little girl and saw her holding the package tightly in her arms, looking at everyone one by one with a wary look on her face, and looking nervous.
"Who are you?" Why did you come to the place where your boat is parked in the middle of the night?
When she saw Huo Xi, the little girl looked relaxed. Seeing Huo Xi's harmless look on her face, she suddenly knelt down on the ground and said, "Young master, please, let me get out of the way."
"I want you to avoid it? Whose house did you escape from? Are you a runaway slave?"
"Fugitive slave? Then we have to let her go down quickly. We hope that the journey will go smoothly, and we don't want to cause any trouble." A group of sailors spoke out one after another.
"No, I'm not a runaway slave! I'm not a bad person. I escaped from my own home, and I just wanted to borrow your boat to hide for a while. I'll leave when you get to the next stop. Or you can sail the boat at dawn. I’ll leave.”
Huo Xi looked at her: "You came here in such a panic, your family must be looking for you, and we don't dare to get involved in this."
"That is, if your family comes after you and wants to board the ship for search, we don't want to get into trouble."
The little girl waved her hands in panic: "They don't dare. If they can't find anyone, they will leave naturally. They don't dare to come up and search. Please let me stay away."
"Why did you escape?"
"If I don't escape, my stepmother will sell me. Young Master, please show mercy and save me. Just let me stay away for a while. I will leave when I get to the next place. I won't cause any trouble for you."
of."
Huo Xi couldn't bear to see her kowtowing on the deck, and asked, "Why did your stepmother sell you?"
The girl burst into tears as she talked about her inhuman life over the years.
"My mother died a long time ago. My father married my stepmother soon. My grandfather originally took me to live by his side. Unexpectedly, my grandfather also left the year before last, so my father took me back. My stepmother was a bad person.
They ordered me to do this and that without telling me, and they didn’t even give me enough to eat. A few days ago, they took ten taels of silver from a widower from a neighboring village and wanted to sell me to him. The widower was older than my father and he beat him to death.
I had three wives. I was afraid and told my father that I didn’t want to, but my father said that girls must get married when they grow up..."
While talking, I burst into tears.
Those who have children present cannot help but feel sympathy.
"Are you telling the truth?"
The girl knelt down and raised her head: "I swear to God, and on the honor of my mother and grandpa, that everything I say is true! If a word is false, heaven will strike with lightning! You can also go to our village.
Ask around, walk here for half an hour and you will reach our village."
Huo Xi sighed: "Where can you go if you run like this? If you don't have a household registration or a road, you are a refugee."
"It's better to be a refugee than to stay at home. It's better for me to sell myself to others and wash clothes for others, even if I become a beggar, than to stay at home and be frustrated by my stepmother! Young Master, look..." Rolled up his sleeves.
Huo Xi then saw that her arms were covered with whip marks, all of which were new injuries.
"My stepmother told my father that she would be obedient after being beaten. Please let me get away from you, please..." she burst into tears.
Seeing her tilting her head to one side while kowtowing, the captain of the ship hurriedly stepped forward to check.
"what happened?"
"She must have fainted from hunger." The boss of the boat said to Huo Xi. He pinched her middle and she quickly woke up and turned around.
Sailors will treat some minor ailments. It takes a long time to go out on the ship, and there is no doctor on the ship. All daily minor ailments are treated by the sailors themselves.
"My stepmother is afraid that I will run away, so she won't even give me food, because she is afraid that I will have the strength to run away after eating." She looked like she was more sad than she was.
Huo Xi sighed: "Is your father just going to watch?"
"When you have a stepmother, you have a stepfather. In my father's eyes, I only see the ones born by my stepmother. How can I be the one who was born by the first stepmother?"
With tears in her eyes, she kowtowed to Huo Xi and said, "Young master, why don't you buy me? I can cook, take care of children, I can do anything."
The ship boss and others all laughed: "If you want to take care of our ship owner's children, you still have to wait a few more years."
Huo Xi was a little embarrassed. Seeing a girl who was not a threat, she turned around and asked the boss to give her some food and leave her on the boat for a while until dawn before letting her leave.
Just as he was about to move, the girl crawled over and grabbed the hem of Huo Xi's clothes: "Young master, please buy me, I can also look at the weather. Do you need someone to look at the weather when you are out on a boat? I can look at the weather! Just let me eat
It’s enough to have enough food and a place to live.”
The boss of the boat looked at her: "You are a teenage girl who comes from a farmer's family. How can you still read the weather?"
The girl saw that there was something going on and nodded fiercely: "My grandpa was a boat master. He used to help people check the weather on the ship. My grandpa taught me, and I can do it too."
He said that he was afraid that Huo Xi and others would not believe him, so he hurriedly recited a few sentences.
"In the morning, it will be dark in the southeast, and it will rain before noon. In the evening, it will be dark in the northwest, and in the middle of the night, it will be windy and rainy. In the early morning and evening, there will be flying sand and rocks. When the sun goes down, it will be dark red. When there is no rain, there will be wind. The lightning is bright, there is no wind or rain, the sky is clear, the stars are shining, and the wind is under the stars.