The Black Sails of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 17 The Great Secret
The woman's audacity left Lin Qian speechless.

Lin Qian stepped over the two pieces of clothing, put the box down, sat down at the desk, and began to fill in yesterday's and today's sailing log.

Catherine followed Lin Qian into the cabin, curiously watching what she was doing.

Lin Qian didn't even look up, and said coldly, "Put your clothes away. There's no place on the ship to hang your clothes to dry."

Catherine didn't dare to argue, secretly made a disgusted face, put her clothes away, then looked around and asked, "Where should I put them?"

"I will arrange a cabin for you. Until then, you can keep it in your hands."

Catherine, holding two wet clothes, stood behind Lin Qian and mouthed curses at him.

Seeing that Lin Qian did not react, Catherine stood on tiptoe, looked over Lin Qian's shoulder, and saw what he was writing.

"The 25th day of the third month of the 48th year of the Wanli reign... May 6, 1620 AD, the weather was clear..."

This string of text, a mixture of Chinese, English, and Spanish, and a mix of lunar and solar calendars, was completely incomprehensible to Catherine.

Fortunately, she recognized Arabic numerals and could tell it was a date; May 6th was yesterday, which led her to guess that Lin Qian was writing in her nautical log.

Catherine continued looking down and saw that Lin Qian had written down detailed information about yesterday's wind direction, course, and described what she had seen and heard during the typhoon.

However, it was still in Chinese, English, and Spanish, and Catherine only recognized the few Spanish words that appeared.

Catherine didn't give up until her neck ached from looking at it.

"I don't understand what you mean?" Lin Qian's calm voice came from behind.

"Do you have eyes in the back of your head?" Catherine asked in surprise, her eyes wide.

Lin Qian chuckled softly, but did not reply.

Catherine cursed inwardly, "Damn pirates."

After a while, a boatman pushed open the door and came in.

"Captain, lunch is ready." He said, placing the rice bowl on the round table.

“What about mine?” Catherine asked.

Lin Qian pointed at Catherine: "Give her a bowl too."

A short while later, the boatman placed another bowl of rice porridge on the table.

Lin Qian put down her pen, walked to the table, picked up the bowl, blew on it to cool it down, and ate half of it in a few bites without using chopsticks. The rice porridge contained a lot of snail and shrimp meat, and the taste was quite delicious.

Catherine stirred the porridge with her spoon, frowning. "It smells fishy... Is this really edible?"

"If you can eat the undercooked rice in Spanish paella, then this is fine."

Catherine was so angry she felt dizzy. She took a deep breath to suppress the urge to retort, and then, unable to bear the hunger any longer, she scooped up a little with a spoon and carefully put it into her mouth.

Then her eyes lit up, and she ate a few bites in quick succession. Remembering her manners, she ate slowly and deliberately, glancing at Lin Qian. Seeing that he had finished eating and sat back down at his desk without even glancing at her, she finally felt relieved.

A moment later, a boatman came in to clear away the dishes.

Lin Qian asked, "Has the cabin been cleaned up yet?"

"Two cargo holds were flooded, and all the empty holds are currently filled with cargo. There are no empty holds available at the moment."

Lin Qian felt a headache coming on. She glanced back at Catherine, who now had nowhere to go on the ship.

We can't keep her tied to the mast forever. The tropical sun is hot and scorching. If she's tied up for a day, she'll be exposed to the sun and her skin will be irritated. If she doesn't get enough water, she could die from the sunburn in two days.

"Never mind, just bring me a piece of canvas," Lin Qian said.

A moment later, the boatman brought over a canvas, which Lin Qian tied to two crossbeams to make a hammock. Then she said to Catherine, "You'll sleep here tonight."

"I protest! You promised me a cabin!" Catherine protested. "Hammock or mast, choose whichever you prefer," Lin Qian said before leaving the cabin.

From the deck came Lin Qian's command to raise the sails and set sail, and soon the ship slowly moved forward.

“Damn pirates,” Catherine cursed fiercely.

She walked to Lin Qian's bed and kicked the blankets twice in anger.

Just then, she suddenly remembered the instrument she had seen that morning. Now was the perfect opportunity to peek at it. She hurried over to the box, only to find that it was secured with a lock.

Faced with such a thick padlock, she was helpless and stomped her feet in anger.

She then went to Lin Qian's desk and looked through the nautical logbook.

The first page reads: "On the 15th day of the second month of the 48th year of the Wanli reign, there was thunder and rain... West of Dongfan Island, at 23 degrees north latitude... Northeast wind at 20 knots, heading due south, speed at 4 knots, after 4 hours of sailing, the ship anchored, the water depth was 53 meters, and the wave height was about 0.6 meters..."

Catherine could barely understand the gist of it through Spanish and Arabic numerals.

She turned to the next page, "The 16th day of the second month of the 48th year of the Wanli reign..." This page used less Spanish and was completely incomprehensible.

After flipping through a few more pages, Catherine's eyes suddenly lit up, and she exclaimed, "Wow!"

Before her eyes appeared a bamboo pen sketch depicting a scene from the port of Manila.

In the painting, the sky is clear and the water is calm. Manila Harbor appears between the sea and the sky, with countless sailboats lined up along the coastline, their masts interlaced in an orderly fashion.

The houses in the Palen Market stand side by side, and further away, you can see the towering European-style city walls and church bell towers of the Royal City.

Although it consists of only a few strokes, it is painted with remarkable lifelikeness.

Catherine held the painting for a long time, then suddenly thought of being kidnapped to this pirate ship and not knowing when she would be able to return to Manila. Her heart ached, and tears streamed down her face. She wanted nothing more than to tear the painting to shreds, but she was afraid of being discovered and punished by Lin Qian, so she had to suppress her anger and turn the painting over.

The next page is also a painting, depicting the Manila galleon. It is in a different style from the previous one. This painting is extremely meticulous and realistic, showing almost every single cable and rope. However, its artistic merit is slightly weaker.

Catherine was very knowledgeable about the Manila Galleons and showed little interest in this painting, quickly flipping through it.

The following pages contain Lin Qian's observations in Manila, recording a large number of Manila's specialties and prices, which Catherine didn't quite understand and skipped over.

Then a new drawing appeared. This drawing was a charcoal sketch. In the drawing, a person was riding a white horse, but the face was not visible. The sea breeze was blowing the person's long, wavy hair, and the clothes on the person's body were also fluttering in the wind.

Catherine stared at the painting for a long time, wondering if it was a portrait of her.

Although her face was not depicted, her long hair, clothing, and the mannerisms of her riding a horse were exactly like hers.

“Damn bastard…” Catherine cursed with a complicated expression.

Reluctantly, she turned over her drawing and continued reading, hoping to find clues to escape in the few words and phrases.

When she got tired of reading, she simply picked up the nautical logbook and lay down in the hammock to read it.

Halfway there, she turned back to look at Lin Qian's bed.

This bed is obviously bigger and more comfortable, so why is she curled up in the hammock?
With that thought in mind, Catherine unceremoniously lay down on Lin Qian's bed.

The last few pages of the logbook were mostly filled with various data, which made Catherine drowsy. Only a few illustrations occasionally kept her awake.

After flipping through several more pages, I came across the latest page of the log. The name "Lin Feng" stood out starkly among the densely packed simplified Chinese characters, with "1574" written next to it and a question mark drawn next to it.

Catherine lived in Manila and naturally knew its history, including what happened in 1574, the year the Ming Dynasty pirate "Lin Feng" stormed Manila.

Although Catherine didn't know Chinese, she knew that two syllables corresponded to two square characters in Chinese, and she could roughly guess that "Lin Feng" was the pirate's name.

Her pupils constricted, her heart pounded wildly, as if she had glimpsed a corner of a huge secret.

(End of this chapter)