Several days later, one morning just as dawn was breaking, Xiao Ze suddenly burst in from outside, excited.
"Sis, you’ve got to come out and see this, I saw a ship drifting by!"
Xiao Yu, whose sleepiness was suddenly scared off, asked, "A ship? How big? Where is it?"
Without her coat, Xiao Yu ran outside and immediately felt the cold wind howling, piercing through her clothes, "Sky, why is the wind so strong?"
"Sis, I’ve been observing for quite a while now, and that ship hasn’t made any moves. You can see our island at a glance, so why haven’t they sailed over? Even if this isn’t their destination, there’s no need to just stay anchored there without budging, right? Plus, it feels like the wind is just pushing it along."
Xiao Ze had noticed the ship that morning while heading to the toilet. When Xiao Yu put on her clothes and came out to take a look, she confirmed what Xiao Ze had said, "There’s something wrong with that ship. Let’s not panic; let’s observe a bit longer. If there’s still no sign of life by the afternoon, or no one appears on deck, then it’s possible that everyone inside..."
Xiao Yu didn’t finish her sentence, but Xiao Ze understood.
"Do you mean, the plague?"
These past days, Xiao Yu had educated him about the dangers of the contagion, after all, who knew where the village chief’s son had come from? Regardless of where he ran back from, he wouldn’t be the only one infected, and he wouldn’t be the first case, which is why Xiao Yu said that apart from this island, nowhere else might be safe.
Xiao Yu nodded at him, "It’s possible." Official source is NoveIＦire.net
"Then we dare not board the ship. Who knows what kind of people are on board?"
"Xiao Ze, the plague is not incurable,"
"Do you really want to risk our lives by boarding?"
"I’m just curious to see what’s on board. If everyone is dead, we could take the things from the ship."
Xiao Ze was torn between laughter and tears, "Sis, what if we get infected?"
"Don’t worry, your sister has a plan... For now, let’s just keep observing."
With this new discovery, they couldn’t sleep anymore. Xiao Yu used the semi-dried sea snail meat they sun-dried yesterday, mixed it into the flour with chopped garlic sprouts, cracked a couple of eggs in it, and made two pancakes. They also cooked two bowls of rice porridge, which they ate with the pickles their mother made for breakfast.
Afterward, Xiao Yu instructed Xiao Ze to continue chiseling stones while she went to the shore to chip away at oysters. It was a sheer waste not to bring home so many oysters.
Every time she chiseled ten jin, she would sit in the wind-blown spot, pry open these oysters, extract the meat, and take it home, which would be lighter.
She sat on the beach , glancing at the large ship from time to time. Every glance at the ship was like looking at a ghost, silent like a fool.
The ship didn’t look small, it would be considered large even for ancient times.
Around three or four in the afternoon, after cleaning and sun-drying the oyster meat, she went home and then took Xiao Ze down to the shore to drag out their boat.
They made masks from torn cloth and wore them. Paddling the boat, they spent half an hour to approach underneath the large ship. Xiao Yu thought for a moment and said to Xiao Ze,
"I’ll go up by myself, and you wait here. If anything happens, I’ll call you."
"No way, I can’t be at ease with you going alone. It’s too unsafe!"
Xiao Yu shook her head, "Listen to me, it’s been half a day now. The people inside are either dead or half-dead. They can’t harm me. You just stay down here, and if something seems wrong, you get away quickly,"
Xiao Ze, still a child, grabbed Xiao Yu’s arm, "Sis, why do we need to take such risks? Can’t we just stay on the island?"