Daomu Biji: The Southern Archives

In the records of the Southern Archives later on, this was what happened on the Nan’an that night:

Miss Dong took Warner’s gunmen with her and launched a total of fourteen attacks. The sporadic fights won’t be mentioned here. The biggest one was in the cabin that had the wide beds.

The wide-bed cabin was the area where the cargo hold had been converted into a passenger cabin. Many people stayed in this cabin, and there were small vendors sleeping on the floor there.

Even the Nan’an had such a cargo hold in order to expand the number of passengers they carried.

The killers initially didn’t know that Miss Dong had their information. The materials Zhang Haiyan had provided weren’t comprehensive, but Miss Dong went through the crowd, catching one killer after another like an eagle catching a chicken. They only realized something was off when she asked them to kneel down and face the wall.

In many cases, as long as people won fifty percent of the fight, the remaining fifty percent would follow. This was the case on the Nan’an that night. The remaining assassins thought that Miss Dong had the entire list, so they desperately rushed at her, hoping to take hostages to protect themselves.

It had seemed like Miss Dong’s actions were risky at the time, but she was actually the one who was most likely to win. If someone had informed the other killers of Miss Dong’s performance at the ball, then those who rushed towards her wouldn’t have been so surprised to find that she wasn’t someone who could be subdued so easily. 

Miss Dong merely took a few steps backward, preventing those poor people from grasping her clothes. She then grabbed the first person’s wrist, twisted it, and blocked the hidden weapon that was shot out from behind. 

The gunmen raised their submachine guns, and a bloody mist bloomed like lotus flowers as the four people rushing over were instantly blasted full of holes.

The remaining ones grabbed some women and children from the side to use as hostages, but they grossly underestimated the skills of Warner’s gunmen. Those gunmen had trained the speed and accuracy of their short-range shooting skills during the Westward Expansion as they fought the Native Americans.

They found gaps in the hostages’ shoulders, armpits, and sides and shot the killers without any hindrance.  

The Southern Archives didn’t have any records on whether manslaughter or accidental injuries occurred during the whole process. 

Based on the result, about thirty-four assassins had been killed on the ship by the time dawn came. Seven assassins jumped into the sea to escape and one lifeboat was missing. 

Only one killer was captured, and his name was He Jianxi. It was determined after the trial that he had been coerced, so he was eventually acquitted. 

Five of the gunmen died.

After the ship arrived in Malacca, the plague began to spread. A total of nineteen passengers were missing, thirty-four assassins and five gunmen had died, and seven assassins had jumped into the sea to escape.

At that time, it was a major criminal case that took place on the sea, so the newspaper extravagantly reported on it. All the southern countries were shocked.

Another thing that should be mentioned is that Zhang Haiyan was neither on the list of missing people nor on the list of those who were killed.

So where did Zhang Haiyan go? Why didn’t He Jianxi die?

At that time, Steven briefly explained everything that had happened as Miss Dong looked at He Jianxi. Warner looked at Miss Dong in challenge, wanting to know if this woman was bluffing.

But she didn’t hesitate at all.

“Kill him.” With that said, Miss Dong moved forward with the team.

He Jianxi watched in horror as Hudson pulled out his pistol. “Turn your head. Don’t look at the person shooting you.”

At this moment, Steven pressed Hudson’s hand down. “Keep a few people alive. What if this woman staged the whole thing herself and is killing people in order to shut them up?”

By this time, Zhang Haiyan had come out onto the balcony and climbed onto the pipes above the corridor. As long as Hudson fired, he would immediately shoot the blades from his mouth and drag He Jianxi into the sea with him.

But Hudson thought it over for a while and then put his gun away. He let Steven tie He Jianxi up and then moved to follow after Miss Dong.

Zhang Haiyan breathed a sigh of relief and then moved along the pipes as he followed the people who had abducted He Jianxi. When they arrived at a corner where no one was around, he shot the chandelier down. He then grabbed He Jianxi’s neck from above and pulled him onto the pipes.

As the two of them ran wildly along the pipes and reached an inner cabin, they heard gunshots. Miss Dong wasn’t joking. She had really gone on a killing spree. Zhang Haiyan thought of how he wanted to kill people whenever he was in a bad mood and suddenly realized that he was an absolutely kind person. This woman was truly an example of a person of action.

“Cousin, you sold me out,” Zhang Haiyan said. “I’ve been so good to you, you Pan Jinlian (1).”

“He suddenly had a heart attack. I was afraid he was going to die. I didn’t know he was faking it,” He Jianxi said anxiously. He was still terrified over what had happened earlier. He had already seen his boss’ brain matter and the thought that his own brain was almost smeared across the ground made him break out in goosebumps.

“Now the whole ship is searching for you. Can you listen to me for once?”

“They are searching for you!” He Jianxi said angrily. “I’m just someone you hired to catch flies.”

Zhang Haiyan did some quick calculations. They were on an enclosed ship and Miss Dong was especially fierce. She certainly wouldn’t let him off the hook.

At this time, he saw a lifeboat on the distant deck.

In the midst of the vast sea, he certainly wouldn’t think about going to Xiamen by lifeboat. But now that he knew exactly what Zhang Ruipu’s plan was, he had to return to Perak as soon as possible to check on Haixia’s safety.

He couldn’t care too much about anything else right now. He had to come up with a plan.

****

TN Notes:

(1) In the last chapter, Zhang Haiyan felt that he was like Wu Dalang, a character in a classic novel who was killed by his adulterous wife Pan Jinlian. Therefore, Zhang Haiyan was basically saying, “You’re my wife, and I’ve been so good to you. How can you cheat on me?” lol