ATPnovel Chapter 1 Night Ship
Chapter 1 Night Ship
December 16, 1773.
Boston, night.
The air at Griffin Wharf in the port area is filled with a unique smell of salty fish, tar and rotten wood, which even the winter sea breeze cannot dispel.
Li Wei placed a rough burlap sack under his buttocks and huddled at the end of a dark alley.
Before him was a low wall made of rum barrels, and through the gaps in the wall, he could see the three pitiful large ships on the dock without any obstruction.
The Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver.
As a "yellow-skinned monkey" who worked odd jobs on an East India Company merchant ship and was "coincidentally forgotten" in Boston due to scurvy, Levi knew the cargo on these three ships better than he did what he ate yesterday.
Three hundred and forty-two boxes, totaling ninety-two thousand pounds, of tea from Wuyi Mountain in Fujian.
That's the smell of home, and also the smell of money.
At this moment, this smell is being thrown box by box into the icy Atlantic Ocean by a group of white lunatics wearing feathers on their heads and face paint, disguised as Mohawk Indians.
"No taxation without representation!"
"Long live the sons of liberty!"
The noise, the sound of wooden crates breaking, and the shouts of the crowd mingled together, like a pot of boiling offal soup.
A cold smile, utterly out of place with the frenzied atmosphere around him, appeared on Li Wei's lips.
free?
Shit.
税？
It's none of his business.
All he knew was that the tea was shipped from China to London, and then from London to Boston.
The cost per pound, plus shipping and insurance, is factored in at each level, and by the time it reaches here, the price has increased many times over.
And now, these "golden leaves" are being used to feed the fish for free.
A bunch of spendthrifts.
Levi's gaze did not linger on the "Indians," but rather, like a lurking wolf, it scanned every corner on the edge of chaos.
He was looking for an opportunity, a chance to survive, or even better survive, in the cracks of this world, as a lonely soul in a foreign land.
His gaze eventually settled on the stern of the Beaver.
Due to the angle and lighting, that area was a blind spot for the crowd to riot.
A wooden crate seemed to get stuck when it was pried open, and the two "Indians" cursed as they went to deal with other crates, temporarily forgetting about it on the edge of the deck.
The box wasn't large, but based on Levi's experience moving cargo on ships, it must have weighed at least three hundred pounds.
Inside was a bottle of high-quality Lapsang Souchong, which was quite valuable.
His heart began to beat faster than usual.
Blood surged through my limbs and bones, dispelling the chill of the Massachusetts Bay winter night.
It is a primal impulse mixed with fear and greed, a kind of masculine excitement that can only be felt when licking blood from the edge of a knife.
He slowly and patiently took off his worn-out deerskin boots, then untied the shiny leather belt around his waist and wrapped it tightly around his hand.
The darkness, the chaos, and the people's minds clouded by "freedom" were all his best disguise.
Like a raccoon, Li Wei slipped silently out of the alley, huddled in the shadows of the warehouse, and crept toward the water's edge at the dock.
The cold stone pavement made his feet ache, but he didn't care.
Compared to the feeling of hunger, this pain is practically a pleasure.
Several small, unattended sampans were moored by the water's edge, used by dockworkers for ferrying passengers.
He spotted the least conspicuous one, quietly untied the mooring rope, and used his hands instead of oars to row the boat little by little toward the shadowy stern of the Beaver.
The taste of the seawater was stronger, and the icy moisture almost seeped into his bones.
He could even smell the aroma emanating from the tea leaves floating on the water.
Of course, there's also the smell of money slipping away.
Just then, a suppressed, tearful female voice came from above him.
"Please... let me go... I'm not..."
Li Wei paused, then suddenly looked up.
In the shadows at the stern of the Beaver, a tall "Indian" was pinning a young girl dressed as a maid against the ship's railing.
The girl's blonde hair looked somewhat disheveled in the moonlight, and her dress had been torn open, revealing her dazzlingly white thighs.
The "Indian" had his face painted with red and black paint, but his eyes showed no trace of "freedom," only pure, undisguised desire.
He covered the girl's mouth with one hand, while preparing to reach under her skirt with the other.
"Shut up, you little bitch! It's your honor to sacrifice yourself for freedom!" the man growled in hoarse, alcohol-smelling English.
The girl struggled violently, letting out mournful moans, tears of despair streaming down her face.
Li Wei frowned.
He's not a good person, much less a knight.
At the Cape of Good Hope, he witnessed sailors fighting bloody battles over a black female slave.
In this era where human life is worth less than grass, a woman's chastity is no more valuable than a box of tea.
"It's better to avoid trouble than to cause trouble"—this was his survival principle.
His gaze returned to the box of tea.
As long as he keeps quiet and waits for the "Indian" to finish, he will have plenty of time to load the box of tea onto his small boat.
but……
Li Wei's gaze returned to the girl's blue eyes, which appeared exceptionally clear in the moonlight, yet were filled with despair.
Those eyes looked just like his sister who starved to death in the drought in Fujian.
"Hold."
Li Wei muttered a curse in his hometown dialect, as a brief farewell to his "path of exile."
He picked up a broken oar from the sampan. The wood was heavy, and the front end had a notch, making it perfect for cracking open a ladle.
He didn't choose to climb directly onto the ship from the water; that would have been too foolish.
Livy rowed his small boat silently around to the other side of the stern, where there was a rope ladder for boarding.
His movements were light, like a crab clinging to the hull of a ship. Years of working on ships had given him a physique far stronger than his appearance suggested, and an amazing sense of balance.
As he climbed onto the deck, the "Indian" was turning the girl over, trying to enter her from behind.
He muffled the girl's cries with a rag, leaving only helpless sobs.
Li Wei didn't hesitate at all, nor did he offer any more warnings like those foolish TV dramas from his previous life.
He gripped the broken oar tightly with both hands and, with all his might, swung it down hard on the back of the "Indian's" head!
"Bang!"
A muffled thud, like smashing a ripe watermelon.
The "Indian" didn't even utter a sound; his body went limp, and he collapsed forward, landing on top of the girl.
Li Wei dropped the oar, stepped forward, and dragged the burly man off the girl like a dead dog, turning him over.
Beneath the paint was a face that looked somewhat familiar to him—a notorious thug in the dock area, whose favorite pastime was extortion.
He checked his breathing; it was gone.
Li Wei's expression remained unchanged.
Killing someone is much simpler than fishing on the high seas.
He dragged the body to the side of the boat and, without the slightest hesitation, pushed it overboard.
With a soft "plop," the body, driven mad by the pursuit of "freedom," sank into the cold seabed off Boston, along with the expensive tea leaves.
The girl was still lying on the deck, her body trembling violently from fear and cold.
Li Wei walked over, squatted down, and draped the still-intact coat over her shoulders, covering her alluring exposed skin. He could smell a faint scent emanating from her, a mixture of sweat and cheap soap.
"What's your name?" His English had a strange accent, but his pronunciation was clear.
The girl looked up, revealing a pretty face streaked with tears. She looked no more than sixteen or seventeen years old, with beautiful flaxen blonde hair and blue eyes like a frightened fawn.
"Fiona... Fiona Cahill." Her voice was still trembling.
"The Irish?" Levi raised an eyebrow. In Boston, the Irish, like yellow-skinned monkeys, were at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
Fiona nodded, looking fearfully at the Eastern man who had suddenly appeared and swiftly killed someone.
He wasn't as tall as those "Indians," but his dark eyes, as deep as the starless night sky, gave her a strange flutter in her heart.
"Thank you, sir..."
"I'm not Mr." Li Wei interrupted her, stood up, and looked back at the box of tea. "I saved you, so you have to do me a favor."
Fiona was stunned.
Li Wei pointed to the box of tea, then to his small sampan moored below, and said succinctly, "Give me a hand and get it down. After that, you go your way, and I'll go mine."
He thought the girl would be so frightened that she would turn around and run away.
Unexpectedly, Fiona hesitated for only a moment before wiping away her tears and leaping to her feet. She deftly straightened her dress, then walked to the large trunk and, with all her might, lifted a corner of it.
"What...what's your name?" she asked, panting as she struggled.
"Li Wei".
"Lee...Ve..." Fiona murmured the tongue-twisting name, a stubborn glint in her eyes. "I owe you my life, Lee. We Irish people repay kindness with kindness."
Li Wei didn't say anything, he just smiled.
Gratitude?
On this land, the least valuable things are kindness and human life.
He only believes in the benefits he has in his hands.
With their combined efforts, the two of them managed to move the 300-pound box little by little up the rope ladder onto the sampan. The small boat suddenly sank and nearly capsized.
Li Wei jumped onto the boat and steadied it.
He glanced at Fiona, who was still standing on the deck of the ship, the moonlight outlining her shapely figure.
Although she wore a simple maid's outfit, the wildness that emanated from her bones was like a spark about to ignite a prairie fire.
"Aren't you leaving?" Li Wei asked.
Fiona shook her head. She glanced at the still-frenzied crowd on the dock, then at the small boat adrift in the icy water, and suddenly asked, "Do you... have somewhere to go?"
Li Wei did not answer.
"Neither did I." Fiona's tone was calm, but her eyes were unusually firm. "I just... ran away from my master's house. I stole his bread; he wanted to sell me to a ship. So..."
She paused, took a deep breath, as if she had made a major decision.
"So, until I repay your favor, I'll stick with you."
Before Li Wei could react, she grabbed the rope ladder and nimbly slid down, landing steadily on the other end of the sampan, splashing a small amount of water.
Li Wei: "..."
He looked at the Irish girl talking to herself, then at the heavy box of tea in the middle of the boat, and suddenly felt that this winter night didn't seem so cold after all.
trouble.
But she might also be a troublesome woman with some good looks.
He said no more, picked up the oar that had once been used as a weapon, and began to row with all his might.
A small boat carrying a silent Eastern man, a runaway Irish girl, and a box of Chinese tea that should have been lost at sea, quietly disappeared into the night of Boston Harbor.
Behind them, the cries for freedom still resounded deafeningly.