Chapter 290 - 263: The Yan Family’s Three Brothers
Tao Fu cupped his fists. "I’ll go paint the name on right away!"
Qin Ziwen followed him up to the deck.
This was his first time seeing the Ghost Ship, and he was quite curious.
On deck, a Ghost Boatman drifted aside to make way for Qin Ziwen.
A rope coiled around the mast shifted slightly, slithering like a small snake behind Qin Ziwen.
The rope gently tapped his shoulder.
Qin Ziwen turned, and the rope, as if startled, hastily retracted. It then straightened up and swayed gently, as if greeting him.
"Hello," Qin Ziwen said. He remembered that repairing a ship offered a small chance of awakening its resident ghosts, turning them into special crew members.
So far, he had only seen the Ghost Boatmen from the shipyard. ’Could these animated ropes be the special crew members?’
It was certainly possible.
He stepped onto the damp deck. Although it had grown harder and was no longer as brittle as when they first set sail, it still felt perpetually moist, like planks after a fresh rain.
Bits of seaweed and shell were stubbornly wedged in the crevices between the boards.
The ship’s overall color palette was somber, exuding a chilling, spectral energy.
Besides the ropes, the helm at the stern had also undergone a bizarre transformation.
The wooden helm was the size of a millstone, its grain clear but its surface rough and uneven.
On closer inspection, one could see that the uneven surface was actually a coarse, human face.
As Qin Ziwen approached, the face on the helm, whose eyes had been tightly shut, snapped open. A pair of wooden, rolling eyeballs, seemingly alive, followed his every move, staring intently at him.
"Can you steer?" Qin Ziwen asked, his interest piqued.
The face on the helm seemed unable to speak. It just stared at Qin Ziwen. After a moment, the helm began to turn on its own.
"Interesting." After looking around the deck, Qin Ziwen went below to inspect the cabins.
He found that the three decks below were somewhat dilapidated but at least not damp.
On the first deck below, there were four gunports. A Crossbow Cannon was mounted behind each one.
"They fixed these, too?"
Qin Ziwen was surprised.
The design of these Crossbow Cannons was rather unique.
They bore a strong resemblance to the Car-Mounted Crossbow but differed in many details.
For example, the drawing winch was at the very back, allowing two people to operate it simultaneously.
The Crossbow Arrows were shorter, only about 1.6 meters long, but their conical arrowheads were better suited for traveling through water.
The arrowheads were designed specifically for armor piercing.
Outside the ship, the newly forged Ghost Gold plating was brought over. The Ghost Boatmen floated alongside the hull, hammering in iron nails to affix the metal sheets to the exterior.
While everyone else was busy, Qin Ziwen went to the tavern.
He had found time to stop by occasionally over the past few days but had rarely encountered any customers.
The few who did appear were just travelers in a hurry. They would order some food, pay their bill, and leave.
He took out a physical copy of *Robinson Crusoe* and sat behind the counter to pass the time.
After reading for a bit, he couldn’t help but reflect, ’The island Robinson found was pretty big, much larger than our current one.’
Suddenly, he heard a noise from outside.
A moment later, the door flap was pushed aside.
Three burly men wearing bamboo hats and straw raincoats strode into the tavern. After a look around, they slapped their blades down on a table.
"Innkeeper, half a pound of beef."
Qin Ziwen put down his book. "We’re out of beef. But we have Dragon Flesh. You want some?"
"HAHAHAHAHA!" The burly, thick-bearded man on the left erupted in laughter.
"Hilarious. Truly hilarious."
"Dragon Flesh? Do you take us for fools? We three brothers have traveled high and low for years and never once have we heard of anyone selling Dragon Flesh."
"I’d like to see if this dump of a tavern can actually produce some. If you can’t, you’ll answer to us." The man on the right, who had short eyebrows and a yellow beard, rolled up his sleeves with a scowl.
The man in the middle, who was lean-cheeked with narrow eyes, coughed. "That’s enough. The innkeeper is obviously joking with us. Just bring us the meat, innkeeper. Pay my brother no mind."
Qin Ziwen observed the three. They had the distinct air of seasoned wanderers, much like Du Yu when he had first arrived.
He couldn’t help but use Insight on them.
[Ordinary Human: ☆☆☆☆]
[Ordinary Human: ☆☆☆☆]
[Ordinary Human: ☆☆☆☆]
To his surprise, their stats showed that all three were Four Stars, meaning they were exceptionally talented.
When Du Yu had first arrived at the Home, before getting an Enhancement Card, he was only at Four Stars of power.
In terms of raw power, these three could definitely be called gifted.
An idea came to him. Qin Ziwen turned, went to the back kitchen, and found Du Yu.
He then called for his brother. The three of them worked together to lift the Tyrannosaurus’s skull and carry it back into the tavern through the rear entrance.
They had just gotten back to the kitchen when the curtain was pulled aside. The man with the short eyebrows and yellow beard poked his head in. Seeing the three of them, he looked puzzled. "Huh. For a second there, I thought you’d run off, innkeeper."
His words caught in his throat as he stared, dumbfounded, at the massive Tyrannosaurus skull in the kitchen.
"Wh-what is that!?"
"A dragon," Qin Ziwen said with a grin. "I told you we sell Dragon Flesh, but you didn’t believe me. I had to bring out the dragon I butchered a few days ago for you to have a look. Don’t want you calling me a liar. This isn’t some shady joint; we don’t sell fakes here."
The man with the short eyebrows and yellow beard was speechless. He and his brothers had traveled far and wide for years and considered themselves worldly, but they had never seen anything like this.
He couldn’t be sure it was a dragon, but he didn’t dare deny it either.
The creature’s head was bigger than a table. Even the fiercest mountain tiger or the largest river crocodile couldn’t compare. It looked like it could have swallowed a tiger in a single gulp.
"You killed this?" The short-eyebrowed, yellow-bearded man still found it hard to believe.
Hearing the commotion, the other two men came over from the main hall.
Upon seeing the Tyrannosaurus skull in the kitchen, the other two men fell silent.
"Impressive. Truly impressive," said the man from the left, cupping his fists.
"Wait a moment." The lean-cheeked man’s gaze suddenly fixed on Du Yu, his voice filled with surprise and disbelief.
"Are you... Could this gentleman be Du Yu, the Tiger-Slayer of Tongzhou?"
"And who might you be?" Du Yu asked, surprised.
’Someone actually recognized me. Could he be from my hometown?’
The lean-cheeked man replied, "I am Yan Da of Taicang. These are my blood brothers, Yan San and Yan Wu."
"I have long heard of Brother Du’s fame. Years ago, at Guo Family Manor, I saw the tiger-slaying portrait Master Qiu of the Brush painted of you. I never had the honor of meeting you in person. We heard that two years ago, during your exile, you fell gravely ill on the road... I never imagined..." Yan Da’s voice was filled with a mix of emotion and delight.
’Fell gravely ill on the road, eh?’
Hearing the news of his own death from a stranger, Du Yu found it absurdly amusing. He shook his head with a small, wry smile, a sense of release washing over him.
’It’s a good thing, though. This way, the constables who escorted me won’t be implicated.’
’In any case, there’s no going back for me. I’m all alone here. As for the "Du Yu" of that other world... let him scatter to the winds.’
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