Allure of a Country Maiden-Chapter 267 - 265

At this time, the wind was blowing from the southeast on the ocean, and the ship was sailing downwind, in a direction directly opposite to the wind.

"Please steer the ship towards the southeast."Upon hearing Bai Tian’s words, Xiao’er immediately instructed the helmsman to change course.

After saying this, Xiao’er went back into the hold, planning to get something to eat before coming back out to check on things.

Seeing Xiao’er go in, the chief helmsman muttered, "We just need to tweak the sails a tad. Just a gesture, really. We shouldn’t change our general course."

Looking at Xiao’er, a young girl barely out of her infancy, the chief helmsman assumed her instructions were mere child’s play. However, he also suspected she was someone of importance, and knew such young ladies were usually stubborn. If he refused, she would make a fuss, so he thought of pretending to comply but actually maintaining the original course.

Changing the course would mean doubling back to this area if no one was found in the southeast. It would be a waste of a whole day. Madness!

"Won’t this be a bit improper? What if the young lady discovers this?" A young helmsman asked hesitantly in a low voice.

The man was hired by Young Master Di to join the search party, and it stands to reason that whatever the latter ordered, they should do.

"That young miss is just a little girl, what could she possibly know? Who’s to say that she was not merely speaking off the cuff? In this vast ocean, there’s nothing but water in all directions. Without a compass, I wouldn’t dare to claim which way is southeast!" The chief helmsman scoffed. It would be a joke if the girl knew which direction was southeast! She might not even realize that the ship hadn’t changed course.

"Exactly! How dare she just point to the southeast and tell us to go there? We’ve been sailing all day. Isn’t that all just a waste now?" Another person agreed in hushed tones, worried that the soldiers on both sides of the ship might hear.

"That’s right! Does a young maiden know the ocean better than us? The southeast is full of legendary death zones. Ships that went there never came back. Who knows where that Ghostly place actually is? What if we accidentally stray into the death zone? I dare not go to those waters!" A tall, thin sailor with a face full of stubble fully agreed with the chief helmsman.

He set sail this time to earn silver, not to risk his life.

"Exactly, our plan was to search the nearby islands first and then the distant ones. Young Master Di agreed with it too, now she just wanted to change the course on her whim. In case we don’t find anyone in the southeast, how will we handle the blame from Young Master Di? Won’t we have to come back this way again? Isn’t that just pointless bumbling?! The longer we stay out at sea, the more dangerous it is. No one knows when a storm might hit!" The one speaking had dark skin, a pair of triangularly shaped eyes, and thick lips.

"So let’s just leave it as it is. The weather at sea is unpredictable. We should reach the island sooner, complete the mission, and quickly return to port. After this sea voyage, I won’t go out again." After all, he had earned more than three hundred taels this month, much more than he had made in the previous ten years.

No matter what, life is more important than silver.

"Or maybe the young girl really sensed something. Sometimes my mother’s hunches are pretty accurate. We’re pretending to comply but actually defying her, what if the Sixth Prince is really waiting for us to rescue him over there..."

"Have you gone mad? How long has it passed? Waiting for us to rescue him? That’s just laughable! Do you think we are really out at sea to rescue people? If we can find a bone, we should count ourselves lucky! You have the looks of a human being, yet you don’t have a brain!"

The young helmsman blushed and bowed his head, ashamed of himself.

Xiao’er sat in the cabin, taking a meat bun from her space to eat. After a single bite, she felt the ship making a slight change in direction. However, by the time she finished the entire bun, apart from that initial small change, the ship’s course remained steadfast. To be exact, it was still sailing northwest.

Xiao’er frowned, got up and went out. As she stepped onto the deck, she heard the last two lines of dialogue.

"Have you adjusted the course?" Xiao’er looked at them with a blank expression.

"Back to Miss, we have. The ship is now heading southeast." The chief helmsman answered seriously, as if he hadn’t disobeyed her at all.

"Is that so? Are you sure it’s southeast?" Xiao’er asked him leisurely.

"Yes." The chief helmsman looked somewhat uncomfortable under Xiao’er’s gaze and quickly averted his eyes.

"Well, you are no longer needed as the chief helmsman! For this sea voyage, none of you will receive a single coin. Now, each of you will receive ten strokes as punishment for intentionally delaying the rescue of the Sixth Prince." Xiao’er said sternly.

"On what grounds?" The chief helmsman’s face turned red in anger.

"Do I need to ask someone to bring out the compass?"

Hearing that they would receive no silver and would have to suffer corporal punishment, the men took a fright.

"Miss, even if we didn’t change course, we had our reasons. We also long to find the Sixth Prince as soon as possible." The tall, thin sailor quickly began to explain.

"Young Lady, this ship is under our control. We did the labor, why shouldn’t we be compensated? We were simply following the plans set out with Young Master Di before departure. We haven’t gone astray, why should we be flogged? Even in county courts, they must follow the codex when enforcing law, they cannot use private punishment!" The chief helmsman argued fiercely.

"Therefore, from this moment onwards, you are no longer necessary to steer this ship, and without work, you won’t have to be paid! When I just boarded the ship, I remember Young Master Di saying that my orders were equivalent to his."\ This was clearly them thinking she was too young and therefore ignorant!

Xiao’er would have liked to throw them into the sea if she had heard what they had said earlier.

"What’s wrong?" Di Shaowei came out just as he woke up and asked upon seeing Xiao’er’s angry face.

"I asked them to steer the ship towards the southeast, but they’ve been playing dumb and jerking me around!"

Upon hearing this, Di Shaowei’s expression darkened.

The sailors, who had been interacting with Di Shaowei for a while, had always seen him act courteously. They had never seen him darken his face like this before.

The sailors hurriedly began to explain one after the other.

"Young Master Di, our plan to search for the Sixth Prince from near to far is the most viable. The wind is strong at sea today, and at this speed, we will reach that island in four or five days. We have searched all nearby waters, it’s most probable that the Sixth Prince is on that island. The legendary ’death zones’ are said to exist in the east and the west, we have never been to those areas, and it’s unknown whether there are any islands there. So we did not follow the young girl’s order."

"That’s right, we also want to find the Sixth Prince as soon as possible. If we move towards the southeast now, we don’t know how many days it will take before we come across an island. If we don’t find anyone on that side, we’ll have to turn back here, which will only further delay the rescue time for the Sixth Prince."

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