48 Hours a Day

That was the first time Zhang Heng heard the pirates mentioning the word ‘Nassau.’ He recalled that his main goal for this quest was to set up base at Nassau and establish his own kingdom there. Naturally, Zhang Heng was curious to know more about the place.

Just before he could find out more details about Nassau, he felt like vomiting again. Once again, he held the barrel tightly and belched whatever that was left in his stomach.

“Rest well. You will be fine after a good sleep. I shall take my leave now.”

Zhang Heng realized that he wasnt doing well both physically and mentally. Right now, he wasn’t even thinking straight anymore. Initially, he had made plans with Marvin to take care of the body tonight.

In his current state, it would be impossible for him to see the mission through. He felt worse with every passing second as if being tossed into a washing machine. Yet again, something came up to his throat, and he belched once more into the barrel. This whole vomiting business lasted until late that night. Finally, he passed out of fatigue. When he opened his eyes again, he saw a familiar face looking at him.

“You are finally awake! I have made you some fish soup. The fish was captured this morning, freshness guaranteed. Drink it to sustain your body,” said Marvin while placing the piping hot bowl of fish soup next to him.

Marvin seemed to be genuine, looking at him like he sincerely wanted him to recover as soon as possible. Zhang Heng turned to his side, looking at the bowl of fish soup and the biscuits beside it. Instead of gobbling them up, he asked Marvin a question.

“Why are you here?”

“Oh. Goodwin told Mr. Owen that you were gravely ill. So, Mr. Owen asked around to see if anyone was willing to take care of you. Immediately, I volunteered since my schedule is free after I had served meals for two pirates.”

Marvin realized that Zhang Heng had a hard time trusting him. So, he went ahead and took a sip of the fish soup and took a bite of the biscuits to prove that it wasn’t poisoned.

“Actually, you don’t have to tread so lightly around me. We are literally in the same boat right now. Bruce, Kenny, you, and I are the only ones still alive. Times like these call for us to work together to face whatever storm coming our way.”

Marvin paused suddenly, cautiously scanning his surroundings with wide eyes. He only resumed the conversation after he made sure there were no eavesdroppers.

“This morning, the pirates searched the ship from top to bottom again. They were looking for Victor, their buddy. Thankfully they missed a few spots in the galley. What’s our next move? Will they question us regarding this?”

Zhang Heng gulped down the fish soup and looked at Marvin. Perhaps he was mistaken, but he felt that Marvin’s acting skills had gotten a lot better. Before this, it was hard for honest Marvin to hide anything from anyone. Now, Zhang Heng could no longer read Marvin’s mind from his facial expressions. Could the harsh circumstances have forced Marvin to improve in such a short time?

Zhang Heng clearly knew that Marvin was an unreliable man. Everything that had happened before this led Zhang Heng to believe that Marvin was, in fact, an incredibly selfish person. It was going to be impossible to so quickly change a nature so deeply rooted in him. He cared only about himself. Once a golden opportunity was presented before him, he would definitely not hesitate to betray those who had placed their faith in him.

For now, they both faced equal risks and opportunities.

The dead body inside the barrel was their common problem, with Marvin having to rely on Zhang Heng to get rid of it. With the corpse still on the ship, Marvin would definitely not do anything to harm Zhang Heng.

Unfortunately, things got even worse for Zhang Heng, as he started vomiting again after drinking the fish soup. This time, it lasted a week.

When the week ended, Zhang Heng had lost almost a quarter of his body weight. Some of the crew even believed he wouldn’t make it out alive.

Things like this happened all too often when one was out at sea for extended periods. Due to poor hygiene on the ship, the chances of contracting various diseases increased exponentially for those on board. With the current era’s questionable medical knowledge and equipment, the poor patient would most probably die even if there was a doctor on the ship.

Nobody expected Zhang Heng to be resilient enough to defeat his illness. When he was finally healthy enough to walk around on the ship, he was left with a 100-pound skeleton of a body.

“Oh my god! You look like someone who’s never been out to sea! How is that even possible? I thought you were out at sea for at least a month and a half?” asked a perplexed Goodwin.

“That’s a long story.”

With Goodwin’s assistance, Zhang Heng got off his bed and walked to the deck. He could finally breathe in the fresh salty air that he had been craving for over a week now. It was a good feeling, making a recovery from the awful illness. Never in his life had it occurred to him that standing under the sun could be such luxury. For the past week, he had been completely stuck inside his cabin, resting up.

He almost forgot what the world looked like.

“Anyway, welcome back, my friend.”

Suddenly, Goodwin saw that Marvin was staring at them.

“I just remembered that I hadn’t serviced my weapon. We’ll talk later.”

Once Goodwin was gone, Marvin quickly strolled towards Zhang Heng, seeming worried and unsettled.

“Thank god you’ve recovered. I have no idea how I managed to survive the past week. My heart would skip a couple of beats whenever someone comes by the galley. That thing we put inside the barrel is long overdue… I can’t even begin to describe the stench anymore. If it wasn’t for the smell of smoked fish, they would have turned the galley inside out. Just now, I heard one pirate saying that we will reach land in about three days. We are both dead meat if someone finds out about this.”

“I understand your concerns. You have been holding out for so many days. Can you just wait for one more day? With my current condition, I am unable to do anything. Let’s do it tomorrow night. I promise we will deal with it.”

Though Marvin had started to get terribly anxious, he knew that Zhang Heng was telling the truth. The body should have been dealt with ten days ago. Who would have thought that Zhang Heng would be seasick for an entire week! Right now, there was nothing much that Marvin could do.

If only he were brave enough, it wasnt impossible to dump the barrel into the sea on his own. Unfortunately, he allowed fear to overcome his mind, not to mention his unhappiness of having to bear the responsibility even though Zhang Heng was the one who killed the pirate.