48 Hours a Day

One month later, Sea Lion had eventually decided to head back to Nassau. Other than the lack of pirates and supplied on board, they need to fix the damaged mast. The ship would travel in extremely slow speed as long as the mast was not fixed. Initially, Orff did not want to allow the pirates to get down from the ship. Everyone on the ship was really mad when they received the order. Asking all these men to stay on the ship after they spent three months travelling on the ship was basically impossible.

In the end Orff had to take back what he had said and let everyone leave the ship temporary. Orff made sure to let everyone know that it was crucial to not tell anyone that they were looking for Kidd’s treasure. Just as expected, one hour after the first batch of pirates left the ship, the news of them looking for Kidd’s treasure was spread to the entire island.

Every single person in Nassau was talking about this matter. This did not necessarily have to be a bad thing. The recruitment process went way smoother than they expected. Usually, when a pirate ship loses more than 40% of the people in one trip, people would tend to think about the odds of them not being killed by the enemies if they were asked to join the particular pirate ship.

Things were different this time. There were many who wanted to join the Sea Lion. Some of the smaller pirate groups were even proposing to join forces with Sea Lion. In the end, Owen had to summon a dozen pirates to maintain the order of people that were applying to join Sea Lion. Anne was elated when she heard that Sea Lion was recruiting. She even blamed Zhang Heng and Marvin for not telling her about it.

Immediately, she ran to apply to join Sea Lion. In the evening, she returned home in a saddened state. She did not even manage to put down her name on paper, let alone taking the test. As usual, she came into conflict with others when she was lining up. Undeniably, she was exceptionally brave even though she had four pirates going against her. Instead of running away, Anne used both her fists to fight with them. In the end, two of them were knocked unconscious and the other two quickly fled the scene while carrying their injured friends.

Zhang Heng saw Anne with bruises all over her face and arm when he opened the door. He could sense that she was different than usual.

“Dinner is ready. Come and eat with us,” said Zhang Heng.

Anne’s appetite was not as good as usual. She used her hand to pick up a potato and held it in her hand for some time. It seemed like she was deep in thought.

“What if I tell you that I want to become your wife?” asked Anne.

Marvin almost swallowed his spoon while drinking soup after he heard Anne’s proposal.

“Don’t misunderstand my intention. I’m not defeated by the fact that I can’t join Sea Lion. And, I don’t want to become a housewife as well. I feel bad for letting you provide a place for me to stay and food to eat for free. Initially, I thought that I could earn enough money to pay for the accommodation and food. It seems like I have overestimated myself.”

She felt really embarrassed. Earlier, she promised Zhang Heng that she would give half of the loot that she received to Zhang Heng. Unfortunately, all she got during her very first raid was only a pot. It was worthless. Hence, she did not give it to Zhang Heng. She was now jobless again after she got into a huge argument with Golden Swallow. All she did right now was eat, sleep, and fight with someone every day.

She did not know how to cook or do simple housework. Fighting with others had always been her forte. Every time when Zhang Heng and Marvin set sail for raiding other ships, they would always leave some food and pocket money for her. Every time when they came home, they would find out that the house was turned upside down. Zhang Heng had found her bra under his bed more than once. Her dream was to get rich as soon as possible. That was why she felt so excited when she heard that the Sea Lion was looking for Kidd’s treasure. She thought that this was her golden opportunity to make her dream come true. Sadly, things did not go her way.

Though Zhang Heng had never stopped convincing her to go home and enjoyed what she had, he had to admit that Anne had invested her entire life to improve her fighting skills. Technically speaking, she was born to become a pirate. Judging from her personality, it was impossible to ask her to stay in one place for too long. The problem was no pirate group in Nassau would accept a female to join their crew.

“What do you plan to do after I marry you?” asked Zhang Heng.

“Hmm… I don’t know… At least I will not stay and eat for free at your place,” Anne replied in a disappointed manner.

“I have a proposal. If you can control your anger and not fight with others, I will let you come aboard my ship.”

“Your ship? Hold on. Since when do you own a ship? Are you planning to leave Sea Lion soon?”

“Yes.”

This was the very first time Zhang Heng had told others about his plan. He wanted to form his pirate crew. Marvin was left in great shock as well.

“Are you planning to do it after we get our share of Kidd’ treasure? With that kind of money, you can easily recruit potential pirates to join you. But, why would you become a pirate if you are super rich?”

“I don’t plan to do it after we find the treasure. I have asked Owen about the rights of new recruits like us. He told me that we can choose to leave after a year if we want to. I will apply to leave the ship once time is up.”

“What if we fail to locate the Kidd’s treasure by then? You should know that there are still two more parts of the treasure map waiting to be found, right? Didn’t you see what happened at the beach this afternoon? Everyone from Nassau is trying to join the Sea Lion. Why would leave them right now?”

“Though I really want to become a pirate, there’s no need to rush. I have waited for a long time. I don’t mind waiting for a little longer,” said Anne.

Zhang Heng did not reply to them. The reason why he wanted to leave Sea Lion had nothing to do with the treasure. He had a hunch that thing would go terribly wrong for him If he chose to stay with the Sea Lion. Recently, he could feel that the way Orff treated him had changed. They had not talked much ever since Zhang Heng joined Sea Lion. Until recently, Zhang Heng could feel that someone was staring at him all the time. Especially during the previous few fights. Not a lot of people could pull something like this. Orff was one of them.