Chapter 103: 103

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 .