Chapter 97: First Intimate Contact

At the harbor, besides the head of the Whale Hunting Company and the largest and smallest shareholders, most of those who had come to welcome the Sea Windmill’s return were merely onlookers drawn by the excitement: loafing louts, unemployed vagabonds, and a few pampered young idlers.

Not far from the berth where the Sea Windmill had tied up, several broad-shouldered men in crisp clothing stretched out their arms and blocked the surging crowd, creating a quiet little pocket. A fine carriage stood quietly there, and from it drifted a soft, graceful, coquettish female voice.

Anqi, dressed in a light pink gown with a white fox-fur coat, frowned as she looked toward the Sea Windmill. Opposite her sat Anlin, in a powder-blue gown and a blazing red fox-fur coat. The two girls were intimate companions, friends in whom they confided everything. When they heard the Sea Windmill was returning today, they had come, guards in tow, eager for the spectacle.

As Lin Qi clambered down from the deck with a smug smile, Anqi let out a cry as if she had seen a ghost.

“God in heaven—wasn’t he nearly dead after the hundred-or-so blows from those savage beast-folk? Am I seeing a ghost in broad daylight? Why didn’t he die? How can he still be alive and well?”

When she remembered the tens of thousands of gold coins she had lost the other night, Anqi felt her heart twist in pain. She angrily twisted a poor little white handkerchief until it was knotted like a twisted candy cane. Those coins had been her hard-earned pocket money, more precisely the private savings she had set aside for her future marriage—every noble lady, of course, must have some private funds, or all sorts of delightful things would be forever beyond her reach.

And Lin Qi, without a single shred of pity, had taken that hard-earned hidden purse of hers.

This meant that if Anqi were to marry within the next two years, she would no longer be able to buy luxurious clothing and jewels at will, to hold her own salons and artistic gatherings, or join her close friends in interesting, secret, and very expensive amusements.

“This demon! He should be nailed to a stake and burned in eternal flames.”

Anqi tore her handkerchief in rage; tiny white shreds drifted everywhere in the carriage.

Anlin, frowning, watched Lin Qi heartily embrace Blackbeard and nodded thoughtfully. “It is indeed strange. Send someone to make inquiries. I cannot understand how he should be recuperating at the mountain villa and yet be aboard the Sea Windmill.”

With a light hum, Anqi extended her delicate white hand from the window and made a casual gesture. A guard slipped into the bustling crowd at the dock, and after some time he returned, breathless, and respectfully reported what he had learned.

At that very moment, a band of jubilant middle-aged men held up the Unicorn Whale King’s horn high. Its radiant golden sheen, unique spiral pattern, and impossible length all proclaimed what an extraordinary prize Lin Qi’s party had brought back.

When the guard had first reported that only one creature had been taken, Anqi had let out a derisive laugh.

But when the name of that catch was made public, Anqi’s face darkened with fury. Clenching her fist, she muttered through clenched teeth, “The Unicorn Whale King? My God, why did that terrible beast not swallow this devil whole?”

The crowd on the dock suddenly surged. Many clapped and shouted in unison, crying out to Lin Qi and Enzo, praising them as “men among men.” Amid the roar of the crowd, Lin Qi waved proudly, basking in the acclaim. That arrogant, impossible little display nearly made Anqi’s heart explode.

Amid the cheering, rows of immaculate-uniformed Whale Hunting Company employees formed a neat line across the dock, separating the people and creating a wide avenue between the Sea Windmill and the company warehouse. One special carriage after another came to the Sea Windmill’s berth, and the sailors, laughing and joking, used arcane-powered unloading rigs to disembark every piece taken from the Unicorn Whale King.

Each enormous gold-glittering hunk of flesh drew cheers from the crowd.

Then came the barrels of its blood, and the cheers rose yet higher.

When the organs, tongue, and bones were finally unloaded, the crowd was nearly mad. Most of all the bones—golden and luminous as though cast from pure metal, steeped in a grand, mysterious aura—could drive the greatest nobles of the capital to obsession.

At last, even barrels of its dung were brought down. It was no mere refuse: a single jin of that substance could fetch hundreds of gold pieces as a miracle fertilizer. Whether sailors or company men, everyone carried those stinking treasures with immense care, with the same reverence as a mother cradling her newborn child.

The dock erupted in applause and exultant shouts as people leaped about in excitement.

Lin Qi, however, pulled Enzo and Longcheng into the crowd. Without appearing to stir, he made a few discreet signals among the rough men mingling with the masses, and before long the man he needed appeared—a repulsive middle-aged fellow who delivered the information he sought. Lin Qi slipped two gold coins into the man’s hand, greeted Blackbeard, then, with Longcheng and Enzo at his side, vanished into the crowd like a trick.

Inside the carriage, Anqi had gone so pale with anger. She knew what one Unicorn Whale King meant: Lin Qi had gone out to sea for a week and brought one back. It was beyond belief. Why would the gods ever favor such a villain? She snapped at the coachman, ordering him to take her away from this cursed place at once.

She decided on the Golden Rose Lounge; perhaps there her mood would ease.

But the carriage did not move. Angrily, Anqi leaned out of the window to hurl an insult, and her tirade froze on her tongue.

With a mysterious smile, a nightmare version of Lin Qi appeared before her, no more than a foot away.

Lin Qi bowed with theatrical courtesy and proclaimed, “Lady Anqi, I have the honor of introducing a distinguished guest from afar. A guest of such eminence as to be equal to a prince of our empire—a guest from the mysterious, rich, mighty, gold-laden Eastern Empire, His Excellency Longcheng.”

In a rare blue fox-fur coat, handsome and imposing with proud arrogance and a lifted chin, Longcheng stepped forward. He smiled at Anqi, and his smile possessed the ripe magnetism of a grown man—nothing like what a raw youth like Lin Qi could ever claim.

With undeniable, almost commanding confidence, Longcheng spoke in a voice full of gravity and charm: “A beautiful lady, I am certain you would be interested in sharing dinner with me this evening.”

At the sight of Longcheng’s enticing smile, Anqi was, for a moment, all but spellbound.