Abandoned Woman Busy Farming

Chapter 2401: Chapter 2402: The Missing Sailor

Next to him, Jiang Yichun’s face turned dark. He should have gone to the island for a walk earlier; delivering fruit to his own wife was something he should have done.

The sailor who offered the wild fruit felt a chill and shivered. Why did he have the feeling that he was being watched by a ferocious beast?

Bai Ruozhu took the wild fruit and rewarded him with a bit of broken silver. The man happily continued searching for things.

”You guys wash them clean and share them,” Bai Ruozhu handed the wild fruit to Yizi. The eyes of the young girls sparkled as they definitely wanted to eat.

Life on the boat was tough. Not only was the food not good, but the accommodations weren’t either; even wanting to eat some fruit was difficult. No wonder the young girls’ eyes lit up at the sight of wild fruit.

”I’ll go for a walk too,” Jiang Yichun said.

”I’ll go with you,” Bai Ruozhu also wanted to look around; maybe there could be some interesting discoveries.

The two wandered around the island. The vegetation was lush and green, as if supported by a water source. But after walking for half a day, they only found a cave and didn’t see any streams or freshwater rivers.

”Could there be groundwater?” Bai Ruozhu asked.

”We’re surrounded by the sea. How could there be groundwater? It would only be seawater, right?” Jiang Yichun replied.

As the sky darkened, the two returned to the seaside, preparing to have dinner with everyone.

There were no smooth sandy beaches here, only a coastline made up of scattered rocks.

As a modern person who had vacationed on many beaches in her previous life, Bai Ruozhu discovered for the first time that the coastline was like this.

To traverse this area, they had to step on large stones. These stones were rounded and smooth from the ocean’s wash, lacking sharp edges, making walking on them not so easy.

Of course, Bai Ruozhu and the others with martial arts would have no problem, but some women walked cautiously.

The ship was anchored a distance from the shore. The people on the ship could swim over or take a small boat.

The women from the ship’s kitchen took a small boat, bringing some dishes over.

Teng Ya carried a food box, hesitated after disembarking, and finally took off her embroidered shoes, stepping barefoot on the rocks like a nimble deer, hopping over.

Bai Ruozhu saw this scene and couldn’t help but smile. Seeing these young girls was delightful, making her feel young herself.

She couldn’t help but laugh again; she wasn’t even twenty yet.

The ship workers lit bonfires; some took out fish to barbecue. Even though it was fish, barbecuing gave it a different vibe.

Soon, someone shot a few seabirds over, plucked their feathers, and roasted them.

Bai Ruozhu watched all of this, feeling that the tense atmosphere of the past few days had dissipated, leaving her much more relaxed.

After dinner, everyone was energized, and some danced around the bonfire, with Teng Ya and Yizi joining the fun.

”Why hasn’t Li Zi returned? Isn’t he eating dinner?” someone muttered to the person next to them.

”Yeah, why hasn’t he come back? I saw him earlier when he came back with wild fruit, and then he left again. Nothing happened, right?”

”No way, we’ve just wandered around for half a day and didn’t encounter any beasts. There’s no one else on this island, so how could anything happen?”

Bai Ruozhu happened to overhear their conversation. She looked around and indeed noticed that the sailor who delivered wild fruit to her was missing.

Suddenly, she had a bad feeling. Could it be that this deserted island isn’t as simple as it seems?

”Achun, has anyone explored the cave before?” Bai Ruozhu asked.

”Yes, it’s connected to the other side of the small mountain, but no signs of human excavation were found,” Jiang Yichun replied.

”Send someone to search for that sailor named Li Zi. Perhaps he fell somewhere and couldn’t come back,” Bai Ruozhu said.

Jiang Yichun was slightly displeased because he remembered that sailor being attentive to his wife. But he knew the situation and immediately informed Mo Beishan to arrange a search.

Many people noticed the commotion, and suddenly Tang Feng said, ”Could it be the Black Pirates secretly landed on the other side of the island?”

Everyone became nervous, but Old Ding quickly ruled out this possibility.

The island is small; even landing from the other side, the Black Pirate Ship would still have to approach this sea area. Others might not notice, but he would at least have some sense of it.

Unless the Black Pirates rowed small boats from far away.

Bai Ruozhu shook her head, ”If that’s the case, they would wait for everyone to arrive before catching us off guard, not rashly attacking a single sailor and arousing our suspicion and alertness.”

Everyone thought she made sense, essentially dismissing the Black Pirates’ possibility, but many still felt an unsettling feeling brewing inside them.

The dispatched search team returned after a little over half an hour. The island was small, and a little over half an hour was enough for a thorough search, especially as three groups were assigned different areas.

”Chief, no discoveries,”

”I found some footprints, but with so many people landing today, it’s uncertain who left them. No other clues were found,”

”Sir Mo, your subordinate went near where Li Zi found the wild fruit but found no clues,”

Mo Beishan frowned, ”Did you search thoroughly? Have you been to the cave? A living person disappearing on the island is impossible, right?”

”Could he have an enemy who quietly killed him and threw him into the sea?” a guard suggested.

Li Jin hurriedly said, ”The people on the boat are all honest folks; what kind of deep enmity would warrant murder and corpse disposal?”

This was indeed puzzling. Bai Ruozhu called everyone over loudly and asked, ”Who saw Li Zi on the island today, and where was he? What was he doing then?”

Soon, various answers came up. Some said they saw Li Zi near the wild fruit area, others on the way to gather. The last one said Li Zi went to look for things again on the island, happily saying that Bai rewarded him with silver.

”Could it be someone got greedy?” Qiu Zhi suddenly said.

Bai Ruozhu glared at him. She wasn’t a reckless person; though she rewarded the sailor with silver, it was just small broken silver, not worth much. Killing someone for that would make no sense; the boat gives monthly allowances, so there would be constant killings?

But she wouldn’t overlook any clues. If necessary, she would separate and interrogate the sailors who landed.

”Hey, aren’t we missing someone from our team?” a squad captain suddenly asked, ”Where’s Wang Shu?”

The others quickly looked around and only then realized that a guard named Wang Shu was missing.

”When was the last time you saw him?” Bai Ruozhu quickly asked.

”Just when we were returning after failing to find any clues about Li Zi, he was with us during the gathering, talking to us along the way,” the squad captain frowned, wondering if one of his subordinates committed murder quietly.