Chapter 1: Caught a Beautiful Male Fish
"Second Young Miss, the waves in the South Sea are really big~ ugh~" A wave hit, rocking the ship. Lan Qian leaned over the railing, vomiting profusely.
Jiang Yang lay on the soft couch, turned over, and covered her ears with a pillow.
After a while, Lan Qian returned, covering her mouth. She had been vomiting from morning till night, her legs weak from it. She collapsed beside Jiang Yang's soft couch and complained pitifully, "Second Young Miss, what kind of situation is this? The national treasury has no money, so they're sending you to find money."
"What can be done?" Jiang Yang sighed.
The emperor was an extravagant and debauched old hag, forcing rebels to revolt. The national treasury was almost depleted, and unable to find money, they set their sights on ocean-going merchant ships.
The Jiang clan had lived in Lingnan for generations, relying on the mountains and facing the sea. This task naturally fell to them. Jiang Yang's elder sister commanded troops in the Lingnan area, a powerful figure in Lingnan. The Jiang family naturally wouldn't let her go to sea.
After much consideration, this task fell to Jiang Yang.
But she didn't know how to do business at all!
She had transmigrated to this matriarchal world. Before transmigrating, she was just an ordinary 9-to-5 worker with little pay and a lot of work. If she knew how to do business, would she have been working a job in her previous life?
That damned emperor should be overthrown soon. Jiang Yang put on a pained expression.
"Yang'er, you're grown up now. It's time for you to learn to stand on your own. Go, set sail, and earn some money," her father cried profusely as she was leaving, while her mother patted her shoulder and said earnestly.
Jiang Yang forced a smile: "But Mother, I don't know how to do business." Besides, she couldn't speak foreign languages. Do the foreigners in matriarchal countries speak English too? After not using it for so many years, her English level was now limited to 'how are you, I'm fine thank you, and you'.
Her mother lovingly patted her and pointed at the ocean-going ship, saying, "It's fine as long as they know how to do business."
"They?" Jiang Yang looked back at the big ship. The largest ship was over a hundred meters long and could carry nearly hundreds of people. It had 10 large sails, like a castle on the sea. But after looking around, she couldn't figure out who her mother was pointing to. She looked at her mother with a confused face: "Who?"
Her mother's loving smile cracked a bit, and she pointed again.
Jiang Yang squinted her eyes and finally noticed that there were cannon positions on both sides of the ship hull. The black muzzles looked cool and intimidating.
Good grief, it turned out she wasn't going to earn money, but to rob money.
"Ah—" Jiang Yang sighed deeply.
Lan Qian thought she was worrying about making money and said, "Second Young Miss, you don't need to worry. We're very well-prepared this time— ugh~"
Jiang Yang lazily said, "If we're using the cannons, we're certainly well-prepared."
Lan Qian humbly scratched the back of her head: "In business, it's quite reasonable to bring some cannons and hand cannons~ ugh~"
"I told you before, if you're not good with water, don't come along. Look at yourself now." Jiang Yang opened one eye and glanced at Lan Qian's face, which looked like death from vomiting.
Lan Qian said resolutely: "I am the Second Young Miss's~ ugh~ personal maid. Wherever the Second Young Miss goes, I go."
"Don't stick so close to me now." Jiang Yang disgustedly pushed her face away: "Don't vomit on my bed."
Lan Qian hugged the spittoon pitifully: "It's also the Second Young Miss's first time at sea. How come you're not seasick?"
"Probably natural talent." She stretched lazily and got out of bed. She picked some dried insects from the bird food box and fed them on the windowsill: "Eat, Angry Bird."
A ball of white fluff on the windowsill moved. Its head, like an owl's, turned 360 degrees, then lowered to peck at the food.
Angry Bird was a communication bird given to her by her elder sister Jiang Qingzhou for the sea voyage. Its name was Hua Xiao.
Jiang Yang could never figure out what species this thing was. It usually didn't call or fly, quiet as a chicken. Its head was like an owl's, its feathers like a snowy owl's. Its two big black eyeballs stared at you motionlessly, quite scary. What's funnier was that its eyebrows were just like Angry Bird's, so she simply called it Angry Bird.
After playing with Angry Bird for a while, Jiang Yang pushed open the wooden lattice window. The magnificent sea view was in full sight. The azure sky connected with the deep blue sea water, merging into a line at the horizon. She could almost feel the moist sea air in her nostrils.
The ocean-going ship had seven levels in total. The lower four levels were used for ballast and storing food. Sailors and the like lived in the forecastle, with more than a dozen people crammed into one cabin.