Sail Shadows in the Sea of ​​Fog

Chapter 137 The Well and the Mad Captain
On the second morning after arriving at Fengmo Island, the sea breeze carrying the scents of fruit and flowers, along with the bright sunrise, woke up all the sailors on the two ships.

As arranged last night, Gerta and Shenba were the first to lead the vine spirits on the Valkyrie to set off. Led by the villagers who brought breakfast, they entered the orchard that covered more than 90% of the island and began picking their favorite fruits.

A little later, Yun Ji and several other girls, along with the excited Little Princess Mist Shadow and the ship bottles salvaged from the Valkyrie's boiler, walked together towards the heart of the island, chatting and laughing, under the "protection" of the wooden figures on the Thorn and the members of the Tinesa Orchestra.

At this point, the only remaining sailors on the two ships were Cheng Lang, who had taken a rare nap, as well as the Magic Mirror and the Silver Queen, and of course, Ye Di, who had just been summoned by the Silver Queen.

"Lord Ye Di"

Cheng Lang presented the large cat with a fish he had personally cooked the night before, which had been stewing all night, silencing the cat's complaints. He then released Vanhart, who was hiding in the ring, and respectfully asked, "It seems there's a slight problem with the undead pet you gave us. May I ask..."

"You've eaten too much, just get some exercise and you'll feel better."

After Ye Di finished speaking, he had already picked up a large piece of fish and swallowed it. "Ugly hairless rat, this kind of fish is delicious. Go and get more."

There are still many in the pot in the kitchen.

Cheng Lang, who was already prepared, said this. Upon hearing this, Ye Di immediately ate another piece of fish from his plate and then ran to the kitchen in the forecourt with practiced ease.

“Since Vanhart is alright, Madam Silver Queen, the safety of the ship is in your care and that of your knights. I’ll go up and take a look around.” Cheng Lang said politely.

"Please go and have fun, Captain. I will take good care of our ship."

Before the Silver Queen finished speaking, a thick fog rose around them, and then the armored knights and the two-faced undead emerged from the medium's passage.

After politely thanking the Silver Queen, Cheng Lang stepped onto the springboard and climbed back onto Windmill Island, enjoying the surrounding scenery with great interest.

Overall, this island is indeed a great place to retire.

As far as the eye can see, the island is slightly higher in the middle and flat on all sides. The edges of the island are generally about three or four meters above the sea level, and a beautiful small dock has been built next to each windmill on the shore.

Even in this vast orchard inside the island, gravel roads leading to the various windmills have been built.

Along the way, the villagers who were pruning branches or grafting trees greeted him warmly and tacitly guided him to the windmill in the heart of the island, while also offering him various kinds of fruit.

The island's fruits are mainly various citrus and melons, but there are also many vegetable gardens full of various vegetables.

He even saw semi-underground open-air pigsties, cowsheds, and poultry running around in the orchards that blocked the sea breeze.

He continued walking deeper into the island, eating the free fruit as he went. Eventually, the sea breeze completely disappeared, and he saw the windmill in the middle of the island.

This windmill is at least five stories high, with the stone base alone being one story high. The windmill, with its wooden frame and canvas construction on all four sides, inevitably makes a constant creaking noise.

Around the windmill is an open space paved with stone slabs, where some stone tables and chairs are placed.

At this moment, the Harp Tail Fishmen Orchestra, led by Tinissa, sat around a stone table, playing their instruments and singing a harvest hymn from Dragonfly Island.

Around these exquisite, porcelain-doll-like harp-tailed fishmen, some children, holding fruit, enthusiastically learned to sing the song along with the seemingly age-old Misty Shadow Princess.

As the song played, Cheng Lang also saw Yun Ji standing at the door of the windmill.

He walked to the gate guarded by Yun Ji, who whispered in his ear amidst the creaking noise, "Yun Lan went to fetch water from the well, and Ya Fu Suo is upstairs collecting honey and mushrooms."

"Collecting honey?"

Cheng Lang became interested and stepped into the huge windmill.

Inside the windmill, there was a huge well with a diameter of more than two meters. At this moment, Yun Lan had climbed down to the bottom of the well using a ladder made of thorns and was filling the boat bottle with water.

Climbing the ladder along the wall to the second floor, Cheng Lang discovered that it was filled with wooden beehives.

At this moment, a large number of bees were busily flying in and out—even though the honey flowing from many beehives had already accumulated in a large patch on the wooden floor.

It was in these beehives and the corners of the floor, perhaps because they were soaked in honey, that golden mushrooms, only the size of a fingernail, began to grow.

At this moment, Yavso knelt on the floor and carefully cut off the mushrooms along with their roots, putting them into the collection box she had brought on her back.

Without disturbing the unusually focused young girl, Cheng Lang continued up the stairs to the windmill.

This layer wasn't invaded by bees, but there were several beekeepers standing there, and many nests contained hatched baby beekeepers or unhatched beekeeper eggs.

Continuing upstairs, this floor contains a large number of stones used for rubbing to produce light, as well as metal rods that serve as spare grinding needles.

Of course, there are also glass domes that seem to be made of wine bottles, as well as some woodworking tools such as saws and axes, a fireplace, and a small bed next to the fireplace.

Climbing the stairs to the top floor, in the very center there is a glowing stone slab that is turned by a windmill, and a grinding needle that is not resting on it.

The view from the top of this windmill was indeed excellent. Although the windmill blades would block the view from time to time in all four directions, he could still clearly see the coastline in any direction as well as the Valkyrie and Thorn, which were shrouded in sea fog.

He glanced at the gorillas picking fruit in the orchard and the wooden figures busy harvesting vegetables. When Cheng Lang turned and went downstairs back to the well, Yafso was still picking mushrooms, and Yun Lan had already filled the bottles taken from the Valkyrie.

However, although she delivered the boat bottle to Yun Ji, she remained in the well.

"Do you need me to pull you up?" Cheng Lang asked curiously.

Unexpectedly, Yun Lan looked up at him, shook her head, made a shushing gesture, and then waved to him.

Seeing this, Cheng Lang swung his whip to entangle the non-functional automatic water-lifting device at the edge of the well, slowly lowering himself to the bottom of the well, finally standing on the thorny platform that was barely above the water surface.

"I just filled the boat bottle, and the water level in this well dropped a lot."

Yun Lan pointed to the wet water level line on the rocky well wall above her head and whispered, "I think I just saw a passage at the bottom of the well."

"aisle?"

“That’s right, a passage, a passage that can only fit one person at a time. I can clearly see the stone steps carved into it.”

Yun Lan said in a confident tone in a low voice, "There might be some treasure in there, Captain, shall we go down and take a look?"

"I'll go take a look," Cheng Lang said, already jumping into the icy well water.

Fortunately, thanks to the water-repelling ring he had seized in the Sea of ​​Despair, he didn't have to worry about getting his clothes wet, which undoubtedly saved him a lot of trouble. Following closely behind, Yun Lan also dived underwater. The ship's core also granted her the ability to breathe underwater; she was just afraid of the dark and didn't dare to come down on her own.

However, what puzzled her and Cheng Lang was that although the well was very deep, they still did not see the passage and steps that Yun Lan had mentioned, even after they dived to the bottom of the well.

Cheng Lang naturally didn't suspect that the other party was lying to him. If that was the case, then it could only mean that there was something wrong with the well.

Using the whip to entangle Yun Lan as she swam to the surface, Cheng Lang said in a low voice, "Let's come back and check again after the water level drops tonight."

"Alright," Yun Lan nodded without hesitation, her curiosity piqued.

The two left the well by their own means and had a quiet discussion with Yun Ji. Seeing that Ya Fu Suo had not come down yet, Cheng Lang simply separated from the ladies and continued to wander aimlessly in the orchard.

Perhaps due to good luck, his aimless wandering led him to discover some interesting things.

In an orchard that seemed neglected but was surrounded by dilapidated branches and overgrown weeds, there stood a three-masted sailboat with most of its hull buried in the mud.

The ship's masts had been cut down, replaced by fruit trees that seemed to have been planted on the deck.

On this ship, which was comparable to the Thorn, lived a mad captain with white hair and beard.

He was bulky and obese, yet he possessed all the elements of an old captain—prosthetic legs, an eye patch, hooked hands, a messy beard and a greasy tricorn hat, asphalt-covered leather armor and boots, and a gleaming, well-maintained crescent-shaped sword.

Of course, there was also the mirage horn hanging around his neck, and the telescope and flintlock pistol clipped to his belt.

He even had a ship full of sailors—several goats painted with skulls and several cats wearing small leather armor, and even a dog with a black eyepatch-shaped pattern by nature.

"Curious sailor, you'd better not go near him." Just as he was hesitating whether to enter the neglected orchard, a voice warned him from afar.

Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw that the person who had spoken to him was a man who looked to be around 50 years old, sitting on a branch of an apple tree.

He was holding a bone grafting knife in one hand, and in the other hand, a long strip of peel had been cut off the apple by the grafting knife.

"Who is he?" Cheng Lang asked curiously. "And what should I call you?"

"He is Captain Horace, that's his name on Windmill Island. Back when he and his ship sailed the seas, he used a different, more resounding name, but that was 50 years ago, when I was still a baby."

As the old man spoke, he silently jumped down from the tree and generously handed Cheng Lang a freshly peeled apple. "My name is Caspar, a name given to me by Mr. Horace when he was rarely lucid."

"Thank you, but I haven't finished what I'm eating yet."

Cheng Lang politely declined the apple offered, while also showing off the tangerine he had just eaten a few segments of. "Casper, can you tell me his story? How did his ship end up here?"

"He's gone mad."

Kasper replied, "Before he went mad, he was lost at sea for a long time with his ship and sailors."

When his ship finally docked, almost all of his sailors were dead, as were his first mate's wife and their children; only he himself survived.

After that, he came to Windmill Island and spent a lot of money to pull his boat ashore and bury it in the orchard.

It is said that he also buried his family and sailors in this orchard, with a grave under every tree.

He went mad after that, spending all his time on his boat and in this orchard, never leaving and forbidding anyone from entering except for children.

At this point, Casper took a bite of a peeled apple and said while chewing, "He spent the rest of his life after going ashore studying how to plant fruit trees on ships. If you have something in common with him in this regard, he might invite you aboard and chat for a whole day."

But if you don't know anything about this orchard, it's best to stay away from it.

"How did his sailors die?" Cheng Lang asked, popping a slice of orange into his mouth.

"Scurvy, it can only be scurvy."

As Kasper spoke, he took another big bite of the crisp, sweet, and juicy apple. "They were lost for a long time and were stuck in the doldrums for a long time. That was an absolute nightmare for all sailors."

"yes."

Cheng Lang looked at the old captain moving about on the deck filled with fruit trees and asked, "Did he succeed?"

"It succeeded in some sense, I guess."

Kasper said, "I heard he filled the cabin with soil, so the fruit trees on the deck survived."

Now he's trying to make the same tree bear all sorts of different fruits. May the Valkyries bless him, may Poseidon bless him, may the windmills bless him—may this poor man succeed!

"It might succeed."

Cheng Lang's heart skipped a beat, and he asked curiously, "What are you doing here, Mr. Caspar?"

"My orchard is right next to his orchard."

Kasper explained, “Chief Heller is worried that he might hurt you. Although I think it’s unlikely, he still wants me to stay here in case anything happens to you.”

"Thank you for reminding me," Cheng Lang said politely, "but I won't go in."

"Mr. Horace is actually a very good person."

Kasper explained, "The fruit trees he cultivated produced large, sweet fruit, but unfortunately, he never sold them."

"How does he make a living? Does he eat fruit?" Cheng Lang couldn't help but ask.

“And those goats,” Kasper explained, “when they were on the ship, those goats were his sailors, and when they left the ship, they became his food.”

"It's strangely creepy."

“Yes,” Kasper sighed meaningfully, “so he went mad.”

(End of this chapter)