Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 1: Fifty Dollars for Life
Singapore, late 1931.

Scattered bowls and chopsticks, bamboo tubes for water, vomit, feces and urine, and a person called "piglet" who was huddled together by all of this.

In the "common cabin" at the bottom of the passenger ship, the ceiling is level with the sea surface, and oxygen is supplied entirely by exhaust fans.

The storm they had just encountered had knocked over the toilets on both sides, spilling feces and urine all over the floor. It mixed with the vomit of people who had been seasick, making the already stuffy cabin even more smelly.

"Is this man dead?"

"Looks like... dead."

"Forget it, just throw it away."

Zheng Yi seemed to have regained some consciousness. In a state of half-daze and half-awake, he felt two people, one holding his hand and the other holding his leg, lifting him up.

"who are you?"

"where am I?"

"What happened?"

Zheng Yi wanted to open his mouth to speak, but found that he couldn't even utter a word. The strength reached his mouth, and only a tiny murmur could be uttered.

"Look, is there a red belt?"

"It's tied."

"We are fellow villagers, so please take it down and mail it back to their families."

As he heard these incomprehensible words, Zheng Yi realized that he seemed to be carried outside. When the fresh air blew in, he seemed to have more or less recovered some strength and opened his eyes.

With a splash, he saw the person in front of him being carried and thrown directly into the sea.

"next."

Under Zheng Yi's almost horrified gaze, another person in front of him was also thrown into the sea with a splash.

"Puff~"

'what happened?'
"I feel dizzy and weak. What's going on? What happened?"

Zheng Yi was completely confused now. He only remembered that he drank all night yesterday, and then he didn't remember anything.

When I opened my eyes again, it became like this.

Is this some new prank?
"next."

The next one is myself.

Although he had no idea what was happening, someone had already reached for his belt. Although he was completely confused, he knew these people were going to throw him into the water, so he instinctively said, "No, don't throw me."

"Boss, this guy is alive. Look, he can still talk."

"Let me see?"

Before he could finish his words, a big hand touched his neck.

"It's really alive, but it looks... like it's almost dead. I probably won't be able to sell it for money. Just throw it away."

Zheng Yi: "Don't, don't throw me away, who are you?"

Zheng Yi felt that his mind was particularly confused, and he seemed to be a little unconscious. However, his instinct for survival made him shout for help a little louder.

But unfortunately, these people didn't listen to him at all. They pulled a belt from his waist and were about to throw him into the sea.

"Who are you? Stop joking. I'm going to die. Who are you and why are you trying to kill me?
Police, police? Police… Where are the police? Save me… Save me… They are going to kill people.”

His body was strangely weak. He was shouting with all his might, but the sound he made was just a whisper.

Those who were working to throw him obviously didn't listen to his muttering. They counted one, two, three and were about to throw him into the sea like a sandbag.

"Stop! Stop it now!" Suddenly, Zheng Yi heard a crisp voice, which should be from a biological female, shouting at them.

The two people who threw him stopped instinctively, and Zheng Yi also tried to turn around and used all his strength to look at the person who came.

"Stop! Don't throw it! I just heard him talking. He's not dead. Can't you hear me? He's still alive!"

Zheng Yi tried hard to look, but could only vaguely see that the person who came seemed to be wearing an emerald green dress. It was a girl, but unfortunately he could not see her face clearly.

He didn't even have the strength to lift his head.

"He hasn't eaten in two days."

Someone sniffed Zheng Yi and said, "You already smell like a dead person. It doesn't matter whether you throw him away sooner or later."

"Shut up! You can't throw someone who's clearly still alive into the sea. That's murder."

"Miss, are you okay?"

"You're the one with a fucking brain!"

"You want to save him, right? Fine. Take out the money, buy him with money, one hundred dollars. He signed a contract, and we also gave his family one hundred dollars as resettlement allowance. If you want to save him, then you have to compensate us for our losses."

"You...you...you were about to throw him away just now."

"Eh? If we want to throw it away, that's our business, but if you want it, even if it's a corpse, you have to pay for it."

As he spoke, Zheng Yi felt them throw him to the ground with a thud.

"Do you want it? If you do, then take out the money. If you can't, spare your sympathy and stop pretending to be nice. Everyone can say nice things. It's so easy to do it with just a touch of your lips."

"This……"

When the girl heard that she had to pay for it, she obviously hesitated.

Although she has a kind heart, she was born in a troubled time. There are so many pitiful people in the world. How can she save them all?

"help me……"

Zheng Yi still didn't quite understand what had happened, but he instinctively knew that if the girl gave up on him, he would be thrown into the sea and die.

Like a drowning man grasping at straws, Zheng Yi's hazy mind instinctively began to promote himself in order to survive:

"I can speak English, Japanese, and German. I am from Tsinghua University, with a bachelor's degree in thermal engineering and a master's degree in petroleum chemistry and machinery.
I, I, I'm from Peking University, a PhD in Applied Chemistry. I've worked in strategic research institutes for two oil companies and have eighteen years of work experience. I have skills, connections, and... I have..."

At the end of his speech, Zheng Yi was really exhausted and fainted, losing consciousness.

"Miss, this guy is obviously a liar. He even knows English, Japanese, and German. If he was really that capable, how could he have fallen to the point of being a piggy banker? He's just a big talker. Let's ignore him."

"But...he is still alive after all."

"Are you going to buy it or not? If not, I'll throw it away. Don't delay us from doing our work."

"Hey! Stop it, I... I bought it, if you give me a discount, I'll buy it, one hundred yuan is too expensive,
Look, he's only half dead now. I'll buy it for fifty dollars. If you don't want to sell it, just throw it away. If you do, you'll just lose money."

Hearing this, the men behind him murmured for a while.

"Brother, why don't we sell it? This guy only gave me thirty as resettlement allowance. If we sell it for fifty, we can still make twenty."

"Bullshit! The boat ticket is free, he's eating for free these days on the boat, and the brothers are working for free. If I sell it for fifty, I'll just break even at best."

"That's better than losing money, right? This half-dead thing, who else would want it except that silly girl? If I throw it into the sea, I'll really lose the fifty dollars."

"Tsk, that's true. Hey, you guys, fifty dollars, take the person away."

"Here, here's fifty dollars. I'll give you the money and take the man away. He's a scumbag. Oh, and give him back his red belt."

(End of this chapter)