The man immediately let go of the net and straightened up before lighting another cigarette for Huai Tuo.
The massive, heavy net sagged on the deck like a deflated hill, motionless and taking up a huge amount of space.
The way it slumped into a flat mound meant it wasn't filled with large solids, but with something loose... Milady glanced over and saw that the men had all turned to look at the other mechanisms. For the moment, no one was paying any attention to the prize they had worked so hard to salvage.
She sized up the distance between herself and the large net. It wasn't far, but she couldn't just sneak over while their backs were turned—she was a head taller than most boys her age, making her conspicuous even in the dark.
'Maybe I should hide first, wait for them to finish filling the barrels, and then open one to have a look?'
Milady glanced at a nearby cabin and dismissed the thought. They were only four hours from Haidu, and the iron barrels were incredibly heavy; they would probably just leave them on deck instead of hauling them down to the hold.
Once they finished their work and went inside, the deck would be under their constant watch, making things even more difficult for her.
'Wait, I have an idea—' A sudden jolt went through Milady. She immediately slipped off her damp, heavy backpack and took out the decontamination mechanism—the one she ultimately hadn't placed in the coffin.
It was a standard cylinder. The extendable base that used to adjust its height had been removed, leaving it only about as long as her forearm.
Milady untied all the laces from her boots and tied them together to make a rope. Seeing that it was just about long enough, she fastened it to the mechanism. She waited a few minutes, then seized her chance. Just as the men untied several more large nets, she gave the cylindrical mechanism a gentle push. It went rolling away, the faint clattering it made completely drowned out by the successive thuds of heavy loads hitting the deck.
Eventually, it came to a stop beside the large net.
Since it was lying on its side, Milady had to fiddle with the angle for a bit before the mechanism would respond to her controls.
She pressed a button on the control panel in her hand, and a 'scythe' immediately popped out of the cylinder in the distance—the same tool normally used for breaking up crystals. She slowly raised her right hand, and the mechanism's 'scythe' rose into the air in tandem. 'Mom must have made this exact same motion countless times,' she thought.
Milady brought her arm down hard.
The RIP of the net tearing sounded as loud as a drum in her ears, startling her so much that a cold sweat broke out on her back. Yet only her cousin glanced around. He didn't even ask, "What was that sound?" Instead, he just said, "Alright, with this haul, we can start filling the barrels."
Milady drove the 'scythe' deep into the contents of the net, wiggled it from side to side, and then deactivated the control panel. She picked up the end of the shoelace rope under her foot, her eyes glued to the men's backs, and began to pull the mechanism back, bit by bit, as quietly as she could.
The moment the mechanism was back in her hands, she knew she couldn't linger. She immediately retreated toward the stern, hiding beneath a set of steps on the hull. The entire time, she carefully cradled the cylinder, terrified of dislodging whatever was stuck to the 'scythe'.
But when she examined it in the hazy darkness, she was baffled.
The metal blade was coated in a fine, dense layer of wet sand, and nothing else. She felt it with the pad of her finger. It really was just ordinary grit. 'This might be a dredging boat, but they couldn't have snuck all the way out to sea just to dig up sand, could they? Besides, the Tower family isn't in construction. They have no use for sand.'
'Looks like I didn't manage to bring back the important stuff.'
'But I don't have another chance to try...'
Milady cursed under her breath. She carelessly brushed off the sand and was about to retract the mechanism when she pressed the control panel and felt something jamming the 'scythe's' joint.
She deployed the mechanism again, carefully reached inside, and slowly pulled out several long, somewhat crushed strands of seaweed. It was of a color and shape she had never seen before.
...Milady would later reflect that it was surprising even to her that, in that moment, she didn't tremble, shed a tear, or make a single sound.
She brought the seaweed to her nose and took a breath.
Amid the damp, salty scent of the sea, the crushed seaweed emitted a different, peculiar odor. It smelled like soil mixed with wine, and also a bit like the sourness of food that had gone bad.
She was all too familiar with this scent.
Every morning, before leaving the house, Yidan would scoop two spoonfuls of the purplish-red Anti-Crystallization Medicine from a small iron box. After tossing it back with a gulp of water, she would sometimes scrunch up her face and say, "I have no idea what they put in this medicine, but the taste is awful... When I swallow it, it feels like a clump of wet sand sliding down my throat."