“What do you mean by ‘way out’?” The pirate’s eyes widened. Even though he had his suspicions, hearing the trusted pirate’s words still shocked him beyond measure.
“Our way out,” the trusted pirate said, staring intently at him, enunciating each word.
“Our way out?” The other pirate narrowed his eyes.
“We just discussed it. Even if the boss survives, he’s bound to lose power. We, his loyal men, won’t fare well either. If we don’t want to sit around waiting for doom, we need to start thinking about our way out,” the trusted pirate said slowly, his gaze burning into the other.
“You’re right, we need to think about our options. But isn’t it a bit late to pledge allegiance to Boss Xu Hai now?” the other pirate said, rubbing his chin with a sigh.
Hearing this, the trusted pirate let out a sigh of relief. He’d been worried this man was blindly loyal to Maye and would need a lot of convincing.
*Thank goodness we’re all ruthless pirates. Thank goodness we’re all driven by profit. Thank goodness we’re all selfish to the core.*
People like them had no concept of loyalty. Their only concern was themselves, their only motivation profit.
As the saying goes, “Whoever feeds you is your mother.”
If they showed loyalty, it was only because sticking with someone brought greater rewards than betraying them or serving someone else.
“It’s not late…” the trusted pirate said, a smirk tugging at his lips.
“Not late?” The other pirate was stunned. At this point, pledging to Xu Hai wasn’t too late?!
“It’s *too* late!” the trusted pirate continued. “When the executioner’s blade is at your neck, trying to cosy up to him is far too late, isn’t it?”
“You’re joking with me at a time like this?!” the other pirate raised an eyebrow, clearly displeased.
“I’m just preparing you, so you don’t keel over from what I’m about to say…” the trusted pirate said slowly.
“We’ve crawled out of piles of corpses. What could you possibly say that I can’t handle? Spit it out already, stop dragging it out,” the other pirate urged impatiently, annoyed at the trusted pirate’s dawdling.
“I think it’s time we switched sides,” the trusted pirate said, his eyes glinting as he looked at the other with deep meaning.
“Hm, not a bad idea. Our crew’s down to just a few of us, with no strength left. Switching sides makes sense. But who should we join? Head south to pledge to King Hui, Wang Zhi?” The other pirate had no objections to switching sides but was unsure who they should turn to.
After some thought, apart from the Tuolin pirates, the only real option was the undisputed pirate leader, King Hui, Wang Zhi.
“With just our numbers, we wouldn’t even get an audience with one of Wang Zhi’s ten ship captains. We’d just be cannon fodder if we joined him…” the trusted pirate said with a helpless smile.
They were down to six men. Two of them were recovering, but the other four—no, more accurately, two and a half—were in bad shape. Maye was half a man at this point, burning with fever and trembling, barely hanging on. The samurai from the islands was as good as dead. The remaining two were sick, one worsening, though both were still conscious. That was the only silver lining.
With so few men, joining Wang Zhi wouldn’t make a ripple. Forget meeting Wang Zhi himself—their names wouldn’t even reach his ears. They likely wouldn’t even qualify to meet one of his ship captains.
Some random pirate squad leader could absorb them, and as half-hearted defectors, they’d be nothing but cannon fodder.
“If we can’t join Wang Zhi, then who else is there? Whose side can we switch to?” The other pirate frowned, racking his brain. Beyond Wang Zhi, he couldn’t think of anyone worth joining.
The pirate scourge in Jiangnan was severe, with hundreds of pirate bands, large and small. But those with the scale and strength worth joining were few and far between—arguably, only Wang Zhi.
“Joining someone else is just about selling ourselves at the right price. But to do that, we need to know what we’re worth,” the trusted pirate said, guiding the conversation.
“Our worth? Our worth is ourselves. We’ve been pirates for over a decade, with plenty of experience in pillaging. We can fight—maybe not one against ten, but one against five, no problem,” the other pirate said after some thought.
“Just brute strength? Whether it’s Xu Hai or Wang Zhi, the one thing they don’t lack is men with brute strength. If we try to join them with just that, we’d be lucky to get a squad leader position, and we’d still end up as cannon fodder,” the trusted pirate said, smirking dismissively.
“Then what else do we have? With just four or five—no, three or four—men, no one’s going to take us seriously,” the other pirate sighed.
The two of them were likely fine. Black Three was holding up alright and might pull through. Big Liu was in rough shape, deteriorating despite being awake. It was uncertain if Maye would survive the night, and the samurai was already a dead man walking.
So, they were down to three or four men.
If they had three or four hundred men, they might be taken seriously. But three or four? No one would give them a second glance.
With tens of thousands of pirates under their command, who’d care about a handful of stragglers? It was laughable.
The same logic applied to Xu Hai. If they still had a thousand pirates under them, despite being Maye’s loyal men and Xu Hai’s likely purge of Maye, Xu Hai might still try to win them over. But after today’s battle, the five thousand pirates they’d started with were nearly all dead, leaving them insignificant.
And knowing Xu Hai’s nature, he’d cut the grass at its roots—Maye’s loyal men would be wiped out.
Who else could they turn to?
“Think carefully. We have one more asset—a big, big, *big* asset…” the trusted pirate said meaningfully.
“Another asset? A big one? Unless one of us is the secret bastard son of Xu Hai, Wang Zhi, or some big shot, I can’t think of what else we’ve got,” the other pirate said, utterly baffled.
“Maye himself is our biggest asset,” the trusted pirate whispered into his ear.
“What? Maye…” The other pirate jumped, startled.
“Shh…” The trusted pirate put a finger to his lips, gesturing for silence.
