A second-generation work based on The Starved: A Journey of Thousands of Miles in the Late Ming Dynasty
After the matter in Yangzhou was settled, Liang finally made it back to Man Sui alive.
Man Sui had already prepared a seagoing ship. When Liang asked where she wanted to go, she only smiled and said, "Let's follow the wind."
And so Liang, who had once risked his life on land with a knife at his throat, entered the maritime world Man Sui had spent years building for the first time. The girl who had once been fourteen had long since earned her way forward, helping in kitchens, running stalls, and making small trades, until she had saved enough capital to own a ship and a trade route of her own.
But not long after they set sail, an old ship that should have vanished three years earlier reappeared. Someone was doing business under Man Sui's trading name, while others were using the trust she had built over the years to cheat people and save them. At the same time, Liang's old debts began catching up with him again.
Along the way, they did business, saved people, and investigated old accounts. They also learned not to make decisions for each other anymore, and not to throw their lives away so lightly.
They are enemies, family, and people neither can truly let go of.
The troubled times continue. Ports will close, ships will sink, and some debts will never be repaid.
But this time, they are finally beginning to understand:
They can go wherever the wind takes them.
Because a true home is knowing whose side you want to return to, no matter how far you've traveled.
