Why Are You So Selfish?!

Li Mingyuan's tone was calm, yet it left no room for refusal.

No matter how unwilling the sailor was, faced with Li Mingyuan's orders, he could only obediently do as he was told.

Just like that.

Li Mingyuan and the sailor temporarily ended their conversation and began preparing the rescue boat they would be sharing.

As for the first mate watching nearby, he was still quite unwilling. But in the end, they had not caught the thief themselves, and Li Mingyuan had even saved their lives from the Fish-Men. He had no standing to interfere with how Li Mingyuan chose to deal with him. After hesitating for a long while, he could only helplessly accept Li Mingyuan's decision to let the thief "redeem himself."

As for Li Mingyuan.

After having the sailor follow him, he first opened the pocket the sailor had returned to him and checked roughly how much money was inside. Once he recovered his lost Beli, he took out part of the remaining money and prepared to hand it over to the first mate.

Since it had been confirmed that the thief had nothing to do with the captain and the others, Li Mingyuan wanted to fulfill his original promise and return the stolen money. Though it was most likely not enough to cover the losses from the sinking ship, that was no longer his concern.

However, just as Li Mingyuan was about to pay, something unexpected happened. The sailor, who had been standing by with an indifferent expression, suddenly changed color and rushed at Li Mingyuan, stopping him from taking money from the pocket.

"Some of that is my own savings! The goods I stole from this ship weren't worth nearly that many Beli!"

The sailor shouted anxiously.

He was terrified that Li Mingyuan would hand over even the money meant for his compensation, making Li Mingyuan think he was insincere and causing his attempt to redeem himself and save his life to fail.

After hastily stopping Li Mingyuan, the sailor carefully stuffed the money back into the pocket. Then he pulled out a bundled stack of Beli, counted them one by one, and only then handed them to the first mate.

"Here. This is the amount I stole. It wasn't even a few million Beli. That stack the guard was about to hand over was nearly ten million Beli. You really would've taken it just because he offered it? Don't you even know how much your own cargo is worth?"

The sailor sneered. "Trash is trash. You can tell wherever you look."

Then, under the first mate's awkward expression, the sailor turned his head and curled his lips toward the other crew members, signaling everyone to look in another direction.

Fish-Men lay scattered all over the ground, unconscious or dead.

"Look, First Mate. Aren't those the Fish-Man corpses you worked so hard to haul up from below? Too bad you couldn't use them as gifts to beg for mercy."

"Our boat and the guard's boat probably can't fit them. When you leave, remember to take those two Arlong Pirates officers with you. They're worth far more than an entire shipload of your cargo."

The sailor directed the crew to load two more Fish-Men onto the already cramped boats.

Only then did Li Mingyuan learn from the sailor's explanation that officers of the Arlong Pirates also had bounties.

Fish-Man Chew: bounty of 5.5 million Beli. Fish-Man Kuroobi: bounty of 9 million Beli.

The two men he had defeated were worth a combined 14.5 million Beli, almost as much as the money he currently had on hand.

Li Mingyuan really had not known that.

After all, he did not recall the Straw Hat crew ever claiming bounties in the original story. And when Hachi, one of the three top officers of the Arlong Pirates, appeared again later, he did not seem to be a wanted criminal either. So Li Mingyuan had assumed that only Arlong had a bounty.

Unexpectedly, before the thief had even paid his redemption money, he had already brought Li Mingyuan an additional windfall.

Did he really work that hard to earn favor just to stay alive?

Li Mingyuan's gaze toward the sailor unconsciously gained a hint of approval.

Seeing that, the sailor rubbed the tip of his nose with a finger and chuckled sheepishly.

"Alright, since there's nothing else to deal with, we can retreat now."

After some time, Li Mingyuan looked at the seawater that had nearly risen over the deck, then at the several fully prepared small boats. He climbed into one with the sailor and rowed farther away.

Meanwhile, the crew members still frantically salvaging cargo had to unload even more goods from the boats in order to carry two additional Fish-Men. The first mate's face twisted in pain at the sight, but since the Fish-Men were Li Mingyuan's spoils and were indeed quite valuable, he did not dare object. He could only silently have the sailors do as instructed.

Once the small boats were packed to the brim, the first mate finally confirmed that cramming in anything more would sink them. Though unwilling, he urged the sailors to leave. Including the first mate himself, every crew member either jumped into the water and held onto the fully loaded boats or simply drifted away with the current.

Some time passed after everyone aboard had left the cargo ship.

Because a sinking ship could create whirlpools, no one dared approach. They could only watch from afar.

Li Mingyuan sat in the small boat and looked back with the sailor.

The cargo ship sank completely beneath the surface before everyone's eyes.

"So it sank in the end."

Seeing this, Li Mingyuan could not help feeling emotional.

It was his first time traveling by ship in this world, yet before they had even reached shore, the ship had sunk.

It really felt like a bad omen.

Could this be hinting that he might crash in an airplane someday too?

He shook his head and cast the unpleasant thought from his mind.

Li Mingyuan turned back to look at the sailor before him. Now, at last, they were alone together. The other boats were far enough away that they could no longer hear the normal conversations of the surrounding crew.

Of course, that was only natural.

Unlike him, sitting calmly in a boat, the other crew members in the water were either desperately swimming toward shore or steering the cargo-laden boats forward. There were no seats for them on the boats; only injured or unconscious crew members were entitled to squeeze into them. Most of the sailors had to focus entirely on swimming and had no spare attention for anything else.

Noticing Li Mingyuan's gaze, the sailor also looked away from the sinking cargo ship and back at the man in front of him.

"Finally, we're alone."

"Ever since earlier, you've been staring at my face from the corner of your eye. It's annoying."

Li Mingyuan suddenly said, "Stop pretending to admire the scenery. If you have something you want to ask, then ask it."

The sailor blinked in surprise, then rubbed his hands together awkwardly.

"Normally, I don't think an ordinary person would notice someone else's sideways glances... But since you noticed, there's nothing for me to hide. I've actually been very curious ever since earlier."