Ye Yaodong carefully placed the piece of ambergris in a corner of the cabin. Only then did father and son come back out, one after the other, their expressions perfectly normal.
Li Lao'er had thought their behavior just now was a little strange all along. Suspecting it was some kind of treasure, he refused to give up without an answer and kept leaning against the gunwale to watch. The moment they came out, he popped up again.
"Hey, hey, I'm asking you! What is that thing? Why all the secrecy? You even had to go into the cabin. Come on, tell us!"
Ye Yaodong gave him an indifferent glance. "A useless piece of ocean trash. Who knows what idiot had so much time on his hands that he painted that piece of wood? I'm going to tie a rope around it and use it as a float."
Calling it painted wood was fairly convincing. After all, a stone couldn't float on the sea, and from a distance, that piece did look quite like wood painted gray.
Once he got home, he could find a piece of wood, shape it like that, and try painting it himself. He would keep it ready, just in case.
It only had to look similar, not exactly the same.
If this fellow remembered something after going back, he could bring it out to shut him up.
"Ocean trash? Painted? Who are you trying to fool? Would you really go into the cabin to talk about a piece of trash?"
"I went into the cabin because I had something to discuss with my dad. What if you overheard us talking on deck?"
If he hadn't wanted to dispel the man's suspicions, Ye Yaodong wouldn't have bothered wasting words on him, let alone explaining.
"What could be