The sea breeze crossed the windowsill and flipped the pages, and William hurriedly reached out to hold them down.

The content of the opening was accidentally stuck in the second act. The place where he pressed his fingers happened to be one of the four "dears", and it was circled with a red pen.

Seeing that the center of gravity of the book was unbalanced, it was about to slide off the desk. William raised his voice and called Charles several times, but the person did not appear. His strength gradually faded from his fingers, and the book still broke free and fell to the ground with a "click".

William groaned and moved his body and staggered down to the ground, holding the desk slowly approaching the book, bent over and picked it up with difficulty.

More than two weeks have passed, and the wound on his back is still very painful. The doctor said that he has recovered quickly when he can go down the ground. If it were someone else, it would have to lie in bed for a month before he can get better. Perhaps because William is recuperating from injury, Old Qiao has not appeared to look for trouble recently, which is a blessing in disguise.

These days he read the puzzle poem over and over again, and combined with Charles' reminder, he reorganized his reasoning ideas - he was too arrogant before and actually ignored the literal information prompts in the text.

The script line excerpted by Arthur happened to appear four times, and seventeen times "this". After covering two of the lines, it also confirmed the statement that "there are two less" at the beginning of the puzzle poem. However, so far, he has not figured out how the four "dears" should move their ears.

Whenever this happened, he missed Isaac so much. Sometimes William even thought dejectedly that he might be similar to Charles in his eyes, and he was just a person who couldn't keep up with it.

While sighing, William sat down in a chair and opened the book again, staring at the twenty-one circles of words, looking dazed.

"Big news, William!"

Charles rushed into the room with sweat, obviously running back all the way. The expression on his face was both excited, anxious and nervous, and William rarely saw him like this.

"We are going to go to sea, next month!" he said, "participate in the mission of Silver Star to guard East India Company and go to the East with them!"

"What--"

William was stunned. Charles's short sentences contained too much imagination. He calmed down a little and asked, "Who told you?"

"The notice from the Admiralty Department seems to be a big job this time." Charles picked up the water cup from the table and took a few mouthfuls. "The Hesten and Gabriel are also there. Including the East India Company's own ship, it can already form a fleet!"

"Old Qiao is going too?"

This sentence was like a cold water pouring on his head, which made Charles stunned. He thought about it and his excitement fell a lot: "Probably... I want to go too. I didn't pay attention. I saw that there were two of us on the notification list and came back quickly."

"But...why is next month?" William subconsciously felt something was wrong. "It's too urgent. Summer is not over yet."

Generally speaking, ships departing from Europe to Asia will choose to set off on Christmas or Easter. Because the southwest monsoon prevails in the Indian Ocean in summer, only by using the wind to cross the Indian Ocean in one breath can the safe journey be best guaranteed.

It is summer, and even if you set out immediately, the fleet will enter the autumn of the northeast monsoon after it arrives in southern Africa. Not only is it slow to sail against the wind, it is easy to encounter hurricanes, waves and heavy rains at the turn of summer and autumn. No matter how you look at it, it will be harmful and not beneficial.

"I heard that the old sailors of Hesten and Gabriel were protesting, and they were all suppressed by the Admiralty." Charles drank a lot for a while and finally swallowed the water in the cup without leaving a drop. "It's really urgent."

Or it was a strong demand from the East India Company. William's premonition gradually emerged in his heart told him that things were not that simple - how could companies oriented towards business interests take great risks and set out against the season? According to common sense, they would only protest harder than the naval sailors. This time they seemed to have lost their voices.

William stopped talking for a while, suddenly raised his head and asked, "Has Old Joe been showing up recently?"

Charles nodded, confirming his speculation: "He is very busy. I heard from others that he left the military port every few days and went to the old town, and I don't know who he was going to meet." He raised the water cup and sent it to his mouth, only to find that the cup was empty. "We are all very happy when he is not here."

"How was the matter that you asked you to find out for me last time?" William said anxiously. "Where did he put the things?"

It would be a bad thing if Old Joe brought the Regurus pendant to the East India Company.

"It's in his room." Charles was calm and turned around and added another glass of water to himself. "I went to clean the last time and saw him put it in the drawer."

William was about to be angry at this gentle guy: "Why didn't you take it at that time??"

"How dare I! Old Joe was next to him at that time..." Charles muttered aggrievedly, "You said it yourself, don't attract his attention..."

This was indeed what he said. William sighed: "Where is Lao Qiao? Have you also gone to the old city today?"

"I went early in the morning."

Under the scorching eyes of the blonde boy, Charles finally slowly came back to his taste: "You...what are you going to do?"
Chapter completed!