Chapter 17 Heartbeat

Because Cheng Xi and Beckman had no communication in front of everyone before, Shanks always thought that they had zero affection for each other. However, as the only veteran on the Redfors who was adept at love affairs, he seemed to be much more reliable than Jesus Bu, so Shanks finally chose to act according to the plan made by Beckman for him.

For example, he called Cheng Xi after dinner, and he never got tired of it.

Sometimes he would call Cheng Xi when the banquet was in full swing, let her listen to the cheers and joy of her companions, and try to use these to seduce Cheng Xi's yearning for the pirate life.

After a few days like this, looking at Shanks who had just finished talking on the phone and couldn't help but smile sweetly, and walked out of the captain's room, Beckman finally couldn't help it. He asked, "Why did you let her get off the ship when you were so reluctant?"

Shanks: "There's no way, Cheng Xi said she didn't want to be a pirate, and she preferred to live a stable life."

Beckman directly exposed his little thoughts: "But in fact, you still want her to get on the ship more, right?"

"Of course." Shanks answered very straightforwardly.

That was the girl he had been attracted to since he was twelve years old. She was his obsession, his delusion.

"I can't do anything about you." Beckman sighed softly, exhaling a misty white smoke.

Hearing his words, Shanks thought Beckman would offer some useful love experience, but he said something surprising: "Then why don't you take her back to the Redfors and lock her in the room?"

"Compared to the Forrest Island, your captain's room is safer, right?"

Shanks: ...?

Everyone in the Red Group: ...?

Mengshida: ...?

Ah, everyone was surprised. Before, Beckman was gentle and delicate, considerate, and insisted on mutual consent in matters between men and women.

What kind of strange habit did he awaken?

Shanks: "I've thought about it before."

Red Group: You really dare to think about it!

He spread his hands, helpless: "But she is not a treasure in a box. The pirates' plundering has no effect on love."

She is free and has a soul.

Snake: "Boss, do you mean to say that a melon that is forced to be twisted is not sweet?"

Beckman said calmly: "How can you know if a melon is sweet if you don't twist it and taste it, Shanks, do you want to communicate with her using Den Den Mushi for the rest of your life?"

Lime Jones added in time: "But when we were chatting before, Cheng Xi also said that a melon that is forced to be twisted is not sweet, but it quenches thirst."

Laki Lu: "In that case, she seems to have said that in her hometown, the highest praise for a dessert is that it is not too sweet, and it will be greasy if it is too sweet."

The undercurrent in Shanks' heart began to surge again: "Yo, let's return to the ship and snatch Cheng Xi..."

Lime Jones interrupted again: "No, boss, Cheng Xi also said that the literature of plunder is only for fun in novels. If anyone dares to do this to her in real life, she will break off the other person's big teeth and feed them to the fish."

Hearing this, Shanks's spirited look just now disappeared instantly, and the whole person seemed to collapse and lost his brilliance.

As for the others...

Although it's sorry to fantasize like this, it's funny for the boss who has lost two big teeth to think about it.

"Really." Beckman was extremely speechless, "What kind of nonsense do you usually talk about!?"

Shanks: "It seems that Beckman is still hated by Cheng Xi!"

Beckman: He is now too lazy to emphasize to these nerveless guys that he is not hated.

...

The next morning, Cheng Xi got up and wrote a letter to the World News Economic Agency.

Because the inheritance she had saved before was gone, her only property was a small bag of treasures she had looted from Wolft. These days, she rented a house, bought daily necessities, and paid for other miscellaneous expenses. She only had the last 100,000 Baileys left. This money was not enough to buy a store, let alone buy food. Before her rebirth,

she was a well-known novelist under the World Economic News Agency, so she planned to go back to her old job to earn some royalties to solve her survival problems.

That's right, it was the novelist under Morgans who wrote her and Shanks' fan fiction.

In the letter, she wrote that the previous book had to be updated continuously due to physical reasons. Now that her body has recovered, she asked whether the previous contract would continue.

After all, she had stopped writing for 17 years without any reason, so she was ready to receive a blade.

After writing this, Cheng Xi went out and handed the letter to the newspaper gull, planning to go to the market to shop and stock up on supplies for a few days.

The weather was very good today. The morning sun was warm and bright, shining on the body, injecting vitality and vigor into the pedestrians on the street, and their steps could not help but become much lighter.

The market was crowded with people, and the hawking and shouting were one after another, which was very lively. Fresh vegetables, fish, shrimp, meat, shellfish, fruits, snacks and other commodities were all available, very complete.

Cheng Xi walked to a fruit stand. Every bunch of grapes on it looked like they had just been picked in the morning. The purple-red grapes were big and round, with crystal dew on them.

She was carefully selecting them, and suddenly she felt several unfriendly eyes staring at her.

Is it an enemy? What is the purpose?

Cheng Xi left the fruit stand. Although she could feel that there was no breath of a strong man among them, she remained vigilant.

In order to avoid fighting and hurting innocent people, she walked to an uninhabited ruin. After confirming that there was no one around, she finally stopped and stood there.

Realizing that they might be discovered, those people simply stopped disguising themselves and stood up to show their true faces.

Seven or eight fierce-looking men with tattoos of various patterns on their bodies stared at Cheng Xi greedily, as if she had already fallen into their hands.

One of the men laughed: "We know your identity. We were thinking about how to catch you without anyone noticing. I didn't expect you to take the initiative to find such a secluded place. Are you ready to surrender?"

His determined expression made Cheng Xi frown in disgust, but she was more puzzled about how these men knew her new identity on this island, even though she had done a perfect job.

The next sentence of those people immediately broke her doubts: "You are the lover of the Four Emperors Red-haired Shanks!"

Cheng Xi had finally forgotten the embarrassing memory, and the content of the newspaper came back to her mind again.

"I saw you get off the red-haired ship with my own eyes, and he accompanied you to the island for several days before leaving." They were still complacent.

The idea of ​​these pirates was to capture Cheng Xi and sell her to the black market or slave auction. Even if the red-haired woman might be abandoned on the island, she could still be sold for a good price.

After that, these people surrounded her and captured her. Cheng Xi was about to reach out and draw her sword, but she felt another attack coming from a distance.

This attack was hot and sharp, but it was not aimed at her.

"Fire Fist!" A huge burning flame swept over like a tidal wave, surging and whistling with the sound of the wind, as if it was going to devour everything around it and burn it to ashes. The

pirates were unable to dodge and fell into the sea of ​​fire. Large areas of their skin were burned and exuded the smell of burnt barbecue.

The bright red flames gradually dissipated. Cheng Xi's sight followed the flames and saw a boy of about seventeen or eighteen years old, wearing an orange cowboy hat with a skull pendant and a necklace of red beads. He wore a yellow shirt jacket on his upper body, with the buttons completely unbuttoned, revealing his smooth abdominal muscles. He wore black shorts on his lower body and a short knife on his right leg. His black hair was

slightly curly at the end, his nose was high, and there were some freckles on his cheeks. He used his fingers to slightly tilt the brim of his cowboy hat, revealing a pair of eyes that were brighter than the flames just now. The clear voice of the boy rang out, making him look even more spirited: "Don't bully girls, scumbags."

In fact, Ace had just noticed these sneaky and shifty pirates, and thus paid attention to their target, the little girl with black hair and black eyes in front.

Her long black hair naturally fell behind her, wrapping her delicate little face. Under her long and curled eyelashes, her eyes were clear and indifferent, as if she wanted to condense the dazzling sunlight into fragments. The girl seemed to have seen the danger behind her, but she did not show any fear. Instead, she led them to a deserted place, as if she had another plan.

Ace also followed her here unconsciously.

Cheng Xi looked at the boy in front of her. She, who usually claimed to be a communication genius, was silent for the first time and became nervous.

"Hello, my name is Ace." He introduced himself with a smile, revealing two rows of neat white teeth, just like a spring breeze, which would make people unconsciously let down their guard, "I'm a pirate."

"Hello, my name is Cheng Xi." She racked her brains to think about her current identity, and finally concluded, "I'm a swordsman with pretty good swordsmanship." "

Thank you so much for solving this trouble for me." Cheng Xi kicked these scums viciously.

Ace waved his hand: "It's okay, it's okay, I just happened to help when I passed by."

Cheng Xi asked: "Um... have you had lunch? I'll treat you to lunch."

She subconsciously hoped that Ace would not refuse, so she added: "The grilled pork chops and seafood fried rice in the restaurant next to where I live are very delicious, do you want to try it?"

Ace nodded in agreement. Cheng Xi dug out a few discarded ropes from the ruins, and together with Ace, tied up all the pirates lying in a mess next to them, took them to the place on the island where prisoners were specially handled, and then went to the restaurant she mentioned.

Because they delayed time in dealing with those pirates, it was already past lunch time when they arrived at the restaurant, and there were only a few tables of guests in the huge restaurant.

The waiter considerately brought the menu, and Cheng Xi waved his hand and said very heroically: "You can order whatever you want, I'll treat you."

She had calculated that she still had 100,000 Baileys in her hand, and this restaurant itself was not an expensive restaurant. Even if Ace ordered all the food here, there would be at least two-thirds of the money left.

"I want 50 portions of seafood fried rice, 50 portions of grilled pork chops, 100 portions of grilled sea beast meat, 10 portions of curry rice, and beer. That's all for now, thank you." Ace placed the order politely and handed the menu back to Cheng Xi. "Thank you for treating me, Cheng Xi, you're so nice."

Cheng Xi: ... I'm full just by listening to your order.