#zhaofam

Sup, Zhao Fam!!! Can you believe we’re already in India???? We just arrived at the port city of Masulipatam!!! Monsoons make travel so fast. We did lose a few kids on the way- Jia Huan, Wu Lui, and Yi Wen. They couldn’t take the strong winds, but casualties were to be expected you know?

We got so many cool things from the market here - it was so cool!!! Along with some clothes I bought, we bought some textiles to trade, some delicious sugar- which the kids already ate most of! They’re literally eating away at our profits… Other than that, we bought some leather and some nice carpets. There was also a really cool stone carving we traded them for. It looks weird, like something one of the children would draw, but apparently, we can get a good price for it so I’m fine with it. That’s all for this update, besties!! See you later!

Little Wei-lun even drew the rock!

FAM! You won't believe who we just saw! So, you guys remember the Shu’s, right? Those uptight merchant neighbors of ours? Well, we saw their ship this morning, and it was sinking!!!! So, me and my hubby were having some alone time while the kids were sleeping and we were drinking herbal tea when we saw their ship. It seemed empty, but we’d recognize that junk anywhere- it was clearly the Shu’s. It looks like they decided to go straight to Africa instead of coast hopping, and, well, that obviously didn't work out.

Those LOSERS went coast-to-coast! Everyone knows that you can’t cut through the Indian Ocean. Man, they’re dumber than I thought. We’re not sure what happened, but their ship probably got impaled by a rock! That’s so lame- couldn’t be us. They’ve always been snobs though, so I think they deserve it tbh. The Shu’s weren’t the only shipwrecks we came across though, there were tons more before that. And I heard rumors of pirates nearby- that can’t be a coincidence…

I hope we don’t come across them, or they’ll loot our ship and plunder our resources for resale. If we survive it, we’ll be broke anyways! Good thing that hasn’t happened yet- but this journey is more dangerous than I thought. Sadly, a couple of our kids must have fell out of the boat while we were gawking at the shipwrecks, but the monsoon winds propelled us too far away from them. Oh well!

Jiǎ zǐi, Gēng shēn, Wù chén (December 3rd 1328).