Lóng Hǎifēng sat in Yuǎnmèng's cabin, surrounded by jade slips containing his calculations, his provisions inventory, and navigation records. Two months into the journey. Sixty-three days since leaving Tiānlù's coast.
The numbers were undeniable now.
"Food remaining: two months, three days at current consumption rate," he said aloud, because speaking helped him think clearly. "Distance traveled: approximately twenty-one hundred kilometers, accounting for storms pushing me off course. Ship integrity: sixty-four percent of original capability. Personal Qi reserves: chronically depleted, never recovering above seventy percent between crises."
He laid out jade slips in a row, each representing a different factor in his survival equation.
