Speedboats at sea

Big Bear had been locked up, but that did not stop anyone else's life. Life still went on, and business still had to be done. It was just that, in his downtime, Su Tianyu occasionally felt bored and restless.

The thing people feared most, really, was getting used to someone. Over the past few months, Big Bear had come to see Su Tianyu after every shift, trailing him everywhere and calling him Brother Xiao Yu all day long. His sudden disappearance had left Su Tianyu feeling off-balance.

On Saturday, Su Tianyu went to the Police Bureau's criminal detention center, deposited a thousand dollars in Big Bear's inmate account, and dropped off the brand-new daily necessities Third Sister had dug out at the garbage plant.

Su Tianyu had deposited the money simply because he considered Big Bear a friend and felt some sympathy for him, so spending a little money did not bother him. Third Sister's reasons for getting Big Bear those supplies were even simpler. When Big Bear had been at the plant, he had helped her with her work all day long. She mostly felt sorry for him, thinking he had a hard life and a family that barely cared about him, so she had asked Su Tianyu to take him a few things while he was there. There was nothing more to it.

After depositing the money for Big Bear during the day, Su Tianyu began arranging the cargo pickup that evening.

The third floor Linda had rented before was definitely no longer usable, so two days earlier, Su Tianyu had used company money to rent a rundown single-story house with a small courtyard near Haiyan Pit. It would serve as storage for their equipment and a gathering point before jobs.

A little after seven that evening, Su Tianyu brought his young sidekick, Zhang Hao, to meet the Bai Family and Kong Family men at the courtyard.

Su Tianyu was the only one in charge that night. Their business at sea had already settled into a steady routine, and everyone had worked out how to collect the cargo and bring it ashore. There was no need for Bai Hongbo, Kong Zhenghui, and the others to come along anymore.

Dog Six was Yu Mingyuan's die-hard lackey, the boss's stand-in, so he had also drawn up a handover plan for everyone. He was in overall charge of collecting the cargo. Once the goods reached shore, they would first be transported to the courtyard, where Bai Hongbo and Kong Zhenghui would take over and arrange their own schedules for distributing them to the sales channels.

With clear duties and a complete organizational structure, they were running their offshore operation like a publicly traded company.

Everyone waited in the courtyard until around nine forty, when someone from the Coast Guard Team called Su Tianyu and told him the wind had died down at sea. They could get to work.

Tang Baiqing had been bogged down in trouble lately, so he had arranged for a friend from his unit to coordinate with Su Tianyu. Although he had been scheduled to work that night, he had taken leave and gone home early.

After receiving the call, Su Tianyu led more than twenty men down to the beach at Haiyan Pit with practiced ease. Then they followed the usual routine: launch the boats, head out to sea, and collect the cargo.

Zhang Hao led the team out onto the water. He took twenty men aboard seven speedboats and disappeared across the sea. Su Tianyu stayed with the remaining men, bringing the cargo vehicles over in advance and lining them up to wait for the others to return with the goods.

On the beach at Haiyan Pit, Su Tianyu sat on a reef, feeling the sea breeze as he looked down and fiddled with his phone. The other workers nearby gathered to smoke and chat.

The first part went smoothly. Less than half an hour after leaving, Zhang Hao called over the radio, "The ship's here. We're loading."

"Call when you're heading back," Su Tianyu replied.

"Got it!" Zhang Hao answered, then got to work.

Around eleven.

Once all the cargo had been loaded onto the speedboats, the transport ship pulled out of the pickup area, ready to enter the official port at the appointed time.

Cold wind howled over the sea. Standing aboard the lead speedboat, Zhang Hao called earnestly to the workers, "Hold down the cargo on top so it doesn't fall off. Cover the cardboard boxes with tarps. Don't let seawater splash onto them. Five fucking boxes got soaked last time."

Following Zhang Hao's instructions, the workers leaned over the cargo and spread out the tarps.

"Ratatatat...!"

Just then, the rhythmic sound of engines suddenly rose from both sides ahead of the seven speedboats.

Zhang Hao looked up at the sound and saw five or six speedboats racing toward them across the water, their lights off as well.

"Shit, why are there boats out here?" the driver at the helm muttered in puzzlement. He turned and called to Zhang Hao, "We've run into someone. What do we do? Keep going?"

Normally, it was difficult to encounter other vessels while working at sea at night. Dragon City closed its port overnight, and fishing boats, transport ships, and other vessels without the proper paperwork and special permits were forbidden from leaving on their own, to curb smuggling and illegal crossings. Sometimes, though, they still encountered other boats while picking up cargo. Those crews might also be doing business on the edge of the law, so neither side would communicate. They would simply pass each other and leave it at that.

Hearing the driver's question, Zhang Hao immediately replied, "Give them some room and keep going."

At that point, Zhang Hao still thought they had run into Dock Gang men or others in the same line of business. He never expected that, the instant he finished speaking, the five or six speedboats ahead on either side would converge and charge straight at them.

"Something's wrong. Looks like they're coming for us!" a worker shouted.

The speedboats were moving fast, and the two groups were heading toward each other. In just a few seconds, the five or six boats were right upon them.

Now Zhang Hao could see that everyone aboard those speedboats was masked and carrying machetes, long forks, and other weapons.

"Nobody fucking move!" a burly masked man aboard their lead speedboat roared. "Kill the engines!"

Zhang Hao froze for an instant, then reacted quickly, grabbing his radio and shouting, "Brother Xiao Yu, we've run into people out at sea..."

"I told you not to move! Didn't you fucking hear me?!" The burly man aboard the other lead speedboat raised his arm, holding a speargun more than a meter long.

Whoosh!

The speargun fired, and the spearhead, trailing a fishing line, punched into Zhang Hao's right leg with a wet thud.

This was a speargun designed specifically for catching medium-sized sea fish. The spearhead it fired was almost as thick as an adult's finger. It was easy to imagine what something like that would do to a person's leg.

The moment Zhang Hao was hit, he felt his right leg go numb.

Thump!

Immediately afterward, the burly man aboard the other lead boat used the gun to yank the line attached to the spearhead, jerking Zhang Hao from a distance as though he were tugging a dog on a leash.

The spearhead was still buried in his leg. Zhang Hao's face twisted in agony, and he collapsed onto the boat with a howl.

"Behave your fucking selves, or we'll shoot you like turtles!" the burly leader bellowed. "Kill the engines and crouch down in your boats!"

As he finished speaking, men aboard the other speedboats blocking their escape also trained spearguns on the crews.

On the beach.

Su Tianyu pulled the cover off the speedboat hidden beside the reef, climbed aboard, and shouted, "Quick, get in!"

About fifteen minutes later.

When Su Tianyu's speedboat reached the area where the cargo had been hijacked, he saw more than a dozen workers in the water, holding on to one another for support. The boats, the cargo, Zhang Hao, and the others were all gone.