Chapter 117 Chapter 117 Storm at Sea

…

…………

Silence is the sea breeze and the high stars tonight.

His eyes widened in disbelief, and under He Junxia's accusing gaze, he clutched his head and screamed, "Why do I have to manually activate the satellite communication function?"

"The guy who sold it to me didn't tell me!"

He Juanxia's ears hurt from his noise, and she added coldly, "Besides, your phone card has been shut down due to unpaid bills, so you can't use it even if you don't turn it on manually."

Gao Xingwei covered his chest uncomfortably. If he had known earlier... if he had known earlier, he would have sold his blood and organs (bushi) to top up his phone bill.

Now it's all right, we can play ball.

Without access to a satellite phone, who would know of their existence? Gao Xingwei slumped in despair on the lifeboat, looking like a deflated, sad frog.

He doesn't want to die at sea, ahhhh.

…TAT…

"Why are you crying? He's not dead yet." He Junxia held his forehead with his hand. "Although the satellite call function is not working, we can still use the flashlight function of the mobile phone."

He shook his phone, and Gao Xingwei immediately perked up.

Tian Zhaodi watched the interaction between the two, and the corners of her mouth rose unconsciously. She seemed to have really met a good person.

He Junxia began to send the international distress signal into the sky in a pattern of three short, three long, and three short beeps.

The night was the perfect backdrop for the lights. The light from the phone was particularly conspicuous against the inky black sea. Even the moon and stars shining brightly in the night sky could not take away the brilliance of the lights.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes...

Before I knew it, half an hour had passed and my phone's battery had dropped to 10%, but there was no movement around, no rescue, nothing.

Gao Xingwei's mood plummeted again. He was a very easy-to-understand man; his emotions were written all over his face, and the disappointment was palpable.

Tian Zhaodi licked the compressed biscuit crumbs from the corner of her mouth and whispered comfortingly, "Don't be discouraged. Even if someone spotted our distress signal, it would take some time for them to come."

He Junxia turned off the flashlight function on her phone.

The battery of his mobile phone was only 40%. He couldn't possibly turn off the phone all at once tonight, as that would be digging his own grave.

Three people sat in the lifeboat, quietly looking at the twinkling stars and the bright jade moon in the sky.

An unknown amount of time passed before Gao Xingwei, feeling melancholy, suddenly sat up and asked curiously, "Boss, why are you thinking of sneaking abroad?"

He was really bored. The boss's tolerant tone and attitude gave him the courage to ask.

Before He Junxia answered, Gao Xingwei introduced himself first, as if complaining or venting.

"I didn't get into university after graduating from high school, so my parents asked me to go work in a factory with my second uncle. I got so angry that I left."

"They disliked my grades because they weren't as good as my brother's, and they disliked my friends because they were bad friends, so they wouldn't let me play with them."

"But when I transferred to a high school in the city and was bullied, they were the only ones who immediately drove over from the countryside to stand up for me. After that, no one dared to bully me anymore."

Gao Xingwei felt more and more aggrieved as he spoke, and his voice became louder and louder, while he kept wiping his face with his hands.

"I admit that my grades are not good, but why do you say that my brother is smarter than me and that I am not close to them?"

"I went to primary school in the village and junior high school in the county. They didn't take me back until I was in high school. My younger brother has been studying in the city since he was young and has also attended various tutoring classes and training courses."

"I didn't even know what the Children's Palace was, and I was laughed at by others. If I had those things, I would definitely be no worse than him."

By the end of her speech, Gao Xingwei's eyes were already filled with tears.

He Junxia and Tian Zhaodi watched him crying. Tian Zhaodi suddenly said, "Look at me. At least you're still a man. You don't have to be sold to your brother for money."

Gao Xingwei's sobbing stopped abruptly. Compared with the little sister in front of him, he was indeed much luckier.

What a hell of a joke.

He Junxia looked at the two young people and said slowly, "I'm an orphan and have never seen my parents. I grew up in an orphanage."

"After graduating from junior high school, I worked hard, saved some money, and borrowed a lot of money to open a shop with my brother. However, the business was bad, and my brother ran away with the money, leaving me in debt of 200,000 yuan."

He Junxia smiled: "Think about the other people on the boat, at least we are still alive now, right?"

Gao Xingwei: ...

Gao Xingwei swallowed hard and covered his face in pain. He suddenly felt that he was just complaining without any reason.

Compared to the big brother and the little sister, he was really lucky. He would not be sold to a 40-year-old man in exchange for a betrothal gift, nor did he owe hundreds of thousands of yuan in debt.

Gao Xingwei stammered: "Yes, I'm sorry."

Tian Zhaodi was also surprised. She had never expected the kindhearted man who had saved her to have such a troubled past. It seemed she wasn't the only one who had a difficult life.

"Everyone has their own pain. Perhaps the degree of pain varies greatly in real terms, but pain is pain. It will not become sweet just because others suffer more than you."

He Junxia half-closed her eyes and looked at the sky: "Don't ignore the pain just because it's less severe than others, and don't give up on yourself and torture yourself because of the pain."

"Go back and have a frank talk with your parents. No matter what the outcome, you must always put yourself first in the future."

Gao Xingwei seemed to understand: "Yeah."

He Junxia wasn't a talkative person, and speaking too much to someone he'd just met was a taboo. But Gao Xingwei's words reminded him of a shy male classmate.

The male classmate's family situation is similar to Gao Xingwei's. He also lived with his grandparents since he was a child and was taken home by his parents when he was in high school. He also has a younger brother who is better than him in every way.

Unlike Gao Xingwei who is outgoing and cheerful, he always keeps things to himself, looks silent and gloomy, and doesn't make many friends at school.

After the midterm exam in his senior year of high school, the school held a parent-teacher meeting. His father was working overtime and couldn't come, so his mother chose to hold the meeting for his younger brother. He then silently jumped from the fifth floor.

The head hits the ground before the feet

The bloody scene buried deep in his memory slowly emerged. He Junxia closed his eyes. To this day, he still feels sorry for that male classmate.

He Junxia looked at Tian Zhaodi: "What are you going to do after we are rescued?"

do what?

What else can I do?

"Find a job in a factory."

Tian Zhaodi had a dull expression, and her true emotions could not be seen.

He Junxia yawned and said, "I'm also going to find a job in a factory that provides food and accommodation. Otherwise, I'll be penniless and unable to go anywhere."

Gao Xingwei said in surprise: "Let's go to a factory. My second uncle is a small supervisor and we can let him protect us."

He Junxia smiled and said, "Okay."

…

Morning light

A touch of rosy clouds fills the sky, and a hazy white mist hangs between the sea and the sky. Gentle and lingering sunlight brushes across the shimmering sea, awakening the slumbering creatures.

He Junxia opened his eyes, blinked hard, took a deep breath, and exhaled a long breath. After a night's rest, his mental and physical condition had improved a lot.

He turned to look at the other two people on the lifeboat. It was too dark last night, which affected his vision. Only now did he notice a long scratch on Tian Zhaodi's arm.

He Junxia frowned slightly.

Gao Xingwei also saw the wound on the girl's arm and immediately said anxiously: "Oh my God, why is there still a wound on your hand? Use sea water to disinfect it quickly."

He Juanxia: "Stop giving such bad advice."

Gao Xingwei felt wronged: "I didn't give any bad advice. The biology teacher said that seawater contains salt. Why can't we use seawater for disinfection?"

He Junxia held his forehead with his hand. "Then didn't your biology teacher tell you that the sea not only contains salt, but also bacteria, parasites, and fungi. Moreover, the salt will destroy new tissues and prevent wounds from healing."

Gao Xingwei nodded.

He Junxia carefully observed the wound on the girl's arm, which was about ten centimeters long. The wound was faintly bleeding, and the surrounding skin tissue was slightly white and had some coarse salt grains on it. It looked very bad.

He Junxia asked: "How are you feeling now? Are you feeling dizzy, nauseous, or feverish?"

Tian Zhaodi shook her head.

She said nonchalantly, "It's okay. I've been cut by a rusty sickle before, bitten by a yellow dog at the village entrance, and had chickenpox and rash. I'm still fine."

He Junxia: "The past is the past, and the present is the present."

He still remembered the girl's struggling cry for help last night and knew her deep desire to survive.

He Junxia lowered his head to count all the supplies. There were only ten small packets of compressed biscuits, five 550ml bottles of mineral water, 18 steamed buns, and 1200ml of drinking water left.

No, there is more.

The curtains used to block the sea breeze and the small plastic basins are hung with drops of crystal clear dew, which are precious fresh water.

However, if you want to drink it, you need to process it further.

He Junxia thought for a moment and opened an unopened bottle of mineral water: "I'll rinse your wound first, and try to avoid letting it come into contact with water later."

As for other aspects, he was powerless for the time being.

Tian Zhaodi did not refute.

He Junxia used most of the bottle of water to wash her wound, and gave her the rest as her drinking water for the day. It was a common practice among the three of them that he would distribute daily necessities.

After having breakfast together, He Junxia used plastic bags, mineral water bottles, dark clothes, lenses and plastic basins left over from compressed biscuits to make a relatively more complex and efficient simple seawater desalination device.

Gao Xingwei and Tian Zhaodi watched intently.

Gao Xingwei came up eagerly: "Hey, boss, can you teach me? I want to learn too."

"Okay."

He Junxia nodded, since she was free anyway.

Gao Xingwei listened to him talking about the principles with great interest, but by the end he felt dizzy and drowsy with his head down.

On the other hand, Tian Zhaodi was able to join in a sentence from time to time, and could ask questions by analogy. She also had strong hands-on skills and was able to set up the device by imitating others in a short while.

Gao Xingwei: ...

Gao Xingwei took a deep breath. It turned out that he was the worst student among the three of them. His sister, who was two years younger than him, knew more than him.

hateful

He has to listen carefully too!

Ten minutes later

Gao Xingwei was dazed and sleeping soundly on the lifeboat with stars in his eyes, while He Junxia and Tian Zhaodi were chatting about everything from the south to the north, from the sky to the earth, changing the subject countless times.

He Junxia couldn't help but feel curious: "Where do you know all this?" The teachers in the school don't have time to teach students non-exam-related knowledge.

The girl smiled faintly and said, "There's a library in the county. I often use my brother's library card to borrow books and read when I'm not working."

He Junxia sighed slightly in his heart.

It would be a shame if such children did not continue their studies.

But they are still drifting on the sea, their future is uncertain, and the wisher owes more than 100,000 yuan in foreign debt, so he can't promise anything.