Chapter 356 Gu Beichen went missing during the typhoon!

He held up five fingers and waved them in front of Su Yue.

"The buyout fee, this amount! Five million! Hong Kong dollars!"

In this day and age, this is a huge sum of money that could knock someone unconscious.

Normally, Su Yue would have already started calculating the exchange rate and figuring out how to maximize the profit from this money.

But now, she merely glanced at the outstretched hand without even lifting her eyelids.

"Not for sale."

"What?" Huo Wenxuan thought he had misheard and picked at his ear. "Five million! This is a one-time buyout! With this money, we can buy the most advanced production line, and we can even open a factory in the special economic zone!"

I said I wouldn't sell.

Su Yue stretched out the radio antenna, trying to catch a faint signal.

"I'm not in the mood for business right now. Let them wait. Take it or leave it."

Huo Wenxuan then realized something was wrong.

Su Yue's face was frighteningly pale. Her eyes, which usually shone with shrewdness and calculation, were now staring blankly at the gray-black sky outside the window.

"What happened?" Huo Wenxuan's playful expression vanished. "Where's Lao Gu? Why haven't I seen him this early in the morning?"

"We've set sail."

Su Yue uttered three words.

Huo Wenxuan paused for a moment, then turned to look at the wildly dancing shadows of the trees outside the window.

"Going out to sea in this weather? Are you out of your mind?"

Su Yue didn't say anything, but simply turned the radio volume up to the maximum.

Sizzle—Sizzle—

"...The typhoon center...is located...with winds of force 14...and waves..."

The intermittent broadcasting sound mixed with the static made each word feel like a heavy hammer blow to the heart.

...

The third day.

Typhoon Haiyan made landfall directly.

The entire island of Hainan seemed to have been thrown into a washing machine. Gale-force winds, accompanied by torrential rain, pulverized everything in their path. Power was cut off, and water supply was disrupted. The military compound was a scene of utter chaos, littered with broken branches and shards of tile.

Su Yue entrusted her two children to Zhang Huilan, then put on her raincoat and trudged towards the military region's operations duty room.

The raindrops stung my face, like whips lashing me.

The duty room was brightly lit—the backup generator was roaring.

Commander Zheng stood before the enormous nautical chart, his hands behind his back, his usually upright back now appearing somewhat hunched. Several staff officers were shouting into the radio until their voices were hoarse.

"03! 03! Please respond if you hear me!"

"Calling Falcon! Calling Falcon!"

There was only deathly silence.

When Su Yue pushed open the door, she brought in a gust of damp, cold wind.

Commander Zheng turned around and saw it was her. He frowned slightly. He originally wanted to reprimand the family members for trespassing into the restricted area, but when he saw Su Yue's pale face, he swallowed his words.

"Su Yue," Commander Zheng sighed, his voice weary, "what brings you here?"

"Commander." Su Yue didn't salute or exchange pleasantries, staring intently at point number three circled in red on the nautical chart. "Have you made contact?"

Commander Zheng was silent for two seconds, then shook his head.

"That was the last communication two hours ago."

"Gu Beichen reported that they had landed on the island, found the surviving soldiers, and were repairing the radar core. But..."

Commander Zheng pointed out the window, "Then the wind suddenly picked up, and the wind speed instantly exceeded level sixteen. Our communications ship... the signal disappeared from the radar."

It disappeared.

Everyone present understood what those three words meant.

In those towering waves, a military speedboat weighing several hundred tons is like a leaf.

Su Yue felt a buzzing in her head, her legs went weak, and she almost knelt down.

Xiao Li, who was standing nearby, quickly helped her up.

"Sister-in-law! Hang in there!"

Su Yue pushed Xiao Li away, gripping the corner of the table tightly until her knuckles turned white.

I don't believe it.

She gritted her teeth and squeezed out the words, "Gu Beichen is like a cat, he has nine lives. This little storm won't kill him."

“But…” The communications officer took off his headset, his face filled with despair. “Sister-in-law, the Maritime Safety Administration just sent a message. They detected a large amount of floating debris 20 nautical miles downstream of Island No. 3.”

“There was even… a life jacket.”

The operations room fell eerily quiet.

Only the sound of the wind outside the window sounded like the howling of a vengeful ghost.

Su Yue stared at the young staff officer, her eyes sharp as knives.

"Shut up."

"Even if it's a dead body, you have to retrieve it before drawing any conclusions!"

The air in the operations duty room seemed to freeze.

Those few red markers stood out starkly on the nautical chart.

"I don't believe it." Su Yue slammed her pencil on the table, the tip breaking off and flying away. "I want to see the hydrological and topographical maps of the area around the radar station. Now."

The communications officer paused for a moment, then instinctively looked at Commander Zheng.

Commander Zheng stood with his hands behind his back, looking out at the still raging rain, and said nothing.

"Give it to me." Su Yue walked around the table, pulled down the large-scale military map hanging on the wall, and spread it on the table.

Her movements were too fast and too fierce; no one dared to stop her.

Fingers traced across the map, fingernails scraping the paper with a harsh sound.

“Island No. 3 has a terrain that slopes from north to south. The radar station is built on the cliff on the north side, directly facing the wind.” Su Yue spoke very quickly, not like she was arguing, but more like she was conducting a precise surgical analysis. “Haiyan came from the southeast. If the machine room floods, their only escape route is to go to the leeward slope to the south.”

She used the broken pencil to heavily mark a depression on the south side of the map.

"Here. This is a natural cave structure. I've seen previous geological survey reports."

Commander Zheng turned around, walked to the table, and looked down at the spot.

"Sister-in-law, that cave is usually submerged in water," the staff officer next to her whispered, "You can't get in at high tide."

“Today is the 18th of the lunar calendar.” Su Yue didn’t even look up. “The spring tide has just passed, and the current tide level is the lowest point. The cave entrance will be exposed.”

The staff officer fell silent.

He checked the tide table, and it was indeed so.

“Even if they’ve taken refuge in the cave,” Commander Zheng said in a deep voice, “it’s still a desperate situation. There’s no food, no fresh water, and… you heard the report from the Maritime Safety Administration just now. Life jackets have even floated out.”

life jacket.

At sea, it's the last resort for survival.

Life jackets will only float out after a person has died.

This is common sense.

“The life jacket might have been blown away by the wind, or it might have been taken off to reduce the weight.” Su Yue raised her head and looked directly at Commander Zheng. “I need to see him alive or dead. I don’t believe Gu Beichen would die in a place like this.”

She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket; it was a note left by Gu Beichen before he left.

There were only four words on it: Wait for me to come back.

This man never breaks his word.