Chapter 1: Rebirth from Peril

"Sishi? How are you? Please don't scare Mommy..."

In the midst of the fog, a female voice, filled with tension and concern, pierced the darkness like a ray of dawn, pulling Li Sishi back from her daze.

Seeing her daughter slowly wake up after she called her name, Zhou Jiaxian burst into tears of joy and hugged her daughter tightly: "That's wonderful, you're finally awake..."

"Don't be afraid, Mommy's here. That jerk won't bully you anymore..."

Having just woken up, Li Sishi paused to catch her breath, listening somewhat dazedly to her mother's tearful words. Her gaze drifted aimlessly forward, where she saw a dazzling and luxurious crystal chandelier.

This is……

Li Sishi's eyes widened suddenly, then her gaze quickly shifted downwards and to the left.

On the ground over there, a middle-aged man who looked quite refined was lying on his back with his eyes closed, and the trail of blood running down from his head clearly indicated why he had collapsed.

Seeing the faint rise and fall of the man's breath on his chest, Li Sishi felt both hatred and relief: Thankfully, this beast in human clothing, though not dead yet, would soon be too—

She had seen it with her own eyes; this person's name was clearly printed on the list of accidental victims after the shipwreck...

Thinking of this, Li Sishi looked incredulous again and turned her gaze back to the person who was hugging her and crying.

In her memory, the last impression her mother, Zhou Jiaxian, left her was that of her lying on the hospital bed, looking emaciated and on the verge of death.

At that time, she was an extremely willful and unfilial daughter. She wanted to confide in her mother, but she ended up having a big fight with her mother, which caused her already seriously ill mother to pass away not long after all the rescue efforts failed.

After finally recovering from the grief of losing her loved one, her husband, who had cheated on her multiple times, came to her door with his pregnant mistress to force her to remarry. Under these successive blows, she finally decided to end her years of pain and obsession and chose to sign the divorce papers.

Unexpectedly, she lost miserably in the property battle, not only leaving with nothing but also being kicked out of the house.

It wasn't until her stepfather delivered her mother's will that she realized she had been blind to right and wrong all these years, not only betraying many people who had genuinely cared for her, but also mistaking insincere affection for true kindness...

In particular, in order not to disappoint her biological father Li Jinhuai, her mother concealed the truth that Li Jinhuai had taken advantage of her brother's vulnerability to steal his wife and daughter away when they were in danger. This caused her to resist the kindness of her stepfather for many years because of this unscrupulous father.

At that time, she felt that she could not just believe her stepfather's side of the story, so she wanted to go to her uncle's family to ask for the truth.

It could also be said that her stepfather's incredibly complex yet still kind and gentle gaze made her unable to resist fleeing, as if she was afraid that after learning the whole truth, she would be too ashamed to face many people.

However, she ultimately did not truly confront those she had misunderstood and betrayed. While driving past her alma mater, she saw an out-of-control truck about to crash into the students at the school gate. She instinctively stepped on the gas to try to stop it, and then lost consciousness amidst the flames and the loud noise.

What followed was twenty years of wandering, confined to my alma mater, watching people come and go year after year in solitude, until the school was announced to be demolished and rebuilt into a commercial building, at which point I once again fell into a state of confusion.

I thought this was finally the end; but I never expected it to be a new beginning or just a dream.

The chaotic memories seemed to vanish in an instant. After regaining her composure, Li Sishi quickly grabbed her mother's hand: "Were we...were we......"

"Sold?"

Upon uttering the last two words, Zhou Jiaxian's eyes widened, and then she muttered in a grief-stricken voice, "That beast Li Jinhuai! It's one thing for him to abandon us, mother and daughter, and run away, but how could he..."

Seeing Zhou Jiaxian's angry and sad appearance, how could Li Sishi not understand?

However, now is not the time to despise the heartless scumbag father who abandoned his wife and daughter—she glanced at the wall clock and saw that it was already eleven o'clock at night.

With about thirty minutes left, the ship's problems could no longer be concealed, and then, under pressure, the captain would reveal the truth to everyone...

Then came chaos mixed with panic and screams as people scrambled for life jackets and life rafts, which ultimately led to all sorts of fights and delayed each other's escape.

She was so frightened by the series of accidents that she collapsed into a limp mess. It was her usually weak mother who held on and struggled to pull her to safety, which is how they managed to swim back to the nearest land in the vast ocean.

However, this was also the main reason why my mother's body was damaged by overwork, leading to her death from a serious illness before she was even fifty years old...

Realizing this, Li Sishi suddenly woke up: Yes, since Heaven has brought her back to this crucial moment, she cannot let the tragedy repeat itself!

Unaware of Li Sishi's current state of mind, Zhou Jiaxian, who had recovered from the grief of losing her daughter, immediately remembered their current situation. So she quickly said, "Sishi, go back to our room. Mommy will handle things here..."

If it were the old Li Sishi, she probably would have obediently ignored everything and quietly retreated to her room.

But Li Sishi, who had experienced a lot, immediately understood her mother's implication: her mother was planning to take all the blame for the incident and then keep her out of it...

“This ship will dock at the port city for a day. When it does, call this number and go to your uncle. He will definitely take you in…” Seeing her daughter’s silence, Zhou Jiaxian assumed that she had not yet recovered from the series of events. So she quickly took the paper and pen on the table, wrote down a phone number, and stuffed it into her daughter’s hand.

The person who had originally taken them to "seek refuge" was now lying on the ground, and she herself had to bear the consequences of having attacked and killed him. The only option now was to send her daughter to seek refuge with her younger brother, whom she had never dared to see.

“Go back now, listen to me, okay?” Zhou Jiaxian gently persuaded, but Li Sishi interrupted her, “No, I’m not going back.”

"Don't throw a tantrum now, it's dangerous..." Someone could come at any moment, and if others discover what's going on here...

"That's not what I meant!" Li Sishi looked at her mother with a serious expression. "I overheard two men dressed as masters talking, saying that there was a problem inside the ship and that an accident might happen. That's why I followed this unlucky guy here, intending to talk to him and ask him to help me find out the truth..."

As it turned out, the seemingly refined uncle was actually a beast in human skin. He knocked her unconscious with a handkerchief after only a few words. If Zhou Jiaxian hadn't sensed something was wrong and sneaked in to attack him from behind, she might have really been harmed by this beast in human skin.

"So, this ship is very likely to run into trouble?" Zhou Jiaxian hurriedly asked.

“Whether the news is true or false, we can’t stay on the ship any longer. We might as well take advantage of the quiet now and go to the deck to get life jackets and life rafts, and leave here together…” Li Sishi was afraid that her mother would not want to go with her, so she tried to persuade her with reason and emotion at the same time.

Zhou Jiaxian glanced at the middle-aged man on the ground whom she had knocked down with something she had thrown from behind, then at Li Sishi's earnest yet caring eyes, and gritted her teeth: "Fine, let's go together!"

Although she felt that her usually spoiled and willful daughter was unusually calm tonight, the thought that she must have been frightened by such an accident made Zhou Jiaxian unwilling to think about the reason for her daughter's change in temperament any further. So she and her daughter quietly left the room.

The ship is scheduled to arrive at the pier at midnight. At this time, most passengers are resting in their rooms, conserving their energy and waiting to go sightseeing after docking.

The mother and daughter carefully returned to their room, packed their documents and few valuables into a waterproof plastic bag, and then ran out onto the deck again.

Looking out, one can see the moonlight reflected on the sea on a summer night, with ripples and sparkling water, making it exceptionally beautiful.

But the mother and daughter had no time to appreciate the scenery. After avoiding the few passengers on the deck looking at the view, they quickly put on their life jackets in a secluded corner.

Then, they carefully and quietly lowered a small life raft, which could seat two people, onto the sea surface.

Halfway through, Li Sishi mentioned that she had rowed with her classmates before, so she could barely be considered a rower. In reality, this half-baked rowing skill was something she had been forced to learn for a variety show on TV during the years she spent working her way up there.

She experienced and endured the high standards and rigorous training that the entertainment industry demanded of its artists in the 1990s.

The reason she resolutely left the entertainment industry to get married when the opportunity presented itself was largely because she simply couldn't endure that kind of hardship.

Surprisingly, it seems that only what I've learned will never let me down.

Li Sishi shook her head and paddled the life raft with all her might. Although her posture was probably a bit comical, the life raft beneath her was indeed swaying and bobbing forward with her movements.

They went into the sea at a little after 11:20. They were about 10 kilometers away from the nearest land. If their direction remained basically unchanged, they should be able to reach the shore of Daru Mountain around dawn tomorrow.

As they rowed, using the moonlight and the current to gauge their direction, a loud bang suddenly came from behind them.

Having finally regained her balance from the shockwave, Li Sishi instinctively looked back and could vaguely see a chaotic scene on the ship behind her, with obvious damage to the hull caused by the explosion.

They were not on the side of the explosion, and they were already some distance away, so they were not greatly affected.

However, Li Sishi knew in her heart that the overloaded small wooden boat following on the other side of the passenger ship would inevitably be affected by the explosion...

At that time, a large number of passengers who abandoned ship and fled, as well as Annamese boat people who wanted to sneak into the port city, would struggle to survive in this vast sea.

After her mother, who was stunned by the sight, was brought back to her senses, Li Sishi said in a low voice, "Once those people catch up, we'll have to abandon this life raft and swim in the water."

Zhou Jiaxian was still reeling from the sudden turn of events. Upon hearing her daughter's words, she instinctively asked, "What?"

Before the words were finished, a hand with bulging, varicose veins on the back, resembling an earthworm, suddenly grabbed the edge of the life raft.