"I'll go with you!"

Seeing that Si Gui insisted, Xu Dasheng did not refuse again. The two pretended to be slightly drunk and walked through the cabin, supporting each other as they walked into the corridor inside.

As they walked through the long corridor, the music behind them gradually subsided. As they approached the stern, they heard another kind of noise.

Xu Dasheng grabbed Si Gui, who was about to walk forward, and listened intently to the sounds coming from inside the room.

"Oh dear, it's small again!"

"Come on, come on, place your bets now!"

"Are you done yet? Oh well, so what if you lose? There are wins and losses, right? If you lose, you can just add more and make it all back in one go."

"Is it done yet? Is anyone else here? If no one is, I'm going to open it."

"What? You're out of money? Hey bro, you seemed to be on a winning streak at the beginning, how did you lose so much? This whole trip to sea was for nothing. Keep going, try to win it back!"

"Here's what you do: borrow some money from Brother Chen, and pay him back once you win back what you lost."

"What's there to be afraid of? We're all brothers!"

"Brother Chen is very easy to talk to; it's just a matter of signing an IOU!"

........

The shouts and enticing sounds from inside could still be heard intermittently. Xu Dasheng and Sigui exchanged a glance and instantly understood what was going on.

Just as the two turned to leave, the door creaked open, and a sailor, his eyes bloodshot from losing, stepped out.

Xu Dasheng knew him; they lived in different villages and had even chatted briefly when he registered for the exam.

Hearing that his mother was sick and needed money, he risked going out to sea with her.

"Hey, Brother Niu, aren't you done playing? You've lost quite a bit. Maybe you can borrow some money from Brother Chen and make it all back," a man in a black coat said as he chased after them.

Da Niu turned around mechanically, revealing a wry smile. "Forget it, I'm not playing anymore. My luck isn't very good today. Anyway, it'll be quite a few days before I get home. I'll take a break for now and see if my luck improves tomorrow before trying to win back my losses."

"Okay, okay, come find me again when your luck improves."

After the man turned and went back, Da Niu stared at Xu Dasheng with a deathly pale face, "You, you guys too..."

"Hurry up, hurry up, don't go in, don't go in."

Da Niu waved his hands wildly at the two of them, his face showing a hint of madness.

Seeing Da Niu suddenly lose his temper, Xu Dasheng quickly helped him up, "Brother Da Niu, calm down, calm down."

Si Gui and Xu Dasheng exchanged a glance, then restrained Da Niu and dragged him toward their room.

Da Niu drank a glass of cold water and gradually calmed down.

My hands were trembling involuntarily.

"They led us to roll dice and gamble on Pai Gow. Everyone won some at first, but then they started losing. Many people lost their last thousand yuan and started asking Brother Chen for money."

"They were so engrossed in losing that they didn't even have time to look at the IOU."

“It said that if they couldn’t pay back the money, they would have to work for them to pay it off. I can read some words, and when I saw this, I knew something was wrong.”

Da Niu's eyes were red. "Brother Da Sheng, they... they've set a trap for us. They're after our lives."

"I was wondering how the captain, that stingy guy, could afford to throw us such a lavish feast, with wine and meat. He usually doesn't even let us eat our fill when we're working, and now he's suddenly being so generous..."

"So there was a backup plan waiting for us here. The brothers are all a bit tipsy..."

At this point, Da Niu choked up and covered his face with his hands.

He barely managed to save his life, but then lost the thousand dollars he had risked his life for.

How could he possibly have the face to go home and see his wife and parents?

Suppressing his anger, Xu Dasheng patted Da Niu's shoulder reassuringly and said, "Learn from your mistakes."

"If you lose, you lose. As long as you're still alive, you can earn the money back later."

"You didn't borrow money from them to sign that contract, did you?"

Da Niu shook his head, "No!"

Xu Dasheng breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good. As long as we get back to shore, we'll be free. Right now, we're on their territory, and they still have guns. We should just stay put. Our families need us. There's no need to risk our lives."

Si Gui said angrily, "Uncle Dasheng, it's not a matter of us hiding now, it's that they won't let us leave easily."

Xu Dasheng knew that Si Gui was right, but he was helpless. The other side not only had more people than them, but also a lot of guns.

If a conflict were to break out with them at this time, they might be beaten to death and thrown into the sea to feed the fish before anything even happened.

The days that followed.

Xu Dasheng and Sigui stayed in their room most of the time, except when they went out to collect food and water.

In the neat and quiet office, the captain took a stack of "IOUs" handed to him by the tall man, his eyes full of smiles.

He quickly glanced through the materials in his hand. "Well done!"

Hahaha~

"Those who signed a few contracts, don't bother playing along. We don't even know if they'll have that kind of luck!"

"There are still six or seven people who haven't taken the bait yet. Let's focus our efforts on these people."

The tall man smiled as he listened to his elder brother's praise. "Don't worry, elder brother, I will collect all the indentures before the ship docks."

"From now on, they'll have no choice but to work for us for free!"

......

The weather at sea is unpredictable; one second it may be calm and sunny, and the next it may be dark and gloomy.

Before long, it was as if the sky had been torn open, and torrential rain poured down.

Thunder and lightning flashed, and the sea wind roared, whipping up waves tens of meters high.

Meanwhile, the helmsman was still excitedly leaning over the gambling table, shouting loudly, "Big, big, big, big!"

The commotion drowned out the thunder and lightning outside.

A helmsman apprentice in the control room was completely dumbfounded as he watched the massive waves surge up before him.

With a whoosh.

Huge waves crashed against the ship, causing it to rock violently.

People and belongings inside the ship were scattered all over the place, the overhead lights were flickering, and there were sounds of things crashing to the ground and people screaming everywhere.

"What happened?"

The tall man steadied the captain, asking, "Brother, are you alright?"

"The waves must be rising. I'll go out and take a look."

The apprentice in the control room, who had been dumbfounded, finally came to his senses and quickly steered the ship over the crashing waves.

The sea breeze blew even more fiercely.

The entire ship was being propelled forward at high speed.

The helmsman, who had been thrown out of the gambling room, also came to his senses, got up with a grim face, and staggered towards the front cabin.

Before he could even reach the control room, another huge wave crashed against the ship, and a violent jolt threw him out again.