Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Boarding the ship
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“Wow—wow—”
The river water rhythmically slapped the hull of the boat, and the melodious river breeze blew past his face. Gu Mengran stood alone on the open deck, looking at the ships coming and going on the vast and winding mother river through the hazy yellow fog.
Huangjiang River, the largest river in China, originates in Yinan, flows through many provinces, and finally flows into the East China Sea at Songkou. From west to east, it is about 6,000 kilometers long.
Yuntian is located in the lower reaches of the Huangjiang River, 5,600 kilometers away from the "end point", and the remaining 5,600 kilometers will be the final route of Fengyi.
5,600 kilometers only takes three or four hours by plane, but it would take at least twenty days to travel by boat.
There is no time left. There are less than five days left before the volcanic eruption that will change the course of human history.
They had to leave, and they had to leave as soon as possible.
"——Shasha, Shasha, Gu Mengran, Gu Mengran, where are they?"
The intercom on his waist rang, and the voice of his grandfather came out from inside, wrapped in white noise. Gu Mengran leaned against the side railing and stretched himself, then slowly picked up the intercom and pressed the PTT button: "I'm here, I'm on the deck outside."
"Come in quickly, the contract has been signed. Go arrange a room for Xiao Liang."
"Received, wait a moment."
There is a certain distance from the stern to the bow of the ship. When Gu Mengran hurried back to the cab, Liang Zhao was already waiting at the door of the cab with his luggage.
Meeting again was still a little awkward. Gu Mengran forced himself to forget about the morning incident and pretended nothing happened. He walked forward with a smile and asked, "How is it, Liang Zhao? Are you satisfied with the treatment?"
Liang Zhao hummed softly, "Very satisfied."
"Hey, that's good. Come on, I'll show you the room."
In order to trick people onto the ship, when Gu Mengran and his grandfather drafted the contract, they added a level to the salary standard for ordinary crew members and directly gave Liang Zhao the salary of a senior crew member.
I am satisfied, but I can't give you even a little bit of the money.
Coming from the cab, passing the warehouse is the rest area. Gu Mengran walked in front to lead the way and came to the door of a secondary bedroom next to the master bedroom.
"Here, here. You live in this room."
Turning the handle and pushing open the door, Gu Mengran made way, stretched out his hand as a "please" gesture, raised his chin and looked back at Liang Zhao, "This is your bedroom, come and see if you like it."
"There are six crew lounges on the ship. The captain and first mate's rooms are bigger. The other four rooms are similar in layout, just in different locations. This one is chosen for you. Next door is my bedroom. I live in the first mate's room. Diagonally opposite is the captain's lounge, where my grandfather lives."
Gu Mengran was very enthusiastic and chattered away introducing things, but Liang Zhao said nothing and walked slowly into the room dragging his suitcase.
The crew lounge is about 20 square meters, much larger than an average family bedroom. The overall color of the room is white and gray, with a simple and elegant modern decoration style.
On the left side of the entrance is the bathroom, which is an integrated bathroom design with a steel deck and frosted partition, separating wet and dry areas, and is fully equipped with toilets, showers, washbasins and other appliances.
Walking further in, a built-in wardrobe and a 1.5-meter standard double bed come into view. In addition, there are projection cloth projectors, desks and chairs, lazy sofas, dehumidifiers... a wide variety of furniture and appliances embellish the originally cold room with a touch of homeliness.
There is a bedside table on each side of the double bed, with a table lamp and two exquisite small ornaments neatly placed, and matched with a set of gray sheets and quilt covers, making the whole room look as warm as a home.
The area of a ship is limited. On a large ship, it is normal for several crew members to squeeze into one room. Recalling the dim and cramped crew lounges in the past, Liang Zhao frowned slightly.
This subtle change in expression caught Gu Mengran's attention and he immediately changed his mind. He walked to Liang Zhao's side a little awkwardly and asked softly, "Don't you like it? Then why don't we go to another room——"
"I like it." Liang Zhao suddenly turned around and met Gu Mengran's gaze. His eyebrows relaxed, his slender neck raised high, and his eyes, which were like a pool of stagnant water, slowly brightened up.
"I love so much."
"Really?" Gu Mengran was skeptical. "We'll be living here for a long time. If you're not satisfied, just let us know. We can move to another room and move our things over."
Liang Zhao: "Such a nice room, how can I not like it."
Gu Mengran: "Haha, that's good, that's good."
After staring at each other for a moment, Gu Mengran was the first to look away. He quickly walked to the window and waved to Liang Zhao excitedly, "Come here, I'll show you something good."
Liang Zhao put down his luggage and followed him. Gu Mengran pulled open the curtains, and a transparent panoramic floor-to-ceiling window immediately appeared in front of him. Then he slid the sliding door, and a bright and spacious semi-open-air balcony was revealed.
The balcony is very long and spacious, and you can reach any room on the second floor from the balcony.
The dark green deck is somewhat inconsistent with the room decoration. Standing on the balcony and looking far into the distance, you can enjoy a very broad view. The river breeze blowing in your face brings a refreshing coolness, which makes you feel relaxed and happy.
"I love this balcony so much. When the yellow fog dissipates, we'll put a table and sit here to drink tea and enjoy the river view. It will be so comfortable." Gu Mengran lay on the railing of the ship, tilted his head and looked at Liang Zhao, with a smile in his eyes that could not be faded.
"Well, it's very good." Liang Zhao curled the corners of his mouth unconsciously, and his hands hanging by his sides trembled slightly.
"By the way—"
"Other rooms——"
Neither of them spoke at the same time, and they smiled at each other. Liang Zhao raised his chin towards Gu Mengran, "You speak first."
Gu Mengran quickly shook his head, "No, you first."
Liang Zhao: "Well, I was just wondering if the other bedrooms are like this? Such decoration, such... supporting facilities."
After beating around the bush for so long, perhaps what he wanted to ask most was, are other people treated the same way? Or is it just him, his old classmate, who is enjoying this treatment alone?
Gu Mengran didn't get what he meant at all, and his eyes widened, "How is that possible? No one lives in the other rooms, why spend that money?"
"No one's staying? What about the other crew members?"
Gu Mengran shrugged, "No, just the three of us."
There are many cargo ships that are clever in terms of crewing, but Liang Zhao never expected that there would be only three of them on such a big ship.
Liang Zhao moved his lips, wanting to say that there were too few people and it was unsafe, but when he lowered his eyes and met Gu Mengran's clear eyes, he blurted out a suggestion and took a detour, "That's good too. What about you, what did you want to say just now?"
"I……"
Gu Mengran was silent for a second, his eyelids drooped, and he stammered, "There are still some things left to buy on the ship. I, we have exceeded our budget for buying ships and goods, and the working capital on hand...is not enough, I..."
It was simply too hard to say! Gu Mengran was so ashamed and angry that his head almost dropped to the deck. He couldn't even bring himself to say "borrow some money".
At this time, Liang Zhao leaned forward and spoke in a low, cold voice beside his ear: "The loan approval is slow. I still have some spare money. Can I use it first?"
Gu Mengran hesitated, "I don't feel comfortable with this."
"Money will just sit there anyway, it won't get more because of this. How about I calculate some interest and treat it as a deposit with you?" Liang Zhao's tone was light, with a hint of liveliness in it.
Not only did he lend money, he also resolved Gu Mengran's embarrassment. No matter in the past or now, Liang Zhao has always been the person who seems cold and indifferent, but is actually gentle to the extreme.
Gu Mengran looked up at Liang Zhao and muttered softly, "Why are you so nice?"
Liang Zhao looked at him with a half-smile, "We are good friends, and we have a life-and-death relationship, right?"
Gu Mengran: ...It’s better not to lend this money.
It's awkward to borrow money, but it's no burden to spend it.
As soon as the WeChat money arrived, Gu Mengran immediately ran off the boat and bought a diesel boat, a waterproof tarpaulin, a pressure relief wheel, a few dinghies, several spare anchors, and various maintenance tools and diving equipment.
Liang Zhao was on the boat, and Gu Mengran, who had gone out to buy things, had no way of returning empty-handed. He could only put the unimportant small items back into the space, and have others sent to the dock, and then rent someone else's diesel boat to transport them to the anchorage.
After running back and forth four or five times, all the goods were loaded on the ship and it was already dark.
It was midsummer, and the Wind Wing was like a big iron oven, steaming hot and not getting cool even at night.
The living room was filled with a faint aroma of food, which Gu Mengran smelled as soon as he entered the room.
He was so exhausted that he dragged his tired body to lie down on the sofa in the living room. He didn't even want to move a finger, let alone go to the kitchen. The only thing he could do was to shout at the top of his voice: "Grandpa, I'm back!"
Hearing the noise, Meng Gaoyang poked his head out of the kitchen with a spatula in his hand. Seeing Gu Mengran's listless appearance, he spared no effort to tease him, "Are you that tired? I think you just don't exercise enough and don't have enough physical strength. You're so tired after doing some random work!"
Gu Mengran glared at him angrily: "I'm hungry!"
"It's cooking. We'll eat soon." Meng Gaoyang said casually. Just as he was about to go back to the kitchen, he suddenly thought of his business and hurriedly told Gu Mengran: "Take a break and go downstairs to get some food and seasonings up."
Speaking of this, the old man got angry. "I just walked into the kitchen and the refrigerator was empty, the cupboards were empty, there was nothing to eat."
Gu Mengran: “I know.”
The goods in the supermarket downstairs cannot be put away for the time being. They are inspected by the maritime department when leaving the port and passing through the lock. After all, they are a "supermarket ship" and the goods must be displayed in the open.
Food that can be preserved for a long time is fine, but the fruits, vegetables and fresh food that grandpa pretends to buy need to be finished as soon as possible, well, eaten as soon as possible.
The new house was fully furnished with furniture and appliances, but when he first moved in, it was cold and deserted, without any breath of life. Gu Mengran always felt that something was missing. After taking a short break for ten minutes to recover, Gu Mengran looked around the living room and was surprised to find that someone was missing.
"Grandpa, where is Liang Zhao?"
Gu Mengran hurried to the kitchen door.
The old man was busy in front of the stove, and he said without turning his head: "I can't run away. I'm tidying up the shelves and packing up the goods downstairs."
"You're asking people to work on the first day?"
"If you don't do it and he doesn't do it, then who will do it? Me? Go away, go play somewhere else and don't get in the way here."
After being chased out of the kitchen by his grandfather, Gu Mengran shrugged helplessly and prepared to go downstairs to find Liang Zhao.
However, just as he took two steps, his grandfather's voice came from behind him again: "Gu Mengran, we are leaving the port tomorrow. Are you really not going to tell Gu Decheng? After all, he is your biological father. Even if you don't take him with you, shouldn't you at least remind him?"
Gu Mengran paused and raised his lips slightly.
"Say, why not."
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