Floating Island
Qu Mengting was seasick. Her hands and feet were tied up. Her body swayed with the ship's movement and she was retching.
Jiang Li couldn't bear to watch it any longer, so he leaned against her back to back.
Half an hour ago, the strong men waiting for them on the boat tied them all up and threw them into the cabin.
The fact of being trapped finally revealed that this was a scam.
They hid in a corner, crying quietly with dreams of becoming stars. Zhao Yan couldn't help but curse, "Old man! Do you know who my parents are? Let us out if you dare! I will make sure you pay for it!"
The sound can easily be transmitted in the small cabin, not to mention that there are people guarding outside.
Seeing that threats weren't working, Zhao Yan changed her approach. "What do you want? Money? I have plenty of money! I'm the daughter of Zhao Real Estate! If you let me go, I definitely won't call the police!"
Zhang Yunhan glanced at her and said, "My dear daughter, please save your energy."
Qu Mengting took a few breaths and complained, "She's already rich, yet she's still trying to find this unconventional way to become a star."
Jiang Li finished off the opponent accurately, "You are the same."
Qu Mengting was caught off guard and choked, "You!"
She bumped into Jiang Li on the back and said, "Hey, what should we do next?"
Jiang Li was about to stretch his legs, but found that he couldn't, so he said impatiently: "Go to sleep."
Qu Mengting was shocked. Not to mention whether they could sleep in this situation, the environment alone was bad enough. How could they sleep with a pile of stinky fishing gear?
"Can you sleep?"
Jiang Li smiled and said, "Why can't you sleep? You've even slept in a grave, so why are you afraid of this?"
Qu Mengting looked around without taking his words to heart, and commented without any sincerity: "You are awesome."
She struggled with her bound hands. "What a bunch of idiots! This rope is strangling me and making my blood flow suffocate."
Jiang Li reminded her, "Don't you have a hairpin?"
"Yes." But the hairpin was on her head and she couldn't reach it, so she twisted her body twice and said, "Help me get it."
Jiang Li glanced at them huddled together in complaint and whispered, "Come here."
The two moved to the corner. Qu Mengting moved forward a little and lay down. She felt Jiang Li's hand groping her head, and soon the hairpin was pulled away.
He took the hairpin off Qu Mengting's head, untied the rope for himself, and put the broken hemp rope into his pocket.
He turned around and helped Qu Mengting up, untied the ropes on her hands, and after they were freed, they both huddled in a corner.
Qu Mengting asked, "Do you want to help them?"
Jiang Li hesitated for a moment and said, "No."
Qu Mengting was puzzled, "Why?"
Jiang Li glanced at the door and asked, "Do you want them to find out?"
Qu Mengting asked, "So what should we do now?"
"I told you, go to sleep." Jiang Li leaned against the iron board, her eyes already closed. She opened her mouth but said nothing.
The boat kept moving. After a day's journey, Jiang Li opened his eyes at dusk and pushed Qu Mengting, who was sleeping on the ground, and said, "The boat has stopped."
Someone outside turned the handle. Qu Mengting was so scared that she quickly sat up and stood back to back with Jiang Li to hide her hands and feet that had been untied.
The door opened and another group of people were pushed in. Qu Mengting counted and there were exactly 12 of them. Including them, there were now more than 20 people in this small cabin.
Unlike them, the newcomers had sacks put on their heads. A few of them tried to resist and rushed out, but were grabbed by the strong men on guard and carried away, and no one knew where they went.
The door was open and the sound of talking outside came in. It sounded like the driver was talking to a woman.
"I didn't expect Sister Li to be on the same boat with us."
Qu Mengting reacted quickly, "Sister Li?"
Jiang Li asked, "Do you know him?"
She suddenly said in panic: "She has seen me!"
Jiang Li glanced towards the door and saw a woman with short hair, dreadlocks and a nail on her lip, smoking a cigarette.
Qu Mengting's voice trembled. "She was the one who picked me up the first time. She's seen me before! What should I do?"
Jiang Li said, "Calm down. She may not remember you, and she probably won't go into the cabin."
At this moment, Chen An, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke in Jiang Li's headset, "Jiang Li, pay attention to this Sister Li. There was a high school student named Cheng Minli who went missing before. If you have a chance, verify her identity."
Sister Li threw the half-smoked cigarette butt on the ground, stomped it out, and left without saying a word.
"Liu Quan, why are you wasting so much time talking to her?" Yuan Yi walked over with a cane.
Liu Quan said contemptuously: "She only came here halfway, why should she be on the same ship with us?"
Yuan Yi cursed him in his heart for his lack of vision, but he didn't say it on the surface.
He hadn't wanted to do this job in the first place; he'd retire after this one. He was old, and he didn't want to live a life where he could be caught at any moment. He'd been transporting people to the floating islands for twenty years. It had been easy and lucrative at first, but in recent years, it had become increasingly difficult. Tighter regulations, high standards for goods, and increasingly stringent national population controls had made it a hassle in every way.
Moreover, he recently received a tip-off that the police have already got hold of this line. The Chinese police are the most difficult to deal with and they will not let go even if it is a rare case. It is better to take this opportunity to relieve himself of the burden than to be arrested someday.
Liu Quan has been with him for quite a long time. Many of his men have come and gone, but Liu Quan is the only one who has always followed him. But for some reason, after going through so many storms with him, Liu Quan's broken brain still hasn't learned even a sliver of his ability to judge the situation.
Yuan Yi gave him one last push and asked, "Liu Quan, who do you think will get this clue in the future?"
There were many people involved in the delivery line. The two main leaders at the beginning were Yuan Yi and Jin Qiu. Later, after that incident, Jin Qiu was executed, and this line was assigned to him alone.
Sister Li suddenly joined half a year ago and is considered his competitor. They deliver "goods" via different routes and usually don't run into each other. If the original iron house on Line 2 hadn't been destroyed and the police hadn't been there, she wouldn't have come to squeeze their route.
Liu Quan's eyes widened. "Could it be possible that he fell into the hands of that woman?"
Yuan Yi tapped his shoes with his cane and said, "Be polite."
Liu Quan's eyes and heart were full of dissatisfaction. He always thought that he was trained by Yuan Yi himself, and it was his turn to take the lead.
"Why?"
Yuan Yi gritted his teeth and said, "Keep your voice down!"
"Why haven't you made any progress? Isn't she the one the steward on the floating island is most interested in?"
Liu Quan smacked his lips, seemingly digesting the situation. Yuan Yi was too lazy to waste words with him and warned him, "Keep an eye on him, don't run away."
Qu Mengting glanced at the bruises on their bodies, which were exactly the same as her own. She couldn't help but sigh in amazement, "This woman is so cruel."
Jiang Li looked around and saw that these were all unfamiliar faces. He felt the boat swaying beneath him and started moving.
This new group of people had been beaten and cried even louder than them. I don’t know who started the cry, but the whole situation went out of control.
Zhang Yunqi sobbed, "Brother, we won't die, will we?"
Zhang Yunhan was also very upset. If he had known earlier, he would not have agreed to his brother becoming a star. If he had not received that business card, they would not have... Well, now he should be thankful that he came with him so that his brother would not suffer alone.
"No, the ship will dock eventually. We can find an opportunity to call the police."
Zhao Yan cried after hearing him say this, "Really? But our phones have been taken away. When is the next time we're going to dock? I haven't eaten anything yet. I'm so hungry. I won't starve to death before we even get to the shore, will I?"
Then half of the people in the cabin were shouting that they were hungry. Jiang Li bumped Qu Mengting's arm and said, "Cheer up, we should be there soon."
Perhaps infected by the atmosphere, Qu Mengting also looked like she was about to cry. She looked up and asked, "How did you know?"
"He won't let us die. If he hasn't delivered food yet, it means he doesn't need it. It's almost here."
Qu Mengting suddenly sobbed, "How come you are so smart? No wonder you got first place in the exam. But I'm so hungry too."
Jiang Li closed his eyes, feeling a little helpless. He searched his body for something edible, but after groping around, he only found a small corner of paper. He rubbed it carefully and remembered that it was the chocolate Chen An had given him before they set out. He pulled his hand out of his pocket and said, "I don't have anything to eat either. Just bear with it. I think we'll get some food when we get to the island."
After crying for a while, Qu Mengting seemed to be less hungry and nodded, "Yeah."
It was completely dark. He looked up at the small window high up. An orange light was flickering inside, and it was pitch black outside.
Looking around, most people were lying down. Jiang Li pressed the tracking button in his ear and asked, "Brother?"
"Um."
Chen An didn't sleep either. It could be said that his nerves had been tied to him since Jiang Li left the Municipal Bureau.
Chen An asked, "Why don't you take a nap?"
"I don't want to sleep."
"Take a break. The boat ride is tiring."
Jiang Li was silent for a moment, his fingers twirling around the fishing line on the ground, and he said in a low voice, "But I can only talk to you after they fall asleep."
Chen An inexplicably sensed a sense of grievance in these words, "Are you scared?"
Jiang Li wanted to answer that he was not afraid, but when the words came to his lips, he didn't want to say it anymore. He selfishly wanted the other party to misunderstand something.
The silence on the opposite side made Chen An feel distressed. He seemed to see Jiang Lidi with his brows lowered, squeezed in the crowd, and then raised his eyes to look at him pitifully.
"What do you want to tell me? Is it still the topic from that day?"
Jiang Li said: "No, we agreed to talk about it when we get back."
Chen An smiled and said, "So stubborn."
"elder brother."
"Um."
"On the day of reporting...can you take me there?"
"Can."
The other party agreed so readily that Jiang Li thought he had misheard.
During the time he was stunned, many images of praying flashed through his mind. In his impression, if he wanted to get something, he had to put in ten or even dozens of times the effort, and only then would he get a spur of the moment charity, just like that marshmallow.
The nine-year-old boy stood in the amusement park, staring blankly at the boss who made cotton candy. This was the reward his father promised him, but when he asked for the cotton candy, his father decisively refused him and scolded him for being too greedy.
The tour did not continue and he was left there. Finally, the candy seller gave him a useless marshmallow, and he walked back by himself with the marshmallow.
"Jiang Li?"
"……Um."
"Why are you distracted?"
"fine."
"Is there anything else you want?"
The words he had heard on the day he gave the hamster to Chen An suddenly reappeared before his eyes. At that time, Chen An said, "If you want it, as long as I have it, I will give it to you."
He seems to have been fulfilling this promise all the time.
So when he raised this question again, Jiang Li had a different answer.
If he has Chen An, does it mean that he can have everything he wants?
He seemed to treat Chen An as a wishing tree, but was he just a wishing tree?
"Zizizizi" a harsh noise came from his ears, and Jiang Li couldn't help but frown.
"River……"
The channel is jammed.
The boat stopped.
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