Chapter 6
I suspect so.
"Okay, I'll make the arrangements. Call me anytime if there are any new developments."
After hanging up the phone, Jiang Lan went up to the deck and picked up her binoculars to look around.
There were no other boats around; they were the closest vessels to the cruise ship, but the yachts were too small to offer much help.
Less than ten minutes later, the cruise ship tilted at an angle of nearly 50 degrees. The yacht then traveled at full speed for another ten minutes or so before finally stopping at the limit position where it could get close to the cruise ship.
"Why did you stop? Move over there." Guo Haitao asked.
“We can’t get any closer. The cruise ship is sinking, and there are many whirlpools and undercurrents around it. Getting too close could cause it to capsize,” Jiang Lan replied.
At that moment, the first mate and a crew member arrived in a lifeboat with life-saving supplies, handed over the supplies, and brought the children back.
After two round trips, the yacht was fully loaded, and they could only watch from afar. Fortunately, several fishing boats and a small cargo ship arrived and rescued some of the people. Of the hundreds of people on the cruise ship, a small portion were still floating around the deck waiting for rescue.
Another half hour had passed by then.
Just as everyone was getting anxious, the coast guard ship finally came close, and the roar of the helicopter was also approaching.
At this point, the port side of the cruise ship was only a small angle above the water, and the people on deck were submerged. Some of them were sucked underwater by the suction of the sinking cruise ship. If they could not be rescued soon, they would be sucked into the depths and there would be no hope of recovery.
The official rescue operation was swift, bringing all those floating on the outside of the ship to safety. As the red figures on the water dwindled, the onlookers grew increasingly anxious, as the ship sank faster than ever before.
A huge whirlpool, visible to the naked eye, appeared on the water's surface, instantly sucking in the remaining red dots that were still floating on the surface, and they disappeared into the sea.
Everyone stared blankly at the sea surface where only the bulbous bow remained, and no one spoke for a long time.
After transferring the rescued people to the coast guard, Jiang Lan and her group's trip came to an end.
He called Li Zhiqiang to explain what had happened and what the outcome was. Li Zhiqiang noticed that he seemed a bit down, so he comforted him for a while and then hung up.
When Jiang Lan got home, she had a splitting headache. She quickly washed up and went to bed.
Awakened by the constant vibration, Jiang Lan picked up her phone and checked the time: 12:24 PM, her mother was calling.
The call connected: "Mom."
The voice on the other end was furious: "Mom? What mom? You're my mom! Look how many times I've called you, how many messages I've sent you, I almost called the police!"
"Oh, I'm fine. I was just out having fun today and I was so tired that I fell asleep as soon as I got back and didn't hear my phone ring." Jiang Lan said a little embarrassed.
"It's good that you're alright. Are you still sleepy? If not, Mom wants to ask you something."
"Go ahead and ask."
"Your aunt saw your post on WeChat Moments and told me you must be in a relationship. So, Mom just wanted to ask, are you in a relationship?"
Jiang Lan was both amused and exasperated; his elders' gossip-loving instincts were undeniable. And these gossips couldn't be allowed to linger overnight, otherwise his mother wouldn't be able to sleep.
"We haven't talked about it yet, we haven't caught up with him yet."
Just as he finished speaking, he heard a commotion on the other end of the phone. He guessed his dad was listening intently. His mom said she wanted to teach him how to woo girls, but his dad said that when young people date these days, if elders interfere, they are easily labeled as "mama's boys," and the relationship can easily fall apart if they're not careful.
Then I heard my mom say on the phone, "Then keep trying, Mom's waiting for your good news. Go back to sleep." Then she hung up.
Jiang Lan lay on the bed, looking at the three thumbs-up icons in the pinned chat box of Green Bubble, and smiled wryly, wondering if she should enroll in a class to learn how to woo girls.
On Monday morning, news of the cruise ship capsizing and more than 20 people missing became a trending topic.
The government's rescue efforts were timely and the situation was handled properly. The main reason for the disappearance of these twenty-odd people was that the ship sank too quickly.
The person in charge of the cruise ship has been detained, the cause of the capsizing is under investigation, and the search for the missing persons continues.
Jiang Lan received a call from Li Zhiqiang early in the morning. Li Zhiqiang still hoped that all the dream mercenaries could collect information on dream creators. These dream creators could have a significant impact on sudden accidents, especially large-scale ones. If the impact was positive, it could effectively reduce personal injury and economic losses caused by accidents.
Jiang Lan held a negative attitude towards this. The rules of the Dream Cube were too powerful and could not be resisted by human will. The physical methods of the real world were useless against it. When they tried to fight the Dream Cube, it was like a dog trying to bite a turtle, with nowhere to start.
After years of public-private partnership, in addition to the energy handgun, energy bullet, and some other small and micro weapons and tools that have been developed, other research and development has been slow. For example, vehicles are not very applicable because the dream scene can change at any time. Even if they are developed, they will become useless.
Larger props are more likely to attract the attention of the dream maker. If the dream maker sees them and finds them unreasonable, there have been instances where the prop and the person have melted away on the spot.
The authorities wanted to create a hypothetical profile of the dream-makers, but the memories of the dream-makers could not be carried over to the real world. Without supporting information, and with no commonalities among the known dreams, there has been little progress over the years.
The only thing that is certain now is that the dreamer is unaware of the special nature of his dreams, and all his dreams are treated as ordinary dreams that occur at night, which he forgets when he wakes up in the morning.
It's like solving a crime. If there are clues, eyewitnesses, and the criminal is aware of their crime and makes a mistake, the case can be solved quickly.
They searched for the dream maker, but none of the above elements were present. There was also an invisible assistant – a Rubik's Cube – helping to erase the traces. Jiang Lan felt that the search for the dream maker could only be left as an unsolved mystery for future generations.
Xiao Ming, wearing an eye mask, sat in the back of the bus, feeling drowsy. Although he had taken motion sickness medication beforehand, it had little effect.
I really envy my colleagues' boundless passion; they managed to put together a singing competition in such a limited space. Luckily, I brought earplugs, otherwise, it would have been embarrassing if the singing had made me nauseous.
We stumbled into the scenic area, ate a farm-style meal, dropped off our luggage at the hotel, and then followed the tour guide to the attractions.
They drew lots to form teams for the rafting trip, pairing up in twos. Xiaoming drew Yingjie, and both of them were very happy.
Xiaoming's company team is very young, with only a few people being married. The majority are single, and the quality of the singles is quite good, with many handsome men and beautiful women.
This has led to a constant stream of scandalous gossip in the company, and Xiaoming has witnessed the diversity of human nature. Fortunately, she has the persona of a divorced mother, so she can always stand on the sidelines and watch the drama unfold. Although some male colleagues have confessed their feelings to her and tried to drag her into the mess, they gave up after being thoroughly rebuked by her.
When Sister Ying was organizing the group, she was definitely the last one to go into the water. Xiao Ming stood by and watched as the female colleagues, dressed in their finest clothes, formed teams to compete for their favorite male colleagues. Some tore up the lottery slips, while others clung to their male colleagues and wouldn't let go. The male colleagues who lacked sexual appeal were left aside and ignored.
Although it was all a mix of truth and fiction, she was still quite satisfied with the excitement. It just goes to show that girls these days are full of courage to fight for what they want.
Xiaoming had a great time rafting and took some photos and videos to send to his "Loving Family" group chat. Seeing the neat row of green bubbles with thumbs-up emojis in the chat box, he replied with a green bubble with a smiley face emoji.
Back at the hotel, we showered and changed, then went downstairs for a barbecue and bonfire buffet dinner. After dinner, we watched the energetic young men and women play interactive games organized by the tour guide.
After watching a series of positive and engaging team games without seeing any dark or cutthroat scenes, Xiaoming got a little bored. Just then, Yingjie asked her to play mahjong, so she went along to play.
The people at the mahjong table were all married men and women, chatting about everyday matters as they played cards. Yingjie asked her, "Doesn't your child look for his mother at night?"
Xiao Ming already had a plan in mind. As he played his cards, he said, "Go ahead and find him. I've managed to coax him. My child is quite well-behaved and independent."
"Sigh, children from single-parent families are always more sensible. Xiaoming, you've been divorced for a few years now, why don't you find someone while you're still young? I don't think you've ever had a child, and you're good-looking too. It'll be easy for you to find someone, and you won't have any pressure finding a good first marriage partner."
Xiaoming had anticipated Yingjie's words. She calmly replied, "The child is still young and might be bullied. Let's talk about it in a few years. Didn't you recently look into art classes for your child? Have you found one yet?"
Xiaoming changed the subject, and everyone started talking about their children, then complaining about how unreliable their husbands/wives were, and then the topic turned to matters of married life.
Married women drive incredibly fast and fast, leaving several tire marks on someone's face with just a single sentence. Xiaoming couldn't take it anymore after listening for a while. Moreover, she had terrible luck and hadn't won a single game. She pulled her colleague who was watching next to her to sit in her seat, and then slipped away under the pretext of needing to pee.
Xiao Ming wandered around, joining in the fun. Around eleven o'clock, the crowd dispersed, leaving only a few couples drinking at the bar.
Inside, Brother Zheng saw her and waved her over: "Xiao Ming, come have a drink."
She went over to take a look, and wow, all the best-looking single men and women in the company were here, but she didn't recognize the prettiest girl among them.
Holding a can of beer, she raised her glass when others did, then moistened her lips with the beer. She didn't respond to their conversations, just watched them drink and chat.
The green notification sounded once. Xiaoming opened it and saw that Jiang Lan had sent her a message asking what she was doing. She was busy eating melon seeds and replied, "So busy today, I'm exhausted, going to sleep now, goodnight." Then she put her phone back in her pocket.
After looking around, Xiaoming noticed something was amiss. Brother Zheng, along with front-end developer Xiaochen and Zhixuan, were desperately trying to get their assistant Xiaoyu and the girl they didn't know to drink. On the sofa, another couple in the early stages of a relationship were whispering amongst themselves, occasionally glancing at the group of people getting drinks and chuckling to themselves.
Around 12 o'clock, Xiaoyu got drunk and was sent back to her room. The couple on the sofa were also leaving, so Xiaoming immediately got up, dusted himself off, and prepared to go upstairs as well.
The girl she didn't recognize stood up, holding onto the counter, and mumbled that she wanted to go back to her room. Zheng Ge, Xiao Chen, and Zhi Xuan helped her to the other room.
Xiao Ming clicked his tongue in amazement. "Wow, what a carefree and unrestrained youth!"
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