Chapter 7 Chapter 7 We're at anchor, leaving the harbor! ...

*

"Hello? Gu Mengran, you little bastard, you actually dared to block my phone number. Where the hell have you been? You haven't been seen for a month, and now you know to call your dad?"

As soon as the phone was connected, a rough male voice mixed with obscenities came out like a machine gun.

The voice was so loud and harsh that Gu Mengran moved the phone from his ear a little further away. After the call was finished and the place was quieter, he slowly spoke: "You haven't made any progress in all these years. You keep repeating the same few sentences. You are so ignorant that you don't even know how to curse."

"You!" Gu Decheng on the other end of the phone was furious and cursed: "You little bastard, you have grown wings, right? How dare you talk to your father like that!"

Gu Mengran snorted and laughed: "I haven't had time to ask you, you always say I'm a little bastard, then what are you? An old bastard? What is your precious little son? A little bastard?"

"Gu Mengran, you fucking￥&*#*@%#..."

The verbal attack lasted for nearly a minute. Gu Mengran rubbed his numb ears and interrupted him casually: "You have money, your living standard has improved, but your quality has not kept up. No wonder people always say you are like a nouveau riche."

"Gu Decheng, when I treat you as a human being, can you please act a little more like one? I didn't call you to listen to your nagging, I wanted to tell you——"

Gu Mengran stopped talking halfway through, deliberately whetting the audience's appetite.

Gu Decheng hated being called a nouveau riche, but after hearing the second half of Gu Mengran's words, he miraculously stopped cursing and asked in a sarcastic tone, "Tell me what? No money to spend?"

The voice was a little distorted through the receiver. Gu Mengran's shoulders trembled slightly and he smiled softly, "Gu Decheng, you must live well with your wife and children. I want to see you again. I hope you won't be too aggressive when we meet again."

"Are you crazy? What on earth do you want to--dududu--"

He ruthlessly hung up the phone and added the number to the blacklist. Gu Mengran seemed to have all his strength drained away in an instant, and lay on the railing of the ship, motionless.

Just kidding, giving Gu Decheng a reminder?

How is that possible? He wished Gu Decheng would die right there.

However, this phone call was really meaningless. Ridiculing Gu Decheng did not make him feel good. Instead, he was labeled as a mean person for no reason, and looked like a smug villain.

"Oh!" Gu Mengran sighed and picked up the phone again.

I didn't want to remind Gu Decheng, but I had to remind others. Gu Mengran opened the memo, copied the text he had edited a few days ago, and posted it on the forum.

A title that is too serious will not attract much attention, so he specially edited a title that is pretentious and easy to cause ridicule:

[I won’t pretend to be so arrogant anymore. I am actually the prophet. If you don’t understand something, don’t pretend to know it. Come in and listen to my analysis.]

The notification that the post was successfully published flashed by, and Gu Mengran turned off the phone on the spot, pulled out the SIM card, and let it slip from his fingers into the bottomless river.

As he was about to leave the port, he was not afraid of being visited by others, and he would remind them one by one.

Disasters do not break out overnight. The chance to escape is often reserved for those who are prepared. Believe it or not, it is up to you to judge. There is only so much he can do.

*

As the sky gradually brightened, a diesel boat carrying four people pierced through the night, passed through the hazy mist, and slowly approached the Wind Wing.

Gu Mengran stood on the bow deck holding a telescope and waved to the diesel boat, then picked up the walkie-talkie: "Captain, the new captain is in place, and the crane is ready."

Five seconds later, the old man's deliberately low voice came through the intercom: "The cab has received the message. The crane is ready. Little ancestor, stop yelling. The law enforcement ship is expected to be here soon."

"Got it." Gu Mengran's face was full of smiles, and there was a deep smile in his eyes.

Gu Mengran got up very early without any complaints, and was more energetic than anyone else.

The reason is simple: today, the Feng Yi is leaving the port.

Driving a boat is not as simple as driving a car. It is not enough to just have a driver. It takes a lot of effort to set sail legally, especially for the Wind Wing.

The minimum safe manning for a Class I ship of 3,000 gross tons is five persons, including the captain, the first mate, the chief engineer, and two crew members. If the ship is sailing continuously for more than 16 hours, a second mate is required.

Currently, there are only two official crew members on the Fengyi, and an old captain who has retired and can only follow the ship as the ship owner. Therefore, Meng Gaoyang hired four other senior crew members who are certified but do not have as much sailing experience.

Social order still exists and everything is done according to regulations.

In a blink of an eye, the diesel boat arrived smoothly. The crane lifted the diesel boat onto the Fengyi, and four senior crew members got off the boat one after another to participate in the "training" in the driving room.

An hour later, the law enforcement ship arrived as expected.

Maritime law enforcement officers boarded the ship to inspect cargo, crew and fire protection.

It took three hours in total. After the law enforcement officers got off the boat and left, Meng Gaoyang took Gu Mengran to the open deck outside the cockpit.

The main engine of the Wind Wing started up with a deafening roar. The old captain stood on the deck and raised his arms and shouted. His deep voice covered the layers of noise and echoed through the sky.

"——Anchor!"

Emotions are contagious, and Gu Mengran also shouted: "Raise the anchor, and leave the harbor!"

Figures began to appear one after another on other cargo ships anchored at the anchorage, and the crew members cast their gazes at them, perhaps thinking that they were crazy for making such a fuss when leaving the port.

But only Gu Mengran knew in his heart how significant the Feng Yi's departure was.

For at least three years, or at most a lifetime, they will be away from home, not knowing when they will return.

The river wind howled, and the Fengyi sailed steadily, the next stop was Shaozhou Ship Lock.

After the excitement wore off, Gu Mengran walked down the gangway from the second floor to the first floor and walked into the supermarket humming a little tune.

After not being there for a morning, the supermarket has changed a lot. The shelves are neatly arranged, and all kinds of food, condiments, and daily necessities are classified and neatly stacked on the shelves.

Refrigerators, freezers, fresh fruit and vegetable counters, and the hall that was empty not long ago now take on the appearance of a supermarket.

When Gu Mengran walked in, Liang Zhao was carrying a bag of rice weighing 100 kilograms from the temporary warehouse at the back of the supermarket to the cash register next to the main entrance.

It was already the sixth bag. He was so tired that he was panting. His neat short hair was wet with sweat and casually lifted up. His smooth and full forehead was covered with sweat beads.

"Bang."

The rice bags overlapped with other rice bags on the ground and were piled neatly together.

Liang Zhao exhaled a breath of hot air, lifted his shirt to wipe the sweat off his face, and nodded to Gu Mengran, "How is it, is it fun to raise the anchor?"

The tight and smooth abdominal muscles covered with a thin layer of sweat flashed before his eyes. Gu Mengran's pupils shrank slightly, and he was distracted for a moment, and didn't even hear what Liang Zhao said.

The river breeze brought up a wave of heat. Gu Mengran realized that he had lost his composure, so he lowered his eyes and looked away. He took a bottle of water from the shelf and handed it to Liang Zhao, "Take a break. You look tired and sweaty. I asked you to be a crew member on the ship, not a laborer."

Liang Zhao caught the mineral water with one hand, unscrewed the bottle cap and took a sip. He asked, "You haven't been on a ship before, have you? Ordinary crew members are basically coolies, doing all kinds of odd jobs."

After putting the mineral water in the freezer, Liang Zhao turned around and walked towards the warehouse again.

"Liang Zhao." Gu Mengran called him, his expression extremely serious: "The Fengyi is different. Here, you are not a coolie. Take it easy and do the work slowly. We are not really opening a -"

In a few days, all the goods in the supermarket will have to be put away. Gu Mengran doesn't want Liang Zhao to waste his energy on useless work, so he gets excited and even thinks of telling the whole truth.

But he quickly calmed down. Now was not the right time. He could get off the boat as soon as he could get on. He couldn't scare Liang Zhao away at the critical moment.

So, Gu Mengran changed his words and said half-jokingly: "Don't think of yourself as an outsider, and don't think of yourself as a coolie. You are still my biggest creditor. You should treat Fengyi as your home."

"You're right." Liang Zhaotou didn't even turn his head, but laughed softly, "Then shouldn't we work harder at home?"

Treat the company as home, the school as home, and the ship as...

Understanding the other meaning of these words, Gu Mengran hurriedly chased after him: "That's not what I meant, Liang Zhao, wait for me!"

If you can't persuade them, just move together. Just think of it as exercise.

Gu Mengran pushed his hair back and followed Liang Zhao into the temporary warehouse.

The warehouse was in chaos, with rice, flour, oil and grain piled up into small hills. Liang Zhao stopped beside a pile of rice, held the rice bag with both hands, exerted force with his upper arms, and raised his developed biceps high, and then he easily carried a bag of rice weighing 100 kilograms on his shoulders.

Liang Zhao's relaxed demeanor gave Gu Mengran the illusion that he could do it, so he followed his example, forgetting that he hardly ever exercised and that a bag of rice weighs 100 kilograms.

When the rice bag was hanging in the air and Gu Mengran couldn't hold it up even with all his strength, he finally realized the seriousness of the problem. But it was too late. Dozens of bags of rice were stacked together as high as half a person. He couldn't hold it up, and he couldn't put it back.

"Liang, Liang Zhao."

The rice bag was so heavy that Gu Mengran's arms trembled and his face turned red. He subconsciously looked for help, but when he turned around, he saw that Liang Zhao, who was only focused on his work, had already disappeared at the end of the corridor.

This time it's all over! Gu Mengran took a deep breath, held the rice bag tightly with both arms, bent his knees, and tried to push the rice bag down little by little by pushing it against the other bags.

One hundred pounds, one hundred pounds. Holding it up with just both hands, without any fulcrum, it was hard to move Gu Mengran, who weighed 50 pounds.

The rice bag was still one meter off the ground when Gu Mengran's fingers, which had turned white from exerting too much force, suddenly lost strength. The rice bag suddenly slid down, and he was worried that he would be knocked down and pressed on his chest and knees. His desire to survive made him push forward with all his strength.

It was with this blow that the rice bag brushed past Gu Mengran's knees and fell heavily to the ground.

The next moment, a sharp wail broke the tranquility of the warehouse.

I wasn’t knocked down, and my chest and knees weren’t crushed, but my feet were crushed by the rice bag!!!

Following his grandfather's good habits, Gu Mengran wore slippers.

The rice bag weighing hundreds of pounds fell vertically and hit his right toe hard. The excruciating pain came suddenly, and Gu Mengran's legs went limp. His body leaned back uncontrollably and he sat paralyzed on the ground.

In fact, the pain was still within the tolerable range, but it was the right foot that was injured. Gu Mengran only felt a black screen in front of his eyes, and in a trance he returned to the day when his right leg was torn apart by the propeller.

Cold sweat ran down his temples, and Gu Mengran's chest heaved violently, as if an invisible hand was strangling his throat. He exhaled more than he inhaled, and breathing became particularly difficult.

A strong feeling of suffocation wrapped him tightly, and Gu Mengran's eyelids became heavier and heavier. Just when he was about to lose consciousness, as usual, a warm and dry hand gently supported his shoulders.

"Gu Mengran, what happened to you? Where are you injured?"

The cold voice gradually overlaps with the previous life——

"Don't be afraid, Meng Ran. I'm here."

"Don't worry about me, Liang Zhao. I'm already a useless person. I can't let you take care of me for the rest of my life."

"I, I am willing."