Jingle jingle~
"Oh, I almost forgot about this."
Li Haochen walked over and reeled in all four fishing rods. Without exception, they were all sea bream.
"Could I have caught both of them?"
Sea bream are a rather special kind of fish. They are hermaphroditic and live in schools, but not large ones, just about ten or twenty. There's only one male in the school, and the rest are his wives. Once the male dies or disappears, the strongest female in the school undergoes a sex change and becomes male, continuing to lead the school.
Li Haochen continued to bait his hooks and soon pulled in a few more sea bream, which made him grin from ear to ear.
In just over two hours, he had caught thirteen sea bream. After that, he didn't catch any more, probably because he had wiped out their entire family.
The weather was incredibly stuffy, the kind that makes you feel uneasy, with not a breath of wind. After fishing for a while longer and seeing no more bites, he reeled in his rods.
"This dreadful weather is so muggy, it feels like it's going to rain."
Li Haochen cleaned the deck and then retreated to the cabin, turned on the air conditioning, and took a cold shower. When he came out, he was shirtless, and took a fresh coconut from the refrigerator. The icy coconut water, as it entered his body, seemed to open up every pore.
Feeling refreshed, he lay on the bed and started reading a novel. He'd been reading for over an hour and complaining for the same amount of time, "This Captain Lu is so useless, after hundreds of chapters they still haven't consummated their relationship."
As he was reading, Li Haochen fell asleep.
He woke up a little past five in the afternoon. The scorching sun had been replaced by thick, dark clouds. In the distance, he could clearly see jagged streaks of light splitting the sky.
Li Haochen walked out of the cabin and felt the moisture in the wind. Looking up at the increasingly heavy clouds, he frowned, "This damn weather forecast is completely inaccurate."
Li Haochen had originally planned to wait here for the storm to pass before setting sail back to Binhai. However, the wind began to pick up, and the waves grew fiercer. Seeing the rocking of the ship, he reconsidered and decided to head back to Zhoushan Wharf to take shelter.
He weighed anchor, sounded the horn, and the Starry Sky began to pick up speed. In a few minutes, it was cruising at its maximum speed towards Zhoushan Wharf.
"Crack~ Boom~"
A massive bolt of lightning struck the sea not far from the Starry Sky, as if an immortal was cleaving the heavens and earth. It startled Li Haochen.
This was followed by torrential rain, and soon the sea was covered in a misty haze, obstructing visibility. Li Haochen continuously sounded the horn to warn surrounding vessels.
Gale-force winds, torrential rain, thunder, and lightning. The waves grew increasingly turbulent. Looking at the terrifying scene outside the ship, Li Haochen felt a bit nervous.
"Huh, what is that?"
Li Haochen spotted an object floating about a hundred meters ahead and to his left, looking at it with confusion.
A few seconds later, upon clearly seeing the object, Li Haochen's heart tightened. The ship was moving too fast, and by the time he reacted, he was already a hundred meters past it.
"Holy crap!"
Li Haochen didn't dare to think too much about it. He executed a sharp turn to the right and rushed back.
When he was close, he shut off the engine and dropped anchor, forcing the ship to stop, not caring about any potential damage.
The forced stop caused the Starry Sky to brake suddenly. Fortunately, the speed wasn't high, otherwise, the ship would have likely disintegrated. Even so, the anchor chain groaned loudly, and Li Haochen was thrown off balance by the immense inertia, falling and scraping his hands and feet.
Ignoring these minor injuries, Li Haochen scrambled up, put on his life jacket, and rushed onto the deck, spotting a zeppelin capsized by the waves about ten meters away.
The wind and waves were too strong, and the heavy rain, amplified by the strong wind, felt like solid objects, leaving his whole body aching. He couldn't keep his eyes open, so Li Haochen squinted, searching the surface of the sea, his heart filled with terror.
Suddenly, a few meters from the zeppelin, he saw three small black dots bobbing up and down. Li Haochen's spirits soared. With a life buoy tied around his waist, he glanced at the raging sea and without hesitation, jumped in.
The wind and waves were too fierce. Even with Li Haochen's excellent swimming skills, he couldn't contend with nature. Fortunately, he had his life jacket and life buoy. Even so, Li Haochen swallowed a lot of seawater.
The short distance of about ten meters took him nearly a minute to swim, driven purely by sheer grit.
Seeing his target not far ahead, Li Haochen's joy was immense, and he increased his speed.
"Help... help me..."
The middle-aged man was holding a unconscious youth with his left hand and dragging a pale, terrified woman with his right. He was kicking with all his might.
In such extreme conditions, for one person to hold onto two adults and last this long was already a miracle. It was all supported by a man's responsibility, the spiritual strength of a father and husband's lifelong commitment.
"Move, move, come on..."
The middle-aged man's brain continuously issued commands to his legs, but his body seemed to be working against him, showing no response. The three of them slowly began to sink.
"I'm sorry, until next life..."
The moment the middle-aged man was completely submerged, a powerful right hand gripped his neck and pulled him upward with force.
"Just in time."
Li Haochen breathed a sigh of relief, but as he pulled the man out of the water, he realized something was wrong. His heart immediately tightened with fear and panic because only one person had been pulled out.
"Damn it..."
Li Haochen didn't have time to think. He quickly took off his life buoy, tied it securely around the man's shoulders, and plunged into the water, kicking hard to dive down. His eyes were wide open, even though the seawater stinging them made them hurt.
After searching for a few seconds with no success, his heart sank, and his hands and feet began to move in a panic.
At this point, Li Haochen was also reaching his limit, his strength starting to fail. Forcing back his grief, he prepared to surface when suddenly, a few small bubbles shot up in front of him.
Li Haochen looked down and his spirits soared.
Gritting his teeth, he dived with all his might, chasing the two people who were falling. Just as he was about to catch up, Li Haochen felt his thighs growing numb and starting to disobey him. He bit his lip hard, but the pain wasn't enough. With a surge of determination, he bit off a piece of his inner lip, finally reawakening a sliver of feeling in his legs.
At this moment, Li Haochen had only one thought: to save them. He had experienced this kind of pain before and didn't want a tragedy to occur.
He swam and kicked with all his might, and just as his strength was completely depleted, he caught up to them. He wrapped his arms around both of them, bit off another piece of his inner lip to stimulate his body, and kicked upwards with his legs.
The sea surface was getting closer and closer, but his body felt heavier and heavier. Li Haochen bit his lips again, but it was no longer enough to stimulate his utterly numb body.
After swallowing several mouthfuls of seawater, Li Haochen's consciousness began to blur. He was unwilling, but it was too late.
Just as his consciousness flickered out, he seemed to feel his body lying on land, and yet he was still floating upwards.
"Must be a hallucination before death..."
The thought flashed through his mind, and Li Haochen completely lost consciousness.