“Comrade, my condolences!”
Xie Li: “…”
“Thank you so much.”
If nothing went wrong, something was about to go terribly wrong.
The heartless old scalper hadn’t put Xie Li on a ship to Liaoning Province at all it was just passing through.
The shipowner, being somewhat kind, lowered a small lifeboat for Xie Li, tossed her a compass, and instructed:
“Row east for about two hours, you’ll get there. It’s close.”
Then he turned and left without another word.
Xie Li gritted her teeth and started rowing, arms spinning like propellers.
Creak, creak, creak she rowed like that for three whole days.
After three days, there was no dock in sight only waves.
A huge wave over a meter high flipped her tiny boat in an instant.
Clinging to a piece of wood with sheer survival instinct, Xie Li floated on the vast ocean.
No people, no land, no islands only water.
She hadn’t eaten or drunk anything for three days, surviving purely through sheer willpower.
If she had only put some food in her space! All that money in her spatial stash was useless now.
“Ah!! Work your magic!! Aladdin, you nerve!!”
She howled at the sky, then quickly zipped her mouth, afraid of wasting her already scarce energy.
Boom!!
The sound of machinery mixed with the roar of the waves reached her ears.
Was the Aladdin nerve spirit responding?!
Xie Li turned to look.
On the endless ocean, a gray-blue warship gradually entered her view.
The salty, metallic scent of steel soaked by seawater, and the acrid smell of diesel, now smelled so wonderfully refreshing.
The ship was like a sharp-edged overlord of the sea, moving forward slowly.
“Help! Help!!”
People often break down emotionally when hope is right in front of them.
After three days and nights of fear, Xie Li finally cried uncontrollably, clutching the wooden plank and trying to climb onto it.
The warship was massive; she was just a tiny ant floating on the sea, at the mercy of this enormous vessel.
On deck, Shen Huainian focused on a small red dot in the distance.
“There’s someone over there.”
Zhang Qingliang followed his gaze and saw a faint red speck. How could that be identified as a person?!
He didn’t dare doubt his commander his commander was famous for his sharp eyesight. Zhang immediately dispatched a team to check with a small boat.
Sure enough it was a person!
A woman in a red floral blouse!
Xie Li was pulled onto the small boat, shivering not from fear, but anyone who had gone three days without food or water and had been flipped by waves while clinging to a plank would shiver.
“Comrade… I’m hungry, I’m thirsty.”
Xie Li gritted her teeth and barely managed a full sentence.
Zhang Qingliang watched cautiously, taking in her soaking wet, pitiful state. Her red floral blouse clung to her slender, curvaceous body, revealing the contours clearly.
Only after ensuring she wasn’t hiding anything did he speak coldly:
“You’ll get it in a moment.”
In the middle of the endless ocean, a woman in a red dress suddenly appearing was either an enemy agent or a ghost.
To Zhang Qingliang, the former seemed more likely after all, ghosts wouldn’t be thirsty and hungry.
Once aboard the warship, Xie Li first drank water, then ate some canned military rations, finally letting out a long sigh.
Her icy body began to warm from the inside out.
Perhaps she’d been away from pre-transport work too long, or perhaps she’d been used to being pampered. She couldn’t help but shed two golden tears.
Shen Huainian stood a short distance away, watching.
She was a mess soaking wet, hair and clothes plastered to her body and face, pale as paper, head down, eating desperately like a centuries-starved female water spirit.
Once she finished, Shen Huainian approached.
“What’s your name? Where are you from, and where are you headed? Why are you in this part of the sea?”
Xie Li felt a deep, cold, interrogative male voice above her.
Pleasant, yet unapproachable.
She looked up. All she saw were a pair of black combat boots, with matching operational pants tucked in.
She lifted her head further.
The man’s legs were long and straight; only when her neck ached from craning did she see his face.
A black crew cut, black mask covering most of his face, only a pair of cold, sharp fox-like eyes staring at her.
Even so, the mask’s curves hinted at strong side-profile features.
Seeing the surrounding soldiers watch her warily, Xie Li realized.
They thought she was an enemy agent.
“My name is Xie Li. I’m following the military. I boarded the wrong ship. The crew lowered a small boat for me and told me to row for two or three hours in this direction. Waves capsized my boat, and I got lost.”
She pushed back the wet strands of hair sticking to her face, revealing a slender neck and fair, delicate face.
The soldiers were momentarily stunned they didn’t expect the ghostly woman to be so… beautiful.
Only Shen Huainian remained unmoved.
“Oh, right.”
Xie Li looked up at Shen Huainian and added:
“My husband’s name is Shen Huainian.”
The soldiers on board were shocked! They all looked at Shen Huainian.
He blinked, first confused, then suddenly enlightened.
The soldiers were now sure the woman must be an enemy agent, and she had stumbled straight into their target!
Everyone in the navy knew their commander twenty-five and still single!
The soldiers scowled, moving to drag Xie Li down. Zhang Qingliang laughed:
“No need to prepare your lies! Who doesn’t know Commander Shen is a confirmed bachelor…”
Then he realized Shen Huainian was right behind him and quickly amended:
“Commander Shen’s busy with work. Who has time to marry? No one knew he had a wife.”
Indeed, the marriage paperwork was only known to his bodyguards and a few officers.
Xie Li’s heart sank.
A confirmed old bachelor.
How old could he possibly be?
“Shen Huainian isn’t an ancient geezer, is he?!”
Xie Li blurted out, genuine concern on her face.
Everyone froze for a second.
This enemy agent was… unusual.
Zhang Qingliang looked at Shen Huainian, about to explain that he was their commander, and asked if she didn’t even recognize her husband.
Shen Huainian cut him off, teasing Xie Li, and coldly said:
“He’s about to retire.”
Xie Li felt the sky collapse completely, utterly collapse.
She collapsed onto the deck, considering whether she should just return to Beijing. She had done her duty and severed ties with the Xie family if she had to carry a load, at least it would be lighter.
She didn’t want to marry a nearly retired old man.
Was Old Master Xie mistaken? Had he introduced some old acquaintance to her by accident?
“Arrest her, interrogate her thoroughly!”
Zhang Qingliang suggested, but immediately felt a chill.
His commander’s cold, piercing gaze was on him, sending shivers down his spine.
“I’m not lying! I have the marriage papers!”
Xie Li hurriedly sat up and tried to search her suitcase then remembered the papers were inside it, and the suitcase had gone missing during the shipwreck…
Damn it!!
She didn’t want to be interrogated as an enemy agent!!
“I swear!”
Xie Li snapped her hand up:
“If I’m lying, I’ll eat three pounds of excrement!!”