Thump, thump, thump.
Xin Yu, with slightly unsteady steps, quickly reached the deck.
The stars twinkled, the moonlight shifted, and a slightly salty sea breeze blew.
It lifted the hem of Xin Yu's skirt slightly, making her black hair flutter, and in the bright light, she looked like a black elf.
However, Xin Yu herself had no time to pay attention to this. She turned around, looking around, trying to find the murderer.
"How could he be here?" Xin Yu rubbed her forehead, trying to relieve the pain in her head and to sort out her thoughts.
How could the murderer appear at the banquet so brazenly?!
And, he called her just now, was it to test her?
Could it be that he knows she doesn't remember what he looks like?!
The more she thought about it, the more frightened she became, and the more her head ached. Xin Yu couldn't take a step. Leaning against the edge of the deck, she fumbled for the card with the phoenix holding an iris.
"Mu Yichuan, where are you?" Xin Yu murmured, her eyes fixed on the card. Her headache was slowly subsiding, and her clearer mind allowed her to pick up her phone.
"Hello, Officer Liu?"
*Thump.*
Before the other party could answer, the phone was snatched away and thrown into the sea behind her.
"Xin Yu."
…!
Xin Yu stared in horror at the assailant looking down at her. His face was still ordinary, but his eyes were unusually ferocious.
They flashed with ruthlessness.
"You're truly extraordinary," he commented inexplicably, his voice like the sea breeze, carrying a salty taste.
Xin Yu was almost frozen, too weak to escape, only able to stare fearfully at the murderer. "I will definitely bring you to justice!"
The murderer sneered. "What a pity."
Xin Yu clenched her fists, snapping the cards in half. In her mind, she repeated, "Phoenix Holding an Iris, Mu Yichuan, Phoenix Holding an Iris, Mu Yichuan..."
Then, gathering her strength, she suddenly raised her right foot and kicked the murderer in a certain area, then flipped to the left, trying to run back.
She shouldn't have acted rashly, revealing herself, and even less should she have run onto the deck alone.
Everyone was dancing in the lobby; even if she shouted, probably no one would hear her and come to her rescue!
The only way out was to run back using her own strength!
"Ah!" Feeling her collar being grabbed, Xin Yu instinctively screamed, "Help!"
But only the howling sea wind answered her.
"I'll give you three more minutes to scream for help." The killer remained remarkably calm, his grip on Xin Yu not too tight, just enough to prevent her from escaping.
"Let me go! Help!" She struggled incessantly, but it was all in vain.
Xin Yu stared in despair at the vast, calm sea, not a single boat in sight…
If the killer threw her into the sea to feed the fish, her chances of survival were virtually zero.
"What…what do you want?" Xin Yu's voice trembled as she desperately tried to think of a way out.
"I want you…" The killer grabbed Xin Yu and placed her on the side of the boat, his face contorted with malice, his pale lips uttering a single word, "Die."
He wanted her dead!
Xin Yu's heart sank at those words and the killer's actions. He really wanted to kill her!
"You…you dare kill me? Mu Yichuan won't let you get away with this!" Xin Yu lowered her eyes, trying not to let him see the extreme panic in them, but her long eyelashes trembled uncontrollably. "If you're dead, how will he know!" The killer looked up into the distance, a victorious smile on his face. He knew Boss was right; Xin Yu was dead, and Mu Yichuan wouldn't live much longer either.
"Let me go!" Xin Yu bit her lip hard. She instinctively felt the killer had made up his mind. "We won't pursue the matter of you shooting Mu Yichuan."
"Heh." The killer's smile was chilling, carried on the sea breeze.
Suddenly, he shoved her hard, and Xin Yu tumbled backward.
"No!" Xin Yu tried to grab the railing. She didn't want to die; Mu Yichuan hadn't returned from his business trip yet!
"Farewell, Junior Sister."
But those last three words faded with a thud, and Xin Yu could no longer hear them…
"Captain Zhou, it's a pleasure to meet you here!" A gentle voice greeted her.
"Yes, Vice President Cheng, are you here for the banquet?"
"Captain Zhou, may I trouble you with something?" Cheng Che spoke politely, but his blue eyes held a ruthless glint. "My assistant just called to say there's an urgent matter at the company. They'd like to ask Captain Zhou to speed up the ship to save some time; it's only about three kilometers."
"No problem," Captain Zhou replied politely, turning back to the bridge.
Meanwhile, Cheng Che stood on the third-floor deck, looking at the still calm sea, a heavy feeling in his heart.
"What? Reluctant to let her go?" A coquettish voice rang out, a serpentine body wrapping around Cheng Che from behind, vibrant lips brushing against his ear. "Otherwise, senior brother could go down and save her; perhaps it's still not too late."
Cheng Che felt the cruise ship suddenly accelerate, the surging waves crashing and engulfing him.
He leaned down and captured the woman's lips with his own, attacking and possessing her without any tenderness, until she was limp and hanging against him, at which point he pushed her away.
"You broke the rules." Cheng Che's cold voice made the woman on the ground lower her head. "Go back."
"I broke the rules?" she looked up and questioned, "And what about you? At this crucial moment, you have time to be here lamenting? No, mourning your junior sister!"
Cheng Che's gaze drifted back to the sea, his voice as cold and venomous as a snake's, "Go back."
"Don't tell me you've fallen for that bitch Xin Yu!" the woman snapped, deeply dissatisfied, "Then what am I! Are you planning to erase everything from the past?!"
"Nan Ya." Cheng Che wrapped one arm around her slender waist, his tone softening slightly, and leaned down to bite Nan Ya, "You are the future Mrs. Cheng."
"I can do whatever I want, Chairman's wife, the new generation mistress of the Cheng family..." Nan Ya wrapped her arms around Cheng Che's neck, "These are all things you promised me!"
"Yes." He moved closer, "Want to go to my yacht tonight?" !u!.!c!o!m
After saying that, Cheng Che reached inside Nan Ya's clothes and roughly squeezed her, which she seemed to enjoy immensely, until a faint whistle sounded.
He looked at the succumbing Nan Ya, a flash of disdain quickly crossing his blue eyes, but his hand continued to exert force. Nan Ya twisted her body unceremoniously to meet his touch, panting heavily.
"Mmm..." she cried out, completely disregarding the occasion, "You're so annoying..."
"The yacht is here."
"Not today, I have to go back and report." Her face flushed, Nan Ya straightened her dress slightly, held her head high, and swayed back to the banquet hall.
Meanwhile, Cheng Che, as he jumped onto his yacht, didn't look back once more, but Qiu Zhi's anxious expression still gave him a moment of satisfaction.
"You're just born into slightly better circumstances than me, that's all!" Cheng Che's blue eyes flashed with a sinister glint as he stood with his hands behind his back. "Why is it that you can get so many things so easily, while I have to pay such a high price?!"
...
"Dr. Qiu," Cheng Yuan clutched her skirt, her heart pounding, "Where is A-Yu?"
She was dancing with him, how could she suddenly disappear!
"Don't worry, we're looking." Qiu Zhi didn't know how to explain to Cheng Yuan. He was also extremely anxious. He should have agreed to examine her head; why did he walk away in a fit of anger!
"No one found in the banquet hall on the first floor."
"No one on the second or third deck."
"No one in the cockpit or basement..."
Qiu Zhi clenched his fists tightly, his peach blossom eyes filled with an unprecedented panic. He had taken Xin Yu out alone for the first time, and he had lost her?!
How could he explain this to Ninth Brother!
How could he explain this to Old Master Mu!
How could he explain this to his grandmother! "Dr. Qiu, Ayu... she didn't fall into the sea, did she?" Cheng Yuan was terrified, watching the leaping waves beside the cruise ship.
Qiu Zhi paused, his eyes twitching, his temples throbbing. He was also thinking about the question Cheng Yuan had raised.
But how could this be?
"Zhi!" Dr. Wei strode over. "The search and rescue team is working to salvage her."
Qiu Zhi nodded slightly, walked to a corner of the deck, and took out his phone. "Ninth Brother..."
Xin Yu, of course, didn't know what had happened afterward. When she was pushed onto the cruise ship, besides constantly thinking about Mu Yichuan, her other thought was—
Was God being kind to her? Letting her experience a cruise ship like this!
"Mu Yichuan, I don't want to die, I don't want to die!" Xin Yu kept repeating in her heart. She swam desperately, trying to swim towards the shore.
But the sea was so vast, the water so turbulent, and she couldn't see anything except the cruise ship getting further and further away.
"Mu Yichuan!" Xin Yu cried out in fear, her face wet with a mixture of tears and seawater. "You haven't married me yet!"
You haven't given her the Phoenix-shaped Iris again!
"Ayu, keep going! Don't let the bad guys succeed!" Xin Yu seemed to exert herself, but after what seemed like an eternity, she began to feel her strength failing.
Her body sank lower and lower…
Glug.
Cough.
The moonlight was cold, the seawater icy.
Xin Yu could no longer surface.
Just as her consciousness was fading, she saw a large fish swim towards her, then put an oxygen mask on her.
She blinked her large eyes, unable to think, and could only let the fish carry her further down.
Until she saw a colossal creature…!
A submarine? "Ah!" Xin Yu collapsed onto the floor, exhausted, after being led inside. "Who are you?"
She didn't have the strength to look up at the big fish, nor the strength to think about whether he was a good or bad person.
"I...help me contact Mu Yichuan." Xin Yu struggled to turn over and lie on the floor, looking up at the tall, thin big fish in front of her, but she couldn't see his face at all.
"I'll take you to take a bath and rest."
"No..." Xin Yu shook her head. She couldn't gamble anymore; she only wanted to see Mu Yichuan. "Mr. Jiu, I want to see him..."
The big fish pointed to the door beside him. "Won't you go for a look around?"
Xin Yu was a beat slow to react. What could she possibly see in her condition?
"Perhaps you can see the person you want to see." The big fish squatted down and explained.
Xin Yu sat up abruptly, leaning against the glass wall. "What did you say? Who are you?"
The big fish smiled, got up, and left...!
"Hey, where are you going?" Didn't you say she could see the person she wanted to see?! "I need to see Mu Yichuan, Ninth Master!" Xin Yu shouted with all her might, "Do you know him?"
"Still so energetic?" a familiar voice came.