Volume 1, Chapter 368 – When Mountains and Waters Seem to Leave No Way Through

The bright moon hung high overhead, and fine waves rose and fell endlessly across the sea.

Shi Lan had no idea how far she was from shore. She could only keep swimming in what she remembered to be the rough direction of the ship’s course.

It was the season when summer was giving way to autumn. Once night fell, the seawater turned bitterly cold. In less than an hour of swimming, Shi Lan’s hands and feet were already starting to disobey her.

Now and then, she rested with the help of the life preserver, but she still did not dare close her eyes. If she lost her sense of direction on the open sea, she would be as good as dead.

Before long, the moon sank in the west and the great sun rose above the water. Countless colored clouds appeared where sea and sky met, and the dawn light blazed in ten thousand rays.

A continuous stretch of dark shadow appeared at the end of Shi Lan’s vision, instantly lifting her spirits.

…

At the harbor, countless cargo ships and fishing boats were coming and going in the early morning. Fresh seafood was being packed into refrigerated boxes in batches, ready to be shipped inland.

Xiao Teng stood by the shore, staring at the cargo ship in the distance. Cigarette butts littered the ground at his feet, and his eyes were bloodshot.

“Teng-ge.” A thin man jogged up to Xiao Teng’s side and greeted him.

“What did customs say?” Xiao Teng asked casually without turning around.

“Customs said they’d keep an eye out, and then…”

“Spit it out.”

“And then they praised me a couple of times and sent me back.”

There was no surprise on Xiao Teng’s face. Customs handled too many smuggling cases every day to count. A reaction like that was hardly unusual.

He still had no official connections at present. Even with a fortune of over a hundred million, he was still just an ordinary civilian.

He pulled the last cigarette from the pack in his pocket and had just put it between his lips when the thin man beside him had already offered him a light.

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“Teng-ge, why waste this much effort on some stowaway? You’re a man of stature. Why bother lowering yourself to bicker with her?”

“Don’t ask what you shouldn’t ask. Go do your own work.”

Xiao Teng waved him off. After sending him away, he opened his phone and picked out a number from a long row of contacts.

“Xiaoya, doesn’t your uncle have some connections at the city bureau? I want to ask him for a favor.”

…

“Hah…”

Shi Lan collapsed onto a patch of beach, utterly exhausted, gasping for air, her gaze faintly unfocused.

What had looked close by had still taken her nearly another full day of swimming. By now, the sun was setting.

After catching her breath, Shi Lan struggled to her feet. Her fresh water and food had long since run out, and the physical exertion in the water had been terrifying. She needed to find a way to stay alive first.

There were scattered wooden huts by the shore, some locked, some standing open. Not far away, a few people were splashing about in the water on the beach.

Shi Lan quietly slipped into an empty hut and swept it with a glance. The furnishings inside were simple, just two long benches, and further in was a changing room.

Pulling aside the curtain to the changing room, the first thing she saw was a full-length mirror. Reflected in it was a brown-haired girl with somewhat deep-set features and delicate looks. She was still a little immature, not yet an adult, and appeared to be mixed-race.

After comparing her height, Shi Lan felt slightly uncomfortable. On the ship, she had only thought this body was slender-boned. Now that she saw it clearly, she was probably not even one meter sixty, and her figure was nothing much to speak of.

Abruptly, Shi Lan froze for a moment, then raised a hand and slapped her cheeks, forcing herself to forget those thoughts she had just had about this body and patch over that sudden sense of disjunction.

The girl in the mirror was her.

…

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“Boss, do you buy wetsuits here?”

Standing on tiptoe, Shi Lan handed over the wetsuit in her hands to the shopkeeper behind the counter, a man in a floral shirt holding binoculars.

It was a small shop that sold swimming gear. The storefront was tiny. She had found a T-shirt and casual shorts in one of those huts and had changed out of the wetsuit.

The owner knew his trade. He felt the wetsuit, unfolded it for a look, and immediately had a rough estimate in mind.

After giving Shi Lan a couple of once-overs, he nodded.

“Five hundred yuan.”

“Can you give me a little more?”

“Five-fifty. If not, take it with you.”

The owner pulled out five hundred and fifty yuan and set it on the counter. He stopped looking at the wetsuit and raised the binoculars again, peering toward the seaside.

Reaching up, Shi Lan snatched the money into her hand and turned to leave.

After Shi Lan left, the owner tossed down the binoculars, hung the wetsuit on the wall, and wrote up a price.

Rental: 200/day.

…

Shi Lan walked back to the hut and tossed one hundred yuan onto the bench where the clothes had originally been.

When she reached the doorway, she came back again, threw down another fifty, and then put on a pair of sandals from in front of the hut.

This place seemed to be some kind of tourist spot. There were shops selling snacks, but the prices were more than Shi Lan in her current state could really afford.

After buying a bottle of water and getting change for the money, Shi Lan got on a bus headed for the city.

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…

Not long after Shi Lan left, several black sedans slowly pulled up outside the beach.

More than a dozen people got out one after another, scattered, and ran toward the shore.

Xiao Teng pushed open the car door and, still seated inside, swept his gaze across the beach before him. The bloodshot look in his eyes deepened further.

“Ateng, get some rest. I’ll call you if we find her.”

A young woman sitting in the passenger seat looked worried when she saw how haggard Xiao Teng appeared.

Her name was Li Qingya. At present, she was Xiao Teng’s current girlfriend, or at least she considered herself one.

Xiao Teng shook his head, bent down as he got out of the car, and slowly walked toward the beach.

He had already mobilized every bit of strength he could, and had even borrowed Li Qingya’s connections to coordinate more than a hundred police officers to help him find someone. But after a whole day, there was still no result.

The police had already withdrawn. Now he could only rely on himself.

Ever since the ship, he had not rested properly, and the whole man looked worn down and listless.

“Teng-ge, we’ve looked everywhere. No suspicious people.”

“There’s nothing on this side either.”

“We asked the nearby shops too. No news.”

Listening to the reports around him, Xiao Teng rubbed his brow and let out a breath. The thought of giving up had already begun to surface in his mind.

Even without the system, with the wealth he currently had, he could still live extremely well.

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What is fated will come in its time. What is not…

Xiao Teng’s gaze swept across a nearby shop, and in an instant it froze. The words do not force what is not yours were driven clean out of his mind as he strode forward.

“Boss, where did this wetsuit come from?”

The floral-shirted owner glanced at the dozen or so men behind Xiao Teng and could not help swallowing.

“I got it through my supplier.”

Xiao Teng smiled, but the smile did not reach his eyes. He pointed to the logo in the corner of the wetsuit.

“You got your stock from my company?”

The dozen or so men at his side all stepped forward in unison, instantly surrounding the little shop so tightly that not even water could have slipped through.

“I just bought it from a little girl today!”

The owner stood up, rubbed his hands together, took the wetsuit down, and handed it to Xiao Teng.

“How old was she? What did she look like?” Xiao Teng pressed.

“Take him to the police station and have them do a composite sketch. Once you have a picture, she’ll be much easier to find.”

Li Qingya, who had followed after them, frowned slightly and spoke in a low voice.

Just when it had seemed there was no way through, another village appeared beyond the willows and flowers…

Xiao Teng let out a slow breath, turned, and walked away.

“Take him.”