Hello, Mr. Major General

“Nianzhi! Nianzhi! What are you doing?” Yin Shixiong watched their yacht speed toward the other navy blue, shuttle-shaped yacht. They were about to crash into its side. He wore a face of shock as he carried the AMR back to the cockpit and was about to open the door.

Because he was so nervous, it took him a while to open the deadbolted cockpit door. Inside, Gu Nianzhi had her back to him, and her slender body was straight as a rod. With both hands clasped firmly on the rudder, she looked ahead without blinking. The navy blue, shuttle-shaped yacht was approaching! Yin Shixiong closed his eyes, throwing away the AMR from his hands to lunge over to Gu Nianzhi and hold her back just before the two vessels were about to collide. He used himself as a seatbelt to secure her between himself and the instrument cluster.

The immense force of the collision between the two yachts was enough to rattle Gu Nianzhi’s skeleton, and thankfully, Yin Shixiong gripped her firmly from behind so she wasn’t flung out by the powerful inertia. However, the hand Yin Shixiong used to brace the instrument cluster was shaken so badly that it was bleeding.

Gu Nianzhi turned around to see that Yin Shixiong was also bleeding from the side of his mouth. She was shocked. “Brother Xiong! Why…? Why are you bleeding?!”

Yin Shixiong tasted the sweet and metallic tang from the back of his throat. Bearing the pain of having his arms nearly torn out of their sockets by inertia, he answered Gu Nianzhi raspily, “…Because I’m furious at you!”

Gu Nianzhi said nothing. He must have been ok if he could still make jokes. Turning back, Gu Nianzhi finally sensed the yacht being tossed wildly by the waves. The navy blue, shuttle-shaped yacht in front of them was only half the size of their Millenium Ota, so it had been knocked right over on the ocean’s surface. It appeared that their own yacht wasn’t too badly damaged and was only unable to balance due to the massive force of the collision. It bobbed unsteadily on the ocean and was enough to make them dizzy. Even Gu Nianzhi, who had never been seasick, was almost unable to bear it. Her face blanched even more as she gritted her teeth hard to prevent herself from vomiting. Yin Shixiong was faring no better, but he continued to hold Gu Nianzhi securely to prevent her from being injured by inertia.

The people on the navy blue yacht used all their strength to swim away from the waters where they had collided. But soon after, a great tidal wave swept several of them near the blue hole’s waters. They hadn’t had a chance to disable the electric fence installed there, so it was still powered up.

A crackling of violet electric arcs illuminated the top of the blue hole, and the people screamed before being electrocuted to death and falling into the blue hole. The middle-aged woman floated in the ocean, two underlings flanking her sides. Looking up to witness her personnel dying, she was both shocked and enraged as she shot a venomous look at the white yacht that had knocked them over. She wanted nothing more than to scrawl the word “death” on it in big letters!

“Miss Yamaguchi, what should we do?!” Her underlings were terrified at seeing the others instantly charred black from the electric shocks made by the blue hole’s perimeter fence. They were criminals who faced death every day and had no fear of it, but they didn’t want to perish without leaving a complete corpse.

“What are you scared of?” The middle-aged woman looked around. “Head that way! The Gus’ small island is nearby. You’ll get there after swimming for about an hour.”

Their luck was not too bad; they didn’t swim long before another black yacht sped their way. This one was even larger than their own navy blue one or the other white one. It was almost a small-sized, three-story luxury cruise ship, but with very powerful motors and high speed. The middle-aged woman bobbing in the water saw the “Ku” in floral script emblazoned on the side of the ship and finally sighed in relief.

Her eyes shimmered as she said to her underlings, “A ship is coming from over there! Hurry up and send the flare for a distress signal!”

The underlings obeyed her command, quickly taking out the flare signal he carried and aiming his gun in the air.

Gu Yanran sat in the large living room on the third floor of the black yacht, her eyes resting anxiously on the waters ahead. She saw the violet electric arcs even from a distance. Her heart dropped, and she almost fell over. Standing in front of the window with her hands clasped, she closed her eyes as she muttered prayers to the god of the sea…

“Miss Gu, are you Christian?” A tall white man stood behind her with his arms crossed, watching her with interest. This was the bodyguard Gu Yanran had hired. Turning around, Gu Yanran gave him a small smile and said solemnly, “James, I was praying to Poseidon, god of the sea. I hope that everyone will be well. I’ve truly seen enough deaths…”

James also grew serious and nodded to Gu Yanran. “Miss Gu, the Lord will hear your prayers and protect you and the people you care about.”

Gu Yanran turned back, her eyes still looking in the direction of the blue hole. Suddenly, several black dots began drifting toward their ship. Upon closer inspection, she realized that they appeared to be people who had fallen into the water.

“Miss Gu, those are the three people who fell into the water over there. Should we rescue them?” One of Gu Yanran’s housekeepers came over to whisper in her ear.

Gu Yanran reached out her hand. “Give me binoculars.”

The housekeeper handed a set of powerful military-grade binoculars to her. She lifted them up to look over and froze at the sight.

Why is it her? What is she trying to do?

But regardless of her suspicions, Gu Yanran couldn’t just leave them to die. Gu Yanran gave the order: “Send men over to rescue them.”

…

The waves continued to churn, but the sea was already much calmer than it had been during the earlier collision. Gu Nianzhi panted as she slowly steadied herself to say to Yin Shixiong behind her, “Brother Xiong, I’m ok. You can rest now.”

Yin Shixiong had been clenching his hands too tightly earlier, so his muscles had nearly seized. With great effort, he finally pried his fingers open and then cautiously flexed them a few times to ensure that his hands were ok. He folded his hands behind his back and stepped back to say with a rasp, “Nianzhi, are you ok?”

“Yes, I’m a lot better now,” Gu Nianzhi said as she looked back to glance at Yin Shixiong.

Yin Shixiong had thick brows, large eyes, and slightly tanned skin. But he appeared somewhat pale right now, perhaps from being seasick earlier.

Gu Nianzhi patted his arm. “Get some rest, I need to go out for a bit.”

“What are you going to do?” Yin Shixiong grabbed Gu Nianzhi’s hand again. “You already acted rashly by hitting that yacht. Luckily, it was fine. Otherwise, I would have no way of answering to Mr. Huo.”

Gu Nianzhi’s heart warmed yet felt saddened at Yin Shixiong’s mention of Huo Shaoheng. Her nose stung as she tried to support her body. She said calmly, “If I hadn’t hit that yacht, there would be no Huo Shao for you to answer to. Let go. I have to go outside.”

Gu Nianzhi spoke the truth. The situation earlier had been a close shave, and even if Yin Shixiong had been the one to pull the trigger, the results would have been the same. At the time, he hadn’t been as decisive as Gu Nianzi.

Yin Shixiong was slightly ashamed but still maintained his grip on her arm. “Nianzhi, Mr. Huo will be ok for sure. He’s survived even more dangerous situations before. This is nothing.”

The truth was, the Special Operations Forces had undergone overseas missions over the past few years and had faced far graver dangers. They also battled foreign mercenaries and armies frequently, so these sea pirates were actually nothing in comparison.

Gu Nianzhi knew this was the truth, but she also was aware that the situation in the blue hole was different. This was unlike anything Huo Shaoheng and his men had faced before, but she had no way of explaining that clearly to Yin Shixiong. The crux of it was that she was going by intuition, so there was no scientific explanation for what she was doing. And because it had been based on her intuition, she had to go for it herself or regret it for the rest of her life.

Gu Nianzhi pried Yin Shixiong’s hand off, finger by finger, and said steadily, “Let me go. I need to go find Huo Shao.”

“How will you find him? He’s in the blue hole and will come out soon.” Yin Shi Xiong hadn’t seen Huo Shaoheng’s exchange of gunfire with the people on the yacht earlier because he’d been tied up dealing with another sniper. He hadn’t seen what Gu Nianzhi had seen through the binoculars.

Shaking her head, Gu Nianzhi spoke in a voice that was even calmer. “Huo Shao and Brother Ze can’t get out. If they could leave, they would’ve left long ago. Do you still not understand? They… are in danger.”

“Really?” Yin Shixiong’s face fell. “Are you certain?!”

“I’m not certain, so I need to go down and see,” Gu Nianzhi said as she moved to take her clothes off.

Quickly turning his head away so that he wasn’t looking at Gu Nianzhi, Yin Shixiong shouted toward the window, “Since you’re not even sure about it, why are you going?!”

Gu Nianzhi took the opportunity of him turning away to dash out of the cockpit and mimicked his earlier actions by locking Yin Shixiong in there. She ran to the small living room to find their prepared diving suit and took off her sportswear. Clad in only her underwear, she began putting on the diving suit. It was far too big and didn’t fit her at all, but Gu Nianzhi didn’t have the time to worry about that right now. Scrunching up her tiny face, she carried an oxygen tank and fiercely jumped into the water. Carried by the flow of the water toward the blue hole, she began to swim over!

By the time Yin Shixong used a wire to pry open the deadbolted cockpit door and rushed out to the deck, he only caught a glimpse of Gu Nianzi’s back swimming fluidly through the sea. Like a mermaid, she swam toward her prince.