The fingers brushing against Ji Xun’s cheek brought a sudden rush of warmth like an electric current. Yet that tranquil warmth lingered on Huo Ranyin’s fingertips for only a split second before Ji Xun was dragged out of the sea and hauled up onto the deck.
Watching this scene unfold with his own eyes, the sheer frustration of missing his grasp nearly robbed Huo Ranyin of his remaining sanity. He almost surfaced to grab Ji Xun—or be captured right alongside him.
But it was meaningless. It carried no value.
Surfacing now would do nothing to help the present situation; it would only result in both him and Ji Xun falling into the enemies’ hands together.
He submerged himself deep into the water.
Suffocation.
The deep-rooted weakness that had plagued his growth now felt almost like an asset.
He could remain hidden beneath the sea for a long, long time.
He let the ice-cold seawater envelop him from all sides. Within the dim, disorienting depths, he forced himself to swallow the self-reproach and regret of failing to rescue Ji Xun—swallowing them piece by piece, like swallowing razor blades.
It was meaningless.
Dwelling on a failed attempt was entirely meaningless.
Calm down.
Calm down.
You came to save Ji Xun, not to die with him. Dying together isn’t hard.
The hardest part is waiting.
Waiting helplessly with your own eyes open.
Waiting for an opportunity that might arise, and for the misfortune that might strike.
And yet, you still have to wait.
Wait for the next chance.
The lights on the sea’s surface grew brighter and brighter, flashing intermittently.
Through the seawater, Huo Ranyin seemed to catch a silhouette of the ship in the distance—a mere outline, yet adorned with countless lights like stars dotted one after another, projecting dense, crisscrossing star-shaped flashes through the hazy mist of the pouring rain.
It wasn’t a police vessel.
Moments later, a small shadow emerged.
That silhouette sped toward them at breakneck speed, slicing a trail of white foam across the ocean surface.
The biting chill of the seawater began piercing through his flesh, soaking into Huo Ranyin’s bones. Wearing no life jacket, he had expended far too much strength battling the surging waves.
He closed his eyes, fiercely shaking off the bone-deep fatigue weighing down his body.
Keep waiting.
Wait for the vessel to pass over him and hover nearby.
He hazily caught sight of something being shot upward. There were faint sounds, muffled and obscured by the water’s resistance.
However…
Taking advantage of the moment when everyone on the deck was inevitably focused on the tender boat, Huo Ranyin surfaced above the water, catching his breath while concentrating his mind to think rapidly.
The opposing ship sending a tender boat down was clearly a response to Mr. Liu’s distress call.
Mr. Liu was old and frail; he wouldn’t go down himself… he would definitely send his bodyguards down.
He saw it—what they shot up was a rope ladder. The ones coming down would be the bodyguards.
Mr. Liu sent bodyguards down to sail a distance away and call for help in an unjammed area?
No. Given how much time Ji Xun had already bought, even if Mr. Liu’s people moved quickly, they couldn’t possibly beat the police.
Therefore, Mr. Liu intended to hijack the vessel directly.
Hijack the boat, steer it away, escape right under the police’s noses, and then make contact for rescue.
And after that, make a comeback.
The rope ladder moved.
Huo Ranyin immediately dived back into the water and reached for his gun.
The gun was secured along the inner side of his arm.
With a flex and sweep of his wrist, he gripped the heavy iron weapon tightly in his palm.
He continued to wait.
Stealthily creeping beneath the tender boat, he waited.
Without a life jacket, constantly battling the ocean waves, Huo Ranyin felt his once-light body dragging straight down as if weighted with countless lead sinkers, while the surrounding seawater seemed to stretch out innumerable tentacles, pressing him deeper into the abyss.
His moment arrived.
Two heavy thuds landed on the tender boat, making it rock noticeably.
Two thuds—two bodyguards!
Huo Ranyin kicked hard with both feet, surfacing above the water. In the pitch-black night, the bodyguards who had just leapt onto the boat were still swept up in ecstatic triumph; just as they pulled their guns to deal with the operator, they never expected a human figure to suddenly emerge from the water!
Huo Ranyin fired two shots in rapid succession, hitting the calves of both bodyguards on board.
Violent screams instantly pierced the air. The bodyguards, who were just about to strike the crew member, collapsed onto the tender boat. Yet they didn’t lose their ability to fight back; on the contrary, the excruciating pain ignited their ferocity. Both bodyguards swung their gun barrels around in unison and sprayed a volley of gunfire toward Huo Ranyin’s position!
Huo Ranyin had already submerged swiftly into the sea.
The wild barrage of bullets wove an almost inescapable net, with the nearest mesh whistling past merely a millimeter from his eyelashes.
Huo Ranyin shut his eyes abruptly.
Pitch darkness filled his vision, but he didn’t stop.
Only when he opened his eyes again and could still faintly discern the hazy seawater did he realize he hadn’t been blinded.
Swimming to the opposite side of the tender boat without wasting a single second, he surfaced silently.
The two bodyguards were still firing frantically at his previous position.
Rage mingled with pain, scorching away their remaining sanity.
Huo Ranyin placed his hands on the boat’s gunwale. Exerting every ounce of power, he vaulted onto the deck and slammed into one of the bodyguards with all his strength, knocking him into the sea. However, one bodyguard remained on board, alongside the crew member cowering in the corner with his head in his hands.
Just as Huo Ranyin reached for his gun, the remaining bodyguard reacted. Instead of drawing his weapon, he slammed his body forward, tackling Huo Ranyin to the deck before raising his gun—
At the critical moment, his strength rapidly draining, Huo Ranyin barely managed to raise a hand and knock the gun barrel aside. The bullet whizzed past just above his head.
With another desperate kick, he knocked the bodyguard back, drew the dagger hidden on his person, pressed it against the bodyguard’s neck, and engaged in a fierce struggle before flipping the man over into the ocean.
Gasping for breath, Huo Ranyin looked toward the tender boat operator—and his gaze suddenly froze.
He recognized this person.
“Fire! Shoot them! Shoot them all dead and take the boat!”
Fast as lightning, Mr. Liu—watching the combat outcome on the tender boat after sending two bodyguards down—demanded with a face full of dark malice and cruelty.
All the bodyguards lined the ship’s railing, staring intently at the tender boat below, unhesitatingly drawing their weapons to open fire.
Ji Xun, hauled up by the iron chains, lay gasping over the railing as well.
He too stared down at the tender boat on the sea’s surface, chanting silently in his heart:
Drive away, drive fast… Why hasn’t Huo Ranyin driven away yet?
Steer the boat away immediately, cut off Mr. Liu’s escape route…
The thought in his mind seemed to transmit to the vessel below.
With a roar of the motor, the tender boat shot forward like an arrow released from a bow!
Ji Xun let out a sigh of relief.
Yet before that breath could fully leave his throat, he saw the boat—as if drunk and lost—circle around the large ship. With its glaring lights blazing through the night and rain, it sailed right back under the noses of Mr. Liu and his bodyguards!
The tender boat possessed ample power; even in high winds and rough waves, a push of the throttle was enough to leave the trailing gunfire far behind.
Steering the tender boat away and shattering all of Mr. Liu’s hopes was the safest course of action.
Huo Ranyin hadn’t chosen to do that immediately. Instead, he maneuvered the boat to the other side of the large ship—the exact spot where he had jumped down earlier.
Inside the window here, Meng Fushan should have been keeping watch.
Yet when he looked inside, Meng Fushan was nowhere to be seen. Only a woman with a cloth wrapped over her eyes stood there.
Where was Meng Fushan?
Who was this woman?
He looked at her from afar, feeling as though she was staring back at him through the blindfold.
In an instant, he understood—this was Ben’s accomplice, the woman whose eyes could see!
Meng Fushan, who should have stayed here to cover them, had brought her here instead.
The moment Meng Fushan realized the situation had changed, he had climbed straight up to the deck without a moment’s delay!
Meng Fushan was on the deck.
Ji Xun was on the deck.
Mr. Liu had eight bodyguards. One belonging to Boss Wu might not share their allegiance, leaving seven.
Two had gone down, leaving five.
When Ji Xun fought them earlier, perhaps one or two bodyguards had been injured…
Huo Ranyin made his decision. Perhaps no second thought had ever entered his mind to begin with.
He did not drive the boat away.
He even slowed it down, placing it right under Mr. Liu’s nose, within the firing range and speed where Mr. Liu’s bodyguards could strike. He drew all the attention, all the firepower, and all the danger toward himself.
To create an opportunity for Ji Xun and Meng Fushan.
He trusted Ji Xun.
He trusted Meng Fushan, too.
The lights on the tender boat shone brilliantly.
Shining as brightly as the Lovers’ Lighthouse they had seen in Qin City.
Shining as if the lighthouse’s blessing had projected from afar onto this tiny tender boat.
“The love your lover has for you will always be like a lighthouse, shining bright and eternal in the dark.”
Ji Xun stared fixedly.
The bullets from the surrounding bodyguards rained down denser than the pouring storm, condensing their rage into physical form and pouring it entirely onto that tiny boat.
Amidst the hail of bullets, wind, and rain, the tender boat resembled a solitary skiff, liable to capsize at any given moment.
Yet it persisted, swaying as it appeared within the reach of Mr. Liu and his men.
Human nature cannot forgo a hope dangling right before its eyes.
The bodyguard pointing a gun at Ji Xun diverted his barrel for the first time amidst the anxiety, aiming downward just like the rest of the bodyguards.
BANG.
A cold shot fired from behind—Meng Fushan’s cold shot.
It struck the bodyguard’s arm with lethal precision.
An opportunity!
The surrounding bodyguards, lured by hope and blinded by rage, failed to react in time.
And Ji Xun, pulling the heavy chains bound around his body, vaulted over the ship’s railing—heading toward the sea, toward the place where the light shone.
Toward the place where his lover waited, he leapt straight down.
