With his eyes, Li Zheng was surprised at the calmness and indifference in this child’s eyes. Being tied up in a barrel of oil and thrown into the sea was almost certain death, but this child didn’t even have a trace of panic, nor did he feel the slightest joy at being saved. Even Li Zheng, who had lived two lifetimes, thought he couldn’t do it.
Since he had seen him, Li Zheng would naturally save him, and it was much better to have a companion than to be alone in this vast sea. In any case, it was much happier to die together than to die alone, right?
He carefully had to press the mouth of the oil barrel down a bit so he could poke his head in, but Li Zheng had clearly overestimated his height, and even though he had stretched his neck very hard, there was still a distance between his mouth and the place where the boy’s right hand was secured by the rope.
Li Zheng’s face turned blue and white, and he took a deep breath, his senses telling him that now was not the time to dwell on his height.
“Little guy, try to lean back and keep the oil barrel balanced or we’ll both die here.” Li Zheng said as his hands, which were braced on the mouth of the oil barrel, slowly moved inwards.
Liang Zhe’s eyeballs moved and slowly turned towards Li Zheng’s direction. He looked at that dried-up teenager, who was not much bigger than him, maybe even smaller than him, how could he say the words “little guy” confidently.
Li Zheng had moved half of his body into the oil barrel, and Liang Zhe’s eyes rotated as Li Zheng’s head did. Li Zheng’s hand tugged on Liang Zhe’s arm, and he slowly stretched his head towards the rope that bound Liang Zhe’s wrists.
Liang Zhe tilted his head and looked at the back of that furry head, suddenly having a feeling of wanting to laugh, so he did.
Li Zheng, who was biting off the rope with his teeth, stiffened and cursed “crazy” in his heart, then continued his work. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to use his hands to untie it, but the lid of the oil drum was open, so if he didn’t use his hands to keep his balance, he would be fine if seawater poured in accidentally, but the kid who was tied up would be in danger.
Li Zheng’s teeth were obviously not as nimble as his hands that were accustomed to the medicine, and it was only after several bites of Liang Zhe’s flesh that Li Zheng finally freed his right hand.
There was still truth in the ancient saying that there was still something to be said about happiness, and when Li Zheng’s left hand moved slightly, the mouth of the oil barrel tilted downwards, and seawater instantly gushed in. Li Zheng’s face changed, trouble! He plunged his entire body in, using his hands and teeth to quickly untie the rope from Liang Zhe’s other hand.
The oil drum quickly filled with seawater and sank downward.
Li Zheng was in a great hurry. Then he felt a slight push on his head and looked up, only to see that the child in the white shirt had untied the rope from his own legs at some point. The child’s deep pupils stared at him, and suddenly his eyes curved, then quickly returned to an indifferent and emotionless appearance, so fast that Li Zheng thought he had created an illusion.
Li Zheng made his way out of the way, and it only took the kid a few seconds with one hand for the securely tied rope to come apart, he tugged on Li Zheng’s arm with one strong hand while his legs stomped backwards on the bottom of the oil drum.
The oil barrel quickly sank towards the bottom of the sea after the force, while the two of them borrowed the strength to rise for a while, and when they broke out of the sea again, Li Zheng felt that this was truly the most exciting moment of his two lifetimes.
Li Zheng felt a poke in his arm, and the white-shirted kid picked up the oil drum lid not far away and handed it to him. The oil drum lid floated on the water, but it was a good thing to borrow.
Li Zheng nodded, and the two of them swam forward quickly while holding onto the oil tank lid.
In fact, Yantian County and Xiangjian were not far away, and with the boat already moving for most of the journey, Li Zheng and Liang Zhe only swam for a little over an hour before they saw the shore.
“Hahahahahahahaha,”
A large wave knocked the two to the beach, they were soaked and wretchedly lying on the shore with only the strength to breathe, Li Zheng suddenly let out a low laugh, then the laughter grew louder and louder. Liang Zhe with difficulty averted his head and looked at the strange teenager.
In his eyes, the young man was dressed in the “ragged clothes” rarely worn by the villagers in Jiangxi Province, and he was not tall, but half a head shorter than him. Liang Zhe listened to the teenager’s laughter, his chest bulging, as if something was about to burst out.
He opened his mouth slightly, his throat made a “hehe… haha” sound, his laughter became more and more natural, and when the two of them combined their laughter, Liang Zhe only felt that the depression and frustration in his body were all expressed out with this big laugh.
They laughed until they really had no more energy, then they calmed down and breathed heavily. Sometimes there were waves crashing on them, but they ignored it.
When he regained a little strength, Li Zheng turned his head and began to observe the “child” he had saved.
Even though they had been soaked in seawater, the “child’s” shirt and suit pants were only slightly wrinkled at the corners, which couldn’t be the kind of goods sold in the market. The people who would practice this kind of tactics would either be those who were making a living with a knife, or those who were from upper class families, children from those families would be taught anti-kidnapping techniques from an early age, just in case.
This child’s appearance did not look like he was begging for a living with a knife, and Li Zheng’s brain mapped out countless tragedies of upper class families similar to the stepmother assassinating the original child and brothers killing each other, he looked at Liang Zhe with deep sympathy.
“Kid, what’s your name?” Li Zheng opened his mouth to ask.
Liang Zhe gave him a ghostly glance, “I’m 66 years old.”
It took several seconds for Li Zheng to respond, the kid in front of him was emphasizing his age, 66 years was now 17 years old, Li Zheng was silent, he seemed to be 67 years old, he was 16 years old…. [tn: I have no clue what this is, but it’s correct *shrug*]
“Liang Zhe.” Looking at Li Zheng’s slightly embarrassed look, Liang Zhe’s mood suddenly became very good as he spoke softly.
”Li Zheng.” Seeing this, Li Zheng quickly skipped the awkward topic of age and exchanged names with Liang Zhe.
Li Zheng and Liang Zhe made it to shore smoothly, saving their little lives. However, Zhang Bingkun and the Liang family’s side was having trouble keeping calm.
After confirming that Li Zheng had fallen into the sea, Zhang Bingkun asked Ah Er to take control of the motor sailboat and search the nearby sea for two to three hours, searching to no avail before giving up dejectedly.
When Zhou Sitian woke up, she almost wanted to jump into the sea to look for Li Zheng, but Zhang Bingkun asked Ah Da to drag her into the cabin and keep her under surveillance to prevent her from doing anything irrational.
In just over a month, her adoptive father died, her own father died trying to save her and was accused of being a murderer, and her younger brother left home to escape the town’s gossip, but died on the way, all of which completely overwhelmed Zhou Sitian, an eighteen-year-old girl.
Naturally, Zhang Bingkun would not let the matter rest like this, there were only ten people on the deck, it was not difficult to find out the murderer, after Zhang Bingkun let it slip that he would not sail the boat until he found out the murderer, the ten people on this deck themselves were infighting, and soon the crowd focused their attention on Ah Lin who was always silent.
“Not me, not me! On what basis is it me!” Ah Lin roared at the crowd.
Zhang Bingkun looked at his shifty gaze with a cold smile on his face, after running this ship for many years, he had seen things, how could just one thing that escape his eyes?
“Coward, abandoning your wife and child, but blaming it on someone else, that’s f*cking disgusting!” Zhang Bingkun quickly figured out the reason why Ah Lin had attacked Li Zheng and spoke coldly.
Ah Lin looked stunned, his face was instantly filled with anger, “Nonsense! I’m not dumping Yue’e and Bao, they are! They’re the ones who took my spot, I could have left a long time ago, just to be with Yue’e and the baby, I waited two years, two whole years!”
Zhang Bingkun had seen too many of these hypocritical men who swore with sweet words when they parted, but when they arrived in Xiangjiang, a few of them went back to pick up their original spouses, most married and started a new family.
“Same old rules.” Zhang Bingkun said indifferently.
Ah Da and Ah Er nodded and took out a long rope from the cabin, tying one end of it to the stern of the ship and one end to Ah Lin.
“What… what are you guys doing!” Ah Lin showed a panicked and frightened expression.
Ah Da and Ah Er were silent, Ah Da took a step forward and lifted Ah Lin’s entire body up with both hands at once with great force, stepping towards the stern of the boat and throwing him into the sea with great force in front of everyone’s horrified eyes.
“As usual, if you reach the shore, you’re lucky if you’re still alive, but if you die it’s because you’ve done too much evil, and the heavens will take you.” Ah Da stood at the stern of the boat and said word for word.
The motor-boat moved on again, and at about one o’clock in the morning the boat reached the host port on time.
”All the way to the west is the railroad, along the railroad is the most prosperous part of Xiangjiang, you can cross the Xinjie and Jiu Long all the way to Xiangjiang Island, so you guys are on your own.” Zhang Bingkun said, then headed back to the cabin without returning.
********.
The Liang family mansion in Mid-levels.
“How could it be! How could my brother make such a will, it must be a fake!” A well-maintained lady lost her voice and screamed.
“I’m sorry, Miss Liang. This will has been notarized, it has the signatures of Mr. and Mrs. Liang, and its legal validity is unquestionable.” The middle-aged lawyer said.
In the hall of the Liang family, there were seven or eight people seated, the lawyer of the Liang family, Cheng Xianfeng, sat in the middle, and on either side were the Liang family’s sidekicks and the team of professional managers who took care of the Liang family’s property.
After hearing Attorney Cheng’s will, the faces of both sides couldn’t be described as difficult to see, they had fought for seven or eight years and in the end they were told that even if you fought until you died, the stuff wasn’t yours, this feeling was really suffocating.
“May I ask if the two Mr. Liang and Mrs Liang have confirmed that once Young Master Liang’s death verdict comes down, all of the Liang family’s assets will be automatically transferred to the SEC investment fund.”