As soon as she heard pirates were headed their way, Gu Nianzhi’s first reaction was to look to Wen Shouyi. “Miss Wen! What’s going on here?!”
Wen Shouyi rushed to the side of the deck and looked out to the sea. The white speedboat was getting closer and closer; she could now see the savage faces aboard the boat.
“What on earth?!” Wen Shouyi’s hands tightened on the ship’s railing, her expression incredulous. “Where are the guests I invited? That’s the speedboat I booked for them, I’m sure of it!”
If the people on the speedboat were not the guests she had invited, then where had all the guests gone?
Gu Nianzhi was about to say something, but Zhao Liangze had already grabbed hold of her arm and dragged her back to their suite on the third floor, where they had left their belongings.
Once they were inside their room, Zhao Liangze grabbed his phone and called Huo Shaoheng and Yin Shixiong. He also sent them text messages.
The dial tone sounded a few times, but no one answered. After that, a song began to play. The singer sang a few lines of lyrics.
“…They’re in the middle of a mission,” Zhao Liangze muttered.
The song was a secret code, indicating that the Special Ops soldiers were currently in the middle of a mission and could not answer the phone.
Gu Nianzhi looked at him. “Brother Ze, what did you just say?”
Zhao Liangze was honest with her. “Mr. Huo is currently in the middle of an urgent mission. He can’t answer the phone.”
Gu Nianzhi did not say anything.
She knew that for Huo Shaoheng, his missions always came first. She could never compete with his obligations as a soldier, and had never tried to.
She had wished only to occupy a small corner of his heart—a small, insignificant place, just big enough to accommodate her.
Gu Nianzhi lowered her head and looked at the box of gun parts Zhao Liangze had brought with him. She said calmly, “We’ll just have to save ourselves, then.”
Zhao Liangze sent an urgent message to the Special Operations Forces military base in C City of the Huaxia Empire. As soon as Huo Shaoheng and Yin Shixiong had wrapped up their mission, the base would relay his message to them.
He turned off his phone and began assembling the guns with Gu Nianzhi’s help.
The gun parts he had brought with him could be assembled into a sniper rifle and a M1941 semi-automatic light machine gun. There was also a box of bullets in the pocket compartment of his suitcase.
The two of them fell silent as they quickly assembled the two guns.
“Bulletproof vest. Put it on.” Zhao Liangze handed Gu Nianzhi a long bulletproof vest, before strapping on his own bulletproof vest.
Gu Nianzhi took it, and went to the bathroom to change. She removed her dress, put on a T-shirt and shorts, and strapped on the bulletproof vest. She asked as she walked out of the bathroom: “What if I fall into the sea?”
“Not a problem. This is the most advanced bulletproof vest from our country, the latest tech—it works as a life jacket, too.” Zhao Liangze winked at her.
It was a joke. How was he able to joke at a time like this? Gu Nianzhi did not know, but she was impressed by his mental fortitude. He was truly one of the elite soldiers of the Special Operations Forces.
The joke worked like a charm: the unease in her heart vanished.
Zhao Liangze extracted a box of bullets from his suitcase pocket and loaded the bullets into a bandolier. He wrapped it around Gu Nianzhi’s waist like a belt. “Use them sparingly. These are all we have.”
Gu Nianzhi took up a sniper rifle. This was one of the guns Huo Shaoheng had trained her with.
Zhao Liangze was armed with a much more powerful weapon: a semi-automatic submachine gun. His waist and shoulders were wrapped in bandoliers; he looked formidable, like a hero out of an action movie.
“Let’s go. Time to see who these pirates are, and why they’re stupid enough to mess with us.” Zhao Liangze and Gu Nianzhi exited the cabin.
Wen Shouyi paced restlessly before the door to their cabin. When she saw the two of them come out of their room fully armed, her jaw dropped in disbelief. “…You have guns?!”
“Target shooting is my hobby,” Gu Nianzhi said nonchalantly. “I brought my guns with me because I was thinking of hunting sharks while on this ship.”
Wen Shouyi stared at Gu Nianzhi. She did not believe a single word she had said, but now was not the time to quarrel. Right now, it was only logical for them to band together against their common enemy.
She gathered herself together and said, “You have weapons, good. Let’s head to the ballroom. The chefs and sailors are all there. We can get them to fight with us against the pirates.”
She had just finished speaking when a stream of bullets punctured the side of the cruise ship.
“Let’s go.” Zhao Liangze led the way.
The three of them entered the ballroom on the second floor. Eight chefs and ten-odd sailors were already gathered there, fear written across their faces.
As soon as he saw them come in, a pudgy chef in a white chef hat asked Wen Shouyi nervously: “Miss Wen, what’s going on? Who are those people?!”
Before Wen Shouyi could reply, someone shouted from outside the ballroom in heavily accented English: “They’re here!”
Gu Nianzhi turned to look. What she saw made her pupils constrict with fear.
The men had already climbed aboard the cruise ship!
These men were black as coal, and equipped with a large assortment of guns: pistols, rifles, and even semi-automatic submachine guns!
It was obvious they were here to kill—the murderous intent rolling off them was palpable.
“Pirates! Run!” The chefs and sailors gathered inside the ballroom shouted and ran out the other exit, quick as rabbits.
Once they were outside, they immediately jumped off the deck and into the sea!
Gu Nianzhi stared after them, dumbfounded. These people were amazingly quick at running for their lives!
Zhao Liangze grabbed Gu Nianzhi’s hand, his handsome face icy cold. He raised his semi-automatic submachine gun with his other hand and unloaded on the pirates who had just rushed into the ballroom.
The pirates leading the pack immediately crumpled to the ground.
The other pirates immediately found places to hide. Some of them dropped to the floor to avoid getting hit.
Zhao Liangze turned, grabbed hold of Gu Nianzhi’s hand, and ran to the third floor.
Wen Shouyi clenched her jaw. Her eyes, wide with shock, flickered between Gu Nianzhi and Zhao Liangze: these two were highly skilled shooters, and were able to remain calm in the face of a sudden attack by armed pirates. Who were these people, really?
She did not have time to wonder, however; she turned, saw the pirates getting up to chase them, and immediately ran after Gu Nianzhi and Zhao Liangze, up to the third floor.
They were chased by a constant stream of bullets. The brand new ship was now riddled with bullet holes.
“Don’t bother running! There’s no escape!” The pirates cackled in savage glee behind them. “Someone put a 10 million dollar bounty on your heads—dead or alive.”
Zhao Liangze led Gu Nianzhi back to the suite on the third floor and pushed her head down behind the bed. “Don’t move. If they get in here, jump into the sea.”
“What about you?” Gu Nianzhi rejected his suggestion. “I’m sticking with you. We can watch each other’s backs!”
Zhao Liangze hesitated.
Unlike Yin Shixiong and Huo Shaoheng, Zhao Liangze’s talents did not lie in melee and close quarters combat.
Even so, he had undergone intensive training with the Special Operations Forces. The average person was no match for him.
“Wait here. I’ll go take out a few of them.” Zhao Liangze opened the door and found himself face-to-face with Wen Shouyi.
“Do you have night vision goggles?” Wen Shouyi asked nervously. “If you have them, I’ll turn off the main power on the ship.”
With night vision goggles, they would be able to see the pirates, but the pirates would be completely in the dark. The odds of them winning against the pirates would be a lot higher.
Zhao Liangze did not know when the military base would be able to get ahold of Huo Shaoheng and send him to save them. He did not know how skilled these pirates were, either; he had to use every advantage available to him.
“Get to the power switch and turn it off. I’ll go see how many pirates there are.” Zhao Liangze nodded to Wen Shouyi, before turning to Gu Nianzhi and giving her a Look.
Gu Nianzhi winked at him, indicating that she understood.
Zhao Liangze found his glasses and put them on.
His glasses functioned as night vision goggles. They were also capable of recording and transmitting video.
Wen Shouyi ran in the other direction and quickly shut the main power for the cruise ship.
The brightly lit cruise ship was immediately plunged into total darkness.
Zhao Liangze, armed with his semi-automatic submachine gun, hid himself behind the large pillars within the ship as he crept through the ship floor by floor to investigate the number of pirates and where they were located. He reported his findings to Gu Nianzhi as he went.
Gu Nianzhi had put on a Bluetooth headset which also functioned as a walkie-talkie. She listened to the report: “Second floor, seven pirates, scattered in the direction of three o’clock, seven o’clock and ten o’clock. Third floor, nine pirates, scattered at five o’clock and nine o’clock. Fourth floor… no pirates.”
In other words, there had been at least 16 pirates on the speedboat.
Gu Nianzhi calmly loaded her sniper rifle. She said in a hushed voice: “I’ll go to the second floor, and leave the third floor to you. We’ll regroup on the fourth floor.” With that, she strapped her night vision goggles to her head, and crept out of the cabin in a low crouch.
Once she had arrived at the ballroom on the second floor, she put her night vision goggles over her eyes, and saw a few pirates moving about the ballroom. They seemed to be looking for something.
Gu Nianzhi set up her sniper rifle: she kneeled behind the railing around the dance floor, and aimed at the three pirates on her three o’clock.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three shots rang out. Gu Nianzhi efficiently took out three of the pirates, as though they were nothing more than the moving targets she used to practice with at the military base, under Huo Shaoheng’s guidance.
This was the first time she had shot at actual, living people. She did not know whether she had killed them; regardless, she did not feel the slightest inkling of fear. She was not even nervous—in fact, an indescribable sense of euphoria and excitement was coursing through her veins.
Once she had fired the three shots, Gu Nianzhi clutched her sniper rifle and rolled over to the other side. She had already hidden herself behind the opposite railing by the time her enemies thought to return fire.
The remaining four pirates raised their semi-automatic submachine guns and haphazardly unloaded their clips in the direction Gu Nianzhi’s bullets had come from. The hailstorm of bullets turned Gu Nianzhi’s previous hiding spot into a honeycomb.
But Gu Nianzhi had already circled behind them.
She calmly raised her gun and aimed at them from behind. The pirates showed up as red moving silhouettes on her night vision goggles—to her, these silhouettes were no longer human.
Gu Nianzhi pulled the trigger and casually floored the four pirates, one bullet at a time.
Her shooting skills were inferior to Huo Shaoheng’s. She was not skilled enough to kill the pirates with a single shot, but it was easy enough for her to cripple and incapacitate them for the time being.
“Seven pirates on the second floor, eliminated. Over,” Gu Nianzhi said quietly.
Zhao Liangze’s voice sounded over her earpiece: “Nine pirates on the third floor, eliminated. Over.” There was a pause. “Meet me on the fourth floor.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded. “I’ll be right there.”
She ran to the stairs and was soon at the third floor. She took a quick glance, and saw several men sprawled across the corridor.
Gu Nianzhi did not stop. She ran up the stairs, all the way to the fourth floor.
The fourth floor was the top floor of the cruise ship; it served as an open-air playground.
As soon as she reached the top of the stairs, Gu Nianzhi was almost swept away by a powerful gust of wind.
She hurriedly latched onto the ship’s railing as she whispered, “Brother Ze, where are you?”
“Behind the pool diving board.”
Gu Nianzhi lifted her eyes and scanned her surroundings.
Before all this had happened, there had been a full moon in the sky. The bright, beautiful moon had gilded the surface of the sea with a sheet of silver.
Now, however, the howling winds had chased dark, billowing clouds over the moon, obscuring it entirely. The surface of the sea was dark and menacing. The waves swelled relentlessly. Gu Nianzhi was filled with a sense of foreboding, as though the worst had yet to come.
Gu Nianzhi’s eyelids jumped uncontrollably.
She crouched and felt her way to the swimming pool’s diving board.
Luckily, she and Zhao Liangze had been on the ship for an entire afternoon, and were familiar with the layout.
The two of them regrouped. Zhao Liangze tousled her hair as he whispered, “Are you afraid?”
“No, I’m not.” Gu Nianzhi shook her head. “I’d be an embarrassment to Uncle Huo if I were.”
“You did a great job. If you were one of us soldiers, you’d definitely be getting a commendation after this.” Zhao Liangze praised her in a low voice as he pulled her over to his side.
Gu Nianzhi was still feeling uneasy. She found it difficult to believe that this was the end of it.
If those pirates had been telling the truth, someone had placed a 10 million dollar bounty on their heads. The money was definitely more than enough to hire highly skilled assassins instead of these bumbling amateur hour pirates.
“Gu Nianzhi? Gu Nianzhi? Are you here?” Wen Shouyi’s voice suddenly sounded from the stairway.
Gu Nianzhi and Zhao Liangze turned on their night vision goggles and looked towards the stairway.
A glimmer of light emerged from the stairway. It was Wen Shouyi, walking over to them with a flashlight.
Zhao Liangze’s brow furrowed. He said icily: “Turn that off! Do you want to be a walking target?!”
Wen Shouyi quickly turned off the flashlight and ran to them. As she ran, she said: “I think you’ve taken out all the pirates. I was about to ask you if I should turn the power back on.” When she had reached them, Wen Shouyi added: “I’ve called the police, but we’re quite a distance away from the US. The Coast Guard won’t be able to get to us for another one and a half hours.”
Gu Nianzhi looked at her, her expression frosty. She said dismissively, “You must be a really fast runner, Miss Wen. The pirates have all been taken out, and I don’t see a single scratch on you.”
“Why, I have to thank the two of you for that, of course.” Wen Shouyi looked at Gu Nianzhi with an ingratiating smile on her face. “I had no idea you took your hobbies so seriously. When Professor He returns, I’m sure he would be happy to hear all about it.”
Gu Nianzhi was about to retort when the cruise ship tilted without warning.
She almost lost her footing, and hurriedly grabbed hold of the pillars of the diving board.
Zhao Liangze held her steady from behind.
“What happened?” Wen Shouyi turned to look at them, surprised.
Just then, a silhouette slipped out of the stairway. His skin was so dark no one saw him in the dark of the night.
When they finally noticed his presence, the man had already crept his way to a spot a short distance away from them. He raised his pistol and fired a few shots.
In the next moment, everything seemed to happen all at once.
As the flashes of light flared outwards from the pistol, Wen Shouyi threw herself in front of Gu Nianzhi to shield her. Zhao Liangze raised his semi-automatic submachine gun and unloaded an entire clip on the pirate, turning him into a human honeycomb. The pirate fell into the swimming pool, his blood quickly staining the pool water red. Zhao Liangze and Gu Nianzhi did not see this, however; the darkness of the night was too complete for them to see what had happened.
Gu Nianzhi’s heart constricted. She saw Wen Shouyi sway and collapse, right in front of her eyes, and immediately swooped to catch her. “Miss Wen? Miss Wen? What’s wrong?”
Zhao Liangze turned on the small flashlight, and was shocked to see a gory patch of flesh and blood between Wen Shouyi’s left breast and shoulder.
She had been shot.
Gu Nianzhi lowered Wen Shouyi to the ground and said to Zhao Liangze: “I’m going to get the first aid kit!”
Zhao Liangze always packed a first aid kit whenever he traveled, but the kit was in the third floor cabin. He had not taken it with him.
He grabbed hold of her arm. “Be careful. We must have missed that pirate, somehow.” He asked, “Are you sure you killed all the pirates on the second floor?”
Gu Nianzhi said sullenly, “I don’t know if they’re all dead dead—I just know I knocked them all down.”
Zhao Liangze sighed. “Go get the first aid kit from the third floor. I’ll check out the second floor.” With that, he left before Gu Nianzhi.
Gu Nianzhi turned to look at Wen Shouyi. She was still knocked out; it should be fine to leave her alone for a few minutes.
She hurried back to the third floor cabin and found the first aid kit in Zhao Liangze’s suitcase. When she returned to the fourth floor, she saw that Zhao Liangze was already back.
He nodded to Gu Nianzhi. “There were supposed to be seven pirates on the second floor. When I checked, three of them were already dead, but another three were only injured, so I made sure they were dead. One was missing—it’s probably this guy here, he must have followed us here to the fourth floor. He really should have just pretended to be dead.”
Had the pirate pretended to be dead on the second floor, he would have been able to slip away unnoticed. Gu Nianzhi and Zhao Liangze would never have thought of going back down to shoot everyone in the head and make sure they were all dead.
Gu Nianzhi did not say anything. She kneeled and helped Wen Shouyi with her wound.
She could not get the bullet out, but she could put on a tourniquet and stop the bleeding.
Just as she was bandaging Wen Shouyi, the wind howling across the sea grew increasingly violent. The entire ship was now bobbing up and down upon the waves, as though it were nothing more than a flimsy toy boat.
Zhao Liangze stood up and walked over to the side of the boat to look out.
Amongst the rolling waves, several speedboats could be seen rapidly approaching the ship from every direction.
Just as he had suspected, the pirates they had taken out had only been the vanguard—the deadlier pirates were on their way.
Zhao Liangze’s lips were drawn tight, and his palms were slippery with sweat.
Just then, he heard his phone ring. He hurriedly took the call over his Bluetooth headset, and said in a low voice: “We’re in danger! We’re being attacked by pirates!”
The call was from Huo Shaoheng, who had just completed his mission.
He stood on the Cuban coast, his eyes on the stormy, frothing sea. Inside him, a dark fog had welled up from the depths of his heart, darker and more menacing than the storm before him.