Chapter 44: Speedboats at Sea
Although Daxiong had gone in, it didn't affect anyone's life in the slightest. Life had to go on, and business had to continue. However, when Su Tianyu had some downtime, he occasionally felt bored and troubled.
People, in fact, fear habit the most. Over these few months, Daxiong would come to find Su Tianyu as soon as he got off work, following behind him and constantly calling him "Little Yu Brother." His sudden disappearance had left Su Tianyu feeling a bit shaken.
On Saturday afternoon, Su Tianyu went to the Criminal Cases Detention Center of the Police Bureau to deposit 1,000 yuan in prison currency for Daxiong, along with brand new daily necessities that Third Sister had found in the garbage yard.
Su Tianyu's ability to deposit money for Daxiong was purely because he felt they were friends and he had some sympathy for him, so spending a little money was no big deal to him. As for Third Sister getting daily necessities for Daxiong, her motivation was even simpler. Because when Daxiong was at the factory, he would always help Third Sister with work, and she felt more pity for him, thinking his life was quite hard and his family didn't really take care of him. So she just had Su Tianyu bring him some things along the way. There was no other intention beyond that.
......
After depositing money for Daxiong during the day, Su Tianyu began arranging for the goods reception in the evening.
The third floor that Linda had previously rented obviously couldn't be used anymore, so a couple of days ago, Su Tianyu had taken company money and rented a very dilapidated single-story courtyard house near Haiyan Pit to store work equipment and gather personnel before operations.
Around 7 PM, Su Tianyu brought his little follower Zhang Hao to meet with the Bai family's people and the Kong family's people at the single-story courtyard house.
Tonight, Su Tianyu was the only person in charge, because the sea business had already become stable. Everyone had figured out how to receive goods and how to bring them ashore, so there was no need for Bai Hongbo, Kong Zhenghui, and others to come along.
Dog Six was Yu Mingyuan's die-hard lackey, the boss's avatar, so he had also made a shift plan for everyone. He himself was the overall person in charge of receiving goods. After the goods landed, they would first be transported to the single-story courtyard, then Bai Hongbo and Kong Zhenghui would take over, arranging their own time to distribute the goods to the sales channels.
With clear division of labor and a well-established organizational structure, they were treating the sea business like a listed company.
......
The group waited in the single-story courtyard until around 9:40 PM when someone from the Maritime Police team called Su Tianyu to tell him that the sea was calm and they could start working.
Since Tang Baiqing had been entangled in messy affairs recently, he had arranged for a friend from his unit to liaise with Su Tianyu. Although he had a shift tonight, he had taken leave and gone home early.
After receiving the call, Su Tianyu skillfully led more than twenty people to the beach at Haiyan Pit, then followed the usual routine of launching boats, going to sea, and receiving goods.
Zhang Hao was in charge of leading the team into the water. He led twenty people, driving seven speedboats that disappeared on the water surface. Su Tianyu led the remaining few people to bring the cargo trucks over in advance, setting up the formation to wait for the others to bring the goods ashore.
At the beach of Haiyan Pit, Su Tianyu sat on a rock, feeling the sea breeze and fiddling with his phone, while the other workers gathered nearby to smoke and chat.
The first half went very smoothly. Zhang Hao had been gone for less than half an hour when he called on the walkie-talkie: "The ship's here, loading up."
"Call when you're heading back," Su Tianyu replied.
"Got it!" Zhang Hao responded and started working.
......
Around 11 PM.
After all the goods were loaded onto the speedboats, the transport ship that delivered them left the pickup area, preparing to enter the official port at the designated time.
On the sea surface, cold winds howled. Zhang Hao stood on the lead speedboat, conscientiously shouting to the workers: "Press down on the top goods, don't let them fall off. Use the rain covers to protect the cardboard boxes, don't let seawater splash on them. Last time we got goods, five fucking boxes got waterlogged."
Hearing Zhang Hao's words, the workers lay on the goods and spread out the rain covers.
"Putt-putt-putt...!"
Just then, rhythmic engine sounds suddenly arose from the left and right sides in front of the seven speedboats.
Zhang Hao raised his head at the sound and saw five or six speedboats on the sea surface, also with their lights off, speeding towards them extremely fast.
"Damn, how are there other boats here?" The helmsman muttered in surprise, then turned back to shout at Zhang Hao: "We might hit someone, what should we do, keep going?"
Normally, it was very rare to encounter other boats at sea during nighttime operations because Dragon City implemented a port closure system at night. Fishing boats, transport ships, etc., without proper documentation and special permits were not allowed to leave port privately to prevent smuggling or illegal immigration. But sometimes, when they were receiving goods, they would still encounter other boats. The other party might also be doing borderline business, so neither side would communicate, they would just pass by each other and that would be it.
Hearing the helmsman's inquiry, Zhang Hao immediately replied: "Just steer around them, keep going as normal."
At this point, Zhang Hao still thought they had encountered people from the dock gang or peers, but he never imagined that as soon as he finished speaking, the five or six speedboats from the left and right front would converge and charge straight at them.
"Something's not right, they seem to be coming for us!" a worker shouted.
The speedboats were moving very fast, and both sides were heading towards each other, so in just a few seconds, the five or six speedboats had rushed up close.
At this point, Zhang Hao saw that the people on the speedboats were all masked and carrying weapons like machetes and long forks.
"Don't fucking move!" A masked burly man on the lead speedboat immediately shouted: "Cut the engines!"
Zhang Hao was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted and picked up the walkie-talkie to shout: "Little Yu Brother, we've encountered people at sea..."
"Didn't you hear me say don't move?!" The burly man on the lead speedboat, holding a speargun over a meter long, raised his arm.
"Whoosh!"
The speargun fired, and the arrowhead with a fishing line pierced into Zhang Hao's right leg with a squelch.
This was a speargun specifically used for catching medium-sized sea fish. The fired arrowhead was about as thick as an adult's finger, so one can imagine the consequences of it hitting someone's leg.
When Zhang Hao was hit, he felt his right leg go numb.
"Bang!"
Following that, the burly man on the lead boat used the gun body to pull on the fishing line attached to the arrowhead, like walking a dog, directly yanking Zhang Hao from a distance.
With the arrowhead still in the flesh of his leg, Zhang Hao's face contorted in pain as he howled and collapsed onto the boat.
"All of you better behave, or I'll shoot you like turtles!" The lead burly man shouted in a loud voice: "Cut the engines, all of you squat on the boats."
As he spoke, people on the other speedboats responsible for blocking and surrounding also threatened the crowd with spearguns.
......
On the beach.
Su Tianyu uncovered the speedboat hidden beside the rock, stepped on board and shouted: "Quick, get on the boat!"
About fifteen minutes later.
When Su Tianyu's speedboat reached the area where the goods had been hijacked, he saw more than a dozen workers floating in the water, helping each other, while the boats, goods, and Zhang Hao and the others were all gone.