Chapter 689: Chapter 689: I Almost Thought You Were Dead
He gritted his teeth and opened his eyes, seeing Li Yufei rummaging frantically over him. Enraged and embarrassed, he instinctively reached out to strangle her, but as soon as he moved, the grip tightened even more!
Suppressing the fear in her heart, Li Yufei suddenly drew a dagger from his waist and held it to his throat. “If you dare make a sound, I’ll kill you!”
The man was startled!
He never expected such a frail-looking woman to have eyes flashing with intense murderous intent!
For a moment, he dared not make a sound. “Don’t get reckless!”
“Gun… gun…”
Li Yufei quickly found a Type 92 handgun in his coat pocket and returned to the bed.
Rong Ling said, “Find a towel and stuff it in his mouth.”
Li Yufei: “Okay.”
She found a towel from the bathroom and forcefully shoved it into the man’s mouth, pushing it down to his tonsils, preventing him from making any sound.
At that moment, Rong Ling extracted a bullet from the pistol chamber, unscrewed the bullet head, and gently sprinkled the gunpowder onto the wound.
Li Yufei was shocked at the scene: “You… what are you going to do?”
Rong Ling: “Lighter…”
Li Yufei fished out a lighter from the man and handed it to him.
Rong Ling ignited the gunpowder.
The gunpowder ignited in an instant and quickly went out. With the accompanying burning pain, Rong Ling furrowed his brows and let out a muffled groan. Beads of cold sweat ran down from his forehead to his jawline. He looked up, veins bulging from the pain, but soon the sensation subsided.
Li Yufei dared not even look at his wound.
Rong Ling said, “I’m fine.”
Due to excessive blood loss, he lost consciousness momentarily.
When he regained his senses, after a bout of dizziness, he heard Li Yufei’s anxious voice, “Rong Ling, are you okay?”
He looked around.
They were still in the room.
“How long was I out?”
Li Yufei: “A dozen minutes… I almost thought you had died.”
Her voice carried a sobbing tone.
Rong Ling said, “I’m… alright for now.”
Li Yufei: “What do we do now?”
Rong Ling: “Find a way… to leave here.”
Li Yufei: “Leave here? Go where?”
Rong Ling: “To the deck… the third-floor deck. There’s a lifeboat there, we take the lifeboat to leave. Then, use the lifeboat to call for help from the maritime rescue center.”
Li Yufei: “What if we run into those people again?”
Rong Ling slowly sat up, glancing sidelong at the man by the bed.
The man’s eyes were wide open, evidently having overheard their entire conversation.
Rong Ling didn’t expect him to still be conscious, his eyes filled with an intent to kill.
The man understood his gaze and shook his head in fear, scared that Rong Ling would kill him to silence him!
Rong Ling flipped off the bed, grabbed the dagger from the floor, and fiercely stabbed it into the man’s thigh.
The man’s back arched in pain, convulsing a couple of times, his eyes wide with agony, yet unable to make a sound.
Rong Ling said, “Try making a sound and see what happens.”
With that, he yanked off the towel from the man’s mouth.
The man dry-heaved for a while, hurriedly shook his head, “You should run! I won’t tell my mates about your whereabouts! Leave here and never come back… don’t kill me, I won’t say anything…”
Rong Ling sneered, “Do you think I should trust you?”
The man’s voice trembled.
Rong Ling asked, “How many people did you bring this time?”
The man hesitated and kept silent.
He dared not speak, after all, compared to Rong Ling, he feared Sang Qin more. If Sang Qin found out he let information slip, he was as good as dead.
Rong Ling said, “If you won’t say, then I’m sorry.”
He gripped the knife handle with both hands, ready to strike.
The man suddenly panicked, “Twenty… twenty-something people… We were originally here to hunt someone named Luo Geng… But after boarding, the boss found out there were lots of big shots on this ship! Besides coin circle bigwigs, there were also many… wealthy entrepreneurs! Among them was a female entrepreneur… supposedly with a fortune in the billions. The boss said he wanted a big score out of them, we… we were after her!”
Li Yufei’s face tensed unnaturally.
She hadn’t realized that she had been targeted all along.
During the time Rong Ling played Russian Roulette, if she hadn’t kept her cool and revealed her wealth, both she and Rong Ling would surely die.
If truly falling into Sang Qin’s hands, based on what she knew about him, he would stop at nothing for profit; both she and Rong Ling would inevitably face a cruel fate.
The man was agitated again, “Don’t kill me! We are all Chinese…”
Rong Ling instantly exposed his lie, “You’re a Myanmar person.”
The man: “My ancestors are all Chinese… we are compatriots…”
Rong Ling didn’t want to waste words with such a person, and ruthlessly pulled out the dagger embedded in his thigh!
As the dagger was pulled out, blood spurted and flowed continuously.
The man turned ghostly pale with fright!
With such blood loss, he knew this was arterial bleeding.
If the knife had stayed in the wound, if it were not pulled out, there was a chance to live, but if pulled out directly, meeting King Yama was just a matter of time.
Rong Ling re-stuffed the man’s mouth and stood up, grabbing Li Yufei’s hand, “Let’s go.”
He looked up at the ventilation duct hatch and said to Li Yufei, “We’ll go through here.”
He dragged a sofa over, stood on it, and with an elbow hit, removed the hatch.
The narrow ventilation duct barely accommodated him, but he stepped on the sofa’s armrest, leveraging himself to crawl inside, reaching out to Li Yufei, “Come up.”
Li Yufei was worried about his injury, “I can climb up myself.”
She took off her high heels, stepped onto the sofa, and then onto the armrest, realizing she couldn’t reach the edge of the duct entrance no matter how much she tiptoed.
Rong Ling said, “I’m fine, grab my hand and I’ll pull you up.”
Compared to Rong Ling’s height advantage, it was difficult for Li Yufei to climb into the maintenance duct by herself.
Rong Ling grabbed her arm and pulled her halfway into the duct entrance. Li Yufei struggled a bit before getting inside.
Looking ahead, the duct stretched endlessly, with no clear destination.
Rong Ling closed his eyes, mentally mapping out the ship. After boarding, he had reviewed the cruise ship’s brochure, having a rough idea of their location. To reach the third-floor deck, there were five exits.
The cruise ship was large.
With only about twenty people, it would be difficult for them to cover all areas and guard every spot.
Most of them should be in the banquet hall at this time.
The others should be in the captain’s cabin, or other critical entry points.
Rong Ling crawled forward along the duct, with Li Yufei following closely behind.
Along the way, they passed many small windows. Through the grilles, they saw each room, all empty.
Li Yufei suddenly asked, “Do you trust what that man said?”
Rong Ling: “Hmm?”
Li Yufei: “He said they only brought twenty-something people. Do you believe that?”