Xiao Feiyang, sleeping in the bunk below me, mumbled, "Who is it? Waking people up this early, so annoying."

With that, he rolled over and resumed snoring.

"Hey, this punk treats my cargo ship—worth tens of millions—like his own home. Hey! Someone, carry this idiot out and let him have a rain shower," the short, stout man declared.

The hulking men behind him nodded in agreement and moved to lift Xiao Feiyang.

I felt a pang of urgency; it was too late to intervene.

Just then, one of the large men hoisted Xiao Feiyang up as if he were a sack of grain and carried him out.

I scrambled out of bed and rushed after them, pleading, "Don't hurt him!"

The short, stout man blocked my path. "Whoa there! What are you doing? Did I say you could leave?"

I met the gaze of the short, stout man. His eyes were like dead fish, heavy bags drooping beneath them, the corners of his mouth pulled down—his entire face looked vicious and incongruous.

Just by looking, I knew this had to be Ivan.

Blocked by Ivan, I remained silent.

I understood that speaking now would be useless and would only risk angering the man before me.

"What? Not following? I heard you were going crazy in the truck. Come on, go crazy for me," Ivan sneered. Though shorter than me, he clearly didn't intend to be outmatched. He stood on his toes and grabbed my collar.

I hadn't wanted trouble, but as he spoke, flecks of his saliva nearly hit my face, forcing me to glare back at him.

"Oho! That’s it, that’s the look. Come on, ram me with your head. Let’s see whose head is harder—yours or the muzzle of my gun." He pulled a pistol from his coat pocket and pressed the barrel against my forehead.

Truthfully, I was already furious. Normally, even if he fired, I would have made this short fat man pay.

But now, if I acted impulsively, too many people would suffer because of it, so I chose silence.

Ivan kept the gun pressed to my forehead, then used his free hand to forcefully slap my cheek. "Looks like you aren't going crazy today. How boring."

With that, he shoved me. "Move! Get up on deck."

I turned away, wiped the spittle from my face with my hand, and walked out silently.

The other strongmen, escorting Andre, followed us onto the deck.

As soon as we reached the deck, I saw that dawn was only faintly breaking. Though the clouds weren't as thick as the night before, lightning still occasionally flashed, a strong wind whipped the sea, and while the rain wasn't heavy, it was enough to soak a person through in under a minute.

Looking forward, several Russians had surrounded Xiao Feiyang, who was lying on the deck.

My heart chilled; I thought they had killed him and hurried my pace to reach them.

The result left me speechless: Xiao Feiyang wasn't even awake; he was still snoring.

Ivan trailed up behind me, then let out a low chuckle. "This kid is something else, actually managing to sleep. You two, help me throw him into the sea."

I was startled and took a step forward, intending to stop them.

But then I saw one of the men surrounding Xiao Feiyang—it was BEY.

Seeing my intent to move, BEY quickly winked at me.

Unsure what he meant, I paused for a split second, and by then, he and another strongman had already lifted Xiao Feiyang.

I watched helplessly as the two men carried Xiao Feiyang to the edge of the cargo ship and, without hesitation, tossed the sleeping man overboard.

Because of the ship's deafening noise, I couldn't hear the splash as he hit the water, but my heart still sank. I glanced at Andre beside me.

Andre also had a deeply furrowed brow, his expression filled with uncertainty.

BEY and the strongman returned, not sparing me a single glance.

"Boss, a beautiful splash..." BEY reported to Ivan.

Ivan laughed heartily, the fat on his belly jiggling, and stroked his smooth chin. He addressed us, "Don't worry, I promised Boss Xie I'd treat you well."

Saying that, he pointed toward the distant sea and asked me, "Do you know where we are?"

I looked out. Where he pointed was nothing but vast ocean, not even the shadow of a small island visible. I replied impatiently, "The sea."

Ivan smirked. "Correct. We recently passed near Hokkaido, Japan. This is the Sea of Okhotsk, the northern coast. Further north is the desolate coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. To the east is the boundless expanse of the Bering Sea. Tossed overboard from here, you'll be swept by the Kuroshio Current deep into the Atlantic. No one will ever find a single bone."

Hearing this, I frowned deeply and asked, "What do you want?"

Ivan dug between his teeth with the middle finger of his grime-filled right hand and said with a look of weary resignation, "I heard you folks have quite the background. I was planning to play with you a bit, but unfortunately, Boss Xie instructed me to kill you all, so..."

He turned back to one of the strongmen and asked, "Where are we now?"

The man pulled an instrument from his pocket, checked the display, and said, "We just rounded the base of Mount FUSSA and have entered the Bering Sea."

Ivan nodded. "Good. Throw them overboard as well."

Hearing this, I looked back at BEY.

He stared back at us with unwavering resolve, saying nothing.

My heart wrestled internally for a moment, but in the end, I chose to trust him.

Ivan's men seized Andre and me, one old and one young, and began dragging us toward the railing.

Internally, I was riddled with anxiety, but as the sound of rushing wind filled my ears and the dark ocean below rushed closer, a sudden sense of release washed over me.

Then came the gurgling sound of water, and my vision went black.

The icy seawater shocked my entire body, forcing a sharp intake of breath.

Flailing haphazardly in the water, Mr. Andre and I simultaneously surfaced.

Looking up, the cargo ship was already fifty or sixty meters away. The short, stout Ivan and his cronies stood on the railing, waving at us.

I could vaguely make out him shouting at us in Chinese, "Good luck to you both! There's plenty of water and fish in the sea. You won't starve or die of thirst, just a little cold..."

After he finished speaking, everyone on the railing burst into laughter.

"Damn your ancestors, you short turnip! You look like a flaccid radish! I won't bother with you this time, but if I meet you again, I'll make you a transvestite for the rest of your life!" Andre yelled beside me.

I froze, surprised to hear such words escape his mouth.

The ship moved further away. Waves rolled across the vast ocean. A white mist, rising from the rain, enveloped our vision; everything between heaven and earth was hazy.

"What do we do now?" I wiped the rain from my face and looked at Andre.

"The main priority now should be finding your friend, right?" Andre looked at me, smiling.

I nodded and looked behind us. The cargo ship was moving fast; Xiao Feiyang might already be a kilometer behind us. I wondered if he was alright.

"I'm going first!" Andre looked cheerful and immediately adopted a freestyle swimming position, paddling toward the distance.

I shivered and followed suit.

Luckily, we were swimming with the wind, so the effort wasn't too great.

In a short while, we had swum three or four hundred meters forward, and then Andre suddenly stopped.

I didn't ask why he stopped, because I saw it too: not far from us, a small inflatable kayak was paddling toward us.

Though the rain blurred my vision, I could tell from the silhouette that it was Xiao Feiyang.

We quickly waved at him, and he sped up, paddling the kayak toward us.

Xiao Feiyang pulled both Andre and me onto the kayak.

Then I asked him, "What happened? Where did the kayak come from?"

Xiao Feiyang said, "I'm wondering too. I was sleeping soundly, and when I woke up, I was already in the kayak? And you guys actually abandoned me! I had no choice but to paddle toward the direction the ship was heading."

I was momentarily speechless, thinking that BEY must have arranged this beforehand, but his aim when throwing him was surprisingly accurate.