Zhang Haiqi placed seven apples on the table, while Zhang Haixia and Zhang Haiyan sat across from each other. Zhang Haiqi was dressed lightly; summer in Xiamen was very hot, and if it weren’t for the fact that Zhang Haiyan and Zhang Haixia had already entered puberty, Zhang Haiyan thought his godmother would surely strip down to nothing.

Yes, he remembered what his godmother looked like when he was young.

Zhang Haiqi was eating the eighth apple herself, her words slurred and her face flushed, seemingly having drunk quite a bit. She said to the two of them, “I only cooked for one person, and now I have a question for you. Whoever answers first gets to eat.” After saying that, she burped.

It smelled of chicken soup, and Zhang Haiyan understood what was going on. He glanced at the table beside him; the so-called meal consisted of a flatbread and a fried egg.

He exchanged glances with Zhang Haixia, and Zhang Haiqi got angry, throwing an apple at Zhang Haiyan’s face: “Two grown men shouldn’t be making eyes at each other!”

Zhang Haiyan immediately sat up straight, and Zhang Haiqi continued, “Alright, this table full of apples is mine. You both need to steal the apples from this room, but you must find a way to make me not suspect you. You each have to come up with your own plan; you can’t conspire together.”

Zhang Haiyan mumbled in response, but he didn’t even understand the question. He reflexively wanted to look at Zhang Haixia, but remembering the earlier beating, he immediately stiffened his neck.

Zhang Haiqi looked at him and lit a cigarette: “I’ll say it again, this table full of apples is mine. You both need to steal the apples from this room, but you must find a way to make me not suspect you. You each have to come up with your own plan; you can’t conspire together.”

This time, Zhang Haiyan understood. He thought carefully; his mind was quick, and a flash of inspiration struck him. He was about to follow that thought when Zhang Haixia quietly said, “I’ll give six apples to Zhang Haiyan and let him run first. I’ll take the last one here. When you come back, I’ll tell you that all seven were taken by Zhang Haiyan.”

Zhang Haiqi looked at Zhang Haixia.

“For Zhang Haiyan, whether he takes six or seven, you’ll be sufficiently angry. He won’t bother emphasizing how many, because it’s inevitable that he’ll get beaten,” Zhang Haixia continued.

Zhang Haiyan turned to Zhang Haixia: “You beast! How could you come up with such a plan? I was just thinking of blaming it on the kid from next door, Er Gou.”

Zhang Haiqi signaled for Zhang Haixia to eat, then turned to Zhang Haiyan and said, “When you’re hungry, think carefully about this problem. In the future, when you need to extricate yourself, you’ll know how to avoid blame.”

Zhang Haiyan watched Zhang Haixia eat the flatbread, holding his stomach. Zhang Haiqi then went upstairs. As soon as Zhang Haiqi stepped upstairs, Zhang Haixia immediately tore the flatbread in half and threw a piece to Zhang Haiyan.

The current situation was the same: the corpses and crew on the ship were fixed. If he was neither among the corpses nor among the crew, he must be on the ship. He needed a lifeboat to fall into the sea, making everyone believe that a killer had escaped the ship. Only then could he continue to blend in on the ship, reach Xiamen, and then return to Malacca as quickly as possible.

But an empty lifeboat was of no use, meaning that in this situation, he wasn’t trying to help Miss Dong; rather, he had to help one or two killers escape.

He had to face the challenge head-on. He looked at He Jianxi and said, “Can you hold out for twenty minutes? Just hide for twenty minutes.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t have time to explain. You need to get into the lifeboat and hide for a bit. We both need to survive under that crazy woman’s hands.” Zhang Haiyan pushed him into the lifeboat and then moved toward the sound of gunfire.

The gunfire was coming from the cargo hold. As he got closer, he heard gunmen running around and some falling to the ground. It was clear that the assassins were starting to fight back. One of them said, “Three people have retreated into the cargo hold. We’re blocking the entrance. They have hidden weapons, and Miss Dong won’t let us go in. They went in by themselves.”

In the dark, clustered firepower was unfavorable and could easily be picked off by guerrilla tactics. This Miss Dong was quite bold; she must have thought that taking on three people was not a problem. One person in the dark was more concealed than three, showing a high level of confidence in her stealth abilities.

This wasn’t something taught at Shaolin Temple; where did this Miss Dong come from?

Zhang Haiyan climbed along the walls like a gecko and made it to the vicinity of the cargo hold. The entrance was filled with riflemen, almost like a trench warfare scenario, with all guns pointed inward. They were all using submachine guns.

There was no way to charge out, and of course, there was no way to charge in. Zhang Haiyan looked around and noticed another person hiding in the same pipe. The two exchanged glances.

The assassin froze for a moment, and the atmosphere became very awkward. Almost instantly, the assassin made a move, raising his hand to shoot a nail from his sleeve. Zhang Haiyan tilted his head to dodge, and the nail hit the metal wall with a sound, causing the riflemen to turn and look.

Zhang Haiyan made a gesture for him to keep quiet and then mouthed, “Let’s go hand-to-hand, buddy.” The assassin, like a gecko, came over. They began to grapple with each other’s throats in the cramped space.

After a few exchanges, both retreated. Zhang Haiyan made a pause gesture and mouthed, “Buddy, if you grab me, I’ll definitely scream, and we’ll both get shot by the riflemen. If I grab you, you’ll definitely scream, and we’ll both get shot by the riflemen. There’s no need for that. Right now, we’re both idiots, so let’s cooperate.”

The lip-reading was too complex, and the other party was confused. Frowning, suddenly Zhang Haiyan spat out a blade, which went straight into the other’s throat with just the right amount of force, exiting a third of the way out the back of the neck without penetrating completely. The other party died instantly. Zhang Haiyan stepped forward to catch the dripping blood, just as a group of riflemen walked by below. He took off the other’s shirt and wrapped it around the neck to absorb the blood.