Chapter 39: Returning to Yantai Again (Please Collect)

  Get out of here, follow them and you won't be killed. Huang Li coldly smiled and shook his head, warning: "Don't be too excessive as a human being, doing piracy may be for a living, but harming ordinary people is not a good deed, it will eventually be punished."

  "Yes, yes, the good fellow is right." Wang Lao Hu nodded repeatedly in agreement, his eyes gazing out at the small boat on the sea through the glass of the driver's cabin, eager to break free from Huang Li's control as soon as possible. Maybe he even wanted to make a comeback, who knows.

  "You know my marksmanship." Huang Li poked Wang Lao Hu with his gun, "If you don't want your head to explode, then don't have any crooked ideas, go back and honestly be the Mountain King."

  "Understood, understood." Wang Lao Hu accompanied by a smile, waited for Huang Li to instruct the driver to turn the bow of the boat around and prepare to accelerate before rushing hastily towards the rear of the Shun Tian Lun under Huang Li's permission, not daring to linger in the slightest, as if Huang Li's gun was still trained on his head.

  "Set sail, full speed ahead." Huang Li shouted at Wang Lao Hu's back.

  Shun Tian Lun thundered out, Wang Lao Hu was caught off guard, hesitated on the deck for a moment, and jumped down. Given Shun Tian Lun's size and load capacity, it would be a daydream for the small wooden boat to hijack it again while it was in motion. Not to mention anything else, even if they collided head-on, they could smash those small wooden boats into pieces.

  Huang Li let out a sigh of relief and said to the captain in the control room, "Split up to rescue the sailors and passengers, then meet back here." After finishing speaking, he turned around and left the control room, winding his way back to his first-class cabin, where he took off his clothes and pants, wrapped them together with a mask, hid them well, and waited quietly.

  The noise of footsteps and voices grew louder, and it seemed that the passengers and sailors who had been locked up by the pirates were being released. Huang Li slipped out of the cabin, walked to the door leading to the deck, observed for a while, and took advantage of the distraction to slip out and blend in with the crowd of rescued people. Now was a time of chaos, and since they didn't know each other, it was the perfect opportunity to conceal his tracks.

  …………

  "Uncle, where did you go just now?" Niu Niu was held in Huang Li's arms, her eyes still shining with tears.

  Huang Li smiled and patted her head, saying: "I'm right next to you, Mom is holding you, that's why you didn't see me."

  Niang Niang was still a little kid, and at that time she was covered by Zhen Niang, afraid of scaring her, and indeed didn't see much. She believed in Huang Li's nonsense.

  Zhen Niang looked at the calendar with a strange gaze, being with this man indeed gave her a sense of security, but also made her feel afraid, it was truly a contradictory psychology. If he were there at that time, she wouldn't have been robbed, her father-in-law wouldn't have been beaten, and her husband wouldn't have...

  "Zhen Niang, go comfort her!" Huang Li nodded his head, the other passengers had all picked up their belongings and left, but Tai Li was still there crying, the trauma to her body and mind would not recover so quickly.

  Zhen Niang nodded and walked in to comfort Taili, gently patting her shoulder and speaking softly to calm her down.

  Woo, the steamship sounded its whistle, and two warships soon appeared on the south side of the ship. The wireless telegraph on the ship sent out a distress signal, which was received by the American gunboats "Pawnee" and "Biddeford", stationed at Weihaiwei, who came to the rescue. After a brief communication, the "Pawnee" accompanied the Shun Tian to continue sailing, while the "Biddeford" headed towards the Lijin Yellow River estuary to search for pirate ships. But Huang Li knew that such a search would be in vain, as the pirates had landed on shallow waters, and the warships could not get close due to the shallowness of the water.

  Can pirates catch up? The Yellow Calendar doesn't care, what he cares about is that the Shuntian Wheel has changed its course, seemingly wanting to return to Yantai. What's going on here? The distance from Tianjin to Yantai is almost the same, and it's even closer to Tianjin, how can they make such a decision.

  Shun Tian Lun indeed headed to Yantai, as the captain was certain that the pirates had boarded from a ship in Yantai. According to the regulations of Taikoo Maritime, they had to return to their port of departure for investigation and write an incident report. Along the way, Shun Tian Lun encountered the British warships "HMS Redbreast" and "HMS Whiting", which escorted them southward, arriving in Yantai at dawn the next day.

  After going around in circles, they ended up back where they started. Huang Li shook his head and sighed, feeling a mix of emotions that left him speechless.

  But this time, the passengers on the ship temporarily lost their freedom and were uniformly arranged to stay in a hotel, nominally for protection, but actually to assist in the investigation. After such a big incident, it is necessary to investigate whether there are any accomplices or insiders among the passengers and crew members who are pirates. What's even stranger is that the hero who single-handedly saved the passenger ship has also disappeared. Is he hiding in some corner of the ship waiting for an opportunity to disembark? Or does he have extraordinary skills, jumping into the sea halfway and being able to swim ashore?

  Anyway, there were many guesses, but given the level of thinking and technical capabilities at that time, no one would have thought that Huang Li's mask was a high-tech plastic mask that could be mistaken for real. As for the face-changing technique in Chinese martial arts novels, it is just a legend, nonsense, and not many people believe it, whether they are foreigners or Chinese.

  When they arrived at the inn, Huang Li discovered another embarrassing thing. When Teri was registering for them earlier, she had actually filled in a family of three, perhaps due to their relationship as cabinmates on the same ship. She had meant well, but according to the registration information, they were only given one room. Huang Li wasn't too bothered, but he still had to consider Zhen Niang's feelings.

  "I'll go ask them for another room." Huang Li learned of the situation, furrowed his brow, put down his suitcase, and was about to head out.

  Zhen Niang also felt a bit embarrassed, but she hesitated for a moment and then reached out to stop Huang Li.

  "Don't go." Zhen Niang said somewhat hesitantly: "This way, will, will arouse suspicion, not good for you."

  Huang Li blinked his eyes, of course he knew this was not good. During the investigation stage where everyone was suspicious, any little clue could attract attention. Although he had already hidden the gun and mask in the lining of his suitcase, it was still not completely safe. Zhen Niang was able to put aside her shyness and say such things, proving that although she didn't talk much, she wasn't stupid either. Moreover, during these days of interaction, she was becoming more and more trusting of Huang Li.

  "You're right." Huang Li was very satisfied with Zhen Niang's reaction, not because they could live together, but because Zhen Niang was gradually shaking off the shadows in her heart and could think more calmly.

  In the city, it's naturally different from being in a remote mountain village. The people you come into contact with are not so simple and honest either. If Zhen Niang still had such a shy temperament, she would never be able to survive.

  After a sleepless night, all three of them were very tired. After sending away the incident investigator, Niu Niu had already fallen asleep on the bed.