When Peng Ruomei returned to Yi Yaxuan, it was already dark, but Peng Yanzu still did not leave in the reception room, but changed a pot of tea and tasted it slowly, you must know that her granddaughter's tea ceremony art was taught by her grandfather himself.

Seeing his granddaughter walk into the reception room, Peng Yanzu poured her a cup of tea and asked, "How?"

After so many years of tacit understanding, Peng Ruomei of course knew what her grandfather was asking, she picked up the tea and took a sip, pondered a little and replied: "The atmosphere is calm, cheerful and enthusiastic, straightforward and confident, which makes people sincerely feel good, we have only known each other for a few hours, and I feel like friends for many years." The strangest thing is that $840,000 feels like it brings him just normal joy, as normal as a fisherman exchanging a grouper for $100. You must know that 840,000 US dollars will be converted into Huaxia coins to nearly 7 million, which is money that ordinary Chinese people can't earn in a lifetime, but he doesn't have any excitement at all. Is he really just a translator on a fishing boat?"

Peng Yanzu nodded slightly, looked at his granddaughter and said, "Intuitively, that's probably it, but have you found anything else different?"

Peng Ruomei thought about it again and shook her head.

In addition to the profound background and the characteristics of black and white, the Chinese who do antiques trading in Southeast Asia attach great importance to the ability of customers to observe words and colors and judge their identity, and Peng Yanzu has deliberately cultivated his granddaughter's ability in this regard in recent years.

Seeing his granddaughter's expression, Peng Yanzu nodded and said, "In addition to the prominence of his own personality, there are indeed a few points worth paying attention to. 1. An ordinary translator on a fishing boat, seeing that he is only 20 years old on his passport, can look at the ordinary mentality of nearly 7 million Huaxia coins, which can only show that he is naturally indifferent to money or has a net worth higher than this. 2. I believe that the source of his wealth is not unreasonable, but can ordinary people easily get these objects from the sea? How did he do it? 3. My psychological reserve price for these objects is 1 million US dollars, and only those two jade pendants, if they are auctioned, will not be lower than this amount, but he did not even make a counteroffer, and he agreed to it, what does it mean? It means that the number of objects in his hands is not only this, and he does not care about the slight difference in price. ”

Seeing his granddaughter nodding again and again, Peng Yanzu straightened up and said cautiously: "Although you and I are Singaporean nationals, we will always have the blood of the Chinese nation in our bones. Think of my Chinese nation, 5,000 years of cultural origin, the history of the four ancient civilizations that can be examined, there is currently a cultural heritage, there is a country belonging, only this China is a country, the others have been fragmented, with the wind and rain. In this 5,000-year-long history, it came into being, and how many outstanding people, heroes and heroes have been produced in China!"

Seeing his granddaughter listening carefully, Peng Yanzu was very pleased, and after taking a sip of tea, he continued: "Huaxia is now in the early stage of development, due to historical reasons, and the population base is too large, the quality of the people is inevitably good and bad, but the excellent genes in history have never been interrupted in the land of China. Granddaughter, you have to remember that in the next 20-30 years, China will rise and become one of the hegemons of the world. ”

Sighing with emotion, Peng Yanzu said: "But it is difficult to say how far Singapore can develop, and we have to take precautions." ”

Staring at his granddaughter's eyes, Peng Yanzu asked: "In your 25 years of life experience, have you ever seen a young man with such a special personality and temperament at the age of 20, including young people from all countries?"

Peng Ruomei thought seriously for a few minutes, and said affirmatively: "Absolutely not, whether it is the top students in our university, or the so-called young talents of various families we know, none of them can give me this feeling." ”

Peng Yanzu smiled slightly and said: "So, while he is in Singapore during this time, you have to try to be friends with him, a real friend, no matter what the future development is, even if it is only other things that he may have in his hands, we must also become his buyers, in business, our profits are also considerable." ”

The old man squeezed his eyes at his granddaughter naughtily, and said teasingly: "If the friendship can continue to develop, I don't object to it, and your age difference is not much, isn't it?"

Peng Ruomei's cheeks flushed, and she said coquettishly: "Grandpa......" The ripples in her heart couldn't help but ripple slightly.

When Chen Xing came to the dock where the ship was parked, there was no Aristotle, only the Russian chief engineer was there, sitting leisurely on a folding chair reading a book, and the sunset had not yet set behind him, setting off the tall middle-aged Slav woman quiet and serene.

Seeing Chen Xing come back, the chief engineer raised his head and smiled at him and said in Russian: "The Aristotle has been pulled to the dock by the shipyard in the afternoon, and we will stay on the ship for one night today, and the shipyard will give us a schedule for overhaul tomorrow morning." ”

Chen Xing is full of respect for this professional chief engineer, nearly a year of offshore operations, the chief engineer has proven his worth, there is no substitute for this ship, but as long as he can continue to work, he will not make suggestions for overhaul to the fishing chief, it is really necessary to repair.

He smiled and said to the chief engineer in Russian: "I hope that the time for the overhaul has been determined, and we can give us a holiday, it's been almost a year, and I'm homesick." ”

"yes, time flies, it's been almost a year. The chief engineer was also very emotional.

Pointing in the direction of the shipyard, he said to Chen Xing: "You can walk for about 10 minutes, you can get to the shipyard, there is someone to answer, go back and pack your luggage, you will move out tomorrow morning." I'll wait a little longer, they haven't come back yet, and it looks like the holiday in Singapore is going to end early. ”

Walking into the shipyard, you can see dozens of huge docks that are basically full of fishing boats or freighters waiting to be repaired, modern maintenance equipment and tall dragon gates standing in the middle, you can't help but feel that Singapore is worthy of being one of the world's largest shipping centers, and its supporting services are absolutely world-class.

Liu Tingchao has been waiting at the gate of the shipyard, Chen Xing returned to the ship according to his guidance, his things are basically gathered into the Linglong Sumeru ring, there is only a backpack outside, and some simple changes of clothes are placed inside, evacuating the Aristotle, he is the most relaxed.

At almost 21 o'clock in the evening, everyone came back one after another, silently packed their belongings and luggage, everyone invariably went to bed early, everyone looked forward to receiving a notice to go home to visit relatives on holiday tomorrow morning, life at sea is too boring, who has no missing relatives and lovers.

Chen Xing also finished his daily exercise and study before 24 o'clock, and when he returned to the cabin to rest, he vaguely heard the fishing chief talking to someone on a satellite phone.

"It's so late to talk on a satellite phone, it seems that there is something important. Muttering in his heart, Chen Xing also fell asleep.

No one knows which comes first, accident or tomorrow, as long as this accident does not happen to you, then there are countless tomorrows, these tomorrows are related to our hopes, and our happiness is pinned on these tomorrows.

But if these accidents are the butterfly in the Amazon jungle of South America, which flapped its wings, and the last typhoon swept through our fleet in Singapore, what will happen to the tomorrow on which we have high hopes, the happiness we have hoped for?

No one expected the unexpected to come so suddenly, and what happened next was dazzling.

15 December 1995

From 0:00 to 5:00 a.m., the other six ships of the fleet arrived in Singapore one after another, which is why the fishing chief had a satellite phone call in the middle of the night, and it seems that they had already traveled in the direction of Singapore, so they arrived so early.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, all the crew on board the Aristotle moved to the hotel near the dock.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, I received a notice from the shipyard that the overhaul time was determined and it would take 30 days. Everyone is excited, and it is estimated that the company can give home leave for about a month, but there may be no salary.

At 10:30 a.m., the Aristotle, which was at the shipyard, and six other ships at the dock were simultaneously detained by the International Tribunal.

At 11:00 a.m., the crew of the other six ships were successively relocated to several hotels near the pier, and the fish on board were not reloaded.

So far, more than 200 people on seven boats have completely left the fishing boats and stayed in several adjacent hotels.

At 12:00 p.m., Manager Wu of Taiwan's Shuntian Fishery Headquarters organized a meeting in the conference room of the hotel where he was staying for the fishing captains, Russian and Taiwanese captains, translators and Singapore agents Liu Tingchao. At the meeting, it was announced that due to force majeure, the company gave up the continuation of the charter and reserved the right to sue the Russian fishing company. Compensation will be paid to all Russian, Taiwanese, and Chinese personnel directly employed or through third-party labor agencies, and all personnel will be repatriated within one week of the purchase of air tickets.

Manager Wu also explained the reasons why 7 ships were detained by the International Tribunal:

In the middle of this year, the Russian fishing boat company was sued by an international tribunal and lost the case, and was sentenced to settle the balance by the end of October this year, otherwise the fishing boat would be confiscated. However, the owner of the Russian company has been defaulting on his debts, and the fishing boat has been chartered out to operate on the high seas, so the detention has not been carried out after the deadline. However, Taiwan's Shuntian Fishery Company was not aware of these circumstances, which led to the discovery and detention during the overhaul in Singapore. The owner of the Russian fishing boat company was already insolvent and on the verge of bankruptcy, and the rent of the fishing boats of the Shuntian company only kept him alive. Now the fishing boat is seized, and it will face a huge claim from the Taiwanese company, which is equivalent to the last straw that breaks the camel's back, and at 11:20 Singapore time, the boss of the Russian company committed suicide. After careful study, Shuntian felt that it should not fall into this complex debt, so it made the above decision and stopped losses in time.

At the same time, Manager Wu opened the hotel's international long-distance telephone, and asked the Russian captain and Chen Xing and their seven interpreters to confirm the matter with the domestic labor agency company. After receiving all the affirmative answers, the matter was a foregone conclusion, which meant that except for Manager Wu, 7 fishing chiefs and agent Liu Tingchao, all the personnel present and all the sailors of the hotel were unemployed, and Shuntian Company was facing huge losses at the same time.

The reality is cruel and no one is a winner. One second they were overjoyed, looking forward to going home to visit their relatives and recuperate, and then working hard to support their families when the fishing boat was overhauled; the next second they were laid off and unemployed, and their future was uncertain, leaving these five-foot men looking at each other helplessly. There is no cruelty of fate more than this, but how can these people change?

Although this accident had little impact on Chen Xing, he still felt extremely depressed and depressed when he saw Captain Yao Yulao's depressed look, saw the suddenly lonely eyes and tired expressions of Vasily and Captain Pan, and saw the blank expressions of the six friends who came over together at the beginning of the year.

"Where do I go next, what should I do?" Chen Xing thought secretly in his heart.