"You want me to help you complete your task, right?" Nogawa looked at Hojo Hideki.
Hojo Hideki smiled, "If you’re going, kill Ye Chenfeng for me and help me get the data back on the way."
"Hehe..." A grating laugh escaped from Nogawa, who then said, "You really are foolish. Do you think that now, if we go to Divine Land, Chu Qingxue would let us get our hands on the data? Not only that, I’m afraid even the secret organizations of Divine Land would have their eyes on us."
"What should we do then?" Hojo Hideki was at a loss.
"Your problems have nothing to do with me!"
Nogawa left these words behind and departed the scene.
As Hojo Hideki watched Nogawa’s retreating figure, he couldn’t help but say angrily, "Don’t think you can blame all the responsibility on me; he escaped from your very own hands. You’re incompetent too!"
At this moment, the crowd began to stir and then automatically parted to create a pathway, down which, surrounded by throngs of people, a handsome young man emerged.
Hojo Hideki’s gaze swept over, and he immediately changed his expression, greeting the man respectfully, "Your Highness, Prince, what brings you here?"
"Qingfei, come to my room!"
Chu Qingfei returned, and many people were gathered together, making the scene very lively, but at this time Qingxue called out.
Following her in, Chu Qingfei was even carrying a small box.
"Now that there are no outsiders, tell me the truth, Qingfei. Is Ye Chenfeng not coming back?" Chu Qingxue asked, staring at Chu Qingfei.
Chu Qingfei immediately replied, "No, that’s not true. He indeed ran into an old friend and will be back after some time."
"Do you think I can believe that?" Chu Qingxue naturally did not believe her.
Rubbing her head, Chu Qingfei confessed, "Alright, the truth is, brother’s old friend is a woman..."
"A woman?" Qingxue’s expression changed.
Taking the opportunity, Chu Qingfei passed the box to Qingxue, "Here, sister, the real data wasn’t given to them. Brother used fake data to exchange for my release."
Qingxue took the box and opened it to find the data she had quietly placed in Ye Chenfeng’s luggage.
"The fake could fool them?" Qingxue asked in doubt.
Chu Qingfei smiled, "Brother hired an expert to make a forged set. They won’t be able to tell the real from the fake in a short period of time. They probably realize it now."
"I see!" Qingxue nodded, "Qingfei, you’ve suffered these past few days. You should go and rest."
"Alright, sister, and don’t worry, brother is fine."
After Chu Qingfei left, Qingxue thought for a moment and still decided to make a phone call.
After a long while, the other side picked up, "Hello, who is this?"
The other party spoke in English, and Qingxue quickly replied in English, "Qingliu Yiye, I’m Chu Qingxue. I wonder if you still remember me?"
"What? Chu Qingxue?" The person on the other end was stunned for a while, then expressed extreme surprise, "Are you Chu Qingxue?"
"Yes, it’s me, Qingxue," she responded indifferently.
The other side, Qingliu Yiye, seemed very excited, "Old classmate, it’s been a long time since we last met, hasn’t it? I’ve asked about you and wanted to visit you in Divine Land. I didn’t expect you to call me."
"May I ask you a question?" Qingxue asked directly.
"What question? Please ask, Miss Chu!"
"Has anything major happened in Tokyo recently?" Qingxue inquired.
"Miss Chu, I am currently in Europe. Let me find out and then I’ll tell you."
Without giving the other person a chance to say more, Qingxue hung up the phone promptly.
Ye Chenfeng had already woken up from his sleep, glanced at his watch, and found that four hours had passed; by now, he was far away from Tokyo and, relatively speaking, Ye Chenfeng was safe.
Hiding inside the Buddha statue, Ye Chenfeng was pondering his next plan when he faintly overheard voices outside.
"We’ve been suffocating here, with no shipments for a whole month."
"If it goes on for another month, we’ll starve to death for sure, but as long as these goods safely reach Macau, we won’t have to worry about anything for the next few years!"
"Haha, just thinking about it feels great. Even though it’s stuff from the Divine Land, now that we’re sending it back, they still have to pay us!"
As for what they were discussing afterward, Ye Chenfeng no longer had the mood to listen.
He only knew that the ship’s destination was Macau, and that was enough.
He had thought about hijacking the ship to have these guys deliver him directly to Jiangnan District.
But there were too many variables, with so many people on the ship, it was impossible to keep an eye on everyone. Any slight error or underhanded move by someone would lead to big trouble.
So, to avoid unnecessary trouble, Ye Chenfeng didn’t reveal himself, while at the same time hoping that nothing would go wrong and that they would safely reach Macau.
Since one couldn’t suffocate inside a Buddha statue anyway, Ye Chenfeng entered his dream to recover his damaged vital energy.
The ship drifted on the sea for a day without him knowing where it had gone.
As night fell, dark clouds tumbled on the distant horizon, as if a downpour was imminent.
Just then, a loud bang echoed and the ship suddenly shook.
This jolt woke Ye Chenfeng from his slumber.
That was Ye Chenfeng’s first thought, his senses now on high alert.
Noises of confusion came from outside, along with the sounds of gunfire and screams.
Ye Chenfeng was exasperated,
At this moment, the ship was intercepted by a larger vessel, and not only that, there were seven or eight speedboats surrounding it. On these speedboats were various people, armed with powerful guns, shooting at those on the ship from all directions.
Although those transporting the Buddha statues were also armed, the attackers’ firepower was overwhelming, and the surprise attack quickly suppressed their resistance.
The ship was now tightly alongside the large one, with pirates continuously leaping from the bigger ship onto theirs, at least twenty to thirty in number.
With this wave of pirates aboard, they quickly ’cleared’ the ship of its crew.
A total of about a dozen people fell into bloodied heaps within minutes.
The noise outside ceased, and Ye Chenfeng knew everything was over.
"Rustle rustle rustle..."
The sound of chaotic footsteps rose as the pirates searched the ship.
Soon, a group came to Ye Chenfeng’s hiding place, and when they saw the boxes, they were momentarily stunned, but then they began to rummage through them.
The moment the boxes were opened, these people felt like they were going mad.
Their eyes lit up, and their faces all revealed expressions of striking it rich.
They jabbered away, seemingly signaling to others outside.
Ye Chenfeng could vaguely deduce that these people were from Southeast Asia.