Upon waking up, Li Ling regained his own consciousness.
"Damn, does this mean my original self in this world died from overwork, and then my main consciousness awakened?" Li Ling was speechless. "What do we do now?"
What else could I do but keep swimming?
With the memories of his own world, Li Ling knew the direction of Hong Kong Island. A suffocating hunger pang shot through his stomach. Li Ling opened the dry rations he had brought, endured the dryness, and after a series of throat-scratching swallows, he finally filled his stomach.
At this moment, the world seed in his mind was also unsealed by the system, and energy surged into his whole body, gradually restoring Li Ling's spirit and body.
"Phew~"
Li Ling took a deep breath, looked at the boundless sea, and continued swimming!
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Chapter 71 Sailing with the Wind
They swam and swam, for who knows how long, until the sky turned from bright to pitch black.
During this time, Li Ling also saw some floating corpses. These were all illegal immigrants, and every year countless souls perish on this road.
Li Ling searched the floating corpses, collecting all their valuables and putting them into his waterproof leather bag.
Splash! The sound of splashing water reached my ears.
Under the moonlight, Li Ling looked toward the source of the sound and saw that it was a small wooden boat with figures on board, and quite a few people.
"Hey Longtail, there looks like a shark over there!" came a boy's voice.
“There are sharks in Deep Bay, not in Dapeng Bay! He must be a fugitive trying to escape to Hong Kong by swimming across!” The person who spoke sounded older.
Li Ling breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this; he had finally seen the person.
Deep Bay is in the NS district, and Dapeng Bay is in the YT district. The people on the boat are speaking Cantonese, so it seems to be a smuggling boat. It looks like I can hitch a ride.
The small boat quickly pulled up beside us, and a middle-aged man with a long braid was squatting at the bow. His nickname, "Long Tail," probably came from his hairstyle.
The long-tailed man mocked Li Ling in his distinctively effeminate voice: "Handsome, broke down? You're pretty tough, aren't you? Just carrying a tire, aren't you afraid of getting exhausted and kicking yourself?"
“If you let me ride on the boat, I’m sure I won’t die from exhaustion.” Li Ling’s tone was as relaxed as his.
"Want to hitch a ride?" The long-tailed man chuckled, turned around and pointed to the passengers on the boat. "Each of them paid two thousand yuan for the boat fare. I guarantee they'll be able to smuggle themselves across the border smoothly."
I have connections in Hong Kong to "buy border crossings." I can get them across Tin Shui Wai at a designated time and place, safely passing through the Border Police's jurisdiction—it's a one-stop service!
He turned his gaze back and said, "Handsome, I have principles. As long as you pay enough, I'll stick with you. But if you're a penny-pincher, then you can continue swimming in the sea, I'll row my boat, and we'll go our separate ways."
As Li Ling listened, his thoughts raced. In the real world, Li Ling had a friend who worked for a shipping company in Shenzhen on a luxury passenger boat, traveling between Shenzhen and Hong Kong year-round. Li Ling had heard him say that a first-class ticket on his passenger boat cost only three hundred yuan, but now a ride on a small wooden boat was costing two thousand yuan. The long-tailed man's greed left him speechless.
Of course, this involves the cost of smuggling, but the problem is that it is only 1983 now. Nowadays, the salary of an ordinary worker in mainland China is only a dozen yuan a month. The cost of taking a smuggling boat is enough for a worker to save for several years without eating or drinking. It's simply a bloodsucker!
"Boss, I'm only taking the boat halfway through the journey, so I shouldn't have to pay the full fare. Besides, we're from the same hometown, so can you give me a discount?" Li Ling's purpose wasn't to haggle, but to get more useful information through the conversation.
"It's precisely because we're from the same hometown that I'm giving you a chance to hitch a ride. Don't push your luck; the fare is non-negotiable!" The long-tailed man insisted.
He then offered a fitting explanation: “I don’t earn this money all by myself. Most of it goes to bribing the officers at the Pointy Nose checkpoint. They’re the Royal Police, the lackeys of capitalists. They only care about money, not people. If you don’t give them enough benefits, they’ll definitely stop you.”
'Swimming across,' 'escaping to Hong Kong,' 'buying way through customs,' and 'Royal Police' were all common terms used before the handover.
"Boss, everyone has their difficulties! If I had that much money, why would I need to swim myself?"
Li Ling decided to board the ship first and then slowly extract information from it. He discussed with the long-tailed man, "How about we pay when we get ashore?"
"You're dreaming!" the long-tailed man scoffed.
Seeing that he disagreed, Li Ling made a small request, "Boss, I have money in my bag, but I can't open it in the sea. Could you let me borrow some space on the boat so I can open the bag and get the money? Don't worry, I won't board the boat; I'll just lie on the side!"
Li Ling displayed a benevolent attitude.
"No problem, lie down wherever you like!" The long-tailed man was probably confident that there were more of them and he wouldn't be afraid of him doing anything bad, but he still urged, "Hurry up, I'm in a hurry!"
Li Ling swam to the stern before reaching out to grab the edge of the boat, placing his leather bag on it, and wiping away the water droplets.
The leather bag was well-sealed. Since the person in this world dared to jump into the sea, it was naturally a waterproof bag. Li Ling also made a fortune from the dead along this journey, searching for some money and valuables among the floating corpses.
He opened the bag and the first thing he touched was the dry food he had brought.
Under the light, he rummaged through the bag, finding mostly clothes. He continued searching the bottom of the bag, where he had previously placed his valuables for fear of losing money.
I found a pile of money, all in loose Hong Kong dollars, which must have been exchanged in advance by those illegal immigrants.
Hong Kong dollars are widely accepted by ordinary merchants in Guangdong Province.
A young boy sat on the side of the boat where Li Ling was leaning over. He casually asked, "Handsome boy, you're so young, what year were you born? Taking a black boat in the middle of the night, aren't you afraid your family will worry?"
"I'm going to Hong Kong Island to find my family!" The boy's voice was muffled, sounding rather simple-minded. "Boss, I was born in 1970, I'm thirteen years old this year!"
Born in 1970, thirteen years old? Li Ling found it amusing; she herself was born in the 1990s.
"Hey, what are you dragging your feet about? If you don't have the money, just say so and don't delay my business! The handover is in half an hour, and if you're late, everyone on the ship will be in big trouble!" The long-tailed man urged Li Ling when he saw him just standing there rummaging through his bag.
"I have plenty of money!" Li Ling didn't delay any longer. He counted all the Hong Kong dollars. Damn, there were only a few hundred dollars. So little. No wonder those people had to swim by themselves.
With a heavy heart, Li Ling took off the ancestral gold necklace hanging around her neck. The long-tailed man often engaged in human smuggling, so it would be easy to find him later. She could redeem it later.
"This is pure gold, an heirloom from my mom. It's worth over ten thousand yuan. Use it as payment for the boat fare so you can get a good deal!"
“Cheap? I’ve never been one to take advantage of others. What’s that old saying? ‘Penny wise, pound foolish’!” The long-tailed man walked over from the bow of the ship, took the necklace, and used the crude method of burning it to verify its authenticity. It was indeed real gold. He then tossed it around in the fire and immediately shook his head.
“Young man, this is indeed pure gold, but it only weighs thirty or forty grams! Don’t think I don’t know the market. Yesterday, the price of gold on the US futures market was $350 per ounce. An ounce is 28 grams, and the exchange rate of RMB to USD is 4 to 1. Your necklace is only worth about 1,500 RMB. You don’t have enough money!” He was quite good at mental arithmetic.