Hong Da considered for two seconds, then said coldly, "I don't talk to people who point guns at me."
I chuckled, then glanced back at Ciro: "Put the gun away."
My voice was steady, and my expression was calm. Siro hesitated for a moment, but he always trusted me completely and immediately complied.
I gave the kid a long look. Clearly, he hadn't listened to Tiger; Tiger had told him to throw the gun away, but he hadn't, and had even taken it off the boat!
“Alright, now I’ve shown enough sincerity.” I looked at Hong Da and said steadily, “So, where is your sincerity?”
Hong Da's voice was deep and resonant, and his eyes calmed down. He slowly walked over from behind, reached out and pressed down on his bodyguard's arm, pushing down the arm holding the gun: "Okay, we can talk."
"This food was poisoned. I didn't do it. There were only two of us on the boat, me and my bodyguard." I said coldly, "You also chartered this boat!"
"It wasn't me." Hong Da immediately realized something, and we both whispered at the same time, "That woman!"
We exchanged glances, and I felt relieved... I'd made the right bet! Hong believed me, and we ran together toward the ship's kitchen.
The kitchen was at the stern of the ship, and there was still a strong smell of seafood inside. There was a trash can on the ground with some shrimp and crab shells that had been cleaned out.
It was a narrow space, and there was a short kitchen knife on the table. I didn't say anything, but simply picked up the knife and gripped it with my hand behind my back.
"Boat!"
That stripper was on the boat all afternoon... and while we were chatting and enjoying the sea breeze, she changed into her swimsuit and applied sunscreen! Then she lay down on the bow of the yacht to sunbathe!
As we rushed to the bow of the ship, Hong Da carefully walked behind his bodyguard...
"Nobody's here." I sighed.
The bow of the ship was empty, with a blanket spread on the ground. The woman had been lying there sunbathing all afternoon, but now she was nowhere to be seen!
“She can’t go far!” I said immediately.
Hong's eyes lit up; he understood what I meant.
The seafood was recently purchased, and the poisoning must have occurred during cooking! And this happened not long ago!
There were no boats passing by. Nor were there any speedboats...unless she swam back to shore!
This is very likely, after all, it's very close to the coast and the sea is calm.
"Is there any diving equipment on board?" I immediately began searching. But the only crew member familiar with the yacht was dead. I could only start searching from the lowest cabins.
Finally, I found an empty compressed oxygen cylinder in the cockpit! I recognized it immediately. It was for diving.
If there are empty oxygen cylinders, there must also be full ones!
She must have escaped by diving.
I sighed; it seemed there was no way to catch her. If she were swimming, it wouldn't be dark yet. If we just searched carefully by boat, we'd have a good chance of finding her on the sea.
But if it's diving... then there's no way. This is such a large area of sea, and none of us men have diving equipment; we can't all jump into the water to search for it.
It was obvious. Neither Hongda nor I were the type to hesitate, so since it was clear we had no chance of catching up with that suspicious woman, we quickly sat down again.
I continued to play dumb, looking at Hong Da, and slowly said, "Brother, although I don't know who you are, I think this matter is probably aimed at you, right?"
Hong Da's eye twitched; he seemed somewhat alarmed. If that crew member hadn't died of poisoning first, we'd probably both be dead by now!
To be honest, I was a little scared too...
I checked the kitchen again and found some traces. Clearly, the dead crewman was really unlucky; after preparing the food, like many chefs in the world, he tasted it first… and that one taste cost him his life!
Hong Da didn't speak, nor did he refute my assumption that this matter was directed at him. His expression was somewhat gloomy, and I knew that his emotions were probably a little unstable at the moment.
“Dude, you should actually feel lucky.” I chuckled deliberately. “Think about it, what if that stripper really had come to kill you… last night.”
Hong Da's expression turned even uglier. The fat on his face twitched violently... and he swallowed hard!
My point was simple: if that woman was an assassin, thankfully I was the one who kept Hong Da at the casino last night and prevented him from going back to his room! If he had really taken that woman back to his room to do *that*... he'd probably be a corpse by now!
Finally, after a long silence, Hong Da spoke with great difficulty. He looked into my eyes, his voice hoarse, and then he managed to force a smile: "Brother, it seems I should thank you. You saved me once."
"Don't mention it." I knew this was my chance to shine, so I kept a cold face and said calmly, "Brother, I'm not as magnanimous as you. Damn it... I almost got killed with you just now! In a way, you really are a dangerous person."
I know that if I continue to be intimate with him at this moment, it will seem suspicious! According to a normal person's psychology, it's okay to chat and laugh with a casual acquaintance, but being dragged down to the point of almost dying by the other person would make anyone feel scared! And the first reaction should be to avoid them and stay far away from them!
So the more indifferent I am to Hong Da and the more I pretend to keep my distance from him, the more he will trust me!
We men were all still shaken. After resting for a while, Hong Da, feeling thirsty, turned to get some water when I grabbed his hand. My eyes darted around as I looked at him, and I said with a wry smile, "I suddenly remembered something… I'm afraid we're all wrong! We only suspected that the woman might have poisoned the food, but… we forgot one thing…"
My eyes were fixed on the teapot on the table!
Water! It's water!
The ship had a limited supply of fresh water. The yacht had just stored a barrel of fresh water when it picked us up. That woman didn't actually need to poison the food… she only needed to poison the water!
Because seafood is usually rinsed with fresh water before cooking!
But the teapot on the table had been filled before we boarded the ship! Thank goodness, we barely drank any water all afternoon. If we had finished the teapot and gone to refill it...
I'm afraid the whole ship is full of dead people now!
Hong Da wasn't stupid. He saw where my gaze was directed and understood what I meant. Cold sweat was already on his forehead. He took out a tissue to wipe it and muttered a curse under his breath, "Bitch! If I see her, I'll skin her alive!"
I sighed, glanced back at Xiluo, and then deliberately sat back a little, keeping a distance from Hongda. Feigning reluctance, I said, "Brother, although I don't like asking these questions, and originally this wasn't my business... the problem is, I've been dragged into this... I almost died here just like you... so I have to ask you a question." I stared into Hongda's eyes: "Who are you?"
Hong laughed, but I could see there was an element of pretense in his smile. Then I heard him say to me, "You really want to know? My identity might be a problem."
I frowned and deliberately looked at him coldly: "It can't be more troublesome than death."
"And what about you?" Hong Da's gaze landed precisely on my hands, and he said coldly, "Your fingers are long, but the calluses are very obvious. Don't think I can't see them. Even though you pretend to be a playboy, you flirt with that stripper, gamble with me, and you're good at cards. You even talk to me about wine and women. But these hands of yours can't hide it... You're a very skilled person! The calluses on your hands are from practicing shooting! Right?" He said slowly, "Moreover, you were very calm about death just now, which means that killing isn't a very shocking thing for you!"
I laughed. I never expected that this sleazy fat man would actually have such a meticulous mind that didn't match his appearance.
“Yes, I do have an identity. But that has little to do with you.” I said calmly, “We just bumped into each other by chance, and I don’t want to cause trouble. But the problem is… I almost died here.”
"It seems we all have some secrets of our own." Hong laughed, looking at me. "So what do we do about this? Do you need to call the police?"
We looked at each other for a moment, then burst into laughter. It seemed that such a ridiculous word as "call the police" really shouldn't have come out of our mouths.
Clearly, we both assumed that the other was just like us, a member of the underground world.
“Brother, you’re really in some trouble.” I said slowly, “Considering we got along well before, I have a suggestion for you. You’d better find more people to protect you as soon as possible, otherwise, after you get ashore, you’d better leave here immediately… or…”
Hong Da didn't speak, but I continued calmly, "Perhaps I can help you."
I ignored Hong Da's face, picked up the cup on the table, and poured some tea. We had drunk some of this tea when we boarded the ship, so it was clean.
“Interesting.” Hong Da smiled maliciously, staring into my eyes and subtly taking a step back. “I was in trouble, and then I ran into you… It’s like I was just about to go to sleep when someone brought me a pillow. I never believe in such coincidences!”
I noticed Hong Da lightly step on his bodyguard's foot, and the bodyguard had already raised his gun!
I must say, his bodyguard was quite skilled; at least he drew his gun very quickly! But I was even faster!
I slammed the teacup down on him with lightning speed! Clang! The rim of the teacup landed on the muzzle of his gun, and the muzzle of his gun was jolted high into the air by the impact!
Bang!
The bullet fired, piercing the teacup and scattering shards, even cutting my fingers. But at the same time, I was already holding a piece of glass, quickly and forcefully pressing it against his bodyguard's throat!
Hong Da sat in the chair, looking at me with a helpless expression. His bodyguard was ashen-faced, and I slowly raised the gun in his hand. He dared not move his neck at all, because the sharp shard was pressed firmly against his throat. If I exerted any force, I could slit his throat.
I looked down at Hong Da and sneered, "Look, if I wanted to kill you, your life is mine now! You have no chance to resist."
"I believe you." Hong Da's face had turned pale.
I deliberately sighed, slowly took the gun from his bodyguard, unloaded the magazine, casually tossed it on the table, gently pushed him away, and said with a deliberately relaxed smile, "Buddy, you're really lucky. You know, I never kill for free. So I won't kill you."
…………
"Did he really believe it?"
We steered the yacht to the shore and found a secluded spot to disembark. Watching Hong Da and his bodyguards walk ahead, Xi Luo asked me in a low voice.
"No." I shrugged. "I don't believe it! What kind of coincidence is that? You go on vacation and get assassinated. At the same time, you befriend a high-level assassin on vacation, and the assassin is even willing to protect you... That's like something out of a movie. You'd be a fool to believe a story like that."
"But……"
I pressed down on Xiluo's shoulder and made a whispering gesture: "Shh! Hong Da isn't a fool! How could someone like that be a fool? He just doesn't know what I'm capable of right now, and he really needs someone's help. Besides, my actions prove that I'm harmless to him. That's all."
Seriously, Hong Da might wonder if I'm a police officer, or maybe an Interpol agent... Anyway... an assassin? No way!
The current situation, under my arrangement, appears on the surface to be as follows:
Xiluo and I are two extraordinary people of status, and we're traveling. We bumped into Hong Da by chance, and like fish in a pond, we hit it off. Neither of us knew the other's true background, only vaguely guessing that we were all involved in the underworld.
Meanwhile, we encountered an assassination attempt targeting Hong-dae. By chance, I saved Hong-dae, but I also got caught up in it.
After some initial probing between us, I decided to help him out of my goodwill towards him... and now he needs my help too.
As for that nonsense about assassins, that's just empty talk during a test. He just needs to make sure I'm not here to kill him.
Hong Da started making phone calls, and as he finished one, the confidence on his face diminished a bit: "Brother, I think I can make a decision now."
This time he looked at me very sincerely: "I need your help."
"You've decided?" I smiled. "I hope you don't need my help. At least I still hope to travel without any worries."
Hong Da slowly said, “My itinerary was arranged by my friend, but someone came to kill me. Obviously, I can’t trust anyone now! Until I find out who did it, I won’t easily consider anyone a friend… I have to get to Saigon alive! I can’t call my local friends now… I don’t want to be assassinated again.” He paused, looking at me, “Although I don’t know who you are yet… at least you had the opportunity to kill me, but you didn’t. For now, I can treat you as a stranger… a stranger with a powerful background whom I met by chance.”
I winked at him and laughed, "Let me tell you a secret: I'm actually a police officer, here specifically to arrest you."
"Hahaha..." Hong Da laughed exaggeratedly, then said with a laugh, "If you're a policeman, then I'm the President of the United States!"
I tilted my head and smiled at Ciro, who was standing some distance away. Ciro immediately walked away to make a phone call. He needed to report our whereabouts to Tiger.
Then Xiluo came over and handed me the phone. I looked up at Hongda, then walked to the side to answer the call.
"You stay with Hong Da and make sure he's safe. Then I'll wait for you in Haiphong." Tiger added over the phone, "Be careful. If necessary, you can take him out first. If anything goes wrong, I'll take responsibility with Eighth Master."
I didn't say anything and just hung up the phone.
"How are you? Brother, what trouble are you in?" Hong Da looked at me.
I looked him straight in the eye without flinching: "Yes, you're my biggest problem right now. You ruined my wonderful vacation, I really should kill you."
Hong laughed: "Don't worry, I'll make it up to you."
He came over and walked beside me, his tone serious this time: “I came to Vietnam to handle some business matters. I have some business partners here, but now, I can’t trust them anymore. After all, they arranged my itinerary, and I don’t know… or if my enemies are hiding among my business partners. But I must see my partner; only with him can I completely trust him. Before seeing him, I can’t trust anyone else. So…”
I deliberately rubbed my temples and said with a wry smile, "So, you're asking me for help now, is that it?"
“You’re a very interesting person. Perhaps meeting you is the greatest gain I’ve made on this trip,” Hong said with a smile, looking me into the eyes. I knew there was a lot of pretense in that, but I was still moved.
Perhaps in two days, I will have to kill this person with my own hands.
…………