Even so, his fists were now a bloody mess, and his knuckles were badly injured, but he gritted his teeth and endured it, saying, "Hurry up and get out!"
"Who are you?"
The slightly older man was the ship's chief engineer. Chen Xiao glanced at him and said, "You're the chief engineer, right? I'm a friend of Captain Nie Feng. He asked me to rescue you. Captain Nie Feng himself took a few sailors to seize the bridge."
Although some doubts remained, everyone felt somewhat reassured upon hearing this.
The people on the ship all revered the captain. Hearing that the captain had not been captured and had even organized a resistance, they immediately felt a sense of security.
Chen Xiao looked at the crew members; most of them were Chinese… probably because this ship had always been on the East Asian route. However, there were also some white and black people among them. The chief engineer was also Chinese, and he wasn't speaking Chinese but English, so he was probably a foreigner as well.
"Don't panic! Everyone, get out of here quickly!" The chief engineer, after all, still had a certain amount of authority. After leading the man out of the cargo hold, he finally noticed that there was a young girl behind Chen Xiao.
Both young people looked exhausted and were covered in blood, as if they had been through a bloody battle. The girl, in particular, was delicate and charming, yet she reeked of blood.
"Does the captain have any further instructions?" the chief engineer asked, frowning.
“No more.” Chen Xiao shook his head: “He led his men to try and retake the cockpit; there are probably still quite a few armed men on board…”
He and the chief engineer were both speaking English, but Tang Ying chimed in, "There were many of them, all wearing bulletproof vests. They were armed with M5 assault rifles. Their accents were mixed, like mercenaries."
Chen Xiao glanced back at Tang Ying, whose face looked somewhat timid. She stammered, "I... before I ran here to see you, I encountered two groups of people on my way out of the cabin. There were thirteen of them in total, and I killed eight of them."
Chen Xiao let out a sigh of relief. The chief engineer next to him also turned pale upon hearing this—could this delicate-looking little girl really kill someone?
"This is no time for nonsense!" Chen Xiao gritted his teeth. "You take these men and do what you're supposed to do! You're crew members on this ship; you should know what you're supposed to do! We don't know how the captain is doing in the bridge. We need to go check on him quickly, find weapons first, then figure out how to deal with these guys. And..."
He grabbed the chief engineer and pulled him aside, away from the crowd, and said in a low voice, "These people have punctured the drainage tanks! I'm afraid this ship is going to sink!"
The chief engineer had already had some suspicions in his mind, but upon hearing this, his expression changed.
Chen Xiao immediately said, "This ship can only withstand nine drainage tanks being filled with water, and three of them are already full! The others have been detonated, and the others are still releasing water... Do you have any ideas?"
The chief engineer looked grim. He shook his head and said, "There's nothing we can do! These people have blown up the hull, and we can't plug it anymore... Although the ship has a drainage system, with so much water coming in at once, the system's capacity is insufficient. In other words, even if we activate the drainage system, the rate at which the water is drained will be far slower than the rate at which it's being pumped in!"
"Can't we plug the hole? Can't we plug the hole first and then slowly drain the water?" Chen Xiao asked.
The chief engineer glanced at Chen Xiao and said with a wry smile, "You're not on board. You wouldn't understand. The hull has been blown apart. The drainage tanks are already full of water. How are we supposed to go in and plug it? Go in wearing a diving suit? But then we'd have to weld the hole back together with steel plates. You can't work underwater while wearing a diving suit... at least, with the personnel and equipment we have on board, it's not feasible!"
Chen Xiao sighed: "So now... it's just a matter of time?"
Having worked on shipboard machinery before, his understanding of this matter was even more advanced than that of the ship itself. After a moment's thought, the chief engineer said, "At normal speeds, once the nine plenums fill with water, it's enough to sink the ship; it's just a matter of time. The only solution is to find a way to activate the ship's automatic plenum system to drain the water... But as I said, the plenum pumps water out much slower than the flooding, so there's no way to save the ship; we can only delay the sinking!"
"About how much longer?" Chen Xiao frowned.
"Two hours." The chief engineer frowned. "If we turn on the drainage system, we have about two more hours. If we can't turn on the drainage system, then based on the fact that the three cabins at the bow are already full of water, and the remaining cabins are full of water... we only have one hour at most!"
“One hour…” Chen Xiao’s face darkened: “Then evacuation is the only option?”
The chief engineer glanced at Chen Xiao: "We need to hurry! We are all professional crew members, and we have received professional training! If an irreversible shipwreck occurs, it will take at least an hour to evacuate the people on such a large ship!"
"In other words, if we can't recapture the cockpit and open the drainage system's control valves, if we can't buy some time... then..."
“Many people will die.” The chief engineer’s voice was tinged with bitterness.
He turned to his trembling men and roared, "Get yourselves together! It's time to fight to the death! Locke, take some weapons! Get some handy stuff! Hill! Take your team to the drainage chamber right now and see if there's anything you can do to slow the leak! Go! Don't just stand there like idiots!"
Finally, the chief engineer roared with all his might, "This is our damn ship! Take it back! Even if it's going to sink, it'll sink in our hands!!"
Most of the sailors and crew members living at sea are courageous and adventurous people. After being yelled at by the chief engineer, they were encouraged and shouted as they scattered to get to work.
One of the Black men, however, frowned and ran over: "Boss, where am I supposed to find weapons? There's not much in the weapons bay, not many guns either..."
*Smack!*
Suddenly, the engine room captain slapped the black man across the face, making him stagger. He then pointed at the man's nose and cursed viciously, "You bastard! You're still trying to hide things from me at a time like this! Don't think you don't know! We're all just trying to make a living at sea! I've never interfered with your and your gang's smuggling activities, but I've seen it all! I know you've hidden some firearms in your tool shed! You smuggled them here to sell to Taiwan, haven't you! Now that we're all fighting for our lives, bring them out and use them!"
The Black man, though annoyed by the slap, felt a sense of relief and exclaimed, "Fine! But you can't bring this up later!"
"Damn it! We're all just trying to make a living on this ship. Smuggling things in is common, and I'm not going to bother with you."
Watching the black man lead his men away to find weapons, the chief engineer breathed a sigh of relief, but then suddenly collapsed, panting heavily for a while. He looked at Chen Xiao, who was still standing beside him, and said, "Please excuse my poor performance... For crew members on a ship, a fixed salary is naturally not enough to make a living. Smuggling things and the like is an open secret."
"I understand." Chen Xiao just smiled and didn't say anything.
"Just now you..." The chief engineer suddenly glanced at Chen Xiao. He hesitated for a moment, only managing to utter half a sentence before falling silent.
With so many people in such a chaotic state, everyone was too excited about being rescued to notice the details, only seeing Chen Xiao crawl through the hole in the wall and save them. Only this old sailor, the chief engineer, was more observant and, after emerging, keenly noticed a problem:
This young man came to rescue them and even broke through the wall of the ship's hideout... but when he came out, there were no tools at all! Forget about any wall-ramming equipment, there was no spot welding or cutting machine, not even a wrench!
How did this young man manage to break through the wall? It was a genuine steel plate!
Having sailed many ships, he naturally became quite knowledgeable and knew what to say and what not to ask. The chief engineer glanced at Chen Xiao: "Excuse me, sir, are you currently..."
"I'll go to the cockpit." Chen Xiao shook his head. "Just like you said, we must regain control of the cockpit. Activate the drainage system. We need to buy some more time!"
"Alright! I'm too old for fighting. I'll go to the bleed tank with my men and see if we can slow down the flooding." The chief engineer sighed, "No matter what, this is our ship! Even buying just one more minute is good!"
At this point, the crew of the engine room that he had just sent out finally returned. These people had retrieved something from the cargo hold; some were carrying full sets of diving equipment, while others were carrying tools. Seven or eight of them hurriedly ran back.
"Boss! This is all we could find..."
The chief engineer glanced at the tools, seemed to frown slightly, but immediately put on an excited expression: "Let's go! Kids! You think you can sink our ship so easily? Let's go patch the holes!"
Chapter 150 [No Chance!]
Snap!