He wasn't speaking Chinese. The fat man looked at him, then exchanged a few words with him in that strange language.
A thought struck me, and I took a closer look at the dark-skinned man. He certainly didn't look like a Han Chinese.
"Stop looking at him, he's Vietnamese," the fat man said casually. "He has a bad temper, so don't keep staring at him."
We waited quietly for a while, our boat just sitting there on the sea, the Vietnamese getting impatient. They kept talking to the fat man, who had a relaxed expression on his face.
Finally, the faint sound of a motor came from afar, followed by a few flashes of a searchlight. The fat man immediately stood up, pulled a large flashlight from under the canvas, and shone it at the other party a few times, flashing on and off in a strange rhythm.
After exchanging lights for a while, the fat man nodded, turned to look at me, and said, "Kid, your boat has arrived."
The large ship stopped, and our speedboat started up and pulled over. I noticed that the ship wasn't flying any national flags, and the hull was somewhat dilapidated; it seemed to be a converted large fishing boat. There were also abandoned fishing nets and other equipment next to the mast.
After the two boats docked, someone lowered a rope. The fat man smiled and said to me, "Let's get on."
I picked up the bag the fat man had given me, thought for a moment, and then turned to look at the Vietnamese man. I said in a very sincere tone, "Thank you."
To be honest, I did it purely out of habit. I always say thank you when someone helps me. The Vietnamese man glanced at me, then a sudden, cold smile appeared on his face. He then took something from under his seat and handed it to me.
It was a bottle of mineral water, and a no-name brand at that. It had already been opened, and was only about half full.
The fat man glanced at the bottle, then gave the Vietnamese man a strange look, and suddenly laughed: "Kid, he likes you. You can keep this. It might come in handy on the road."
I took it with some hesitation. Although it was an open bottle of water, and might even have been used by him, I still carefully put it in my bag.
The fat man accompanied me onto the boat.
There were five or six crew members on the ship, all with cold expressions. I even saw some men blatantly carrying guns on their hips. Several diving gear items were also hanging in the cabin. The fat man laughed and hugged one of the men. Then he pulled me aside and introduced me, saying, "This is my brother!"
The man was short and thin, and he actually spoke Chinese, but it was very broken and stiff: "Your brother... is not like you! You are big, he is small!" He smiled and gestured with his hands, probably describing the difference in size between me and the fat man.
The fat man chuckled. Then he took out an account number from his pocket, dialed a number on his phone in front of the person, and handed the phone to him. The person immediately looked serious, listened for a while, then smiled with satisfaction and patted the fat man on the shoulder: "Very good, the money has arrived. You're very trustworthy. So am I!"
He gestured with his chin at me: "Go inside, you can sleep in my room!"
The fat man gave me another phone number: "After you get ashore, find a place to call this number, and someone will come to pick you up."
After doing all that, the fat man patted me goodbye. Before leaving, he grabbed my arm, looking at me with a grin: "Kid, do you know why I saved you?"
"I don't know." I shook my head.
"Because there are too few people like you. Every one that dies is one less." The fat man smiled sadly, "That's why I don't want you to die."
As I watched him jump off the rope, I was suddenly moved and felt a pang of reluctance. I walked to the side of the boat and shouted to him, "Fang Dahai, I, Chen Yang, will return one day!!"
The fat man just waved at me and then laughed loudly, "Before you do anything in the future, ask yourself, is it worth it!"
The speedboat sped away and quickly disappeared into the distance.
I watched the ship sail away into the distance and muttered to myself:
"It wasn't worth it! But... I don't regret it!" I felt a sense of relief: "At least I don't owe him anything now."
This was a smuggling boat, the infamous snakehead boat. The man trading with the fat man was also Vietnamese, but he seemed to have done quite a bit of business with the fat man. He could speak Chinese. His name was even stranger: "Old Snake."
When the fat man saw me off onto the boat, I wondered why the dark-skinned Vietnamese man on the fat man's speedboat wasn't getting on board. Later I found out…
Although both are Vietnamese, they come from different backgrounds—one from South Vietnam and the other from North Vietnam. While the political situation is different now than it was years ago, the historical grievances between South and North Vietnam remain complex and difficult to fully explain.
I've only been here a day, and I already know that there are thirty people below the cabin!
This boat used to be a fishing boat... and it still is. Officially, it belongs to a fishing company in Haiphong City, Vietnam, and the fishing equipment on board is genuine.
When not transporting people, this boat is used for fishing. When needed, the lower deck is emptied to carry people.
I didn't go down to the cabins below deck, and neither did Lao She and his crew. The five or six crew members lived in the upper cabins. I lived in Lao She's room, which was supposedly the captain's cabin, but it was actually about the size of a toilet at home. There was a small bed, the sheets were covered in a fishy smell, and there was a tattered nautical chart on the table.
I ate the same food as the crew, mostly fish, with a little bit of vegetables every day.
And those other stowaways living below deck... I never saw them. I don't know what they looked like... They never even came up to the deck. Because the doors to the lower decks were always locked!
Only one crew member would deliver a small amount of water and food each day.
I could almost tell at a glance... that little bit of water and food was nowhere near enough for forty people!
But the old snake didn't care at all; he chatted with me about it. In his words, the place inside was full of snakes and humans.
"As long as we don't starve to death, that's fine."
We were both smuggled in. But I received almost the best treatment. I ate the same food as the crew, could get some fresh air on the deck every day, and I even had cigarettes to smoke... a pack of cigarettes that Fatty left in my bag.
I casually handed out a few packs of cigarettes to Old Snake and his crew, and they immediately noticed that my expression had softened a bit.
Because of my cigarette offensive, most of the crew members were friendly to me, and I was allowed to move around freely on deck, except for one cabin they had locked that I couldn't enter.
In the evenings, I would even play cards with the crew. The stakes were cigarettes.
Very quickly. In less than four days, I had run out of cigarettes.
To be honest, for those four days I even felt everything was great... until...
On the fifth day, the weather was nice, but a bit hot.
Standing on the deck, you'll see the sea on all sides. From any angle, you won't see a single inch of land.
This feeling makes you feel incredibly small! And today there was hardly any wind, the sun was shining directly on the deck. It was getting hot! I felt hot even sitting in the cabin, so I couldn't help but go outside. Most of the crew members were shirtless, and some were lazily wiping the deck. Old Snake was sitting in the bridge smoking, his forehead covered in sweat, cursing something in a language I couldn't understand.
The ship reeked of fish. Although I had gotten used to the smell over the past few days, it was still unbearable in this heat. Only when I went out for some fresh air on the deck did I feel a little better.
Just then, a crew member went inside and said a few words to the old snake.
After listening to what the old snake said, he remained calm and gave a few instructions... Then, I stood on the bow deck and watched as two crew members went down to the cabin and carried a person out in less than a minute!
The person did not move. When they were carried up, their arms hung down as if they had lost consciousness.
They were less than seven or eight steps away from me, and the two crew members looked on indifferently. They carried the thing to the side of the boat and then casually threw it into the sea!
I was stunned!
The two crew members seemed completely unfazed, as if they were already used to it. They clapped their hands, exchanged a few words with each other, and then went inside to pull out a package. They opened it and began to search its contents.
My heart sank, and I couldn't help but hurry into the cabin.
The old snake was also there. I hesitated for a moment, my expression turning serious: "Just now..."
Old Snake was watching his men rummage through the bag, then casually glanced at me and said, "That person is dead."
I took a deep breath: "It's... a human-snake?"
"Hmm!" The old snake shrugged indifferently and spread his hands: "Death is normal."
Just then, the two crew members who were rummaging through the bags suddenly cheered and pulled out a wad of banknotes and half a pack of cigarettes. Old Snake, expressionless, went over and snatched the banknotes, then threw half of them at the two crew members. He put the rest in his pocket, and took the half pack of cigarettes as well. Then Old Snake came to my side, took one out of the half pack, and handed it to me: "Want one?"
I suddenly felt nauseous and wanted to vomit...
Seeing that I didn't intend to take it, the old snake sneered: "What are you afraid of? He's dead, so we don't need him anymore, right?"
Old Snake distributed half a pack of cigarettes to his crew. Then he lit one for himself.
I didn't say anything, just quietly watched the crew members.
But his mind was racing back to the man who had been thrown overboard… his identity, his age, his name—no one knew.
But a great man... just like that, gone!
"What are you thinking about?" The old snake came to my side and said, "Dead people...it's normal. A lot die every time." He grinned and pointed to the area below the cabin: "It's hot up there, and even hotter down there! There's no wind, and not enough water. That guy was unlucky, so he died."
When he smiled, he revealed a mouthful of yellow teeth.
The sun was shining on me, but I felt a little cold.
Part 1: A Man in the Jianghu, Not in His Own Hands Chapter 127: The Life of a Ground Rat
Right after that day, our ship began to turn north and head northeast.
Four days later, during which time the crew carried another body out of the cabin and threw it into the sea.
I later learned that deaths were common during these smuggling journeys. Conditions inside the ship were extremely poor, from bottom to top. There wasn't enough fresh water or food, and the temperature and ventilation were terrible; even breathing was difficult. People in poor health who fell ill at sea had no choice but to endure it.
Don't expect them to provide you with medical supplies on these smuggling boats! But that's not what terrifies me... What really chills me is the attitude of the smugglers and crew on these boats towards people.
They are all human beings, the same kind of people, yet they are locked in the cabin and not allowed to come out... All of this makes me feel like I'm watching those old movies about the slave trade!
Such observations made me distance myself somewhat from the old snake and his men.
However, during dinner later, Old Snake pulled me aside for a chat, and I couldn't help but ask him, "If the people down there die, won't you stop getting paid? Why don't you give them more food and water?"
The old snake laughed, but his smile was cold, and he gave me a strange look.
"You're Chinese, you don't know the market," Old Snake replied casually. Then, while smoking, he pointed to the area below the cabin with a disdainful tone and said, "These people are worthless when they're dead."
I deliberately tried to get some information out of him, but Old Snake didn't seem to care and casually told me a little about the situation in this industry.
Human smuggling is a problem that cannot be avoided anywhere. From the perspective of East Asia, human smuggling groups are divided into two waves, one of which is located in the coastal areas of China, mainly in the Fujian area.
Another group consists of scattered human traffickers in Southeast Asia.
“We are different from you Chinese.” These are the old snake’s exact words.
In the 1970s and 80s, human smuggling rings in Fujian province transported many mainland Chinese to Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macau, and of course, Japan and the Americas.
It could be said that it was a golden age for illegal immigration... It sounds ridiculous, mainly because the country's economy was underdeveloped and closed off at that time, and it lagged behind in many aspects, with limited communication channels with the Western world. Most illegal immigrants went abroad with the mentality of making a fortune in the West.
To put it ironically, it was a seller's market back then, the golden age for human smuggling rings. Prices for smuggling people into the Americas were very high. And most of the time, there was no bargaining… more importantly, you had to pay first, then get on the boat!
The direct consequence of such actions was that almost all human smuggling groups at the time lacked an awareness of "after-sales service."
The people are on board, and the money has been received. Human trafficking rings typically treat these illegal immigrants like slaves, transporting them using the most economical methods… The cabins are crammed full of people; every extra person means more money! They carry as little food and water as possible, because less cargo means more people!
During that period, the disability rate among illegal immigrants was extremely high!
At this point, the old snake seemed to smile and said, "Don't be fooled by the news about people suffocating on smuggling boats or in car tankers that we talked about a couple of years ago. These news stories caused quite a stir... In fact, ten or twenty years ago, the number of deaths was many times higher! It's just that the media wasn't as developed back then, so it wasn't publicized as much."
However, with China's economic boom and growing national strength in the 1990s, exchanges between China and the Western world became increasingly smooth, and going abroad was no longer a difficult matter. Moreover, with the country's economic level rising, especially the improvement in the living standards of people in the southeastern coastal areas, smuggling abroad no longer held much appeal. As a result, the business of human smuggling rings declined significantly during this period.
It sounds like a joke, yet it also seems to confirm the truth that "the market dominates everything." The smuggling business has gradually shifted from a seller's market to a buyer's market... It sounds almost laughable.
However, in order to attract business, human trafficking groups have also taken many measures to adapt to the trend.
For example, price changes... Old Snake said that there has even been a situation where several companies in the industry are competing on prices and routes... "It's just like the price wars among domestic travel companies."
Secondly, there's after-sales service!
There has been so much publicity about deaths during human smuggling in recent years that many people are afraid to smuggle themselves abroad. As a result, human smuggling groups now collect half the money upfront and the other half after the person arrives safely at their destination.