Chapter 9: Hide in the Cave

After his evening shower, Yu Chu looked in the dressing mirror and squeezed the soft flesh on his stomach, thinking, I can’t go on like this, I have to start exercising.

For the next few days, every morning and evening, he would go for a run outside. The island was quite large, so he ran along the island’s only road for more than half an hour, but only half a lap. Every time he would pass by the only small dock, he noticed that there weren’t many guards there, but there wasn’t a single boat, only an empty dock.

But there were fewer people and no boats, and he still couldn’t get away from the island.

Although the days on the island were boring, they weren’t particularly difficult. Every day he would run and look at the sea, and chat with Rugosa, but his days were also okay.

Every day when Rugosa came to clean, she would talk with Yu Chu for a while. She liked the second Young Master more and more, not only was he good-looking and good-hearted, but he also loved to listen to her talk. He didn’t have a trace of impatience and listened carefully to whatever she said, looking at her with those round eyes that looked like they were filled with water, and asking a question from time to time.

“Poor people don’t have to starve? Do you come out to work just to earn more money?”

“All can be educated, right? Then why did you only go to high school?”

“No curfew at night in the whole country? The whole country?”

Under Rugosa’s slightly sympathetic and compassionate gaze, Yu Chu got more information about the Yu Family and the world through the internet and her mouth, and also learned that all the people Yu ShiQing had sent out were returning to the island today. Including Zhou Mu, who he hadn’t seen for a few days.

Of course, when the people returned, so did the boat.

At around eleven o’clock at night, Yu Chu was dazed and was about to fall asleep when he heard the long and short sound of a whistle coming from the direction of the pier. He abruptly got up from bed and went to the window to check. It was raining again on the island, and there were some bright lights on the sea in the distance, which weren’t very clear in the rain, but he knew that they were boats heading to the pier.

Ten minutes or so later, the door to the Yu Family Mansion was opened and a large group of people poured in, with Yu ShiQing at the front.

Yu Chu was staring at them from the shadows and saw Zhou Mu at the back of the crowd.

He was wearing a black short-sleeved T-shirt, walking in the least noticeable spot, but the tall, straight figure could still be seen at a glance. The light from inside the building shone on his face, and his deep eyes were sunken in the shadow of his eyebrows.

Yu Chu felt that, after not seeing him for a few days, this man seemed even colder than before.

All the people who went upstairs, including the thugs guarding the door, headed to Yu ShiQing’s study on the third floor together. Silence fell around, only the patter of raindrops falling on the grass and windowsill could be heard.

Yu Chu didn’t turn on the lights, and after checking the wave forecast on his phone and knowing that he was within the safe level tonight, he changed his clothes in the dark. He left his cell phone and bank card, which could easily reveal his whereabouts, and took only his wallet with cash, and gingerly went downstairs, avoiding the surveillance at the gate, and tumbled out through the backyard fence.

Yu Chu was already familiar with the road to the pier, and after a short walk, he saw the lights of the pier and the undulating shadows of several boats.

There were a lot of people on the pier tonight, unloading on a cargo ship, but everything was just as Yu Chu had suspected, and although there were many people, it was also chaotic, and no one noticed his trail.

He found an opportunity to sneak through the dark woods by the dock to the farthest boat and quietly hunkered down. It was a lifeboat-like kayak, tied to an iron piling on the outermost side of the pier, floating and sinking with the waves.

There wasn’t much cargo on the freighter, and it was soon emptied, and the men began to return to their accommodations one by one. The mens’ dormitory building wasn’t far from Yu Family’s main building, and Yu Chu listened to their loud chatter fade away until it finally disappeared.

Yu Chu got up from his hiding place in the bushes and raced across the beach and into the boat.

He knew that it was more than ten kilometers from the island to the shore and that it would take two hours to paddle by boat. He untied the rope of the boat, grabbed the wooden pulp hanging on the side of the boat, put the paddle into the water, and he went off in the boat as a swimming fish, silently slipping into the sea.

As the distance grew farther and farther, the island gradually revealed its full outline, resembling a skeleton of a stranded whale, huge and hideous. Continuing forward, the skeleton became smaller and smaller again, eventually disappearing into the darkness.

After half an hour of paddling, both of Yu Chu’s arms were sore and weak, and he had to rest for a while. Since no one would notice he had left the house in the middle of the night, he put down the paddle, pulled out the life jacket from under the seat and put it on, then leaned against the body of the boat and rubbed his shoulders.

After a few moments of rest, he picked up the paddle again and continued to row forward.

He had checked the weather when he came out, and the wind and waves weren’t so strong as to overturn his dinghy. But the weather at sea was unpredictable, there were always times when the forecast wasn’t accurate, so he needed to speed up as fast as he could.

His worry wasn’t unfounded. The wind and waves were getting bigger and bigger, already beyond the forecasted level. The boat was swept up and down by the waves, and Yu Chu fell forward unsteadily losing control of the boat, grabbing the side. His paddle fell overboard, and he rushed to the side of the boat to retrieve it, only to see it being swept away by a wave.

Fuck! He cursed in his heart and had to hold on to the side handle to keep himself from being thrown into the sea. He had been in worse situations than this, so he kept his cool even though the boat was being knocked around by the waves and was about to capsize.

There was a shadowy black shape in front of him on the left, and based on the distance and size, he judged that it was a small piece of land exposed to the sea, so he was ready to swim there if he fell overboard. Looking at the direction of the waves, it should be the counter-current, and he didn’t know whether he could safely reach the shore.

Yu Chu cursed in his heart.

At that moment, he suddenly heard the sound of an engine motor, faintly mixed with the whistling of the wind and waves. He was wondering if he had heard it wrong, when the sound became clearer, and it was indeed the engine motor.

He looked towards the sound, only to see two snowy beams of light piercing through the thick darkness and rain; a speedboat breaking through the huge waves, the wind rushing towards him.

The speedboat was coming from the direction of Xing Yuan Island, and Yu Chu’s first reaction was that Yu ShiQing had found out he left the island, but immediately afterwards he realized that something was wrong. There was only one boat, and only one figure on it, but his eyes were blinded, so he couldn’t see the face of the person coming.

The man in the boat reached out with his right hand to Yu Chu, who was half-crouched in the raft, and yelled, “Get in!”

Surprisingly, it was Zhou Mu’s voice.

When Yu Chu saw him, his heart dropped a few levels, but he also felt an indefinable complex emotion. Being discovered by Zhou Mu, it was certain that he couldn’t escape this time, but the fact that he could come alone proved that he didn’t tell Yu ShiQing about his secret departure from the island.

The wind and waves were getting stronger and the boat was in danger of being tipped over by the waves. The boats couldn’t get too close, so Zhou Mu struggled to control the direction and kicked a thick rope over, “Catch it!”

Yu Chu grabbed the rope in the air and leapt into the sea before the next wave hit and swam along the rope to the speedboat.

Zhou Mu leaned down and grabbed one of his arms and lifted him up, and with a splash, Yu Chu was carried onto the boat with his arms dripping seawater. As he jumped into the boat, the speedboat accelerated and shot ahead like an arrow.

Yu Chu looked back up and saw that the dinghy had been knocked over by the waves and was swept away upside down into the sea.

“Hold on to the handrails!” Zhou Mu shouted again.

Yu Chu sat up, gasping for breath, and grabbed the handrail on the hull. He soon realized that the speedboat wasn’t heading back to Xing Yuan Island, but it was heading towards the land he had just seen.

The wind and waves were raging, and everywhere the lights of the speedboat shone, the water was deep black and bottomless, like a roaring, angry beast that was opening its fierce mouth to devour everything.

Yu Chu then felt a trace of fear, thinking that if Zhou Mu hadn’t come, he might not have been able to swim to land, and probably have drowned in the sea. He didn’t know if he’d really die just like that, or if he’d go back to his original world… 

Thinking of this, he looked at Zhou Mu who was driving the speedboat.

Zhou Mu’s brow was furrowed and his eyes were fixed on the front, still wearing the short-sleeved black T-shirt, revealing his sturdy arms, which were bulging with a few veins from the effort.

The speed of the speedboat wasn’t comparable to that of a dinghy, and it took only a few minutes to reach that land. The two of them worked together and fixed the speedboat behind a boulder to make sure it wouldn’t be swept away by the waves, and then they walked towards the island.

Zhou Mu walked ahead with a flashlight, and Yu Chu followed behind him, and the area was full of jagged rocks, which were very difficult to walk on. Yu Chu followed very reluctantly, not to mention with the wind and rain and darkness, he stumbled and fell several times.

Zhou Mu clearly heard the movement behind him, but didn’t turn back once, only sped up as he continued to move forward, Yu Chu then grunted, got up again to catch up with the figure in front.

When Zhou Mu stopped, Yu Chu found himself in a naturally formed cave. The cave was only half the size of a room, and because it wasn’t deep, some raindrops came in diagonally from the cave entrance, soaking the ground.

But at least it was a shelter against the wind and rain, much better than being pelted with rain outside.