The Sea Queen of 1985

Chapter 379: Chapter 379: Don’t Talk About Kindness

Han Dayong was alarmed by his words. ”Where are you taking us? Did my daughter, Han Xiaorui, have you do this? How much did she pay you?”

The boat captain found this very strange. ”That’s one filial daughter you’ve got, sending you abroad to make money! It costs a lot to get smuggled out of the country these days! For a family of four like you, it costs even more—twenty thousand yuan.”

Han Dayong’s heart pounded in terror. ”You didn’t see that we were drugged and carried onto this boat? If we had come willingly, why would we have been drugged?”

The boat captain grew even more curious, but he needed to lay down some ground rules to prevent endless trouble and ensure a smooth journey.

”I don’t know if it was your daughter who set this up, but I’ve been paid, and I’m going to do my job.”

”You behave yourselves along the way, and I’ll get you there in one piece. But if you cause trouble, try to escape, or pull any stunts, you’re on your own if something happens. I won’t lift a finger to help you.”

Just then, Wang Cuilan and Liu Yunyun began to stir. They woke up just in time to hear the boat captain’s voice, and their faces went pale as they trembled in fear.

”Please don’t kill us! We don’t want to die!”

The boat captain waved a dismissive hand. ”Who said anything about killing you? We’re professional smugglers. We’re in it for the money, not murder. Our route is one of the safer ones, but that’s only if you behave.”

Wang Cuilan looked at her husband, Han Dayong. ”Was it Xiao Rui and Ye Feng? They’re so heartless! We’re her own parents!”

”To keep us from making trouble for them, they sent us abroad—and had us smuggled out! Even if we make it there alive, will we ever be able to return?”

The captain let out a hearty laugh. ”Why would you want to come back? You’ll see once you get overseas. It’s way more developed than Shencheng! Why come back to this hard life when you can be eating and drinking well over there?”

Han Xiaoyuan looked confused. ”If it’s so great overseas, then why don’t more people want to leave?”

The captain pointed to a large group of people sitting nearby. ”Take a look. This boat is full of people heading out to make their fortunes! Go on, ask them how much they paid.”

Han Dayong had gradually calmed down. He realized crying and shouting wouldn’t do any good.

’Either we get thrown overboard to feed the fish, or we get abandoned in some foreign country.’

”Hey, kid, how much did you pay to get smuggled out?” Han Dayong asked a young man nearby.

The young man smiled. ”Five thousand.”

”With five thousand yuan, you could do anything. Why go abroad?” Han Dayong asked, puzzled.

The young man replied, ”I owe this five thousand. I have to earn it back over there. My family is dirt-poor. I can’t even afford to get married. I figured I’d come out here and try my luck. Maybe I can find a way to make a life for myself.”

”What about you?” Han Dayong asked a middle-aged man behind him. ”Hey, brother, you’re not a young man anymore. You’ve probably got parents to support and kids to raise. Why risk being smuggled?”

The middle-aged man chuckled. ”My cousin runs a Chinese restaurant in the United States, and it’s making a killing! I’m going over to work for him. I’ll earn money and send it home.”

”But you have family over there. Why can’t you go through the proper channels?” Han Dayong asked, completely baffled.

The man sighed. ”Because we’re poor, aren’t we? And I don’t speak any foreign languages. I’m just going there to work for cash. They won’t give me a visa. I’ve applied eight times and been rejected every time.”

One by one, the others also shared their reasons for being smuggled out.

’This must be a fairly reliable snakehead,’ Han Dayong thought, slightly relieved.

The captain shrugged. ”This many people can’t all be lying to you, can they? Just behave. Have a talk with your wife and kids. Tell them not to cause a scene.”

”If you make a big scene crying and wailing, and we get caught inside the country, you might just get sent back home. But if you get caught overseas, you can look forward to being forced to work illegally.”

”I have the money and the means to get away, but you all are a different story. So we need to cooperate and get to our destination in one piece. After all, I’m banking on people like you to earn money and pay back your fees. So I’d rather you get there alive than die on the way.”

Han Dayong saw how things were. What was done was done. Even if he cursed his daughters for three days and three nights, there was no going back.

”Cuilan, stop crying! At least our family is still together and in one piece. We’ll be able to survive overseas.”

Wang Cuilan gritted her teeth. ”Those two wretched girls are so vicious! How could I have given birth to such heartless creatures!”

After hearing what the other passengers had said, Han Xiaoyuan tried to comfort Wang Cuilan. ”Mom, stop cursing them! Eldest Sister and Second Sister might be hard-hearted, but they aren’t evil.”

”Not evil?” Wang Cuilan couldn’t accept it. ”If they weren’t evil, would we be on this smuggling boat? They’re living the good life back in Shencheng, yet they’d rather spend five thousand yuan a person to smuggle us out—that’s twenty thousand for the four of us! They’d rather do that than use the money to support us!”

Hearing Wang Cuilan’s words, the other passengers grew puzzled. ”Based on what you’re saying, what on earth did you do to make your daughters willing to spend a fortune to smuggle you out of the country rather than just support you?”

At that, the members of the Han Family fell silent.

The captain barked, ”Alright, that’s enough prying into each other’s business! Let me give you all a piece of advice. When you get overseas, don’t ever believe that old saying, ’When fellow townsmen meet, their eyes brim with tears.’ For the Chinese people over there, it’s more like, ’When fellow townsmen meet, they shoot you in the back.’”

”Keep your secrets, and you might just keep your life. When you’re out of the country, don’t assume the locals are all good people. Once you get over there, you’ll realize just how simple and kind people are back on the Hua Country Mainland.”

Wang Cuilan was about to start cursing her daughters again, but Han Dayong stopped her. ”That’s enough. Don’t curse them again, and don’t say another word!”

Wang Cuilan’s face turned red with suppressed anger, but she didn’t dare to utter another curse.

Liu Yunyun had remained silent the entire time. She recalled how just yesterday, Ye Feng had offered to send them abroad through proper channels.

But her father-in-law and mother-in-law had flatly refused.

’And look where that got them. No need for legal channels now. They were just getting smuggled out directly.’

’Without any documents to prove who they were, they’d never be able to come back in this lifetime.’

Liu Yunyun’s heart was filled with anxiety, but she knew that no amount of words would change anything now.

No one on the boat had ever been abroad before. The only one who knew anything about foreign countries was the captain.

Liu Yunyun asked, ”Boss, everyone overseas speaks a foreign language. Could you teach us a few phrases? Otherwise, we’ll be completely in the dark. If we get taken advantage of, we won’t know what to do since we can’t speak the language.”

The captain looked at Liu Yunyun. ”You’re a smart one. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, eh? Since you’re going abroad, it can only help to learn a few phrases.”

And so, the four members of the Han Family resigned themselves to their fate and headed out to sea on the smuggler’s boat.

When Han Xiaorui woke up the next morning, she learned they had already reached international waters. She ate an extra bowl of congee for breakfast.

’There was no point in talking about kindness!’

’Being kind to wicked people was like casting pearls before swine!’

’They only deserved to be dealt with by someone just as vicious. It takes a villain to handle a villain!’

With those troublesome people finally gone, Officer Li delivered another piece of good news. It was truly one good thing after another.