Reborn in 1993, Dark Sea

Henry jogged back to get the stamps, while Zhou Meng sat smugly on the sofa, drinking tea with a smug look on his face.

"Old Zhou, are you crazy!"

Zhou Meng's wife finally couldn't hold back anymore. She usually bought stamps one or two at a time, and over the years, she had only spent two or three thousand yuan in total. Zhou Meng had nagged her a lot about it.

Who would have thought that today, Zhou Meng would ask for 400 bills, which is a whopping 20,000 yuan! That's almost a third of their savings, savings they've accumulated over many years for Zhou Xun's wedding.

"I'm not crazy," Zhou Meng waved his hand. "You little brat, tell your aunt what price is appropriate to sell it for!"

"400 yuan, I think it would be a good time to sell when it reaches 400 yuan," An Xiaohai said dejectedly.

Puchi~

Zhou Meng couldn't hold back and spat out a mouthful of tea all over the floor.

"How much? How much did you say?!"

"400!" An Xiaohai rolled his eyes and said.

"Are you running a fever?"

"I have a fever, so I'm talking nonsense. Why don't you stop trying to take it from me, Captain Zhou?"

"You little brat, what do you mean I'm going to fight you for this? This is my house! My house, you know?! Hehe!"

"Alright..."

"No! When it rises to 400 yuan, who will I sell it to?" Zhou Meng thought it through quite thoroughly.

"Don't worry, Henry will come and buy it. Just hold on and don't sell it for less than 400 dollars."

"From what you're saying, it'll exceed 400?"

"Of course it will exceed that, but exceeding 400 would be a bit dangerous. There's no need to take such a big risk. One shouldn't be too greedy."

"Hey, you're actually quite clever, huh!" Zhou Meng stood up excitedly, rubbing his hands together as he paced back and forth in the living room, perhaps fantasizing about how he would spend the 20,000 yuan that had become 200,000 yuan.

Zhou Meng's wife was completely speechless at this moment. She kept looking at Zhou Meng and then at An Xiaohai, unable to say a word for a long time.

She knew her man well; Zhou Meng was always stingy and would never spend money recklessly. So why did he believe An Xiaohai so readily?

Henry returned quickly, bringing with him a full 470 copies of "Poseidon"!

Despite Henry Gu's repeated assurances that the money could be paid tomorrow, Zhou Meng insisted that his wife take out the money hidden in a compartment of the cabinet and pay Henry Gu every penny.

Henry took the money and ran away, thanking Zhou Meng profusely. He ran quite fast, probably worried that Zhou Meng would regret it!

The transaction was finally completed. At this moment, Zhou Meng began to feel uneasy. He chatted idly with An Xiaohai, after all, more than 20,000 yuan was a lot of money for them.

Despite An Xiaohai's repeated offers that if he was really worried, he could sell him all of "Sea God" and he would even offer more than 50 yuan to buy them, Captain Zhou remained adamant and refused to sell.

This week's team leader was incredibly shrewd in crucial moments!

An Xiaohai finally made it to nine o'clock, and Zhou Meng finally told him to get lost.

As the car drove out of the residential area, An Xiaohai let out a long sigh of relief. Zhou Meng had snatched the stamps, but An Xiaohai wasn't angry at all; on the contrary, he was quite happy.

Zhou Meng, a detachment leader, comes from a family that's not much different from ordinary people. Yet his family got into such a mess over 20,000 yuan... Zhou Meng is truly a good detachment leader!

An Xiaohai was genuinely happy for such a good team leader who could earn some money. Besides, Zhou Meng's way of treating him was no ordinary way; it was more like treating his own nephew or niece, and in a very close way at that.

This feeling is something money can't buy.

Back in Apojiao Village, An Xiaohai saw that Kunji and the others' lights were still on, so he went over to take a look.

Lai Donglin was still flipping through various documents, his pen constantly calculating; Kunji seemed to be in low spirits, his head down, looking preoccupied.

After chatting with them for a few minutes, An Xiaohai made an excuse to leave.

Once outside the courtyard, An Xiaohai let out another long breath and looked up at the sky.

An Xiaohai could vaguely sense that it was time for Kunji to confess to him. At least Lai Donglin was about to break down, as he had hesitated to speak several times earlier.

"A demon's eyes...it doesn't look like it!"

Having gone through so much, An Xiaohai has been constantly adjusting his understanding of the world.

Often, when information leaks, it's not necessarily because of problems within the organization, but more likely because of one's own actions. Unfortunately, most people don't look for problems within themselves and tend to attribute them to external factors or others.

When dealing with the sea hawks, An Xiaohai learned a great deal about them through tireless reasoning and endless observation.

If you can do it, why can't others?

After spending so much time together, An Xiaohai had gotten to know Kunji quite well. He was a very simple-minded person, and his purpose in following him was also very simple: to make an ordinary life extraordinary.

An Xiaohai did indeed give Kunji the life he wanted most, so Kunji was happy most of the time. This kind of heartfelt happiness was almost impossible to fake.

Moreover, Kunji always seemed too casual when she went to see that man. She was cautious, but not thorough at all. Pan Zhuangzhuang, who was hiding nearby and observing the marine environmental observation center, had already run into her twice.

The eyes of a demon would never be of this caliber; Kunji must have been coerced.

An Xiaohai sighed inwardly. Although that was his assessment, he had taken all the necessary precautions.

In the two recent operations, An Xiaohai did not involve Kunji or Lai Donglin. Lai Donglin was going in the wrong direction, analyzing Hu Haikong's company's data day and night, which An Xiaohai ignored.

"If the person who is threatening Kunji behind the scenes is truly the eyes of the devil, then let him only see what I want him to see... I hope you are not! I don't want Kunji to be hurt again."

Kunji... I hope you can be honest with me soon; I don't want to be hurt again!

An Xiaohai slowly walked home, and just as he finished tidying up and lay down on the bed, the phone rang.

It was Pan Zhuangzhuang calling; he hung up after five rings.

An Xiaohai immediately called back, but the call was disconnected after ringing five times.

After hanging up the phone, An Xiaohai got out of bed, changed into a dark-colored outfit, and left home through the back door.

An Xiaohai jogged along the overgrown path and soon reached the beach. He walked along the rocky beach for a while, then suddenly dodged and disappeared under a large rock.

Beneath the large rock lies a hidden world, a small cave with a very concealed entrance offering a panoramic view of most of Cape Apo Bay. It is an excellent spot for discreet observation.

Apart from a very few children who grew up in the village, no one in this place knew that Pan Zhuangzhuang had been here all along, monitoring the marine environmental observation center.

Pan Zhuangzhuang had decorated the cave to be quite cozy. As soon as An Xiaohai entered the cave, Pan Zhuangzhuang pulled him to a stone wall. An Xiaohai put his ear to the stone wall and immediately heard a faint drilling sound.

That marine environmental observation center actually started up its machines again at this time!

An Xiaohai and Pan Zhuangzhuang remained pressed against the stone wall, listening intently until, more than an hour later, the machine stopped abruptly. Only then did they leave their spot and sit down beside the small campfire burning in the cave.

The campfire had long since burned out, leaving only a few scattered embers stubbornly burning.

Pan Zhuangzhuang found some dry wood and blew on the campfire to start it up again. An Xiaohai sat motionless in place, his brows furrowed, deep in thought.

Pan Zhuangzhuang didn't disturb An Xiaohai. He took two sea fish out of a small puddle in the cave, cleaned them briefly, and roasted them over the campfire.

"Here, have some," Pan Zhuangzhuang said, even though the fish had already been cooked, An Xiaohai was still in the same position.

An Xiaohai took the grilled fish and ate it with a blank expression. Pan Zhuangzhuang raised his eyebrows but didn't disturb him.

Whether in the past or present, An Xiaohai is usually the one who comes up with ideas, while Pan Zhuangzhuang is mostly responsible for execution. The two have long been very tacit.

After an unknown amount of time, An Xiaohai finally let out a breath and came to his senses.

"This fish is grilled well, do you have any more?"

"That's all!" Pan Zhuangzhuang shook his head. "Big brother, you've already eaten two, isn't that enough?"

……

An Xiaohai was speechless. He had been so engrossed in his thoughts that he had lost out big time. He had just started to think it was delicious when it was gone.

"Hai, have you figured it out?"

"No, I haven't fully figured it out yet," An Xiaohai shook his head.

"Let's discuss it."

"Okay!" An Xiaohai nodded. "I've been thinking about a question: why do the Sea Hawks dare to carry out such a brazen internal purge?"

Pan Zhuangzhuang raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected that An Xiaohai was thinking about this question instead of why the marine environmental observation center was so quickly restocking.

"I think these people are a bunch of vicious drug dealers. Killing a few people shouldn't be a big deal for them."

No, you've missed the point.

My main concern isn't whether they dared to kill, or how many people they killed, but rather that they dared to kill their own people so recklessly.

It's important to understand that killing your own people like this is problematic.

How would their own people think if they were killing so many of their own? Aren't the Sea Harriers afraid of driving their own people to rebellion? That's one point;

Secondly, aren't they afraid of completely collapsing after killing so many of their own people? Even if the people they killed were peripheral members, their goods still depended on these people to be distributed.

If we kill all these people, who will help them distribute the goods? We can't possibly do it ourselves, can we? Besides, their machines were running as usual today. After we messed with them like this, aren't they really afraid?

Of course, this could very well be a trap they set, but it's also possible that they've genuinely started restocking.

If this is a trap, it makes sense, but if they've really started restocking again, that's strange. Most of their people here are probably dead by now, so why would they restock? And who will sell it?

"Zhuang, don't you find this strange?"

"Yes, now that you mention it, it does seem strange..." Pan Zhuangzhuang said, stroking his chin after thinking for a moment.