I really don't want to date a girl addicted to the internet!

"How could that be? Don't worry, you'll see soon enough." The boy said nonchalantly.

"Okay, I'll wait." The girl nodded, rested her chin on her hand again, and gazed absently at the night sky outside the window.

"Oh, right, Master Ye, this is for you, you're welcome."

A plate was pushed in front of Ye Shuang. There were originally two coconut-flavored glutinous rice balls on it, but the boy ate one of them.

Just as Ye Shuang was about to reach for it, she suddenly stopped, looking thoughtfully at the snow-white pastry. Then she looked down at her legs, where the straight lines of her legs, encased in over-the-knee stockings, were also snow-white.

"Master Ye, why aren't you eating? This is my kind offer." The young man looked at her.

The girl took a deep breath, tilted her head, and revealed a bright smile radiating the charm of a well-behaved girl. "Let me add one more thing: I don't want to eat this, and I don't want to see you eat it in the future, understand?"

"This won't work either? Why?" The boy's doubt seemed genuine.

"No means no." The girl's smile remained unchanged.

"Okay, then I'll eat this myself. I can't waste food." The boy tentatively reached out his hand.

"You eat it." The girl nodded with a smile, but her smile looked so funny it made you want to punch her.

After a moment, Cheng Fei looked up and said, "By the way, Master Ye, I have a question."

"What's the problem now?" Ye Shuang asked, resting her chin on her hand.

"When I marry Xuanqi in the future, will you still call me Young Master or not?" the boy asked seriously.

"We'll talk about this after you're actually married to Miss," the girl said, trying to maintain her smile.

"I'd like to know more about this beforehand. Couldn't you just say so directly? It wouldn't be a problem, would it?"

"I won't call out, so don't worry about it."

"why?"

"I call her 'Miss' just out of habit, and even if you two get married, I'll only listen to her, not you."

"Why is that? How about I have Xuanqi order you to call me Young Master?"

"Cheng Fei, if we're friends, don't take advantage of me like this." The girl's eyelids twitched.

"So it's really possible? I'll talk to Xuanqi about it when I get back."

"I'm really going to get angry if you do this." The girl smiled, but clenched her small fists.

"Okay, just kidding." The boy raised his hands in surrender.

After Cheng Fei finished dinner, the two returned to their room, but on the way, they took a detour to the Interpol duo's location. Under Ye Shuang's puzzled gaze, Cheng Fei took a USB drive.

Back in his room, the boy opened his laptop in the living room, plugged in a USB drive containing several recordings.

Ye Shuang, who was originally going back to her room to read comics, came to his side, put her hands behind her back, and whispered, "What exactly are you doing?"

"Find the murderer."

"How do I find it?" The girl's pink lips parted slightly.

"It's very simple. The fact that the human ear can't distinguish the argument parts in that recording doesn't mean the algorithm is ineffective. I happen to have written this kind of sound processing algorithm before. Not only is there hope of figuring out what they're arguing about, but I also asked them to record the voices of the most suspicious first mate, second mate, and third mate. Comparing their voiceprints could potentially lead directly to the culprit." Cheng Fei looked at the progress bar on the screen. Actually, he was sending the packaged file to Isena. Due to the ship's terrible internet speed, the process was very slow.

Ye Shuang's eyes widened slightly. "This works?"

“Master Ye, although you are very good at fighting, you have to admit that you are not as good as me in terms of brains.” The boy put his hands behind his head and looked at her.

The girl paused for a moment, then gave a helpless, perfunctory smile. "Okay~ I admit I'm not as smart as you, alright?"

"Master Ye, I feel so bad that I can't praise you at a time like this." The young man covered his throat as if he were being choked.

"Then you can suffer." The girl tilted her head and let out a gloating, crisp laugh.

……

After some time, Cheng Fei received the results.

"Master Ye, the voiceprint comparison is complete. It was the first mate who was arguing with the captain," the boy said, turning his head.

The girl sitting on the sofa reading comics looked up, her face showing doubt. "Are you sure?"

"Confirmed, confidence level greater than 99%."

What does "confidence level" mean?

"In short, the probability of error is so low as to be negligible."

The girl held the comic book to her chest and thought for a moment, "So it has nothing to do with Ding Sheng? Then what were they arguing about back then?"

"Things like nautical charts and water depths are quite technical, and I don't understand them either. I'll show them to you if you're interested." The boy pointed to the notebook.

490. The two who were unaware

Cheng Fei played the recording that Isena had restored.

"You think I wouldn't check the operation log if you manually overwrite the nautical chart log for minor route adjustments? What exactly are you trying to do?" The first thing that rang out was the strange man's low-pitched question.

"I just wanted to use the warm current to save some fuel so we could all get the fuel-saving bonus. Just pretend you didn't see it." The other voice sounded familiar to Cheng Fei; it was the first mate he'd met that afternoon, the tall, white man.

"You think I didn't see it? Given the varying isobath spacing of the Macquarie Ridge, your approach along the keel isn't safe enough. If something happens, I'll be the one responsible!"

"I'm not responsible either. Don't worry, they've used this route before, it's very safe."

"I disagree. There's no need to take risks for money."

“My daughter is waiting for a liver transplant at the hospital, and I desperately need this money.”

"I can lend you money, but the flight path must be changed."

"I'm already in debt, I'm begging you."

"Stop talking. Change it back yourself, and I'll pretend this never happened. Otherwise, you'll be banned from flying for life."

The conversation ended there, followed by a brief silence and then a fierce fight. Cheng Fei turned off the recording.

After listening, Ye Shuang pondered for a moment, "So it really has nothing to do with Ding Sheng?"

"That's how it looks for now," Cheng Fei said, shrugging.

"Then what do we do?" The girl's expression was nonchalant, as if she had lost interest in the murder case.

“I gave this to Fu Qian, and she said that to be on the safe side, we should call the first mate, second mate, and third mate together for a confrontation tomorrow, so as not to be outnumbered and get bitten in return.”

"It doesn't matter if they bite back, it's not like I can't beat them." Ye Shuang clenched her small fists, her knuckles cracking.

"Master Ye, you're being too violent. Wouldn't it be better if we didn't resort to violence?"

"That's true." The girl pouted, then stood up, tilted her head and smiled at the boy, "If there's nothing else, I'll go back and read some comics."

"Wait, something's come up." The boy raised his hand.

"What?" the girl asked suspiciously.

"Ahem." The boy picked up the brochure beside him, cleared his throat with an air of importance, and switched to a monotone tone, "As the autumn breeze of the Southern Hemisphere gently caresses the sea, whale pods in Antarctica are migrating northward along the Macquarie Ridge. This hidden sub-Antarctic route will take you through the magnificent waves of the Roaring Forties, capturing the breathtaking moment of whales leaping out of the water amidst the epic backdrop of icebergs and deep-sea cliffs. Note: Whales are most easily observed emerging from the water at dawn and dusk."

Ye Shuang's expression turned both angry and amused. "What do you mean?"

"Still don't understand? Master Ye, we're going to the deck to see whales at 6:30 tomorrow morning." The boy said seriously.

"No." The girl replied without hesitation.

"why?"

"I don't want to get up early, and this kind of thing feels ambiguous," the girl smiled.

"Master Ye, this says the best opportunity to see whales is tomorrow. Since we've come all this way, don't you think we should create some memories? We can come back to sleep after we've seen them. Besides, it's just getting up early to see whales, just like climbing a mountain to watch the sunrise. It's something that any ordinary friend would do, isn't it?" the boy coaxed patiently.

Ye Shuang pursed her lips, pondered for a moment, then sighed helplessly and said with a smile, "Okay, then see you at 6:30 tomorrow morning."

"Okay, remember to wear an extra layer, it's probably quite cold."

"You don't need to remind me." The girl took the comic book and turned to walk into the room.

The boy sat in his seat and watched her swaying twin ponytails disappear, then shook his head and sighed.

……

After the young men and women finished their discussion, in the cockpit of the Aurora, the first mate was on duty. He quietly made minor adjustments to the course and increased the cruising speed from twenty knots to twenty-two knots.

In the engine room on the lower deck, the massive gas turbines emitted a deep hum, driving the heavy propeller at the stern to accelerate and gradually inject enormous kinetic energy into this steel behemoth weighing tens of thousands of tons.

Meanwhile, hundreds of nautical miles away, the Macquarie Ridge, one of the deepest trenches in the world, is another, even larger entity, slowly drifting beneath the deep blue sea with the ocean currents.

It was a table-shaped iceberg that had recently broken off from the Antarctic ice shelf. It was a hard blue iceberg with a diameter of over 100 meters. As its name suggests, it had an inconspicuous flat top like a table, and 90% of its volume was hidden below the sea level.

If someone were to climb the iceberg at this moment, they would discover that corner reflector arrays are deployed along its edge. When a satellite flies over the iceberg, synthetic aperture radar will detect only broken ice floes at sea. This data will be uploaded to the global ice warning system, causing the iceberg to completely disappear from human monitoring.

……

The next day, at 6:30 a.m., Cheng Fei opened his eyes on time as usual.

The light outside the window was dim, and the room was completely silent.

The boy put on a thick coat and walked out of the room, where he met Ye Shuang, who was also up on time.

The girl put on an apricot-colored trench coat, and her straight, slender legs were covered in smooth white fabric, which was obviously over-the-knee socks.

"Good morning, Master Ye." The boy smiled.

"Good morning." Ye Shuang yawned, still sleepy-eyed, covering her mouth.

The two finished washing up one after the other without any hesitation, then went to the restaurant to get food and headed straight to the forward deck of the ship.

The sea breeze was terribly cold in the early morning, blowing in your face and making you shiver. Of course, this was true for other early-morning whale watchers who were unprepared. Cheng Fei and Ye Shuang had both put on extra clothes, so they didn't feel it.

The two stood on the ship's railing, eating breakfast while gazing at the deep sea at dawn.

"Are there really whales?" Ye Shuang asked, sipping hot milk through a straw as she scanned the surface of the sea.

"It depends on luck. If it doesn't work out, I'll come back this afternoon." Cheng Fei shrugged and took a bite of his hot dog with extra cheese bits.

"If I can't see it in the morning, I won't look at it. I'd rather read comics." The girl said absentmindedly.

"You anime fans are really something."

"One more thing: I don't want to hear you say I'm from the world of anime and manga."

"Master Ye, you're asking for too much!" the boy exclaimed in surprise.

"If you don't want to, that's fine." The girl tilted her head and smiled.

"Then I have a request."

"what?"

"How about we take a group photo?"

"No."

"why?"

"It feels very ambiguous."

"Not at all, Master Ye, you've been reading too many romance comics. Isn't it normal for friends to take photos together when they're out having fun?"

The girl remained silent, then sighed softly, "Okay, although I think it's pointless anyway, we'll just have to hide it after we're done filming."

Why should it be hidden?

"To avoid any misunderstanding, Miss, you'd better not keep it in the photo album."

"Master Ye, how come you're so skilled?" the boy asked in surprise.

"I'm not as skilled as you, so hurry up and take the picture." The girl gave an impatient smile.

"Okay, then come closer." The boy took out his phone and held it up.

"Don't get too close," Ye Shuang said warily.

“But it can’t be too far.” Cheng Fei and she leaned against the ship’s side, shoulder to shoulder. “I’ll count to three, two, one, please smile, Master Ye.”

"understood."

The girl, much shorter than the boy, stood obediently with her legs together, maintaining a subtle distance from him, and looked up at the camera with her signature warm smile.

With a click, the boy and girl, along with the sunrise over the sea behind them, were clearly captured, and something on the sea surface was sparkling.