Chapter 96: The Eternal Light

I do not want your money.

Chu Angyu believed that with his own natural gifts, becoming rich was no difficult matter. Zhao Dasheng might have plenty of money, but Chu Angyu truly had no interest in it now. This was a matter of dignity. He had no desire to yield to the likes of Zhao Dasheng; he only wanted to vent the fury he had swallowed all those years ago.

Trying to buy him with money was impossible. The two of you can just stand at the very back.

Everything here is under my command. Only when everyone else has gotten off the boat will it be your turn.

With a single shove, he sent Zhao Dasheng and the cheongsam-clad beauty to the very end of the line, then strode back to the front under their resentful gazes.

Seeing everyone on the boat obediently follow his instructions and line up in a row, bending over and waiting for his favor, Chu Angyu actually felt a faint surge of pride, as though he were pointing the way through a thousand armies.

He kicked out with flying speed and struck the one in front dead on, sending the poor fellow bawling after his department director.

What followed was simple. From left to right, Chu Angyu copied the same motion, kicking each of the old fellows lined up in turn overboard.

His right leg moved like lightning, never once pausing.

Lift, strike, lift, strike, lift, strike...

Each time his foot rose and his body dropped, another lucky soul would shriek and soar into the sky, becoming a hot-blooded man shoulder to shoulder with the sun.

By the end of it, Chu Angyu found his body and mind filled with a strange, unnameable satisfaction.

A scene like this, with people lined up and waiting for Chu Angyu to kick them one by one into the air, was something one seldom saw even in a hundred years.

In a word: exhilarating.

Under ordinary circumstances, who would willingly let Chu Angyu kick them down one after another?

Even Feng Sanpao, that madman, would not have been willing.

At last, it was the turn of our national entrepreneur, Mr. Zhao Dasheng. At that moment, Zhao Dasheng had his knees bent, his breath sunk deep into his dantian, and his rear end pointed toward the heavens.

A fawning smile covered his face as he looked toward Chu Angyu. His waist kept writhing, as if searching for the most comfortable point of impact.

Kick me, kick me!

Zhao Dasheng wagged his backside in a sleazy, utterly eye-searing manner.

Off you go!

Chu Angyu kicked without holding back in the slightest, and our national entrepreneur, Mr. Zhao Dasheng, shot skyward like a human firework.

It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!

Even from several meters away, Chu Angyu could hear Zhao Dasheng's wails clearly.

Well, he was the only one among them who had received Chu Angyu's special favor, so the force used was a little greater. The others did not get such treatment.

Mission accomplished!

Chu Angyu glanced at the huge mass of dark figures floating on the river far away, clapped his hands, turned away gracefully, and left his achievements and fame behind.

We are saved!

The survivors who had climbed from the river onto the speedboat cheered in ecstatic voices, momentarily overwhelmed with joy.

They embraced each companion around them with fervor, offering blessings and celebrating their own rebirth.

Come to think of it, every one of them should thank that young man.

If not for the boy who descended from the sky, they would likely still have been trapped aboard the tour boat, waiting to die.

It was that young man who saved us. We owe him our lives, said Director Hao, gazing at the proud figure standing on the tour boat with a soft sigh.

The means by which he saved the crowd were so overbearing they inspired terror, yet at the same time they were gentle in a way that left a deep impression.

He seemed to throw everyone into the river with roughness, but in fact he had saved every single one of them in the shortest possible time.

Those thin arms of his, which seemed no different from any ordinary person's, contained astonishing strength.

It made people feel especially at ease.

In Director Hao's more than forty years of life, he had never seen anyone throw a speedboat weighing more than a hundred jin more than ten zhang.

If all descendants of Yan and Huang were made by the goddess Nuwa, then this kind of person must have been carefully shaped as a legend, no?

That was why he appeared so different.

Just as the cheers of the crowd swelled like a tide, the proud figure standing on the tour boat suddenly changed expression.

The cruise ship beneath his feet tilted violently once again, and the iron railings on both sides let out a harsh creaking sound.

Damn it! Can't I stay cool until the very end?

Chu Angyu shouted, his body swaying involuntarily with the ship.

With a huge splash, water burst into the air as Chu Angyu and the tour boat fell heavily from midair, plunging together into the bottomless river.

The capsized tour boat could no longer withstand the immense pressure of the water and slammed over, belly-up, onto the river's surface.

Chu Angyu was like a prisoner trapped in a cell, tightly confined inside the inverted vessel.

This sudden turn of events left all the survivors in the distance dumbfounded. They looked at one another, unable for a moment to accept what had happened.

Look, the boat has overturned!

one survivor cried out, drawing everyone's attention.

My God! Is our country going to lose a hero like this?

another survivor suddenly broke down, tears endlessly welling in his eyes.

Though I also know the chances of surviving after being pinned beneath an overturned boat are pitifully small, we cannot abandon any hope at all, said Director Hao, unable to bear the blow, his heart filled with grief.

We must firmly believe, firmly believe that young man will surely escape from that tour boat.

An unusual light blazed in his eyes.

He believed this godlike boy would not die. Someone like him ought to shine with an eternal radiance, like an angel.

Meanwhile, in the dark and murky river water, Chu Angyu dove downward with all the agility of a fish.

A capsized ship would be a disaster for ordinary people, but it was no challenge at all for Chu Angyu, who had long since been reborn, strong and vigorous.

In theory, so long as Chu Angyu could hold his breath and keep swimming deeper and deeper, he would sooner or later be able to swim out from beneath the overturned ship.

The weather had not yet turned to summer, and the river water was bitterly cold. Chu Angyu, submerged in it, was already shivering all over.

Yet he gritted his teeth and turned a blind eye to the frigid water around him.

He plunged downward with all his might, deeper, still deeper.

At last, the world before his eyes suddenly brightened.

Streaks of golden light shone into the water from the outside, and a blurred blue sky reflected above his head. A few strands of aquatic grass swayed to and fro with the current.

The scenery around him was bright enough to sting the eyes.

Chu Angyu knew then that he had escaped from the ship's interior.

It was still daytime outside, so sunlight shining into the water was perfectly normal.

The river had seemed dark before only because the overturned ship had blocked the sun from the outside.

Delighted, Chu Angyu was just about to kick his way up to the surface when several flickering traces of blue light in the distance suddenly caught his attention. Looking more closely, he saw that a massive black fish filled his entire field of vision.

The fish was spindle-shaped, with a large mouth and long jaws, a silver-white belly, and orange-red transverse bands covering its sides. The more Chu Angyu looked, the more familiar it seemed.

Isn't that a salmon?

As someone from Harbor City, salmon was one of the fish he knew best.

This fish was a migratory species that moved between sea and river. It originally lived in the North Pacific, but in order to reproduce, it would, at certain times, travel through all manner of hardships into rivers to spawn.

The Song River was one of the destinations of this journey, so the fishermen on the Song River caught many of them every year.

But the problem was, it was not salmon migration season yet. Why would salmon appear in the Song River now?

And pardon my boldness... this salmon was a little too large.

Chu Angyu was startled at once. A stream of bubbles escaped from his nostrils, and he nearly failed to hold his breath.

Have you ever seen a salmon ten meters long and two meters wide?

Whether you have or not, Chu Angyu had definitely seen one today.

Looking at its jet-black, glossy back and the hard scales all over its body, obviously this salmon had just used its back to force the tour boat up to the water's surface.

At this moment, a graceful woman was wrestling with that salmon.

It was Katarina, the one who had jumped into the water earlier.

Truthfully, to call it a fight would be flattering Katarina too much. Saying that she was being unilaterally beaten by the salmon would probably be more accurate.

At the moment, Katarina was enveloped in a ring of blue bubbles. The blue gleam Chu Angyu had just glimpsed came from the light emitted by those bubbles.

The bubbles kept the river water outside while holding air inside for Katarina to breathe.

What was most remarkable was that the layer of light on the outside was especially tough.

Even though the salmon kept thrashing its tail and smacking the bubbles away again and again, the bubbles were still able to withstand the salmon's attacks and avoid shattering on the spot.

From afar, the salmon looked like a child playing with a ball, batting it up and down, left and right.

And Katarina was the unlucky ball, forced to bounce helplessly within the bubble, her long hair entirely disheveled.

She did not have the strong body that Shi Chengjin or Chu Angyu possessed, and was simply unable to fight the salmon head-on.

She could only use this delaying tactic to keep the salmon occupied for the moment, buying Chu Angyu time to rescue the others.

Fortunately, with the help of that bubble, though Katarina now looked somewhat disheveled, she was not injured.

Fearing Katarina might suffer, Chu Angyu swam toward her with both hands and feet.

But Katarina noticed his intention and hurriedly gestured to stop him.

I am fine here.

Katarina mouthed to Chu Angyu. I can still hold on a little longer. Go save the others first.

This was deep river water, where sound could hardly reach Chu Angyu's ears. Fortunately, by reading her lips, Chu Angyu could barely understand what she meant.

How monstrous.

Chu Angyu clenched his fists tightly, feeling deeply unwilling.

Never before had he felt so strongly that the ordinary people in need of rescue were such a burden.

He was not as great or as righteous as Katarina.

He thought that the survivors floating on the river were nothing but dead weight, and that a hundred lives added together were not worth a single life of Katarina's.

At a time like this, if Chu Angyu had to choose, he would surely save Katarina first.

If not for Katarina, he would not have spared those people a glance.

Chu Angyu wanted to defy Katarina and save her first, but he was afraid she would be angry.

Katarina was a very righteous person. If she knew Chu Angyu had stood by and ignored those survivors, she would surely blame him.

After hesitating for a moment, Chu Angyu still clenched his teeth and swam toward the survivors, his heart heavy with grief and bitterness.

So this was the price of being an unsung hero?

If this really was the price of being an unsung hero, then it was far too high.

To watch helplessly as the woman he loved was in danger, while he could do nothing but stand by.

That feeling was... worse than being killed by Chu Angyu ten thousand times over.

The End