Empire of Shadows

On January 9th, Lance boarded a luxurious train carriage bound for New Golden City and set off.

At the same time, a sailor on a freighter sailing on the East Ocean came to the outside of the first mate’s cabin.

This was a freighter named “Hope,” which belonged to the Federal Hongsheng Shipping Company, mainly responsible for cargo transportation on international trade routes.

Hongsheng Shipping Company was an old-brand shipping company in the Federation, with a considerable number of freighters, and its business capabilities were also the strongest.

It was said that the background of this company was not simple. They also had a certain connection with the Federal Navy, but without concrete evidence, anyone could make things up.

The sailors on the Hope were all experienced sailors. They had spent a lifetime on the East Ocean, or at least several years. It could be said that they were experienced.

But today, a sailor had discovered something not quite right. He had taken the initiative to come to the outside of the first mate’s rest room and had knocked on the cabin door.

“Come in.”

The first mate’s voice came from inside. The first mate was lying on his bed smoking, holding a clipboard in his hand. On the clipboard was a page of letter paper. He seemed to be writing a letter.

When the sailor came in, the first mate looked up, then took another puff of his cigarette, flicked the ash, and put it back in his mouth. “Wait a moment, I’ll be done soon.”The sailor stood by the side. After waiting for about a minute or so, the last stroke was written. The first mate folded the letter paper and put it into an envelope.

According to their voyage, they would arrive at an international port in the southwest of the Tanfit continent in about five days, which belonged to Slad.

The ship was full of freighters. Their job this time was to deliver these goods to Slad, and then stay in Slad for a period of time. After the supplies were replenished, they would be reloaded with cargo and go to another region. They would circle more than half of the planet, and finally cross the three major oceans, and return to their starting point from the east coast.

Just one trip like this could bring the company a profit of at least several hundred thousand.

Everyone knew that shipping could make money, and the more tense the situation was now, the more money could be made. But this business was not something that just anyone could do.

First, you had to have money to be able to buy a ship.

Secondly, you had to have people, experienced captains and crew, otherwise you would never know where your ship had ended up.

Then you had to have a certain connection with the navy. The navy could provide a certain degree of escort to avoid harassment from certain specific pirate groups.

You also had to be quite familiar with the pirate groups on the sea, otherwise, if they targeted you for robbery every time you went out to sea, it would be very troublesome!

Then…

In short, this was a very difficult thing to do. The profit of shipping was indeed not small, but the risks and various expenses were also not small.

It was a business that only people with ability and connections could do.

The first mate’s letter would be sent out after they docked, and would arrive in the hands of his family about two months ahead of him.

At this time, he put the letter into a special waterproof box by his side.

“Is there something?” he asked the sailor.

The sailor was a little unsure of what to say. He struggled for a long while before finally saying, “There seems to be a problem with the cargo we’re transporting this time.”

The first mate took a final puff of his cigarette, and then put the cigarette butt into the ashtray. He was not nervous because of the sailor’s statement. He did not think this was a problem.

“The containers are full of stones.”

“All stones?” The first mate’s voice was obviously much higher. “How can they all be stones?”

“Do you know how expensive the shipping fee for these containers is?”

“Who the fuck is crazy enough to transport worthless stones from the Federation to Slad?”

He shook his head. He didn’t believe the sailor’s statement, but the sailor looked a little nervous. “I swear, I’m not lying.”

“The wind was very strong last night. When I was checking the containers today, I found that one of the containers had tilted, and the container body was broken.”

A broken container body was also quite troublesome. If the owner of the container’s cargo had insurance, the insurance company would harass them.

The insurance company had to investigate many details of this container. Of course, this depended on what was inside it.

If the price was cheap, the situation would be relatively easy to solve.

If the price was more expensive, in order to avoid paying compensation as much as possible, they would harass the sailors. There had even been a scandal before.

A container had accidentally fallen into the water. The insurance company did not want to pay, so they colluded with the sailors to say that it was an accident caused by human error during transportation. In the end, the claims manager disappeared, and so did the sailors.

If the things inside the container were damaged, and it was insured, the insurance company would find a way to reduce their own losses by finding trouble with them.

When the first mate had a bit of a headache, the sailor continued, “When I climbed up to check the container, I looked inside. It was all that kind of big stones.”

After hearing this, the first mate frowned. These containers basically all had seals. Once they were opened, it would also cause a lot of trouble.

But if the container body was broken and he could see what was inside, he was still planning to go and have a look.

Soon he and the sailor came to the side of the container he had mentioned. He could clearly see that the container was a little deformed.

After he had climbed up, he had fixed the safety rope, and had descended along the side wall to the side of the opening, and had shone a flashlight inside.

Although it was dark, he could more or less see clearly that they were all big stones.

The soil on the broken section also showed the special nature of these things.

The first mate didn’t pay much attention at this time. He returned to the deck and said, “Maybe they are some stones with special minerals?”

“You’ve been on the ship for many years. You have to get used to them transporting strange things.”

The sailor pursed his lips. “More than half of these containers belong to the same company. And when the wind is relatively strong, there is a rolling sound in many of the containers.”

The first mate’s expression finally became not quite right. He said, “Follow me,” and then quickly came to the captain’s cabin.

He reported what the sailor had found to the captain. The captain was also a little curious and opened the safe. From a document, he found the list of items transported this time.

“Recovered Group Company Goods—Special Medicine—150 boxes—Number 25…”

The captain had worked at Hongsheng for his entire life. He was only one year away from retirement.

This was also the last year of his career as a sailor. After this year’s run, he wouldn’t have to wait until the end of the year. He could retire around October and enjoy his retirement life.

Having worked at Hongsheng for his entire life, he had long been accustomed to the company’s work style. The ground inspection personnel would ensure that no mistakes were made, and the only thing he was responsible for was to bring this ship to the place it should go smoothly.

In fact, he had also checked the list when it was uploaded, but it was just a casual check, to see which company’s products they were. He just glanced at it.

He couldn’t possibly open these containers to see if there were these things. This list was also just prepared in case of emergency.

At this very moment, facing so many medical containers, he thought of the news on the last day before the New Year.

The federal government had decided to aid a batch of medical resources to the Slad people to help their soldiers on the front lines who were in urgent need of these supplies to save their lives.

An extremely strong sense of unease had already begun to appear in his heart. His hands were even trembling slightly. He immediately put down the document in his hand, closed the door of the safe, and tried his best to make his voice sound normal. “Let’s go to the container side and have a look.”

Not long after, there were already many people around the damaged container. The first mate had come, and now the captain had also come, and also many people who had come to watch the excitement.

It was too boring on the ship. Besides swabbing the deck, it was just using your hand to solve the problem against the sea.

Those sea fish were not as picky as their girlfriends. They ate anything.

So when there was excitement to watch, they all ran over, even the cook had come.

Some thought that the sailor who had tied the rope was going to be in trouble, but some thought that it was not this matter.

The captain was lowered to the opening. He looked inside. It was indeed stones.

He had someone move his basket to the crosshead, checked it, and it was indeed the special anti-inflammatory medicine of the Recovered Group Company.

His face had already become extremely ugly. After he came down from above, he directly had the first mate open a layer of containers.

The first mate was a little hesitant. “If we open them without authorization, will it cause some trouble when we arrive?”

The captain shook his head. “Open it. No matter what happens, I will take responsibility.”

With the captain’s words, the first mate didn’t say anything more. He directly took the pliers and cut the seal, and then the sailors pulled open the door of the container.

Everyone stretched their necks to look inside, but soon they were greatly surprised, because it was all stones inside!

The captain’s eyes had already turned red. “Continue to open them. Open all of them in this row!”

At this time, the sailors on the ship also realized that something was wrong. They immediately did as they were told, but all the containers were full of stones.

Unlike the sailors’ thought of “someone from the company had switched this batch of goods,” what the captain was considering was whether they would attract the navy of the Dantra people.

Generally speaking, they wouldn’t.

The Dantra people already had a precedent for intercepting federal merchant ships, so this time they had not taken the previous route. But thinking of the stones inside, tens of millions of supplies had been turned into worthless stones, which made him feel cold all over.

He couldn’t even stand steadily now and could only hold on to the first mate and have the first mate send him back.

Seeing the captain’s situation, the first mate was full of confusion. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Such a large-scale switch definitely has nothing to do with us, and it can’t be traced back to us. Are you not just being overly worried because you’re about to retire?”

The captain glanced at him sideways and shook his head. “I just hope my guess is wrong. Otherwise, we…”

He had originally wanted to say, “We’re all going to be in trouble,” but if the Dantra navy really attacked them, then it wouldn’t be “in trouble,” but “dead for sure”!

“I hope God can bless us to arrive at our destination safely!” he muttered, and then looked at the reply. “Aren’t you curious what I’m worried about?”

“I’m worried that we’ve become the key bait!”

(End of a Chapter)

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