HDRDTH -Chapter 29 A Mysterious Power from the East

The roaring engines of the Gulfstream G650 gradually shifted from a shrill whine into a deep rumble.

The plane slowed as it taxied.

Yu Xian sank into the cream-colored leather aviation seat, his body tense without the slightest sense of relaxation that should have come with returning home.

His left hand gripped the armrest tightly while his right hand frantically rotated a pair of polished old walnuts between his fingers, producing rapid clicking sounds.

Clack, clack, clack.

He turned his head slightly, looking through the thick cabin window.

One glance—

and he sharply sucked in a cold breath.

Outside the airport perimeter, the once-solid iron fencing was bending inward under pressure, letting out strained metallic groans.

A massive sea of people stretched endlessly before him.

Cameras and telephoto lenses stacked together in layers while flashes exploded nonstop like fireworks.

Several drones carrying livestreaming equipment buzzed overhead in low circles.

Behind this thick human wall hung banners of every imaginable kind.

Golden letters reflected dazzlingly under the sunlight.

“Welcome Back, Master Yu, Lord of the Seas! Divine Pillar of the Nation!”

“Swinging Submarines One-Handed — Chinese Tough Men Teaching the World a Lesson!”

And beside this ocean of fanatical supporters was another formation so bizarre it instantly sent Yu Xian’s blood pressure soaring.

Several hundred grown men.

Every single one dressed in sun-protective fishing gear and polarized sunglasses, fully equipped.

Instead of glow sticks, they held landing nets, fish keepers, and even chum ladles.

Most outrageous of all—

someone in the center was publicly burning incense while reverently kowtowing toward a broken fishing rod.

Their banner slogans dripped with emotion:

“Grandmaster of the Skunked Fishermen! Please Accept This Disciple’s Bow!”

“We Beg Master to Open a Class! Teach Us How to Avoid Every Fish in the Entire Pacific Ocean!”

“Dad! Look at this! This is what real status looks like!”

Wang Dafu pressed his entire excited face against the window.

The fat on his cheeks flattened into a pancake while his breath fogged up the glass.

“Those fishing guys have completely lost it. They said if they can just touch your hand once, they’ll be guaranteed to get skunked for three straight years when they go home!”

Yu Xian withdrew his gaze and immediately felt a headache coming on.

Crack!

The walnuts between his fingers suddenly stopped spinning.

He raised a hand and pressed heavily against his throbbing temple.

“Dafu.”

“Go ask the pilot something.”

Yu Xian tremblingly unwrapped a mint candy and shoved it into his mouth.

“Ask him if there are any parachutes onboard.”

“Or whether we can turn around right now, refuel, and fly to the Arctic. I refuse to believe those penguins know who I am too!”

Wang Dafu chuckled and pointed below the boarding stairs, shattering Yu Xian’s final fantasy.

“Don’t bother. No parachutes, but the Qin Family’s eldest miss personally came to receive you. The Red Flag motorcade drove directly onto the runway and blocked all the reporters outside.”

Hiss—

The cabin pressure valve released with a soft sound.

The unique humid heat of Jiangcheng instantly flooded into the cabin, yet it failed to dispel the chill in Yu Xian’s heart.

At the bottom of the boarding stairs—

Qin Yue stood there wearing a plain embroidered qipao, its high collar buttoned all the way to the top.

Behind her, two rows of bodyguards in sunglasses stood with hands folded, sealing off the passageway completely.

Yu Xian appeared at the cabin door.

One hand was shoved into the pocket of his beach shorts while the other carried the “Poseidon’s Trident,” now snapped into two pieces.

His flip-flops tapped against the metal boarding stairs.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Seeing him appear, Qin Yue respectfully bowed.

“Mr. Yu, you’ve worked hard.”

Yu Xian immediately took a wary half-step backward and stared at her suspiciously.

“Don’t start this. Don’t send me anywhere near the ocean again. I don’t even want to look at anything with the word ‘water’ in it anymore.”

Qin Yue straightened up with a slight smile and snapped her fingers.

Her assistant quickly presented a black folder trimmed with gold edges.

“Mr. Yu, since you’re tired of the ocean, this contract is meant to guarantee your future… peaceful life.”

Yu Xian’s eyelid twitched violently, alarm bells ringing in his head.

“What contract? If this is about salvaging shipwrecks or fighting sea monsters again, you might as well just shoot me now.”

“It’s a position as ‘Chief Security Consultant of the Qin Group.’”

Qin Yue extended a fountain pen toward him, her tone highly tempting.

“No clocking in. No office hours. You’ll only be needed when the group encounters certain… special security issues that science cannot explain.”

Yu Xian let out a cold laugh.

“Special security issues? Like Qin Shi Huang’s tomb springing a leak and needing me to plug it?”

“No, no, no!”

Qin Yue shook a finger and revealed her trump card.

“In exchange, all one hundred-plus private high-security lakes owned by the Qin Group worldwide will be opened exclusively to you.”

“And we guarantee every lake bottom has been completely cleared. No corpses, no naval mines, not even a single lump of scrap metal.”

The hand Yu Xian had been preparing to use to reject her froze midair.

Private lakes?

Completely sealed environments?

No submarines? No drug traffickers? No damned pirates?

Across two lifetimes, hadn’t his greatest dream always been to find a quiet place with no disturbances and peacefully watch a fishing float?

Still, he remained suspicious.

He stared at Qin Yue cautiously.

“So… do you have somewhere that only raises grass carp? Like, not even softshell turtles? I’m worried even the turtles might have treasure maps carved onto their shells.”

Qin Yue revealed an expression that said I completely understand.

Her eyes were so sincere they nearly brought tears to one’s eyes.

“Rest assured. We have a place in Jiangnan called ‘Silent Garden.’ The water is only one and a half meters deep. There isn’t even a wild turtle in there. It’s entirely stocked with artificially raised idiot fish.”

“Idiot fish?”

Yu Xian’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

“Yes. The kind that bites the hook the moment you offer food.”

Yu Xian finally let out a long sigh of relief.

“Deal!”

He instantly snatched the pen and furiously signed his name across the contract.

As if afraid Qin Yue might regret it one second later.

…

Meanwhile—

on the other side of the ocean.

In Eagle Nation.

At the far end of a perfectly manicured lawn, inside the white oval office—

the atmosphere was suffocatingly oppressive.

The bitter scent of coffee lingered heavily in the air.

An aged hand covered with liver spots trembled as it pressed the play button.

On the giant screen played the exact scene of Yu Xian sitting on the tractor seat while using centrifugal force to swing an entire submarine around.

BANG!

An exquisite porcelain cup slammed violently against the mahogany desk, shards scattering everywhere.

Dark coffee splashed across a red file stamped with the words “TOP SECRET.”

“And this…”

the old man’s voice rasped hoarsely, filled with suppressed fury and fear,

“…is what your intelligence agency called an ‘ordinary fisherman’?”

“This is what you called ‘Chinese humor’?”

“They say he’s just an ordinary fisherman? This is your intelligence agency’s idea of ‘Chinese humor’?”

The old man’s voice was hoarse, trembling with suppressed fear and anger.

“His fishhook can latch onto our nuclear submarines. His tractor can drag our special forces! And his fishing line… oh my God! How does that thing not snap?!”

“Notify the Pentagon immediately. Raise the threat level of codename ‘Salted Fish’ to the absolute maximum!”

“From now on, if any fleet at sea detects an object shaped like a tractor seat on radar, turn around immediately! Full evasive maneuvers! That is an order! Under no circumstances are they to make physical contact with him!”

The Far North

In Russia.

Outside the snow-covered windows, guards were changing shifts in Red Square.

Inside a vast office, the fireplace crackled brightly.

A hard-faced man in a turtleneck sweater stood before a giant world map.

He held a red-and-blue pencil in his hand.

On the waters near the Maldives, he drew a thick red circle so hard that the pencil tip snapped inside the map.

“Interesting.”

The man turned around casually and stuck the broken pencil into a pen holder, his eyes sharp as an eagle’s.

“One man. One fishing rod. One junkyard engine. And he managed to stir up half the planet.”

“Find out what kind of vodka he likes. If there’s a chance, invite him to Lake Baikal.”

The secretary beside him froze.

“Mr. President… invite him to fish?”

The man shook his head.

“No. Invite him to break the ice.”

“If he’s willing, I’d trade him a real nuclear-powered icebreaker in exchange for that fishing rod of his.”

The Island Nation of Cherry Blossoms

Government offices blazed with lights as an emergency cabinet meeting was held overnight.

A group of suited officials sat around a conference table, cold sweat running down their temples. Thick files on Yu Xian lay before each of them.

“Nani?! He returned to China? And signed a contract with the Qin family?!”

The lead official slammed the table, his voice cracking with panic.

“What if one day he suddenly decides to come fish in our waters? What if he hooks up our undersea communication cables thinking they’re ribbonfish?!”

“Damn it! Issue the highest-level ban immediately!”

“Classify Yu Xian as an ‘Extreme Hazard Source’! Under no circumstances, for any reason whatsoever, is he allowed near our territorial waters!”

“Remember this well—his fishhook is more dangerous than our torpedoes!”

“That thing is a causality weapon!”

Jinshui Bay Villa

The chaos of the outside world hadn’t reached this quiet residential district.

Yu Xian sprawled bonelessly across the leather sofa, burying his face deep into a pillow as he greedily inhaled the scent of home—a scent blissfully free of seawater.

“This… this is what real life feels like…”

“The floor doesn’t shake, the air is dry, nobody nearby wants to kill me, and there aren’t any submarines waiting to get fished out of the ocean.”

Su Wanyi dragged a suitcase inside and looked at her exhausted husband with a mix of amusement and sympathy.

“That’s enough. If anyone tries to drag me out of this neighborhood again, I’m throwing hands.”

Yu Xian rolled over and hugged the pillow tightly, like it was the last life raft in existence.

BANG!

The front door suddenly burst open.

Master Yu, who had just been drifting toward sleep, jerked violently in fright.

Wang Dafu came charging in with a giant package in his arms, face flushed red.

“Dad! Dad! That foreign devil Smith sent you an express package of local specialties!”

The package was ripped open violently.

Inside was a pure gold “Star of Justice” medal, gleaming blindingly.

Beneath it lay a huge bright-red banner embroidered with four giant gold characters:

【Terminator of Evil】

Signed:

Gifted by All Members of Interpol

“Colleagues? My ass!”

“I’m a fisherman, okay?!”

Yu Xian’s eyelids twitched violently. Just as he was about to throw the cursed thing into the trash—

The television suddenly flickered.

A breaking international news bulletin interrupted the broadcast.

Red “BREAKING NEWS” text crawled across the screen.

Chief Smith stood on the United Nations podium, speaking passionately to the world’s media. He was practically spraying saliva everywhere from excitement.

“He is Heaven’s gift to mankind! A walking radar of justice!”

“On behalf of the International Anti-Crime Organization, I hereby announce: wherever Mr. Yu Xian is present, crime itself has nowhere to hide!”

“We will crowdfund him! We will invite him to fish in the most dangerous places on Earth!”

Plop.

The banner slipped from Yu Xian’s trembling hands onto the floor.

The TV channels switched wildly between international media reports, every network celebrating like it was New Year’s Day.

【BBC: A mysterious force from the East has redefined our understanding of fishing boats.】

【Reuters: Yu Xian is highly likely to be the chief instructor of a classified project codenamed ‘Poseidon.’】

【CNN: Future vessels are advised that upon spotting a tractor seat, they should maintain radio silence and immediately alter course.】

Yu Xian shakily pulled out his phone.

At the top of every foreign social media feed was a crowdfunding link.

The red donation numbers were climbing at terrifying speed.

Title:

【One Dollar Per Person — Send Master Yu to the Bermuda Triangle to “Dredge the Waters”!】

The total had already surpassed five million US dollars and was still increasing by ten thousand dollars every second.

The comments section had completely lost its mind:

“He used a fishing rod to fly a submarine like a kite in the Maldives! That’s the Force!”

“Chinese kung fu! That fishing rod must contain the Dragon King’s divine staff!”

Trending #1 worldwide on Twitter:

#DontTouchHisFishingRod

A deep sense of helplessness washed over Yu Xian.

Slowly, he pulled the wool blanket off the sofa.

Over his neck.

Over his head.

Wrapping himself tightly into a cocoon, as if hiding inside could shut out the entire malicious world outside.

“What sins have I committed…”

A muffled, tearful voice came from under the blanket.

“I just wanted to catch a fish… how the hell did I become a strategic weapon?”

“I already hid at home, and now they’re crowdfunding me to go to Bermuda?!”

Su Wanyi struggled to suppress her laughter and poked the trembling blanket lump.

“Little Yu, stop hiding.”

“The crowdfunding just passed six million. The netizens say if you won’t go, they’ll crowdfund an aircraft carrier and deliver it right to your doorstep.”

The blanket shook violently.

“Tell them to screw off!”

The howl burst through the blanket, miserable beyond words.

“Tell them I, Yu Xian, will only fish for koi and turtles for the rest of my life!”

“I’m never going anywhere except the lake outside my house!”

“And if anyone mentions the word ‘ocean’ again, I’m cutting ties with them forever!”