Chapter 457: Establishing A Channel

Once Old Man Xu realised that he had misunderstood Zhai Muchen’s intentions, his face turned pale. Darn it, it seemed like he had made a mistake.

"Muchen." Seeing that, Zhai Muchen was running out of the house like a bat flying right out of hell, Old Master Xu went rushing out as fast as possible. "Muchen, I swear, my boy, I had no idea that the girl was important to you. If I did, then I would..."

"You would have what? Old Master Xu!" Though Zhai Muchen’s voice was calm and controlled, Old Master Xu could sense the anger in his tone. Gulping hard, he peeked at Zhai Muchen’s face, and sure enough, the man was beyond infuriated at that moment.

"Muchen, I.."

Zhai Muchen sucked in a breath and calmed his anger down for a moment, and once he was steady enough, he pursed his lips and began speaking, "Old master Xu, I respect you very much, and that was the only reason I asked you to take Ruochen under your care. And do I look like the kind of person who needs someone to take care of him?"

"If I wanted to refuse a woman, I would have done it on my own. I would have never asked you to take care of such a personal matter for me."

What Zhai Muchen could not understand was how Old Master Xu could come up with such a ridiculous thought? When did he ever claim that he wanted to get rid of Han Ruochen? And even if he did, he would have refused her instead of trying to kill her! What did Old Master Xu mean by his actions?

Old Master Xu frowned when he heard Zhai Muchen’s response. "Then what about that fiancée of yours? What was her name? Ah yes, Shen Lingxue."

"I never had a fiancée." Zhai Muchen’s frown turned even harder when he heard Old Master Xu’s response. He knew that Shen Lingxue had been going around claiming in front of others that she was his fiance but as far as he knew Shen Lingxue’s status though high was still far from Old Master Xu.

The Shen family could never get close to the Xu family in terms of status. So how did Old Master Xu know about Shen Lingxue?

"She came to see me a few days ago after she found out that I am looking for a disciple." Old Master Xu soon realised that he had been fooled and all of a sudden the good will that he had toward the young woman who came to see him yesterday went down by quite a lot of degrees.

He wrung his hands and sat down heavily on the chair on the porch. "She came to see me and told me that your parents were hoping to see the two of you get married, and you two have been betrothed since you were children andshe...""

Zhai Muchen sucked in a breath. He raised his hand and pinched the space between his brows before saying, "I don’t know what kind of lies she has fed you, but there is no such thing as childhood betrothal or us being childhood sweethearts."

He then turned around on his feet before marching out of the mansion. "And to think I expected more from you."

Old Master Xu: "..."

What the hell? Did he look like someone who understood such complex dynamics? He was a kind old man who knew nothing about such a complicated thing as a love triangle!

**

While Old Master Xu and Zhai Muchen had almost become estranged due to the trial that was given to Han Ruochen, the woman in question herself was now battling a new trial.

The sea scanning system was flashing wildly as Han Ruochen braved through the sea for two gruelling hours. It was like she was playing chess with the dead, and she had to admit that they were really good when it came to fighting against her.

She had to use all of her skills plus all the modified hydraulic winches and heavy lead markers to drop concrete anchor buoys at precise, safe coordinates along the channel. Every buoy that she dropped was marked with a ’zero hazard’ waypoint, etching a brand new perfectly safe navigation corridor through the impassable graveyard.

[System Calibration: Path Coordination Has Been Locked. The route efficiency has increased by 100%. Deep Water Draft: 12 metres]

[The channel is suitable for commercial container ships]

Just as the last buoy of the path was let down, the system flashed another alarm that flashed and unfortunately, it flashed red.

[Another obstacle has been detected: Sunken War Destroyer Hull wedged between the rock walls. It has blocked the deep water channel.]

Han Ruochen immediately steered the ship away from the wreck. Using her spatial analysis mode, she located the weak, corroded, stress-beaten points of the wreck and lowered the heavy metal hook that Han Ruochen had latched on her motorboat.

The high-tensile winch wire snagged the rotting structure of the midsection.

Han Ruochen peeked at the murky water with her eyes staring right through the debris and the rickety, rocky waves. When she noticed the hook had latched itself on the debris perfectly, she sucked in a breath. This was going to be a gamble, and it was not the kind of gamble that Han Ruochen was going to love.

Because she knew that if she failed in this gamble, there was a very good chance that she was going to lose her life. But —

Han Ruochen narrowed her eyes. She had to take this gamble no matter what. Because if she made it out alive from this mission, then maybe she would be able to gain something even more unexpected.

She turned to look at Tong Zhaodi and shouted over the winds, "Zhaodi! Fire up the secondary winch motor and reverse at full power."

Tong Zhaodi heard her command and turned around before triggering the motor. Ka Boom! The second she started the motor, it caused the water around them to rise and fall.