Chapter 523: Treating An Outsider Better than Him

Han Ruochen was shocked. She blinked her eyes and looked at the figure that was hugging her and stammered out, "Zhai...Zhai Heng?" What was this man doing here? Was he not on a business trip?

She blinked her eyes and could not help but blurt out, "Did you return from your overseas business trip?"

"How did you know that I was overseas? Were you looking for me? Did something happen?" Zhai Heng pulled away and looked at Han Ruochen with a smile but when he realised that she was looking for him, he could not help but frown hard.

"It’s nothing." Han Ruochen shook her head. She did not want to come out as a whiner. Anyway, Zhai Heng had returned just today and she did not want to make trouble for him. "When did you return? It has been months since you were gone."

Zhai Heng dragged her inside the Han family house. "I just returned today. Did you miss me? I would have returned a month ago but things went south because of some interference. So I had no choice but to stay behind. Were you missing me?" He asked again feeling a bit giddy. He thought that Han Ruochen would not look for him if he did not look for her. "Here look at this; this is the gift that I brought for you this time around. See if you like it or not."

He reached down and unlatched the heavy brass locks on the case with a sharp click.

Han Ruochen stepped closer, her eyes glittering with curiosity as she watched the lid swing open.

Inside the case, resting on a custom-cut black foam, was a sleek, grey electronic console attached to a heavy, dish-shaped satellite receiver and a military-spec digital handset. Beside it lay a heavy leather binder stamped with gold foil from the trade bank.

"What is this?" Han Ruochen looked at the case that Zhai Heng had opened for her. She raised her hand and her fingers lightly skimmed over the metallic casing.

"This..." Zhai Heng said, his voice dropping into a proud whisper. "Is an INMARSAT-C marine satellite transceiver. Direct from country J’s electronic district. In the mainland, not even the state fishing bureau has this model yet."

As he spoke, he started to fiddle with the device. He flipped the power toggle and a crisp, blue LCD screen flickered to life. A second later, a bunch of glowing lines of real-time data appeared.

[Satellite Link: Active.]

[J country market: Bluefin Tuna: 4200 JPY/kg]

[Country H: Live Abalone: Bids open.]

[Weather Vector: Typhoon ’Gale’ —400 miles southeast.]

"A normal fisherman only knows the price of the fish given by the buyer of the locality. There is always a chance of them getting cheated," Zhai Heng explained, while looking at Han Ruochen’s face with a fierce excitement. "With this satellite link on your flagship, you will know all about the price of the haul that you bring to the docks. You can check the prices out before selling them and then there is also the weather forecast."

Han Ruochen touched the cold metal of the terminal. As her fingers made contact with the metal, the sea scanning system hummed in resonance, syncing seamlessly with the satellite signal.

[External data stream detected: Global Market feed and satellite.]

[Hydro meteorology.]

[Integration complete: Ocean King Fleet Network Capacity Expanded by 400%]

Zhai Heng looked at her with a radiant smile that lit up his face. "With this, no one on the coast would be able to stop you."

Han Ruochen turned to look at her good friend. "Ah Heng, you have no idea what you have brought. With this...I believe I will be able to become even stronger while going to the sea."

"Isn’t that so?" Zhai Heng rubbed the tip of his nose happily when he heard Han Ruochen’s remark. "You have no idea how hard it was for me to grab this from Yun Tao. He was adamant on getting his hands on it even when it is of no use to him."

"Yun Tao? Did you meet him? Did he tell you anything?" Han Ruochen asked with a frown.

"Of course I met him." At the mention of Yun Tao, Zhai Heng was quite unhappy. "I bet you have no idea. After my grandfather sent me on the business trip, Yun Tao made all sorts of excuses and followed me to country J. he even made things difficult for me. He is fortunate that someone came with me and managed to help me out; if not, I would have killed him."

He snorted and then added, "And that’s not all. After making things difficult for me, he did not have the shame to hide. Instead, he came with my aunt to see my grandfather last night; the two of them were stuck close to my grandfather the entire night. Hah, I believe that she wants my grandfather to help her husband just like always. As if! They really dare to have wishful thinking."

"Sure enough." Han Ruochen smiled sarcastically. Fortunately, she did not pin all of her hopes on Yun Tao from the start. If not...her father would have...

"Why did you ask me about Yun Tao? Did he bully you?" Zhai Heng asked with a frown on his face. He raised his fists and waved them in front of Han Ruochen before saying, "If he did something, then you should let me know. I will avenge you—I did not go to the army but I am still from a military family. My fists are strong enough to deal with that bastard."

It was all for the sake of beating Yun Tao up that he was willing to learn some skills from his older brother. If not, why would he even bother to learn those martial arts skills? Yun Tao was like a weak chicken in front of him. If he thought that he could get away after bullying Han Ruochen, then that cousin of his was dreaming.

"No, he did not bully me." Han Ruochen shook her head. She thought about it a little and added, "Ah Heng, you should go back home. My dad is going to be discharged from the hospital tomorrow. I need to go and clean up his room."

"Uncle Han is in the hospital? What happened?"

"Nothing; he just met with a small accident. He has recovered well now." Since the matter had already passed, Han Ruochen did not want to bring it up again. Anyway, it would not change anything.

"Is he alright? Were you able to handle the medical expenses of Uncle Han?"