20: Chapter 20 The Leader

The sobs of the female colleagues who had been crying breathlessly became noticeably quieter.

Someone raised their head, looking at Su Qingxue with red, swollen eyes.

Not because they believed.

But because they wanted to believe.

Seeing this look in their eyes, Su Qingxue felt a little more at ease inside.

That was enough.

She continued pushing forward.

"But…" Her tone suddenly grew heavier.

"The premise of all this is that we make it back alive."

Someone in the crowd let out a cold sneer.

Su Qingxue didn't even look in that direction.

"Our cruise ship met with an accident at noon yesterday. All business itineraries of the Shengtang Group were reported to the maritime department and the insurance company before departure. If the cruise ship loses contact for more than six hours, the company's emergency procedures will automatically activate."

"My satellite phone activated its automatic distress mode before falling into the water. The signal has already been sent out."

She paused and raised a finger to point at the eerie, empty expanse of sea surrounding them.

"You saw it too; this sea area is abnormal. Watches are spinning wildly, compasses have failed, and even the times for dawn and dusk don't match the outside world."

"What does this indicate? It indicates that there is extremely strong magnetic field interference in this area."

"Search and rescue helicopters' navigation systems, radar, and communication equipment all rely on electromagnetic signals. In this level of magnetic disturbance zone, even if the search and rescue team receives our location, they have no way to precisely lock onto the coordinates."

"It's not that they aren't coming; they just haven't found our exact location yet."

She spoke very slowly, word by word.

Not to keep them in suspense, but to leave everyone enough time to digest it.

"Especially at night. Entering a strong magnetic field area for search and rescue at night is no different from throwing your life away. Therefore, they will definitely wait until dawn."

Su Qingxue reached out and pointed at the fake-looking blue sky above her head.

"Now, it is dawn."

"The window of opportunity for search and rescue has opened."

The beach fell silent for a few seconds.

The rising and falling of a few people's chests visibly slowed down.

When people are completely in despair, they don't need the truth.

They only need an explanation that sounds plausible.

Su Qingxue understood this principle all too well.

She had survived in the capital markets by relying on this exact trick.

When stock prices plummeted, retail investors didn't need you to open financial reports and read data line by line.

They only needed a single sentence: "The pullback is for a better rise."

Confidence, that thing, was just like banknotes.

If you print it and someone believes it, it becomes valuable.

"But… what if the search and rescue team can't find this sea area at all?"

A voice came from the periphery of the crowd.

Liu Feifei didn't know when she had come down from the mountainside.

She was wrapped in a dark coat that obviously didn't belong to her, standing in the outermost circle.

Her complexion was much better than last night's.

Having eaten food, drunk water, and slept in a warm place, these traces were written all over her face. Among this group of survivors who had been hungry all night and nearly frozen to death, it was as glaring as turning on high beams in broad daylight.

The gazes of several female colleagues were glued to the dry coat on her body.

Their eyes flashed with a green light.

Not out of envy.

But out of jealousy and hatred.

The moment Su Qingxue saw Liu Feifei, her pupils constricted slightly.

That scene in the Karst Cave last night flashed through her mind.

The image of Liu Feifei lying naked in Lin Fan's arms made a wave of physical nausea rise up.

She forcibly suppressed it.

"Besides the satellite phone, there is also a black box on the cruise ship."

Su Qingxue did not answer Liu Feifei's question, instead directly tossing out the next reassurance pill.

"The black box's emergency locator beacon is independently powered and is not the same system as the satellite phone. Its waterproof rating is IPX8, and its design standard is to operate normally at two thousand meters underwater."

She wasn't even sure if this data was correct.

But her tone was resolute and decisive, leaving no room for discussion.

Having mixed in the capital circle for so many years, she understood one truth all too well: the data wasn't important; the confidence when speaking about the data was what mattered.

"Even if the cruise ship sinks to the bottom of the sea, the black box will continue to transmit signals for at least thirty days."

"The search and rescue team has the signal and the direction; it's just a matter of breaking through the magnetic field interference to lock onto the precise coordinates, which is only a matter of time."

"So," Su Qingxue looked around, her gaze slowly sweeping over everyone's face.

"What we need to do right now is not cry here."

"Instead, it is to hold on until the moment they find us."

The crowd's emotions visibly stabilized.

Several female colleagues stopped screaming and squatted on the ground, sobbing softly.

The male employees still looked ugly, but at least no one rushed up to point at her nose and curse anymore.

Su Qingxue secretly let out a sigh of relief.

This hurdle could be considered muddled through.

Then she heard a voice.

"Hold on until rescue?"

"How to hold on?"

Chen Jian stood at the back of the crowd with his arms crossed over his chest. His lenses reflected the light, making his expression unclear.

"President Su, what you just said can't be faulted logically, but there's a premise," he took two steps forward. "We have to live until that time."

Chen Jian calmly extended three fingers.

"What's right in front of us are three fatal problems."

"First, fresh water." He raised his index finger.

"From yesterday until now, besides President Su and Director Wang, no one present has found drinkable fresh water. Under this high-temperature, dehydrated environment, adults who don't drink water for seventy-two hours will die."

"We have already used up nearly twenty hours."

"Second, food." His middle finger stood up.

"Without the intake of protein and carbohydrates, the human body's ability to maintain its core temperature will plummet off a cliff. Of the five people who died last night, three didn't freeze to death."

He paused.

"It was because their bodies burned up their last bit of stored heat and could no longer generate heat. It's like an engine without fuel; no matter how much you turn the key, it won't start."

"Third, fire."

He pointed to the pile of ashes with only lingering smoke left.

"The fire from last night went out. Even if I can build a new one, if the fuel problem isn't resolved, tonight will still have the same outcome."

"Either endure the toxic gas or freeze to death alive."

"Take your pick."

The three fingers were retracted.

The beach was dead silent.

Even the sound of the waves seemed to have its neck choked.

The corners of Su Qingxue's mouth twitched.

That layer of window paper she had managed to patch up was poked into tiny pieces, one by one, by Chen Jian's three fingers.

Su Qingxue's lips moved, but she couldn't respond.

She indeed had no answer.

She had never expected that one day she would be doing wilderness survival, something she knew nothing about at all.

Fresh water, food, fire.

Of these three things, she couldn't conjure up a single one.

When she was at the company, this kind of matter only required a phone call: "Secretary Wang, arrange it."

Seven words settled it.

But now, her secretary was either dead or squatting on the beach biting her fingernails.

Chen Jian didn't pressure her, turning instead to the crowd.

"Let me explain a logic to everyone."

He pushed his crooked glasses up the bridge of his nose. The lenses were covered in salt stains, making everything look blurry.

"When the antelope herds on the grasslands of Africa encounter a chase by lions, they don't run around in a chaotic swarm. They will automatically follow a leader."

"The leader isn't necessarily the strongest or the fastest, but it must be the one most familiar with the terrain and with the keenest sense of danger."

"Why? Because when running for your life, one hundred brains thinking simultaneously is not as good as one brain making quick decisions."

He paused.

"Right now, we are that group of antelopes."

"Five people died last night. If tonight we still look out for ourselves and grab from each other, when the sun comes out tomorrow, there will only be more corpses on the ground."

No one spoke on the beach.

The sea breeze blew fiercely, and the sand stinging their faces hurt.

"So I suggest choosing someone to take unified command."

"All water, food, fire sources, and manpower will be centrally allocated. Whoever obeys can live. Whoever disobeys…"

He didn't finish the rest of his words.

But everyone understood.

Su Qingxue's brows were twisted into a dead knot.

Chen Jian's words were logically flawless.

But the question was, who to choose?