It was on December 29th of that year, at 3:00 a.m. in the East Nine District, a reporter from the Independent State of Thailand who was on vacation on a cruise took a risk and secretly recorded the Asian Union soldiers logging into the cruise ship in the early morning and arresting Chen Boqiao. The video, uploaded to the Internet, caused an uproar.
And this 10,000-ton luxury cruise ship, which departed from the port of South Australia, detoured through the independent country of Thailand, and headed to North America, became the focus of attention in the next 12 days.
In order to appease people's hearts, the cruise company issued an apology statement. The president of the cruise line broadcasted an apology to the cruise ship in person, promising that the ship would continue to sail to North America and would not return. It also promised that specific compensation measures would be introduced after disembarking.
After two or three days of panic, the guests at the center of the storm had another lively year on board.
On the night of New Year's Eve, Zhang Jue and Cui Chengze stayed in the suite.
At midnight, the sound of the countdown on the public deck rushed through the glass door of the balcony of the suite and entered their ears. The crowd was like a carnival. From ten to one, the second the new year started, the cruise ship was placed on the top of the ship. fireworks.
The sound of fireworks exploding, and the reflections of fireworks on the floor and railings outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, herald the end of one year and the beginning of the next.
Choi Sung Taek and Jang Jue spent nearly two weeks in the same suite.
The TV in the living room was on 24 hours a day, and it was on the news station most of the time. Choi Chengze suspected that the TV in Zhang Jue's room was the same, because when he passed by Zhang Jue's room, he heard the TV in the living room through the door. Same sound.
Zhang never smoked or drank. He got up around six every morning and went upstairs to swim.
When he came back from breakfast, he opened the door to the suite almost at 8:00 sharp. Cui Chengze, who had been in the army for many years, felt that he was too harsh on himself.
Zhang Jue spoke very little, and the speed of speech was a little slow. Although he looked a little cold on the surface, after getting along for a while, it was easy to perceive that Zhang Jue was just an introvert, not arrogant.
When it was time for dinner, Zhang Jue and Cui Chengze sometimes went downstairs to find a restaurant for dinner, sometimes ordered a meal, and the rest of the time almost stayed in the room or living room, holding a handheld computer, not knowing what he was looking at.
Zhang Jue has little contact with the outside world, but if he receives a call, he will not avoid Cui Chengze.
He talked on the phone with a person named "Jiaxi" every day. Under Jiaxi's pressure, he told his daily itinerary like writing a running account diary. He smiled a few times, but he didn't mention Chen Boqiao.
According to Cui Chengze's judgment, Zhang Jue received two or three calls from his parents.
Seeing how Zhang Jue answered the phone, Cui Chengze felt that his parents seemed to have lost their temper.
Zhang Jue listened patiently for a long time, then sat cross-legged on the sofa and reluctantly whispered something like "I didn't think of it", "I'll think about it again".
To be honest, Cui Chengze felt that although Zhang Jue sounded sincere, he was actually a bit perfunctory.
Zhang Jue's life is too regular. Except for the day when Chen Boqiao left, he showed a little emotion, but he has always been calm, so that Cui Chengze walked out of the room early one morning to pour water and bumped into Zhang Jue who was asleep in the living room. It's not clear what Colonel Chen said about Zhang Jue's "inattentiveness" to him.
Zhang Jue had returned to his room very early that night, but for some reason he came out again.
He didn't turn on the lights, and was lying on the sofa under a thin blanket. The volume on the TV was turned down. He ordered a black-and-white song and dance movie about the Independent Kingdom of Thailand. The movie was almost over.
Cui Chengze approached, only to find Zhang Jue asleep, with his eyes closed quietly, curled up on the sofa.
Zhang Jue was very tall, lying on the sofa in an uncomfortable position, with his legs bent, his waist hunched, his lips pursed tightly, a kind of old-fashioned and stubborn.
The TV screen is the only light source in the living room. The cool-toned light changes with the scenes in the movie, shining brightly and darkly on Zhang Jue. His right hand hangs from the sofa, the back of his hand is against the floor, and he holds it loosely.
The temperature in the living room was low, and the blanket Zhang Jue covered was too thin, which made it easy to catch a cold. Choi Chengze turned on the light in the entrance, walked back, and leaned over and pushed him gently: "Mr. Zhang."
Zhang Jue opened his eyes, but he didn't seem to be fully awake. There was no focus in his eyes. Ben's hand loosened, and a small object fell out of his palm and landed on the floor.
Cui Chengze lowered his head and glanced at it. It was a small transparent plastic bag, and a very small metal object was sealed in the bag. The shape was irregular, and it seemed to be broken and cracked.
He stretched out his hand and wanted to pick it up for Zhang Jue, but Zhang Jue took one step ahead of him, quickly picked up the bag, and sat up.
The movie just ended, the screen went black, and the subtitles for the cast and crew began to scroll up.
"Mr. Zhang," Choi Sung Taek said to him, "it's cold outside."
Zhang Jue sat for a while before nodding. He told Cui Chengze that the TV in his room was broken, so he came out, said goodnight to Cui Chengze, lifted the blanket over his lap, and walked back to the room slowly.
During the ten days of the cruise, scandals about the Asian Union President Zhao Kun emerged one after another.
The video and photos of the secret meeting between him and the judge who sentenced Chen Boqiao to death were leaked before the trial, and the large amount of unknown accounts on the account of a close friend of the opposite sex of Judge Gaiming attracted the attention of the ICAC, and calls for a retrial of the Chen Boqiao case were raised.
The day before arriving in North America, at 10:00 a.m., Asian Union time, Congress passed the first presidential impeachment motion since the establishment of the Asian Union with a high number of votes, suspending Zhao Kun’s presidency and subjecting him to a special investigation.
On the afternoon of the same day, the Judicial Committee announced that the chief judge of the Chen Boqiao case was removed from office, and the case will be retrial in 15 days.
On the morning of the day they went ashore, they were already able to see the mainland from the deck.
In recent days, the weather at sea has not been very good, mostly cloudy, but on the last day, the sun came out, and the icy air was a little hot.
Zhang Jue opened the door of the deck balcony and went out to see the North American continent separated by a sea.
Choi Chengze sat on the single sofa, watching his back. Zhang Jue was wrapped in a windbreaker, standing thinly in the wind, motionless, as if he wanted to stand on a cruise ship to dock.
At ten o'clock in the morning, Cui Chengze's phone on the coffee table rang. It was a secret connection from Pei Shu.
Cui Chengze was shocked when he saw the caller number, because Pei Shu had told him before boarding the boat that they would not contact him unless it was necessary. He picked up the phone, Pei Shu's voice seemed a little tired, but full of breath.
He first asked about the situation on Cui Chengze's cruise ship, and after a while, he asked Cui Chengze, "Is Zhang Jue by your side?"
"Yes." Cui Chengze looked up at Zhang Jue and said.
"Let him listen to the phone." Pei Shu said.
Cui Chengze called Zhang Jue, Zhang Jue turned around, saw Cui Chengze holding the phone, and immediately walked into the room.
His foot stumbled on the door frame of the balcony, and he reacted very quickly to help the glass door to avoid falling, his eyes widened a little, he quickly pursed his lips, and looked up at Cui Chengze again.
"Do you want me to answer the phone?" he asked Choi Sung Taek.
Cui Chengze nodded, and Zhang Jue smiled slightly at him.
Zhang Jue took the phone from Cui Chengze's hand and put it to his ear. After a few seconds, the other party said, "Zhang Jue?"
Zhang Jue was startled for a moment, because it was not Chen Boqiao's voice on the other side of the phone.
The caller's tone was higher, and he spoke more cadence than Chen Boqiao. He said, "I'm Pei Shu."
Zhang Jue was stunned for a while before he said, "Well. Hello."
"He's about to be released from prison," Pei Shu added, "if there is no accident."
Zhang Jue understood what Pei Shu said, and suddenly there seemed to be new blood flowing in, and all the limbs and bones became warm.
However, Zhang Jue was not very good at answering, so he asked Pei Shu, "Really?"
"Yes." Pei Shu said.
"I'm calling you to tell you that although he will be released from prison soon, he can't contact you for the time being," Pei Shu spoke quickly, fluently, and narrately, "The impeachment bill has just passed, and it's still far It's far from the end, and now his every move can't be careless."
"Okay." Zhang Jue said. "It's okay," he said again.
Pei Shu suddenly paused for a while, and for some reason, he slowed down his tone a little. "You can understand it," he said.
At this point, the two were speechless.
There was silence on both ends of the phone for more than ten seconds, and Pei Shu said, "That's it."
They said goodbye and cut off the phone.