I didn't pay attention to how beautiful the sunrise over the sea was; I only noticed that the boat was now unmanned. What's worse, Chu Qi had turned off the GPS. Without autopilot, wasn't she afraid of a maritime accident?
I know how to operate this kind of boat, so I didn't remind Chu Qi. I went directly to the cockpit, sat down, and placed my hands on the steering wheel, focusing on driving.
To my right, golden sunlight shimmered on the sea. To my left, not far away, was dim land. Our yacht seemed to be sailing on the horizon of sunrise, which felt quite surreal.
After sailing for some distance, a small island appeared on the sea ahead. Although it was early winter, the island was still lush and green, like a green-furred turtle floating on the water.
"Little Master, there's an island ahead. Should we go around the left or the right?" I asked. I'm not very familiar with navigation, but I know there are submerged reefs near some islands. Even with a shallow draft, the yacht could easily hit one.
Chu Qi walked over and took a look. "Huh? I don't remember there being an island here. Let's go around the right; the water is deeper on that side."
It made sense, so I steered around the green island to the right. The water here was indeed deep. However, after the sun had fully risen, I noticed something rather strange.
"Little Master, are we in the Yellow Sea or the Bohai Sea now?" I asked.
"I'm not quite sure. We've been sailing north the whole time," Chu Qi replied.
I calculated the speed at 100 kilometers per hour and roughly estimated that if the course was correct, we should still be in the Yellow Sea, east of the Jiaodong Peninsula, and about to enter the Bohai Bay. But I remembered that the water in the Yellow Sea wasn't this color; it was yellowish-green. Why was the sea around us so blue now?
After passing the island, I turned the steering wheel slightly to the left, trying to get closer to land. I wanted to see what city this was. There were many tall buildings on land, with words written on them. I could probably identify the location by searching on my phone.
As I got within about two hundred meters of the coast, I could vaguely see the words on the buildings. Unfortunately, the largest sign wasn't in Chinese but in Korean. It was probably a joint venture, which is quite normal, as the Jiaodong Peninsula has many Korean-invested enterprises. I continued to approach and soon saw words on another building, also in Korean. Could this be a Korean-developed zone?
I decided to turn and head directly for the port. I entered a small, calm harbor. Looking around, all the visible buildings and signs were in Korean. This further confirmed my suspicion of a Korean-developed zone. Just as I was about to check which city had such a development area, a taxi drove by along the coastal road. Huh? Why was it an orange taxi?
I thought I was mistaken and squinted to get a better look. It was indeed a taxi, with the characteristic structure on its roof and the word "TAXI" written on its side. But strangely, below "TAXI," there was a string of Korean characters?
Even if the local government wanted to support the development zone, they didn't need to be so subservient, right?
Oh no!
My heart suddenly clenched. Could it be... we took the wrong direction and ended up in South Korea?
The other four hadn't noticed anything unusual yet and were admiring the scenery of this new city. I pulled out my phone and turned it on (we had all turned them off for safety last night). There was still a signal. I opened the navigation app, and the map quickly updated, finally placing our coordinates in a gray area east of the Chinese map! I zoomed out the map and indeed, the boat had strayed. The place was called BusAn!
I tapped "Translate to Chinese" on the map, and two familiar Chinese characters appeared: 斧山!
"...You all, come here." I turned off the yacht's engine.
They came over and looked at the location on my phone.
"Whoa, how did we end up here?" Chu Qi scratched her head.
"Who knows how you were driving? What do we do now? This is a big problem, isn't it!" I said. We don't have passports. If we're caught, would it be considered illegal entry or something? And Chu Qi's special identity, could it cause misunderstandings between the two countries?
Chu Qi's level is too high; it might even lead to a political incident!
"Return the way we came?" Chu Qi suggested.