"Miss Rose said she was a little tired and went back to rest. Didn't you see her?" As the saying goes, lies roll off the tongue. As a person who's been in the social world for over a decade, how could you survive without knowing how to lie?
Rose was indeed sleeping right now, but where exactly she was sleeping, and why, were questions best left unasked.
"Uh, I'll go check on her later!" Carl didn't know the ins and outs of the situation. He didn't press for details after hearing his fiancée was tired.
"Li, we'll be in New York the day after tomorrow. When do you think that investment will arrive?" After learning of Rose's whereabouts, Carl started asking about other matters.
At the same time, others also came over, holding their glasses.
There was nothing to be done. He had pulled the tiger skin too many times, and it wasn't so simple to cover up the lies.
Fortunately, Li Qingyuan knew he wouldn't have to see these people again, so he chatted with them casually, indifferent to it all.
The more he acted confident, the more others found him enigmatic. The atmosphere at the entire banquet was harmonious, nothing seemed amiss.
Until—
'Buzz…buzz…buzz…'
Everyone saw the chandeliers above and the glasses on the tables vibrating, as if the entire ship was violently shaking.
"What's going on?"
Li Qingyuan steadied himself on the table and asked the person beside him.
"I don't know, probably a storm!" Carl replied as he wiped the spilled wine off his clothes.
He had been holding a glass of wine, ready to drink, when the ship started shaking, causing the wine to spill.
"Everyone, please don't worry. The Titanic is absolutely capable of withstanding anything. It's the safest ship in the world. That was just a bit of rough weather, and everything's fine now!" Someone quickly stepped forward to reassure everyone that it was just a false alarm.
Everyone in the ballroom immediately calmed down and continued singing and dancing.
But...
Li Qingyuan excused himself, claiming he couldn't handle the wine, and left the ballroom, returning to his cabin
"Get up, the ship's sinking!"
Logically, he shouldn't care whether the other person lived or died, but after all, they had just shared the most intimate contact. Li Qingyuan felt he should at least lend Rose a hand.
The Titanic now wouldn't last on the sea for over two hours like in the original story. To ensure he could sink it, since he wasn't confident in his skills, he had worked extra hard to smash the floors of all eight sealed compartments.
He also smashed the central keel and load-bearing walls. He was idle anyway, so wasn't it better to smash more for a higher chance of success?
The explosion had occurred because he had stuffed all the Yellow Explosives he'd made in recent days into the Coal pile.
The Titanic, being a steamship, consumed a massive amount of Coal every day. Stuffing a few pounds of explosives into thousands of tons of Coal was something even a god wouldn't notice.
The Boiler Room workers, due to their years of harsh working conditions, were already dizzy. Even if someone found something unusual about the shoveled Coal, no one would bother to examine what was going on.
Whatever it was, throwing it into the boiler would just burn it to ashes!
So, what happened after the explosives were thrown into the boiler didn't need further explanation.
The Boiler Room exploded instantly. The boilers were already at a critical point, and when one blew, it triggered a chain reaction, turning the entire Boiler Room into a mangled mess.
If the explosion had been limited to the Boiler Room, it wouldn't have been a fatal blow to such a massive ship. At most, the ship simply wouldn't be able to move anymore.
However, when the surrounding sealed compartments' bottoms were shattered by the shockwaves, the ship's fate was immediately sealed.
Even though Li Qingyuan didn't understand architecture or excel at mathematics, he knew that the ship could only survive on the sea for maybe an hour at most.
The lowest compartments might already be filling up with water.
"What? The ship's sinking? Impossible!" Rose sat up, still half-asleep, thinking he was joking.
This was the Titanic, the ship that was said to be unsinkable, the greatest achievement of the British Empire; how could it sink?
In those days, British manufacturing represented the world's best. Moreover, this ship was the face of the British Empire, so even though Rose was very fond of the man in front of her, she still firmly believed in her country's reputation on this issue.
"Get up!" Without time or inclination to argue, Li Qingyuan always thought those who reasoned with women in times of crisis were simply brain-dead. He slapped Rose twice, ordering her to get dressed immediately.
Rose was somewhat dazed by the slaps, but even though she was quite displeased, she obediently put on her clothes.
The two of them quickly walked onto the Deck. At this time, there were no other figures on the Deck besides a few staff members, showing that regardless of the place, public opinion control was very important.
Up to now, besides Li Qingyuan, it was estimated that only the captain and a few high-level figures knew what had happened on the entire ship.
"You stay here. I'll go get something. When they launch the Lifeboat later, you leave immediately. I'll catch up on the next boat." Holding Rose's hand, Li Qingyuan instructed her.
Truthfully, if it weren't for the mission's completion requiring him to leave, he really wanted to stay in this world for a couple more days.
"Qingyuan, I'll wait for you together!" Although she didn't know what exactly had happened, Rose felt that if she let go now, she probably wouldn't see this man again.
"Behave, we Oriental men don't like disobedient women!" Seriously patting Rose's palm, Li Qingyuan knew this silly girl was stubborn. If he didn't make it clear to her, who knew if she would sink with the ship.
It was, after all, a trophy of sorts in this world. If she died just like that, he figured he'd be sad for quite a while.
Probably several minutes, at least!
Fortunately, Carl also ran out from the banquet hall at this moment, and bumped right into them.
Carl had been at the banquet, but when he realized his wife and Li Qingyuan were both missing, he felt something was amiss and rushed out as well.
"Carl, you're just in time!" Seeing the aggrieved party, Li Qingyuan thought he could entrust Rose to him.
No matter what, this was her legitimate fiancé, right? At least Rose would be better off with him than with that scumbag Jack.
As for whether Carl would go bankrupt and commit suicide like in the original story?
He had told him so much about the laws of economic development in the later stages in these past few days. If he stubbornly insisted on going down a dead end, he couldn't stop him, could he?
------------------------
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(End of Chapter)