CHAPTER 618: CHAPTER 586: HAIDU PORT

Haidu City, Sea Star Company.

At three o’clock in the afternoon, Lei Ran pushed open the iron door of Sea Star Company, which creaked under the corrosion of the sea breeze, with the smell of old sea salt and despair hitting him in the face.

Outside the window, under the leaden gray sky, the outline of the company’s seaside farm could be vaguely seen. Huge tanks and net cages soaked silently in the murky sea water, their maintenance-free mechanical arms rusting like dying steel skeletons.

The desolation inside the office area was shocking, with the empty, dusty desks and chairs seeming to retain traces of past prosperity and bustle.

The few remaining people moved in a manner that seemed numb and sluggish.

Accounting Old Zhang’s calloused fingers tapped on an old keyboard, covered with fish scales and grains of salt, calculating the maintenance costs of the farm and unsold accounts.

In the sample packaging box beside Xiao Li, lay the seafood caught from the farm this morning—

These should have been the company’s foundation, but now, due to a lack of sales, they emitted a depressing, deathly tang in the simple box.

Xiao Wang, responsible for trade, switched futilely between the phone and computer screen, trying to contact even a small distributor, but the continuous busy tones or impatient hang-ups on the other end made her voice increasingly weak, until she was only left staring blankly at an Excel spreadsheet filled with "customer contact broken" entries.

Seeing Lei Ran return, Warehouse Manager Old Fang quickly approached holding a stack of slips: "Manager Lei, at the fish farm... we still haven’t found the money for the new batch of feed... If we keep delaying, that batch of groupers will..."

Xiao Li’s voice, choked with sobs: "Manager Lei, the shallow sea farm’s batch of shells has started dying off in large numbers recently! We can’t determine the cause and can only salvage them first, otherwise the entire farming area will be in trouble! The salvaged ones... they’re all piled up in the temporary warehouse, and the smell is overwhelming..."

Xiao Wang suddenly looked up, her voice dryly adding: "Manager Lei, three distributors have already notified us that they want to terminate contracts... They said... that the sea area next to Hai Feng City has better water quality, more stable supply. They... place more faith in that side."

What she didn’t say was that the remaining few couldn’t even be reached by phone anymore.

Old Zhang finally stopped tapping the keyboard, and the disappearance of the "tap tap" sounds only made the dead silence even heavier. He sighed deeply, his eyes filled with bottomless exhaustion and a barely extinguished flicker of anger.

"The bank... just called. That previous mortgage loan... it’s due next week. They made it clear there’s no way to renew it. Fair-weather friends. When it rains, they take the umbrella away... huh, faster and more ruthless than anyone." His bony hand slammed heavily on the desk, "Interest! Just this month’s interest we’re hardly able to repay!"

The farm has long been operating at a loss, employees left in droves as early as last year. They held on this long with sheer willpower!

Lei Ran stood in the middle of the office, like a solitary target, bearing bad news from all sides.

Each word was like a sledgehammer, brutally striking this wreck of a ship called "Sea Star"!

Outside the window, the shadow of the massive farm loomed, once the "self-sufficient source" that Jiang Yu took pride in, but now it resembled a gaping wound, constantly seeping despair and decay.

"President Jiang..." Lei Ran almost subconsciously murmured, the words sounding empty and feeble in the air of despair.

He took out his phone—the number had been dialed countless times.

He pressed redial once more, his actions carrying an almost numb ceremonial quality. But the receiver still responded with that cold mechanical reply: "The user you are trying to reach is temporarily unavailable, please try again later..."

"Still can’t get through?" Old Zhang’s voice was hoarse, carrying a sarcasm born of knowing the result already, "How long has it been? Manager Lei, President Jiang... how long has she not cared about this place? Three years? Five years? Or even longer?"

No one answered.

The answer was etched in everyone’s hearts.

The large office was left with nothing but the unending sound of waves crashing outside the window.

Loans couldn’t be obtained anymore.

Goods couldn’t be sold anymore.

Even the farm they relied on for survival was experiencing mass die-offs...

Fifteen years ago, Haidu City experienced a cliff-like collapse; during the toughest times, the government even halved the leasing prices of the ocean area! President Jiang had the courage to make a sweeping decision, leasing nearly a thousand acres of ocean area for aquaculture, pursuing a path of self-sufficiency and multiple sales.

But now, the captain who brought them onto this ship and once vowed that "the tide will return" had long vanished into the vast overseas, leaving no trace.