Chapter 3474: Unwelcome Guests

In the seaside bar on White Horse Island, every guest was eagerly awaiting Tavana's arrival.

The hotel had prepared cocktails for all guests, who drank while waiting for Tavana, creating a lively atmosphere.

Many guests had their phones open to video recording, all pointing their phone cameras toward the bar entrance, fearing they would miss the moment to film Tavana's appearance.

At this time, the bar's resident band members appeared one after another, with several brown-skinned Filipino musicians stepping onto the small central stage, picking up their instruments and preparing to perform.

The guests paid little attention to these band members, as most had visited this bar before and were aware of its evening resident performances.

However, no one expected that after these musicians took the stage, they would actually play the prelude to Tavana's "Love Story."

This song is Tavana's breakthrough hit and her most famous track; fans who like her naturally know the prelude melody very well.

Everyone was surprised that the resident band would play Tavana's hit song, thinking they were just livening up the atmosphere.

But after the prelude ended, Tavana's singing suddenly came from the venue.

Everyone was momentarily stunned; if the resident band were covering Tavana's song, this voice could not possibly be so similar.

Moreover, the band's female singer was at that moment happily shaking a rattle to keep rhythm and swaying lightly, without opening her mouth to sing—so where was this singing coming from?

Could it be a CD playing on-site?

But that doesn't make sense either, since these musicians are performing live—surely they wouldn't just play Tavana's voice from a CD?

Just as everyone was puzzled, a tall, beautiful woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, yet wearing a Chinese-style cheongsam, suddenly walked out from the backstage passage reserved for band members.

This beauty held a microphone, walking out while singing.

Someone in the crowd immediately recognized her and exclaimed: "Ah! It's Tavana! Really Tavana!"

Instantly, sharp exclamations erupted around; anyone who could sing this song couldn't help but jump and scream in place, singing along with Tavana, and the atmosphere instantly became fervent.

Not to mention the young people who like Tavana, even Ma Lan was excitedly jumping up and down; she can't sing Tavana's song, but she still held up her phone to film him singing, then quickly lowered her head to edit her Moments post, captioning: "Could it be the top-tier White Horse Island in the Maldives? The hotel specially invited international superstar Tavana to perform for us high-end guests! Others spend big money everywhere chasing Tavana's concerts, but we have Tavana come directly to sing for us—this treatment is simply amazing!"

Tavana had imagined ten thousand possibilities for public opinion before stepping on stage, but she never expected someone like Ma Lan, who would claim she came specially to White Horse Island to sing for them as a big fool.

Ye Chen was scrolling his phone in the hotel room when he accidentally saw Ma Lan's Moments post, leaving him utterly speechless—his mother-in-law really is extraordinary. He would think of every way to gild his own face, even if it meant trampling others to elevate himself.

That such a top-tier international superstar as Tavana would be described by her as a bar singer running gigs shows just how strong her nerve is.

Xiao Churan also saw her mother's Moments post; unlike Ye Chen, who found it amusing, she felt somewhat embarrassed, especially since Ye Chen could also see her mother's post, making the embarrassment even stronger.

Soon, both received a push notification from the short-video platform: "Top-tier singer Tavana Svet is vacationing in the Maldives, performing live at the bar! Come watch the live stream!"

Ye Chen wondered, how did it go live so quickly?

He instinctively turned off his phone sound and tapped in to watch, discovering it was a venue audience member using their phone to start a live stream from below the stage; the stream quickly drew over a million viewers, with various bullet comments flooding the screen at high speed.

Xiao Churan also seemed interested in the live stream, so she casually picked up her Bluetooth earphones and put them on; Ye Chen's hearing is sharp, and from the faint sound leaking from her earphones, he judged she was indeed watching the live stream.

At this moment in the bar.

After Tavana finished singing "Love Story," applause, cheers, screams, and whistles rose and fell in succession.

These guests were all extremely excited; they never dreamed that today's party would not only let them see Tavana in person, but also hear her sing live, and at such close range—even standing in the first row of an indoor concert hall wouldn't be this close or offer such treatment.

After finishing her song, Tavana smiled while holding the microphone and said: "Hello everyone, I am Tavana Svet, very happy to be here with you all at this party, and I thank the White Horse Group and thank Mr. Bernard Arnault for the invitation; I hope everyone can enjoy this beautiful tropical island with me and have an unforgettable night!"

The fans on site were completely frenzied.

At this moment, Bernard Arnault also came on stage with his wife, holding a microphone, smiling and saying: "Miss Svet truly deserves to be the world's most popular female singer; her live performance charm is truly so captivating that even this old bone of mine can't help but want to sway to the rhythm. I'd like to ask the guests present: do you still want to keep listening to Miss Svet's moving voice?"

"Yes!"

The guests in the bar burst into cheers.

Tavana then smiled and said: "Everyone should know that I recently held 20 consecutive concerts in Huaxia; I came to White Horse Island because I wanted to use this opportunity to rest and relax properly, and coincidentally, Mr. Bernard Arnault is also here, so I accepted his invitation to join this party. Since you all still want to hear me sing, I'll sing a few more songs—but the songs I'll sing next are not my own; they are songs I collaborated on with Ms. Gu Qiuyi during my Huaxia concert tour. Her song 'Assassin' once deeply captivated me, and I hope you all will like it too!"

At this moment, the audience erupted in cheers, but Xiao Churan's face turned somewhat pale.

Although the Bluetooth earphone volume was very low, to Ye Chen it sounded as if it were right by his ear; upon hearing Tavana would sing "Assassin," he also felt embarrassed and restless, so he said to Xiao Churan: "Honey, I'll go sit on the lounge chair outside for a while."

Xiao Churan nodded somewhat unnaturally: "Oh, okay..."

After arriving at the villa's backyard terrace, in the unpolluted night sky, the Milky Way lay like scattered pearl curtains, countless stars shining brilliantly, together rendering a deep and majestic cosmic beauty.

Ye Chen lay on the lounge chair, gazing up at the clear Milky Way, and couldn't help but recall his two previous bouts of stargazing obsession, both with Lin Wan'er—once by Dianchi Lake searching for where the mother of Pu'er tea once grew, and once in Northern Europe, where he and Lin Wan'er saw that polar night sky, stars dotting the heavens, accompanied by various handprints formed from mysterious auroras.

But until now, that damned handprint he dare not use again; he once thought it was a magical seal that could generate spiritual energy, only to later learn that the spiritual energy produced by the handprint was not usable by him at all, and moreover, it would drain his own internal spiritual energy completely.

After sighing, he couldn't help but stare blankly at the starry sky.

He thought of Lin Wan'er, who in an era with little light pollution, raised her head to gaze at this starry sky for three or four hundred years; behind this, what must have been an indescribable century of solitude.

Just as he was slightly dazed, he suddenly heard the distant sound of speedboat engines and the constant slapping of hulls against the sea surface.

This immediately put him on alert.

He had seen plenty of yachts and seaplanes in the Maldives; during the day, even dozens or hundreds of them would circle White Horse Island, but in his memory, those were yachts—luxuriously decorated but not particularly powerful.

However, the engine sound now coming from far away is extremely fast and powerful, as if dozens of engines were running wildly, and it feels like they are approaching White Horse Island at breakneck speed.

Such speedboats, he has only seen in coastal cities—specifically used for smuggling, commonly called "big flyers."

Big flyers need such strong power because they must maintain extremely high speed even when fully loaded; as long as they can outrun customs boats without breaking apart, faster is better, with no speed limit.

Therefore, such boats have their sterns fitted with large-displacement, high-horsepower engines; it's common to see a boat with six engines mounted.

But the Maldives is a tourist island nation; the nearest mainland is India—who would be blind enough to run a six- or seven-hundred-kilometer sea route from India to smuggle goods out?

Moreover, what does India have that's worth smuggling to the Maldives? Aside from local islands, all hotel consumption in the Maldives averages higher than Europe and America; they need European luxury goods, Fijian drinking water, and top-tier ingredients from around the world—there's no need for Indian products.

So Ye Chen can be certain these speedboats are definitely not engaged in smuggling.

Then what are these speedboats doing, racing at extreme speed to White Horse Island?

Although Ye Chen cannot guess the opponent's exact purpose, he can be certain of one thing: they come with ill intent.

He frowned slightly, silently thinking: "If they come with ill intent, who are they targeting? Bernard Arnault? Possible, after all he was once the world's richest man—if kidnapped, they'd surely make a big profit. Or Tavana—this woman is no pushover; back in Japan, so many assassins were sent to kill her; today these people might well be coming for her!"