After searching this level thoroughly, we found only the Soul-Calming Bell and a corpse on the ground. There was nothing else worth seeing. Fortunately, the exit wasn't sealed like on the level above. Outside was the staircase. We followed it downward and finally arrived at the last level of this ghost ship.
Upon entering this deck's cabin, we were immediately stunned by the sight. Hanging from the ceiling were around one or two hundred people. Calling them "people" felt strange—there was no trace of the vitality one would expect from the living, yet they also lacked any life force of the living. Each of them had two thin iron chains pierced through their collarbones. Though the chains were slender, they suspended each body from the ceiling, swinging back and forth.
"Master Xiao, what does this mean?" Sun Fatty was the first to speak.
Xiao Heshang was also taken aback, paused a moment, then said, "I've never seen anything like this either. Great Sage, lower one of the bodies down and let's take a closer look. Little Spicy and Da Jun, help him out."
The "bodies" were hanging too high. This cabin held nothing to stand on for reaching them. Even Po Jun, who was over two meters tall, couldn't reach to lower a body down. After hesitating, Po Jun drew his pistol and aimed at one of the thin chains suspending a corpse. "Bang!" The gunshot sparked against the iron chain. Unfortunately, the chain didn't break; the corpse only swayed slightly.
"Your bullets aren't strong enough—the silver tips are too soft to penetrate," Xiao Heshang said, looking up. Then he glanced at Sun Fatty and said, "Sun Fatty, your crossbow should be more effective. This distance isn't a problem, right?"
Sun Fatty measured the distance, then said, "No problem at all." He retrieved the crossbow, loaded an arrow, and naturally handed it to me: "Spicy, you take the shot."
Having worked with Sun Fatty for some time, I knew him pretty well. When he agreed to Xiao Heshang's suggestion earlier, I already guessed this would be the outcome. Not wanting to argue, I took the crossbow without a word.
Looking up at the swaying corpse, I was about to discuss with Sun Fatty which one to shoot when suddenly he froze for no reason, then shouted, "Where are you going?" His little treasure rat had slipped from his pocket. It jumped to the floor and sprinted toward a corner of the wall, scratching at the wooden panels with its two paws.
Sun Fatty and Xiao Heshang immediately followed. Hao Wenming and Po Jun stayed behind them. The two crouched down and felt along the gaps between the wallboards. We had been so focused on the corpses hanging above that we had missed this. Now it seemed the treasure rat had detected something in its territory.
Sun Fatty tapped the wallboard, which produced a hollow sound. He glanced at Xiao Heshang and said, "It's hollow inside. Master Xiao, what do you think could be in there?"
Xiao Heshang searched along the panel for a while, as if looking for a hidden mechanism. After some time, he gave up.
"We'll find out once we get in. Sun Fatty, where's your knife? Come on, make an opening." Xiao Heshang pointed at the wall.
This time Sun Fatty didn't hesitate or ask for help from me or Po Jun. He drew a short sword, measured the spot, and after a few cuts and a kick, opened a man-sized hole in the wooden panel.
The treasure rat darted inside first. Sun Fatty and Xiao Heshang peered in and, seeing no immediate danger, followed one after another. I, Po Jun, and Hao Wenming followed behind them.
Inside was a storage room filled with over a hundred logs covered in bark, neatly arranged on the floor. These logs had been sawed in half lengthwise, hollowed out in semi-circular cavities to hide transported goods. The wood had rotted over time, crumbling to dust with a gentle pinch. The hidden items were exposed — modern shot put-sized golden spheres...
Seeing so many golden spheres spread on the floor was hard for us to process. Though I, Sun Fatty, and Xiao Heshang had once seen a cave full of gold beneath the old riverbed back home — an experience once in a lifetime — none of us were prepared to see such a scene again. Po Jun and Hao Wenming were even less ready; although they had faced many demons and ghosts, this was probably their first time encountering such an expanse of gold. Hao Wenming's eyes were wide as he murmured, "How come there's so much gold on this ship? Don't tell me it's fake — lead inside with just a thin layer of gold on the outside, used to weigh the ship down?"
Hearing this, Sun Fatty's lively expression froze. He had also heard before about ships placing ballast stones at the bottom of the hull. "Whether it's true or not, we'll find out," he said as he bent down to pick up one of the golden spheres. He weighed it carefully with both hands and said, "It's pretty heavy—close to twenty jin (about 10 kg)." Then he drew his short sword and jabbed the tip several times into the golden sphere.
This short sword was no ordinary blade. After just a few jabs, it pierced a small hole in the sphere. Sun Fatty's face brightened considerably as he looked up and smiled at Xiao Heshang and Hao Wenming. "It's solid inside—not lead."
Afterwards, Sun Fatty carefully collected the gold shavings he had chipped off, unwilling to waste them. He pulled out half a pack of tissues, gently wrapped the gold dust inside, and put it away. Then he looked at Xiao Heshang with a half-smile and said, "Master Xiao, what do we do now?"
Xiao Heshang had been smiling too, but suddenly seemed to recall something. Staring at the golden spheres scattered around, he momentarily blanked out, then frowned and said in a displeased tone, "Cool down. Fatty Gao is already on his way. What else can we do?"
Hao Wenming overheard the implication in Xiao Heshang's words. Smiling, he said, "Advisor Xiao, you've been at the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation for a short time. Many old rules have changed. Looks like you're not quite up to date yet."
"Rules changed?" Xiao Heshang frowned, repeating, "What rules have changed? Little Hao, be clear—don't keep things half-hidden."
"I'll keep it simple," Hao Wenming said. "When handling cases, if unclaimed historical assets are found, except for historical relics which must be turned over, valuable metals like this can be partially withheld by the investigation office. They can keep 20% for public use, of which 5% can be rewarded to outstanding investigators." Hao Wenming's face twisted into a strange smile. "Five percent… that's not bad."
"Five percent…" Xiao Heshang murmured. "Has Fatty Gao changed? That doesn't sound like him." Hao Wenming explained, "There were incidents where investigators secretly kept assets for themselves. To prevent this, Director Gao made this decision." He paused, glancing meaningfully at me and Sun Fatty.
Xiao Heshang missed this detail. He was calculating how much 5% of all these golden spheres would be when suddenly he smiled oddly and asked Hao Wenming, "Little Hao, after all these years, haven't you gotten any?"
Unexpectedly, Hao Wenming gave a wry smile. "Not so easy. Advisor Xiao, I've been working a long time, but this is the first time I've seen such a big haul. We've handled plenty of antiques and paintings, but those all go to the government. Five years ago, we found a late Ming dynasty treasury, nearly fifty tons of copper coins—worth billions now. But because they're antiques, we couldn't keep a single cent. Not to brag, but only Elder Qiu from Division Two has been lucky enough to handle several cases like this—gold or silver—and now he even owns a plane."
Before Xiao Heshang could respond, Sun Fatty cut in, "That's not right, Hao. Even excluding that desert case, when Spicy and I were at his hometown riverbed with Xiao Sanda, there were more gold bricks and ingots than this. Why did no one mention the five percent then?"
"You still dare ask?" Hao Wenming shot Sun Fatty a glare. "You two made it so public that now people fish for gold in the river every day—there's been one dead and one missing. With that much gold, the government took it all. Not just your division, but the entire bureau didn't get a penny. Otherwise, I'd be flying a plane too. Great Sage, Spicy, don't think we're showing off. Do you know how to spell 'low profile'?"
Sun Fatty fell silent. I knew Hao Wenming was right—my grandfather and third uncle had called me several times these days. The hometown was in chaos. The armed police had been deployed, the entire Qing River was sealed off, and villagers near my home kept coming to demand that Director Shen and Commissioner Sun intervene.
Though Hao Wenming's words seemed aimed at me and Sun Fatty, he also included Xiao Heshang. After all, Xiao had been a principal party in the riverbed case. Sure enough, Xiao Heshang's expression soured. He stopped Hao Wenming and said, "Save the petty talk for later. First, we need to sort this out here. Count the golden spheres clearly. When Fatty Gao arrives, we need evidence."
After speaking, Xiao Heshang assigned us each a section to gather the golden spheres. Before we started, Sun Fatty pointed toward the far corner of the secret room. "Hey? What's that?"
Following his finger, we saw an iron winch fixed in the corner, tightly wound with hundreds of iron chains about the thickness of a pinky finger. The other ends of the chains stretched up to the ceiling. Judging by their direction, these chains were what suspended the hundreds of "corpses" outside.
Seeing the chains reminded us of the real business—we had been so distracted by the golden spheres that we'd forgotten about the "corpses" hanging above.
Hao Wenming took a deep breath and said to me, Sun Fatty, and Po Jun, "Cut two of those chains and lower one of the people outside. I'll go see what's going on." He looked at Xiao Heshang, who sighed and said, "You go together."
Before Po Jun and I could move, Sun Fatty, holding his short sword, strode to the winch. "You two don't need to do anything. I'll handle it in one swing."
Speaking, he gripped the short sword and struck the iron chains. Po Jun's bullets hadn't broken the chains, but Sun Fatty put all his strength into the sword strike. The sword sliced through the chains like a hot knife through butter, barely encountering resistance. He severed almost all the chains on the winch.
Outside, the cabin was filled with the sound of heavy bodies hitting the floor, thuds and thumps non-stop. Xiao Heshang shouted from outside, "I told you to lower one! Why the hell did you drop them all?! Everyone out! Hao Wenming got knocked out!"
We rushed out from the secret room to see the floor littered with people. Xiao Heshang was pulling Hao Wenming out of the pile. Director Hao was unconscious, lying stiff on the floor.
Seeing Hao Wenming like this, Sun Fatty broke into cold sweat and asked Xiao Heshang anxiously, "Master Xiao, is Hao okay?"
"Not dead yet!" Xiao Heshang glared at the three of us fiercely and said, "Are you guys nuts? I'm almost seventy years old and this is the first time I've seen people dropping like dumplings from the sky!"
Po Jun knew some emergency first aid and checked Hao Wenming's pulse, then looked at me and Sun Fatty. "Nothing serious, probably a mild concussion. He should wake up soon."
After Xiao Heshang nagged a bit more, Hao Wenming groaned and woke up. He shook his head, trying to recall the moments before fainting. The sudden shock seemed to have caused a memory "blackout." Frowning, he looked at us and finally asked Xiao Heshang, "What happened? Why did I faint as soon as I came out?"
Xiao Heshang snorted, "Ask the others behind you."
Sun Fatty chuckled, "Heh, no worries, Hao, your low blood sugar hit you. Next time, keep some chocolate handy."
Hao Wenming looked at Sun Fatty drowsily, "I… low blood sugar?"
Xiao Heshang said, "Never mind, as long as you're okay…"
He hadn't finished when he froze. Not just him, but Po Jun, Sun Fatty, and I noticed something was wrong. Some of the people lying on the floor started showing slight physical reactions. The movements grew stronger. A few opened their eyes, pushed up with their hands, and shakily tried to stand.