Inside the door was a small room of about thirty square meters, with a very simple layout. At the center of the room stood an enormous water tank. Facing it was a recliner, and flanking the left and right walls were built-in bookshelves, neatly stacked with hundreds of volumes. A young white-haired man lounged lazily in the recliner. After casting a weak glance at us, he turned to the black-clad white-haired man and asked, "Qianhu, has the situation outside gone out of control?"
The black-clad man showed deep deference to the young man inside. He bowed slightly and said, "The ones outside have begun to go mad. They won't hold out much longer—half a day at most—before the drug poisons reach their brains. By then…" His voice trailed off, and he sighed heavily. The implication was clear.
Suddenly, he shot us a furious glare and snapped, "Look at what you've done! Couldn't you have just stayed quietly in the cabin upstairs? I went through all that trouble to suspend them and suppress their madness temporarily. And you had to stir things up and let them down—do you have any idea what kind of disaster you've caused?"
Only now did I realize that earlier, when he yelled "Look at what you've done!", it had been directed at us. And it had been him who locked us in the cabin. We had thought it had something to do with the creature, even speculated the black cat had turned into a spirit. Since this whole mess was indeed our fault, and we still didn't understand the full situation, none of us—except for Fatty Sun—dared to talk back when reprimanded by the white-haired man.
"If you didn't want them let down, you should've put up a damn sign," Fatty Sun retorted, completely unfazed. "Over a hundred people chained through the collarbone and hung from the ceiling—how were we supposed to know what was going on? You should've written, 'These people are infected with a deadly condition. Letting them down may cause them to go berserk and bite. Do so at your own risk.' That would've been clearer. You can't blame everything on us."
"Fatty, shut up! What nonsense are you spouting?" Xiao Heshang was startled by Fatty Sun's boldness and quickly scolded him. Neither of the white-haired men before us were people we could afford to offend. If Fatty kept provoking them, things wouldn't end well for us.
Sure enough, the black-clad white-haired man shouted, "Say that again if you dare!" His already pale face turned an ominous shade of green as he looked about to explode. But just then, the young white-haired man raised a hand and said calmly, "Qianhu…"
With just that one word, the black-clad man froze, breathing heavily. But his breathing soon slowed, and after about ten seconds, his complexion began to return to normal. He turned and bowed to the younger man without another word.
The young man sighed and added, "Qianhu, let it go. Even if they can't hold on and fall into the next cycle of reincarnation… for them, that might be a kind of release." As he said this, he stood up and looked at the large water tank, murmuring, "A kind of release that we can only envy." There was a trace of sorrow in his voice. The black-clad man sighed as well. For a moment, both men looked rather forlorn.
"Not to be rude, but can I say something?" Hao Wenming, who had mostly recovered by now, looked at the two white-haired men and asked, "Can you tell me what's going on with this ship? Who are you two? And who were those people hanging outside?"
The young man smiled at Director Hao and waved a hand. "No rush. Let me ask a few things first." He turned his eyes to Fatty Sun and pointed to the crossbow in his hand. "Where did you get that crossbow? And…" he gestured toward me and Fatty Sun, "you each have a short sword—where did those come from?"
Then he sat back down in his recliner, waiting for our response.
The swords must have been mentioned to him by the black-clad white-haired man. I glanced at Fatty Sun. He didn't even blink and said, "The swords and crossbow are mine—heirlooms from my family."
The black-clad white-haired man's expression changed drastically. He choked on his breath and began coughing violently. The young white-haired man rose from his recliner, took a few steps closer, and studied Fatty Sun closely. Suspicion filled his face as he asked, "You… your surname is Wu?"
Fatty Sun shook his head. "No, my surname is Sun. My mother's surname is Wu. The swords and crossbow came from my maternal grandfather's family. There were no male heirs in that branch, so I inherited them."
The young man looked back at the black-clad man, who nodded and said, "He did mention once that a bloodline had survived in the outside world—one that only produced daughters. It seems this generation produced something unusual."
Fatty Sun's cobbled-together story was enough to convince them about eighty to ninety percent. The black-clad man walked over and grabbed Fatty Sun's shoulder. "Besides the swords and crossbow, did you bring anything else? Did your mother's family give you anything to bring aboard—like pills or elixirs?"
Fatty Sun blinked 'innocently' and shook his head. "What would I be carrying? Pills? Who's sick—"
Before he could finish, a familiar sound interrupted from a corner of the bookshelf—one I had hoped not to hear: "Nyehh…" I shivered. That cry was unmistakable.
Sure enough, the black cat slowly emerged and leapt directly onto the recliner, completely unfazed. It seemed very much at home. The cat meowed several times at the young white-haired man, who calmly picked it up and held it in his arms.
Apparently, the cat belonged to him. Sun Fatty pointed at it and asked, "This cat… yours?"
The white-haired man replied, "You could say that. A friend gave it to me. He worried I'd get bored on the ship. He also gave me that tank of fish."
Only then did I realize that the massive water tank actually had fish inside. Fatty Sun, who was closest, leaned in for a quick look and immediately shouted, "Lazi, come look—the fish in the tank! We've seen them before!"
I stepped forward half a step and leaned over to look inside the fish tank. About a dozen or so white strange fish, each roughly the size of a palm, were swimming back and forth. These strange fish were covered in feathers all over their bodies; as they swam, their feathers fanned out, looking like little white furballs. Fatty Sun was right — these were the Ying Fish we had seen more than half a year ago at the exit of the Water Curtain Cave. It was the appearance of these Ying Fish that had marked the beginning of the tragic deaths of my then team leader Lao Wang and other comrades. Seeing these Ying Fish again naturally stirred some feelings in me.
My reaction surprised the young white-haired man. "Hmm? You've seen these Ying Fish before?"
Before I could answer, Fatty Sun spoke up first. "I saw them at my grandma's house. She treats them like her precious treasures and says these Ying Fish die as soon as they leave the water—every single one counts. She hardly lets anyone see them. I happened to catch a glimpse when I helped her move."
The young white-haired man glanced at me, then at Fatty Sun, still somewhat skeptical but unable to find fault with the story. He exchanged a look with the black-clad white-haired man; both were filled with doubt. Neither were fools, but having drifted at sea for so long, their ability to discern lies had weakened. At that moment, Xiao Heshang said, "Isn't it time to answer our questions? Also, what kind of ship is this? What's the deal with the golden orb in the cabin? And how did the Soul-Calming Bell from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period end up here?"
The two white-haired men fell silent. Finally, the young one said, "Since you seem to have some connection with 'him,' there's no harm in telling you a few things."
The black-clad white-haired man softly interrupted, "Master, their words may not be entirely truthful and may not have anything to do with 'that person.'"
The young white-haired man replied, "That doesn't matter. We probably won't get past this checkpoint. This ship doesn't need to drift the seas anymore. The land is no longer the realm of the Zhu clan, and there are fewer taboos."
He hesitated for a moment, then said, "Qianhu, you explain it to them."
After saying this, he ignored us and sat back in his recliner, playing with the black cat.
"Understood." The black-clad white-haired man bowed respectfully, then looked at us and continued, "This ship was one of the two treasure ships sent by the eunuch Sanbao on his voyage to the Western Oceans. The golden orb you saw outside is part of reparations from the Kingdom of Java to the Ming dynasty's people after mistakenly harming them. As for the bell… it was originally intended as a tribute to India, but due to some unforeseen events, it stayed on the ship. The frenzied people outside were originally soldiers and sailors of the treasure ship. They had taken a special drug to survive so long."
He sighed and fell silent.
"And what about you two? Who are you?" Hao Wenming asked. It seemed these two were probably the reason this ghost ship had drifted for six hundred years. Since we'd come this far, we might as well keep asking.
The black-clad man did not answer, but the young white-haired man said, "Qianhu, speak. After today, no one knows how our fate will end. At this point, there is nothing left to hide."
"Understood." The black-clad man hesitated a moment, then said, "I am Zheng Jun, Qianhu of the Jinyiwei. This gentleman is…" After another hesitation, he added, "My master… a powerful noble of this era."
As he spoke, Zheng Jun bowed slightly toward the young white-haired man.
The young man smiled faintly. "Thank you for your efforts. That explanation is acceptable."
Hao Wenming was still unsatisfied and wanted to continue questioning, but suddenly a loud noise came from outside. It sounded like someone shouting, but the volume was exaggerated to the point that the sound distorted by the time it reached our ears.
Zheng Jun's face changed dramatically. He asked, "Are there others on the ship besides you?"
My first thought was that Fatty Gao had arrived with his group, but I quickly dismissed it—they couldn't have arrived so fast, and even if they had, they wouldn't cause such a ruckus. Hao Wenming shook his head. "No, it's just the few of us who boarded."
Zheng Jun turned to the young white-haired man and said, "Master, I will go check."
He seemed uneasy with us all in the room, then turned to us and said, "Come with me to take a look."
Curious about the noise, we were about to leave Fatty Sun and Xiao Heshang behind to continue questioning the young white-haired man. But Zheng Jun ordered us out without argument.
We retraced the narrow path and returned to the hellish ship cabin.
The cabin was deathly silent. The soldiers and sailors Zheng Jun mentioned who had gone mad were lying on the floor, and those still hanging from the ceiling had been released. Their previously pale skin had regained color.
Zheng Jun checked several of them and murmured with relief, "They're returning to normal…"
At that moment, the sound of continuous bell ringing came from the upper deck of the ship. "Go up!" Zheng Jun shouted as he dashed up the stairs.
As soon as we entered the cabin upstairs, we saw a man standing with his back to us beside the Soul-Calming Bell, repeatedly kicking it.
He wore white clothes and had white hair. If it wasn't Wu Rendi, Director Wu, then who else?
Hearing the movement behind him, Wu Rendi glanced at us. He showed no surprise at our presence on the ghost ship.
Zheng Jun's first words on seeing Wu Rendi were, "You're ten days late."
Wu Rendi looked at him expressionlessly and replied indifferently, "Got held up by some matters…"