Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Soft rhythmic tapping echoed through the lounge. Sitting in the middle of the room, Huo Ranyin tapped his fingertips against the table. In this idle waiting period, even the faintest repetitive sound grated on the nerves like cicadas on a summer afternoon, stoking unprovoked restlessness.
Just as the three grew thoroughly impatient, a bodyguard sprinted in from outside and whispered something to the two guards posted in the room. The two guards’ expressions shifted subtly; without so much as a word to Huo Ranyin and the others, they turned and rushed out after the messenger.
The three bosses exchanged bewildered looks.
“What happened?” Boss Radish asked.
“What else could it be?” Short Boss snapped. “Something must have gone wrong outside!”
“Another incident?!” Boss Radish trembled, nerves throbbing violently in his teeth.
Huo Ranyin was already on his feet before the two finished speaking. Descending from the highest tier, he arrived at the level 3 atrium—a vantage point that offered an unobstructed view of all three lower levels.
It must be on the first floor.
Assessing the situation instantly, Huo Ranyin prepared to sprint down the stairs—only for two hands to grab his jacket hem from either side.
“…”
Huo Ranyin looked back. Short Boss and Boss Radish stood flanking him, each tightly clutching a corner of his coat.
“Don’t be reckless,” Short Boss advised earnestly.
“We go together, we all go together,” Boss Radish added hastily, refusing to be left behind.
Huo Ranyin had no choice but to drag the two bosses along, shuffling down to the first floor step by step.
Upon reaching the main deck, they found all the bodyguards, crew members, and Mr. Liu gathered in the atrium.
Mr. Liu was organizing a search party—hunting for the Ghost, as well as the missing bodyguard A’Tang who had vanished along with it.
A flurry of hurried footsteps mingled with the intermittent chime of the elevator bell, echoing all the way to Ji Xun’s ears.
Curled up inside the pitch-black, narrow enclosure, Ji Xun listened to the muffled chatter outside:
“First floor rooms checked!”
“Second floor rooms checked!”
“Third floor rooms checked!”
“Heading into the ventilation shafts!”
“A’Tang was last seen in the first-floor gambling area’s vent. There are signs of a struggle nearby. Exercise caution—the Ghost is armed.”
Ventilation covers were unbolted as searchers crawled into the dark, narrow, concrete-lined shafts one after another…
“Sigh,” someone grumbled. “Still nothing.”
“The Ghost vanished, and this time he took a full-grown man with him without leaving a trace. Do you think… Tang was dumped overboard into the ocean? Once you toss a body in the sea, you’ll never fish it back up.” [cite: “幽靈消失了。這次還帶着一個大活人一起消失，怎麽都找不到，你說……湯哥會不會已經進海裏了？把人往海裏一丢，這輩子都不可能再撈上來。”]
“Even if we can’t find Tang, finding the Ghost will do.”
They talked and searched, standing directly beneath Ji Xun’s hiding spot time after time, providing him with a live play-by-play of the situation—yet not a single person ever thought to look straight up.
Ding— The elevator chimed again. “Ding, first floor reached.”
The men who had rushed in scurried away just as quickly.
Inside the pitch-black, narrow elevator shaft, Ji Xun—hiding atop the elevator car alongside the unconscious A’Tang—curled his lips into a silent smile.
Hiding right under their noses—a classic trick that never fails.
“Something… isn’t right…”
The bosses had all gathered in the first-floor atrium. Beyond the seven ordinary bosses, even Boss Jiang and Boss Wu—shareholders residing in VIP quarters—had emerged to cluster around Short Boss.
Huo Ranyin eyed the ventilation duct, leaped gracefully, and hoisted himself up using both hands. Reaching the scene of the struggle, he swept his flashlight around, took in the surroundings, and then dropped back down to the gambling area the same way he came.
The moment he landed, he was met by the dumbfounded stares of the assembled bosses.
Boss Radish marveled: “Young people move… faster than we can speak!”
Short Boss asked: “What did you see up there?”
“Nothing much. The Ghost wiped their tracks clean,” Huo Ranyin stated. “The bodyguard was likely dragged backward from behind before suffering a heavy blow to the head against a support pillar. That prevented him from crying for help initially, causing him to lose ground step-by-step in the ensuing fight until he was knocked out and carried off. As for the Ghost, they possess solid height and combat skills, carry immense self-confidence, and act with meticulous caution… Yes, that’s roughly it.”
“You call that ‘nothing much’?” Ponytail Boss blurted out instinctively. “You deduced a mountain of details!”
“How did you figure out how the bodyguard was knocked down?” Short Boss inquired.
“Drag marks on the floor, bloodstains on the pillar. If he hadn’t been rendered silent from the start, there’s no explaining why A’Tang didn’t shout the moment he was ambushed. The crew was searching the first floor right then; a single yell from inside the vent would have been heard immediately.”
“And the Ghost’s height and combat skills?”
“Based on the facts, the Ghost has likely killed two bosses already, leaving edged weapon wounds in both instances. The Ghost had the advantage of stealth and a sharp weapon, yet chose hand-to-hand combat against an armed bodyguard—what is that if not absolute confidence in their skill? Physical combat cannot transcend objective body limitations; A’Tang is 1.78 meters tall and powerfully built. To overpower him, the Ghost must possess a baseline height and weight to match.” Huo Ranyin explained calmly.
As for being meticulously cautious—the fact that I couldn’t find any further clues to profile the Ghost proves just how thorough they are, Huo Ranyin thought to himself. This ship is truly a den of hidden dragons and crouching tigers.
“How does that saying go?” Short Boss looked at Huo Ranyin with newfound respect. “The rear waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves forward.”
“Hooligans need an education too,” Huo Ranyin replied smoothly, leaning into Short Boss’s earlier assumption about his background.
Amused, Short Boss pulled Huo Ranyin into their inner circle, addressing the group: “Listen up, everyone. In times like this, people with our shared standing must stick together. Every bit of strength counts. Take this young brother here—if not for this display, who would have known we had such a hidden gem among us?”
He then turned back to Huo Ranyin.
“We’ve agreed that this entire affair is deeply suspicious, and we need to confront Mr. Liu directly. What about you?”
When it came to alliances, there was only “us” and “everyone else.” Huo Ranyin chose “us” without a moment’s hesitation; his earlier analysis had been calculated specifically to secure a advantageous position within this group.
The bosses found Mr. Liu.
This time, the confrontation didn’t happen on Mr. Liu’s private deck, but right in the center of the first-floor atrium.
Short Boss launched an attack against Mr. Liu without holding back: “Mr. Liu, there’s something I’ve found deeply troubling. Your crew sweeping the first floor claimed the second and third floors were secured, but in reality, those upper floors were completely empty. The bodyguards were clustered together, while us bosses were cordoned off separately.”
He wasn’t just speaking to Mr. Liu; choosing the central atrium was deliberate. By raising his voice slightly, the crew members and bodyguards scattered across three levels searching for A’Tang could hear and witness the entire standoff.
He continued loudly:
“At a time like this, why was A’Tang neither with the bodyguards nor by your side, Mr. Liu, but instead isolated in a ventilation shaft where he ran into the Ghost?”
“That’s right…!” someone in the crowd chimed in. “Why did you tell us the second and third floors were monitored when no one was guarding them?”
“Everyone is moving in groups—why was Tang acting alone?”
“Everyone, these two questions are simple to answer!” Short Boss declared, his voice ringing out loud and clear as he unveiled the answer before the entire room. “We just need to ask our dear Mr. Liu why he had A’Tang impersonate the Ghost in the first place!”
An uproar erupted across the hall.
“You—” A’Bang cocked his pistol.
“What, you dare shoot me?” Short Boss thrust his chest forward, pressing it right against A’Bang’s barrel. He glared down at Mr. Liu. “Won’t you control your hound, Mr. Liu? A dog under your command dares bark at guests! Or have you finally decided to drop the act? Did you trick us onto this ship just to take our lives?”
Mr. Liu’s gaze swept across the faces around him.
In just a short span of time, the bosses had banded together, the crew members stood in their own group, and the bodyguards clustered separately.
Humans naturally fall into tribal lines, he mused privately.
“Lower your weapon,” Mr. Liu commanded A’Bang.
“…Yes, sir.” A’Bang lowered his hand.
“Very well, I indeed instructed A’Tang to pretend to be the Ghost,” Mr. Liu admitted with a nod. “I also deliberately separated you to test everyone individually, hoping to smoke out who might be collaborating with the killer.”
“Too bad the Ghost proved stronger than you anticipated, and you ended up suffering a double loss,” Short Boss sneered.
“More than that—Mr. Liu handed the Ghost an epic upgrade: a gun fully loaded with ammunition!” Boss Radish, usually steady, couldn’t refrain from laying out the cold facts. “When the Ghost only had a knife, they easily murdered two bosses and neutralized Mr. Liu’s head bodyguard. Now that they have a gun, is there anyone on this ship they can’t kill? We started with thirty people; now only twenty-seven remain. Your issued sidearms are Glocks, holding roughly ten rounds per magazine. With the Ghost’s skill and nerve, wielding a firearm is enough to engage us in a direct shootout—let alone now that they’re hidden where no one can find them. The moment someone steps off alone—a cold shot! Another person strays—another cold shot!”
“Forget straying off alone,” Ponytail Boss interjected urgently. “I don’t even think moving in groups of three or five is safe anymore. The enemy is in the shadows while we’re exposed in the light! The Ghost kills indiscriminately—crew members, external bosses, internal bosses alike! No one is safe!”
“You are all correct,” Mr. Liu stated placidly. “I miscalculated.”
“Now that this plan has failed, what other brilliant ideas do you have, Mr. Liu?”
“Does Short Boss have a better proposal?” Mr. Liu countered.
“I don’t have any grand proposals for now,” Short Boss spat back defensively. “But I believe continuing Mr. Liu’s practice of throwing baseless suspicions at everyone will only get us killed while the Ghost laughs at our expense. I propose that from this moment on, everyone must trust one another, stand united, and defend against our sole common enemy: the Ghost!”
“A’Fang, come back over here,” Boss Jiang interrupted suddenly, calling out to his personal bodyguard.
A man among the bodyguards hesitated briefly before detaching himself from the group and stepping up to Boss Jiang’s side.
“Xiao Han, you too,” Boss Wu chimed in. Without hesitation, his bodyguard followed suit, rejoining his employer.
“Now that things have reached this point,” Short Boss resumed, “is Mr. Liu willing to take a stand?”
“What stand do you wish for me to take?” Mr. Liu asked.
Standing on the steps, his eyes swept over the crowd once more, watching familiar expressions surface on a sea of unfamiliar faces.
They are so alike, he observed inwardly. So strikingly identical to that moment in the past.
Technology updates continuously and generations of people cycle through, yet the fundamental nature of the world never changes.
It remains a world where every individual fights ruthlessly for their own survival and power—a world where beasts of blood and bone insist on donning a sheepskin labeled “civilization,” pretending to adapt to the times.
Just like this vessel—a glittering, fraudulent ship packed with hideous, authentic human nature.
The irony of human beings lies in how they label their truth as hideous, while dressing up their deceit as beauty. Always deceiving themselves, always reveling in self-delusion
“Stay with us. From here on out, whatever decisions are made must be made public and agreed upon by everyone,” Short Boss declared.
A universal vote. How entertaining, Mr. Liu mused with subtle amusement. Though a so-called referendum is merely a pretext to seize power.
“Very well,” Mr. Liu offered a thin smile. “For the sake of everyone’s lives, so be it.”
