Ji Xun rapidly read through all the tucked-in contents inside the notebook.
In just a minute or two—a period in which a normal person couldn’t even finish reading a single entry—his brain had already frozen everything he saw into frame after frame of images, storing them in his memory.
The characters within those images connected into lines and aligned into columns, telling him a…
A bizarre and grotesque story.
Ji Xun remained silent, countess thoughts and conjectures swirling into a massive tornado that raged through his mind, until he realized the other two were looking at him.
They were waiting for him, and for the notebook in his hand.
Find a safe place first. Ji Xun pointed upward silently.
Mr. Liu’s quarters on the fourth floor did not connect directly to this area; they could sit down there to discuss the contents of the diary.
After finding a place to sit upstairs, Ji Xun handed the remaining portions over to Huo Ranyin.
He flipped directly to the fifth entry.
Deck Log
Voyage No. 8 | April 17, 1976
Deck Cleaning Staff: Xu Duo
Event: Violent conflict broke out between the sailors and management.
Flipping it over, glued to the back was a joint diary entry signed by three people:
April 16, 1976
Upon waking up, while we were still grieving for the late Cao Hang, Xu Duo came rushing in from outside, bringing a piece of news with him.
“Something big happened!”
“What happened?”
“Fu Ge is dead!”
Fu Ge is dead.
How—how did he just die?
Everyone gathered at the door of Fu Ge’s room. Xu Duo was beside me, using his burly, broad-shouldered frame—built from punching a sandbag labeled with Fu Ge’s name in his room day and night—to push through the crowd so Cao Mo and I could see the situation inside the room.
Fu Ge really was dead!
Those eyes that were usually so vivid, always looking down on us with contempt, had lost their vitality, turning into something… something that was rotting. I felt terrified and noticed that Xu Duo and Cao Mo were also staring straight at Fu Ge.
Xu Duo used his palm-leaf-sized hands to cover his eyes, peeking at Fu Ge through the gaps between his fingers; Cao Mo lowered his head, holding his precious cigarette, muttering god-knows-what under his breath.
I also stole a glance.
I saw him lying on the floor, looking as if his whole body had gained a whole ring of fat, as if he had gorged himself during those few days he was locked up. I even heard that on the day Cao Hang died, he was dead drunk and spewing nonsensical ramblings!
Of course, those people in management refused to admit it, claiming absolutely no one had brought liquor to Fu Ge.
Ridiculous! If no one brought him liquor, would Fu Ge have gotten drunk?
However, perhaps it was Cao Hang’s spirit in heaven at work, because ever since that drunken episode, Fu Ge hadn’t been doing well. He threw up several times, became listless, couldn’t eat anything, and kept complaining that the room was suffocating and he couldn’t breathe, clamoring to be let out. Naturally, we couldn’t let him out—
With Cao Hang dead, if the mastermind behind the murder could still walk around freely as if it were his right, how tragically in vain would Cao Hang’s death be!
Yet unexpectedly, he suddenly died…
Oh right, someone actually said they saw him twitching a couple of times back then. At the time, we all thought he was faking an illness; maybe he really was sick, or maybe… maybe…
At that moment, someone in the crowd suddenly spoke up, voicing my exact inner thoughts—
“A good riddance! Cao Hang’s spirit in heaven came back to settle the score with him!”
“Shut up!”
“Shut up!”
“Shut up!”
The management members standing guard at the door turned red with rage, their mouths twisted in anger as they roared at us. Among them, the third engineer, who was locked up in the adjacent room, leaped up like a monkey, dancing and shouting wildly in front of the window: “A life for a life! Make Lin Xiaodao pay for his life!”
An uproar broke out across the crowd; everyone felt as if a balloon ready to burst was stuffed inside their chest. What filled this balloon wasn’t air, but boiling oil and flames!
Cao Hang died because of Fu Ge and the third engineer, yet neither Fu Ge nor the third engineer faced any consequences. Now that Fu Ge was dead, Lin Xiaodao—who was locked inside his room and couldn’t possibly have carried out the attack—was expected to pay with his life.
Where on earth was the logic in that!
But we were chased away.
Management crudely drove us away from Fu Ge’s doorway, forcing us back to our rooms.
Xu Duo no longer cared about these orders. Once management left, he slipped right out to do god-knows-what. Cao Mo smoked silently in a corner, and as for me, I didn’t know what to do. I was staring blankly, thinking about Cao Hang.
Cao Hang!
We saw him take his last breath with our own eyes. Before dying, his eyes opened, but he couldn’t speak—he couldn’t say a single word, only looking at us helplessly with those eyes. He wanted a drink of water, but before the cup could reach his mouth, he breathed his last!
By mid-afternoon, it was again Xu Duo who brought back news, telling us:
The second mate found evidence that Lin Xiaodao was the murderer! They were going to get rid of Lin Xiaodao.
But what was the evidence?
No one knew. No one had any idea.
Driven to absolute fury, no one paid attention to management’s orders anymore. We stepped out of our rooms to visit one another, conferring that we absolutely could not let them harm Lin Xiaodao.
In the end, everyone agreed on a decision: once night fell, we would go together to find Long-ge!
We held out until nightfall, met Long-ge, and even saw Translator Liu inside Long-ge’s room.
When we arrived, Long-ge and Translator Liu looked very grim, and they seemed in a hurry to go out, as if they were completely unprepared for our arrival.
Long-ge spoke in a very harsh tone: “When did you guys arrive?”
I said in astonishment: “Everyone just got here.”
Translator Liu: “What are you here for?”
Xu Duo piped up: “To talk to Long-ge about Lin Xiaodao’s matter. Management wants to kill Xiaodao!”
Long-ge’s tone remained harsh, his face dark: “Management has been looking for an excuse to target you guys for a long time. Arriving in such a frantic, loud rush—aren’t you just handing them leverage on a silver platter? Get back right now! I have this under control. I’ll stand up against them and won’t let Xiaodao come to harm. Work hard and protect yourselves!”
I… in our hearts, none of us knew how to express our gratitude to Long-ge!
At this point, Translator Liu sighed: “Don’t talk big. Management has guns; how are you going to stand up against them? Push them too far, and they’ll give you a bullet and dump your body off the ship. You’ll die for nothing.”
We were horrified.
Cao Mo, who usually kept quiet, spoke up in a fierce voice: “What is there to fear? He only has one gun. If he dares to pull it out, I’ll plug the barrel with my body! You guys avenge Cao Hang and me—kill them all!”
Cao Mo and Cao Hang shared the same surname, coming from the same village with some roundabout familial relation… Sigh.
Even as sadness filled the air, everyone felt an even deeper hatred.
The fire could no longer be held in. Everyone crowded around Long-ge and Translator Liu, charging up to management’s quarters, smashing doors, beating on windows, and hurling loud curses. Among those cowards inside, not a single one dared to utter a sound!
We cursed for an hour or two. Halfway through, Lin Xiaodao heard us from inside his room, bursting into laughter and joining our shouting and cursing. Remembering Lin Xiaodao, we rushed over, smashed the door, and released him.
Afterward, we went to rest.
April 17, 1976
Upon waking up, a very strange thing happened. Everyone seemed to be hiding something. Several times, I saw someone holding a sheet of white paper, acting secretive and suspicious. The moment someone approached, they would immediately shove the paper into their pocket, just like a thief who had stolen some priceless treasure!
By noon, the truth came out.
Xu Duo arrived stealthily with a piece of paper, seeking me out to help him read the words written on it. I looked down, and written on the paper in crooked, uneven handwriting was:
“A pottery figurine in Miss Huo’s luggage is a national treasure, worth a full several hundred thousand yuan! Liu Yan and Feng Silong are negotiating in their room tonight to embezzle this fortune!”
I was shocked, feeling that this matter was utterly absurd. But looking at the strange expressions on the faces of those around me, I realized that they too had picked up that paper.
Furious, I said: “What kind of bullshit is written here? You guys actually believe this? It’s definitely a conspiracy by management.”
“It’s black ink on white paper… whether it exists or not, let’s bring Miss Huo out to verify it. Don’t forget that when we went yesterday, Translator Liu and Long-ge were both preparing to go out, and they only changed their minds after we arrived. They have an understanding,” Xu Duo said bashfully, then hurriedly defended himself, “I’m not the only one who thinks this way; everyone is discussing it. What’s that saying? Where there’s smoke, there’s fire—there must be some truth to it!”
By nightfall, discussions surrounding this matter seemed to grow even louder.
The second mate also came aggressively with a group of men to confront Long-ge, asking if he had hidden Miss Huo’s treasure!
He held a piece of paper in his hand.
Long-ge and the second mate argued for a while, after which they decided to bring Miss Huo over.
Shortly after, we saw Miss Huo, and her luggage was brought out as well.
Long-ge, Translator Liu, and management were all present. They asked Miss Huo to open her luggage, count her items, and verify if everything was there.
Well done, Long-ge! I cheered in my heart. All that talk about Long-ge wanting to embezzle Miss Huo’s treasure was absolute nonsense. Look at how open and above-board his behavior was! Clearly, it was management who wanted to embezzle it and failed. After all, in the beginning, it was the captain who seized Miss Huo and her luggage, and later the luggage was placed in the chief mate’s room—all management people!
It had been five turbulent days since Cao Hang was struck by the liquor bottle, and Miss Huo hadn’t appeared before us for five days either. But looking at her today, she was still so beautiful, so captivating, so glamorous and bright…
When she finished counting her belongings, she flashed a gentle smile at Long-ge and the second mate: “That’s right, nothing is missing, it’s all mine.”
We also saw the pottery figurine supposedly worth hundreds of thousands.
However… what a disappointment. It was just a strange, oddly-shaped thing resembling a bowling pin, barely the size of a palm.
We discussed it animatedly, unable to believe that this thing was worth hundreds of thousands! Translator Liu explained at length why it was worth so much, but we couldn’t understand a word of what he said. Long-ge didn’t seem to understand either, merely holding the pottery figurine carefully and handing it to Miss Huo.
Then our attention was captivated by Miss Huo’s face again, leaving the dusty, grayish figurine far behind us.
She smiled so beautifully.
I felt like she was smiling right at me.
So many people had died, and such earth-shattering changes had taken place on the ship, yet she hadn’t changed. She was still this beautiful, her smile still so breathtaking…
I, Xu Duo, Cao Mo, and Wu Lele, pledge that the content on this diary page was written truthfully by ourselves. This statement is hereby made.
This diary entry ended.
The next one was another deck log.
Deck Log
Voyage No. 8 | April 21, 1976
Deck Cleaning Staff: Wu Lele
Event: Conflict erupted once again between the sailors and management, resulting in multiple fatalities.
Flipping it over, the diary attached to the back this time belonged to Long-ge.
This person’s handwriting was firm and powerful, matching how others had previously described him.
April 21, 1976
After tearing away our disguises, we barely managed to maintain peace for a few days.
The reason we could barely get by was due in largest part to Miss Huo. Like a skylark, she flew lightly between us and management. No matter which side it was, as long as they heard her voice, no matter how great the anger had been before, it would dissolve on the spot; no matter how big the argument, no one was willing to tear at each other’s throats in front of Miss Huo…
She was our goddess of peace.
I had always felt this way, but Translator Liu had a different perspective.
On many occasions, Translator Liu looked at Miss Huo with an incomprehensible gaze. When I asked him, he merely smiled at me: “In Chinese terms, it is ‘blessings rely on misfortunes, and misfortunes lurk within blessings’; in more fashionable language, what you see is not necessarily the truth, but merely the truth you wish to see.”
A man of culture!
On the surface, I said nothing, but my heart was not without a cold sneer.
He was built from the exact same mold as the captain and the chief mate.
These men of culture, no matter how they presented themselves on the outside, were inherently arrogant and haughty to their bones. They looked down on me—people like me who did not belong to the same class as them.
The captain was at the highest tier of this ship, so he displayed his arrogant rudeness without restraint.
The chief mate had the captain above him, so he went out of his way to show an understanding attitude toward people of different classes, creating an image for himself that was starkly different from the captain. But the devious schemes hidden in his heart, compared to the captain, were even worse. Although the captain was arrogant, he wasn’t a fellow who calculated against people behind their backs.
As for Translator Liu, who only revealed his true colors this time, he might be the true snake-like figure…
It was just that this snake was currently standing on my side.
Ah, that was an inevitable reality.
The captain was dead and the chief mate was missing; who else could he rely on? The second mate? A man fierce on the outside but weak within, who was like an invisible ghost when the captain and chief mate were around, yet once he gained power, strutted arrogantly like a peacock displaying its feathers, completely unaware that he was exposing his bare ass for all to see?
Class does not represent everything.
Class was established by humans, and it ought to be broken by humans as well.
That was what I had always believed.
Everything happening on this ship now subtly proved my thoughts.
Translator Liu was a smart man.
Perhaps I ought to ask him what he truly thought about Miss Huo…
When I asked him humbly, Translator Liu no longer spoke in riddles. He said: “When we want to extinguish a fire, is it easier to put out when it has just caught flame, or when it has already turned into a raging inferno?”
“Of course it’s easier when it just caught flame,” I answered without thinking. “But doesn’t that prove Miss Huo is in the right? Over these past few days, whenever a dispute broke out between management and us, Miss Huo mediated between us, even enduring quite a bit of grievance herself.”
“But did Miss Huo really succeed in putting out the fire?” Translator Liu asked me back. “After several days of Miss Huo’s mediation, are you and your subordinate sailors able to get along with management any more peacefully?”
“…”
“Of course not,” Translator Liu said. “In fact, because Miss Huo suffered grievances, you hate them twice as much.”
“…”
“Then can this be called putting out a fire?” Translator Liu continued, “Miss Huo isn’t putting out the fire; she’s adding fuel to it. She’s merely using a pretty-looking quilt to cover up those sparks. She makes you complacent, making you think the sparks are extinguished, yet those sparks are still burning fiercely beneath the ground where people can’t see, waiting to ignite a prairie fire.”
“But why would Miss Huo do this?” I asked Translator Liu. This time, Translator Liu offered no answer.
I didn’t fully believe Translator Liu’s words. While his words made a bit of sense, upon careful thought, they were not without absurdities—much like my final question: Why would Miss Huo do this? What benefit would it bring her?
Translator Liu’s silence was probably because he didn’t know how to explain it either.
And I could answer him, as could many people on this ship—this was purely out of Miss Huo’s good heart!
However, Translator Liu’s words weren’t entirely baseless.
For instance, what he said about the conflict between us sailors and management not easing up at all because of Miss Huo’s mediation… Yes, as someone in the middle of it all, my feeling was even stronger than his… I had a premonition… Translator Liu was probably right. If the conflict had broken out earlier, it could still have been controlled within a safe range, but now… no one had a way anymore. The storm was coming soon, a storm no one could resist…
Miss Huo probably didn’t anticipate this. She had good intentions, but did harm…
Yet was she really such a shallow woman?
In the limited time I spent with her, every single smile and frown of hers matched the image in my dreams. She even understood me better than I understood myself.
I didn’t believe—I was unwilling to believe—that she could commit the kind of low-grade mistake that mundane, ordinary women made…
I went to find Miss Huo.
The doubts in my heart needed Miss Huo to answer them, but seeing that pure and flawless face of hers, I felt ashamed of my own suspicions.
To Miss Huo, who was wholeheartedly helping us, this was truly a defilement!
Miss Huo saw that I had something on my mind. She indulgently allowed me to kneel on the ground and wrap my arms around her legs, letting my head rest long upon her thighs while her fingers gently combed through my hair. My anxious heart gradually settled under her touch.
I clung to this posture, like a man clinging to his lover, like a child nestling against his mother.
I couldn’t help but pour out the secret in my heart to her… From the very beginning when I boarded the ship, the moment I laid eyes on her, I fell in love with her! It was only that the captain forcibly snatched her away! Fortunately, in the end, the captain received the karmic retribution he deserved, and she was finally rescued from that cage. Although I wasn’t the one who directly rescued her, my heart and my actions were identical to the chief mate’s.
“I know,” she said with a captivating smile. “I understand.”
“Then—” I held my breath, waiting for Miss Huo’s verdict. How did she view my heart? Was she willing to accept it? Was she willing to hold it in her hands like a precious treasure?
“But now is not the right time.” Melancholy brushed across her brows. “Now is not the right time.”
Now is not the right time—why wasn’t it the right time, and when would it be the right time?
I pressed her repeatedly, but Miss Huo refused to speak another word. She coldly kicked me to the ground; as gentle as she had been a moment ago, she was just as cruel now. Seeing that I wouldn’t leave, she actually opened the door and raised her voice to call the second mate over!
The second mate glared at me like a hawk, his hand resting on his shotgun. Since that night, that shotgun had never left his side.
I had no choice but to leave in disgrace… like a dog running away with its tail between its legs.
I turned back to look. The second mate had his back to me, talking to Miss Huo. Miss Huo was conversing with him with a smile at the corner of her lips, but I noticed that as I turned around, her eyes swept toward me. She had answered my question from earlier:
How would it become the right time?
Only when I became the master of this ship, only when I had no more enemies left—would it be the right time!
【——】
(A section repeatedly scribbled over with black ink)
Ji Xun stroked the back of the paper with his hand, discerning its contents.
This line read:
This shouldn’t be! What on earth is Miss Huo thinking? What on earth does Miss Huo want to do? Is this the real her?
His fingers lingered on this section for a long while before he continued reading downward.
—Blood was shed.
A conflict broke out between Cao Mo and the third engineer. Cao Mo pressed a burning cigarette directly onto the third engineer’s face, and the third engineer’s agonizing screams echoed throughout the ship. We rushed out and witnessed this scene, and before I could react, a full-scale clash had erupted.
We all picked up weapons, as wave after wave of shouting and killing echoed in my ears.
Then came a short, sharp gunshot—
A sailor fell, blood spreading across the deck like a flower.
It stained the deck red, and it stained my eyes red as well.
There was no turning back. Miss Huo seemed to appear behind me, giving my shoulder a gentle push… I charged forward too, plunging into the crowd to fight alongside the sailors, my subordinates!
One short gunshot after another.
One companion after another fell.
Until they finally shielded me and charged in front of the second mate, until I finally seized that gun. I looked around and saw the third engineer holding a boning knife tightly in his grip, with two dead sailors lying beside him, their bodies chopped to pieces by the boning knife. Meanwhile, Cao Mo was punching his face punch after punch, hitting him so heavily that his face caved into his head, yet he kept hitting…
Xu Duo grabbed the second mate’s sidekick, his teeth sinking deep into the man’s windpipe.
Wu Lele collapsed on the ground, unaware that one of his legs was gone. He had ripped open the second engineer’s stomach and was tearing at the contents inside.
So many people fell, so many died.
Management’s people, our people… but in the end, we won. The one who won was me.
I, Feng Silong, pledge that the content on this diary page was written truthfully by myself. This statement is hereby made.
Only one final log remained. This distant narrative from forty years ago was finally reaching its end.
It was still a deck log. Perhaps the final story took place on the deck as well.
Deck Log
Voyage No. 8 | April 22, 1976
Deck Cleaning Staff: Cao Mo
Event: Second mate was killed.
Flipping it over, a diary was still attached to the back. The last entry was written by Translator Liu.
April 22, 1976
The Buddha says that everything is fated, and not a single bit is up to human control.
I do not believe in Buddhism. I think that coming to this point today is the result of coincidences, accidents, and our own choices.
The moment I understood this, I also understood Miss Huo.
The reason others could not see through Miss Huo was that in their hearts, they had already placed too many labels on her: gentle, kind, pure, innocent, beautiful, naive… the combination of all beautiful ideals. They transformed her into the goddess of beauty in their minds.
Even up until now.
Even now—when Miss Huo had single-handedly brought about a sea of blood and mountains of corpses—they still failed to realize it at first glance. Miss Huo must be lonely too; she had made it so glaringly obvious, yet apart from me, everyone remained like wooden and clay statues, unable to read her heart.
Some might ask, why did Miss Huo do this?
Because Miss Huo is beautiful.
But isn’t Miss Huo’s beauty an objective reality?
It is indeed an objective reality, but beauty requires a backdrop. The more a person knows they are beautiful, the more they require grand offerings to set off their beauty, and a grand ceremony to accomplish their legend.
We were merely the gorgeous sacrifices chosen by Miss Huo to accomplish her legend.
I have spelled it out so clearly. If anyone still doesn’t believe it, please use that brain sitting on their shoulders like a decorative piece and recall carefully:
From the very beginning, among all the conflicts that occurred on this ship, which one was not related to Miss Huo?
Because Miss Huo was discovered and taken away, the sailors began to feel dissatisfied with the captain, leading the chief mate to lead men to force the captain’s hand, directly resulting in the captain being confined and dying mysteriously; next, because Miss Huo was terrified, Lin Xiaodao foolishly stepped forward to admit he was the “killer,” which led to another wave of conflict and caused the chief mate and quartermaster to go missing while searching for the real murderer; not to mention the conflict between Fu Ge and Lin Xiaodao triggering a whole series of events afterward… all the way until now.
Until Feng Silong and the second mate were finally incited to bring their respective men to fight to the death on the deck.
How much like the Trojan War!
Whoever won the ultimate victory possessed the right to the beauty and the treasures.
These are the things a man in this world ought to own, and only own.
Now, I think we can go get our deserved spoils of war.
Yes, “we.”
Miss Huo validated her beauty through all of us, and all of us ought to possess the right to share her.
Long-ge got what he had dreamed of.
He no longer could only embrace Miss Huo’s legs or rest his head on her thighs. He embraced her, her tears dripping onto his arms—not like water, but like dancing, mocking flames of fire.
Why do I know this so clearly?
Because when I embraced Miss Huo, identical tears dripped onto my shoulder in the exact same way.
I reverently kissed away those burning tears.
Miss Huo opened her hazy eyes and whispered softly: “The second mate… what should we do about him?”
It was a whisper issued from hell by a demon.
You conquered them, but the second mate is still alive; if the surviving second mate gets ashore, he will definitely expose you—
The second mate, what should we do about him.
Her body, like mutton-fat white jade, trembled in waves, as pink flowers emerged beneath her fair skin.
That was the color of blood.
Blood nourished this exquisitely beautiful body from the inside out, and all the life and spirits carried within that blood were thoroughly absorbed by her as it flowed through her body.
I knew full well that this woman, who seemed like a goddess, was merely a demon disguised as one…
Yet I prostrated myself beneath the demon’s skirt.
I think it wasn’t just me—everyone still alive prostrated beneath the demon’s skirt.
The demon had torn away her chaste facade, but we couldn’t escape anymore. We could no longer escape from her hook-like fingers. With a gentle flick of her fingers, we moved like marionettes at her beck and call.
Time and time again, we went to her room to pray, sinking into stupor within the smiles she bestowed, like heavy alcoholics who knew alcohol was poison, yet still sought heaven only within the wine.
Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, during a single night between sleeping and waking up, the flesh that could grant us warmth died without warning.
Slumped on the bed, it first grew stiff—as stiff as a block of ice—and then turned wet and soft, as soft as rotten mud.
Miss Huo died.
Flies landed on her delicate collarbone, small insects crawled onto her rounded toes, and her fragrance subtly altered, as if gradually emanating the foul, rotting odor that only vulgar corpses produced.
But that face.
That face, while her body rotted, remained completely motionless, as if freed from the measurements of time and the bounds of natural laws, still preserving its most vibrant color and most beautiful appearance.
We did not dare to defile that face; we could only compete with the flies and insects for that foul, rotting flesh. Time and time again, we kissed this body, kissing a piece of stinking meat like pilgrims on a pilgrimage, unable to escape from it at all.
How painful.
How tragic.
What was even more painful and tragic was that at this point, the demon transformed back into a goddess. She abandoned her physical shell, and thus her sins dissolved, leaving behind only pure beauty—a beauty unattainable by mortals.
When I closed my eyes, I already understood.
The goddess of beauty cannot remain in the mortal world for long.
When she remained in the world, what she gave me was merely illusionary pleasure and real torment, because I wanted to possess her exclusively, but no one could possess the goddess of beauty exclusively. But when she died—the pain ceased.
The real torment vanished, and so the illusionary pleasure became real as well.
From then on, we possessed her; every single one of us possessed her.
She transformed from a singular entity into infinity, accompanying us every second, every minute, anytime and anywhere.
I think I understand now—who it was that, in such a short time, developed murderous intent and decisively killed her.
There were plenty of killers on this ship.
As I said before, with just a slight use of the head resting on one’s neck, one would understand—who killed the captain, how the chief mate and quartermaster went missing, and how Fu Ge died!
But do these truths still carry any meaning?
It has already come to this point.
Following her will, we dragged the bound second mate back onto the deck.
Long-ge presided over this ceremony.
Among those left now, aside from the second mate, there were only me, Long-ge, Lu Kun, Chu Xingfa, Yu Hai, Lin Xiaodao, Xu Duo, Cao Mo, and Wu Lele—nine people in total.
These nine people were not all our companions.
During the firefight on the deck back then, Lu Kun and Chu Xingfa hid in their rooms and did not participate; Yu Hai’s cold storage was far from the deck, so he didn’t make it in time either. As for me, I am ashamed to say that I was merely a scholar and truly didn’t react in time back then.
“I didn’t want to kill anyone, but having walked to this point, there’s no choice,” Long-ge said. “Miss Huo was right; only the second mate is left—kill the last member of management, and this matter is settled. Once we return to shore, no one will gossip anymore.”
The second mate let out an animalistic scream. He scrambled up to run, but was immediately pinned to the ground by the sailors like a pig. Long-ge looked at me, and Miss Huo looked down at me from the sky. Without hesitation, I plunged a knife into the second mate’s abdomen.
Behind me was Yu Hai, who had little hesitation just like me. Though he was still clutching a string of Buddhist beads in one hand, his movement in stabbing someone looked as natural as slaughtering a pig.
Next was Lu Kun… Lu Kun stood in front of the second mate holding the knife for a long time.
The second mate’s agonizing screams never ceased.
From the moment he tried to run, he was screaming and cursing. When he was stabbed the first time, his voice suddenly spiked, then slowly grew quiet. By now, it was very low, sounding like a pig grunting over there.
By the way, Lu Kun was the only person who never entered Miss Huo’s room.
Would he be the only one to escape from the demon’s trick?
After a long time, to the point where everyone grew impatient and Cao Mo and Xu Duo began to guard against him, Lu Kun plunged the knife into the second mate’s chest.
He did not escape.
He might have been able to escape the real Miss Huo, but he could never escape the illusionary Miss Huo.
Only Chu Xingfa was left.
The sailors urged Chu Xingfa to act quickly. They didn’t actually dislike this head chef; he didn’t usually look down on people, and plus his cooking was quite good, so he was fairly popular. That was why they were willing to give Chu Xingfa a little time.
Everyone said:
“Just like slaughtering a pig or a chicken—close your eyes and it’s done in one go!”
“Don’t wait, he’s done for; just consider it giving him relief.”
“If you don’t give him relief, it’ll be our turn to give you relief.”
However, this threat was merely a verbal one.
We weren’t true demons…
Chu Xingfa still couldn’t make up his mind. Holding his head, he knelt on the ground and begged Long-ge to spare his life.
He didn’t understand that it was precisely because Long-ge didn’t want him to die that he forced him to make a decision!
Long-ge reached a resolution. He shot a glance at two men, having them coerce Chu Xingfa forward. When they dragged Chu Xingfa in front of the second mate, Chu Xingfa vomited with a loud blech…
The second mate was already dead.
His blood had run dry.
In the end, Long-ge made the call, letting Chu Xingfa dismember the corpse.
That way, there was no need to kill Chu Xingfa anymore.
Everything was over.
We returned to Miss Huo’s corpse once more.
She still lay there quietly. That physical body grew increasingly foul-smelling, yet that face grew even more beautiful.
This was a beauty against which humans could not contend. It was the beauty that humans relied upon as a pillar to survive in this painful world.
Therefore, she alone could not be simply lumped together with other corpses. That would be a defilement to her, and a slight to ourselves.
She selflessly gifted us her remains.
We and she are together forever.
I, Liu Yan, pledge that the content on this diary page was written truthfully by myself. This statement is hereby made.
