A thunderous crack echoed.
Lightning sliced through the sky first, followed by the belated rumble of thunder.
At the sound of the muffled thunder, Ji Xun looked at Boss Wu and suddenly asked, “Whose descendant do you think we are?”
Boss Wu was caught off guard, but almost immediately, a spark of fury seemed to brew beneath his terror. Without hesitation, he locked onto an answer: “…Chu Xingfa’s descendant!”
Chu Xingfa’s descendant.
He actually wasn’t wrong. I really am Chu Xingfa’s grandson, Ji Xun mused.
He looked at Boss Wu again and asked slowly, “There were only six rooms on the ship. Assuming all six of you were the beneficiaries, there are still three people unaccounted for. The deceased Feng Silong, the escaped Chu Xingfa—what about the last person? None of you sustained leg injuries, and neither did Lu Kun or Yu Fanhai. The last person must be Wu Lele, right? Why didn’t you guess him? Why didn’t you guess the descendants of Feng Silong, who was explicitly murdered? Did you guys eradicate them root and branch?”
A fleeting trace of pain surfaced on Boss Wu’s face.
Yet beneath his overlapping age spots and deep wrinkles, that flicker of pain was barely noticeable—just a trivial betrayal, a faint pang in his long, crime-ridden life.
Ji Xun asked again, “Lu Kun holds a fan made of bone. Is that Huo Qiying’s bone? Is it some kind of token? Tell me its purpose.”
That bizarre expression flickered across Boss Wu’s face once more.
It was a strange look—completely out of place with his terror and resentment.
A strange look of what could almost be called bizarre relief.
Twice now. Boss Wu had displayed this expression that he shouldn’t have shown twice already.
What does this expression actually mean? Ji Xun pondered. Where does this eerie sense of familiarity come from?
Boss Wu stayed silent for a moment before writing down: “That day—April 22nd, the day Miss Huo died—we couldn’t bear to let Miss Huo go… Conveniently, Feng Silong brought up our current situation, so everyone decided to put brotherhood first and swear a blood oath! To share wealth and woe, to stand together through thick and thin—not asking to be born on the same day, month, and year, but seeking to die on the same day, month, and year. So we became sworn brothers. Becoming brothers required a bit of ceremony, ideally a token of alliance. So we… used Miss Huo’s corpse… Each of us received a piece of bone crafted into a talisman of the Goddess Mazu. We agreed that if anyone faced trouble in the future, as long as they produced this item, the others had to help unconditionally. This was the bond and testimony between us.”
Poetic words for a ghastly truth.
Their testimony was someone else’s corpse, and their bond was even less capable of withstanding the crushing weight of self-interest.
“Then how did this whole operation start?”
“I don’t know the full details; I just followed behind them to make money. At first, I followed Big Brother Long. Big Brother Long was in the underworld. Later, when the underworld got tough, Yu Hai started smuggling goods between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, which was also quite lucrative. Actually, by then, we had enough money… but when is money ever truly enough? Then Mr. Liu got into human trafficking, which gradually evolved into organ trading… It got higher and higher end, so I stopped dabbling in it directly and just collected my annual dividends,” Boss Wu wrote.
“When were your gatherings held? Why were there empty rooms?”
“We gathered every year on Mazu’s birthday, and we’d also meet up whenever we felt the need—sometimes twice a year, sometimes once every two years, it varied. As for the empty rooms on the ship… ever since this ship started running, Lu Kun stopped getting involved with us. He gets seasick, but he’d attend the gatherings on land. Yu Hai said he only wanted to do smuggling and didn’t want to get involved in Mr. Liu’s line of work, calling it cruel and unethical… That man—so hypocritical. He was utterly ruthless when he was smuggling. But he got his retribution; he had a son, his only child, who was born with albinism. It scared him half to death, so he washed his hands clean and turned to charity, saying he wanted to build up good karma to raise his son.”
These details were lengthy, and Boss Wu took a long time to write them all down.
“Liu Yan didn’t make things difficult for these two and kept rooms reserved for them to show that no matter what, they were still one of us. Later, Yu Hai indeed didn’t come aboard. Liu Yan asked his son, but the son wouldn’t come either, so he let it drop.”
Everything was now clear.
Ji Xun stood up from the coffee table, and Huo Ranyin rose from the sofa as well.
Yet neither raised a gun. In fact, the weapon had already been stowed away.
After a brief moment of disbelief, a flicker of hope for survival ignited in Boss Wu’s eyes. When his gaze met Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin’s again, his terror and resentment vanished, replaced by a flatteringly sycophantic smile plastered across his face.
Ignoring his smile, Huo Ranyin hauled the man up from the sofa, dragged him all the way into the bathroom, and dumped him into the bathtub. Then, using hotel linens, he bound his hands, legs, and mouth tightly. Ensuring that the man was completely immobilized, he stepped toward the bathroom exit. As he reached the doorway, he glanced back at Boss Wu, paid no mind to the man’s pleading eyes, and firmly shut the door.
Double protection.
Even if Boss Wu struggled to make a racket inside the bathroom, the noise wouldn’t carry outside.
The two left Boss Wu’s room, called out to Meng Fushan, who was still guarding outside, and all three returned to the third floor.
Huo Ranyin took the notebook and headed out to the deck, while Ji Xun handed the papers containing his communication with Boss Wu over to Meng Fushan.
Meng Fushan skimmed through the pages from start to finish, quickly grasping the gist of the situation.
“Where’s Boss Wu?” Meng Fushan asked.
“Locked in the bathroom downstairs.”
“Just like that?”
“How else should it be?”
“You two sure are trusting…” Meng Fushan rubbed the papers in his hand, murmuring to himself.
“He can’t run,” Ji Xun stated calmly. “As long as we unravel the mystery, locate the signal jammer, turn it off, and make contact with the outside world, he—and all of them—will receive the punishment they deserve. We are already very close to solving this mystery.”
Meng Fushan remained silent, neither explicitly agreeing nor disagreeing with Ji Xun’s logic. But his furrowed brows slowly smoothed out…
“The truth about Ji Yu is closer too, right?” he suddenly said.
“Yeah.”
Meng Fushan muttered, “I’ve always felt that, in the end, Ji Yu was still the Ji Yu we knew. What she did…”
His voice trembled slightly.
Very faint, like a ripple on the water’s surface.
Yet so many raging waves were hidden beneath that subtle ripple.
“On April 22nd, they divided the bones. Maybe… that’s why Ji Yu…”
In the end, Meng Fushan left the sentence unspoken. Instead, he said:
“Pulling you onto this ship might be the most correct decision I’ve ever made.”
“But pulling you onto this ship,” Ji Xun replied, “was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.”
Ji Xun then stood up.
“Forget it, we’ve come this far—there’s no need to speak so despondently… Give me a few minutes, then we’ll go face the killer.”
Leaving Meng Fushan behind, Ji Xun walked out onto the deck to find Huo Ranyin.
However, after stepping out and looking around, Huo Ranyin was nowhere to be seen.
He stood there until a voice came from behind:
“Done heart-to-hearting with your partner?”
“Actually, I wanted to say this the first time you brought it up,” Ji Xun turned around to see a subtle movement in the shadows of the corner as Huo Ranyin stepped into view. “Doesn’t that word have a few too many meanings?”
“It does,” Huo Ranyin said casually. “So it perfectly covers both you and Meng Fushan, doesn’t it?”
“Are you jealous?” Ji Xun threw a direct pitch.
“You think you still have the standing to make me jealous right now?” Huo Ranyin countered.
“Of course I do.”
“…”
“Because you are jealous,” Ji Xun said. “So clearly, my standing is more than sufficient.”
“You really have thick skin,” Huo Ranyin said quietly.
“Not thick enough, clearly,” Ji Xun leaned against the railing. “Otherwise, I would’ve kissed you the moment I saw you. That way, you wouldn’t have used that word in front of innocent Meng Fushan… He’s homophobic, you know.”
As he spoke, Ji Xun actually began to feel a stroke of sympathy for Meng Fushan.
“…Did you come over here just to spout this nonsense at me?” It seemed Huo Ranyin’s patience was reaching its limit.
“Not really.” Ji Xun pulled a rock candy from his pocket and popped it into his mouth. “I was thinking about the killer. The killer lacks the ability to move freely and is trapped in a specific room. If he wants to punish crime with crime, his revenge isn’t over yet. How is he going to proceed? He left a notebook, leading us to find Boss Wu and uncover what happened forty years ago. The truth is infuriating and heartbreaking… but so what? That doesn’t guarantee we’ll take the law into our own hands against Boss Wu after reading the diary. If he wants to fish in troubled waters, he needs us to feel an urgent need to create chaos. The diary alone isn’t a strong enough motive—at most, we’d find a way to negotiate with Boss Wu without directly confronting Mr. Liu. In other words, it’s not chaotic enough…”
Speaking up to this point, Ji Xun suddenly paused.
“Actually, there’s another possibility.” He looked at Huo Ranyin. “Seeking a police resolution.”
“You mean…” Huo Ranyin looked thoughtful. “Right. Finding the clue in the trash can required having searched it beforehand; only then would someone notice something extra added to it. Otherwise, even you wouldn’t have locked onto it right away. When the murder occurred, everyone saw me carefully inspect that trash can. In other words, that trail was intentionally left for me. He knew I would return to the scene.”
“I guess he saw you jump from the second floor to the first,” Ji Xun said. “His plan was hatched in the window between Mr. Liu locking down the second floor and Mr. Liu leaving the second floor for the deck. During that window, the only trajectory of yours that could have been seen by someone on the second floor was that single jump.”
“He saw your superb climbing skills and recalled your excellent evidence-gathering abilities during the earlier crime scene. He made a bold guess that you’re a police officer. Only a cop would return to the crime scene under such circumstances to collect evidence. Even if you weren’t, placing his clue there was safe—no one else would notice a few extra pieces of paper in a trash can.”
“But that brings up another question…” Ji Xun said. “What does the killer want the police to do? It probably isn’t just about the truth from forty years ago. While a forty-year-old cold case matters to the police, a crime happening right under their noses matters just as much.”
“Contacting the outside world,” Huo Ranyin said. “Driven into a corner, the killer felt his chances of continuing his revenge were slim, so he wants the police to arrest the culprits. Don’t forget our original objective… find the killer, turn off the jammer, and contact the outside world. Looking at it now, it’s somewhat ironic—this might very well be what the killer hopes for too.”
“Indeed, highly likely,” Ji Xun agreed.
“As for who the killer actually is…” Huo Ranyin glanced at Ji Xun.
“Don’t worry, I’ve already figured it out,” Ji Xun assured him.
“Very well. In the future, you can cut straight to business the moment you walk in,” Huo Ranyin said coolly, turning around to head back inside.
“I beg to differ.” Ji Xun didn’t move, remaining leaned against the railing as he popped another rock candy into his mouth. “Business needs to be discussed, but I think before we get down to business, you need to relax a bit—or maybe blow off some steam.”
“How convenient.”
Ji Xun said candidly, licking a trace of sugar off his lip.
“I need to, too.”
Rip—
The sudden noise made Meng Fushan inside the room knit his brows.
He looked toward the source of the sound and saw the curtain by the deck door half-torn, swaying gently.
Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin were behind the curtain.
Nothing should have gone wrong.
Still, his hand instinctively moved toward his weapon… until the curtain was pulled aside. Huo Ranyin walked out first, followed by Ji Xun.
Meng Fushan first looked at Huo Ranyin, whose expression was noticeably calmer, then looked at Ji Xun behind him, who was covering his mouth.
“What happened?”
Huo Ranyin darted a side-eye at Ji Xun.
Ji Xun’s voice was somewhat muffled: “Got tripped up while thinking, snagged the curtain.”
“Your tongue?”
“Bit it when I tripped.” Ji Xun replied.
Meng Fushan stared at Ji Xun with a look that plainly said, Do I look like an idiot to you?
Yet he didn’t say a word.
Huo Ranyin had merely punched Ji Xun—if the victim himself didn’t care, why should he get worked up over it?
After leaving the third floor, they made their way to one of the decks on the second floor.
The reason they could move around so freely without encountering a soul was all thanks to Mr. Liu’s full cooperation… However, this deck was different from the one they had climbed onto earlier—in fact, it was likely different from any other deck here.
The deck door to this area was unlocked.
Unnoticed by anyone, the glass door leading out to the deck had been opened.
The wind howled, whipping the curtains into all sorts of grotesque shapes.
Those grotesque shapes resembled a dark, mocking sneer inviting them inside.
Or rather…
The killer’s mocking sneer.
Author’s Note:
Still haven’t finished editing the other half… it’s too late, I’ll fix it when I wake up.
Occasional Mini Theater
【Meng Fushan’s Little Confusion】
Known: Huo Ranyin punched Ji Xun.
Phenomenon: No visible wound on Ji Xun’s face.
Deduction: Huo Ranyin didn’t put much force into it.
Phenomenon: Ji Xun is covering his face.
Deduction: Ji Xun is fishing for sympathy.
Conclusion 1: Ji Xun really plays dirty.
Conclusion 2: Huo Ranyin’s fist is surprisingly soft.
