Chapter 3 Sudden

  The road is not long, and after a short run, I quickly arrived on the deck. It was only then that I noticed the sky outside had already darkened a bit.

  A large crowd of passengers, about a hundred or so people, and several dozen sailors, surrounded the left side of the ship's rail, making a racket, pointing and gesturing.

  I squeezed into the crowd under Xie Lao San's lead, and saw that everyone had their heads down looking into the Huangpu River. I leaned on the railing, following the direction of the crowd's gaze downwards, and suddenly my pupils contracted, seeing a severely swollen corpse floating face up in the murky river water below the boat. The corpse was very close to the boat, almost stuck to the hull like a magnet.

  Soon, I found another similar corpse tens of meters away, a naked female corpse, swollen to twice its original size, looking a bit nauseating, with an indistinguishable face, having been soaked in the water for at least three or four days. She was slowly drifting towards the ship.

  "It's really over." Xie Lao San muttered a sentence.

  I didn't understand what he meant until a minute later, when I discovered something unusual. Although the river water can splash onto the shore, the current here is calm and the waves are small enough to be ignored, and the main direction of the river flow is towards the east into the sea. The Jinhua Ferry was docked by the shore, but the corpse moved straight over from the center of the river, heading southwest against the current, completely defying logic. Either something was pulling it over, or this female corpse had swum over itself!

  This is... unbelievable.

  I couldn't help but feel astonished, I've heard of many strange and mysterious things, but today is the first time I've seen it with my own eyes.

  "Look quickly, that dead person is going to climb up!" someone exclaimed, and with this cry, the crowd of onlookers suddenly dispersed.

  "Huh? What?" I was still unclear about the situation, when suddenly, coincidentally, I was pushed hard by several desperate passengers, and more than half of my body fell out of the railing, only relying on the muscles in my waist to hold on, with both legs hooked tightly onto the railing, which prevented me from falling headfirst. At this time, my head was hanging straight down, and my eyeballs reflexively stared at the corpse that had its back turned towards me, Emperor Dao Tian 5200.

  At this sight, I suddenly took in a breath of cold air.

  This corpse... is moving up along the hull at a slow but visible pace!

  What's terrifying is that the corpse didn't move its limbs, but instead, its body was like a slug, sideways and slowly crawling upwards.

  After Old Three pulled me back, I hastily asked: "What's going on?"

  Xie Lao San replied bluntly to my question: "I don't know!" He paused and continued, "It started appearing from last night, this is the third wave. At first, I was also scared."

  "But look, he actually won't really climb up," said Xie Lao San, pointing to the corpse. The latter indeed stopped moving, with half of its body leaving the water's surface and sticking to the boat. As if to confirm Xie Lao San's words, the corpse truly didn't move at all.

  The female corpse still floated towards the Golden Lotus Wheel with a lingering reluctance to leave.

  The passengers on the ship were in an uproar, with some taking the lead and ignoring the sailors' attempts to dissuade them, insisting on disembarking. Some didn't even ask for a refund of their ticket money, and returned to the cabin with pale faces to pack up their unopened luggage.

  "This boat must be hiding something unclean, it's even attracted a dead person!"

  "Damn it! We haven't even set sail yet and we've already seen a drowned ghost. Heaven is telling us that this ship will never reach Taiwan, it's going to sink! Brothers, if you don't run now, you'll end up feeding the fish in the sea!"

  "What's more, someone shouted: 'This is a victim of the Taiping steamer, come back to find a substitute! I don't want to die!'"

  ……

  The noise is getting louder and louder.

  Xie Lao San was furious, and on the spot, he slapped several people in the face. With dozens of fierce sailors surrounding him, making menacing remarks, they finally managed to control the situation. People who mix with the sea most dread talk of sinking ships.

  Although I don't say it out loud, deep down I'm also uneasy like everyone else.

  At this time, a small boat for picking up garbage arrived and served as a corpse-collecting ship. The old master on the boat loudly recited a few sentences of Amitabha Buddha and some slang, bowed to the corpse, then hooked the corpse's head with an iron hook, tied its waist with a rope, and pulled it away from the boat with force. In the instant when the corpse was moved away, the dead man's face happened to be facing me directly, just a few meters apart, and I felt as if he was staring at me. The time was short, but it was indeed a feeling of being stared at, and I couldn't help but get goosebumps all over my body.

  Shook his head, must be his own eyes playing tricks on him.

  The female corpse was also taken away at the same time.

  Later, I heard from the boatman that the two batches of corpses that came before had a total of five bodies, three males and two females. They died about a week ago, and their identities were largely confirmed to be residents nearby who had reported missing persons at the police station a few days ago. The causes of death were different, and it seemed that they were killed by someone and thrown into the river with heavy objects tied to their bodies. From the signs I heard, their deaths had nothing to do with the Golden Flower Ferry. It's just that these corpses inexplicably all appeared near the Golden Flower Ferry. However, the location where they were dumped was not here, which means that these corpses somehow magically appeared here through some kind of force.

  ……

  I didn't see the sailors comforting the panicked passengers, blowing in the river wind, wandering on the deck. In fact, I was paying attention to the structure of the Jinhua ship, which is not very big, only about 100 meters long.

  He walked unintentionally to the cabin entrance, and the hatch cover had not been fully closed. Looking inside, the cargo hold had been renovated, isolating most of the space to build a temporary cabin for passengers. The remaining space had a large iron gate that looked like it was temporarily welded on, dividing the ship into two parts.

  A row of sailors stood with their hands clasped tightly together. As soon as I approached, they shouted at me to leave.

  "No need to think about it, it's probably silver coins inside, or even gold. It could also be some of the captain's private goods." I muttered a sentence and walked away quietly.

  Returned to the room prepared for me by Old Third Shuai, which was where I woke up. Rested for an hour.

  A long, drawn-out whistle blast startled me awake.

  That night, the ship set sail.

  The Jin Hua wheel opened very suddenly, a night ahead of schedule.

  The official explanation was that all passengers were present and there was no need to wait any longer, but I think it might have something to do with the bizarre corpses that appeared over the past two days. In any case, the ship set off, and for some people, their hearts felt a little more at ease.

  But have we really set foot on land? Far away from the mainland's constraints, drifting alone in the East China Sea, danger can come at any time. Before setting foot on Taiwanese soil, no one dares to say they are truly safe.

  At night, one of Xie Lao San's men called me to go to the dining hall for dinner.

  The dining room is located near the control room, and the space is not large. Many long benches have been added, which are already crowded with passengers. From the mouths of the sailors, I learned about my differences from them. Because I had a first-class ticket, I occupied a high-ranking sailor's room, while other sailors could only squeeze four people into one room. As for other passengers, sorry to say, they didn't have such good treatment - eight people huddled in a narrow space, similar to taking the train.

  But at this time they can't afford to think so much, just endure for a few more days.

  I was taken deep inside, where there were eight tables with a few smartly dressed passengers sitting sparsely, forming a stark contrast to the others.

  These people are first-class passengers just like me. I somewhat dislike this kind of distinction in treatment, but there's nothing I can do about it.

  These noble passengers, who are usually high-ranking officials on the mainland, wouldn't even give me a glance if it weren't for the fact that I'm sitting near them. After I sat down, they kept stealing glances at me with their peripheral vision. One of them, a middle-aged man surnamed Qin from the Finance Bureau, whom I had seen before, was among them. Of course, he wouldn't have any impression of me. At this moment, Mr. Qin and several other dignitaries were nodding and smiling at me. Apparently, they took me for one of their own kind.

  I forced a smile in return.

  I deliberately chose an empty table, quiet.

  At this time, the sailor brought me dinner.

  A croissant, a cup of red tea, a bowl of porridge, a plate of salted vegetables, and a small bowl of stir-fried noodles.

  I'm at a loss whether to laugh or cry, and the East-West combination is already a compromise, but what exactly is this - breakfast, afternoon tea, or midnight snack?

  But these things were already twice as abundant as those of ordinary passengers, and after touching my rumbling stomach, I started eating. Calculating this way, I had not eaten for a day and a night.

  Gobbling it down, hey, when you're hungry, anything tastes good.

  When I was halfway through eating, several people walked up to my table.

  Tired of reading books? Let's take a look at some beautiful girl pictures to relax our eyes! 177tvb Beautiful Girl Picture Website