SS Chapter 39

Long Xiuyu said, “We can’t wait any longer. While the phone has power, let’s open the door first.” He hoped that this shaking could help open the door, but reality is always cruel. After several people pried and pulled, the door still wouldn’t open.

Long Xinyu couldn’t help but say, “We have guns. Why don’t we shoot the switch?”

Sha Rou said unhappily, “That switch is embedded in a metal wall panel. The space here is so narrow. If a stray bullet ricochets, it could easily cause accidental injury. Besides, we don’t know what’s going on outside. If we shoot and attract the armed men, it’ll be a mess.”

Rao Xian also turned off the phone screen to save power.

After the four discussed, they realized that no matter what the situation was outside, they would be waiting to die if they didn’t go out. But the first step to getting out was to escape from the secret room.

Long Xinyu couldn’t help but ask Rao Xian for the time.

Rao Xian looked at his phone. Two hours had passed. Long Xinyu suggested that everyone take a break.

So, after a brief rest, the four of them continued to struggle with the door.

Finally, heaven never abandons those who persevere. The door showed a slight looseness under their persistent prying. The four people stacked their daggers together and continued to apply force. Finally, with all their strength, the door opened a very small crack.

With quick hands and eyes, Sha Rou immediately inserted Rao Xian’s cane to prop the door open. With this fulcrum, it was easier to exert force. Finally, with everyone’s joint effort, the door was slowly pushed open. Everyone worked together to finally push the door to a width that could accommodate a person to pass through.

The four people filed out one by one.

It was pitch black inside. The time was already past 1:00 AM. They could only see that the room was messy, with signs of being ransacked, from the faint light of the phone. A bronze sculpture placed on the ground was tilted at the corner of the bookcase. It was probably the muffled sound they heard in the secret room. The sculpture happened to be stuck in the corner of the bookcase, blocking the bookshelf, so they couldn’t open the door.

The room looked like it had been looted. Long Xiuyu carefully peered out the door for a moment and saw that the corridor was dark and silent.

So Long Xiuyu waved, asking Sha Rou to use the phone to shine some light. When Sha Rou shone the light, everyone was startled. Several corpses were lying scattered in the corridor.

Rao Xian came over to check each one. All the corpses had died from gunshot wounds.

He looked at the attire of the corpses. Several corpses were dressed decently, likely guests on the ship. The caliber of the gunshot wounds was also similar. There were also two corpses wearing black tights. Rao Xian speculated that they might be the armed men. One of the two corpses had a dining knife stuck in his chest, and the other had the bottom of a wine glass stuck in his eye.

It looked like the tourists and the armed men had engaged in a fierce fight.

What was the situation now? After the fight, one side had to have won, right?

This was what Long Xiuyu was worried about. If Jiang Lang’s side defeated the armed men, Lu Ye would definitely come to find him. But the fact that this tragic scene on the ship had persisted for so long made Long Xiuyu very worried that Jiang Lang and his men had been wiped out by the armed men.

Long Xinyu said in a low voice, “With such a tragic situation, I wonder how Wu Lin is doing.” That girl had been locked up by them. But just looking at this scene in the corridor, it was like a massacre. He didn’t know what the situation was like in the VIP area.

No one answered his question, and Long Xinyu didn’t care.

Everyone also felt strange, but no one could figure out what was going on.

Everyone agreed with his suggestion. The four of them guarded against each other, sticking to the wall of the corridor and walking upwards.

Along the way, they didn’t encounter any living people. There were corpses everywhere: crew members, guests, armed men, and even severed limbs. The smell of blood was overwhelming, making the originally luxurious cruise ship appear particularly terrifying.

—

Long Xinyu was walking at the back. He felt that if Long Xiuyu and Rao Xian weren’t there, he would have psychological trauma for the rest of his life—the more he walked, the more he felt like he might already have psychological trauma. The sight of corpses lying all over the place was really challenging his mind.

The more Long Xinyu walked, the more he muttered to himself, “Could it be that everyone on the ship is dead?”

Long Xiuyu, on the other hand, was thinking: “There weren’t many people on the cruise ship. How come we haven’t encountered a single living person?”

Rao Xian and Sha Rou felt helpless at the sight of so many corpses.

Rao Xian felt uneasy. The armed men had destroyed the bridge. How would this ship contact the outside world and navigate? Was their ultimate goal not just robbery but to kill everyone on the ship?

They hadn’t even encountered a single living person along the way. Had they all survived, or were they hiding? They couldn’t be sure.

The light on Rao Xian’s phone screen was dimming. They would soon be without a light source. Long Xiuyu suggested finding a room for everyone to rest in and wait until dawn to check.

In fact, Rao Xian wanted to suggest searching the corpses for cellphones that could be used for lighting. But looking at the current situation, the Long brothers were not trained professionals, and Sha Rou was a woman. It might be a bit difficult to ask everyone to search the corpses like this. Even if they found some, it wouldn’t be appropriate for a few people to move around in the darkness relying on the light of their cellphones.

In addition, it seemed that the situation they were most worried about, the ship sinking due to the explosion, would not happen for the time being. It was too dark, and they really couldn’t move around in the darkness.

Long Xiuyu, who was standing next to him, knew that the scene must be tragic without even looking.

Rao Xian and Sha Rou calmly opened the door, went in to check, and gave up only after discovering that there were no survivors.

The darkness made their actions very inconvenient. Long Xiuyu didn’t want to go to other floors to avoid complications. He suggested that everyone rest nearby and wait for daylight to make plans. Long Xinyu naturally listened to his brother. Rao Xian had already thought about this issue, and he didn’t object. Sha Rou naturally had nothing to say. She pushed open a door nearby and found that it seemed to be a storage room, with a large number of towels, blankets, sheets, and duvet covers inside. So the four of them entered the room, closed the door, and locked it.

Everyone found a blanket, sheet, and duvet cover to spread out and take a short rest.

Although it was called a rest, who could sleep after that night’s encounter? Everyone was just keeping their eyes closed, passing the time.

Most of that night had already passed, but it seemed extraordinarily long.

However, no matter how long it was, dawn would eventually break.

There were probably dozens of corpses on the deck. Blood was everywhere, dyeing the deck red. The blood stains had dried and turned black, with a pungent odor. In the huge recreational area, tables were overturned, and chairs were scattered. There was a chirping sound of seagulls hovering, like a human hell.

Even Rao Xian and Sha Rou, who often saw corpses, couldn’t stand it, let alone Long Xinyu and Long Xiuyu.

However, there weren’t many corpses of armed men either, so the number of survivors should be significant.

Long Xinyu sighed softly, wondering how Yue Zhonglin was doing. He had previously asked him to bet on the truth, but compared to what they were experiencing now, it seemed that their grievances were so insignificant.

Originally, everyone was hungry, but seeing this scene made them feel nauseous, and no one had an appetite.

Rao Xian suggested that everyone still find something to eat to replenish their strength and then check the ship to see if there were any survivors.

The four people groped their way to the kitchen. When the armed men got off the ship, they were in a hurry. There was a lot of food in the kitchen. However, the kitchen seemed to have been the scene of a firefight. It was a mess. The food had also been knocked over and scattered all over the place. Some of it was stained with blood. The ship was without power. The four of them rummaged through the refrigerator and found some food to replenish their strength.

Long Xiuyu analyzed:

First, the bridge had been blown up—even if it hadn’t been blown up, none of the four of them knew how to operate a cruise ship!

Second, whether Jiang Lang and his men had met with misfortune or had escaped, and whether there were any other survivors on the ship.

Third, how to contact the outside world and request rescue.

Fourth, the issue of survival, the most basic being food and drinking water. Whether the food and drinking water stored on the ship was enough to support them until rescue arrived.

Sha Rou said, “Then we must first see if the armed men have all withdrawn and whether there are any survivors on the ship?”

Rao Xian nodded.

Sha Rou asked suspiciously, “If not for money, what for?”

Long Xinyu interjected, “For the objects of the transaction, such as works of art, jewelry, arms, technology, design drawings, drugs, drug formulas, and even viruses. These cannot be measured by money.”

In fact, there was no other choice.

Rao Xian reminded, “So much time has passed since last night. If there are survivors on the ship, they may also be in a state of combat readiness. If the dead are armed men, then they are definitely trapped beasts. Everyone be careful. Don’t separate.”

Everyone responded. The four of them began to carefully search from the upper floors to the lower floors, room by room.

In other words, the armed men didn’t intend to leave anyone alive!

So where were the rest of the people? Were they killed, or did they escape?

They couldn’t have all jumped into the sea, right? The four people were filled with deep doubts.

Download Chapter as TXT