Chapter 97

The cabin door was opened by Qin Mu.

Everyone instantly tensed up, looking into the cabin, then they let out a sigh of relief.

There was no one inside.

"No one," Qin Mu sighed in relief, then wiped his forehead, which was drenched in cold sweat just a moment ago.

"What do we do now?" He Zhiwen asked in a low voice.

Han Yushu looked puzzled and muttered, "I definitely didn't see wrong. There must have been someone here, and now they must be hiding."

In the thick fog, hearing Han Yushu's words, everyone felt a chill. Qin Mu gritted his teeth slightly and said, "Why don't we search the ship thoroughly? Those skeleton monsters have been dragging the ship with chains but haven't climbed aboard. This ship is indeed a bit strange."

Zhao Zifang, who had awakened the muscle gene, glanced at him and said, "Since we know the ship is strange, we should stay on the deck and not touch it recklessly. Otherwise, something unexpected might happen."

"But staying on the deck isn't a solution either. Outside the ship, there are always skeleton monsters. How can we escape?" Xue Tao pondered.

"I'm thinking, is there something on this ship that can restrain those skeleton monsters? That's why they don't dare to board the ship. But this thing might be very important to them, so they keep dragging the ship through the fog?" Qin Mu suddenly proposed an idea. Everyone was stunned, and several people nodded, feeling that Qin Mu's guess made sense.

"Right, this idea isn't entirely unreasonable. Because the ship always appears in the fog, we've mythologized it, thinking it's like a ghost ship. But in fact, it might just be an ordinary ship that the skeleton monsters are dragging through the fog, which adds a lot of mystery to it," Xue Tao said.

"Qin Mu's words are very likely. Otherwise, we can't explain why the skeleton monsters drag the ship but don't board it," Han Yushu finally spoke, agreeing with Qin Mu's view.

Seeing everyone agree, Qin Mu pondered for a moment and said, "Why don't we search the ship thoroughly? We'll split into teams, be careful, and watch out for each other. If there's real danger on the ship, staying on the deck is equally dangerous. Conversely, if there's no danger, we might find something useful."

Everyone agreed with Qin Mu's view and began to assign tasks.

Chu Nan, however, was thinking about Qin Mu's words, wondering why the skeletons didn't enter this ghost ship. He also recalled the day in the cathedral, where the skeletons didn't enter either, and the final result proved that the cathedral was indeed strange. So, what could be the reason that the skeletons don't step onto this ghost ship, yet they drag it through the fog with chains?

All of this seemed like an unsolvable mystery.

"I'll go to the captain's cabin, you go to the forward cargo hold, you go to the lower deck..." Qin Mu assigned tasks, and soon everyone split up.

Chu Nan and Qin Mu entered the captain's cabin together.

The captain's cabin was clean and tidy, almost spotless, unlike a terrifying ghost ship that had been abandoned for many years.

They saw a nautical chart and instruments laid out on the table. The chart was open, and Chu Nan glanced at it, noticing that it was marked in English, which he didn't understand well.

"This... is a bit strange..." Qin Mu muttered, looking at the intact furniture, the tightly tied hammock, and even the clothes still hanging on the wall.

Everyone's faces turned grim. Qin Mu hurriedly opened the adjacent cabin, which should have belonged to the first mate, and found the porthole open, with everything inside neatly arranged.

Chu Nan observed everything, instinctively tightening his grip on his weapon. This ship was indeed too strange.

On the outside, it looked old and dilapidated, as if it had endured a century of storms, but the inside was neatly arranged, as if someone had just left.

Soon, a cry from Han Yushu came from the other side. Chu Nan and Qin Mu were startled and rushed over.

Han Yushu's voice came from the lounge. Chu Nan and the others rushed in and saw Han Yushu and a few others in the lounge, all pale and terrified.

In the lounge, there was a pot of soup still steaming, soup bowls on the dining table, utensils, a sewing machine by the lamp with an unfinished child's garment, and toys on the floor. It seemed that there had been children on the ship.

Everything looked as if a group of people had just finished a meal and left. Seeing the steaming soup, the bread that had just been cut and was still warm, and the half-drunk cup of hot milk, everyone's faces turned extremely grim.

"What's going on? Were there many people on this ship? Did they suddenly disappear after we entered?" Qin Mu's voice became low and hoarse.

Behind them, He Zhiwen and Wu De walked over, their faces pale, and said, "We just saw a lot of cargo in the cargo hold, all barrels of wine. And... one of the barrels looked like it had been opened recently, with some missing..."

"Let's go." Qin Mu's face turned extremely grim. Everyone felt that the ship was very abnormal, but no one could pinpoint the problem. Finally, they went to the ship's storage room, where they found hams, smoked meat, dried fish, vegetables, flour, and large blocks of butter, enough to feed a ship's crew for a long time, and plenty of fresh water in the barrels.

The food hadn't spoiled and was still edible, but the current group, no matter how hungry, dared not touch any of the food on the ship.

"Let's go back to the deck first." Qin Mu raised his voice. This ghost ship was too strange, yet they found nothing else. They searched the entire ship but saw no one or any monsters.

Everyone gradually left the cabin and regrouped on the deck.

"Is everyone here? Come out and return to the deck." Qin Mu raised his voice again.

Hearing his words, everyone looked at each other and realized that only about eighty people had regrouped on the deck, while over a hundred and twenty had initially boarded the ship, and about thirty were still missing.

Qin Mu raised his voice and repeated several times, but there was no response from the cabin, and no one came out.

"What's going on?" Qin Mu frowned, counting the people. Including himself, there were only eighty-nine people, while there had been over a hundred and twenty initially. Had he counted wrong?

"It seems everyone is out, no one is in the cabin anymore?" Han Yushu was also unsure.

"That's not right. There were more people just now. I didn't count exactly, but it seems... something is off," Wu De also frowned.

Chu Nan also felt that the number of people seemed off. He had a deep sense of unease and said in a low voice, "Are some people still in the cabin? Let's go in and check again."

Qin Mu hesitated for a moment and said, "Alright, let's check."

He left the others on the deck and they entered the cabin again, searching the forward cargo hold, the captain's cabin, the storage room, and the lower deck. Everything was the same as before, unchanged, but the pot of soup was almost boiling, and the aroma filled the air.

Xue Tao licked his lips and said, "It smells good, I really want to have some."

"Don't touch anything on this ship," Qin Mu said solemnly.

"It seems no one is in the cabin. Everyone is on the deck. Maybe the fog was too thick, and we had a wrong impression. Maybe the total number of people who boarded the ship was only eighty-nine."

Qin Mu said this and led everyone back to the deck.

Chu Nan sighed softly, "I hope so." He had a strong sense of insecurity about the ship but couldn't pinpoint why.

The ship, except for the food and the arrangement that looked like someone had just left, seemed to have no danger. The most important thing was that the ship was surrounded by a dense crowd of terrifying monsters, and they were trapped on the ship, with no one able to think of a way to leave.

On the deck, the fog still rolled thickly. Many people were resting, leaning or sitting, and some were discussing the food they had seen.

One of them said, "There's nothing strange about this. Isn't this how ghost ships or ghost ships in legends are? The food is warm, but there's no one. It's like everyone disappeared suddenly. In simple terms, there's nothing strange. Maybe there were people on this ship, even allies of the skeletons. When they saw us board, they secretly escaped through a secret passage, and because we didn't notice, it created this eerie illusion."

Hearing his words, Qin Mu and the others nodded in agreement, feeling that his explanation made sense. Combined with Han Yushu's discovery, the truth might be simple, and they had just scared themselves.

Chu Nan and Qin Mu returned to the deck, and Chu Nan began to recount the number of people.

"1, 2, 3..." Chu Nan silently counted, and soon he felt the number was off. "Why are there only eighty-six? Qin Mu, didn't you say there were eighty-nine?"

Chu Nan recounted in his mind again, and including himself, there were indeed only eighty-six people.

"Qin Mu, how many people did you count just now?" Chu Nan asked in a low voice.

Qin Mu said, "Eighty-nine in total. What's wrong?"