"A strong wind blew the container into the sea?" At that moment, Xiong Wanyi and the others walked over. Upon hearing this, Xiong immediately interrupted, "There hasn't been any strong wind these past few days. Just a level three or four breeze—can that really blow a container off a ship into the sea?"
"That's exactly what's strange." The captain nodded toward Xiong and continued, "The eyewitness crew described it with every detail. I even heard someone took a video when the container fell into the water."
"A video?" Xiong Wanyi and the rest exchanged glances, then all turned their eyes toward the captain. I jumped in, "Do you have that video on hand?"
The captain gave a bitter smile and said, "Nobody can see it now. When the ship came into port last night, quarantine found cholera on board. Everyone on that ship is quarantined, and several people have already died. I checked around—the dead were eyewitnesses, and the first to die was the crew member who shot the video."
At that moment, Xi Menlian stepped closer, glanced at me, then turned to the captain and said, "Cholera? Who's ever heard of cholera killing someone on the same day?"
The captain looked at Xi Menlian and replied, "They say it's cholera, but no one's confirmed exactly what disease it is yet. The quarantine officers said those sick were severely dehydrated, vomiting and having diarrhea—symptoms resembling cholera. But for some reason, no official diagnosis has been given, and no explanation either."
The captain knew no more than that. Anything beyond this was just dockside rumor. Though I couldn't be certain if this had any connection to Lin Feng or Hao Zhengyi, I still decided to call Sun Fatty for caution.
Unexpectedly, as soon as I started to explain, Sun Fatty interrupted on the other end: "Lazi, I knew about this as soon as you left. The lab report just got faxed over. Cholera bacteria were found on the ship, but the four people who died actually passed from heart attacks. Their cholera symptoms weren't severe enough to be fatal."
I paused a moment, then said to Sun Fatty, "Big Sage, is this related to Lin Feng and Hao? You better get ready."
Sun Fatty hesitated briefly, then said, "Not quite yet, Lazi. To be honest, Hao and Yang Jun's team are facing similar issues over there. I'm not taking any rash actions yet. Just keep an eye out—once you confirm Lin Feng or Hao Zhengyi show up, our people will rush in."
Before I could ask more, Sun Fatty got another call and had to hang up.
After I ended the call, Xiong Wanyi and the others gathered around, asking what Sun Fatty meant. I repeated Deputy Director Sun's exact words, then said, "We still can't tell much now. Let's see what happens once we reach the area where the trouble started. Maybe it's just a false alarm." Though I said that, I wasn't convinced it was just coincidence.
After nearly two hours of full-speed sailing, our maritime surveillance ship suddenly stopped. The captain called out to us, "This is it—the container fell into the sea nearby!"
Xiong Wanyi and I stepped onto the deck. At this point, we still couldn't sense any aura related to Lin Feng or Hao Zhengyi. Old Mo and Xi Menlian used Bureau methods to test but found no trace of a living corpse-like presence similar to Lin Feng's.
I circled the deck. The sea was perfectly calm, no wind or waves. Staring at the endless horizon, there was nothing unusual in sight. Maybe if we pushed on, luck might reveal some clue. I turned to the captain in the wheelhouse and said, "Slow down a bit. Let's make a round here first."
No sooner had I finished speaking than someone said from behind, "Wait, give me five minutes to try." Yang Xiao suddenly appeared behind me. He walked over to the ship's railing, hands behind his back, eyes fixed on the sea as if searching for something.
After about a minute, Yang Xiao slightly turned his body to the left. As he stretched out his hands, I noticed a small porcelain talisman crushed in his right palm.
Yang Xiao crushed the porcelain talisman into powder in his palm, then suddenly tossed the powder toward the sea surface. At that moment, a strong gust of wind blew up from behind him, scattering the powder far across the water.
The captain, crew, and dozens of eyes on board intently watched the sea where the talisman powder touched. Unfortunately, as minutes ticked by, nothing unusual stirred the calm waters. Not just five minutes—they waited over twenty, yet the flat sea remained undisturbed.
In the end, except for Yang Xiao, everyone else had lost confidence. Just as I was about to conclude that Yang Xiao's attempt was fruitless and was about to tell the captain to keep sailing, Xiong Wanyi suddenly shouted, pointing at the sea, "What is that?"
Everyone turned to look in the direction he pointed. The sea surface rippled slightly, then a pale white shadow rapidly rose from beneath the water. The shadow grew bigger and within moments surfaced above the waves. With a loud "boom," a huge air bubble rose and burst on the sea surface.
Along with the bursting bubble, a deadly aura filled the air. Unfortunately, the aura soon dissipated completely, as if it had never appeared.
At this moment, not only us but even the captain sensed something was wrong. He shouted to his crew, "Drop anchor!" As soon as he finished speaking, I quickly turned and shouted back, "Don't drop anchor! Keep the engines running! We must be ready to leave at any moment!"
While I was speaking, Xiong Wanyi and the others had already swiftly drawn their assault rifles and trained their sights on the bubbling sea. Old Mo pulled a bag of cinnabar from his backpack and poured it into the water. The cinnabar was specially processed; it floated on the sea surface and quickly spread around the ship, forming a barrier dozens of meters wide.
Everyone anxiously stared at the bubbling water for another ten or so minutes, but no further unusual events occurred. Xiong Wanyi came over to me and said, "Lazi, you should ask him what this means. What's down there? If it really is Lin Feng and Hao Zhengyi, then let's draw them out and deal with them!"
Although Xiong was speaking to me, his voice was loud enough for everyone on the ship to hear—no need for me to pass the message. Yang Xiao's eyes remained fixed on the sea as he murmured, "There really are dead down there, but that doesn't guarantee they're the ones we're after..."
Before finishing his sentence, Yang Xiao suddenly stopped. His brows furrowed as if he had seen something that puzzled him deeply. After a moment, he gently shook his head and muttered, "Why would someone load so many dead bodies like this? What are they trying to do?"
No sooner had he spoken than a series of bubbles emerged again from the deep sea below. These enormous bubbles surfaced and burst one after another. The continuous popping echoed, followed by a heavy, oppressive corpse aura.
Besides the bubbles and corpse aura, however, nothing else abnormal happened even after waiting for quite some time. Representing Xiong Wanyi and the others, I asked Yang Xiao, "How many dead does it take to create this corpse aura? What exactly is down there?"
Yang Xiao finally tore his gaze away from the sea, looked at me, and said, "If I'm right, the spot where the bubbles emerge is exactly where the container sank. That container must be full of people who have been dead for some time. It's clear the container wasn't blown off by the wind; someone deliberately pushed it into the sea at that specific spot. Those dead crew members were silenced."
Yang Xiao sighed deeply at this point, then continued, "But it's probably no use here. Even if Lin Feng and Hao Zhengyi are here, those two jittery birds wouldn't cause such a commotion. The container on the seabed is just a diversion to scatter our attention. While we're drawn here, they're already preparing to escape somewhere else."