Lisa was a cute little girl. Although she was afraid, it was more a kind of confused fear—she didn’t understand why her father had become like this.
Jiang Luo asked casually, “Lisa, when did your dad start acting strange?”
“A long time ago,” Lisa said in a low voice. “Not long after Lisa’s mom fell into the water, Dad started becoming weird.”
She rubbed her face against her sleeve. “Lisa really misses Mommy, and also the way Daddy used to be.”
Jiang Luo gently patted her on the back twice and asked curiously, “How did you end up saving me back there?”
“I hide here every night,” Lisa said obediently, “because sometimes I can save people there. They don’t know how to hide, but I do. Every time Dad turns into something scary, his eyes go blind—he can only smell my scent and hear my voice. As long as I don’t make a sound and cover my scent, Dad and the others won’t find us.”
“Have you saved many people before?” Jiang Luo asked.
Lisa’s expression darkened, and she silently nodded.
Jiang Luo understood what had happened to those people but still asked, “What happened to them afterward?”
For a little girl to survive on a ship full of monsters, to know how to hide and how to save others—that wasn’t easy. Even adults couldn’t manage it, let alone a child.
Jiang Luo had some doubts about Lisa.
“They all disappeared,” Lisa hugged herself tightly, “Lisa told them to run away quickly, but they were caught and locked up… Lisa wanted to save them, but Lisa couldn’t get in.”
“You’re a good kid,” Jiang Luo said gently, “Are there many monsters like that on the ship?”
Lisa answered fearfully, “Lots and lots… During the day they look normal, but at night they change into something else—like taking off their normal skin. Sometimes they drool when they look at Lisa.”
“But they haven’t eaten Lisa. And Lisa haven’t seen any other children on the ship… Whenever someone boards, Lisa tell some adults, but they don’t believe Lisa.”
Jiang Luo pondered.
When they first boarded the Angonise, Ge Zhu noticed there were no children among the crowd.
If the crew were all monsters disguised as blood eels, it made sense. Blood eel eggs are extremely fragile but can be nurtured inside a human body. The successfully nurtured female blood eels have strange abilities—like restoring youth and prolonging life.
So the crew made a deal with the rich: the rich bring commoners aboard, and the crew use the commoners as vessels, selling the surviving female eels to the rich, who bring many more commoners aboard on the next trip.
Maybe because children’s bodies aren’t suitable vessels, or because reproduction is difficult, the blood eels don’t harm other species’ young. That’s why Lisa has survived so far.
Jiang Luo rubbed Lisa’s head. “Most people in this world live in ignorance. If you don’t show them the facts, they won’t believe.”
Just like he once was—Jiang Luo would never have believed there were fish-human monsters hiding beneath human skin.
Covered in slime, Jiang Luo felt very uncomfortable, given his mild cleanliness obsession. He held it back during the crisis but now wanted to wash his hands and face at least.
“Lisa, can I turn on the light?”
Lisa, held in his arms, looked up and nodded, “Yes.”
Jiang Luo switched on the light. After squinting to adjust, he finally saw the room clearly.
The captain’s room was not much different in size or layout from his own, except for the slime everywhere—on the ceiling, walls, tables, and floor… It almost felt like he had entered a monster’s stomach.
It was hard to imagine he had just rolled around in all that slime.
Jiang Luo immediately abandoned any thought of a quick cleanup here.
Lisa still held his hand and hesitated before saying, “Big brother, if you can leave, can you take me with you?”
She timidly said, “I want to find doctors to cure my dad. Dad said the best doctors are on land.”
“Of course,” Jiang Luo said, “if I can leave successfully.”
Lisa’s always worried little face finally showed a childlike happy smile. She shook Jiang Luo’s finger confidently, “Big brother, you will definitely take me away from here.”
Jiang Luo raised an eyebrow, squatted down to meet her eyes, and asked, “Why are you so sure?”
Lisa said seriously, “Because you run faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
Jiang Luo, who was best at running away: “…”
“…Thanks for the compliment.”
Jiang Luo stood up. “Lisa, where do you sleep tonight? I’ll take you back.”
Lisa didn’t live with the captain; she only came here to cover herself in slime when danger approached. Jiang Luo walked her to her door, and just before they parted, he suddenly remembered something. “Lisa, how do you know you can’t drink the fish soup?”
Lisa honestly said, “I heard the crew uncle say it.”
She was too young to understand the meaning behind the crew’s words, only repeating to Jiang Luo as best as she could, “They said if you eat the fish soup, more fish will grow in your belly. The ones on the ship are all males. They try every year to find material for the females and say they have to breed with the females every year, waiting for next autumn to catch the females from the deep sea.”
“Big brother, what does breeding mean?”
Facing the innocent gaze of a child, Jiang Luo gave a vague answer, “It means they want to be dads.”
Lisa seemed to half-understand, “So these days are the time they become dads.”
Male and female fish are going to mate in these days?
Jiang Luo’s expression darkened. Without lingering, he said goodbye to Lisa.
Using humans to reproduce and enjoying eating human flesh—this kind of species must never be allowed to reproduce successfully, nor allowed the female blood eel carrying a belly full of eggs to return to the deep sea.
Letting one female blood eel go would mean dozens of lives in the lower hold—dozens of fry growing inside one person’s belly.
Jiang Luo didn’t return to his room; instead, he searched the entire ship.
On the bow deck, he saw the huge female blood eel weighing five hundred jin.
The black fish clung to the floor, emitting a low-frequency call. Compared to the male’s voice, this sound was much more charming and gentle. The blood eel had changed a lot since it was caught—the swollen head had shrunk. The reason the head was so huge before must have been because it was full of blood eel’s eggs.
Listening to the calls, Jiang Luo instinctively felt something was wrong.
Combined with what Lisa had said and the behavior of this blood eel, it was obvious—it was calling to mate.
On a ship full of males, Jiang Luo could easily imagine the consequences.
The males would go mad for her, and the ship would turn into a battlefield of mating between male and female fish.
Unless the males already had a leader who decided who could mate with the female, for these two nights, the entire ship would become an endless h*ll.
Jiang Luo waited in place for a while. Fortunately, tonight seemed only a prelude; the female called for a while then stopped, and no males had come up to the deck yet.
Jiang Luo quietly returned to the room.
Lu Youyi and a few others were still hiding in his and Ge Zhu’s room.
They had hidden all day in the wealthy district. Since there were too many commoners, and dozens had been taken to the lower hold, the disappearance of these few didn’t attract the crew’s attention.
This was also as Jiang Luo expected.
After all, even if someone escaped, where could they go? On the vast ocean, there was only this one Angonise ship—no escape from its clutches. The crew dismissed such attempts lightly because of this.
As soon as Jiang Luo returned, the others were startled by his appearance.
The luxury rooms in the rich area smelled fresh all day, but Jiang Luo had grown used to the fishy stench outside. Coming into a normal-smelling room, he was immediately overwhelmed by the smell coming off himself and turned pale.
When he left, he looked neat and elegant, but now reeked terribly.
Jiang Luo didn’t say much and immediately rushed to the bathroom.
Those outside exchanged looks.
Lu Youyi whispered, “Did he just jump into a fish pit?”
To wash off the smell, Jiang Luo took the longest bath of his life. This bath was even longer than the one he took after being touched all over by Chi You. His skin became wrinkled like a prune before he reluctantly stopped.
Not sure if it was just his mind playing tricks, Jiang Luo still felt a fishy smell on him. To cover it up, he rarely found the small perfume bottle in the bathroom and sprayed himself several times from a distance.
Finally, the stench was gone.
Jiang Luo walked out smelling fresh. Seeing him, everyone hurriedly bombarded him with questions: “Are you hurt?”
“What happened?”
Jiang Luo was about to reply when he saw a row of signal flares and a photo album laid out on the bed. Surprised, he picked up a flare and examined it. “What’s this about?”
Wenren Lian smiled and said, “We can’t let you do all the work alone. When you went to the comms room, Zhongqiu and I sneaked some signal flares to be prepared, and Ye Xun and Lu Youyi found this photo album. The photos in it are interesting—take a look.”
Jiang Luo gave them a thumbs-up, feeling half relieved. He opened the album, and the first photo was of a somewhat familiar crew member. Suddenly he realized, “This is Cheng Li’s album?”
Lu Youyi nodded. “Yes, Ye Xun and I found it in his room.”
The person who took these photos must have had a very special relationship with Cheng Li. Work photos, life photos—the Cheng Li in the photos looked very different from the rough and fierce crew member they knew. In the pictures, Cheng Li showed tenderness and determination.
Most of the early photos were of Cheng Li alone, but later, a little girl appeared. Her eyebrows and eyes vaguely resembled Cheng Li’s—likely his daughter.
Flipping through the photos of Cheng Li’s daughter, Jiang Luo found one like a family portrait.
The style of this photo was obviously different—likely taken by someone else. A family stood by the coast. Besides Cheng Li and his daughter, there was an ordinary-looking middle-aged woman whose smile was very infectious.
The family stood by the shore with the Angonise ship behind them.
In the photo, the ship looked brand new, just setting sail. Jiang Luo even saw the captain standing by the high deck railing.
He leaned closer and saw the captain was holding a little girl—that was Lisa.
Lisa was wiping tears with her head bowed. Her arms were covered with bruises from beatings. The captain laughed heartily at the crowd below the ship, looking proud and carefree, clearly successful in his career—but the way he held Lisa showed impatience.
