Before Jiang Luo could think more, Lu Youyi pointed to the next photo. “This one.”
Jiang Luo looked down and saw a photo of Cheng Li with another man.
The other man had a hunched back, looked timid, and glanced awkwardly at the camera. Jiang Luo stared for a while. “Who is this…?”
Lu Youyi excitedly said, “Does he look familiar?”
Jiang Luo nodded thoughtfully.
Lu Youyi was about to tease more when Ge Zhu bluntly revealed the truth: “This is the commoner Cheng Li threw off the ship on the day we boarded.”
Jiang Luo said, “Oh… so they knew each other.”
That made things very interesting.
“Not just acquaintances, but quite close,” Ye Xun had observed carefully, “Look at the clothes he’s wearing. That outfit was worn by Cheng Li in an earlier photo. Lending clothes means they are either close friends or blood relatives.”
“So said like that, they do seem to resemble each other a bit,”
Ye Xun nodded, “We just discussed it. From the photos, Cheng Li doesn’t look like the kind of man who would abandon his wife and child. When he threw someone he knew off the ship for not having a ticket, maybe he was actually trying to save his life.”
Lu Youyi summarized, “In any case, he must know something.”
Jiang Luo said, “Makes sense.”
Zhuo Zhongqiu kicked his shoe playfully and teased, “How are you today? Don’t tell me Lu Youyi was right and you really fell into a fish pit.”
Jiang Luo twisted his lips into a half-smile, half-grimace, “Almost.”
The group’s cheerful laughter suddenly stopped; they stared at him in disbelief.
Jiang Luo rubbed his slightly aching forehead and casually laid down on the bed. Kuang Zheng quickly made room for him.
“I learned a big secret today,” Jiang Luo said calmly, dropping a bombshell, “I almost understand what blood eels really are.”
…
From Daniel and Sanya’s conversation in the dorm, to what Lisa told Jiang Luo, using his excellent memory, Jiang Luo repeated everything without missing a word.
As he spoke, he organized the information in his mind. After reviewing the day’s events, he even joked: “The two male fish in the duty dorm look really dumb.”
Calling them dumb was more like their fish brain hadn’t fully evolved into human thinking.
They were still like beasts, their brains controlled by appetite. Neither purely fish nor purely human.
But the others were completely stunned by what he said, not even noticing the joke.
Lu Youyi struggled to close his wide-open mouth: “You mean most of the crew are male fish, and the blood eel caught is a female? That’s not all — on these nights, the males and females will mate, then they’ll throw the pregnant female back into the sea, waiting for next year’s hatching?”
Jiang Luo said with relief, “You summed it up perfectly.”
“What the f—?” Lu Youyi collapsed to the floor clutching his head, “My god!”
Cyril looked at the thoughtful Wenren Lian and the serious Ye Xun, then carefully asked Jiang Luo, “Why don’t we just kill the female eel right away?”
“We want to kill the female before she mates,” Jiang Luo said patiently, “But if we touch the female, the males on the ship will riot. Without preparation, we’ll be facing dozens or hundreds of males. This place will become their killing ground. We and those commoners will die in their mouths.”
Cyril thought for a moment. “Then we need to fire signal flares to get the police here first, then kill the female?”
Jiang Luo nodded.
“But the female and male will mate at the latest by tomorrow night. We don’t have much time left,” Ge Zhu took a sea map, skillfully took Jiang Luo’s copper coins and paper and pen and began calculating the police ship’s direction: “South 9, East 3… Currents curl, west is main flow, West 7…”
Wenren Lian stood by the window looking at the stars for a while, then folded a sheet of paper into a ruler scale, “I’ll go with you.”
Without a compass, they could only slowly estimate directions and timings by using the stars and ocean currents to find specific people or events.
This involved a lot of yin-yang and five elements theory, including innate and acquired Bagua, the 28 lunar mansions, and the 60 underground dragons, etc. Jiang Luo wasn’t someone who studied metaphysics from childhood. Although his progress was amazing, listening to Wenren Lian and Ge Zhu talking now, he was like a deaf and blind man—completely out of it.
He waited patiently, almost falling asleep amid the detailed numbers. Suddenly Ge Zhu shouted excitedly and woke him up: “Here it is!”
Jiang Luo snapped awake, jumped out of bed, and looked. The sea map had two circles drawn in black ink—one representing the Angonise ship, the other the police ship.
The distance between the two ships was not close. Ge Zhu wiped sweat from his forehead and measured the distance with a pen, “This distance will take at least four or five hours, right?”
Wenren Lian also wiped sweat from his brow, looked at the map, pondered for a moment, then nodded slowly, “About right.”
“Four or five hours?”
Ye Xun frowned, “That’s tough.”
“Definitely tough,” Zhuo Zhongqiu propped her chin on her hand, “Think about it — we have to kill the female eel before she lays her eggs at sea. Before killing her, we have to send the signal flares at least five hours in advance. But the signal flares are so conspicuous—once fired, everyone on the ship will know.”
“That means our fight doesn’t start at killing the female, but the moment the signal flare goes off.”
Jiang Luo frowned deeply.
“What are you thinking?” Wenren Lian asked.
Jiang Luo muttered to himself, “I’m thinking, if blood eels are so hard to breed, will these male fish really willingly give up the female to make deals with the rich?”
“What a coincidence, I was thinking something very similar,” Wenren Lian said with a smile, “But I look at it from the rich people’s side.”
Jiang Luo turned to listen carefully.
Wenren Lian said softly, “Those rich people are all greedy and ruthless. With such a blatant way to get rich quickly, would they really be willing to just be customers? Or would they want to control the blood eel’s survival conditions and artificially raise the eel larvae?”
“The police have tried for a long time and even snuck onto the ship multiple times but always failed…” Wenren Lian shrugged as others looked at him. “You know, I have some sources in the shadows.”
“The rich not only obediently provide the blood eels with everything they want — nutrients, money — but once back on shore, they also keep their mouths shut, guarding the secret of the blood eels. This way, the news that blood eels can live long and stay young spreads quietly to the right ears, and those people become new customers of the blood eels… Tsk tsk, such dedication.”
Jiang Luo pondered, “So, there are still some things here that we don’t know about…”
But just as he finished speaking, the ship suddenly rocked.
Everyone inside quickly steadied each other. This rocking felt like a normal wave or current, quite common at sea. But Jiang Luo suddenly thought of the female blood eel on the bow deck. His eyelid twitched and he immediately opened the window and leaned out.
The sea wind rushed sharply in, the wind direction had changed. Jiang Luo looked up at the sky—what had just been a clear starry night was now covered by a thick layer of dark clouds.
Amid the fierce sea wind, a strong fishy smell rolled in from outside.
Not good.
Jiang Luo instantly turned, grabbed some random coat from the hanger, and rushed out the door. “Don’t follow me, I’ll be right back.”
He moved fast, threw on the coat, and ran to the bow. When he got there, he saw a male fish trying to approach the female blood eel. The female moved backward in disgust, clearly unwilling to mate.
The male’s movements were rough and awkward — obviously his first time courting the female. He cautiously sniffed around, showing some nervousness, probably wary of other males, and didn’t even care about Jiang Luo’s human scent.
This male clearly broke the blood eel’s mating rules.
The other males were quiet, but this one came forward. The female didn’t want to mate, but he wanted to force it.
If Jiang Luo hadn’t just taken a shower and been especially sensitive to the fishy smell, he might not have realized that such a rogue male had suddenly appeared, trying to mate tonight.
He laughed angrily, wiping the water from his face, mocking, “You really are a gentleman fish.”
The male had already lunged at the female. She was twice his size and clumsily dodged, but she wasn’t as agile as the male.
Jiang Luo would never allow the female blood eel to spawn and return to the sea tonight. He strode forward, raised his arm, gently shook his Yin-Yang hoop, determined to stop this one-sided deckbed drama.
But the next moment, his wrist was grabbed by a pale, slender hand.
A very familiar voice came from behind, full of exaggerated fake surprise, low and teasing: “So you have this kind of hobby after all.”
Jiang Luo instantly squinted.
Oh no.
Trouble had arrived.
“If you’re going to peek, at least don’t try to break them up.”
The malicious ghost laughed. Jiang Luo’s chin was grabbed, forced to look at the two entangled, writhing blood eels. “I’m curious about your hobby now. How about I watch with you?”
His tone gradually turned cold: “And see when you get tired of this hobby.”
Author’s Note:
Chi You: So you have this hobby? Come, let me clear these two fish away and we’ll play on the deck.
Jiang Luo: Hehe, you’re here.
