Zheng He's silhouette fades away, the dark clouds disperse, and the gentle moonlight spills out like a sea of shattered silver. It is completely unrecognizable from the previous ferocity. After one wave, all the pale heads are washed away with the waves, and the sea surface is calm with no wind or waves.
"It's so cold..."
I'm so thirsty...
Feet stepping on solid ground, memories of this ship slowly returned to Zheng He's mind. She trembled slightly and instinctively walked in a certain direction.
This body is very familiar with everything on this ship, and Zheng He instinctively knows where to find water and warmth.
She is drenched, and the sea wind only intensifies the chill, piercing her heart.
Zheng He hugging her arms, drawing her body close, and trying hard to suppress her exhaustion and shivering, finally arrived at the place that was most familiar to her from memory.
The cockpit.
Click
Warm and soft light spilled over, illuminating Zheng He's pale face.
She felt a touch of human warmth from this not particularly bright light.
The moment she opened the door, a painting of a monk riding a dragon was directly in front of her. The monk had a shaven head, muscular and sinewy, holding a staff that could subdue dragons, mounted on the back of a fierce dragon, standing on demons with his feet firmly planted, and staring fiercely with wide-open eyes in a majestic manner.
The Dragon-Slaying staff reflected a flash of candlelight, which shone directly into Zheng He's crimson-rimmed eyes.
In the moment she was illuminated, Zheng He breathed a sigh of relief, feeling as if she had finally come back to life.
She lived in the cabin of the cockpit. As long as she crossed the cockpit, she could return to her room and have a good sleep.
Her head hurt so much it felt like it was splitting open.
There were two people sitting on either side of the table in the cockpit. The two people had furrowed brows and did not move the food and drinks on the table.
Upon hearing the sound of the door opening, the two people were initially startled, and then they both looked in this direction simultaneously.
"Old Wen, Monkey, didn't I say?"
Zheng He's thoughts were dazed, but she still tried to gather her energy and held up the axe in her hand, "Iron objects cannot be thrown into the sea!"
In her memory, Old Wen was also the first mate, Monkey was his assistant, and both of them were her colleagues.
"falling into the sea can bring in all sorts of unpleasant things..."
Zheng He's feet stepped into the cockpit, leaving a trail of blood and water, sticky footprints.
At that moment, the two people sitting at the table, as soon as they saw Zheng He, their pupils suddenly constricted, and they jumped up from their seats simultaneously, pressing their hands on the hilt of the bare knife on their sides.
The two men quickly retreated to the corner of the cabin, watching Zheng He who had suddenly appeared with caution.
The tip of the knife was shaking, and the two men's faces were as pale as death, with expressions of having seen a ghost.
Especially Old Wen, he felt an intense pain in his neck the moment he saw Zheng He.
Zheng He held up the axe towards them, and casually chopped it into the wooden table. The axe sank deep into the wood. Her tone was serious:
"When the sun comes up, you can go and repeat it to those little brats again!"
Back in the familiar place, her muscles unconsciously relaxed. Zheng He's body was already extremely exhausted, and after saying what she cared most about, her consciousness was also at the edge of drowsiness. Her eyes were too heavy to open, let alone read the expressions of the two people in front of her.
Her vision blurred with darkness, and she murmured, "I'm so thirsty," as she stumbled and sat down in the spot where the two men had been sitting.
She directly grabbed the table's jug, removed the lid, and drank the alcohol without hesitation, gulping it down her throat.
Gulping, gulping, gulping...
Her mouth was wide open, greedily sipping every drop of the liquid.
I'm so thirsty...
Strangely enough, the alcohol entering her throat could not alleviate the intense thirst that felt like being on fire.
She didn't notice at all that, after passing through her throat, the wine was not going down her esophagus into her intestines, but was leaking out from the protruding and broken ribs of her chest.
In the flickering candlelight and torn clothing, her chest cavity was a gaping hole.
The broken meat buds trembled slightly, the alcohol washed her white ribs, and directly flowed out of her chest cavity, gathering and becoming a small pool of water. There were two frightened and pale faces in the pool.
"gggggggg······ Big sister number one ······"
Monkey forced himself to gather his courage. He stammered, "You······you've returned······"
Upon hearing this, Lao Wen rolled his eyes and twisted the thin man's arm behind his back.
Zheng He shook the empty jug in her hand, completely ignoring what he had said.
After confirming that there was no liquid left in the jug, she smashed it on the ground and, with a dazed look, raised her head as if attracted by something. She walked towards them unsteadily.
Her steps were stiff and abnormal, her eyes had no light, and the two people were trembling all over. They once again tightened their grip on the long knives, with the knife tips pointing directly at Zheng He.
"Bigggggg... Big sister number one!"
Even with a knife in hand, he didn't feel much braver. Monkey trembled and kept retreating, almost crawling into Lao Wen's arms.
Zheng He's eyes were blurred and murky, and her steps were even more confusing. She muttered over and over again how thirsty she was, ignoring their knife points. She brushed them aside with one hand and squatted down to rest for a while. Eventually, she found a wooden barrel in the corner.
She didn't have the luxury of taking her time to savor the wine. Instead, she shattered the wooden barrel's lid with a punch, raised the barrel, and let the wine inside pour down from above her.
Her throat rumbled with contentment as she drank her fill.
Gulping, gulping...
In the room, there was only the sound of her gulping down wine, a large and resolute sound, indistinguishable from that of a beast.
These wines are of high proof, and if a normal person were to drink them so heavily, they would have been drunk to death long ago.
Zheng He immersed herself in the spicy wine, completely unaware that these drinks had only passed through her throat and had not entered her body.
She drank greedily, as if there was no one else around.
The two men exchanged a look and each swallowed.
Just as the two men turned to sneak away, Zheng He finished the whole barrel of water. She wiped the corner of her mouth and called them, "Where are you going?"
The two men paled, frozen in place, none of them dared to turn around. Instead, they quietly gripped the hilt of the long knife in their hands.
"There's a heavy rain at sea, the cockpit can't be left unmanned. You two will sleep here tonight, take turns on duty. I'm going to sleep, and I'll take over from you tomorrow."
Seeing that they still didn't turn around, Zheng He smashed the wine drum on the ground, breaking it into a pile of wooden pieces right under the feet of the two men.
She spoke in a displeased tone, "Haven't you heard me?"
Lao Wen shook his body and replied, "Yes!"
Zheng He nodded, feeling pain all over her body and hot, with her head almost exploding. She stumbled and walked towards the crew cabin behind the cockpit.
"Sleep well soon, good night."
Her voice was already slurred, and after closing the door to the cabin, she didn't even change her clothes. She landed heavily on the bed and fell asleep quickly.
The cockpit was deathly silent.
After what seemed like an eternity, the two statue-like figures stiffly turned their heads, and saw the terror in each other's eyes.
"What does 'good night' mean?"
"Is she... a human or a ghost?"
Monkey trembled and said, "If she is the eldest sister······"
"Then who were we killing before?"
