Li Xian leafed through the diary pages again and again, trying to find some clues, but there had been no warning whatsoever before Zhang Rui went mad. It was as though he had been perfectly normal one day, only to become a raving lunatic the next.
Mad...
He suddenly remembered what the crew members had said during their argument earlier:
"Everyone knows Xiao Zhang offended you before-and then he got sick and couldn't work. I bet you took advantage of the fog to throw him overboard!"
"Maybe Xiao Zhang went mad because you said something to him in private and drove him to it!"
Had the Captain done it?
But their accusations sounded like nothing more than guesses. If they had any evidence, they would surely have blurted it all out in that situation.
That made it even stranger.
What ability did the Captain have that could suddenly turn someone of normal intelligence and sound mind into this, without leaving a trace?
Li Xian kept turning the diary's pages. About three or four pages later, Zhang Rui seemed to have regained a little clarity. He stopped repeating useless phrases, and new entries appeared:
"Why... why is my skin starting to fall off in patches?!!"
"It won't stop... it won't stop!!!"
"This must... this must be a curse!"
"Yes, it's because this ship is cursed. That's why everything has gone so mad!"
"I have to leave... I have to lea-"
The writing stopped abruptly there. All the pages after it were blank.
The later the date, the fainter the writing became, as though the person writing had no strength left to hold the pen.
The final word, "leave," was only half-finished, with a long, heavy stroke trailing from it all the way to the edge of the page.
Finding nothing else