Even the bravest person would be scared half to death if they encountered something like this.
Su Huilan could hear her heart pounding wildly; if she opened her mouth any wider, it would probably leap out of her throat and run away.
However, she was no ordinary person; she reacted quickly, drawing her gun as she turned and shouting, "Who's there?"
The man sat motionless on the sofa, as if mocking this audacious act.
He was also wearing a military uniform, though it looked somewhat tattered, and his hat was askew and missing half of it. His legs were naturally apart, one hand rested on his knee, and the other hand casually rested on the armrest of the sofa.
In the firelight, his body was enveloped in a pale golden halo, making him appear even more mysterious.
Su Huilan suddenly thought of something.
To test her theory, she mustered her courage and walked over, but he didn't move even when her gun was almost touching his face.
The face was pale and gaunt, the muscles shrunken from dehydration, the skin clinging to the bones, and deep wrinkles permanently etched into the skin. The cheeks were sunken, and the eye sockets resembled two deep, dark holes, impenetrable even to firelight.
She held the torch close to the mummified body's chest, where there was a crooked nameplate with the English word " Halsey " written on it.
Su Huilan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It must have been Ivan and Boris who put Halsey's body here. Halsey was the captain of the Swordfish frigate, and this room originally belonged to him. Moreover, all the officers' and soldiers' quarters were full, and this was the only relatively spacious room. If Su Huilan were to handle a body, she would also think of sending it here first.
They must have torn his clothes and hat when they carried Halsey down; such clothing, after hundreds of years in Stasis Space, would have become as fragile as dried tofu skin. Ronald Cohen's body must have also been touched by them, which explains the different position of his arms and head.
Thinking back to how she had spent so much time searching under the desk, Su Huilan found it amusing.
But she still felt uneasy, as if something was wrong.
She looked around again, but found nothing else in the room except for the two corpses.
The torchlight grew dimmer and dimmer.
She lit the spare torch and placed the nearly extinguished one on a shelf on the bulkhead, the purpose of which was unknown, letting it burn its last embers.
She decided to go and see other places.
As soon as she stepped out of the captain's cabin, she immediately realized that something was wrong.
" That Hanran!"
She called out, but there was no response; the cat had vanished.
The cat had been following her the whole time. In the corridor, she even carried it on her shoulder to keep an eye on her back. Later, when they entered the soldiers' quarters and she was inspecting the mummified corpses, the Hanran suddenly got off her shoulder and had been following her around the feet ever since, but she didn't know when it disappeared.
" That Hanran!"
She cried out again. The sound echoed far into the darkness, then returned from the darkest corners. Then came deathly silence, with only the faint echo of her own cry lingering in her ears.
Su Huilan returned to the corridor and searched back along the way she had come and through the cabins one by one, but found nothing.
She hesitated for a moment in the corridor. The corridor led to two levels, one above the other. It was possible that Hanran had gone up to the bridge, or she might have gone down to the lower level.
She had to bring Hanran back, she told herself, and then decided to go down there to take a look.
The next level was relatively messy, with many parts dismantled and machine parts and tools piled up on the floor. It was probably the last struggle made by the crew of the Swordfish while they were still alive, taking apart everything that could be used.
Su Huilan was not very familiar with the ship's structure and got a little lost with only a torch for illumination. She walked along, calling Hanran's name, but there was no response.
Just as she was about to give up, a faint meow suddenly came from the deathly silence of the darkness: Meow--
Su Huilan was so excited she almost jumped up, but she couldn't tell which direction the cat's meow was coming from.
" Hanran! Where are you?" She pressed her ear against the cabin wall, waiting for the cat to meow again.
But then came the sound of heavy footsteps from inside the bulkhead.
She was startled, and her face, which had been pressed against the wall, jerked away as if she had been electrocuted.
She took a few deep breaths, then leaned in to listen again.
Thump, thump, tap...
The footsteps were disordered, and there was more than one person walking, stopping and starting, as if searching for something.
She moved to a different spot and listened again, finally confirming that the footsteps were right above her, in the very soldiers' quarters she had just looked at.
The cat meowed again, then the footsteps paused, and then resumed a moment later.
The cat stopped meowing, but the footsteps became more disordered.
Su Huilan had a bad feeling. Holding a torch in one hand and a gun in the other, she ran quickly towards the upper deck. No matter what, she had to bring Hanran back. But she forgot that if even one cat couldn't escape, how could she possibly rescue the cat?
She ran back to the next floor and stood against the wall in the corridor, her right hand gripping the gun tightly.
The footsteps stopped, and everything became as quiet as it had been when they arrived.
Su Huilan tiptoed forward. But the sound of her boots on the deck was still audible, and that feeling returned—
Da (da), da (da), da (da)...
It was as if someone was keeping the same rhythm as her, and this time it was more obvious than before, and it sounded like there was more than one person.
The corridor was lined with soldiers' dormitories filled with mummified corpses. Su Huilan slipped into one of the dormitories and looked closely. The mummified corpses were lying on the bed, motionless.
She slipped out again and walked forward along the corridor. There was a curved bend ahead; turning the corner would lead to the captain's cabin.
She saw a faint light coming from the captain's cabin, casting two shadows on the floor by the hatch and projecting them onto the opposite bulkhead.
The figures stood silently, one of them wearing a hat askew on one side of his head.
Su Huilan recalled that Halsey, who was sitting on the sofa, was wearing a hat that was missing half of its head.
She imagined Ronald Cohen and Halsey standing in the room, and a chill ran down her spine; the hairs on her body stood on end.
But where did the light come from? Could it be the torch she had stuck in the bulkhead earlier, which was almost extinguished and was still burning? Judging from how it was about to go out, it could have burned for at most another minute, but Su Huilan felt that she had been down there for more than ten minutes.
She mustered her courage and carefully moved forward little by little, trying not to make a sound. When she got close to the hatch, she suddenly turned around and raised her gun to fire.
However, before she could pull the trigger, she felt a powerful surge of Mental Power rushing towards her, like a giant wave, almost stunning her.
Although the bullet hadn't been fired, she held the gun firmly, calmed her mind, and was ready to shoot at any moment.
Then she saw half of the hat on " Halsey's " head move, making a sound that almost made her collapse:
"Quack! You're trying to murder your lover, quack, woman!"