Those two shadows weren't Ronald and Halsey, but Situ and Qingmu.
The Boss Coal and the book board lay on the top of the Qingmu like eggs being incubated. When the firelight cast their shadows on the wall, it looked like a hat worn crookedly.
When Su Huilan saw Qingmu snoring Hanran at his feet, her tense nerves completely relaxed, and her body went limp, almost causing her to fall.
"How did you get here?" she asked, leaning against the wall.
Qingmu said, "We went back to the ship and found you weren't there, so we came down to check. Where are Mrs. Larry and Alice?"
"Aren't they up there?" Su Huilan asked in surprise.
Qingmu shook his head. "They're not up there, and the lifeboats we left for you are gone too."
Su Huilan sensed something was wrong, so she briefly recounted what had just happened and then asked, "Where are the others?"
Situ said, "Because we couldn't find you, we split into two groups. Qingmu and I went down to the cabin, while the others took a small boat to the lake to search. Duwa will meet us on the deck."
He glanced at the bodies of Ronald Cohen and Halsey inside the room. "Something's strange. Let's go upstairs and meet up first."
Su Huilan nodded and followed them back to the bridge. As they left, she scooped up Hanran and scolded, "Why are you running around like that!"
It let out a Hanran meow.
Su Huilan didn't really blame it, so she didn't say anything more.
Three footsteps echoed in the corridor. Su Huilan chuckled self-deprecatingly, inwardly scolding herself for overreacting. Why hadn't she realized the footsteps were from them coming down? Why did she have to think of something else and scare herself half to death?
She had always thought herself brave enough to remain calm even in the most dangerous situations, but today she had made a complete fool of herself. Thinking about the strange phenomena in Ramla, she felt her mind was being affected by some unknown force.
She was silently reminding herself to be careful from now on when she suddenly recognized the familiar sound of slippers among the three people's footsteps:
Tap, tap, tap...
The familiar voice now sent chills down her spine. If it was Situ and Qingmu walking above her just now, how could she not recognize them?
Could there really be something else?
Su Huilan followed the two men somewhat flusteredly, her mind racing. She glanced back and seemed to see a figure leaning against the doorframe of the captain's cabin, watching them.
She let out a soft cry.
Situ and Qingmu turned around at the same time. "What's wrong?"
Su Huilan looked more closely and found that apart from the small circle of dim yellow light illuminated by the torch in her hand, there was only darkness ahead. The captain's cabin had long since been extinguished, and there was no trace of anything to be seen.
She took a deep breath and said, "It's nothing, I'm probably just being paranoid."
Qingmu knew exactly what kind of woman Su Huilan was, and frowned, asking, "Are you really alright?"
The Crow Guagua, "She must have seen that shadow, right? A woman? I knew it! There was something here. I saw it last time. Caw! I guess it's Ghost from the Spacetime Stasis Zone. Maybe only women and birds can see it. Hmm, that's it."
It let out a Hanran meow, seemingly quite indignant.
The Crow said, "Oh, and there's the cat, quack, maybe the cat can see it, Guagua."
Situ glanced into the darkness and said, "This ship is still isolated from the external Mental Power Field. I suspect it has a negative mental field that's influencing our consciousness. Ramla's environment is already unique and causes a lot of mental interference, and the interference here might be even stronger. Let's go up first and wait until everyone is here."
Su Huilan wholeheartedly agreed. She absolutely refused to believe that a dried-up corpse could come back to life; something must have affected her consciousness. Seeing Situ and Qingmu's calm demeanor, she sighed inwardly; compared to them, her Mental Power was still somewhat weak.
We encountered no further strange situations along the way and returned to the deck smoothly.
Duwa waited for them on the deck and, seeing that only Su Huilan followed them aboard, realized that Mrs. Larry Alice were not on the ship.
" Ivan and the others haven't returned yet?" Situ asked.
Duwa pointed to the other side of the lake and said, "They rowed over there."
Because of the winding shoreline, with most areas covered in dense vegetation or protruding rocks, and the wide expanse of the lake, it was nearly impossible to see a small boat docked on the Swordfish deck without binoculars.
"How did we end up over there?" Qingmu asked, puzzled. "It's in the opposite direction from where we landed, and there's no smooth beach for us to land on."
"Could someone have boarded the ship and kidnapped them?" Su Huilan said with a hint of self-reproach, "I shouldn't have abandoned them."
Situ said, "No, the Itza People consider the Swordfish a demon's lair, they won't go near it. Logically, there shouldn't be anyone else here, so they should have left by boat on their own. But why did they go in that direction?"
Duwa's expression was somewhat grave. "When you went down to the cabin, there were a few gunshots. The sound was very faint, but I'm sure it was gunshots; the birds that suddenly took flight in the woods prove I wasn't mistaken. Redbeard and the others must have heard it too, which is why they went in that direction to look."
Su Huilan suddenly remembered. "It's Alice's gun?!"
Unfortunately, they only had two small boats in total. One was the original lifeboat, which had been rowed away by Mrs. Larry and Alice, and the other was the small fishing boat that Duwa had brought, which had also been rowed away by four men to search for people. There were many canoes and rafts that the Itza People had made when they set up camp on the lake beach, but they were far away from them, and the few remaining people on the Swordfish could only stay on the deck and worry anxiously.
Qingmu said to the Boss Coal, "Fly over and take a look."
The Boss Coal then let out a cry and flew off, all the way to the lakeside on the other side. After searching along the shore for a while, he suddenly disappeared into the dense forest.
Not long after, it flew back and said, "Both boats are there, and they are searching the woods, but haven't found anyone yet."
Qingmu said, "You didn't notice either?"
The Crow said, "The forest is too dense; I can't see anything if I fly too high. Maybe I should go look for the croak again!"
Qingmu thought for a moment and said, "The priests of Itza should have results soon. Go take a shortcut directly to the Huracan Tribe and see what they're doing. If you find Mrs. Larry and Alice, come back and tell us immediately. Be careful not to stumble into their Mental Power Formation!"
The Crow cawed again and flew away, quickly disappearing into the distant sky.
As Su Huilan reflected on the whole incident, she felt that something was amiss, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
Situ suddenly asked her, "Did you really hear any noise from inside the cabin just now?"
Su Huilan nodded and said, "I did hear sounds on the bridge. I heard some after I went down, but I'm not sure if it was just my nervousness caused by environmental stress. The last footsteps I heard were probably yours, but..."
She wanted to say that it didn't sound like Qingmu's slippers, but she wasn't entirely sure if she was in a state where she could distinguish different footsteps.
Situ gazed into the distance thoughtfully. " Mrs. Larry and Alice have no reason to go in that direction. If they were truly abducted by the Itza People, then there's only one possibility..."
"What?"
"Their massive Mental Power Formation can influence this area, causing hallucinations and even dreams."