我'll never forget the look in Lao Jia's eyes at that moment—it was terrifying.
"You're always talking about feeding the fish, right? You don't need to do it yourself, I'll jump into the sea and feed them."
With that, I headed towards the ship's railing, my last act of defiance.
Lao Jia called out from behind me, "No, no, no, I won't kill you for now."
I turned back and asked, "What do you mean?"
"You're useful to me. Don't worry, you're safe until this batch of goods is dealt with."
"So, you mean I'll live for two more days, right?"
Lao Jia raised an eyebrow, looking at me without hiding his true thoughts, and smirked, "Smart, I like dealing with smart people. But you made a big mistake, couldn't tell the big cats from the small ones, stood on the wrong side."
I smirked without saying a word. By now, I understood—I was trapped. No matter what choice I made on the Ji Yu 0825 fishing boat, the outcome would be the same.
Then, Lao Jia turned and shouted to his men, "Where's Jiang Erwa? Bring him to me."
Two men dragged the barely conscious Jiang Erwa up.
Lao Jia showed a sinister and terrifying smile as he walked step by step towards Jiang Erwa.
I thought he was going to kill Jiang Erwa like he did with Guo Tianming, but instead, something unbelievable happened.
He took off his pants, pulled out his "Italian cannon" from his armory, and urinated directly on Jiang Erwa's face, releasing all the urine and pus.
The prosthetic bag burst, causing Lao Jia to shudder in pain. Jiang Erwa, covered in wounds, writhed in agony on the ground. Both of them groaned in pain.
Lao Jia squatted down, tilted his head, and stared at Jiang Erwa. "I told you, your wife willingly slept with me. Do you believe it?"
Jiang Erwa gritted his teeth but remained silent.
Lao Jia dialed Wang Cuilan's number on the satellite phone. After a while, the call connected.
Wang Cuilan's voice came through, "Who's this?"
"It's me, Lao Jia."
"Bad luck, you dare to call me."
Wang Cuilan's voice sounded tense, but Lao Jia chuckled smugly, though his smile was ugly.
"I'll come find you in a few days. Clean up and wait for me."
"Bad luck, I have a shadow at home. How about I come to find you?"
"Okay, then. I'll have to think of something new."
"You're terrible. I'm hanging up."
Lao Jia hung up the phone, then began trembling uncontrollably. Jiang Erwa lay on the ground, sobbing.
"This is all your fault. Even if your wife didn't sleep with me, she would have slept with someone else. She couldn't stand the loneliness."
Lao Jia went on a frenzy, punching and kicking Jiang Erwa, inflicting the same humiliation he had suffered upon him, rendering Jiang Erwa impotent.
"You worthless piece of shit. I'm a piece of shit."
Jiang Erwa couldn't express his humiliation, continuously cursing and painfully banging his head against the deck, sending shivers down everyone's spine.
Suddenly, Lao Jia stood up. "Throw him into the sea to feed the fish."
Several men lifted Jiang Erwa and walked away. I shouted, "Stop!"
With a swift slap, Lao Jia hit me across the face, and I tasted a hint of blood.
Two men held me down tightly, and I couldn't break free no matter how hard I struggled. I watched helplessly as they threw Jiang Erwa into the sea.
At that moment, everything seemed to spin, as if the whole world was plummeting into an abyss at breakneck speed.
There were too many deaths, too much cruelty and bloodshed, beyond what an ordinary person could imagine or comprehend.
They confined me for the entire night, and all I could hear was the tumult outside.
"All thrown into the sea to feed the fish."
"Clean the deck, be cautious of law enforcement inspections."
"..."
The next day, tranquility returned, as if the thrilling slaughter of the previous night had been engulfed in the vastness of the ocean, as if it belonged to another era.
Ji Yu 0825 continued its voyage.
I wasn't a smoker, but when Lao Jia handed me a cigarette, I lit it nonetheless. My head swirled, unwilling to recall yet unable to forget, feeling lost and helpless.
With a cigarette between his lips, Lao Jia took a deep drag, exhaling smoke from his nose and mouth as he recounted his escape.
He hailed from Wuqiao, Cangzhou City, Hebei Province, renowned as the birthplace of Chinese acrobatics, where talented individuals abound, each possessing extraordinary skills.
Since childhood, Lao Jia had practiced bone shrinking, a form of martial arts known as "tongzigong," not only capable of contracting his shoulder blades, chest cavity, and other torso areas, allowing him to fit into children's clothing, but also dismantling his own joints with ease.
However, the hardships of this pursuit led him to change careers later on.
Two hours later, the ship suddenly halted, all machinery ceasing to operate. Suo Tianming was dead, and there was no one aboard capable of repairing the ship. Despite thorough inspection, the cause of the malfunction remained elusive.
"It must have been Suo Tianming's doing. He's done this before," Lao Jia gritted his teeth.
Suo Tianming, always wary of being stabbed in the back, deliberately caused electrical faults, resolving them daily himself. In this way, he tethered himself to the entire crew, ensuring his safety.
That night, things took a turn for the worse.
Chef Lao Huang's cries, reminiscent of slaughtering pigs, rang out, "Something's not right, there's a ghostly disturbance."
During this period, everyone was on the brink of collapse, especially at night, hypersensitive to any sound. Lao Huang's cries immediately made me tense.
I rushed to the deck, seeing Lao Huang in a state of panic, I asked hastily, "What's going on?"
"A...a ghostly disturbance," Lao Huang stammered.
He pointed to the two large wooden boxes containing the bodies of Yuan Mingyue, the Princess of Pingyuan, and the headless statue of Wu Tianxian.
I looked over and was shocked by the eerie scene.
Under the cold moonlight, the headless statue of Wu Tianxian crawled out of the box, pushing the wooden box containing the Princess of Pingyuan towards the ship's rail, inch by inch.
Lao Jia and his men arrived, although accustomed to brutality, they were taken aback by the unprecedented sight, their faces ashen.
Lao Jia's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, then said, "What...what's going on here?"
I was equally puzzled, speechless.
Lao Huang tremblingly suggested, "Could it be...could it be that our sins have angered the Dragon King of the sea?"
Someone else added, "Then...then are we all going to die?"
At these words, everyone was horrified, and a sense of terror descended upon the fishing vessel Ji Yu 0825.
Lao Jia kicked the man to the ground and said to the crowd, "Stop talking nonsense, or I'll throw you into the sea to feed the fish."
From their conversation, it was evident that even Lao Jia was panicking.
The temperament of the sea was unpredictable. Every seafarer had their beliefs, such as the Dragon King or Mazu, all revered as deities. If angered, their wrath could result in calamity, from futile attempts to catch fish to catastrophic shipwrecks.
Meanwhile, the headless statue of Wu Tianxian continued to push the box containing the Princess of Pingyuan towards the ship's rail, picking up speed.
I suddenly slipped, nearly falling, and several others followed suit. It dawned on us then, a dreadful reality - the ship might capsize!
At the same time, a massive wave struck, exacerbating the ship's tilt. Wu Tianxian and the box containing the Princess of Pingyuan collided with the ship's rail, with a loud "bang," the box shattered.
In that moment, I witnessed the Princess of Pingyuan descending gracefully from the air, like a celestial being.
Wu Tianxian and the Princess of Pingyuan both plunged into the sea.