Chapter 443: Chapter 380: Taking the Crown
"Do we really have to... really have to carry this thing with us?" After having touched the bag with her own hands, Mi Shu’s face turned ashen. She suspected that everything they were encountering was related to this head.
Without any hesitation, Yang Xiao nodded and tied the mouth of the bag tightly, "We must take it with us. Think about it, once we return, those people from Du Family Village will definitely not let us off. We are of no use to them anymore; they will kill us to silence us. This head is our only chance to turn the tables."
Upon hearing this, Sui Chengguo silently nodded in agreement. Indeed, the Ghost Monk’s hatred for Du Family Village was etched deep in his bones. Leading the Ghost Monk to deal with the people of Du Family Village while they took the chance to look for a real way out was indeed an excellent plan.
While Mi Shu was deep in thought, her gaze unintentionally swept across the river’s surface, and she suddenly saw a terrifying sight, her complexion changed abruptly, "There’s... there’s someone!"
Following the direction of Mi Shu’s gaze, they saw a corpse floating in the mist about seven or eight meters away from the vessel. The corpse wore a black cloth garment and had been dead for so long that the exposed skin had turned pale and shiny from being soaked in the river water. Since it faced down, its face could not be seen, but it presumably was a man from the look of it.
What was really strange was the man’s attire: a black cloth garment was standard enough, resembling an ordinary farmer; however, a red sash was wound around the corpse’s waist, and on its head was a triangular hat with two red embroidered balls hanging from it, dressed like a performer. The two red embroidered balls connected by strings bobbed up and down in the dark river, creating an indescribably eerie scene.
Before the three of them could take a closer look, more and more bodies emerged from the fog. Mi Shu’s eyes widened in disbelief as one corpse after another appeared, forming a swath. More horrifying was the fact that these bodies seemed to have a consciousness of their own and had imperceptibly surrounded their boat.
"It’s not the bodies that are moving; it’s our boat that’s moving. We’ve sailed into an area full of floating corpses," Yang Xiao quickly realized what was happening.
There was something noticeably wrong with these nearby floating bodies to the naked eye. All the bodies faced down with their attire largely uniform. The men all wore black garments with a red sash around their waists, and triangular hats with red embroidered balls, while the women were dressed in red and green, each with their own style.
Yang Xiao held his breath and tried to lower his body to observe more carefully. He examined each body until he found a golden hairpin on the head of a particularly well-dressed woman, from which several jade pendants hung suspended by silver threads.
This discovery led Yang Xiao to an immediate conclusion about their identities, "They’re from the Painted Boat."
"Painted Boat?" Mi Shu was taken aback.
"Painted Boat, also known as Painted Pleasure Boat. Look at these lavishly dressed women; they are the dancing girls and singing courtesans from the boat. The Painted Boat is most lively at night, bright with lights, filled with singing and music, a constant revelry."
Yang Xiao raised his hand again, signaling the other two to look at the woman with flashy attire, "See that golden hairpin? In a Painted Pleasure Boat, only one dancing girl is deemed worthy to wear that hairpin, and it essentially signifies the top performer there."
"During grand festivals, a celebration ceremony is held on the Painted Boat, where renowned dancing girls and singing courtesans have the chance to perform. The guests invited beneath the stage are either rich patrons willing to spend lavishly or literati famous for their poetry and prose. Each of them receives a thin jade pendant, and they can present it to the artist they prefer."
"After all performances have ended and the atmosphere reaches its peak, the winner is chosen based on the number of jade pendants received by each dancing girl. Not only does her value skyrocket from then on, but the jade pendants she receives also become a part of her glory, allowed to hang from the golden hairpin. Those exuberant literati below the stage would also generously write excellent prose for her without any reservation."
Upon hearing this, Sui Chengguo frowned tightly, his gaze fixed on each corpse, "Then how did these people end up dead here? Could it be that their boat sank?"
They couldn’t dismiss the possibility, but they knew that things were certainly not that simple. After conferring among themselves, none of them had experienced such a scene before. This mission did not belong to any one of them.
Moreover, at this particular moment, their boat had stopped moving and was simply drifting on the surface of the river. Sui Chengguo lowered his head to inspect the water and concluded after a moment that they didn’t seem to be on the river’s surface, it was more like a lake since the water showed no sign of movement, appearing as a stagnant pool.
"Follow the chain, let’s go find the Cheng Brothers and regroup," Sui Chengguo said in a low voice, with Mi Shu keeping wary of their surroundings. Yang Xiao and Sui Chengguo crouched at the prow, pulling the chain with effort, gradually drawing closer to the other boat.
Since this mission didn’t belong to the three of them, the issue must lie with the four individuals, Tong Han Cheng Cha. Only by locating the concerned parties would they understand the full story.
However, as Yang Xiao and Sui Chengguo continued pulling, they sensed something amiss. They had already moved forward at least 20 meters, yet the other end of the chain remained shrouded in the mist. From their observations on shore, the chain that linked the two boats should have only been a dozen meters or so.
Soon after, a situation that caught them off guard occurred. Even though they had stopped pulling the rope, their boat continued to advance into the depths of the fog, faster than before. It felt as though a force within the mist was dragging them further in.
At this point, the three of them could no longer concern themselves with finding Tong Han and the rest. Yang Xiao decided on the spot to remove the chain fastened to the boat. Sui Chengguo also began to help. As the two bent down to work, a cry of alarm from Mi Shu came from behind them. Looking up, they could barely make out the shape of a boat through the fog ahead—a black-canopied boat about the same size as their own.
Even more bizarre was that four figures stood side by side at the stern of the boat. "Mi Shu, Mi Shu, is that you?" The figure in the middle kept waving—anxiously it was Tong Han’s voice.
Yang Xiao needed only one glance to confirm something was off. Firstly, with bodies floating around, Tong Han would definitely not call out a teammate’s name so directly. Next, and most importantly, their two boats did not have a large carrying capacity. If, as in the fog, four grown men were all at the stern, the boat would easily capsize.
Yang Xiao and Sui Chengguo ignored the voices completely and continued dismantling the chains. Just before the small boat was about to emerge from the fog, they finally removed the chains. Casting the chains into the water, a strange thing happened—the approaching small boat stopped immediately and then gradually began to move backward, the four figures on board becoming lifeless and stiff.
Gradually, Mi Shu couldn’t help but widen her eyes—behind the small boat in the fog, a huge shadow slowly emerged. It was an unimaginably large ship, hundreds of times larger than their own, covered in darkness.
Now the three of them saw clearly. It turned out the previous boat wasn’t pulled over by them but had been pushed by this massive vessel hidden in the fog. Without a doubt, the emergence of this mysterious large boat confirmed Yang Xiao’s speculation—it was a high-class painted pleasure boat.
As the fog thickened around them, the small boat carrying four ghostly figures, plus the hidden painted pleasure boat behind it, disappeared into the mist. Yet, the three did not dare to let their guard down. After all, the ordeal wasn’t over yet, the crisis had not passed—the lake around them was still dotted with dozens, if not hundreds of corpses, encircling them on all sides.
They had already checked the cabin’s contents before. Useful items were scarce, only some simple tools like hooks and ropes, along with two short oars for rowing.
Clutching one of the short oars, Mi Shu asked while trying to suppress her fear, "Should we... try to row our way out?" Staying in such a place was agonizing for her, especially since no one could tell if these floating corpses would remain still.
However, this suggestion was rejected by Yang Xiao. Sui Chengguo remained silent, keenly watching the nearby water, clearly contemplating a way to escape the predicament.
"Then what do we do now?" Mi Shu became panicked. She urgently needed something to do to calm her nerves.
Yang Xiao took her hand and gave it a firm squeeze, as if to give her strength. "Listen to me, right now we don’t do anything."
"But... we can’t just sit here and wait for death." Although nothing seemed imminent, the surrounding corpses clearly spelled trouble. Mi Shu was worried that if they delayed further, they might sink deeper into danger. She had experienced a similar crisis before, which had cost her team dearly due to hesitation.
"Chu is right; in this uncertain situation, we won’t go wrong by staying put," said Sui Chengguo, the oldest among them, his words carrying weight. "We need to wait now. The crisis was not sparked by us. It must be someone from Cheng Cha Tong Han’s team. We have to trust them. They are surely looking for a way to break the situation, and they will succeed. If we flail about recklessly like headless flies, we might endanger not only ourselves but also them."
Under the dual reassurances from Yang Xiao and Sui Chengguo, Mi Shu, who was in a state of high alert, gradually calmed down. Images of Tong Han involuntarily surfaced in her mind—she always had an inexplicable confidence in him. He was someone with a strong inner core, which was admirable.
At the same time, Tong Han Cheng Cha and the others were trapped on the fog-engulfed lake, surrounded by corpses floating in the dark waters.
Indeed, as Yang Xiao and others had guessed, the predicament they faced originated from a teammate on this ship—more precisely, from Tong Han.
This was an experience of Tong Han’s.
Staring at the most splendidly dressed female corpse on the lake, Tong Han fell into deep thought. During that mission, the golden hairpin adorned with a jade pendant on the woman’s head was one she had personally placed. And now, this woman was the ghost in her resentful gaze.
The woman’s life had been tough; sold into the painted pleasure boat at a young age by her gambling-addicted father, she grew up under the tutelage and beatings of the madame. The painted boats were different from the brothels and their dimly lit recesses on land; they did not indulge in flesh trade, not because the madame or the figures behind her were kind-hearted, but because they knew the true way of making money. Only those elusive and talented beauties could truly empty the pockets of these wealthy young masters.
As the girl grew older, she became proficient in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and her appearance became ever more ravishing. She quickly rose to fame as the star attraction of the painted boat.
The girl refused countless advances from young nobles and scholars, not purely due to the rules of the boat, but more importantly, because she herself did not fancy men. Men’s words were duplicitous; despite her young age, she had sized up more than enough of them while living aboard the pleasure boat.
In this world, men are like mud and women are like water—she yearned to find a beloved to spend her life with. For this, she rejected numerous rich suitors willing to redeem her. She was waiting for an opportunity.
Each painted pleasure boat had an unwritten rule: win the top position five times, and you could redeem yourself. Now, she had already won four times. Tonight, was her last chance.
