Chapter 548 The Death of the Old Captain

She must be from the organization. I fumbled around and found that she seemed to have already left. Although she had bound me tightly, He Xiaoyu quickly discovered my predicament and opened the closet door.

After I was rescued, I said, "It's not easy to even tie someone up!"

"These people are very cunning. Be careful. Here's a mask for you!"

"Why?"

"Everyone outside is wearing masks. It seems like they're playing some kind of hide-and-seek game."

"Uh, I'll have to go along with it for now."

Returning to the hall, I indeed found that people had started playing games. On the stage, a guy with dyed yellow hair was spraying wine from a bottle, looking very excited. Whoever he sprayed then had to go on stage for a penalty.

The penalty involved wearing masks, blindfolded, and challenging some magic games. A magician-like figure tied these chosen individuals to a wooden chair.

The tourists at that moment seemed very excited and thrilled, not nervous at all.

The magician threw daggers towards their heads, piercing several apples placed above them. I was actually quite worried at the time, what if the guy missed?

I watched them play for an unknown amount of time until a sudden scream echoed from somewhere. I thought something had happened on stage, but when I looked, the people there were fine. Then I rejoined Liu Yuning and the others. Everyone, including the tourists, was looking around.

"That sound seemed to come from upstairs. Is something wrong up there?" a lady asked in surprise.

An old gentleman then said, "Very likely. Let's go upstairs to check. Everyone stop playing. If something has happened, it would be trouble!"

Everyone stopped and hurried upstairs. Because they were all anxious, a stampede occurred on the stairs.

We temporarily concealed our identities and maintained order, but the crowd paid no attention and continued to surge upstairs.

Curiosity is truly a dangerous thing. When we went upstairs and entered a room, a sailor exclaimed in terror, "The captain is dead! The captain is dead!"

"What? When did this happen?" Liu Yuning asked.

"Just now. The captain said he wanted to be alone, so I left. I then went to get a glass of water for him. When I came back and opened the door, I found the captain sitting in his seat, dead with blood flowing from all seven orifices. Please go quickly, I can't explain the specifics right now!"

I told the sailor to calm down and followed his directions to the room. I saw an old man slumped in a seat, with a desk in front of him. Based on the room's layout, this was likely the captain's office. The walls were adorned with many photos of him and foreigners. Beside it was a bed, and an open window in the eastern corner. A fireplace-like design was on the left side of the desk. I approached the captain and asked Zhang Keying to lend me her glasses. I held a lens near the captain's nose and found no condensation.

He was indeed dead. His face was covered in bloodstains, almost completely obscuring his face. I asked Zhang Keying to help me move the body to the floor. Xie Chuchu also arrived.

The crowd watched us curiously, not understanding what we were doing. It seemed unavoidable to reveal our identities now. Liu Yuning produced a pre-made work ID: "We are detectives!"

"What? Detectives? In China, that profession isn't..."

"I heard China has detectives, just not as renowned as in foreign countries or Japan. They say Chinese ones mostly investigate extramarital affairs, and they don't call them detective agencies."

"Really? They look quite professional, using lenses just now!"

Amidst their murmurs, I needed to explain that we had all disguised ourselves when we came aboard. We had all used my illusionary skills and changed our appearances.

Otherwise, the organization would recognize our true looks. Boarding the ship without any disguise would have been pointless.

I removed the captain's clothes at the scene and found traces of fish scales on his body. It seemed he had also been infected by that virus. Based on the distribution and our previous research, it should have been ongoing for more than three days.

"I don't need to tell you the cause of death, right? Hmm? That doesn't seem quite right!" Xie Chuchu was about to conclude, but observing a hole on the deceased's forehead, she changed her statement.

"Precisely. The fish scale disease has a cycle, but it wasn't time for that yet, and the captain died. This proves he died from another cause. Have you noticed? There's a bullet hole on his forehead. But we didn't hear a gunshot just now. If I'm not mistaken, he likely died from a silenced gun. We can't conduct a gunpowder test on the ship now, so we need to find the murder weapon," I analyzed.

"Right, don't they have surveillance here?"

As Zhang Keying brought this up, a crew member nearby said, "Sorry, that surveillance seems to be broken!"

"Broken! Do you know what you're saying? Reporter!" I really wanted to grab him and ask if he was doing it intentionally, but the crew member said aggrievedly, "It's true. The captain originally wanted to fix it before starting this trip, but it was delayed due to some matters, so it wasn't repaired."

"What was it delayed by?"

"It seemed to be related to his daughter's situation. I don't know more than that. It's really strange, who could have killed the captain?"

As this crew member answered, my eyes never left his. I noticed his reaction was normal, not like he was lying. But I firmly grasped his hand, deliberately observing it.

He didn't flinch and even seemed to know what I was doing. After I carefully examined his hand, I saw no wrinkles on his fingers. It seemed he had never held a gun. I released his hand and said, "When you left just now, did you see any suspicious individuals passing by?"

"Let me think. When I came out and closed the door, I seemed to see someone smoking in the hallway."

"That hallway?"

The crew member led me outside the room to a deep corridor. This was the ship's balcony, extending towards the deck. The path was open, wide enough for two adults to stand.

I walked along the corridor and indeed found some ashes on the edge. There was supposed to be a camera here, but it was no longer functional. Even though the crew member said it was damaged, I inspected it myself. It was indeed broken, with several wires cut. Judging by the bite marks, it seemed to have been chewed by rats.

If the crew member was telling the truth, then this smoker was the most likely person to have approached the captain.

However, at this point, two other crew members said, "That's not right. We saw a couple standing by the captain's office window just now."

"Really? When was that? How do you know?" Liu Yuning walked over and inquired.

"We were passing by the window, intending to bring the captain lunch. We were standing by the balcony railing. We saw that man before, but if someone was closer, it would be that couple. They seemed to be by the window, cough cough..."

I asked the crew members to call the couple over. After some questioning, it turned out they were part of the cruise company. The man was a supervisor named Ren Mingzhe, and the woman was Fan Qianwei. They seemed to be in a good relationship and were preparing to get married. Additionally, the old captain was Fan Qianwei's father.

I sniffed. Both crew members had the scent of seasonings on them and wore neat scarves.

Seeing her father's fate, Fan Qianwei was filled with grief: "Dad, how could you? We were just about to tell you something, and after leaving for a moment, you... "

I approached them: "You two, we heard you were near Mr. Fan's window before the incident. What's going on?"

"We were discussing our wedding and wanted to tell Mr. Fan, but due to some matters we were hesitant to mention, we left temporarily," Ren Mingzhe replied.

"However, some crew members reported that you were kissing by the window at that time. Is that true?"

"Yes, but we didn't do anything else. Are you suspecting me?" Ren Mingzhe asked indignantly.

"No, this is just a process," I said, then suddenly looked at one of the crew members who had told me about this: "You, you went to the kitchen later, didn't you?"

"What? What are you implying?" the crew member asked nervously.

"You're lying. Look, your scarf is spotless, but your colleague's is stained with chopped scallions."

At this point, that crew member pointed out: "That's right, Little Liu arrived later. What were you doing before that?"

"I didn't do anything. I just went to the restroom!"

"Is that so? Can anyone prove it?" I stepped closer, fixing my gaze on Little Liu.

"No, I went to the restroom alone, and then went to the kitchen. What do you mean, Mr. Detective? Don't just pretend to be a master of deduction and fool us!"

"I don't know why you're protecting a criminal, but given your identity, I suspect it's related to your job!"

"What did you say? Protecting a criminal!"

At this moment, not only he, but even the people around, including Xiahou, were confused. They didn't know how I figured it out.

But Liu Yuning came to my side: "You witnessed the criminal's act, but they must have promised you some benefits, and then you tried to fool us together."