This Damned Thirst for Survival

Abody was hanging from the ceiling, dangling from the tips of its feet. They were dressed in clothes that belonged to people and should have been people, but they did not look human.

The bodies were blue and white, their brains bulging, veins crawling from their necks to their faces, their eyes about to burst out of their sockets like fish. What’s more, their bodies are covered in slime, which drips from their toes to the ground and glues their legs together as if they were fish tails.

The noses and eyes on their faces gradually fuse together, both like men, and as if they were transforming into fish. Their abdomens are raised, both male and female, as if they were in their eighth month of pregnancy.

The strong smell of fish hits you.

Such a frightening scene shook the crowd in place, unable to speak for a moment.

There was no breeze in the bilge, but the suspended bodies were spinning slightly on the ropes. Lu Youyi suddenly pointed to a man not far away and said, “This is …… and this is Li Wei!”

Li Wei’s arms hang at his side, his head down at the ground, his belly bulging as if he were carrying two basketballs, so big that his shirt buttons are falling apart.

Lu Youyi turned pale, “Are they already dead?”

But the answer came to Lu Youyi’s mind as soon as the question was asked. How could one possibly live after becoming like this?

The sound of dripping slime was everywhere in the bilge, and Jiang Luo slowed his breathing to take in as little of the air as possible. He looked at the slime on the floor, reflecting in the light of the torch, and whispered, “Come on, let’s go find Kuang Zheng first.”

Kuang Zheng had only been taken away for an hour and was definitely not yet in this condition.

The group carefully made their way through the corpses. The deeper they went, the stronger the fishy smell became. The fishy smell was like putting them in a patch of stagnant water that hadn’t been changed in years, stagnant water that hid rotting fish and prawn carcasses and water plants, and every breath was a torture to the nose.

As he walked, a pair of green and white toes brushed past Jiang Luo’s hand, and Jiang Luo suddenly gave a start.

He turned and lifted his head, staring at the body that touched his arm.

The corpse’s eyes were bulging out and its head was hanging down by the rope. Jiang Luo looked at him steadily for a while, and Ye Xun behind him asked curiously, “Jiang Luo, what’s wrong?”

” Ye Xun, they don’t seem to be corpses,” Jiang Luo pursed his lips, “they should still be alive.”

The crowd behind them: “?!”

Zhuo Zhongqiu felt a chill run down her spine at the thought of the possibility that they weren’t dead, and she exclaimed, “How is this possible! I’ve just had a good look and they’re not breathing.”

Jiang Luo turned his head towards them and suddenly asked, “What do fish breathe with?”

Without waiting for a reply, he said to himself, “It’s with the gills; the nose is simply the olfactory organ of the fish.”

Ye Xun followed and looked up at the bodies, a thin layer of sweat had formed on his forehead in just a few moments, “Get them down and see?”

They lowered a corpse from the ceiling. The body was unconscious, its eyes wide and eerie as if it was staring at each of them.

Jiang Luo touched the end of his nose and indeed he was not breathing. He stroked his hands to the sides of his cheeks, but found nothing. Jiang Luo suddenly saw that there was something wrong with the sides of the body’s throat.

Carefully reaching for it, he found a crevice, he lifted the surface skin and there was indeed a permeating hot gill beneath.

Jiang Luo looks up at the others.

They stare at the gills of Jiang Luo’s fingertips with mixed faces, no one expecting them to be alive.

To be alive in this state is a good or bad thing for these people, who can say.

“He’s alive, but he’s dying,” Jiang Luo whispered, “his breathing is weak, his heartbeat is failing, he’ll last an hour at most.”

He withdrew his hand and wiped the slime off his hand on his shirt, “When the crew checked you guys, did they only check for fever or no fever?”

Ye Xun collects his unspeakable thoughts, “And the eyes.”

Jiang Luo took the light and shone it into the victim’s eyes. The victim’s eyes were not showing any symptoms other than a foggy white layer covering them, and he could not figure out what this meant. ”

Some fish even have no eyes at all, and with eyes they do not function as sight.

Jiang Luo seemed to catch a hint of something, he handed Lu Youyi the torch and asked Lu Youyi to help him with the light. Jiang Luo examined the victim carefully, the nose was unchanged, crossing over to the nose, Jiang Luo broke the victim’s lips.

A fishy smell hits him and Jiang Luo holds his breath as he realises that the victim’s teeth have also changed somewhat. The teeth gradually changed into sharp teeth, as if they were sharks leaning closer to the fish.

Jiang Luo is basically certain that the blood eel is a deep-sea fish.

The torch continued down and stopped at the victim’s abdomen.

The abdomen was bulging abnormally and, most frighteningly, something in the abdomen seemed to sense the light and a bulge suddenly appeared on the belly.

It’s like a signal that one bump is followed by a second and a third in quick succession, turning into 20 or 30 uneven undulations.

The image was so numbing that Sai Liaoer, crouching on the sidelines, was taken aback and said in a shaky voice, “There’s something in his stomach.”

“Cut it open and see.” A few moments later, Wen Renlian took the dagger from his body and asked Ge Zhu to light a match for him.

With a quick swipe of the blade over the match and a whispered “I’m sorry”, he drove the tip of the knife into the victim’s abdomen and slashed his stomach open.

A huge swathe of sticky, fishy, bloody goo gushed wildly from the stomach, and twenty or thirty palm-sized fry slid down the goo and bounced alive on the ground.

Ge Zhu covered his mouth and let out a dry heave, “What’s all this?!”

Jiang Luo dodges the splash of mucus as the tail slaps the ground, takes the opportunity to insert a fry with his knife and holds it up to the light for closer inspection.

The fry is dark and has no scales on its body, as smooth as a mudskipper. But while the loach does not have a tail, it does. The fry’s eyes protrude from the sides of its head and are bloodshot.

Obviously, this is a blood eel fry.

Blood eel fry are surprisingly raised from the bodies of civilians.

The blood eel did not have a head so huge that it was about to burst through its cerebrum and was so fragile that it was all but dead within half a minute of touching the air.

Jiang Luo threw away the fry from the tip of the knife and shone a light on the inside of the victim’s stomach, which still had a few clear round objects stuck to it, presumably eggs that had failed to hatch.

Wen Renlian’s face deepens, ” Kuang Zheng’s body should also contain such fish eggs.”

“…… And it only took a day and a night to hatch,” Zhuo Zhongqiu squatted next to her, ” Li Wei was only taken away last night and by this evening her stomach had already risen to that size. ”

Ge Zhu took two balls of paper out of nowhere and plugged them in his nose, tentatively lighting a match to tease the clear fish eggs stuck to his stomach. When the fish eggs were heated, they quickly fell off the stomach wall.

“Fear of fire.” He said thoughtfully.

They sewed the victim’s stomach back together, which, after the loss of the fry, had sagged like a propped-up balloon and was in an unsightly shape.

Wen Renlian said, “Go well.”

With a swipe of his knife, he put the half-fish, half-human victim out of his misery in advance.

Jiang Luo continued to walk deeper and soon realised that the further back they went, the more minute the changes in the people hanging up at the rear.

” Kuang Zheng?”

The group spread out and whispered Kuang Zheng’s name.

In the corner, there was a sudden, weak knocking sound.

Several people quickly approached towards the sound, ” Kuang Zheng ?”

The light from the torch was garbled and finally hit the spot where the sound was coming from. Kuang Zheng was lying on the ground with a rope wrapped around his neck, which had snapped, presumably as a result of his struggle to free himself.

The moment it became clear that it was Kuang Zheng, everyone quickly gathered around.

Kuang Zheng’s face is flushed, his breathing is rapid, he is sweating profusely and he is struggling to open his eyes against the effects of the sleeping pills.

Jiang Luo patted Kuang Zheng’s face, ” Kuang Zheng , Kuang Zheng ? Can you hear my voice?”

Kuang Zheng nods with difficulty.

The crowd breathes an abrupt sigh of relief as Jiang Luo’s hand rests on Kuang Zheng’s abdomen, a slight bulge causing him to grimace.

At this point Wen Renlian stiffened and withdrew his hand from behind Kuang Zheng’s back, ” Jiang Luo ……”

Jiang Luo looks at his hand, which is covered in mucus.

Kuang Zheng also has eggs in his body, and he has even started to mutate.

Lu Youyi said in a dazed voice, “What should we do?”

Jiang Luo asked Wen Renlian to turn Kuang Zheng over and lift up Kuang Zheng’s clothes to look at his back, “Have Sai Liaoer ask the god to come up and ask the ‘god’ if there is a way to remove the eggs from Kuang Zheng’s body, and if there is no way, then we have to cut open his belly and take out the eggs.”

Sai Liaoer gave a look that was worse than tears, “I, I’ll try.”

Ye Xun suddenly said, “Call the police.”

He pursed his lips, “It doesn’t matter if the test is passed or not, human life is more important.”

Jiang Luo said calmly, “Ye Xun is right. There was a police ship following the Angonese from a distance when we set out from the mouth of the delta, and we could have gone to the communications room to connect to the police ship’s signal and send them a distress message when the crew wasn’t looking.”

The area in which the Angonese is now docked is the high seas, not under the jurisdiction of any country, but the country has the right to board the ship and arrest the suspects as long as the victims are from their country.

The communications room was in a work area frequented by the crew and there was little chance of sneaking into it. But the first order of business was to get Kuang Zheng medical attention, and this was clearly not a good place to do so, so the men once again used the Five Ghostly Moves to leave the bilge.

They neither set up an altar to insert incense nor put up tributes. The five ghosts looked so ugly at them that they didn’t even bother to give them an extra ride, and threw them out the door and disappeared.

They carried Kuang Zheng back to Jiang Luo’s room on their backs, scared on the way, but luckily no one noticed.

When they returned to the room, Kuang Zheng’s breathing became more difficult. Jiang Luo asked Lu Youyi to drag Kuang Zheng to the bathroom and turn on the tap to run water into the bath.

Kuang Zheng was placed in the bathtub and after being immersed in the water, his mutation seemed to slow down a little. His breathing slowly calmed down, but he was completely unconscious.

Knives at the ready, high purity alcohol at the ready, the rich man’s room is full of things that can be used. Once the bathroom is cleared, only Sai Liaoer and Jiang Luo are left in.

Jiang Luo puts on his gloves and nods towards Sai Liaoer.

Sai Liaoer clenched his fist, took a deep breath and began to sing the song of invocation.

Jiang Luo watched him sing and dance as he danced to the gods, and several times his scalp tingled at Sai Liaoer’s off-key singing.

After a few seconds, Sai Liaoer opens his eyes.

His blue eyes steeped in stability and maturity, a copy of “Three Hundred Words to Learn English Well” also appeared in his hand. He looked at Jiang Luo, slightly startled, and then said, “Jiang Gongzi.”

Jiang Luo said tentatively, “Brother Black?”

Hei Wuchang waved his hand and the book in his hand disappeared as he said, “It’s me.”

As expected of the White Imperator, he invites the gods to come to Hei Wuchang.

But will Hei Wuchang be useful?

After greeting Hei Wuchang, Jiang Luo told him about Kuang Zheng. Hei Wuchang pondered for a moment and asked, “Mr Jiang, have you ever heard of bone scraping?”

Jiang Luo looked to Kuang Zheng, “You’re going to scrape his flesh open?”

Hei Wuchang shook his head, “No.”

“I have never done anything to heal his wounds, but from what you have said, it would be quite simple to drive away the fish eggs from his body. All you need to do is drill into his arms and legs with the fire of the underworld, so that the fire energy enters his internal organs from his limbs, and then scrape across his abdomen from the bottom to the top, forcing the fish eggs to escape from his mouth.”

Jiang Luo, who didn’t quite understand, asked directly, “What am I supposed to do?”

Hei Wuchang said, “Please also help me hold his hands and feet down, Mr Jiang.”

Jiang Luo and Hei Wuchang tied Kuang Zheng’s hands and feet to the sides of the pool and left him floating above the water. Jiang Luo palms Kuang Zheng’s head so that he can breathe while his lips are submerged, “Hei, I’m done.”

Hei Wuchang said seriously, “OK.”

Jiang Luo : “……”

Hei Wuchang speaks English to him in a Sai Liaoer shell, which is really magical.

Hei Wuchang waved his hand and four flashes of blue fire appeared in his hand. The flames ran from each of Kuang Zheng’s limbs into his body, and Kuang Zheng’s face turned pale as he grunted in pain.

While Jiang Luo held him down, Hei Wuchang took a knife from the side and pushed Kuang Zheng’s abdomen from below with the back of the wider knife, forcing the invisible contents of his abdomen out of his spleen and stomach.

Bloody mucus and yellow stomach juice began to spill from Kuang Zheng’s mouth, his face became increasingly distorted and he suddenly struggled violently, spitting out a large amount of mucus and fish eggs in one gulp.

The transparent, round eggs burrowed into the cold water, and Jiang Luo saw even tiny tadpole-like fry fleeing from these eggs.

If it had been a few hours later, the fry would have emerged from the eggs and taken up residence in Kuang Zheng’s body.

Hei Wuchang forced Kuang Zheng to throw up in three waves, and only after the last thing that came out was free of mucus did he say, “There you go.”

Jiang Luo immediately pulled Kuang Zheng to his feet and sweated profusely as he went to wash his hands. Hei Wuchang looked around, hesitated, and asked, “Jiang Gongzi, where are you? I have not been able to find Sai Gongzi for the past few nights.”

“We’re out at sea,” Jiang Luo said, “I don’t suppose this is your work area?”

Hei Wuchang gives a look of relief, “It’s really not our area of responsibility.”

Jiang Luo thought of Sai Liaoer’s sleepy appearance the other day, as if his blood had been sucked out of him, and said kindly, “Brother Black, you can’t let Sai Liaoer work all night every night, he can’t take it.”

Hei Wuchang listened quietly, looking more and more guilty, and when Jiang Luo had finished speaking, he pondered for a moment and nodded, “I will think about this. Lord Jiang, inviting the gods to take up their bodies does not last too long, otherwise it will place a heavy burden on the host, so I will leave first.”

After Jiang Luo had thanked him, Hei Wuchang withdrew the four flames that had burrowed into Kuang Zheng’s body and closed his eyes, and the next moment Sai Liaoer reopened them, unable to stand sleepily, and asked with difficulty, “Kuang, how was it?”

Jiang Luo smiled, “You made it.”

The second he got his answer, Sai Liaoer fell to the ground with his head in his hands.

Jiang Luo helped him up in time to call the men in and move them both to the bedroom bed. After Ye Xun and Wen Renlian had changed Kuang Zheng’s clothes and settled them, the group crouched by the bath, looking at the fish eggs in the pool.

The eggs died very quickly in the cold water, and it seems that this water is not suitable for them to grow.

Or perhaps only a warm, enclosed space like the human body is optimal for nourishing the fry.

Deep-sea fish live in deep and cold waters, and as deep-sea fish, the eggs of blood eels are incredibly delicate. It is feared that the crew of the Angonese knew this secret and allowed the rich to lure civilians aboard as vessels for artificially rearing blood eel fry.

This is not man eating fish, this is clearly man eating man.

Jiang Luo looks to Wen Renlian , “Do you remember the day Wilton jumped overboard? We met the crew at the stern and they said they were keeping a constant watch on the bottom for the presence of fish eggs.”

“We’ve been tricked,” Wen Renlian sneered, “they should have been putting out bait to lure the blood eels in that day.”

And the bait, most likely, was the four civilians missing from the ship.

They had been at sea for four days, missing exactly four civilians, and the blood eel caught weighed over five hundred pounds; it had most likely devoured four people into its belly.

Of course the commoners didn’t know about it, the crew did, but did the rich know?

Ge Zhu whispered from the side, “Actually, I’ve been thinking about this since I was in the bilge. The captain said that the blood eels would be ready for consumption in three days, is this blood eel, the big fish that was caught in the first place, or is it a civilian that gradually fishes out in the bilge, or is it a hatchling?”

Jiang Luo thought the odds were that it was a hatchling, but instead of spilling the beans on his guess, he shrugged, “Who knows?”

*

After a night of little sleep, Kuang Zheng’s eyes finally opened at dawn.

He was weak but all right. Wen Renlian fed him some porridge and the group discussed how to infiltrate the communications room.

The communications room was always occupied and surrounded by the crew. The final decision was for Jiang Luo and Ge Zhu, two wealthy men, to go snooping in person.

They don’t have to be careful, they can just use the excuse of visiting the crew’s working position and enter the communications room openly.

Jiang Luo and Ge Zhu both felt that this plan was feasible.

The Angonese is a huge, beautiful luxury cruise ship with a crew of hundreds and thousands, and if they were accidentally exposed to the crew, they could be killed and fed to the fish without anyone knowing.

It’s better to be careful.

After lunch, Jiang Luo took Ge Zhu to the captain and asked for a tour of the crew’s work area.

The captain smiled and said, “Then let the first mate show you around.”

The first mate standing at one side stepped forward, a smile pleasing on his handsome face, “Mr. Zhong, Mr. Lu, please follow me.”

Along the way, the first mate tries hard to be funny, but dodges quickly every time he meets Jiang Luo’s eyes. It was as if he was afraid of Jiang Luo’s coaching, but at the same time a little bit more excited.

Jiang Luo has no interest in him; he wears sunglasses, the tourist standard of a floral shirt and white shorts, a cheeky smile and the occasional wink at pretty boys and girls with his sunglasses off.

Ge Zhu looked at him like this and relaxed as well. The two men had visited many places along the way and were on their way to the reserve barn when they spotted two crew members feasting at a rest table around the corner of the corridor.

On the table were two large plates of red meat, I don’t know if it was beef or fish, sprinkled with seasoning and tossed raw into a ball. There was a small dish of tomato sauce and chilli oil next to it, and the two crews ate it with their mouths full, a bit of blood-like red clinging to the sides of their mouths.

After the crew saw them coming, they even invited them warmly, “Would the first mate and the two gentlemen like to have some?”

As they spoke, their mouths were still chewing on something. Jiang Luo looked at the mass of meat and thought of the bodies hanging up in the bilge last night, he smiled and refused, “Thank you, no need.”

Ge Zhu also politely declined.

The first mate did eat a couple of mouthfuls before leading them on to wander down the road.

When all that needed to be seen had been seen, the first officer finally led them to the communications room.

As soon as Ge Zhu entered the room, she excused herself from the pain in her stomach, her face twisted in pain and her expression exaggerated. Jiang Luo said, pretending to be panicked, “Is it your appendix? Someone help quickly, take Mr Lu to the infirmary.”

The first mate and one of the crew in the communications room rushed over to support Ge Zhu and took him out to find a doctor.

There was another crew member in the communications room, so Jiang Luo went over to him and chatted with him, and when the crew member wasn’t looking, he knocked him out with a slap.

He uses light force and the crew will only be dazed for a few minutes at most. Jiang Luo takes the opportunity to turn on his communicator and tries to connect to the police signal.

But before he could succeed, the crewman woke up early, propped up on the table.

Jiang Luo immediately switched off the communicator and walked over to the crewman, as if he had been watching him, and whispered, “Are you alright? Why did you suddenly fall asleep?”

The young crewman was a little confused, he rubbed his forehead and wondered why he had fallen asleep, he was a little flattered by Jiang Luo’s concern, “Thank you sir, I guess I’m just a little tired.”

Beneath his sunglasses, Jiang Luo sized up the tall, youthful face of the crew and narrowed his eyes.

A better idea came to mind.

Jiang Luo leans against the table, his long legs intertwined and his posture relaxed as he stands face to face with the crew. He removes his sunglasses, revealing beautiful open phoenix eyes with a smile in them, “What’s your name?”

The crewman looked at him, his eyes frozen for a moment, and said shyly, “My name is Dan Nier.”

” Dan Nier ,” the dark haired youth nodded, his long, bony fingers playing with his sunglasses, “Do you have a girlfriend?”

Dan Nier stammered, unable to speak, and the imposingly pretty guest dawned on him and teased, “A boyfriend, perhaps?”

The young man blushed, “None of that.”

“So,” Jiang Luo nodded knowingly, but stopped talking about it and talked about something else instead, “How often do you usually take a break from sailing?”

From life issues to hobbies, the words seem to hide hints that tickle the senses, but they are like a breeze blowing through the reeds, so fast that one wonders if it is an illusion of too much narcissism.

Jiang Luo carries his flirtatious persona to the bottom, waiting until the end and then suddenly turning back to the original question, “Do you like boys or girls?”

Dan Nier seemed hungry as he swallowed and nervously took a sip from his glass of water, “I, I don’t know.”

Jiang Luo lifted Dan Nier’s chin by the rim of his sunglasses and said with a smile, “So, are you free tonight?”

The implication was clear and Dan Nier subconsciously tried to nod, but a look of loss came over his face, “Sir, I’m sorry. I’m on duty tonight.”

Jiang Luo knew of course that he was on duty, after all, that was why he had played such a game, seeing as he was on the duty roster. His smile turned regretful as he put away his sunglasses and said, “Pity.”

Jiang Luo gets up and takes two steps outside. Dan Nier’s eyes trailed after him and a pang of disappointment went through him. But the dark-haired youth stopped abruptly as he reached the door, turned his head and smiled, “So how about I meet you here tonight?”

The afternoon sun shone on his body, giving his features a clear, shimmering layer of Jin Guang.

Dan Nier’s eyes lit up and he rose to his feet, unable to hide his excitement, “I’m on duty here, sir, so feel free to come over.”

Jiang Luo teased his lips with a smile and waved him off with a flourish.

Once outside, he puts away his smile. As he passed the rubbish bin on the corner, Jiang Luo carelessly threw in the sunglasses that had touched the crew’s chin.

In the communications room.

Dan Nier looks at Jiang Luo, who has disappeared, and swallows hard again.

But more saliva leaked out of his mouth and trickled down the sides of his mouth as Dan Nier wiped it away and slowly sat back in his seat, muttering to himself, “So hungry, I’m so hungry ……”