It was eight o’clock at night. The sun wouldn’t rise until around six tomorrow morning; by then, the sky would no longer be dark.
In other words, starting now, the Princess Rose would sink within the next nine hours.
Mumu could only provide a few vague clues. When pressed for details, she didn’t know what exactly had happened either.
Mumu’s mother asked me in a low voice, “Miss Hứa, you said that everything Mumu saw was real. Is this ship really going to sink?”
“We can’t be sure yet,” I replied.
“But sometimes it’s better to believe something might happen than to assume it won’t.”
There were 1,500 people on board. Whether I was saving myself or everyone else, I couldn’t leave it up to chance.
“Ms. Bạch, I need a floor plan of the Princess Rose,” I said to the steward, Bạch Tịnh.
Bạch Tịnh smiled. “You can just call me Steward Bạch. Give me a moment.” She then got up and left the infirmary.
Just then, Dương Kỳ came in from outside and asked, “How did it go? What’s the situation?”
“Mumu only helped us narrow down roughly when the ship will sink. If we want to change what happens completely, we still have to rely on the clue you left me,” I replied.
When I fell into the illusion, Dương Kỳ had taped a floor plan of the ship to the window and marked a spot on it. He must have been trying to pass along information.
With no other clues to go on, I could only follow those traces to get to the bottom of the sinking.
Mumu’s father came back in, his hand still wrapped in gauze. He snapped at me, “Everything’s fine now, right? I won’t hold it against you that your cat scratched me, but please stop disturbing my family’s vacation. Mumu, come with Dad.”
With that, he tried to take Mumu away, but as soon as she got off the bed, her mother pulled her back.
“You’re not going,” Mumu’s mother said firmly.
“Honey, we have to go with Miss Hứa. The ship sinking that Mumu saw is real, and Miss Hứa saw it too.”
Mumu’s father’s expression changed, and he said urgently, “What do you mean, it’s real? You believe in this kind of charlatan trickery too?”
“I’m not going, no matter what. I believe Miss Hứa. Mumu and I are going with her.” Mumu’s mother raised her voice.
I took out my room key card and said, “You don’t have to follow me, Mumu’s mom. I have a lot to do later, and I can’t look after both of you. How about this: you and Mumu go to my suite for now. If anything happens, call me, and I’ll come right back.”
Having people follow me around would be inconvenient, but I might need Mumu’s help at any moment, so all I could do was arrange for mother and daughter to wait in my room.
“A suite—the one that costs 68,888 a night? I had no idea you were so rich, Miss Hứa. You’re staying in a place like that?” Mumu’s father took the room key card from my hand and turned to his wife.
“All right, then. She’s letting you stay in her suite, so go there for now. If anything happens, just call Miss Hứa.”
Mumu’s mother hesitated, but finally nodded. “Miss Hứa, I’ll wait for you there. Be careful.”
Mumu’s family left.
Just then, Steward Bạch Tịnh brought several copies of the ship’s floor plan into the infirmary and spread them out on the table. There were large and small versions. I picked up a small one—the same plan I’d seen in the illusion.
I circled a spot with my pen and looked at Bạch Tịnh. “Steward Bạch, what’s here?”
Bạch Tịnh looked at the floor plan, touched her chin, and said, “This is the foredeck. There are five decks below it. The bottom three are supply storage, the fourth is the valuables room, where there’s a large safe, and the captain’s quarters are near the top deck.”
Three places.
I closed my eyes and sorted through the information in my mind. The captain’s quarters probably held nothing unusual. Sailors went in and out of the supply storage every day, so if anything were wrong, they would have noticed. That left only the valuables room.
I opened my eyes and asked, “Steward Bạch, there’s an antique auction aboard the Princess Rose tomorrow morning. Are the antiques being kept in the valuables room right now?”
Bạch Tịnh nodded. “There are 26 lots in this auction. They’re all currently in the valuables room on the lowest deck, under the guard of a professional security company hired by the organizers.”
“Is there any way you can get us in there? I need to see the auction items. They may be connected to the ship sinking,” I said, looking her straight in the eye.
Bạch Tịnh tapped her chin with a finger, apparently trying to think of a way.
Beside us, Dương Kỳ sat in a chair, studying the map. “Is this the information I gave you in the illusion? Do you suspect one of the auction items is a haunted object?”
“Yeah.” I took a deep breath and looked at the map.
“You were already in the water then, but instead of trying to escape, you still did your best to pass this last bit of information to me. Three places: the captain’s quarters and the supply storage probably aren’t the problem, so the only possibility I can think of is a haunted object causing the ship to sink.”
“A ship this big must have extensive safety measures. But according to my memories, a lot of the people on board didn’t have time to escape. The only possibility is that some kind of special force caused the whole ship to sink so quickly that nobody could get away in time.”
“I came to this auction for a haunted object, and it may well be in the valuables room. I can’t yet say whether it has anything to do with the ship sinking.”
Bạch Tịnh frowned, then saw my expression and said, “The best way to get into the valuables room is with the organizers’ permission. I know where the person in charge is. I can take you there, but whether you can convince them is up to you.”
After hearing that, Dương Kỳ said, “You know haunted objects best, so go check whether this has anything to do with the auction. I’ll find the captain. If we can’t change what happens, we need to prepare for it.”
With the lives of 1,500 people at stake, he didn’t dare place all his hopes in me. He could only tackle both possibilities at once.
I followed Bạch Tịnh into the elevator and went to the ship’s ninth deck.
In the elevator, I asked curiously, “Steward Bạch, why are you helping me? You seem to believe everything I say.”
Bạch Tịnh was a crew member and the private steward for the suite. She and I had never met before.
Under the circumstances, after what had just happened, no ordinary person would have done anything but refuse whatever I asked Bạch Tịnh to do. They might even have grown suspicious of what we were up to or reported us to the captain, rather than letting us act recklessly.
But Bạch Tịnh was different. No matter what I said or did, she never tried to stop me. In fact, she helped us.
Bạch Tịnh smiled sweetly. “Miss Hứa, I’m your personal steward. You’re my client, my god, so of course I have to serve you wholeheartedly.”
A blatant lie. But this wasn’t the time to press her about it.
The elevator reached the ninth deck. Bạch Tịnh went ahead and quickly led me to a door, where she knocked. A few seconds later, a short-haired woman in a business suit opened it. Her suit was gray, unlike Bạch Tịnh’s, and it was clear she wasn’t a member of the ship’s crew.
The short-haired woman looked at me coldly and asked in slightly halting Mandarin, “What is it?”
“Ma’am, this is Miss Hứa, a guest from the top deck. She’d like to speak with Mr. Chu, who’s in charge of this auction, to ask him some questions about it.” Bạch Tịnh gave her a perfectly practiced smile.
The short-haired woman said coldly, “I’m sorry, our director isn’t seeing…”
But before she could finish, a man’s voice came from inside the room. “Let them in.”
The short-haired woman looked momentarily surprised, then stepped aside. “Please, come in.”