My left and right hemispheres fight each other.

"Come on, Dr. Chen, I'll take you to the infirmary to familiarize yourself with it." The boatswain was a tall, thin man with a mustache, his shrewd eyes fixed on the somewhat dejected Chen Xin. He first dispersed the crowd, then had several sailors lead the injured and Chen Xin into the cabin.

After descending the wooden stairs, walking through the passageway, and going down two more floors, we finally arrived at a dark and cramped space.

The boatswain casually pushed open the wooden door, revealing a scene that surprised Chen Jing.

The first thing that catches the eye is a huge, cross-shaped white bone decoration hanging on the wooden wall deep inside.

A closed grease lamp, enclosed by a thick iron windproof cover, tightly trapped a cluster of dim, weak but tenacious flames that resisted the cold, squeezing out its life energy to barely dispel the dampness that filled the room and was almost suffocating.

The boatswain politely invited Chen Xin inside, and Chen Xin followed his lead.

As soon as you enter the door, the chill of the sea, mixed with the smells of mold, turpentine, and the unique fishy odor of congealed blood, immediately assaults your senses.

There were no windows, no life, just a deathly stillness; even the light that illuminated half the room seemed to struggle to stay afloat.

The ship's planks beneath your feet are always wet; they creak underfoot, and moisture seeps out from the cracks. The walls are cold and sticky, with seawater seeping in little by little from the hull, condensing into watermarks on the wooden planks.

This doesn't resemble a warm, hopeful medical clinic at all; it's more like a dark, terrifying underwater morgue.

However, this does not mean that the Bauhinia ship does not value its medical treatment and other functions; on the contrary, it is comparable to luxury.

The most prominent feature of the central piece was the enormous and heavy oak operating table, covered in marks from repeated scraping and polishing over the years, with dark stains accumulating on its edges. Chen Jing gently touched it and found it to be soft, damp, slightly cool, and sticky.

There was also a metal-framed, wooden medicine cabinet against the wall, covered with thin, rusty metal hinges. The glass cabinet door was covered with fine water droplets, and once the door was opened, one could see the improperly stored damp medicine packets and the bandages and gauze that smelled damp and musty.

Despite its crude and shoddy quality, this was the highest level of equipment Chen Jing knew of on a pirate ship.

Chen Jing stood in the center of the room, scanning his surroundings. He noticed that there was a cast iron furnace hidden deep in the corner. Its cold patterns and dull color were like a lurking beast—although it had been dormant for many years, it was still gathering strength.

"How is it? Are you satisfied?" the boatswain asked, leaning closer with a forced smile.

"I have never seen any ship with such advanced medical equipment, not even those privateers or Royal Navy warships," Chen Jing praised generously.

This isn't flattery, it's the truth.

Based on the world background that Chen Jing currently sees, perhaps only a giant ship that a king of a country can personally board could have a more perfect seaside medical facility.

The boatswain gave Chen Xin a deep look, but Chen Jing pretended not to notice and went to organize the clumsy sailors to settle the wounded.

Chen Jing walked around again and saw several iron beds lying quietly in a dark corner. This was a living place where only seriously ill patients could stay for a long time.

He nodded and continued walking, discovering a hidden compartment in the side wall of the infirmary.

The boatswain, who had been watching him closely, immediately came over and said with a smile, "Dr. Chen, you'll be staying here from now on."

"Living on that iron bed?" Chen Jing asked back.

"Of course not." The boatswain placed his palm on the hidden compartment and pushed hard, causing the wall to flip over, revealing two dark secret rooms on the left and right.

"The room on the left is where Dr. Edens lives; you can sleep on the right."

Chen Jing suddenly realized, "So there are other doctors here."

"Of course," the boatswain replied, glancing at the two dark rooms with a subtle glint in his eyes. "It's just that Dr. Edens is old and frail, and he also lost an eye in the previous naval battle, so he rarely shows his face anymore."

Chen Jing nodded, then crouched down and peered into the room on the right, taking a closer look.

The living conditions weren't great, somewhat like the upper bunk on a green train in Chen Kingdom in the early years, so cramped that it was difficult to even sit up. But obviously, it was much better than the open-plan rooms where the sailors lived, as this was a single room!

Every inch of space on a pirate ship is precious and used to its maximum potential. To have a single room that is comparable to a coffin already puts one ahead of even the lowest-ranking pirates.

"If you have any questions in the future, Dr. Chen, you can come to me. By the way, you can call me Scott." Boatswain Scott extended a hand.

Chen Jing returned to the infirmary, raised an eyebrow, and shook hands with her.

Those hands, so thin that the gaps between the bones and the ridges were clearly visible, were exceptionally strong. After the two parted, Scott's gaze was noticeably filled with respect: "I'll leave the rest of my days in the care of Dr. Chen."

"I'm afraid I'll be the one troubling you a lot in the future, Mr. Scott," Chen Jing replied with a smile.

"Above the infirmary is the priest's quarters where the Stargazing Priest usually resides and the captain's quarters. Dr. Chen, please don't make too much noise at night. The priest and the captain both prefer quiet," Scott gave a special reminder before leaving.

Chen Jing watched Scott's back disappear into the darkness of the passageway, then looked back at the three wounded men lying in the infirmary groaning, and fell into deep thought.

……

During the day, all the hammocks in the sailors' cabins are folded up and replaced with tables, chairs, and benches, serving as a mess hall.

When it was time to eat, the kitchen would bring the food here, along with rum, which the pirates couldn't live without.

The room was filled with clinking glasses and constant laughter, but Chang Song and the others couldn't laugh.

A newcomer made a lot of jokes, but by a twist of fate, he got a job on the pirate ship. However, the others, who considered themselves experienced and shrewd, still had to squeeze into a 100-person room that served as both a canteen and a dormitory after a busy day.

As for the lucky doctor, a special person from the kitchen delivered his meals directly to his "office"!

"No, we need to find a chance to have a good talk with him." Chang Song slammed the wine barrel onto the table.

"Rum? I thought it would be delicious when I watched the movie, ugh!" Roseweiser complained to Chen Muqing.

"Brother Chen is now the only free person among us, which is a good thing, he should be able to find out more information." Ge Yan was also a little troubled, but still kept smiling.

"Judging from the ridiculous things he did during the day, I don't think he has any talent for intelligence gathering. This identity could be given to any one of us and would be of greater value," Cao Hui said coldly.

"But you can't have this identity." Even though Chen Xin wasn't there, Ge Yan still spoke up for justice.

"Alright, let's go see him before tonight to exchange and summarize the information we each have," Chen Muqing decided.

……

"Dr. Chen, this is your dinner. Please call Dr. Edens." The short, stout chef handed Chen Xin a metal plate and a tin cup, his face full of fawning smiles.

"Thank you. I'll give Dr. Edens his portion; he might not be able to show up right now." Chen Xin smiled as she accepted her cutlery.

The chubby chef hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to hand everything over to Chen Xin.

Before leaving, the chef waved again, signaling Chen Xin to bend down. Although Chen Xin was puzzled, she followed his instructions and bent down.

The chef took a small container out of his clothes, looked around furtively, and finally whispered carefully in Chen Xin's ear as if he were telling her sweet nothings: "This is red wine for you."

"I remember... this should be the captain's private brew." Chen Xin straightened up and looked at him with a strange expression.

"Well... in principle... that's correct." The cook was so anxious he almost jumped up, and he stammered as he explained, "But the captain is very busy, and he doesn't know exactly how many glasses he drank, nor does he remember how much wine was stored in the cargo hold."

"I understand." Chen Xin took the bottle, which smelled of wine, with a bit of amusement and thanked him.

The chef left quickly, and Chen Xin didn't pay much attention. He turned around and handed the food belonging to Dr. Edens to the hidden door that belonged to him, calling out, "Dr. Edens, your dinner is here for you."

Just as Chen Xin was getting impatient, a cough suddenly broke out in the dark room, followed by a low, hoarse, elderly voice: "Thank you."

A pair of thin, claw-like hands tremblingly took the tableware and then disappeared into the shadows.

"Something feels off." Chen Xin didn't dare to think too much about it, and instead closed the hidden door and went to have dinner alone.

After eating a simple meal, Chen Xin lay down on the iron bed, feeling somewhat tired.

Ever since Chen Jing suddenly started killing the fish, his body has felt incredibly heavy and uncomfortable. It's truly remarkable that he's managed to hold on until now.

Moreover, he always had a dull pain in his chest and abdomen, which tormented his mind.

"Chen Jing, how exactly did you kill that fish?" Chen Xin was tossing and turning, tossed and turned by the feeling of weakness in her limbs and the constant pain throughout her body, and had to shift her attention.

"Underwater, it happens to be simultaneously classified as a dark and humid environment, thus taking full advantage of the passive effects of traveling in the dark and carrying a knife in the rain," Chen Jing said.

"No, it's not just that. That fish's strength rating was only 17, but underwater, its speed, in Chen Ying's opinion, was over 25." Chen Xin retorted, the pain clearing his mind and allowing him to see the blind spot: "And you didn't really fight it in terms of strength underwater; you mostly used speed to wear it down."

"Would you like to take a look at my panel and yours?" Chen Jing suggested.

Chen Xin quickly saw that his panel had not changed, but Chen Jing's strength score had quietly reached 10, his speed had reached 12, and other evaluations had all increased to varying degrees.

His overall combat strength index reached 10, and he was praised by Chen Ying as the "Ultimate Human Muscle King of Blue Star".

"How could this happen?" Chen Xin exclaimed in surprise.

"You should know that the human body has a muscle inhibition program, right?"

"Inhibitory neurotransmitters in the brain also generate various regulatory signals in the cerebellum and brainstem, constantly monitoring muscle growth and limiting muscle bursts."

"This is a safety lock that the brain sets for the body. Excessive muscle growth will put a huge burden on the body, and the unrestricted tension and explosiveness of muscles can easily lead to loss of control and endanger life."

Faced with Chen Jing's explanation, Chen Xin gave a convincing answer: "I don't know."

After a moment of silence, Chen Jing said, "Haven't you ever wondered why tigers, lions, and bears, despite deliberately conserving energy, never engaging in strenuous exercise outside of hunting, and not having any systematic physical training, still have such well-developed muscles?"

"Isn't it related to genes?" Chen Xin asked curiously.

"There is some connection," Chen Jing rubbed his forehead. "But that's not important. What's important is that I can freely control everything in my body, such as releasing the limiter at crucial moments."

"So, now?"

"No, it's just that the period of suppression allowed my muscles to grow to a certain extent, and I can use their power to the fullest extent. So in Chen Ying's evaluation, all aspects have improved to a certain extent, but you can't. So on the panel, this growth is not enough to increase your score by one. Do you understand?" Chen Jing said a long string of words to explain to Chen Xin.

"Then be careful, I don't want my body to break down one day and turn into a monster," Chen Xin warned.

"Don't worry, as I said, I'm very restrained in controlling my body. Although given some time I could even evolve a gill for us, and perhaps tentacles too, you know, our bodies contain too many useless, redundant, and deformed ancient genes, they just aren't expressed. But I won't do that, after all, I like my current appearance," Chen Jing said with a smile.

Chen Xin suddenly felt uneasy and asked in alarm, "Is it because you like your current appearance, or is it because changing gene expression is time-consuming and laborious, and the benefits aren't significant enough, that you've temporarily put it aside?"

"So you still think I'm just a cold-blooded thing." Chen Jing sneered and shook his head: "I told you long ago, you still don't understand."

"The essence of everyone's actions is weighing the pros and cons. You might play with shit to survive, but that doesn't mean you'll play with shit now. That's normal logic."

"For example, just because I can accept eating feces doesn't mean I would eat feces right now. Essentially, the disgust I feel from eating feces is far outweighed by the benefits. If eating feces could save our lives in a life-or-death situation, I would do it without hesitation."

"Or, if eating feces could allow someone suffering from the pain and despair of losing a loved one to prolong the life of their dearest relative, would they refuse?"

"But that doesn't mean you, me, or that guy who loves his family are people who like to eat shit. It's that simple. How can you think I'm a cold-blooded, inhuman person just because I might abandon my human body or everything else that's less important for some significant benefit?"

"That's a really crude way to put it," Chen Xin said, feeling a chill run down her spine.

"Hehe." Chen Jing didn't take it seriously.

"Knock knock!" There was a knock on the door of the infirmary.

"Who?" Chen Xin asked alertly. He hadn't heard anyone walk to the cabin door at all. Chen Jing hadn't reminded him, and he didn't know if Chen Jing hadn't heard him either, or if he was too lazy to remind him.

"It's us, Brother Chen." It was Ge Yan's voice.

Chen Xin got up and opened the door for him, and then saw the five of them lined up in the narrow passageway, all looking at him with complicated expressions.

"What are you doing here?" Chen Xin asked, puzzled.

"What are you doing?" Roseweiser shoved him aside and walked into the infirmary, looking around.

Looking at the few remaining bits of salted pork and corned beef on the iron plate, she scoffed, "Dr. Chen is really living a glamorous life, her life is so wonderful."

"We're using filthy wooden tableware. Who knows how many times it's been soaked in food juices and scraps? We don't even know who the previous owner was, or if they had any health problems. It's almost as if it's moldy!"

She almost screamed, then pointed to the piece of fatty meat that had been bitten in half and discarded: "What we were chewing on was dry bread harder than my teeth and hard biscuits drier than sand, and that disgustingly salty pickled fish."

Her voice trailed off, then she said through gritted teeth, "You actually drank red wine? Do you know how awful rum is?"

Chen Xin's expression turned cold, and she repeated, "What are you doing here?"

"What kind of attitude is this? Who do you think you are? How dare you talk to me like that..." Roseweiser was taken aback at first, then flew into a rage.

"Shut up," Chen Muqing interrupted, then gave Losweiser a warning look before calmly turning to Chen Xin: "We're here to keep our agreement and exchange information."

Chen Xin nodded, pointed upwards, and said softly, "Then we'd better find a secluded place. The captain's cabin is up there, so we shouldn't disturb our captain's rest."

Chen Muqing thought for a moment and looked at Chang Song.

"Then let's go to the middle gun deck," Chang Song said confidently.

The six headed towards the middle deck. Chang Song and Cao Hui led the way, while Chen Muqing used his body to separate Losweiser and Chen Xin, giving Chen Xin and Ge Yan space to communicate.

However, Chen Xin and Ge Yan did not exchange many words. The whole team climbed the wooden ladder and arrived at the middle artillery deck in an eerie silence.

Stepping onto the mid-level gun deck, the space was empty and quiet, with only a few thin gunpowder monkeys darting around, busy with their tasks.

Chang Song led everyone to both sides of the gun deck, opened the gun bay, and entered the narrow passageway inside.

Here, everyone was crammed together, but at least there was some privacy for the time being, as long as they were wary of the boys who were handling gunpowder and shells.

"It's okay now." Chang Song blocked the exit, peeked around for a while to confirm the location of the gunpowder monkey, and then signaled to the others.

"Before we get to the summary, I think it's better to clear up some misunderstandings first," Cao Hui said in a somewhat cold tone.

"That's right, ouch!" Roseweiser agreed, but before she could finish speaking, Chen Muqing pressed her down with his large hand.

"Ge Yan, you help everyone put aside their past grievances," Chen Muqing commanded.

Ge Yan wasn't offended by this. He looked at Chen Xin, sighed, and then asked, "Young man, what kind of job do you have in your world?"

Chen Jing spread his hands: "I'm just an ordinary doctor, I know some basic surgical theory."

Chang Song said with a bit of a laugh, "Why is a doctor wearing a hospital gown? Besides, the parade mission was announced in advance. The fact that you're wearing this outfit to carry out the mission instead of changing into more convenient and practical clothes only proves that you don't have the freedom to change clothes whenever you want."

"Of course I have the freedom to change my clothes, but I just happened to have something to do that day, which made it difficult to find suitable clothes, so I just left it as it was." Chen Jing's words and actions were self-righteous and showed no flaws.

Besides, what he said was indeed the truth.

"Let's just assume you are right for now." Although Chang Song still had doubts and wanted to get to the bottom of things, it was ultimately inappropriate to pry.

"Young man, can you tell me how you dealt with that big fish? Your overall combat index is only 5, but that fish has reached 20, which is close to the level of an adult lion-tiger at its limit." Ge Yan bluntly pointed out Chen Jing's biggest weakness on this trip.

Chen Jing could only purse his lips helplessly, looking utterly innocent, as if the trust he had painstakingly entrusted to someone had been shattered, and his body slumped down weakly: "Didn't I already tell everyone? That fish was really badly injured after it hurt people. I just thought it was a rare opportunity to make a contribution, and seeing the horrific wounds on the fish, I figured I might get a great deal, so I went down. I wouldn't dare lie to that terrifying pirate captain, especially in front of so many witnesses."

"Heh, it was precisely because I realized that none of you had seen the firsthand footage, and that the sailors who came to watch had completely surrounded the area, that I chose to go down," Chen Jing sneered inwardly. He had already anticipated this situation.

He also knew that although this explanation was reasonable, it would not dispel all the doubts of the crowd.

But just a little bit of relief is enough; as long as we can maintain a level of barely cooperating, that's sufficient.

In any case, he already had the three most important witnesses in his hands, and the other sailors either boasted or belittled him, their nonsense could not be used as evidence.

Without irrefutable evidence, people won't openly break ties right now, since they still need to utilize his identity.

Moreover, he had just taken office and Isolde had publicly expressed his appreciation for him. With this halo protecting him, anyone who wanted to take the risk would have to think twice.

Seeing Chen Jinghua's blunt reply, Roseweather felt extremely frustrated. Just as she was about to speak, Chen Muqing stopped her again.

Seeing his chance, Chen Jing quickly feigned frustration, pounding his thigh: "Besides, I wanted to become a high-ranking pirate! Staying on the flagship as the third mate would definitely be of great benefit to the upcoming missions!"

Ge Yan's expression was enigmatic, his eyes flickering. He patted Chen Jing's shoulder with amusement: "Young man, there's no need for that. Don't you know the status of doctors on pirate ships?"

Chen Jing raised his head, his eyes filled with doubt yet also with anticipation as he looked at the other person: "Could it be?"

"Haha." Ge Yan laughed out loud when he saw his embarrassed look and explained, "There is no shortage of guys among pirates who dare to fight and kill. What is really rare are intellectuals."

"Most pirates, even those with renowned captains, struggle to find good doctors, yet a medical system is indispensable. Therefore, they might even take risks, plundering well-secured large ships, kidnapping doctors, and offering them high salaries in an attempt to retain them."

"On this infinitely dangerous ocean, a renowned doctor would be respected and even fawned over by the pirates. Your status is much higher than that of the third mate or even the second mate."

"Really?" Chen Jing was initially skeptical, then couldn't suppress his joy, and finally became ecstatic: "Then my mission completion rate this time will definitely be very high!"

"Tch." Roseweiser scoffed dismissively.

Even Chang Song was speechless when he saw Chen Jing's simple-minded appearance.

But soon, his expression turned to shock.

Chen Muqing looked at Chang Song in confusion, but only saw a golden hue in his eyes.

Everyone noticed his unusual behavior and followed his gaze in the direction the dark cannon muzzle was pointing.

"The night is long, so I light a candle for company."

"The moon is bright and slightly cold, and the golden fire is full."

"Congratulations, Captain Vaughn! You have finally arrived at the legendary Blessed Seas!"

The old woman's weak voice echoed throughout the ship, and immediately, a roar of cheers and celebrations erupted above everyone's heads.