My left and right hemispheres fight each other.

"Chen Muqing...wasn't he dead?"

"I have no idea."

"Her body is still here."

"That means he's dead."

"But who was that guy dressed like her in the captain's cabin just now?"

"They might still be alive."

"Chen Jing, why are you being so dismissive of me?" Chen Xin didn't understand what this meant.

Chen Jing merely sneered: "In the long time we've spent together, we've repeated countless times."

"Whether it's right or wrong, true or false, or correct or incorrect, it doesn't matter at all."

"The world is full of truths and falsehoods, constantly changing, and nothing is absolute."

"We are inherently limited and insignificant; what we see is never the truth, but only a one-sided perspective. How can we easily judge right and wrong, truth and falsehood?"

"Doubt is the instinct of the wise."

"As intelligent beings, they only ever make hesitant judgments, never firm beliefs."

"So when you ask me about right and wrong, truth and falsehood, I can only give a judgment that fits the current situation. Why do you always insist on asking me about the truth of the matter?"

"I am not a god, Chen Xin."

After a moment of silence, Chen Xin said, "But that day, you clearly told me that only by deeply believing in yourself can you be absolutely right."

Chen Jing nodded and said sarcastically, "It is precisely because we are suspicious of the world that we need a compass to comfort ourselves."

"If we cannot trust the world, we can only trust ourselves."

"But the premise is that you know you truly understand yourself."

Chen Xin fell silent again.

"Heh." Chen Jing chuckled self-deprecatingly, then sighed, "I know you don't believe me."

"But it's okay, I'll teach you a truly important secret rule."

"Any principle is meant to be used, not taken literally."

"Nothing in this world is absolute, and the wise are always full of doubts. Haha, this statement itself can also refute itself."

"Humans discover rules precisely to utilize them. To be bound by rules and have one's hands and feet tied is the mark of a true fool."

"You talk too much," Chen Xin muttered.

"I haven't even told you how many problems you have." Chen Jing walked into the infirmary, but instead of going straight to the iron bed, he pressed the button on a hidden compartment.

"Dr. Edens, excuse me," Chen Jing said tentatively in a low voice.

Silence reigned in the darkness.

"Dr. Edens, are you alright?" Chen Jing continued to call out.

"You should already be dead." The old voice finally rang out.

"I don't know what happened either. Do you know anything about it? Can you tell me?" Chen Jing asked kindly.

But Edens did not reply.

No matter what Chen Jing said next, there was no echo in the darkness.

"He refuses to communicate, what should we do?" The plan was stuck here, and Chen Xin felt lost.

"I'm a little worried that Chen Muqing might see me performing the autopsy, which could lead to some terrible consequences. But now, I have no choice but to do it, otherwise we won't get any useful information at all." Chen Jing acted swiftly, putting on simple medical gloves and pulling the door out from under the iron bed, dragging it all the way to the open hidden compartment before stopping.

"If Chen Muqing comes, I need to quickly place this door inside the hidden compartment, so you need to keep an eye out for footsteps," Chen Jing instructed.

"I'll try my best," Chen Xin agreed.

In less than half a day, Chen Muqing's body had already developed a distinct odor, thanks to the stuffy and damp cabin.

Fortunately, the door had been removed, so the smell didn't accumulate. Chen Jing simply sprinkled some fragrant medicine packets on the door, which diluted the stench mixed with the salty and fishy smell.

Using his gloves, he painstakingly pried the face, which was so swollen that Chen Muqing's beautiful features were no longer recognizable, off the uneven wooden door. Then he scraped off the clothes and garments that were stuck tightly to the skin and soaked and rotten. Finally, he removed the chunks of flesh and bone fragments that stubbornly clung to the wooden door.

He threw the liver and lungs, covered in pus, along with the head, broken bones, and other organs, into a canvas bag. When he threw in the large and small intestines, he had to put another layer of coarse burlap bag over them because the pale yellow liquid was too thick.

After he had stripped away most of the tissue, he finally saw the complete wooden door.

"Completely shattered fractures throughout the body, brain completely dissolved into an unknown liquid, epidermis separated from dermis, body limp like a puddle of mud, pale yellow pus, scarlet blood, and eerie black fluid mixed together to form these exudates." Chen Jing examined each piece of body tissue with the meticulous care of a forensic doctor, and drew his conclusion.

"It's tissue autolysis. After cells lose their activity, the enzymes inside dissolve the entire body, causing a collapse that starts from the cellular base."

"That's the main reason, but there are also external factors involved, such as the immense force of embedding her in the door and breaking all her bones."

After Chen Jing finished his analysis, he looked at the wooden door beneath him and fell into deep thought.

During his examination, Chen Muqing's face was turned away from the door panel, but her hand bones were twisted behind her back.

And among the wood grain on the wooden door, there were countless scratches caused by her fingernails.

The patterns she damaged formed two distorted characters: Memory.

"What do you mean?"

"It's still unknown." Chen Jing simply replied to his inner thoughts, then broke out of his long contemplation. He immersed the fragrant medicine packet in water and then poured it onto the floor.

Finally, he carefully wiped the area under the iron bars, the top of the wooden door, and all the places on the wooden door that he had pulled on with a rag.

Chen Jing casually tossed the rag into the sack, then hoisted the bag of waste, weighing about fifty pounds, onto his shoulder, went down to the bottom of the hold, and threw it into the lower deck.

"Are we just going to throw them in here?" Chen Xin asked doubtfully.

"What else?" Chen Jing took off his gloves and threw them onto the sack.

"I thought... I was going to be thrown into the sea," Chen Xin said hesitantly.

"Corpses will float at sea, and the Bauhinia's escort ships are patrolling nearby. If a pirate picks up a body and brings it back to the ship, it will become a huge risk. The flagship's quartermaster is a position comparable to the captain on other ships. If such a corpse is discovered, it will easily reach her ears," Chen Jing explained, then pointed to the area in front of him and said, "This is the lowest ballast tank. It's smelly, dirty, and damp. The excrement from the livestock holds is dumped here. Few people come here, and even if they do, they won't linger, let alone be curious enough to open up so many sacks. It's the best temporary hiding place for corpses, since even the stench isn't unusual."

After saying that, Chen Jing returned to the infirmary, and soon it was time for dinner.

It was the same short, chubby chef who served him two dinners and a bottle of red wine.

"Thank you." Chen Jing said his thanks quite sincerely, and shook the wine tube next to his ear.

The chef gave him a knowing look, chuckled, and walked away.

Chen Jingduo glanced at the chef's swaying figure as he walked away, placed his own dinner on the iron bed, and handed the other one to Dr. Edens as usual.

Chen Jing called out to him many times, and Dr. Edens seemed to hesitate for a long time before reaching out and silently taking the cutlery into the darkness.

"Dr. Edens, I returned your plate, and I handed you your lunch and dinner. What do you mean by not saying a word to me? In our country, that's considered rude," Chen Jing muttered discontentedly.

"I have nothing to say to a dead man," Dr. Edens said coldly.

"You're wrong about that. I already said I'm alive. If you're talking about dead people, why should someone as lively as me be considered dead? I bet you old codled up in that place where you can barely turn over, never seeing the light of day. A living person would be covered in bedsores and living a life worse than death. Only a dead person can be at peace with themselves." Chen Jing seemed a little angry, muttering to himself.

"roll."

Seeing that even provocation was ineffective, Chen Jing sighed and sat down on the iron bed to eat by himself.

He sipped his red wine slowly, stuffing pieces of salted beef into his mouth one by one.

It wasn't particularly delicious, but it was still much better than the life of an ordinary sailor.

The only downside was that the beef was far too salty. The saltiness was increased to an unpleasant level for preservation. Moreover, fresh water was extremely scarce on board; normally, rum was the only quenching of thirst, but alcohol is something that only makes you thirstier.

Fortunately, the captain's private brew had a rich aroma that temporarily suppressed the intense thirst caused by the saltiness.

He only hoped to leave this world as soon as possible; the food in the mental hospital was a hundred times better than this.

"Dr. Chen." A clear female voice sounded from behind.

Pretending not to notice, Chen Jing was startled and shuddered. He hurriedly stood up and recognized the person who had come: "Quartermaster."

"Dr. Chen has such refined tastes," Chen Muqing remarked, glancing at the wine container.

"No, no." Chen Jing found himself in the awkward situation of being caught accepting bribes.

Chen Muqing glanced at him, then walked to the wooden door lying on the ground.

Chen Xin's heart tightened, and then he saw Chen Muqing actually lie down on the ground, press her delicate nose against the spot where the shattered corpse had just been, and take a deep sniff.

Chen Jing froze on the spot.

"What's this smell?" Chen Muqing stood up and asked, puzzled.

"Herbal remedies. I'd like to improve the salty, fishy smell in the infirmary," Chen Jing replied cautiously.

"No." Chen Muqing shook her head, turned around, and looked directly into Chen Jing's eyes: "There was a foul smell, very strong, but it seemed to have dissipated a long time ago."

Chen Xin was horrified by Chen Muqing's thorough investigation, but also relieved that Chen Jing had cleaned up almost every bit of flesh, even destroying the scratches that resembled characters.

"The door to the infirmary was broken last night, and it smelled bad. Didn't I ask the captain about it in the captain's cabin? I suspect someone is trying to play a prank on me, which is what motivated me to want to improve the environment." Chen Jing shrugged.

"Is that so?" Chen Muqing's eyes darted around, and he smiled mysteriously.

"No...is that so?" Chen Jing asked somewhat nervously.

"That's good." Chen Muqing gave him a meaningful look, then said towards the door, "The wooden door is almost intact."

A dark-skinned man dressed in coarse cloth walked in and greeted Chen Jing: "Dr. Chen, you can call me Bu Long. I'm the carpenter from the Bauhinia."

"Hello, hello." Chen Jing subconsciously reached out his hand.

The dark-skinned man was taken aback at first, then hesitantly shook hands with him.

"Since the wooden door is intact, there's no need to re-sand the wood. We can finish today," Bulong reported to Chen Muqing.

"Thank you for your hard work." Chen Muqing said with his hands behind his back.

"It's not hard work," Bulong chuckled obsequiously and began his work.

Just as Chen Jing was about to say something, a series of chaotic footsteps suddenly came from inside the cabin.

He hesitated, his face tense.

Chen Muqing glanced sideways in the direction the person had come from.

"Chen Xin, do you know? Chen..." Chang Song's shouts suddenly stopped. He stood frozen in place, his mouth open, but the sound was stuck in his throat, and he could only make a series of stuttering "ah, uh" sounds.

"Chang Song, what's wrong with you..." Ge Yan held Chang Song's shoulder, wanting to ask, but when he saw the scene in the infirmary, his body immediately trembled.

"In that case, I won't disturb you and your friends any longer, Dr. Chen." Chen Muqing smiled, glanced at Chang Song and the others, and walked past them.

Chang Song and the others instinctively stepped aside to make way for her. Ge Yan lowered his head and called out softly, "Quartermaster."

This also alerted Roseweiser behind her, giving her mental preparation, causing her to nervously cover her mouth and refrain from making any overly unusual moves.

After Chen Muqing left, the three, still shaken, stared at each other blankly before looking at Chen Jing in the infirmary.

Chen Jing shrugged and pointed to the top of his head.

"Dr. Chen, Cao Hui is sick. Please take a look at him," Ge Yan said with difficulty.

"Wait for me." Chen Jing greeted the carpenter Bu Long, and then went to the middle gun deck with Chang Song and the others.

The group remained silent the entire way, but as soon as they arrived at the gun emplacements, Chang Song could no longer contain himself and blurted out, "What's going on here?"

Chen Jing put his index finger to his lips, gesturing for him to speak softly, and then slowly opened his mouth:

"Chen Muqing became the quartermaster. I went to the captain's cabin and met the captain, who personally appointed him."

"We know all that! Just now on deck, the captain called all the junior sailors on board and announced the selection of several officers, including her," Chang Song said excitedly, his eyes wide.

It was clear that he was trying to lower his voice, but his voice was really loud, and he was just too excited.

"Yes, she came to send someone to fix the door to my infirmary," Chen Jing said calmly.

"What do you mean?" Ge Yan didn't understand.

"It's simple. I need to have at least one reason to go see the captain, which is to fix the door. And she happened to be there and agreed to fix the door for me," Chen Jing explained somewhat impatiently.

"We're asking you why she's still alive? What nonsense are you talking about?" Chang Song's expression was extremely exaggerated, and he gestured wildly, trying to express the intensity of his emotions as much as possible.

"You're asking this?" Chen Jing glanced back at him with an expression as if he were an idiot, and uttered, "How would I know?"

The atmosphere suddenly plummeted to freezing point.

"Where is Chen Muqing's body?" Ge Yan took a deep breath, calmed down, and asked pointedly.

"I took care of her," Chen Jing said briefly, then added after a moment's thought, "after I saw she was still alive."

Chang Song and Ge Yan exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock in each other's eyes.

"What else did you do all day?" Chen Jing asked Chang Song with a somewhat forceful tone, but he didn't take it seriously.

He said, "I also got the captain's real name."

"What is it?" Ge Yan asked urgently. After all, this was his premonition of the parade, and everyone's clues from their premonitions were most in line with their personal style.

"Selene Vaughn".

"Selene Vaughn." The three of them chewed on the name in their hearts, because it might very well have foreshadowed a way out.

"Is that all?" Chang Song asked again, eagerly and expectantly.

"I also ran into Celine Vaughn's old flame, that astrologer priestess, a very old woman, but I didn't get any useful information from her. Anyway, she was eccentric and didn't seem like someone easy to deal with," Chen Jing replied, then turned to ask, "And you guys? What did you gain today?"

"Losweiser is now the manager of the lookout tower. The handover, replacements, and personnel management are all under her control," Chang Song said.

"Heh, is that so?" Chen Jing sneered.

"Don't look down on this position. The Bauhinia is different from ordinary pirate ships. It has two lookout towers, one on the mainmast and one on the foremast. They are very important and are indispensable to our night operations," Ge Yan added.

"continue."

"I have now officially become the chief helmsman, and also the main helmsman in critical moments. With this position, I have obtained part of the map of this world, as well as the route map for our journey," Chang Song continued.

"Anything else?"

Ge Yan smiled and said, "I have fulfilled your unfulfilled wish. Now, I am the third mate on this ship."

"Very good. You two are now qualified to live in the officers' quarters, which are quite close to the captain's cabin and the priest's quarters. From now on, intelligence gathering will be your responsibility." Chen Jing clapped his hands happily.

"And what about you?" Chang Song asked, puzzled.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to treat the pirates on the Golden Warehouse and the Black Kite, and look for clues outside of the Purple Thorn. That's my plan."

"That's it?" Chang Song was not convinced.

Chen Jing glanced at him sideways: "I still need to try to find out the truth about Chen Muqing. It's clear that she has a very unfriendly attitude towards you."

Chang Song was rebuffed and, noticing Chen Jing's slight annoyance, reluctantly took a step back.

"Chang Song was just too anxious, don't blame him, Chen Xin," Ge Yan advised.

"I know," Chen Jing replied coldly.

Before leaving, he looked at Losweiser thoughtfully for a moment, then smiled and said, "If there are any plans for nighttime operations in the future, we'll have to rely on you."

Roseviel shrank back, remaining silent.

But Chen Jing could see that a sinister glint had been hidden in her eyes at some point.

……

As dusk approached, Chen Jing recalled the golden skulls that filled the ocean, their faces terrifying, twisted, howling, yearning, and burning...

Compared to the previous night, they seemed to have really melted a lot, with golden wax flowing into the sea like boiling golden soup.

Chen Jing, lost in thought, sensed that Chen Xin was about to fall asleep, so he prepared to force himself into hibernation.

Because he really didn't know if another extreme breakdown would cause him to disappear completely.

"This smell." Chen Jing frowned. He felt that his hospital gown, after these two long days, had also been soaked in the lingering salty smell of the sea, the strange fragrance of herbs, and the faint, masked stench.

and many more.

stench?

Chen Jing's pupils dilated, and he suddenly raised his arm and sniffed his sleeve.

The taste was quite strong.

But it seems...

He compared Dr. Edens's attitude towards him before and after, his advice last night, and...

This arm... it looks just like the one Dr. Edens held that night...

Chen Jing froze for a few seconds, then pushed open the hidden compartment and looked to his left.

A bottomless darkness.

However, Chen Jing had already covered his left eye.

Rod cells proliferate in large numbers...

The number of cone cells began to decrease sharply...

A reflective protein layer forms behind the eyeball...

Fully open the pupillary sphincter...

Secretion of neurotransmitters...

Suppress the brain's primal fears, and strictly prohibit it from subjectively manipulating or modifying the light signals received by the retina...

Enhanced resolution of captured light and sharpening of blurred outlines...

Rejecting the brain's speculative additions to light and shadow...

Then, he finally saw through the darkness of night.

Chen Jing removed his hand from his left eye and focused intently on looking inside.

He held his breath, and the world became so quiet.

He saw it.

His body.

A body with obvious livor mortis, severe swelling, grayish skin, melting face, sunken eyeballs, protruding tongue, and soft, rotting body...

Beneath him lay a pool of blood and pus...

Wearing a hospital gown...

Chen Xin's corpse!