INSIDER Chapter 129

After spending a few hours examining the bodies of the victim couple and their room, they found no new clues.

Apart from the twisted corpses in strange shapes and the cloth strips stuffed into their necks with writing on them, the crime scene was very clean and orderly, with no signs of struggle.

Lu Chu was curious about how that ferocious big cat managed to kill these people silently in their agony.

With no new discoveries or breakthroughs in the case, it was soon time for lunch. The group had to temporarily disperse to eat, leaving a few crew members to guard the crime scene.

From the time Mrs. He died, through their re-examination of the crime scene, to their meal, Lu Chu observed everyone involved in the investigation.

He was certain that the person Mrs. He was looking at when she died must be the key to the case.

However, everyone’s behavior was extremely normal, with no suspicious points, leaving Lu Chu with no further leads to pursue.

Seeing Lu Chu distracted and troubled during the meal, 7 placed a piece of lean meat in his bowl and gently pinched his soft earlobe.

Lu Chu immediately snapped back to reality, looking up at 7 with clear eyes.

7 smiled and pinched his earlobe again before saying, “Eat first. We’ll find clues eventually.”

Lu Chu touched his slightly warm earlobe and smiled, “Understood, Captain Shen. I’ll focus on eating right away.”

7 smiled and added more food to his plate.

After the meal, Lu Chu and the others visited the passengers living near the victim couple. Their conclusion was that no one heard any strange noises at dawn.

However, the two people who stayed up late playing mahjong with the victim couple provided some clues.

They mentioned that the victims occasionally talked about how the husband’s sister had been coming to their room at dawn out of fear, not daring to sleep alone. She explained that she didn’t want to disturb their night activities, so she visited at dawn.

Lu Chu nodded slightly upon hearing this.

This information strongly indicated that the sister’s previous testimony was false. However, since they had already identified Mrs. He as a suspect and she had committed suicide out of guilt, this seemingly useful information was now obsolete.

During this time, many passengers came to inquire about the progress of the case and whether the navigation was fixed so they could return home.

All passengers were worried, fearing that they might be the next to be silently killed.

However, according to basic horror movie rules, the navigation was bound to remain unfixed. Although they weren’t in a horror movie, they were trapped in a game more grotesque than any horror film. The development of this “round” depended entirely on how entertaining the “rules” found it.

Thus, the passengers were destined for disappointment.

That evening, everyone seemed to have agreed to appear in the dining room at the same time, hastily finishing their meals.

Lu Chu checked the dining room in the regular cabin and found the same scene.

Everyone quickly returned to their rooms and locked themselves in, hiding away.

Seeing this, Lu Chu told 7, “It seems no one will be harmed tonight.”

“Maybe,” 7 replied. “Don’t worry too much. Just wait and see.”

Lu Chu nodded, “Okay.”

That night, Lu Chu still slept in 7’s room.

No matter what happened during the day, as long as 7 was by his side, he would always sleep well.

The next day was calm, and no one was killed.

Although expected, Lu Chu did not relax, knowing that the calm before the storm was often the most oppressive.

Again, many passengers asked if they could return, and upon receiving negative answers, they despaired and retreated to their rooms.

Meanwhile, a crew member in charge of the cargo hold came to see 7.

7 asked, “What’s the matter?”

The crew member reported, “Captain, due to limited space in the cargo hold and our original plan for a five-day cruise, we prepared food for about ten days. A few days into the cruise, we’ve been providing a buffet, especially in the VIP area, leading to rapid food consumption. If we don’t return soon, even with conservation efforts, our food will only last eleven days.”

Lu Chu immediately asked the crew member, “Is ‘eleven days’ the maximum time?”

The crew member replied, “A conservative estimate.”

Lu Chu pondered, knowing that returning was urgent if the food ran out.

However, without navigation and constant cloudy skies obscuring the sun, they couldn’t determine their direction in the vast sea. Setting off blindly could lead them deeper into the ocean or to dangerous reefs.

7 also realized this and calmly instructed the crew member, “I understand. Go to the broadcast room and inform the passengers about this. Tell them to conserve food. We will solve the navigation issue as soon as possible. If the navigation and other instruments are still unusable in three days, and the clouds haven’t cleared, we’ll set sail and try to find our way back using the experience of the old sailors.”

“Yes, Captain!” The crew member left to follow the order.

Soon, the broadcast room echoed throughout the ship, reaching every room and corner.

This sudden bad news heightened the passengers’ fear. Even without a new murder, the terror on the ship escalated, with no more laughter and joy, and the luxurious cruise turned into a ghostly castle, solemn and deathly quiet.

The detectives, doctors, and others involved in the investigation came to exchange thoughts and guesses with Captain Shen and Lu Chu.

In the afternoon, Ellie dragged Baird to see Lu Chu, grabbing his arm and asking why he hadn’t returned to his room as she couldn’t find him.

It took Lu Chu a lot of effort to coax Ellie back to her room.

7 restrained his anger and, after Ellie left, embraced Lu Chu, saying, “Stay away from her.”

Annoyed by Ellie’s clinginess, Lu Chu replied, “I haven’t been close to her. Are you jealous?”

7 bit Lu Chu’s earlobe and admitted, “Yes, I’m jealous.”

Lu Chu intended to tease 7 but was made blush by his straightforwardness.

That night, Lu Chu again slept in 7’s captain’s quarters. Under the pretense of jealousy, 7 covered him in kisses, leaving Lu Chu flushed. Though 7’s desire was evident, he did nothing more and held Lu Chu as they slept.

When Lu Chu woke up, he found himself in 7’s embrace.

Looking up, he saw 7 gazing down at him. Their eyes met, and in the next moment, Lu Chu’s lips were captured, stealing his breath away.

The kiss was electric, sending a jolt to his brain.

After a while, 7 released Lu Chu, who lay breathless and with eyes misty, softening 7’s heart.

They lay together for a while before getting up to eat breakfast.

As they reached the dining room, a crew member ran towards them, breathless and alarmed, saying, “Captain, I smelled a strong scent of blood from two rooms this morning. The doors were locked from the inside, so we broke in and found… eight crew members all killed!”

Everyone gasped in shock.

Just then, two women ran up, “Captain Shen, there’s blood seeping from the room next to ours, and we don’t know what to do. Please come quickly!”

7 asked, “Did you break the door?”

The woman shook her head, “No, we couldn’t, and the men refused to try.”

7 called some crew members to help break the door.

Soon, more passengers reported problems. 7 sent crew members to check each room.

After a day of calm, a fierce storm of chaos ensued. After much confusion, they confirmed eight crew members and thirteen passengers were dead. Surprisingly, one of the deceased was a detective investigating with Lu Chu—the one involved with the woman in room 136. His death was as bizarre as the previous murders, with his lips and fingers neatly cut off and placed on the blood-soaked bed. His body was thrown on the floor, curled up in apparent agony.

The other investigators quickly arrived to examine the crime scene with Lu Chu.

Unexpectedly, they soon identified the ghost that killed the detective—it was the woman from room 136.

This woman often knocked on the detective’s door at night, claiming fear, leading to a relationship. They spent every night together, making the detective completely unsuspecting.

This showed that the ghosts could lure not only close relatives but also those who trusted them.

Because of trust, there was no defense.