Jiajia rolled over in bed and snorted disgruntled at the source of the heat leaving.

Gao Qian folded the quilt for Jiajia and stood by the bed to listen carefully.

The environment of the Horror was not quiet, the deck was the call of a strong wind, the sea rolled up with the ice and collided with each other, the ancient hull was tested like never before, and the whole ship was creaking as it was being dragged by the whale god.

But the sound of percussion was so clear in the midst of this noisy movement.

"Knock, knock,"

The sound of percussion came from outside the hatch in a messy rhythm, perhaps in the storage room or in the boiler room.

The high dive opened the hatch and walked out, appearing in front of him silently without a look.

Gao Qian muttered in surprise, "Do you want to be so elusive?"

High Dive turned around and walked along the main hatch towards the end, past the dining room of the officer's quarters, the conference room, and at the end of the main hatch was a staircase leading to the bilge. He suddenly realized, looked back, and followed him silently without a look. Seeing him stop, the Eyeless Spirit also stopped in place.

Gao Qian looked at the Eyeless Spirit suspiciously.

The whale oil lamp hanging from the main cabin dragged a long shadow behind the Eyeless Spirit, and as the deck shook, the shadow also trembled and twisted. The sound of percussion was still coming intermittently, knock knock, paused for a moment, and then twice.

"What are you doing with me?"

The Eyeless Spirit looked at the high dive with non-existent eyes, and did not answer.

"If you're really fine, you can go and guard Jiajia. Gao Qian continued.

The Eyeless Spirit said a word, maybe just a word.

Gao Qian didn't understand, and he was impatient to understand: "Okay, okay, I know, are you still afraid that I will be eaten by ghosts?"

Gao Qian turned around and continued to walk towards the bilge, this time the Eyeless Spirit did not continue to follow, he stood in place, in the direction of the disappearance of Gao Qian's back, his eyeless face, thin lips pursed.

The high dive descended down the creaky staircase to the bilge.

The knocking sound came from the direction of the stern, and the creaking of the keel was especially audible in the bilge, where the high dive found that there was water at the bottom of the bilge, which was almost up to the upper of the shoe. The stagnant water could come from a leak in the pipes of the hot water circulation, or it could come from a gap in the boat's gang, but compared to the behemoth of the Horror, this bit of water is not enough to worry Gao Qian.

When passing by the boiler room, Gao dived in to check it, and the black raw coal piled up in the corner of the wall shone reddish under the light of the fire. The air was mixed with the smell of soot and water vapor, and everything was perfectly normal, and the high dive quickly retreated.

Next to the boiler room, there are several storage rooms. Tons of canned food, cured meats, drinking water and spirits are stored inside. Before he could take a closer look at the reserves, he just glanced at them and knew that there were plenty of rum, lemon juice, sugar, and countless boxes of chocolate.

The high dive wasn't interested in chocolate, but he was interested in finding out if there were any canned vegetables or at least vegetable soup or anything like that in those stockpiles when he had time. He was convinced that Jiajia, who had only eaten lichen and moss, must be malnourished, even though Jiajia appeared to be healthy and strong.

The high dive inspected the storage room from room to room, and he found nothing that would make a knocking sound. Finally, he stopped outside the door of the weapons room. A vertical ladder was erected next to the weapons room, and up the ladder, and through a narrow corridor, the windows of the captain's quarters were visible, as well as the officer's quarters.

High Diver stared at the lock in the weapons room, frowning. The eerie tapping has stopped, but the noisy background sound continues. Here he could clearly hear the creaking of the ice floes squeezing against the hull, the creaking of the wood as it deformed, and the hollow metal pipes whining together. Maybe there's really something behind this door, but Gao Qian really can't tell it at the moment.

The weapons room was the last uninspected compartment in the bilge, and the high diver raised his hand to unscrew the lock and pushed the door open.

"Bang"

The smell of smoke and gunpowder filled the small space.

The shotgun punched several small holes in the bulkhead.

When Gao Qian held the hot chamber of the gun, he was glad that he was fortunate that he rushed forward instead of hiding backwards when he realized that the situation was wrong. In this narrow cabin, the shotgun's killing surface was almost impossible to dodge, and if he had misjudged at the time, he should have several more holes in his body by now.

The bald man staggered back, and nearly a hundred neatly stacked Mauser guns behind him were knocked to the ground.

The man shuddered a few words. Although the tone was more indecipherable, Gao Qian could hear the bald man shouting monsters and demons in English.

English?

Gao Qian looked at the man's costume in disbelief, if Gao Qian's superficial knowledge was not wrong, this bald man should be wearing the captain's uniform, and he also had a gold medal pinned to his front placket.

"Are you the captain of the Nether?" Gao Qian said slowly after staring at the man's Linghui for a long time, "You are the leader of the Royal Arctic Expeditionary Fleet, Sir Franklin. ”

"You, who are you, how do you know my name?" the bald man seemed surprised that his name had been broken, and he asked in horror in the direction of the high dive.

Behind the high dive, there was only a faint red light reflected from the boiler room, and the bald man could not see the high diving's face, he only knew that his shotgun was ineffective against the tall guy in front of him.

In a panic, he grabbed another Mauser behind him, opened the chamber, and checked the gunpowder.

The high dive grabbed the firearm and pushed the bald man out of the weapons room.

"Who the hell are you? Why are you on the Horror?" the bald man asked in a trembling voice as he was pushed against the bulkhead.

Gao Qian frowned coldly: "I should ask you, as the captain of the Nether, how can you hide in the weapons room of the Horror?"

The bald man's facial muscles spasmed for a moment, and he didn't answer.

Ten minutes later,

High Dive and Captain Franklin, seated at the table at the table. Most of the huge cabins were hidden in the shadows, except for a whale oil lamp on the table in front of them, which glowed dimly.

Franklin once asked the high dive for food, and when the high dive said that there was only canned food in the pantry, Franklin refused with a frightened face: "No, those things can't be eaten." Then he stared nervously at the high diver, "Did you eat it? Did you eat those cans?"

"No, what's wrong with those cans?" Gao Qian looked at Franklin's nervously trembling fingers, the ten nails of those hands blackened, and the joints protruding outwards like those of a seriously ill dying man.

"Can't eat it, absolutely can't eat it. Franklin repeated it as if he had fallen into some kind of hallucination.