Seeing Zhong Xiwang so calmly lie down right in front of him, Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow tilted his head curiously.
Then, he caught an unpleasant scent coming from her.
Reaching out, he grasped her waist and pulled her whole body toward him, noticing the strange colors on her face with slight confusion.
He leaned his head closer to her, sniffing at the areas wrapped in bandages.
Zhong Xiwang lowered her gaze slightly, staring expressionlessly at this grayish-white dough-like head.
She raised her hand and slapped it.
To Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow, the sensation was like a tiny insect crawling over him—just a faint itch.
Watching him foolishly rub his head with one hand, his entire thin, withered body curled up in a corner of her room, still covered in traces of red shredded paper.
Like paper scraps soaked and pasted onto him, many had fallen to the floor, creating a messy scene.
The wounds inflicted earlier by Multi-finned Sea Snake had now turned into several black dots.
Remembering something, Zhong Xiwang’s gaze turned cold. She patted the large hand on her waist.
This time, Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow was a bit smarter, slowly placing Zhong Xiwang on the floor.
Zhong Xiwang turned around and rummaged for something nearby.
Looking back, she saw Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow mimicking her earlier posture, stretching his limbs out on her bed.
Seeing the scattered paper scraps on the floor and his long, dangling limbs, Zhong Xiwang frowned and let out an impatient “tsk.”
Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow lifted his neck to “look” at her before lying back down, his arms moving slightly up and down as he felt the softness of the small bed.
Zhong Xiwang took a deep breath and ignored him, turning back to focus on her task.
Hearing faint rustling sounds, Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow shifted his gaze back to her.
Upon catching the familiar scent of blood, he immediately sat up.
Zhong Xiwang looked at the portrait in her hand with satisfaction and turned her head.
Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow had somehow appeared behind her, staring intently at the paper in her hand from an extremely close distance.
“!”
Zhong Xiwang’s face darkened, and she couldn’t help but slap him again with the back of her hand.
Feeling her warm breath brush against his face, Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow paused briefly before quickly refocusing on the object in her hand.
The originally clean A4 paper was stained red with blood. The dampened paper was no longer smooth, becoming uneven and textured, with several men’s faces sketched in black lines.
Seeing him still fixated on what she held, Zhong Xiwang rewrapped her wound and handed the paper to Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow.
“You like red things, don’t you? Here, it’s for you.”
Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow sniffed the blood-scented paper, eyed the unfamiliar, ugly portraits on it, and hesitantly accepted it.
Then, under Zhong Xiwang’s watchful gaze, he placed the blood-stained paper against his abdomen, opened his large mouth, and extended a tongue covered in barbs. He carefully avoided the drawings as he licked the blood off the paper.
Slap!
Another slap landed.
Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow still held the paper in front of his mouth with both hands, quietly lifting his head to look at Zhong Xiwang’s displeased expression.
Zhong Xiwang’s emotions suddenly flared. She snatched the papers back and pressed them against Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow’s head.
“Look closely at the people on here! Go find them!”
If he could find her, then he should be able to find these people too!
After speaking in a fierce tone, she unwrapped her freshly bandaged hand, tore open the newly formed scab, and thrust her hand into the gaping mouth with its extended tongue.
“Blood, I’ll give you as much as you want! I just need you to find these people, understand?”
Zhong Xiwang pulled the paper a few inches away, staring at the expressionless Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow with red-rimmed eyes, her tone cold and eerie.
In Zhong Xiwang’s heart, people like this deserved to die ten times over.
Daring to do such things in broad daylight, one could only imagine how despicable they would be when no one was around.
Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow made no sound, grabbing her hand and licking the blood that flowed from it a few times before pulling away with some disgust.
There was a strange taste mixed with the blood, making it unpalatable.
Zhong Xiwang, however, thought Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow simply couldn’t understand her meaning.
She sneered and sat on the floor, letting the blood from her hand continue to drip onto the floorboards.
She must be insane, seeking help from a monster that wanted to eat her.
But on her own, she couldn’t find those local thugs.
And it would be difficult to kill them without leaving any traces.
If she didn’t take revenge, she wouldn’t be able to swallow this anger!
Thinking this, Zhong Xiwang’s gaze hardened. She suddenly sat up and began packing her things, taking stock of the guns and ammunition she had bought earlier.
As she turned around, she realized Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow was gone, and the few sheets of paper on the floor had also disappeared.
Zhong Xiwang frowned slightly but continued focusing on packing.
Just as she was about to leave, Captain Pike messaged her, asking if she had time.
Zhong Xiwang was taken aback and replied, asking what he wanted.
It turned out that after the deaths of the five crew members last time, Captain Pike had been depressed for a while, with no income, and his several children at home were crying out for food.
His wife, Emily, knew he was blaming himself and feeling terrible, so she never brought it up.
Faced with her understanding, Pike felt he couldn’t keep wallowing in those events, so he pulled himself together and wanted to form a new crew to set sail again.
But during the time he had delayed, others had already formed their crews, leaving him with no one to turn to. That’s why he reached out to Zhong Xiwang, with whom he had collaborated once before.
Zhong Xiwang was about to refuse when Pike directly called her, wanting to have a proper talk.
“Captain Pike…”
As she answered the phone, there was a rustling sound behind her.
Turning her head, she saw Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow had returned, chewing something with a crisp crunching sound, crimson blood dripping from the vertical slit of its mouth.
In its hand, it held a dripping thigh with exposed white bone, feeding it bite by bite into its abdomen.
At the sight of this, every hair on Zhong Xiwang’s body stood on end!
She gasped sharply.
“What’s wrong, Xi?”
“…Nothing… What did you just say?”
Watching Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow holding the thigh—whose it was, she didn’t know—and chewing it like sugarcane with crisp crunches, Zhong Xiwang tried her best to steady her emotions in the face of this shocking, bloody scene.
“I said, I’d like to invite you again… What do you think?”
Zhong Xiwang stood frozen, not saying a word, her body as stiff as a tree stump.
“Xi? What’s that sound on your end?”
After Pike finished speaking and received no reply, he heard a crisp sound and asked curiously.
“Captain Pike! I—I need to think about it… I’ll get back to you later!”
Snapped back to reality, Zhong Xiwang quickly spoke and hung up the phone.
Then, she stared in shock and uncertainty at Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow, who was sitting on the floor ‘chewing sugarcane.’
Noticing her gaze, Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow paused, hesitantly offering the thigh in its hand.
Looking at the human limb bitten beyond recognition, Zhong Xiwang felt a wave of nausea in her chest.
Suddenly, she spotted several familiar tattoos on that thigh.
Zhong Xiwang widened her eyes, looking at Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow across from her with excitement, “You really found them?!”
Tall and Thin Ghostly Shadow tilted its head, not understanding Zhong Xiwang’s words. Seeing that she didn’t take it, it withdrew the thigh and began eating again.
Zhong Xiwang suppressed her nausea and stepped closer.
She asked again, “Where did you find them? How many people are left? You didn’t eat all of them, did you?”