Chapter 522: Found
Chapter 522: Chapter 522: Found
Su Qing found Angela in a storage room in a corner of the crew quarters on the lowest deck.
Angela was bound tightly and gagged, buried under a pile of junk. The hiding spot was so well disguised that it would have been impossible to find her without clearing out the entire storage room.
Su Qing found it a little strange, though. If they were searching the entire ship, why hadn’t this storage room been completely cleared out? She wasn’t sure what was fishy about it, but at least Angela had now been found.
’Now that I’ve found her, the rest is easy. All I need to do is lead Hua Zifeng here.’
So, Su Qing directed her vines to make some noise outside Hua Zifeng’s door.
Hua Zifeng was a light sleeper. Hearing the noise outside, he immediately sat up. "Who’s there?"
There was no answer.
Hua Zifeng frowned and got out of bed. Just then, another noise came from outside. He quickly woke his assistant, and the two of them stealthily opened the door.
But there was nothing outside.
"Mr. Hua, could you have misheard?" the assistant asked.
They were on a ship, after all. With the sea swelling at night, the slightest lurch could cause some strange noises.
"No, I’m sure I didn’t mishear it. There was definitely a noise outside," Hua Zifeng insisted. "And it was right by the door."
"But there’s nothing here." The assistant glanced around. The corridor was empty—not a soul in sight. How could there have been a noise?
For some reason, rumors of ghost ships suddenly popped into the assistant’s head. He broke out in goosebumps, unconsciously rubbing his arms and looking around with a hint of terror in his eyes.
"What are you thinking?" Seeing his assistant’s expression, Hua Zifeng knew his mind must be filled with all sorts of nonsense. He gave him a light smack on the back of the head. "Everything has a human cause. Stop letting your imagination run wild."
"Oh, right." The assistant rubbed the back of his head and blinked. ’Sheesh, does Mr. Hua have to be so perceptive?’
Just as they were speaking, another noise came from around the corner.
"Come on, let’s go check it out."
"Oh, okay."
Meanwhile, Su Qing spotted two or three men. Judging by their uniforms, they were crew members of the Jixiang. The three of them were stealthily approaching the storage room.
One of them whispered, "Should we take this chance to throw her in the sea?"
"No shit, of course we do," another one said. "If we don’t dump her tonight and they keep searching tomorrow, we might not be able to keep this hidden. Once they find her, there’ll be a thorough investigation. We might not get away. Luckily, Xiao Ba was quick-witted today and didn’t let anyone find a clue in the storage room."
"But she’s already dead. As long as the three of us keep quiet, they’ll never find out."
"Hah. The investigator is Hua Zifeng, the famous one from Xiangcheng. I hear he’s some kind of genius who can ’make corpses talk.’ We can’t take that risk."
"Fine, let’s hurry up before someone finds us."
"Let’s get to it."
Hearing their conversation, Su Qing finally understood. ’So that’s why Angela wasn’t found earlier.’
Su Qing had checked on her earlier. Angela wasn’t dead, she had just stopped breathing temporarily, entering a state of suspended animation. That’s why these three men thought she was dead and were preparing to dispose of the body.
Since the three men were on the move, Su Qing wasn’t going to be satisfied with waking just Hua Zifeng and his assistant. She used the same trick to rouse Yarn and some others who had participated in the daytime sea rescue. Driven by curiosity, most of them were drawn out by the sounds she created.
And so, under Su Qing’s deliberate guidance, the three men preparing to "dispose of the body" ran headlong into Hua Zifeng and his group.
Seeing the three men carrying a figure wrapped in a sheet, Yarn immediately recognized Angela’s hair. "Angela!" he cried out.
Yarn then glared furiously at the three men. "It was you. You’re the ones who hurt Angela."
With that, Yarn lunged forward to attack them.
The three men were stunned. They thought everyone was asleep. How had so many people suddenly shown up and caught them red-handed? Panicking, they dropped Angela and made a break for it, intending to leap into the sea. They knew staying on the ship would be disastrous for them.
But there were only three of them, and they were quickly subdued and pinned to the deck.
"Let go! Let go of us! We’re innocent!" the three men shouted frantically, seeing they couldn’t escape.
"Tie them up," Hua Zifeng ordered.
Hua Zifeng then hurried over to Yarn and Angela. Yarn was cradling Angela, anxiously calling her name. He placed a hand under her nose and felt no breath. His heart seized with panic. "Angela!"
"Yarn, try not to panic. Let the doctor take a look first," Hua Zifeng said, trying to comfort him while ordering his assistant to fetch the ship’s doctor.
Meanwhile, Su Qing watched everything clearly through her vines hidden in the shadows. There was nothing she could do for Angela’s condition. Since she wasn’t physically there, she couldn’t send the green mist to Angela. Her fate was out of Su Qing’s hands now.
Glancing at the sky, she saw it was the dead of night. She quietly retracted her vines, yawned, and closed her eyes to rest. She wouldn’t concern herself with what happened next.
When Su Qing woke up the next morning, the ship had already set sail.
Su Qing called Jim over. "When did the ship set sail?"
"In the middle of the night," Jim said.
Then he quickly added, "Miss Susan, they found Miss Angela."
Su Qing feigned ignorance. "They found her? That’s wonderful! How is she? Is she okay?"
"Her life isn’t in danger, but she’s injured," Jim answered, hesitating. He had only just heard the news himself this morning. The colleague who told him had whispered the details of Miss Angela’s condition, and the nature of her injuries was too sensitive for a man like him to discuss with Su Qing, so he could only gloss over it.
Su Qing, of course, knew exactly what had happened to Angela. She had seen the state Angela was in and knew she had been assaulted. But she had to play dumb. "Well, that’s a relief," she said. "As long as she’s been found, that’s what matters. I suppose this clears my name, too. Now Mr. Hua won’t be watching me day and night."
Jim smiled. "Exactly! There was no way you had anything to do with Miss Angela’s disappearance, Miss Susan. I don’t know why Mr. Hua singled you out. But it’s all good now. Miss Angela has been found, the culprits have been caught, and you won’t be under his suspicion anymore."
Feigning curiosity, Su Qing asked, "So, who did it?"