Chapter 2

Chapter 2

That night, many of us shared the same dream.

In the dream, Daiyu Zai was outside the porthole, pounding on the glass with heart-wrenching desperation, wailing for us to let him back in.

His face had already turned a sickly, bloated blue-green from the water. His eyeballs bulged unnaturally in their sockets as if they might pop out at any moment from the force of his frantic hammering.

Then, a gale began to howl outside, and Daiyu Zai’s cries were gradually drowned out by the roar of the wind and waves.

Soon, Daiyu Zai stopped moving.

That swollen, discolored face seemed frozen against the small circular frame of the porthole, wearing a mocking expression.

It was as if he already knew the horrific things that were about to happen.

I don’t know who woke up from the dream first.

That person’s first thought must have been that Daiyu Zai wasn’t outside the porthole.

But the storm-the storm was very real.

I had dreamed of Daiyu Zai too. In my dream, I had even reached a point where I wanted to open the door and let him in.

But just as I got out of bed and my hand touched the handle, Chao Ge’s voice drifted in from the distance.

“Get up! Hurry up and pull the nets in!”

We scrambled to throw on our clothes and get out of bed.

The moment we stepped out, a powerful gust of wind slammed into us, nearly blowing us back into the cabin.

The world outside was pitch black. I could hear the waves violently lashing against the hull.

The ship pitched and rolled so violently that we had to white-knuckle the guide ropes just to stay upright.

The Captain’s voice carried through the wind, shouting for us not to panic and telling us it was just a minor issue.

Clinging to the ropes, we shuffled step by step along the gangway toward the stern where the nets were hauled in.

Chao Ge and a few others were already waiting. They told us to grab the net lines and start hauling.

With a collective heave, the net was slowly dragged up and onto the deck.

Before we could even breathe a sigh of relief, the wind and waves surged again.

This time, the ship bucked even harder. Even holding onto the ropes, we couldn’t keep our footing.

Chao Ge hurriedly shouted for us to get back inside.

Right then, I felt the ship suddenly lurch downward. A massive swell seemed to lift the fishing boat vertically, plunging the entire bow deep into the water before it breached the surface again.

In that violent rise and fall, my grip slipped, and a wave swept me into the sea.

The chaotic roar of the storm and the crashing waves vanished instantly.

All that remained was a muffled gurgling as seawater seemed to pour into my body from every direction.

Everything before my eyes was black, and my body turned deathly cold in an instant.

I struggled, flailing my arms, but it was useless.

My body began to sink, spiraling out of control.

I saw the fishing boat rocking violently beside me.

I saw a dark shadow pressed tightly against the bottom of the hull.

It looked like a person.

And as I sank past that figure, he suddenly turned his head and grinned at me.

It was Daiyu Zai.