Trafford's Trading Club

573: Treasure(2) 573: Treasure(2) “What?

You made all this up?!”

In the restaurant, Officer Ma slammed his hands on the table and shot to his feet, immediately drawing the gaze of several diners around them.

But Officer Ma was used to the big scenes—he glared all around, barking, “What are you looking at!

Want to be under police scrutiny, huh?”

The crowd hastily ducked their heads and kept eating.

Only then did Officer Ma act as if nothing had happened, sitting back down and frowning at the old captain.

“Captain, I don’t get it.

Why did you fabricate a rumor like that?

Was it really just to whip up hype and draw people’s attention?”

The old captain shook his head, saying, “Honestly, I never expected it would take off like this at first.

It just spread by word of mouth, and before long, we got a ton of tourists and a ton of people coming for job interviews.

I remember even the most grueling, hardest job—the engine room repair apprentice—had a bunch of people fighting for it.”

Officer Ma suddenly choked, only he wasn’t drinking any water.

Ren Ziling just rolled her eyes and asked, “Captain, you say you didn’t intend for this from the start, so what was your real reason?”

The old captain sighed, “Because there was a haunting at the time.”

“A haunting?” Lizi blinked.

“What kind of ghost…

spirit was it?”

The old captain shook his head again.

“Honestly, I never saw anything myself.

It just spread among the crew—some said they saw a pale shadow drifting by, some said they saw a scary face.

Some night patrols said they heard wailing in the dark.

Anyway, all sorts of rumors, the whole crew was jumpy.

It was the nineties then, and things hadn’t opened up much yet, people were generally more superstitious.”

The old captain recalled, “Plenty of people got scared and quit.

The company even hired a Taoist to do rituals, but that didn’t help.

People kept saying weird things kept happening.

News spread, and in the end, barely any tourists wanted to board.

The company couldn’t do much, so Baiyu Cruise was temporarily turned into a cargo ship for a while.”

Officer Ma was stunned, blurting out, “Doesn’t add up!

If the ghost story got around, how come I never heard of it?

I was around back then too!”

The old captain glanced at Officer Ma, calm as ever.

“That’s because Baiyu Cruise wasn’t in this city at first.

It shipped cargo for about half a year before officially docking here.

Of course, officially we said nothing about any of it—just said it was the maiden voyage.

The name Baiyu Cruise was only adopted when it arrived here; before that, its name was Vidona.”

“There’s something like that…” Officer Ma shook his head.

“Business people—never change.

So then what?

You just started spreading rumors?”

The old captain replied calmly, “Officer, as the captain, it’s my job to solve the ship’s problems.

If a cruise ship can’t make money, what’s the use of it?

To keep the haunting rumors from spreading here, I quietly started the treasure rumor instead.

Young people are easily driven by profit… It was just supposed to distract from the ghost legend, but I didn’t expect the treasure story to go viral.

For a while, tickets sold like crazy and job applicants poured in.

The company was happy, so they let it ride.”

Officer Ma finally realized, “No wonder… Rumor had it Baiyu Cruise held treasures, but the boat never stopped sailing; it was packed for ages, but the cruise company didn’t make a peep—not even a trip to the shipyard or anything.

I knew it!

If there were treasure, your company wouldn’t just ignore it.”

The old captain said, “Officer Ma, so that’s the origin of the treasure story… But, it’s just a fiction.

Why do you think it’s tied to this murder case?”

Officer Ma scratched his head, “Oh, nothing, just some two-bit thief making stuff up… haha, it’s clear now!

No problem!

No problem at all!

Pff…”

Under the table, though, Officer Ma’s foot got firmly trodden on by Miss Ren sitting across.

Ren Ziling suddenly asked, “Captain, you really are something.

Solved the issue with just a simple move… How’d you come up with the treasure angle?

After all, Baiyu Cruise was brought in from overseas—had to be checked inside and out before it arrived, so getting people to buy there’s treasure on a ship like that couldn’t have been easy, right?”

The old captain looked a bit surprised.

“You folks don’t know?”

“Know what?” Officer Ma was blank.

The old captain grew serious, “Baiyu Cruise isn’t a purpose-built cruise ship.

It used to be a warship.

It took part in the operation to wipe out Somali pirates.

Later, it was sunk and then retired—remodeled as a cruise ship for export to developing countries.”

Ren Ziling shook her head in disbelief.

“There’s nothing about that in Baiyu Cruise’s introduction brochure.”

The old captain said, “Right, that part of the info was no longer printed once the ship arrived in this city.”

“But what does that have to do with the treasure?” Ren Ziling pressed.

The old captain said, “Back then, Baiyu Cruise had a record of being hijacked—a really nasty episode.

It was eventually recovered, but it wasn’t something people wanted talked about.

Not many people knew… Everyone in the know had been ordered silent, so I borrowed the incident as the basis for the treasure story.”

The old captain drank some water, then went on slowly, “I made up a yarn: When Baiyu Cruise was hijacked, the pirates used it to transport loot.

The navy took it back and recovered a mountain of riches.

But there was one super valuable stash the pirates hid deep in Baiyu Cruise; unless you tore the ship apart, nobody but the pirate chief knew where it was.

Anyway, it was all made up.

I didn’t expect so many people would buy into it.”

“Treasure will always get people going.” Ren Ziling shrugged and shot a cold smile at Officer Ma.

“Plenty cling to those pipe dreams, hoping for overnight wealth.”

Officer Ma… Officer Ma suddenly looked down at the menu, blurting out, “Lin Feng, hungry?

Want some oysters?”

“Hell yeah!”

Ren Ziling just shook her head, then turned to the captain.

“But, Captain, if the Baiyu Cruise piracy episode was under wraps… how did you know about it?”

The old captain explained, “I wasn’t always Baiyu Cruise’s captain—you see, I worked aboard her before.

I was more or less a reserve navy man back then.

But as an overseas Chinese, I never got much trust, even got pushed aside… After Baiyu Cruise was salvaged post-sinking, I retired, then got assigned as a foreman at a big shipyard.

Funnily enough, Baiyu Cruise was eventually sent to that same shipyard for conversion.

Luck must’ve come my way, because when a domestic company came looking for ships to buy, I met with them, they offered good conditions to make me captain of the refitted ship.

I said yes.”

The old captain took a long, weary breath, his gaze clouded.

“At first, I just wanted to use it to return home, take things day by day, but before I knew it, I’ve been captain for thirty years… Life, you never know what it’ll throw at you.”

Officer Ma couldn’t help but look awed, patting the old captain’s arm.

“Captain, our country’s only getting better!

Coming home was the right call!”

The old captain just smiled.

At that moment his phone rang, and when he finished the call, he said, “Sorry, Officer Ma, that was the company’s direct line from the control room.

I have to head over.”

“Go ahead, Captain,” Officer Ma nodded.

After the old captain left, Officer Ma suddenly shot to his feet and jabbed a furious finger at Miss Ren, roaring, “You—you stomped on my foot just now!!!”

“I didn’t!” Ren Ziling widened her dewy eyes, “What eye of yours saw me stepping on you?”

“Come on, could you be any more shameless!”

But Miss Ren swore up and down, “Hmph, must’ve been a ghost.

Didn’t the captain just say there were ghosts… Old Ma, maybe you have a guilty conscience, got haunted.”

Officer Ma threw up his hands, cursing the heavens and earth, “Even if it was a ghost, it’d be a damn troublemaker!

Stingy!

Miserly!!”

“Pfft.” Ren Ziling flashed a third middle finger, then, lost in thought, muttered, “If the old captain was navy fighting pirates back then and had faced all that, it’d make sense he wasn’t fazed by seeing a dead body.

Sea battles, lots of casualties…”

Lin Feng sighed, “So… we just wasted all those questions?”

“Looks like it’s all up to Xiaobao now,” Officer Ma also sighed.

“Hope he can give us a clue… Oh, right!”

Suddenly, Officer Ma perked up, “Let’s go arrest people!

That woman and Flying Eagle—can’t let either slip!

Lin Feng, Ah Lai, GOGOGO!”

Thus, the police trio hustled off once more.

Lizi, having cleaned out everything on the table, patted her belly.

“Sister Ren, should we go back to our cabin?”

Ren Ziling thought for a second.

“Let’s walk around some more… I still feel something’s off, but I just can’t put my finger on it.”

“…We—we’re not going to climb the ceiling again, are we?” Lizi asked nervously.

“I’m thinking this time I’ll sneak into the control room,” Ren Ziling said, getting up.

“Check the surveillance.”

…

“It’s me, Mu Enli.” The captain picked up the phone in his office.

The person on the other end of the satellite phone was a company exec, voice somewhat heavy: “Captain Mu, after a quick meeting, we’ve decided—Baiyu Cruise needs to return immediately.”

The old captain frowned, “Return right away?”

“Exactly!

Word got out about the death, and tourists are talking about it online.

If we don’t come back, things’ll blow up.

So return now.

As for the guests, the company will arrange compensation.

You announce the decision.”

The old captain didn’t say much else—just, “Got it.”

Shortly after, he hung up the satellite phone, left the office, and headed to the control room.

Seeing all the crew looking at him, he said calmly, “Nothing much—company just checking up on the case.

You guys keep working.

Baiyu Cruise stays on schedule… Shellfish Island—ETA?”

“Three hours ’til we get there,” a crew member replied with a grin.

“It really is a beautiful little island.

Every time we run this route, I never get tired of seeing it… Hope it’ll calm our nerves a bit when we dock.”

“I’ll take a walk outside.

Notify me if anything comes up,” the old captain said.

…

…

“Mind if I sit here?”

Luo Qiu and Ms.

Ren heard the voice—after delivering food to Mrs.

Ma, master and maid were now wandering the cruise ship, finally ending up on the observation deck, just quietly watching the calm sea.

“Of course,” Luo Qiu smiled faintly.

“Plenty of seats here.”

The speaker smiled and took a seat… It was that thirty-something woman Luo Qiu and You Ye had bumped into in the hallway earlier.

“Small world, seeing you two here,” she said, smoothing hair tossed by the breeze, at ease.

“It’s not a big ship.

Running into each other isn’t so weird,” Luo Qiu replied casually.

“Guess it’s fate, hm?” The woman laughed softly, blinking.

“Haven’t introduced myself—I’m Mu Zi.

If you don’t mind, you can call me sis… But not ‘Auntie’, please!”

“Luo Qiu,” Boss Luo answered simply.