Walk along the rusty cabin of the whale to the captain's cabin on the upper deck.
The captain's cabin is equally bad. Time and environment have severely corroded the place. Tables, chairs, beds, floors, rudders, and all wooden products are like rotten and mutilated corpses in the humid environment.
The stuffed deer head looked strange, and the sea breeze was rushing into the captain's cabin through the broken window.
Catalina went to the seaside and sailed for the first time, but it was obviously not a wonderful experience.
But it was better than being in the cabin, where there was the smell of rust and rusty water dripping from the dilapidated ceiling, and there were strange echoes, like terrifying echoes from the deep sea.
"Will it take us to the ice-free port of Wiener?"
Pusius asked. He turned around several times but could not find a place to sit down. There was moisture everywhere that would make his hair wet and reflect the water light under the oil lamp.
"Um."
Lu Li believed in the whale as much as he believed in the Lina Tree.
This kind of trust in weirdness may make Lu Li pay a heavy price, but not now.
"The one from Storm Point...may be old." Catalina looked into the distance behind her. Before they left the bay, they could still see dozens of stars originating from stone pillars and ships.
"Why."
Lu Li was still observing the captain's cabin.
Just like the giant wooden bed or floor, it is as slippery as moss, and the edges squeeze out moisture when you step on it.
The sea at night is colder than on land, full of moisture and cold wind. If you want to improve the environment, you must at least light a fire and seal the leaky windows.
"This whale is strange..." Catalina stopped before the offensive words came out. "...Storm Point let it come in and did nothing."
"Perhaps the whale is powerful?" said Pusius.
Because of its admiration for Lu Li, it has a high opinion of whales, and it is too big.
"The spirit will not tolerate any invasion unless the enemy can kill it easily."
The sea breeze poured into Pusius's ears, and he couldn't sit down and scratch him, so he flattened his ears and said: "Whales don't seem to be as powerful as gods..."
"So I said the whale might be old."
The experience in Midnight City has made Catalina grow up a bit, at least it would have been difficult for her to speak such long and coherent sentences before.
"In that case we should tell those people..." said good Pusius.
"A lot of people see this... whale and they think about it."
Catalina said, looking at Lu Li who was standing by the window looking at the deck blending into the night: "What are you thinking about?"
The familiar scene did awaken some memories in Lu Li.
These memories gave Lu Li an irrational idea: to bypass the ice-free port of Wiener and return directly to Belfast.
But Lu Li knew that there were only ruins and the abandoned Wanghai Cliff there.
"Do whales repel weird fog?" Katarina asked.
She got an answer quickly. The stars in the distance were covered with fog, and they were no longer visible in just ten seconds. The darkness completely enveloped this rusty ship, but the strange fog did not board here.
Lu Li handed the oil lamp to Catalina, opened the suitcase, took out the fluorite lamp that would not go out but was dimmer, and exchanged it with Catalina for the oil lamp.
"Where are you going?"
"Wandering around." Lu Li held the oil lamp and prepared to go to the cabin below the deck to take a look.
Oliver's bones are still there.
"Mr. Lu Li, I'm coming with you," said the little follower, Pusius.
"...I'll go too." Catalina also said.
She doesn't want to be alone.
Putting down their suitcases, Lu Li and the others left the upper deck and walked into the cabin.
Lu Li still remembered the road, after all, it was only a few months ago. But for this world and the whale, twenty-four years have passed.
Corrosion is everywhere, the rust is like clinging to a rock wall, and the reddish-brown walls eroded by sea water and moisture are like the internal organs of a giant creature.
Stepping through the stagnant water and following the route he remembered, Lu Li arrived at the end of the first-floor cabin.
The cabin has long lost any trace of its past, and Oliver's body has also disappeared. Only the empty jar in the corner silently tells everything.
"Where is Oliver's body?" Lu Li asked.
Whale couldn't answer Lu Li.
At this time, the eldest sister, who was huddled in her cloak and covering her head to block the dripping water, suddenly said: "It said it left."
"Leaved?" Lu Li frowned.
But Sister Tou can only understand emotions, and whales cannot express more complex emotions.
Lu Li knew that Oliver was dead, and even if he became a monster, he would no longer be him.
What the whale said "left" is more likely to mean that the Swamp Mother took out Oliver's body after sending it out of the swamp.
The eldest sister then conveyed other emotions of the whale, which seemed to be a whale language asking for help.
Whale hoped that Lu Li could go to the lower cabin to have a look.
…
Submerged steps, dim and floating water.
It may be a leak, it may be too much water, it may be both. The hatches on both sides of the passage are tightly closed, and thick rust is clinging to them. To a certain extent, the rust helps the whales, they block the continuous water seepage.
The cabin of the ship prevented the seawater from dragging the whale to the bottom of the sea.
The water was so deep and submerged that Psius might only have a pair of eyes exposed when he jumped in.
The environment in the lowest cabin is worse than imagined.
Lu Li understood the whale's request for help.
"Where's the bucket?"
Following the whale's guidance, Lu Li found a bucket in the utility room on the deck. The wooden bucket was corroded to a bad extent, but the iron bucket was still usable.
After finding the gloves in the suitcase and giving them to Catalina, and wrapping her palms to avoid scratching her skin and infecting her with tetanus, Lu Li and Catalina walked into the channel to help the whale clean up the water.
Psius held two oil lamps in his mouth to illuminate the steps.
Without pumping tools, they could only bring primitive buckets onto the deck and dump them out.
After spending several hours clearing the water down to their ankles, Lu Li and the others stopped.
They still didn't help the whales much, as more water accumulated in the rusted cabins and boiler rooms lower down.
These can only be processed at the ship repair yard after docking.
The whale blew his whistle to express his gratitude.
They found no dry firewood that could be burned, and the only usable coal was in the bottom boiler room. They only found some wooden boards to block the windows of the captain's cabin to block the strong sea breeze.
Sitting on the waterproof tarpaulin, they simply replenished some drinking water and food.
"How long does it take to get to Weiner Freeze Port?" Lu Li asked.
"It says dawn."
Less than twelve hours left.
Lu Li put the change of clothes in the suitcase on the tarp to block the wet, slippery and cold feeling.
Catalina didn't care. She had been in worse environments, such as soaking in sewage all night, and her skin was as rotten as a dead person.
It was approaching midnight, and all that was left in the captain's cabin was the sound of the wind blowing through the cracks.
…
Katerina slowly opened her eyes.
It's dawn.
Pusius was curled up in his coat and asleep, and Lu Li was not here.
Catalina walked out of the captain's cabin, hugged her shoulders in the cold air, and looked around.
She saw Lu Li on the deck, and beyond the horizon, a long, bustling port city that looked like Belfast in the old days.
