Chapter 43

After finding traces of human life, the two were much more cautious in their exploration. The restaurant on the upper floor was a mess, with tables and chairs tilted and many broken dishes on the floor.

After walking around the restaurant and finding nothing, the two decided to go down to the third floor to have a look. When passing by the bar, they found dozens of candles and put them in their bags to take away. When they went down to the

third floor, they could see that the rooms were very different from those on the upper floors. The fifth floor was all standard rooms and king-size rooms, and the sixth floor had suites, all of which were luxury rooms with sea views. On the third floor, all were bunk beds, all of which were rooms for four to six people. The accommodation level had dropped too much.

There are even fewer signs of life here. Going down is where the crew lives. There are no windows here. Every room has signs of life. There is even a skeleton in one room.

Qiao Sheng found it first. After exploring everywhere before, the two of them went into two doors on the left and right to search. It was too slow to move together, but they didn't know if there was any danger, and they didn't dare to go too far away.

Then Qiao Sheng got lucky. He had just entered and didn't find anything. He walked in and took a torch to shine around. When he turned his head, the skeleton was huddled in the corner between the wall and the cabinet. He couldn't control the volume and uttered a cry. Li Mu rushed over immediately and saw Qiao Sheng touching her chest and breathing heavily. Following her gaze, he saw a skeleton.

"I was shocked when I turned around. How long has he been dead? He's all skeletons." Qiao Sheng stood behind Li Mu and looked over.

"It's hard to say. The skeletonization of a body has a lot to do with external conditions. If it's simply exposed to the air, it's basically one to two months. It's buried in the soil for three to six months. I don't know if this one was soaked in the sea or just turned into skeletons. The exact time is hard to estimate." Li Mu walked around the room and didn't find any identity information.

The two of them went out to the next room. This time Qiao Sheng was mentally prepared. He was not scared when he saw the skeletons again. In the crew dormitory on this floor, a total of eight skeletons were found, all in different rooms, and each one was curled up.

Going down to the bottom is the core part of the cruise ship. Six skeletons were found here, and another was in the kitchen warehouse. There were opened empty cans around the skeleton.

After confirming that there was no one on the ship, the two discussed taking some useful things back. Although many things on the ship were soaked in seawater, they could still be used if they were disassembled.

The first thing to collect was various electrical appliances. Even if they couldn't be repaired and the parts inside were broken, they had iron. It just so happened that they found the blueprints of the cannon, which became an urgent need.

There were still a lot of canned food in the warehouse. Li Mu checked the expiration date, which showed that there was still a year left. He was torn between taking it or not. The two of them didn't dare to eat anything that had been soaked in seawater, even if it was sealed. The main reason was that they hadn't reached the point of running out of water yet.

It was not impossible to put it in the trading system and exchange it, but I had been in the game for so long and had never seen it in the trading system. If I took it out, I would definitely be targeted. Was it worth the risk for such a small amount of stuff?

In the end, they decided to give up this batch of canned products and take away everything else in the kitchen that could be taken away, including pots, bowls, and pans, as long as there were no obvious traces of modernity, they would take them away. These could all be exchanged for supplies.

Qiao Sheng wanted to move the propulsion equipment in the cruise ship. If they modified their boat, they could upgrade their guns to new ones. Li Mu gave up after a few words. The models didn't match. If they really installed it on their small wooden boat, it might sink. However, they

could study the propulsion method of the boat. The steam engine plus the propeller was just that size. It took up half of their boat. Li Mu walked around and looked for a while, and collected all the iron products that could be collected.

Then he told Qiao Sheng that they could try to make a wooden waterwheel-style propeller in the future. They could try whether it was driven by wind or manpower. In this way, they didn't have to drift randomly. They could just let the wooden propeller turn when they wanted to go.

After collecting the items on the bottom floor, the two of them started to collect items upwards. In fact, they didn't collect anything except iron products, and they didn't even go into the room with the bones. When they reached the fifth and sixth floors, they got confused. The mattresses and sofas looked good, but thinking that someone had used them, their cleanliness got the better of them, so they simply gave up collecting these things.

"Li Mu, why do I feel like the ship is moving?" Li Mu wanted to remove the mattress to collect the springs inside, but Qiao Sheng suddenly felt it shaking. They

stopped what they were doing for a moment.

Sure enough, the ship was moving. Li Mu dragged Qiao Sheng to the seventh floor's restaurant on the sea. When they reached the seventh floor and stood on the deck, they looked down and saw that the cruise ship was indeed moving and sinking rapidly.

Their own wooden boat was tied to the railing on the fourth floor of the cruise ship by a rope, and now it was tilted. According to the sinking speed of the cruise ship, their own wooden boat would soon capsize.

The wooden planks between the two ships had long disappeared. The fastest way to get back to the ship was to jump off the cruise ship, swim back, and then cut the connecting rope.

Li Mu climbed onto the railing and prepared to jump, but Qiao Sheng grabbed him and pointed to the side of their wooden boat. There was clearly a shark fin swimming on the sea surface. This situation was really a matter of time.

"Qiao Sheng, I'm going to jump down and attract the shark now. If you see the shark swimming towards me, jump off the cruise ship and swim towards our boat. Don't worry about me when you're on the boat. Cut the rope as soon as possible. I'll get back to the boat as soon as possible." Time was running out. Their wooden boat was tilting badly. If it really capsized into the sea, not only would their efforts during this period be wasted.

Between the two of them being wiped out and giving it a try, Li Mu chose the latter, so that at least one of them could survive.

"Go down there and attract the shark. When you see the shark swimming towards you, swim towards our wooden boat. Don't lose your life just to buy me some time. Neither of us can die! You must promise me. I don't want to live in guilt for the rest of my life. That would be more painful than death." Qiao Sheng warned him seriously. Sometimes, death is much easier than life.

Looking into Qiao Sheng's eyes, Li Mu nodded, patted Qiao Sheng's shoulder and jumped down. As soon as he entered the sea, the shark not far away discovered its prey and swam towards Li Mu.

Qiao Sheng saw the right moment and jumped into the sea. She really used all her strength at that time. Because the distance was not far, she felt that she had touched her own wooden boat in less than ten seconds. She climbed up with her hands and feet, not daring to look at Li Mu in the sea. She climbed to the third floor and cut the rope connecting the two boats with a machete.

She turned her head and saw Li Mu, who was already close to the wooden boat. The waves caused by the tilted wooden boat pushed him away a little. Qiao Sheng could not see the shark from her position.

When she was about to go down to meet Li Mu, she passed by the second kitchen and saw wild boar entrails and fresh pork belly on the stove. They were going to make dumplings today. When they saw the cruise ship, they didn't care about making dumplings and only focused on the adventure.

Now, an idea suddenly occurred to him. He picked it up and threw it into the sea. The fresh wild boar meat and pig viscera were still mixed with blood. As soon as it entered the sea, it immediately attracted the shark chasing Li Mu.

Qiao Sheng ran to the bow of the first floor, just in time to catch up with Li Mu's hand on the fence, and then he grabbed it and pulled it up. Li Mu also climbed up hard. The moment he came out of the water, the shark that had eaten the pork came back and killed it. Its sharp teeth just happened to touch Li Mu's left shoe, and the shoe fell into the shark's mouth. Li Mu got ashore safely.

The two of them sat limply on the bow, gasping for air. Qiao Sheng thought he had to cut some ginseng and soak it in water to drink. The shock of the day was too severe.

Li Mu was facing the cabin, and Qiao Sheng looked at the shark's bloody mouth and rows of sharp teeth.

He checked Li Mu's bare left foot and confirmed that only the shoe was lost. The foot was still there, and all five toes were intact. Then he went to the bathroom to wash and change into clean clothes.

Coming out of the bathroom, Qiao Sheng cut two slices of ginseng and put them into the bamboo cups they usually used, one for each person, to replenish their energy and calm their nerves. When Li Mu came up, he saw Qiao Sheng leaning his bamboo chair against the wall, his back against the wooden wall, his right hand on the back of the bamboo chair, his left hand holding the bamboo cup, and his legs crossed in a daze.

Seeing him coming up, he pointed at his bamboo cup on the dining table and asked him to drink some.

"When I was pushed away by the boat, the shark was about to bite me, how come it suddenly swam away." Thinking of the situation just now, Li Mu was also shocked. Although he was prepared to be injured, it still took a strong heart to die knowing that he was going to die. When the shark opened its mouth beside him, he panicked.

"Then you should be grateful for your dinner, because it saved your life. You should also be grateful that you have no wounds on your body, otherwise you really wouldn't be able to get up." Qiao Sheng turned her head to look at the empty chopping board on the stove, and was also scared. If there was no pork she had saved for making dumplings on it, if she hadn't seen it when she came down, Li Mu might be half dead now: "Tell me, if your lower half was bitten off by a shark and I pulled your upper half up, would you still be able to survive?"

Dinner? Half? Li Mu turned his head to look at the stove behind him, and saw the chopping board still stained with blood. Only then did he realize that Qiao Sheng had saved his life with fresh pork meat with blood: "If only half is left, it depends on where the half is. If the legs are bitten off, I should be able to survive, but I will have difficulty walking in the future. If it is bitten off from the waist, don't save me. The internal organs may fall out, and you may not be able to put it back together."

After hearing his answer, Qiao Sheng, who was originally very heavy, burst into laughter.

After resting for a while and drinking the ginseng water, Li Mu prepared to go downstairs to collect his rubber. His shoes were gone, so he had to make a new pair of shoes. Fortunately, the pattern of sports shoes was opened before, and now he only needed to gather the materials to make them. Qiao Sheng asked him to chew the ginseng in the water as well, so as not to waste it.

While Li Mu was making shoes, she rested on a bamboo chair for a while and then went into the kitchen. The wild boar meat for dumplings was eaten by sharks, and they couldn't skip meals.

She had been frightened today, so she had to make up for it. Spicy diced rabbit meat and spicy rabbit head were all prepared. Finally, she had to make a pot of ginseng chicken soup. She had to make up for it.

When Xia Beibei got the spicy rabbit head, she was still wondering why the menu was changed at the last minute when they said they were going to make dumplings today. But she was obedient and didn't ask the reason. After all, what to eat depends on the mood of the chef Sister Qiao. For someone like her who eats and drinks for free, she just needs to be honest and not ask what she shouldn't ask or say what she shouldn't say.