Chapter 16. The Phantom of the Mast Light

I looked into the distant sea, saw the whales and salamanders undulating, and felt that my chest was very happy, and suddenly I had a feeling of “life between heaven and earth, suddenly like a faraway guest”, and I was vaguely worried about the uncertain future, so I said to Fatty, “The ancestor of the gold-mining police officer, Boss Cao, when he was in the east of the exhaustive stone, in order to see the sea, our contemporary gold-mining police officer is also considered to be in the south of the exhaustive stone with the remains of the story, it is really the past more than a thousand years, the world has changed. We are the current generation of the Mapping Officer is also considered to be the south of the exhaustion of the stone has a legacy, it is really the past more than 1,000 years, changed the world, but you see the vastness of the sea, boundless, our boat in the waves of the depth of the sea, it is really too insignificant, want to find out the bottom of the South Dragon’s residual veins and the location of the Yin fire, I’m afraid it will not be too easy to be ready to deal with all kinds of emergencies of the psychological preparedness. ”

Fatty said uncaringly: “What can worry about, to be honest, I can not wait to touch the eggs, before in the desert in Yunnan, how many times we and the value of the city’s artifacts pass by, always picking up sesame as an excuse, the whole of the whole of the spoiled watermelon, embezzlement and waste is a great crime ah, I’m too straight, in addition to cut the meat pain, belongs to the pain of the money out of the pocket, from now on we From now on, we can no longer knowingly violate the law, this time no matter how to make a serious profit, I have been ready to remove all the difficulties of this, no matter it is on the nine heavens to catch the moon, or under the five oceans to catch turtles, we are all out.”

I agree: “Yes, the declaration of gold touching said well, we either do not touch, since the touch to touch the end, when a qualified egg people is our duty-bound responsibility, although the shoulders of this burden is not light, but those who have the will should be iron shoulder to shoulder the heavy responsibility, to go out for the last drop of blood for this great cause, even if it is a shattered, but also a red heart will never fade, and will not stop until the goal is reached. Not to achieve the goal vowed not to stop …… But you just said what climbed up to the nine sky to take the bright moon, how you are not afraid of heights again?”

Fatty said: “I in order to touch the egg, fell down into a meat pie is also considered an honor, then I have become one with the earth ah, and we only this time down to the sea does not ascend to the sky, the commander of the fear of what? Listen to Yang Sen said also not from how high place to fall to the sea, that also with the consequences of smashing in the ash ground is similar, in the end there is no such a thing?”

Fatty and I are walking from the bow to the stern, gossip with poor chat to relieve boredom, see the blood-red sun in the stern of the ship slowly falling, the sunlight, illuminated on the surface of the sea is like red snakes dancing, suddenly the black skinny monkey like teenager “Gu Guai” ran to the rear deck, pointing to the bow, signaling for us to hurry to go over, something happened.

Guchai this kid shaved a more ugly how ugly pot head, although not very old, but has a special physique, he was born with a pair of fish eyes, is inherent in the sea ghost, diving eggs can be a long time without having to change the air, even I had to impress him, he and Ruan Hei with the Chinese language also learned a few words, we can be some simple communication between us.

At this time I saw him rush to find me, know that the bow must have a situation, also can not care about the details of the question, rush with the fat man quickly ran to the bow of the ship, only to find that the east, that is, we are sailing to the bow of the sea directly in front of the beginning of the fog, the ship further forward will enter the fog, the visibility of the front is getting lower and lower.

This fog is very strange, about a dozen meters high, mist misty pressure on the sea surface, from where we look over, the sea fog and the sky are clearly distinguishable, and from the fog in the sea air rising, surging abnormal sea air gave birth to five wisps of black smoke straight into the sky, the scene is just like a black claw drilling out of the fog, the strange hand with five fingers towards the sky, it seems very scary, at this time the sea winds and waves are surprisingly quiet, the sun is about to set with the final The wind and waves were surprisingly quiet, and the sun was about to set with its last glow.

I asked for Uncle Ming’s opinion, Uncle Ming has seen the wind and waves, coupled with this time to drink a little too much, so this situation is not concerned, he said: “What’s the big fuss, the sea advection fog visibility will be reduced to a minimum, in the Fotangmen there was a two-vessel collision of accidents, the deaths and injuries of more than a dozen people, it is because of the sudden emergence of the sea fog advection caused by the sea fog here so wide as to be the same as the sea, the sea is so wide as the sea fog, the sea is so wide as to be the same as the sea, the sea is so wide as the sea. Here the sea is so wide with no need to worry, now there is still a distance from the coral spiral, to that sea, the seabed topography will suddenly pull up, so we just need to slowly sail through the night, to the dawn after the fog dispersed will be able to arrive at the periphery of the big spiral.”

I listen to Uncle Ming’s black mouth since he said not to worry about the words, it had to be extra worried, so I used the “thousand miles of ears to send a message tube” to greet the rest of the cabin on the deck, in the sea fog night navigation can not be careless, and the fog of the sea is too quiet, even a little bit of a scary quiet, like in the brewing of this unknown huge The sea is too quiet, even a little bit scary, as if brewing this unknown huge disaster.

Our salvage team do not dare to relax vigilance, “Trident” deceleration to the lowest, slowly forward, all the searchlights are open, the ship does not have a mast, but still deliberately hung on the top of the ship eye-catching mast light, mast light is the old-fashioned signal light hanging on the mast of the old sea ships, also has a certain role in the illumination, it is said that the night voyage can be driven away the ghosts! It is said that when sailing at night, it can drive away ghosts, and the gold inspector usually divines good and bad luck with the lamp, and it is not thought that it is widely used in the maritime industry, but the principle is different, the mast lamp is windproof and waterproof, and it will not be extinguished easily, and it will be suspended at a high place, together with the strong searchlight specially made for the bow and the side of the ship, although it will attract a small scale of the fish, but it will make the deep-sea water tribe stay away from it. In case of a shipwreck, the people on board will never be spared, even if they are not drowned in the sea, but also only buried in the belly of the fish.

“Trident” slowly sailed into the fog, the sea is quiet and can only hear the sound of propeller churning water, it seems that even the sea water has stood still, the surrounding area is all foggy, can’t distinguish between south-east and north-west, even if there are dozens of meters of visibility in the fog, but at sea there is only this kind of distance of visibility, and blindness is also about the same as the less.

The people added twelve points of caution, so fearful in the night fog forward, I hope that the sea fog as soon as possible, however, often in the sea fishing and running ship sea wolves, have summarized a set of nature’s laws, Ruan Hei told me: “Hu team, the fog is urgent wind, this fog is scattered on the sea, I’m afraid that the wind and waves will start.”

Although Ruan Hei in the Coral Temple Island to pick eggs and fishing for a living, rarely drive a boat deep into the sea, the maritime not as well known as Uncle Ming, but his advantage is simple and tough, his ancestors have worked in the Nanyang Shipyard, three generations of abject poverty, belonging to the veritable pedigree of the working class origins, compared to Uncle Minh, but a lot more reliable.

I signaled Ruan Hei that I had a good idea about the wind and waves, and seeing that Uncle Ming was about to get drunk, I told Ruan Hei to take the helm for him, and then dragged Uncle Ming into the cabin, and then went to the bow of the ship, and asked Shirley Yang, who was controlling the searchlight, “The wind and waves will be strong after the fog clears, so can we pass through the outer spiral of the coral helix in one go before that?”

Shirley Yang said, “Although this is risky, but also feasible, but the timing is not good will be troublesome, I do not know how long the fog will be dispersed, and with the current speed, tomorrow at noon may not be able to arrive at the coral spiral, now we can only act on the occasion.”

Because the South China Sea within the ups and downs of the sea water surging, so the ancient also called the South China Sea for “rising sea”, in feng shui together to describe this is the South China Sea sea gas is too rich, surging phenomenon, wind and waves together, non-trivial, I am discussing with Shirley Yang which set of emergency program to use, but listened to the fat man called out: “Lao Hu Lao Hu quickly look over there …… there is something in the fog!”

We hastily stopped talking, try to open our eyes to see that night fog deep place, sure enough in the foggy sea, appeared a lone hanging bright yellow mast light, because it is in the fog suddenly appeared, so we saw that light, has been extremely close to the mast light to see it should be a sea ship, but if it is a ship, the ship, how there is no rest of the lights?

Maybe a few seconds at most, before I suspected that I had blurred eyes, an ancient sea boat painted all white, has appeared in front of the eyes from the fog noiselessly, the ship in addition to a bright mast lamp, no other light, and the bow of the ship is not visible, there is no movement inside the ship, the doors and windows are tightly closed.

Including the helm of the boat boss Ruan Hei, all the people are looking at the dumbfounded, this scene is like a bizarre hallucination incredible, in the dictionary of our groping world, “unbelievable” is probably an adjective that has been almost overused, but I still have to use “unbelievable! “Unbelievable” is probably an overused word in our groping world, but I still have to use “unbelievable” to describe it.

This sea area is a blind zone that all regular routes will not pass through for no reason, except for us, where there will be other ships on the ocean, the sea is vast, in the sea fog head-on collision with another ship, than the sky fell down a thumb-sized meteorite smashed in the head is more coincidental, unless it is an uninvited “ghost ship”. Unless it’s a “ghost ship” that comes uninvited.

Fortunately, Shirley Yang was the first to react, turning her head to Ruan Hei, she called out, “Quickly turn right rudder to avoid it!” The old sea ship that suddenly appeared out of the fog was already slanting along the ocean current and crashed into our ship, Ruan Hei was reminded by Shirley Yang, he immediately came back to his senses and violently drove the right rudder full.

The “Trident” is not big, but the ship is small and good to turn around, and by the British nautical experts carefully designed and modified, the construction is almost perfect, maneuverability is very strong, the bow quickly a deviation, avoiding the bow of the white ghost ship, the two ships almost together with the slant of the past, due to the distance is too close to the bow of the ship, we stood at the bow of the ship to see very clearly, the deck and hatches of the ancient ship, the white ghost ship, the two ships almost past the slant of the past, because the distance is too close, we stood at the bow of the ship to see very clearly. The deck and hatches of that ancient ship were streaked with large patches of blood.

After several consecutive days of calm, the sea air in the deep sea gradually depresses, before the sea rises up wind and waves, first appeared a sea fog, coupled with the sky is already dark, the visibility on the calm sea dropped to the lowest point, the sea fog shrouded the water, suddenly appeared a ghostly old sea ship, and our “trident” brushed against us, the three-masted ship, the ship, the ship, the ship, the ship, the ship, the ship, the ship, the ship, the ship, the ship, the ship, the ship. The three-masted ship, the hull is white, although there are masts can be raised sails, but the sails are removed, it drifts with the current, night sailing inside the ship without lights, only in the three bare masts hanging a mast light, in the night fog suddenly appeared, like a ghost fire.