Chapter 197: Guess
In the hall echoing with strange music, Zhang Qian was focused on unbuttoning the buttons on the clothes of the figure in front of him.
Although this practice seemed a bit pervert, to satisfy the rule for leaving the music hall, there was no better way.
However, Zhang Qian still had a bit of conscience and chose a youth male, not targeting the female audience members on the side.
Of course, it might also be that he didn’t want to cross-dress.
“Tsk, can’t you take more medicine for your hyperactivity disorder? Are you willing to cooperate properly or not?” Zhang Qian impatiently stopped his actions.
The figure didn’t reply, clearly acquiescing to Zhang Qian stripping its clothes.
But these audience members had long been affected by supernatural erosion, their bodies moving uncontrollably, and even though their two arms were grabbed by the ghost hand, they still flailed trying to block.
Clearly, facing the audience members who had become fierce ghosts, the ghost hand as a derivative was somewhat insufficient.
Even though these two ghost hands had also been tainted with some supernatural power of the severed limb ghost, they only formed some fine rifts on the figure’s arms, not causing any major harm to the figure itself.
“Move faster, these guys’ resurgence speed is getting faster and faster. If we get caught, it won’t be so easy to leave again.”
The mannequin on the side, responsible for keeping watch, felt a bit uneasy looking at those sinister gazes and couldn’t help urging, “Hurry up and get a set for yourself, then help me strip a piece of clothing too.”
“Don’t rush, I’m convincing this brother to cooperate with our action.” Zhang Qian said seriously.
Although these audience members couldn’t understand his persuasion now, it didn’t matter; he still had plan B.
“Bang!”
The dark red wooden stick tore through the air with lightning speed, slamming heavily into the figure’s face.
The tip wrapped in true qi was like a heavy hammer, caving in the fierce ghost’s cheek inward.
A few grayish-white particles flew out of the figure’s mouth; even the fierce ghost was struck disoriented by this powerful blow.
The arms that had been resisting just now suddenly stopped moving, and the body uncontrollably fell backward onto the seat.
The iron chain tied to the fierce ghost also vibrated; Zhang Qian didn’t dare to be careless and quickly stripped off its clothes during the fierce ghost’s dazed moment.
However, he only removed the long gown worn outermost, not touching the lining inside. After all, he just needed to meet the condition for leaving, not being a true pervert.
Soon, a dark blue long gown appeared in Zhang Qian’s hand.
The style wasn’t particularly special, just the ordinary appearance often seen in textbooks.
However, this clothing didn’t seem as simple as it appeared; the hand feel was very silky, like holding a stream of water, smooth and fluid.
Moreover, there was faint golden light in the seams of the long gown, as if special cloud patterns were embroidered with gold thread in the lining of the clothes.
In the Republic of China era, anyone who could dress like this was definitely not ordinary—either a rich young master.
Or it could only be a ghost controller.
But there were no other supernatural traces on these figures; was he overthinking it?
“Don’t daze, hurry and get one for me too.”
Seeing Zhang Qian succeed, the mannequin quickly climbed onto a chair and casually pointed at a figure not far away.
“I don’t need clothes; just get that hat for me.”
“I know you’re in a hurry, but don’t rush first.”
Zhang Qian didn’t rush to leave; instead, he looked at the neck of the figure in front of him.
He hadn’t noticed it when it was covered by the long gown earlier, but now without the cover, he could clearly see a necklace hanging on this youth’s neck.
Most of the necklace was hidden under the lining, but from the exposed part, it seemed somewhat similar to that strange necklace inlaid with ink jade.
Was it a coincidence?
Probably not; except for those so-called big brothers, Zhang Qian had never seen anyone make gold as thick as a dog chain, even ghost controllers shouldn’t be that superficial.
The only exception was that necklace found in the broken bed; same ghost ship, and the aisle led straight to the music hall—these two things definitely had some connection.
They might even be the same one.
“I’ll take it off later and have a look.”
Zhang Qian didn’t think much and quickly made up his mind.
The audience was right here, locked by the iron chain; even if it wanted to run, there was no chance.
So exploring wasn’t urgent at this moment; finding a retreat route was more important first.
Carrying the mannequin, he walked a few steps.
Looking at the uniform figure in front of him, Zhang Qian couldn’t help asking: “This uniform looks a bit special; this guy isn’t the captain, is he?”
This gorgeous attire quite matched the image of captains on those cruise ships, but if this figure was really the ghost ship’s captain, it felt like the captain’s prestige had dropped sharply.
“Who told you only the captain can wear a hat? The first mate, second mate, and others have their own uniforms too.”
While responding, the mannequin stretched its arm toward the hat on the audience member’s head.
This wasn’t as troublesome as stripping clothes, so even though the uniform figure tried to block, it failed; the mannequin flexibly dodged a few arm swings.
It flipped the hat onto its own head, adjusted the angle with one hand holding the brim, and said full of ambition: “Hoist the sails, set sail!”
Looking at the drama queen possessed mannequin in his hand, Zhang Qian thoughtfully asked: “Is this hat the first mate’s or the second mate’s?”
The mannequin’s movement stiffened, it turned its head with wide round eyes, trying to muddle through: “How would I know? I was just talking nonsense earlier.”
“Oh, I see.”
Zhang Qian didn’t pursue further and turned toward that youth audience member.
If he hadn’t seen wrong just now, there seemed to be a burn mark on the side of that uniform figure’s forehead?
The charred scale-like skin feature was very obvious, so he couldn’t have seen wrong.
What was the situation then?
The mannequin had human consciousness and originally should have had a human body.
So that uniform figure was the mannequin’s former body, or rather its remains?
Although he had long guessed the mannequin was from this ghost ship before, seeing its reaction now, it seemed it used to be a high official, very likely second only to the captain.
Then no one should understand the anomaly on the captain’s body better than the mannequin; it probably knew clearly the reason the ghost ship became like this.
However, Zhang Qian didn’t voice his inner doubts.
The mannequin had shown memory loss long ago, and he couldn’t read minds; even if asked, it could brush it off with “I don’t remember.”
After thinking, Zhang Qian decided to pretend he hadn’t seen those anomalies.
