Card Room (Rebirth)

Yu Hanjiang had everyone go back to rest their spirits so they could cope with any unexpected situations after dawn.

They agreed to meet at 8:30 the next morning in the restaurant on the sixth floor.

At 8 o’clock the next morning, Xiao Lou woke up on time.

He found Group Leader Yu standing on the balcony and also pushed open the window to walk over.

After a night of sailing, the cruise ship had sailed into the vast sea. A soft sea breeze blew across their cheeks. The humid atmosphere of the sea made the sea breeze feel refreshing and Xiao Lou couldn’t help narrowing his eyes with enjoyment.

Yu Hanjiang’s hands were on the guardrail of the balcony as he looked calmly into the distance. He perceived Xiao Lou coming to his side and whispered, “This is the first time I’m taking a cruise ship. I didn’t expect the scenery of the sea to be so good. Once I return to reality, I should find a chance to take a cruise again.”

Xiao Lou smiled at him. “Me too. Shall we go together then? We can choose some special routes to travel around the world to various countries.”

Yu Hanjiang looked back at him. “Okay, it’s a deal.”

The two people stood next to each other and enjoyed the sea view for a while. Once it was almost time for the meeting, Xiao Lou headed to the bathroom to quickly wash his face and brush his teeth. Then he came to the dining area of the sixth floor with Yu Hanjiang.

There was a completely free cafeteria with food and 80% of the seats were against the floor to ceiling windows. They could sit by the window and eat free food while looking at the sea.

At 8:30 breakfast time, the cafeteria was crowded with people.

Many people looked like challenger teams. There were more than a dozen people sitting at one table and they would deliberately lower their voices were talking. There were also some locals travelling in groups. The elderly people, young couples and children looked happy together. It was a pity that when a family travelled together, they would encounter a ship that was destined to be full of adventures. They were very unfortunate.

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang came to the door and saw Shao Qingge and Ye Qi waiting there. Shao Qingge saw the two people and stepped forward. “Let’s go to the restaurant and not eat here.”

Xiao Lou wondered, “Won’t it be very expensive?”

Shao Qingge smiled. “You should think more. I always feel that there is no free meal in the world. In any case, we aren’t short of money and don’t need to queue with so many people here. I think that the Chinese restaurant next door has a good environment. Go and eat there.”

Xiao Lou felt this made sense so he nodded at Shao Qingge’s suggestion.

He opened a communication channel with Liu Qiao and passed on a message. “Little Liu, take Qu Wanyue to the 6th floor Chinese restaurant to eat.”

Shao Qingge also passed on the news to Old Mo. Thus, not long after, the team met in the Chinese restaurant of the 6th floor. The theme restaurant of the cruise ship was very expensive. For breakfast, a small plate of dumplings cost 5,000 gold coins. It was like stealing money.

Ye Qi held the menu and his eyes were huge. “Too expensive…”

Shao Qingge was calmly ordering, “Eight soup dumplings and eight deep-fried breadsticks. What do you want to drink? I’d like a bowl of pumpkin porridge.”

Xiao Lou smiled. “I want red bean porridge, thank you.”

The two people in charge of the accounts started ordering and the rest of the group weren’t polite. They asked for their favourite porridge. They spent 100,000 gold coins on the breakfast, which was nearly 1,000 yuan. Old Mo couldn’t help whispering, “So much money. If we were buying our own supplies then it is enough to last for a month.”

Shao Qingge waved his hand. “Don’t worry, we can earn more money after spending it. Moreover, we don’t know how long we can live and should enjoy it. Perhaps this meal will be the last…”

Xiao Lou interrupted him. “Don’t have a crow’s mouth.”

Shao Qingge immediately zipped up his mouth and bowed his head to eat.

Perhaps it was because the price of the food in this Chinese restaurant was too high. There weren’t many guests and their room was very quiet. No one disturbed them and it was convenient for them to discuss things.

Once they ate and drank enough, Yu Hanjiang looked at Ye Qi. “Did you get anything from the bugs last night?”

Ye Qi explained, “In the captain’s room, the captain was talking to the vice-captain about the typhoon. They talked about it for half an hour. Listening to them, it seems that the typhoon has caused heavy casualties in coastal cities, leading to hundreds of people being killed. However, the path of the typhoon doesn’t seem to be in conflict with our route. They aren’t worried at all.”

Ye Qi then said, “The crew were complaining that due to the typhoon weather, the cruise ship’s recent business has been very bad. Only 70% of the ship’s tickets were sold. Recently, the salaries of the crew on the ship have been reduced and the quarterly bonus has been cancelled. Everyone says that they will be unable to afford a wife or to raise children…”

Ye Qi listened to the crew’s complaints last night at 1 a.m. and his head almost burst open.

Xiao Lou smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “Little Ye, was there anything unusual about the service desk?”

“Someone asked if they could upgrade and move to a luxury suite on the fifth floor. Everyone else was booking a daytime event. A gentle-voiced woman booked the captain’s restaurant, stating that she would like to taste the dishes made by the captain himself. Many of the other people were making an appointment for this afternoon’s drama performance.”

He scratched the back of his head and looked at Shao Qingge. “The drama that is to be performed in the afternoon, what is it called?”

Shao Qingge squinted and thought about it. “It is the classic drama Thunderstorm.”

Ye Qi hit his forehead. “Right! Thunderstorm. I remember learning this text in high school.”

Yu Hanjiang frowned. “The captain and vice-captain were talking about a typhoon. The crew mentioned that the typhoon caused business to be worse and they lost money. The drama being performed this afternoon is Thunderstorm. Do you think this is a coincidence?”

Typhoon, thunderstorm… it couldn’t be a coincidence that all three bugs mentioned these keywords.

Shao Qingge stated, “In the style of the Spades secret room, these conversations are more likely to be a clue for us. This cruise ship will encounter typhoons and thunderstorms during the voyage.”

The group heard this and their expressions became hard.

Old Mo carefully analyzed. “Typhoons can be big or small. A big cruise ship like this can smoothly resist small typhoons. However, if it is one with strong winds then the cruise ship might be blown over. There was a cruise ship in the real world that capsized due to strong winds and thunderstorms. The ship had more than 400 passengers and only a dozen survived…”

Everyone had heard of this shipwreck. Now that Old Mo mentioned it, they were all frightened.

If they really encountered a typhoon at sea that resulted in a capsized ship, everyone waiting on board such a large cruise ship could only wait to drown. They had to abandon the ship as soon as possible to escape but if the inflatable escape boats were too light and too slow, they were likely to be swept into the vortex of the typhoon and sink to the bottom of the sea. It would be better to grab a faster electric escape boat.

Yu Hanjiang quickly calmed down. “If the cruise ship collapses, we will act according to the original plan. Liu Qiao will immediately fly to the stern to grab an electric escape boat. We will abandon the ship and escape.”

Xiao Lou added, “If we abandon the ship then we are likely to drift at sea for several days. We also need to prepare supplies in advance.”

Yu Hanjiang ordered, “Go to the supermarket on the 7th floor to buy mineral water and biscuits in advance. Put them in a good carry bag and try to keep things as simple as possible. I will put Old Mo in charge of this.”

Mo Xuemin nodded. “Rest assured, I have a number in mind regarding how many things eight people need.”

Everyone finished breakfast and collectively came to the 7th floor. Old Mo took Liu Qiao and Qu Wanyue to go shopping while the others stood on the deck, watching the scenery and passengers.

Today’s weather was very good. There were clear skies so the deck and play centre on the 7th floor were crowded with people.

Some people spent money to experience the sea parachute, glider and aerial observation events. From time to time, there were the excited screams of children around them. Xiao Lou didn’t want to participate in these exciting games so he stood there quietly and watched.

Just then, a small child cried out. “Mom, my stomach is hurting.” The woman took the child to the bathroom.

Immediately after, another girl said, “I’m going to the bathroom.”

Gradually, more and more people ran to the bathroom and lined up at the door, complaining, “Did we get a bad stomach from the food?” “How come so many people have bad stomachs? Is the food on board not clean?”

Xiao Lou was stunned. The free restaurant.

For today’s breakfast, many people went to the free restaurant to eat. Shao Qingge took them to a luxury location where they spent 1,000 yuan on dumplings and fried breadsticks. At present, their stomachs were normal. However, the passengers who ate in the free restaurant seemed affected by the ‘unclean’ food and everyone had diarrhea.

The complaints grew louder and louder. A hot-tempered man grabbed the collar of a crew member and directly said, “Tell your captain to come! There must be a problem with the food on board or how can we all have diarrhea?”

“Did you make moldy and rotten things for us to eat? We’re going to complain! Refund our tickets!”

“The ocean cruise service is getting worse and worse! How can we spend these seven days if we can’t eat clean food?”

The travellers gathered together and almost tore at the crew.

Seeing that things weren’t going to end, the pale crew member called the captain and said that many passengers had a bad stomach and there were long lines at the toilets. The captain was aware of the seriousness of the problem and hurried over.

The captain was 50 years old with white hair and a good temper. He held a loudspeaker and explained to everyone, “Please don’t be agitated! We are immediately investigating if there is a food problem. If any expired, moldy or rotten food is found on board, we will deal with it immediately and compensate you accordingly!”

“Please trust our ocean cruise company. We will give you a satisfactory answer! Anyone with a serious illness can go and find Dr Zhang on the first floor. The medicine for diarrhea will be provided for free!”

The assurance of the old captain gradually calmed down the mood of the passengers.

Old Mo, Liu Qiao and Qu Wanyue came back at this time with food.

He put the food in three bags and were carrying them on his back. Old Mo walked to Yu Hanjiang’s side and whispered, “A problem with the food is one of the usual tactics for the Spades room. There is likely to be something wrong with the ship’s food supply. From now on, we will try not to go to the restaurants for dinner and will eat the vacuum packaged food from the shopping mall.”

Xiao Lou felt helpless. “It feels like we are back in 3 of Spades. It seems we will have to reserve more food.”

“Don’t worry, I bought high-calorie compressed biscuits and fruit juice concentrates with lots of vitamins. In addition, there is mineral water.” Old Mo smiled. “If we eat a bag of biscuits then we won’t be hungry all day. The three bags are enough for us to last seven days.”

Xiao Lou gave him a thumbs up. “Old Mo has experience. Compression biscuits are much more convenient than instant noodles.”

Shao Qingge’s eyes squinted. “The free cafeteria truly had a problem. Thankfully, I took everyone to eat very expensive food in the morning or our stomachs would also be hurting.”

He had just finished speaking when Ye Qi’s expression suddenly changed. “Fuck, my stomach is hurting! Is this a trick?”

Long Sen followed. “No… my stomach is also hurting!”

Yu Hanjiang’s face was heavy. He didn’t speak and directly turned to find the toilet.

Xiao Lou smiled bitterly at Shao Qingge. This person originally wanted to boast but as a result, he couldn’t boast.

Shao Qingge’s face instantly became as black as the bottom of a pot. “I spent so much money and as a result, the food of the Chinese restaurant also has a problem? Our stomach only reacted 10 minutes after the free cafeteria? A of Spades is too much!”

Old Mo laughed. “You spent money to buy a lesson. I will first go line up…”

Shao Qingge felt a pain from his stomach and had to go to the bathroom with a dark face. He would never spend any more money.

Eating a free breakfast would cause stomach pains and eating a 100,000 gold coins breakfast also caused stomach pains. What was this world? This 100,000 gold coins was simply paying an IQ tax to the Keeper of Spades!