“Actually, it only took three minutes.”
Gu Shiyan leaned against the glass railing. With a single glance downward, she had a clear view of the ballroom’s first floor. Half smiling, she watched the four people coming in through the main doors. “Three newcomers and one veteran. Looks like things went pretty well.”
Nan Junyi, sunk into the sofa, barely reacted. He tilted his head. “Want to go down and say hello?”
“No rush.” Gu Shiyan shrugged.
Nan Junyi said nothing more and turned his attention to the promotional display not far away. The screen had already switched to new content, the beautiful blue sea and white sand replaced in the blink of an eye by a sanatorium that inspired unease on sight.
It was the clue for this mission ashore.
Like many of the promotional displays, the sanatorium was shown through several images cycling repeatedly across the screen.
The images moved from the sanatorium’s exterior into its interior. In a dark corridor, peeling wall paint was threaded with bloodlike streaks, while beneath flickering lights the far end teemed with indistinct ghostly shadows.
No matter how one looked at it, the sanatorium had clearly been abandoned for many years.
Promotional displays like these were scattered throughout most of the cruise ship’s public areas. The one on the ballroom’s first floor was larger and longer, making the images far more impactful. The still-rattled newcomers downstairs had barely entered before the sight startled them.
Gu Shiyan took in every one of their reactions. Any of them might become her companion in the future, and learning a little more could never hurt.
The veteran passenger leading them spotted Gu Shiyan at once. He had not even wiped the blood from his face before waving both arms and calling for help. “Sister Gu! Help me out here!”
Gu Shiyan waved back in acknowledgment, then turned to invite Nan Junyi. “Coming with me? The adorable newcomers are waiting downstairs.”
“Remind me not to be too nice to you next time.” Nan Junyi took an unhurried sip of coffee. “Otherwise you’ll keep entertaining fantasies every day and assume I’ll accompany you for things like this.”
Gu Shiyan shrugged. Her footsteps and voice descended the stairs together. “Don’t worry. That was someone else’s mission. It has nothing to do with you now. You only just boarded, so you’ll have at least seven days to half a month off. Right, introductions first. Hello, I’m Gu Shiyan. Just like you, I’m a passenger on this ship. And you?”
“Guan Fu.” A hoarse voice sounded, after which the other two hesitantly gave their names as well.
Gu Shiyan’s footsteps were soon swallowed by the carpet. “Since you’ve already been through one mission, I assume I don’t need to explain that part. You’re now passengers on this cruise ship, travelers, whatever you want to call yourselves. In any case, every public area currently open on the ship is free for you to use…”
“Excuse me.” An anxious male voice cut her off. “What do you mean, become passengers? Can’t we go home? Or… or get off the ship? I want to know how we can leave.”
“There’s no way.”
“W-what? What do you mean, no way? Are you joking with us?”
“No one is joking with you.” Gu Shiyan shrugged. “What you experienced wasn’t an ending. It was a beginning. You’ve read novels, right? Complete a mission, board the ship, then disembark to complete another mission. The rules of this cruise ship are that simple.”
“But…” A soft, delicate female voice asked, “What’s the point of doing this? Why do we have to do these things, face those… those terrifying things?”
Gu Shiyan pulled out a chair and sat down. After a moment of thought, she said, “…No one knows. How does it choose us? Why does it need us to do these things? Where do the missions come from? We don’t know any of that. Maybe you can find the answers? Oh, right. You should’ve received it when you entered, shouldn’t you? That invitation?”
No one answered.
Gu Shiyan did not mind. “All I can tell you is that even though we boarded earlier than you, we know very little. We only know we have to go to the place written on the invitation, retrieve something, and then we can return to this ship. If we can’t…”
She did not spell out the rest.
“You’re saying we have to stay on this ship, constantly boarding and disembarking? Go collect that fucking mission item over and over? Just keep walking into our deaths?” The man who had asked earlier was clearly enraged.
Gu Shiyan remained mild. “Mm. The wording is a little intense, but overall, yes.”
The sound of a chair abruptly toppling was partly swallowed by the carpet, keeping the crash from becoming too loud. That only made the man’s roar after his emotional collapse stand out even more. “I don’t believe we’re trapped here like this! There has to be a way out! We’re at sea, aren’t we? We can find a boat… I saw them earlier! There are obviously plenty of lifeboats here. I don’t believe I can’t row away!”
“Hey, don’t panic.” The soft female voice grew flustered. “Getting angry at her won’t help. At least… at least we’re still alive, right?”
The veteran from earlier joined in trying to calm him down. Only one person remained so quiet he seemed to have vanished altogether.
Nan Junyi walked to Gu Shiyan’s former position and leaned over the railing to look down. He quickly found the missing “Guan Fu” by the wall.
Guan Fu was tall and broad-shouldered, dressed entirely in black. His hair was cut very short, giving him a clean, efficient look, and he was remarkably… remarkably handsome.
Mixed-race?
Nan Junyi was certain there was no social setting in which anyone could possibly overlook this man.
As though sensing his gaze, the man lifted his head and met Nan Junyi’s eyes. He did not look away, and neither did Nan Junyi. They regarded each other in silence until Nan Junyi finally broke eye contact.
That single glance was enough for Nan Junyi to decide they would not get along.
The dispute on Gu Shiyan’s side had already died down. The newcomer had gone from furious to dejected and walked out with drooping shoulders. The veteran and the slender woman, whose build matched her delicate voice, were consoling him. All three of them looked toward Guan Fu at the same time.
Guan Fu said nothing. He silently walked out, like a lone wolf who had inexplicably been chosen as the pack leader.
“What do you think of Guan Fu?” Gu Shiyan asked thoughtfully as she watched the four figures leave.
“Guan Fu, guanfu, widower.” Nan Junyi deliberately avoided giving a more direct opinion. “Don’t you think that name sounds a little unfriendly to women?”
Gu Shiyan looked up at him with a faint, knowing smile. “When did you get so mean? Though now that you mention it, this is the first time I’ve seen you care this much about someone else’s sexual orientation. I always thought you liked neither women nor men.”
Nan Junyi paused. “I hope you’re genuinely curious and not subtly suggesting that I have no charm.”
“If that’s how you insist on taking it, there’s nothing I can do.”
“And when did you get so mean?”
Gu Shiyan laughed softly and did not answer. Instead, she said meaningfully, “All things arise together; I watch their return. What a good name, don’t you think?”
Elio’s Notes: Guan Fu’s name, 观复, comes from the line “万物并作，吾以观复” in Chapter 16 of the Dao De Jing, commonly understood as watching the myriad things arise and return. Nan Junyi’s joke works because 观复 and 鳏夫, “widower,” are both written Guan Fu in pinyin without tone marks.