The black-bellied peasant girl is reborn, and her weird relatives are mad

With a "clang", something fell to the ground, and it sounded like an iron hidden weapon.

It turned out that there were still people on the ship. The four of them immediately became alert and stopped at the stairs, not daring to move forward rashly.

"Tang Si, light the torch."

Tang Si blew out the tinder to light the torch he had brought from the small warehouse on the second floor. Tang Zhongbai took the torch, got close to the ground and saw a swallow-shaped dart fallen to the ground.

Jiang Muxia wrapped it in a handkerchief and held it in her hand, looking at it from left to right. There were no words or symbols on it, and she could not get any useful information.

She looked up in the direction where the dart came from. The place was sealed tightly with wooden boards, and not a single moonlight could get in.

Tang Zhongbai quickly extended the torch to the aisle, and with the help of the firelight, he was able to see the appearance of the lower cabin clearly.

After exiting the staircase, there was an iron door less than ten feet to the left, with a copper lock on the ground and the iron door ajar. It was quiet at the door, and they didn't know if there was someone watching them from behind the door.

There was a long passage on the right side of the staircase leading to the end. At the top of the side at the end, there was a very small window, which was tightly closed at this time. There were wooden signs on the doors of several rooms, with Chinese characters written on them, namely kitchen and warehouse. The room near the staircase had two wooden doors that opened side by side, which were not locked and were now wide open. Jiang Muxia looked up at the wooden sign, which had three Chinese characters written on it: dining room.

"Let's go to the right first." Jiang Muxia raised the torch high. The four of them stood in pairs with their backs to each other, taking a defensive stance, and walked to the first dining room on the right.

The room was very spacious, with five windows on the wall facing the sea. When the lower windows were closed, the sea breeze blew in. There were rows of tables, chairs and benches neatly arranged in the room, and four cupboards were embedded in the walls on both sides. The inner cupboards were filled with white porcelain bowls with the same style and pattern.

The cupboard outside was almost empty, and the bowls that were supposed to be in the cupboard were placed messily on the dining table. Chopsticks were scattered all over the table and the floor, which was out of place with the neatly arranged table.

There was no way anyone could hide in the gaps between the cupboards; this room was not their target.

The four of them walked out of the dining room and headed towards the second room.

This is the kitchen, which is slightly smaller than the dining room.

Judging from the neatness and cleanliness of the kitchen, the person in charge of the kitchen must be a disciplined and organized person.

Unused vegetables and meat were arranged according to category, various knives were classified and arranged from top to bottom on the wooden rack embedded in the wall, and bamboo baskets of the same size were hung on the iron hooks hanging from the roof.

The stove and chopping board were wiped clean and spotless.

The kitchen was filled with the salty smell of sea water and the faint aroma of food, but there was no other strange smell.

In the middle of the room, rows of red pottery basins were neatly placed, covered tightly with wooden lids. On the table at the door stood five bamboo baskets covered with white cloth. Jiang Muxia opened them and saw that they contained steamed buns.

Fuzi reached out and lifted the lid of the ceramic basin in front of her. The basin was filled with fried fish fillets, and the aroma filled the air.

Tang Si opened another basin and found raw fish slices cut into the same size and thickness.

These meals were the Japanese people's dinner, but unfortunately, before they could even eat, Jiang Muxia and his men killed them all, so they didn't get to enjoy them.

"No." Jiang Muxia pulled out the whip from his waist. "There is no one dressed as a cook among the minions above. There must be a lot of cooks to cook for more than 200 people. Where did they go?"

Tang Zhongbai looked at her. He had also thought of this. Judging from the style and cooking methods of the food, these chefs should all be from the Wu Dynasty.

The dead people up there were all wearing foreign clothes, so the cooks should have gone into hiding.

"Could it be that they heard the shaking sounds on the deck, changed their clothes and joined in, and then all died?" Tang Si guessed.

"No." Jiang Muxia said firmly: "Look. The food is cold. At this temperature, it should take about an hour to prepare. That is to say, they were ready to eat before we arrived. The messy dishes on the table and floor in the dining room are evidence. I think they put down their dishes and ran upstairs to support after hearing the fighting sounds."

"That's right." Tang Zhongbai continued her words, "After these cooks cleaned up the kitchen, they found a place to hide. The one in charge of the kitchen must be from our Wu Dynasty. They must have been forced onto the ship by these Japanese. Otherwise, we fought on the ship for more than half an hour, and they were able to clean up the kitchen so peacefully. We must not be on the same page with them."

Tang Zhongbai slapped the table and walked to the door. "Let's go to the warehouse and take a look. Maybe they are waiting for us to rescue them."

Tang Si quickly ran in front of Tang Zhongbai with a torch in hand, facing the iron gate opposite, and holding a sword in his other hand to guard against sudden hidden weapons from the opposite side.

Four people came out one after another and slipped into the adjacent warehouse.

Fortunately, the door of the warehouse was not locked. When the firelight came on, they looked around the small room that seemed closed because it was filled with supplies.

Although everything here is arranged neatly, there are too many things, and the space between the shelves is only enough for one person to pass through sideways.

"Everyone be careful, it's easy to hide here, beware of ambushes." Jiang Muxia reminded.

To their surprise, after searching inside for a long time, they found nothing except the sounds made by the four of them.

"That's strange, why is there nothing here?" Fuzi stopped in front of a shelf full of wooden barrels and asked in confusion.

Jiang Muxia lay on the back window, opened it, and looked down. She stretched out her hand, kicked the board under her feet, stared at the place where the sound came from, and measured with her fingers. She pondered for a while, then measured again.

Suddenly her eyes lit up, she drew back, and whispered to the three of them, "Knock on the plank under your feet. I think there is a secret room."

The ship was made of wood and had been docked here for several years. It was already a bit old, and the planks creaked when they walked. None of the four of them had ever lived on a ship, and because they didn't understand the structure of a large ship, they missed such important information. Almost every large ship sailing on the sea has a secret dark room at the bottom, just in case they encounter pirates on the way, hiding in the dark room will give them a better chance of escaping.

"Bring some water." Jiang Muxia stared at the floor for a long time. If there was a dark room underneath this kind of wooden floor, if water was poured on it, the water would seep in, and the place where it would seep the fastest would be the door of the dark room.

Fu Zi and Tang Si looked at Jiang Muxia with admiration, then ran to the kitchen and fetched two buckets of water. Following her instructions, they started from the wall and poured the first bucket of water.

The water flowed inward along the corner of the wall, and when it encountered the gap between the wooden boards, some of it seeped inward, while more continued to flow to the side.

"Keep pouring."

After the other bucket of water was poured out, Fuzi stared at the direction of the water flow. He exclaimed in surprise: "Look, it flows under the shelf and down the cracks."

This shelf was exactly the one filled with wooden barrels that Fuzi had stopped at before. Fuzi and Tang Si pushed the shelf aside together, and they could see clearly that there was indeed a square wooden board with a small iron handle on one corner under the shelf.

When Tang Zhongbai put his hands on the wooden board, they clearly heard a commotion below.

Tang Zhongbai shouted inside: "Listen, everyone below. I am a government official. I passed by here on important business. I had no choice but to attack the Japanese on the boat. All the Japanese are dead. If you were my Wu Dynasty citizens, we would not harm you. Are you willing to leave here with us?"

He stopped what he was doing and waited for someone to reply. But there was silence and no one responded for a long while.