Chapter 1547

"Dong dong dong dong..."

As Emma gritted her teeth and gripped the hilt of her slender longsword, the footsteps below deck gradually faded away, the previously uneven, dense thuds falling silent, leaving only a soft, light patter of footsteps.

Hearing the soft scrape of cloth slippers on the floor, the bearded burly man who had just kowtowed, begging Emma to kill him utterly, instantly trembled all over, unconsciously taking half a step toward the deck entrance, but then, as if bitten by a snake, jerked back.

"Click."

Accompanied by a faint sound of wood rubbing, the hatch on the king's ship's deck twitched slightly, as if someone below wanted to push it open.

But this hatch leading to the lower cabin had long been sealed shut by the cleaners using various means; those below strained repeatedly to no avail, then resorted to desperately raising their small fists and pounding hard on the bottom of the cracked hatch.

"Dad?"

When the clear child's voice came from below, the bearded burly man's legs suddenly went weak, and he plopped down onto his knees on the deck, while the child beneath the hatch, apparently hearing the commotion above, happily clung to the door panel and shouted:

"Are you out there or not? Dad! Open the door!"

"Dong dong dong."

"Open the door, why won't you answer me?"

"Dad?"

"Bafu Luo, are you alright?"

After glancing at the bearded burly man half-prostrate on the deck, wanting to move toward the hatch but unable to budge an inch, the female cleaner at the front hesitated, then spoke up with a suggestion:

"How about I just send that child..."

"No! Don't!"

After hastily shouting to stop the female cleaner, the bearded burly man braced himself on the deck, pushed his body up, and tried to shuffle toward the hatch, but his legs trembled uncontrollably, and after a long while he had moved less than a meter, still far from the hatch.

And after waiting a while with no one coming to open the door, the child's voice below seemed to grow anxious, pounding the door panel with desperate "dong dong dongs" while crying out in fear:

"Dad! Come help me open the door, there's awful smoke in the house... it's so hot!"

"Please let me out! Fire! It's on fire! It's already coming this way!"

"Dad! Please open the door, I won't be naughty anymore, don't lock me in the house!"

The child's voice below gradually grew tearful, and immediately after, large amounts of irritating gray smoke began seeping up through the gap between the hatch and the deck, as if a real dangerous fire had broken out below.

And when the child truly burst into tears and pleaded for the third time for him to come open the door, the bearded burly man could no longer hold back, launching himself forward, slamming into the half-mast pressing down on the hatch, and desperately using his fingernails to scrape at the hatch's latch.

But to buy a little more time, the hatch's latch had been completely sealed by some strange substance; even as the bearded burly man scraped it until his nails lifted, splinters flying as the wood nearly rotted away, the hatch covered in bloody red fingerprints remained shut tight, showing no sign of opening.

"Open the door!"

As if coming to his senses, the bearded burly man, overwhelmed by emotion, suddenly turned his head, gazing at the female cleaner who had just spoken, kneeling on the deck with eyes blood-red, pleading:

"Please! Please open the door!" "I... I guess..."

The female cleaner bit her lip, as if wanting to say something, but in the end she closed her eyes, reached out, and gave a slight tug toward the hatch's direction.

"Crack!"

A clear mechanical sound came from below, and as the female cleaner pulled, the hatch, which had seemed welded shut, sprang fully open, dark, heavy sunlight pouring down to illuminate the tear-streaked face of the little girl below.

"Dad!"

After being pulled from the smoke-and-fire-filled cabin by the bearded burly man's trembling arms, the little girl wearing white rabbit-ear slippers on her feet immediately extended her baby-fat arms, tightly clasping the bearded burly man's neck, her eyes red as she choked out:

"No matter how I call you, you never come to open the door... I even thought you didn't want me anymore because I was mischievous..."

"It won't happen, it definitely won't!"

Trembling all over as he held the little girl, feeling that tiny heartbeat he hadn't felt in over a decade, tears and snot already smeared into one mess, the bearded burly man couldn't help but plop down onto the filthy deck, similarly choking as he repeatedly vowed:

"I won't abandon myself, and I won't abandon you! I... Dad just got angry for a moment and locked you in the house! But no matter when, as long as you call Dad! I will definitely come! As long as you call! As long as you call me!"

"Okay!"

Hearing this, the little girl couldn't help but break into tears then smile, nodding repeatedly as she said:

"I'll call you! I... Dad? My throat feels so raw... I think... I can't shout..."

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As the little girl's voice gradually faded, the previously confined irritating smoke and fire in the cabin below silently seeped out from her mouth and nose.

Amid the fearful expressions of the cleaners, large amounts of ash speckled with red dots erupted from her mouth, scattering over the bearded burly man's arms and chest, scorching his already turbulent soul with dense black-red holes, then continuing to burn deeper.

And the little girl in the bearded burly man's arms, in the raging smoke and fire, rapidly withered and cracked, transforming from a fresh, lovable child into a desiccated, charred corpse licked by flames.

Dad!

After spitting out another puff of ash, the rapidly desiccating little girl turned her eyes, nearly bursting from their sockets, toward the bearded burly man, full of question as she opened her mouth.

"I clearly called... why didn't you come to save me?"

"No! No!"

Gazing at the small body in his arms rapidly withering and crumbling, meeting her eyes full of doubt, the bearded burly man couldn't help but tear at his own clothes, desperately pointing to his burn scars as he knelt before the little girl, eyes full of despair, explaining:

"I didn't lie to you! Dad really went in! As soon as I saw the fire, I rushed right in! I searched the whole house! But I... I..."

As that small body gradually disintegrated, before the bearded burly man's eyes, blackened and reddened by smoke and fire, the image of a burning cabinet collapsing reappeared, and beneath it, his daughter watching him pass by, unable to cry out, only able to watch her own back being burned alive.

"I didn't hear! I didn't hear!"

In the bearded burly man's despairing wail, the holes eaten into his body by smoke and fire grew ever larger, nearly burning him in two at the chest, yet he seemed oblivious, only knowing to desperately slam his head against the deck before him... until a slender sword pierced him through the chest!

(End of Chapter)