Driving back to the villa with Qibao, it was already past ten in the morning. Huo Sining and her brother did not explain to the aunt where they had gone the night before. After eating something casually, the siblings hurriedly took a quick shower and each returned to their respective bedrooms, collapsing onto their beds for a deep sleep.

When Huo Sining returned from school the next day, she saw Qibao rushing towards her with a tablet in hand: "Sister, look, check out this news!"

Huo Sining took the tablet from Qibao, puzzled, and opened the video.

"A recent maritime news report stated that the Dongyang Patrol Team, while patrolling the sea, unintentionally discovered a fishing vessel drifting towards the Eastern Inner Sea. This giant fishing vessel is a whaling ship from Tokyo Port. It departed from Tokyo Port five days ago, with fourteen sailors on board, including the captain and several crew members. Three days ago, the ship communicated with the maritime monitoring center, claiming to have captured a juvenile blue whale."

"However, three days later, the fishing vessel was found aimlessly drifting in the sea, with all the sailors and crew missing. On the vast ship, only one survivor was left, but this survivor was in a state of mental confusion, diagnosed with a mental disorder, and could not provide the police with any more useful information."

"According to the investigation, this survivor’s name is Nishimura Junichi, who served as the data monitoring officer on the vessel. He should have been the most aware of what happened on the sea to the vessel, but unfortunately, this survivor is in mental disarray, repeatedly muttering a few bizarre words: woman, ghost, Goddess, revenge."

"The police are currently following maritime rescue teams to search the areas of the high seas where the fishing vessel navigated, but the progress is not optimistic. Experts estimate that the likelihood of the ship’s sailors and crew encountering a fatal event is very high."

"But what exactly did this fishing vessel encounter? The police found no suspicious clues on the vessel—no signs of struggle or fighting, nor any fingerprints or footprints of suspects. Yet, the entire crew and sailors of an entire oil tanker have collectively disappeared, leaving the Dongyang police feeling extremely troubled. We will continue to keep you updated on the progress of this case."

This news was posted on Weibo and immediately attracted the interest and debate of many netizens, sparking heated discussions about this bizarre fishing vessel.

"Why would the survivor mention anything about a woman, ghost, or Goddess? Could it be a female ghost’s doing? Otherwise, why would all these people on board disappear without any resistance?"

"It’s too eerie, a maritime accident. Could it be an alien invasion, setting up a secret base at sea, and when these crewmen stumbled upon it, they were silenced?"

"No, there are no aliens. If there were, they would have wiped us out long ago. Why let us be okay? I think it’s definitely due to some strange magnetic field. I’ve watched documentaries on unsolved mysteries, and the Bermuda region is said to have a meddling magnetic field. Once planes or ships enter that area, electronic interference occurs, causing fishing vessels to become headless flies, circling within that zone."

"This is on the high seas between Huaxia and Dongyang waters. Where does this Bermuda magnetic field come from? Didn’t anyone notice? This is a whaling ship. And I just checked the Dongyang media news that the whaling ship suffered a major impact at sea. Judging by the marks, it should have been hit by a giant whale!"

"Hit by a giant whale?"

"Do you even need to check? Certainly, these fishermen were hunting whales and provoked a tough opponent, inciting the whale’s revenge. That giant whale, enraged, rammed into the vessel, sending the sailors and crew overboard!"

"But isn’t that too much of a coincidence? The ship didn’t even sink. Unless everyone was standing on the deck, how could they all be knocked into the sea? With whales striking a ship in such a dangerous situation, were these sailors and crew stupid enough to stand on the deck and wait to die?"

"Yeah, it’s too strange."

"But is there a more reasonable answer than this?"

"I think there must be a culprit. It’s possible these people encountered pirates, and the pirate leader might be a woman!"

"If it were pirates, why would they leave a survivor? The fact that this monitoring officer survived doesn’t fit with the logic, especially since fishing vessels are for fishing, not cargo. Those pirates wouldn’t hijack such a worthless ship."

"All of you, talking so much, thinking yourselves to be Detective Conan? Whether it’s a ghost’s revenge or pirates silencing witnesses, isn’t the real point that these Dongyang people deserved it? They hunted whales, especially juvenile whales, and invited retaliation. Their deaths weren’t lamentable!"

"The commenter above is right. No trade, no killing. Dongyang people are too cruel, mercilessly hunting endangered animals without restraint, even catching young and pregnant whales. Such heinous and inhumane acts need retribution. Otherwise, these Dongyang people won’t restrain themselves!"

"But does that justify taking so many lives?"

"Both humans and whales have the right to live. Why is it okay for Dongyang people to kill and eat whales, but when Dongyang fishermen die, it’s unjustifiable? A human life is a life, but a whale’s life isn’t? I do not sympathize with these Dongyang people; they deserved it!"

"..."

There was widespread speculation on Weibo, but no one guessed that the instigator of this whole matter was a seemingly delicate woman.

In truth, Huo Sining was extremely surprised that the monitoring officer had survived. When she first saw the video, she even had the urge to kill, but after seeing that the person had gone mad, the thought of silencing witnesses quickly faded away.

Although the monitoring officer had already spoken the truth, even if he now recalled the sea’s circumstances fluently, no one would believe that what he said was factual.

After all, no one could imagine that on that vast, smoky expanse of the sea, without any other ships, a woman would inexplicably appear on that giant fishing vessel, and silently throw all twenty or so men on board into the sea, while standing atop a giant whale, summoning a swarm of sharks to chase down the sailors and crew overboard.

If it weren’t for personal experience, not to mention others—Huo Sining herself would have found it absurdly laughable, likely thinking that the monitoring officer was either mad and talking nonsense, or having a nightmare.