This was not the first time Zhou Ming had passed through this door and arrived at the "other side".
A few days ago, Zhou Ming woke up and found himself trapped in his room by some kind of "strange phenomenon". After the strange thick fog covered the entire world, he discovered this strange place "opposite" the gate.
After all, that door was now the only exit from his "room".
He still remembered the confusion and helplessness he felt when he pushed open the door for the first time and saw the deck outside. He also remembered the astonishment and panic he felt when he looked down for the first time and saw that he had changed his body. But after that, in order to seek an opportunity to break through the predicament, he had boldly carried out several successful explorations of "this side". Now, although he still didn't understand what had happened to him, nor what this strange ship that appeared "outside his door" was, at least he had gained some experience and had some preliminary understanding of the ship.
Like the previous times, Zhou Ming forced himself to get rid of the dizziness brought by passing through the door in the shortest possible time, and then immediately confirmed the condition of this body. He checked the pistol in his hand, compared all the details with his memory, and finally confirmed that the items he carried were the same as when he left the deck last time.
"… It seems that every time I pass through this door, my body switches seamlessly… It would be great if I could place a camera on the deck, so that I can confirm whether my body changes when I open the door to the captain's room and return to the apartment…
"It's a pity that the items from the two 'worlds' can't pass through the gate, and there's no way to bring the camera over...
"But the phone I left in the apartment did record the scene of me passing through the gate. I did walk through the black fog... So my body did 'change' into this state when I passed through the black fog?"
Zhou Ming muttered to himself. He knew that it might seem a little funny to outsiders that he was standing on the deck and talking to himself, but he had to make some noise. On this deserted and strange ghost ship... he needed some evidence to prove that he was still "alive".
A fishy and salty sea breeze blew across the deck, blowing the black and blue captain's uniform of unknown material on his body. Zhou Ming sighed softly, but he did not walk towards the deck. Instead, he turned around and looked at the door behind him.
He put his hand on the door handle.
After turning the handle and pushing the door inward, he would see a thick gray-black fog. Passing through the fog, he would return to the bachelor apartment where he had lived for many years.
He exerted force with his hands and pulled the door open.
The slightly heavy oak door creaked, revealing a slightly dim cabin. In the dim light, one could see exquisite tapestries hanging on the walls, shelves with many decorations, and a large nautical table in the middle of the room. There was also a small door at the deepest part of the room, with a burgundy carpet in front of it.
Push the door open and you'll be back in your bachelor apartment, pull the door open and you'll be in the captain's room - and the latter is apparently the "normal facility" on this ship.
Zhou Ming walked into the captain's room. When passing the door, he habitually looked to the left. There was a mirror as tall as a person fixed on the wall next to him. In the mirror, the current appearance of "Zhou Ming" was clearly reflected.
He was a tall man with thick black hair, a majestic short beard, and deep eye sockets. His appearance alone seemed to have an aura of majesty without even being angry. He seemed to be over 40 years old, but his heroic looks and oppressive eyes seemed to blur this sense of age, and the well-made captain's uniform further showed the special identity of the man in the mirror.
Zhou Ming stretched his neck and made a face in front of the mirror again - he felt that he was an easy-going and friendly person, and the image in the mirror did not really match his temperament. But he soon gave up this attempt, because he felt that the self in the mirror not only did not appear friendlier, but instead changed from a majestic captain to more like a psychopathic serial killer...
While Zhou Ming was doing these actions, a slight clicking sound came from the direction of the navigation table. He looked in the direction of the sound without surprise, and saw that a wooden goat head statue on the table was turning its face towards him little by little - the lifeless piece of wood seemed to come alive at this moment, and the pair of obsidian eyes embedded in the wooden face were staring at this side quietly.
The panicked memories of the first time he saw this strange scene flashed through his mind, but Zhou Ming just curled his lips. He walked towards the nautical table. The wooden goat head on the table also turned its neck a little bit, and a hoarse and gloomy voice came out from its wooden cavity: "Name?"
"Duncan," Zhou Ming said calmly, "Duncan Abnomer."
The voice of the wooden goat head instantly changed from hoarse and gloomy to warm and friendly: "Good morning, Captain, I am glad to see that you still remember your name - how are you feeling today? How is your health today? Did you sleep well last night? I hope you had a good dream. In addition, today is a good day for sailing. The sea is calm, the wind is suitable, cool and comfortable, and there are no annoying navy and noisy crew. Captain, you know a noisy crew..."
"You've been noisy enough." Although it was not the first time that Zhou Ming had dealt with this weird goat-head, he still felt his brain tremble. He glared at the guy fiercely and said through his teeth, "Be quiet."
"Oh, oh, oh of course, Captain, you like quiet, and your loyal first mate, second mate, boatswain, sailor, and lookout know this very well. Keeping quiet has many advantages. There was once a great scholar in the field of medicine... or maybe philosophy or architecture..."
Zhou Ming now felt that not only his brain was trembling, but even his bronchi began to tremble: "I mean, I order you to keep quiet!"
As soon as the word "command" was uttered, the goat-headed creature finally quieted down.
Zhou Ming breathed a sigh of relief, walked to the navigation table and sat down - now, he was the "captain" of this deserted ghost ship.
Duncan Abnomer, an unfamiliar name, a difficult surname.
The moment he first passed through the black and gray fog and stepped onto the ship, he knew all this in his mind. He knew that the body he was in "this side" was named Duncan, that he was the owner of this ship, and that the ship was on a journey far longer than he could imagine - he knew this, but that was all he knew.
The memories left in his mind were so vague and thin that only the key paragraphs mentioned above were remembered, and the rest of the details were completely blank, as if he knew that the ship had an amazing sailing plan, but had no idea where it was going. The original owner of the ship, the real "Duncan Abnomer", seemed to have died a long, long time ago.
The things that remained in Zhou Ming's mind were more like the strongest and most profound "impression" of a ghost captain left in the world after his complete death.
Zhou Ming's instinct told him that there was a big problem behind the identity of "Captain Duncan", especially when there were supernatural phenomena on the ship (a talking wooden goat head). The mystery surrounding Captain Duncan might even mean some danger he had never imagined, but he had to use this name to move safely on the ship.
Because just like the wooden goat's head, something on this ship is always trying to confirm the "captain's identity".
Even the ship itself was constantly confirming the captain's identity.
This gives people the feeling that it is some kind of insurance measure, as if the captain of the ship may really forget his name at any time, and once he forgets his name, something extremely terrible and dangerous will happen, so "inspection measures" must be set up everywhere on the ship.
Zhou Ming didn’t know what the consequences would be if “Captain Duncan” forgot his own name, but he believed that if he said his name wrong, there would be no good consequences.
After all, even the wooden goat head on the navigation table doesn't look like a good person.
But if you go by the name Duncan Abnomer, then everything on this ship is pretty friendly.
Anyway, they don't look very intelligent.
Zhou Ming—perhaps he should be called Duncan. Duncan ended his brief meditation and recollection, then looked at the spread-out sea chart on the table.
However, there were no identifiable routes, marks or land on the nautical chart, not even an island. On the rough and thick parchment surface, one could only see large patches of gray-white masses that were constantly surging and undulating. Those gray-white, fog-like things seemed to obscure the original routes on the paper, and the only thing that could be seen in the center of the chart was the silhouette of a ship faintly visible in the thick fog.
Duncan (Zhou Ming) has had little experience of sailing in the past few decades of his life, but even someone who doesn’t know much about nautical charts knows that a “normal” nautical chart doesn’t look like this.
Obviously, like the wooden goat head on the table, this nautical chart is also some kind of supernatural object - it's just that Duncan has not yet figured out the rules for its use.
As if noticing that the captain's attention was finally focused on the nautical chart, the goat head that had been silent on the table for a long time finally moved again. It began to make a crackling sound of wood friction, and its neck twisted slightly. At first, it was twisting more restrained, but soon the crackling sound reached a level that could not be ignored - in the end, the whole head of this thing began to vibrate on the base as if it was in vibration mode.
Duncan was afraid that if it continued to smoke, it would drill wood to make fire on its sailing table, so he couldn't help but look at it and said, "Speak."
"Yes, Captain - I want to emphasize again that today is a good day to set sail. The Lost Homeland is waiting for your orders as always! Shall we raise the sails?"