Captain – Chapter 483 – Play the Violin

Opening the door, ascending the stairs, he walked step by step toward the attic.

Since no lamps were lit, the residence was shrouded in darkness, with only occasional lightning flashing through the windows, illuminating the somewhat aged corridors and hanging paintings. Besides footsteps and rain, there were no other sounds in this place.

Walking in darkness where he could barely see his fingers, Caine’s initially urgent mood gradually calmed. It was as if time had reversed, and he had returned to long ago, when he came here with the young lady.

At that time, with conspiracies concluded and violin music flowing, what lay before him was a novel sailing invitation.

A future together with her.

Stopping before the attic, the First Mate took a deep breath to steady his heartbeat, then reached out to push open the door.

“Creeak…”

Even the faint sound of the door opening was so clear in this peaceful, quiet world that one couldn’t help worrying whether it might startle the cat-like sensitive young lady.

But looking at the scene behind the door, this was clearly not something to be concerned about.

Lightning tore across the sky, the white-hot electric light flooding over the wheat fields like a tide, passing through the floor-to-ceiling windows, softening considerably as it spilled into the attic. Yet in the illuminated area, there was no human figure.

The attic was empty.

Like those rewritten pasts, this downpour that should have long since ceased, no longer concealing the starry night, still fell heavily, “pitter-pattering” against the floor-to-ceiling windows, as if to tell the young man that this was not that day, that in the already written destiny…

You never found her.

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Yet despite this, no disappointment could be seen on Caine’s face. He only stared blankly at the spot by the window, where she had once stood but was now clearly empty, his azure eyes unblinking.

As if afraid that with a blink, she would disappear into the lightless night like an escaped canary.

“Captain.”

Facing the empty attic, the young man called out softly. If outsiders saw this, they would probably think his yearning had driven him to hallucinate, for there was clearly nothing there.

Because they couldn’t hear the pocket watch ticking like a heart-stirring melody, beating steadily.

“Tick-tock, tick-tock…”

The young lady was there, just not visible to the eye.

The call received no response, yet the First Mate didn’t feel discouraged. He knew this was because an invisible barrier lay between them, which neither gaze nor voice could penetrate.

Now he needed to consider how to cross it.

Recalling what the cat had “said” before he entered this chaotic timeline, Caine knew that without the pocket watch, it was unrealistic to try breaking the barrier by himself.

The only viable path now was to make the young lady realize he was here.

How to do that?

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Thinking silently, the First Mate quickly scanned the attic, looking for something he could use.

Although he remained outwardly calm after hearing the pocket watch, claiming he wasn’t anxious at all would be a lie, because no one knew when the young lady might leave.

It was truly a race against time.

Sound cannot cross the barrier, the Captain cannot see me, and touch is even more impossible. We’re like in two separate yet subtly connected worlds. Would changing the environment work, or must it be under special circumstances…

His thoughts racing, the young man tried moving the small desk and chair placed at the side of the attic, obviously designed specifically for a child, and deliberately made some noise in the process.

But after moving the furniture and straightening up, he frowned slightly, shaking his head in self-denial, feeling this was probably futile. Not only could he not verify if it was effective, but even if the Captain noticed, she would probably just think it was a ghost.

So what method would work…

The once heavenly sound of the pocket watch now seemed to transform into a drumbeat in the young man’s ears, involuntarily accelerating his heartbeat, making him increasingly anxious due to this different kind of countdown.

He didn’t know if there would be another chance if he missed this one.

“Tick-tock, tick-tock…”

At some point, the rain outside the attic stopped. Gentle starlight poured in, seeming to cover everything with silver gauze, and with the bothersome rain gone, the ticking of the second hand became even clearer.

Standing amid the seemingly omnipresent pocket watch sound, the First Mate clenched his fists tightly, his eyes constantly flickering. But in the end, he found with resignation that in the face of such an extraordinary situation, human thinking and logic seemed so pale and powerless, unable to unravel those complicated threads.

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He suddenly missed that cat a little, though its attitude was always poor, at least it would have a way.

As if responding to his hope, as if the goddess of fate’s favor truly fell upon him, just when Caine was at a loss, wondering if he should continue influencing the environment, making this only effort he could, a faint yawn suddenly sounded in his ear.

Then, like a lifesaving straw…

“Meow?”

Hearing that just-awakened, lazy cat call with perfunctory “surprise,” the First Mate was momentarily stunned, then his previously dim eyes suddenly brightened as he looked toward the source of the sound.

As if appearing out of nowhere, the gray-white Siamese cat that was barely distinguishable unless looked at carefully was now sitting beside him, gazing at the position in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.

Only he didn’t notice that the cat’s usually profound, almost indifferent blue eyes were now filled with fatigue.

There was even a dullness like a pearl covered in dust.

“Shouldn’t you be…”

“Meow.”

Looking away, knowing the young man wasn’t about to say anything nice, the cat irritably interrupted him, saying it wasn’t that fragile, and that sudden huge wave hadn’t actually affected it at all.

It just knocked him onto another page.

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Through the cat’s extremely simplified explanation, Caine roughly understood that when the pocket watch started ticking and time became chaotic, he, as the anchor point, was swept along by the wheel of fate to the timeline where the young lady was, but the cat, as a visitor, wasn’t so lucky.

It was left behind.

It could only briefly traverse space-time to convey some messages through the weak connection formed during their time together.

As for that “story belonging only to him and her,” well, that was just his own misconception.

Afterward, to find him in the chaotic timeline, the cat had flipped through the storybook that seemed different everywhere but was actually all the same, and finally managed to find this place.

The cat complained that it had nearly developed a stress reaction from those barely distinguishable boring stories.

Even the most exciting, shocking legend, when read over and over thousands of times, would probably cease to stir emotions. How much more so for the cat, who had read them far more than ten thousand times.

Although somewhat sympathetic to its experience, now was not the time for care or comfort. Caine knew he would get an eye roll, but he couldn’t help asking: “What do we do now?”

He had finally found her, what should he do next?

Sure enough, at the young man’s treating it like a personal advisor, the cat couldn’t help rolling its eyes at him, then gave Caine a brief answer that made him suddenly understand.

“Meow.”

The cat said, play the violin.