Chapter 43: So Where Exactly Is The Clue?
Just stepping onto the deck, Lin Yan could barely hold onto the railing to catch his breath, Wu Xie had already collapsed on the ground lying like a corpse, only Wu Yong was still lively, looking around left and right.
Wu Xie: ???
Where’s the promised tech otaku? Turns out among the three of us, I’m the weakest?
By the time Wu Xie finally had the strength to get up, only Lin Yan was waiting for him. Wu Yong was holding a satellite phone in one hand to contact the fishing boat, and a wind lantern in the other—yes, no mistake, he even produced a wind lantern, even though there was clearly no place on him to carry such a thing—exploring the deck everywhere, looking for clues about this ship, clearly already in the zone.
But no matter how Lin Yan looked at it, it seemed fake: What? You don’t know what the ship you found looks like? Now looking left and right, fooling who?
He glanced to the side at that unlucky kid being fooled: Yo, the real deal is right here.
Suddenly, Wu Yong’s tone became excited, and with the wind and waves weakening now, the volume was enough for them to hear clearly: “.Right! It’s K5-883! I found it! I found the second target! Yes! Okay okay okay, where’s Miss A Ning? Where are they? Took a detour? Already arrived? So fast? Contact Miss A Ning and say we’ll be late! Can you locate? Okay okay okay, we can wait we can wait, no problem! Then I’ll first see if I can find any clues!”
After he hung up the phone, he saw two heads behind him, one of them asking faintly: “What is K5-883?”
The other followed up: “Is it related to my Third Uncle?”
He was startled: “Holy crap! Do you two walk without making any sound?! You scared me to death!”
Lin Yan wordlessly looked at the waves outside the ship, and incidentally steadied Wu Xie who almost lost his balance from a jolt.
Wu Yong was a bit embarrassed, put his hand to his mouth and dry coughed to cover it: “There’s nothing that can’t be said about this, look here—”
He put the phone away, holding the wind lantern in one hand and picking up an oxygen tank from the ground near the cabin door with the other: “This numbering is unique to our company, every project has a unique number, and the equipment for the same project uses the project’s number. And this number is the number representing Mr. Wu Sansheng, your Third Uncle, for that expedition. So.”
He looked at Wu Xie with a “condolences” expression, Wu Xie’s face turned pale—already somewhat pale from exhaustion, now even paler, not looking like a living person, he quickly looked toward the inside of the cabin, but it was pitch black and he couldn’t see anything clearly.
He bit his lip, pushed Lin Yan away, snatched the wind lantern with one hand and walked inside.
Lin Yan hurriedly followed: “What are you doing, be careful, this place isn’t sturdy!”
Indeed not sturdy, when they stepped on the deck, they could hear the ship’s creaking under the strain every few steps, and inside the cabin it was even worse.
This cabin was very similar to the fishing boat they rented, the hull was sheet metal, battered with pits and dents by the storm, behind the cabin was the cargo hold, all spaces were very large.
Wu Xie opened cabin room by cabin room, all empty.
With each one he opened, his expression grew darker by a degree, by the time he checked them all, with only the cargo hold left, he could barely stand.
Lin Yan walked to his side, gently patted his shoulder: “It’s okay, believe me, your Third Uncle is definitely still alive, alive and well.”
Nonsense, that’s a man who can live to the end of the whole plot, how could he really die here? Besides, whether Wu Xie’s Third Uncle now is still Wu Xie’s Third Uncle is still up in the air… sounds like a tongue twister, anyway Wu Sansheng and Xie Lianhuan these two old foxes, who knows who is who now, it’s good enough to know they’re both alive.
Anyway, no matter who is who, Wu Xie is their nephew, right. If their nephew found out they died, how would the plot continue? But whether these two Third Uncles are still in the underwater tomb now, I really don’t remember…
Wu Xie stood stunned, as if he had lost his soul, didn’t answer, just walked step by step toward the cargo hold.
He feared there were corpses inside, and also feared there was nothing inside.
Arriving at the cargo hold, it was equally quiet, only the sound of footsteps rubbing.
Except for the equipment covered by waterproof cloth, the cargo hold was also empty of people.
Lin Yan watched Wu Xie slowly walk to the waterproof cloth, slowly support himself as he squatted down, then sat stunned on the ground.
Expressionless.
Lin Yan came behind him, patted his shoulder, sighed, knowing his mood was very complicated now.
Just when he thought Wu Xie wouldn’t snap out of it for a while, Wu Xie spoke: “You scared me to death… When we came in, I didn’t even know if I hoped to see him here or not. I hoped to find him quickly, but was afraid, afraid he really had an accident.”
At this point, Lin Yan discovered Wu Xie was actually crying.
Although still expressionless.
He comforted: “Not finding him is good news, your Third Uncle should have already gone inside the tomb by then. Look, these are all equipment, looks like much less than our batch. Maybe they took the equipment down with them.”
He sighed: “Rather than worrying about him, we should worry about ourselves… This ship doesn’t feel very safe, it was creaking when we came up, what if it falls apart? Are we going to keep drifting at sea?”
“It won’t be that bad, right?” Wu Xie wiped his tears, finally composed himself and had the strength to stand up.
He casually flipped the waterproof cloth: “Hey, there’s a hanging stove!”
He quickly lit it for heating, and after his hands warmed up, he sighed: “Ah, if only I could have a cup of coffee now, I’d accept waiting no matter how long!”
Lin Yan scoffed on the surface, but honestly stretched his hand over too: “Move over a bit, make room for me!”
Wu Yong had gone to search the cabin earlier, and now searched his way here too. Seeing them warming up, he joined in: “There’s this here too! Come come come let me warm up too!” His face full of delight.
Lin Yan warmed while asking: “Did you find any useful clues?”
Wu Yong shook his head: “Found nothing.”
Wu Xie frowned, somewhat incredulous: “Nothing at all? There should be something left behind, right?”
Wu Yong shook his head again: “The problem is here, nothing at all.”
He emphasized the second half, and Wu Xie and the other knew something was off upon hearing it. How could people leaving in a hurry take everything? Unless they didn’t leave hurriedly because of the storm, but planned it—or rather discovered something, so took everything away.
While thinking, Wu Xie also breathed a sigh of relief—now it could be confirmed his Third Uncle had entered the tomb, if it was an accident, his Third Uncle wouldn’t be so thorough. But leaving no clues at all wasn’t realistic either, with so many people, something should be left behind, right? Could they not be here? But on this ship, where else could things be placed?
After warming up for a while, until their whole bodies were warm, white particles formed on their waterproof suits, some seeping inside through unzipped zippers, making a rubbing feeling when moving, very uncomfortable.
Wu Xie looked around and spotted spare wetsuits in the cargo hold, even with oxygen tanks.
He went over to rummage, took one for each and tossed them over: “Want to change? It’s pretty uncomfortable rubbing.”
All men, no shyness, the three simply changed right in front of the hanging stove.
After changing clothes, Wu Xie casually took a few oxygen tanks and fins and such equipment: “There’s still these here, pretty complete. Let’s take them, better safe than sorry?” Seeing the two nod, he took the equipment over.
When he walked over with the equipment, Lin Yan took it and set it down, instead went back to the cargo side, and flipped open all the waterproof cloth to rummage.
Wu Yong was somewhat surprised: “What are you flipping for? These equipment look the same as our batch, you can tell at a glance.”
Lin Yan didn’t look back: “Clues!”
Wonder of wonders, where did Wu Xie find the notebook? The cabin was searched by Wu Yong, if there were clues he’d definitely bring them to Wu Xie, so not in the cabin. But the cargo hold is just this big, if not in the cargo pile, where else? How come the protagonist finds it so easily, but I can’t find it? And that sea monkey, why hasn’t it come out yet?
PS: There’s one more update tonight, around eleven or twelve, friends who sleep early can wait till tomorrow morning.
