Chapter 106: Treasure
Drake got up from the hospital bed. After half a day of sleep, his mind and reason returned to their usual normal levels, but a fragmented murmur appeared in his mind.
It was a language he had never encountered in reality, only heard in dreams from the mouths of those merfolk and Giant Mermen, though he had never been able to understand its meaning.
“You’re awake.” Drake gradually found the voice somewhat annoying. Though not loud, listening to it for long still made one feel restless. Just as his emotions were fluctuating, he heard a voice from the hospital room door.
The clear voice was very distinctive, gentle like water. Drake remembered the owner of the voice.
“How come you’re here?” Drake then noticed the dense gladiolus inserted in the vase on the bedside cabinet, fresh and moist. This was a flower often used to visit patients, with blessings for health, so he was slightly enlightened. “Did you send me to the hospital?”
“No, I just happened to know you were here, so I came to see you.” Li Nuowei shook his head.
“I remember before I lost consciousness, I experienced…” Drake recalled what happened before he passed out. In an instant, the eerie experience on Liuhua Street and in the taxi resurfaced in his mind, cold sweat breaking out all over his body again. But this time it was okay; his consciousness remained sufficiently clear and rational.
Li Nuowei smiled and said, “You don’t need to tell me. I know everything, and you don’t have to worry about those guys. At least that annoying driver, I’ve already sent him to heaven.”
Hearing Li Nuowei’s words, Drake’s eyelids twitched involuntarily. Although the other was comforting him, he didn’t find any joking element in “sent him to heaven.” It seemed serious.
“Wake up and get discharged. Time is still fairly ample, but I know with your personality, you won’t obediently follow the arrangements.” Li Nuowei threw some clothes he had swiped from somewhere onto Drake’s hospital bed.
Drake was slightly stunned, then noticed that Li Nuowei’s current outfit was very awkward: floral shirt on top, work pants on bottom, with an out-of-era aesthetic. Only Li Nuowei’s handsome appearance made people subconsciously overlook his attire.
Drake also discovered that the clothes given to him weren’t exactly good-looking. Though the size was relatively fitting, the style looked quite immature, at least mismatched with his age.
Drake grimaced inwardly, because it was indeed as Li Nuowei said—he now urgently wanted to know the truth and had no time to fuss too much. He immediately got out of bed and went to the restroom to change out of his hospital gown.
Taking his personal items, Drake and Li Nuowei left the hospital together overnight.
Drake originally wanted to hail a taxi, but thinking of his daytime experience made him stop. He didn’t want to encounter that fanatic from the organization again.
Li Nuowei seemed to have already seen through what Drake was thinking. He grabbed Drake’s arm and crossed the street opposite the hospital entrance, arriving at a parking lot.
“What do you want to do?” Drake felt Li Nuowei was a somewhat crazy kid. His first thought was that Li Nuowei wanted to steal a car.
Li Nuowei gave him a sideways glance, calmly took out his mobile phone to scan and unlock a Shared Electric Car, and said, “Get a car, of course. Don’t you know that in Shenzhou, besides Shared Bicycles, there are also Shared Electric Cars?” As he spoke, he got into the passenger seat.
Drake: “…My knowledge is too narrow.”
Gaining new knowledge, Drake sat in the driver’s seat with some amazement, familiarized himself briefly with the car’s operation mode, and immediately set off.
“I can now roughly infer what’s going on with the recent continuous mysterious disappearance cases at Liuhua Port.” Drake said to Li Nuowei while driving, “On the surface, it seems to be the result of Mermaid Disease. Due to Mermaid Disease onset, people gradually transform into merfolk, physiologically longing to return to the sea.
But essentially, why people get Mermaid Disease comes down to the fact that most of those missing persons, like me, have ancestors who profited by relying on the Sea God of Anhai but were instead exploited—greedy people. Mermaid Disease has been passed down through their ancestral blood.
Upon returning to this city, we sensed the awakening Sea God of Anhai. Influenced by some special power of the other party, the curse in our bloodline was activated.”
“More or less that’s how it is, but you seem to have discovered some other clue?” Li Nuowei noticed Drake’s wording; the other hadn’t absolutely affirmed that everyone with Mermaid Disease had blood flowing from the formerly cursed members of the Anhai Divine Society.
Drake nodded and said, “Yes. From the information on missing persons sent by the Mysterious Group, some people don’t seem to have contracted Mermaid Disease due to the bloodline curse.”
For example, that missing twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy. If that boy had contracted Mermaid Disease due to the activation of the bloodline curse and ultimately disappeared at the seabed, then at least one of his parents should have followed in his footsteps long ago.
Of course, this boy’s disappearance couldn’t yet conclude he was related to the Sea God of Anhai.
But for other locals infected with Mermaid Disease, after Drake excluded cases where “Old Wang” appeared in their families, he could almost judge by the earlier method that not all missing persons had contracted Mermaid Disease due to the influence of the bloodline curse.
There were some who contracted Mermaid Disease for other reasons, through other means, and this reason was related to his speculation about the missing boy.
Returning once again to that tunnel leading to Cape of the Horizon Beach, Drake stood at the Tunnel Entrance, looking at the pitch-black tunnel environment ahead, his eyes heavy.
“You think there’s something wrong with this tunnel?” Li Nuowei asked curiously.
Drake nodded heavily: “Definitely. This is the biggest common point among those not influenced by the bloodline curse—they all came to this tunnel.
And this tunnel likely buried a huge terror secret. They must have actively encountered something, which is why they contracted Mermaid Disease.”
“So you think beneath the tunnel we might find another infection source, right?” Li Nuowei nodded silently and recorded Drake’s discovery.
“Not might, but I can already confirm it.” Drake said, “I’ve guessed what exactly the cursed object buried beneath that tunnel is.”
“What do you think it is?” Li Nuowei asked curiously.
Drake calmly said: “Treasure… precious treasure that sent away dozens of generations, salvaged from the seabed by the Sea God of Anhai and His kin and given to the sea folk. Those greedy sea folk perhaps never anticipated that the treasure already contained an invisible curse.”
