Chapter 68: Wu Lele Disappears into the Water

  Zhang Yunhao rubbed his swollen face and frowned, saying: "Please make it clear, I don't understand what you mean." Wu Lele immediately sank her face and said coldly: "Then let Xiaodao say it." Zhang Yunhao looked at me with suspicion, and I told him about the strange creature in the water. Zhang Yunhao was not surprised, saying that the last time he was dragged into the water and brought here, it was probably the same thing in the water, and it was likely that after being slapped by the stone statue and falling into the water, he was again brought here by the creature.

  If that's really the case, then why did the monster bring Zhang Yunhao here several times? Is it because she has a natural instinct to save people in the water like dolphins do?

  "What should we do now?" Wu Lele asked: "Or would you sacrifice yourself, go into the water and lure away that monster, wait for me and Xiaodao to get on, then think of a way to come up?"

  Zhang Yunhao looked down at four o'clock and finally gazed at the blocked cave entrance. I knew he wanted to take a look inside. His face was badly injured, and the stone statue had slapped him with a palm, but fortunately, it hadn't given him a concussion. He was already very lucky, and I worried that he might be left with sequelae, so we had to hurry up and send him to the hospital for a check-up. "How about this?" I said, "I'll go down into the water first. If I can make it to the surface smoothly, I'll come back and bring He Suo here with the yin-yang knife."

  Wu Lele said you're not as good at diving as a rat, anyway he's already died once, so he's not afraid to die again.

  Zhang Yunhao responded, "I think so too." Then he looked at me and said, "Dage, what's wrong with you? You're not even wearing clothes." I said it was cooler this way. Zhang Yunhao suggested we go take a look in that cave. Wu Lele immediately exclaimed, "Great! Let's go now!" At this point, she was invigorated and restless. I told Zhang Yunhao, "Let's go back and take a look at your face first." Wu Lele said, "No need to look, his face is ugly anyway," Zhang Yunhao raised his hand to hit Wu Lele and shouted, "I'll beat you to death!"

  Wu Lele instinctively retreated backwards, but didn't expect her foot to slip, and she fell straight back into the water with a splash.

  "Help!" I hurriedly jumped down, wanting to support her, but unexpectedly Wu Lele let out a scream, thrashed about in the water for a moment, then let out another blood-curdling cry, and suddenly sank into the water, disappearing from sight.

  I jumped into the water without hesitation.

  Because the water was too deep, I sank into the water and choked on a mouthful of water, almost unable to catch my breath. I wanted to float up to the surface to take a breath, but I was worried about Wu Lele's safety. Given her situation earlier, she must have been dragged underwater by some kind of sea monster. If I had hesitated for one more second, Wu Lele might have lost her life.

  I swam forward desperately for a while, but didn't see Wu Lele's figure. I was anxious and felt a surge of water behind me. I quickly shone my flashlight back and found that Zhang Yunhao had caught up. He swam to my side, pointed upwards with his hand, then grabbed one of my arms and pulled me upwards.

  I wanted to continue searching for Wu Lele, but because I couldn't breathe freely in the water, my chest felt unbearably stuffy. Zhang Junhao, on the other hand, was incredibly powerful in the water and swam while pulling me up. Before long, we broke through the surface of the water.

  "What about Lele?" Zhang Yunhao asked.

  I shone my electric light around for a while and said that I was dragged into the water by that strange creature, probably didn't come up, and then sank back into the water.

  Several searches with Zhang Yunhao yielded nothing, and the strange creature in the water never appeared.

  Finally, the two of us were exhausted and weak, crawling onto the shore, both falling to the ground. Zhang Yunhao asked: "Jiage, we've been searching for Lele for so long and can't find her, do you think she's gone?"

  I'm getting anxious, it's been at least half an hour since Wu Lele fell into the water and she still hasn't come up. By normal reasoning, she's probably already drowned to death. Moreover, there's also a mysterious creature in the water, even if Wu Lele didn't drown, she's probably been killed by that creature.

  Tonight's events were too sudden, and we've been hit twice in a row. Although Zhang Yunhao's death was unexpected but not fatal, Wu Lele's situation is clearly worse than his now, because we haven't even found her body yet. At this moment, my throat feels blocked, and my mind is completely blank.

  Seeing me not speaking, Zhang Yunhao turned his head and looked at me reassuringly: "Dage, don't worry, Lele won't die. Look at me, I didn't die after falling into the water, did I? I was even injured, but Lele doesn't have a single wound, and she's so clever, nothing will happen to her."

  I struggled to get up from the ground and decided to go take a look at the Shui Tan, maybe she had returned there. Zhang Junhao grabbed me and asked what I was going to do, die with her? I said I would go down and take another look, Zhang Junhao said don't go, it's useless, better to go back and get the Yinyang knife, and ask Shui Shengzi for help.

  This isn't a bad idea, but going back to get the yin-yang knife and coming back here will take at least an hour. Who knows what Wu Lele will become in that time? I really can't bear to leave before finding her, even if it's just her corpse.

  "It's too late to go back and get the yin-yang knife," I said. In my heart, I also reminded myself that from now on, no matter where I went, I must bring the yin-yang knife with me.

  "Or we can call the police." Zhang Yunhao suggested again.

  I shook my head and looked at Zhang Yunhao, asking if he had really been unconscious since falling into the water. He said yes, then asked, "What's wrong? Did something happen while I was unconscious?" I told him about being attacked after I dove into the water, and Zhang Yunhao furrowed his brow, saying, "So it was them who rescued me from the water?" I said that if they had indeed rescued him, why did they attack me as soon as I surfaced? Judging by the situation at the time, it seemed like they wanted to smash me to death with a rock. Zhang Yunhao said, "Maybe they thought you were the monster in the water."

  This situation is not unheard of either.

  But if they really thought I was a sea monster at that time, why did they disappear when I surfaced again?

  Zhang Yunhao said: "This is easy to explain, they don't want to be found by you, they must have gone into that cave, if we go down now, we might be able to find them. If I'm not mistaken, it's Zhong Ling'er and the man who came up the mountain with her."

  If it's really them, what are they doing coming up the mountain? And why don't they want me to know?

  Zhang Yunhao said: "There are two possibilities, one is that Zhong Ling'er doesn't want you to find out that she's with an old man, afraid of hurting your feelings; the other is that they're doing something shady here."

  "What kind of shameful business is this?" I got angry.

  Zhang Yunhao said, "Don't think that way, I didn't mean it." I asked how did you know what I was thinking about? Zhang Yunhao said, looking at your furious expression, you must be thinking about that thing.

  Yes, I was thinking of that indeed.

  If Zhang Yunhao thinks so, he is blaspheming against my goddess.

  "Right, you said you called my cell phone and it went through?" Zhang Yunhao asked. I said yes. Zhang Yunhao said: "Then call again to see who has the phone." I habitually reached into my pants pocket, but naturally didn't feel anything, only then remembering that Wu Lele had left the phone on the shore.

  I easily found my phone on a rock, picked it up and dialed Zhang Yunhao's number in a hurry. After six or seven rings, the other party answered. Zhang Yunhao quickly came over, I whispered to him, calmly said "hello", but the other party didn't respond. I asked in a low voice: "Who is this?"

  "It's me." The other party replied.

  My heart skipped a beat, it was Zhong Ling'er's voice.

  Because I had pressed the speakerphone button, Zhang Yunhao also heard it. We looked at each other and Zhang Yunhao snatched my phone away, asking "What's your name?"

  "What do you think?"

  "Are you Zhong Ling'er?"

  "Yes, I am Zhong Ling'er."

  I feel something is off, although the other person's voice sounds like Zhong Ling'er, but this absolutely isn't Zhong Ling'er's tone.

  Zhang Yunhao said: "You are Zhong Ling'er, don't you plan on returning my phone?"

  The other party said: "Okay, you come and get it." Zhang Yunhao immediately asked where she was, and the other party replied: "In the water, you come down."

  "Beep...beep..." My phone suddenly rang a few times, and I was running out of battery. I took the phone over, hung up, and Zhang Yunhao hadn't finished speaking yet. I said don't say anymore, it's wasting electricity, I'll go down first, you call your phone again in three minutes. As I spoke, I handed the phone to Zhang Yunhao. Zhang Yunhao took the phone and asked, "Are you going down now?" I said yes. Zhang Yunhao said, "I suggest you don't go down. The person just now didn't seem like Zhong Ling'er to me. It must be someone impersonating her."

  "Who do you think it will be?" I asked.

  Zhang Yunhao shrugged and said he didn't know either. I didn't want to waste any more words on him, so I took a leap and jumped into the water.