Chapter 52: Rock-Paper-Scissors Decide

  "If they've already come out, then what's the point of us going?"

  "If they don't come out, they would have suffocated long ago. Even if Su Haicheng is dead, there's still Ah Tian and Hei Lian."

  Kakashi was speechless, but it was clear that he was very disappointed. He had been looking forward to going underwater. I thought to myself, if we meet Suigetsu and the others later, I'll have to keep a close eye on Kakashi, can't let him go underwater alone, that's a very dangerous thing.

  But this time I was wrong, because when we finally reached the lake on the 15th day of the lunar month, except for a snake swimming in the water, nothing could be seen.

  Under the bright moonlight, we can see that there is no one on the lake shore. Not only is there no one, but it's exactly the same as when we left before, without a single change.

  I dragged my nearly exhausted feet and walked up the slope where we buried the rubber boat, but there was no sign of it here either.

  Kakaxi put down his things and chuckled: "Fourth Sister, you guessed wrong this time. I guarantee they're still in the water."

  "They don't have enough oxygen." I said.

  "This... maybe they have another way out? Didn't you say this water leads to the underground water? Maybe there's not only water down there, but also a huge cave?"

  That's right, I also speculated before that the mountain has already surrounded the water here, so if the water wants to stay clean, it must be living water, such as groundwater circulating underground. The mountain must have caves. Maybe there are really big caves underneath.

  "It's possible, it might be true."

  "So, let's take a break here for now, and then we'll also get in the water." Kakashi dropped his luggage and started to gather materials to make a fire. It was already evening, and in a few hours, the temperature would drop very low.

  I put down my luggage and looked at the intact earth slope, thought for a moment, and said: "They should be real, still underwater. Kakashi, look here doesn't seem to have been visited by many people. If the troops really came, our newly buried earth slope would definitely be moved. This earth slope is still intact, the troops should not have come here."

  "That makes sense."

  He lit a fire while saying, "Just now the village chief also said that today the troops caught a group of poachers. We are really lucky to have someone take our place. I think those soldiers are also eager to go back and spend time with their girlfriends, they caught a group of people and then left immediately. They didn't even come to check this lake area. Fourth Sister, I'm really tired, can you help me out? Is there anything to eat?"

  He was about to grab my bag to find something to eat, I quickly grabbed the bag back and said: "Don't eat these dry rations anymore, if there's a big cave under the water, we'll still rely on these dry rations to survive."

  "We should eat something anyway."

  "Wait a minute, I'll go find something to eat, I know there are sweet potatoes around here."

  The last time we came over, it was the sweet potatoes that Su Haicheng went to find for me. Half an hour later, I and Kakashi also managed to get a few roasted sweet potatoes. He ate them deliciously, feeling like he had come back to life again.

  But I ate a bit bitter. The sweet potatoes that Su Haicheng roasted last time were much more delicious than ours. Holding the sweet potato in my hand, I thought about his background at that time, and talked to him about his girlfriend's topic, where is he now? Won't something happen to him? Or they floated up, couldn't see us, but were caught by those soldiers? Hopefully there really are large caves under the water, then they should still be alive.

  I hadn't eaten a few mouthfuls when I said: "Kakashi, let's dive in now."

  Kakaxi patted his full belly, lying on the slope, looking at me in surprise: "Fourth sister, you're being blinded by love. Can't you calmly analyze our current situation?"

  "What's wrong with us? Aren't we full now?"

  "We've been walking all the way, and our physical strength can't keep up. Now that we've just eaten enough, let's take a break and recover our energy. We still have to fight later on. Is it going to be like this? Even if we go down, it won't work."

  "What are we going to do?" Dive down, what can we do? Just bring the diving equipment. Although it's our first time in contact with these things, before departure, we did a good job of doing homework and watched several diving tutorials.

  Kakaxi kicked the soil slope under his feet: "Dig out the boat, put all our clothes in a bag, and also food. Pack everything well, these are to be taken down. If there really is a large cave inside, we will change clothes too. See, I asked you to buy waterproof backpacks and waterproof lighters, you said I would waste money, now you know to thank me."

  "Alright, let's start digging out the boat now." From walking to get here and eating roasted sweet potatoes, our physical strength has recovered a lot. Now I just want to dive into the water and quickly find Su Haicheng.

  Kakaxi rolled down from the mound, surrounded by the fire, and continued to roast sweet potatoes: "No, I want to sleep for a while, you dig, you dig yourself. Tomorrow we'll get in the water at dawn."

  I took a look at him and secretly let out a sigh. I'll just dig then! I pulled out an entrenching shovel from the luggage beside me, and it was really useful.

  Kakaxi is still a guy without a girlfriend, and he's also used to messing with me all the time, so he won't consider my feelings. When I was digging out the rubber boat, pulling their luggage, and packing equipment one by one, he actually fell asleep right there.

  This evening, I didn't rest, I was busy with these things until the sky turned white.

  I panted and kicked Kakashi's body with one foot: "Get up! Let's go!"

  Kakashi rolled onto the ground, clutching his sandy hair and said: "Fourth Sister, wait a bit longer. The water is at its coldest now, going in right now will really cause cramps."

  "Wasn't it you who said to wait until dawn? You won't leave, I will!" My patience has been worn out, ground down by such unknown worries. No one can imagine how scared I was when collecting these things. I thought that under the lake water, there were no underground caves at all. They had already died from lack of oxygen down there.

  Or all those corpses down there in the water became poisonous things and killed them all.

  Or maybe they came up yesterday and just missed us.

  Even if there really is a cave, it's already been a whole day, they're down there, no clothes, no food, not even fire, how are they going to make it through?

  I can't wait any longer, even if it means diving into the water to see how they are doing. Even if they're really dead, let me know and understand.

  Kakaxi said to me: "Fourth sister, we really can't get in the water now! Fourth sister! Just wait a bit longer, until the sun is higher and the water is warmer, then we'll get in. Really!"

  Although he wasn't in top physical condition, after all, he was a man and his grip on me was still very strong.

  I turned around and said to him, "Rock-paper-scissors! If you win, we'll wait a bit longer. If I win, we'll dive in now." Even if I was worried about them, I knew that alone, I wouldn't be able to carry all this stuff underwater, and going solo would also make me a bit nervous, with a stiff neck. But with Kakashi around, it'd be an extra pair of hands, even underwater.

  He looked at me, then at the hand I stretched out to him, and moved his lips before saying: "Are you going to entrust my life to rock-paper-scissors? Four-one sister, can't you be more mature? At least it should be a coin toss. Do you have a coin?" He rummaged through his pockets and actually found one: "Heads is you, we'll go in now; tails is me, we'll wait until the sun rises a bit higher before going in."

  I nodded and watched him toss the coin.

  The opposite, the opposite, is surprisingly the opposite.

  He took over my backpack and said: "Wait a bit, they've been underwater for a day and a night. If they're alive, there's no hurry to get them out in an hour or two; if they're dead, they're already dead."

  I crouched down and started crying. I couldn't say why I was crying, probably because I was exhausted. Maybe it was because Kakashi's words made my heart even more afraid, that's why I cried.