Editor : reii
In the dark sea, Fang Daichuan opened his eyes.
The aquatic plants were swaying around, the salty seawater stung his eyes, and his body was being torn into pieces by the two different forces. Amidst the chaotic scene, someone firmly grasped his hand.
Fang Daichuan didn’t know how long he had been out, maybe a few seconds, maybe a few minutes. He’d lost the concept of time. He shook his head. All he could hear was the gurgle of seawater. Faint glimmers of light leaked from the distant lighthouse, Fang Daichuan started moving, because he tasted the blood from the other party in his mouth.
Li Sinian’s condition was by no means good. He sighed in relief and quickly pushed Fang Daichuan, made random gestures, beckoned him to follow.
Fang Daichuan kicked the water* and pulled Li Sinian up. The two suction forces behind him and in front of his body seemed to be getting stronger. Fang Daichuan stomped on the reef and, using the momentum, floated upward. As he made his way up, Fang Daichuan noticed the reef was covered in barnacles and oysters, and as the tide surged, the shells of these tiny creatures opened and closed as they clung onto the reef, fighting against the tide. The scene of the dense little creatures lifting their shells one by one made Fang Daichuan’s scalp tingle.
(T/N: Because I am extra *cough* I googled diving moves and I found out there are plenty of kicking moves so well, just said that Chuan’er uses one of those moves to swim up, because the author only said ‘kick the water’. Link for more info)
https://www.scuba.com/blog/scuba-guides/underwater-finning-kicking-techniques-scuba-diving/
Li Sinian, who was behind him, suddenly stopped moving.
Fang Daichuan felt the resistance and looked back at him questioningly.
Li Sinian pointed at a crack in the reef, something was stuck in that crack, shining in the darkness.
You’re still treasure hunting in this situation?! Fang Daichuan stomped on the reef repeatedly, pointed upward, and paddled desperately. Li Sinian however, was unmoved as he pressed himself against the edge of the reef, stuck two fingers into the crevice and gouged the trinket out.
Fang Daichuan glanced at it, it appeared to be a necklace, in the shape of a golden star, with a diamond in the middle. It should’ve been underwater for some years as the gold had dimmed considerably.
Fang Daichuan was about to run out of breath, he pulled on Li Sinian’s sleeve.
From within the countless aquatic plants dancing between them, an occasional fish would spring out in panic and then be sucked into an unknown place by the undercurrents. Li Sinian looked at him with turbulent emotions simmering dangerously inside his eyes. He shook his head at Fang Daichuan, and made gestures, indicating that he was going to take a look inside the coral reefs. Fang Daichuan was about to die from anxiety. If he was on the ground and could open his mouth, he would be stomping his feet crazily and cursing Li Sinian.
Fang Daichuan was in a foul mood. At that moment, a current made his footing unstable. He stretched out his hand and tried to grab water plants, but didn’t manage to. He was swept away by the current and flew into the coral reefs. In reflex, Li Sinian grabbed his hand and together, they got dragged along into the darkness.
The two people rolled around like clothing in a washing machine as they were sucked deep into a hole in the coral reefs.
Surrounded by darkness, Fang Daichuan couldn’t help but panic. In his heart, he knew that not a minute had passed since he had jumped into the sea, otherwise even if he was an immortal he wouldn’t be able to hold his breath for so long. However, this panic was a subconscious reaction of his body, couldn’t be controlled by his brain, and he soon felt that the air Li Sinian had imparted to him was almost used up, he started seeing white lights and his limbs kept hitting something.
Li Sinian pushed him from behind and swam forward.
Fang Daichuan wanted to kill Li Sinian. Under such circumstances, you still want to get inside the coral reefs? No matter how you look at it, this is courting death! However, he didn’t have time to look at Li Sinian, so he could only swim along desperately.
The huge suction force stubbornly sucked them inside the uphill cave on the coral reef. Fang Daichuan rolled and crawled, his last breath was escaping him and his lungs had reached their limits.
At that moment, Fang Daichuan felt himself finally relax as a white light exploded in front of him. The sound of water splashing penetrated his brain and drilled in his ears. He was exposed to fresh air.
Fang Daichuan crawled out of the water, inhaling deeply, went ashore, kneeling on the ground and panting heavily. In fact, his lung capacity wasn’t very good. In the last stretch, his lungs felt like they were burning and he had ended up taking a mouthful of seawater. The seawater mixed with the sand from the coral reefs was proof that he almost died at the bottom of the sea.
They were in a huge cave inside the reef, the space at least two meters high. How big it was, because it was too dark, Fang Daichuan couldn’t tell.
Li Sinian came out of the water from behind him. He brushed his hair back, coughing while holding onto the stone wall. Fang Daichuan hurriedly supported him, and asked, “Are you alright?”
Li Sinian waved his hand and put it on Fang Daichuan’s shoulder. The hot liquid in his palm made Fang Daichuan stiff.
Fang Daichuan hurriedly uncapped the antidote he was holding and washed the needle in the puddle he had emerged from. The sea water definitely was not clean, but at this time Li Sinian was poisoned. Fang Daichuan’s fingers kept shaking, he drew up the antidote and carefully removed the air bubbles from the syringe.
“You do have a plan.” Li Sinian held Fang Daichuan’s hand, his face was pale and blood had begun to ooze out of his nose, clear signs that he was dying.
Fang Daichuan slapped his hand off, pushed him against the stone wall, and said firmly, “Lie down, don’t make me miss.”
The antidote was quickly injected into Li Sinian’s arm. Fang Daichuan had never given anyone an injection before. He was so nervous that he kept staring at the needle and pushing very slowly. Li Sinian didn’t care about the needle sticking into his body, he just kept staring at Fang Daichuan’s grave side profile.
“I wouldn’t have jumped down to get you if I didn’t have a plan,” Fang Daichuan babbled. He tended to start saying nonsense when he got nervous, a habit from long ago. “You’re the one who doesn’t think anything. Are you insane? Do you think this is some kind of extreme sport? I know you’re good at swimming. The problem is that the great me is not good at swimming…”
Fang Daichuan raised his head as he spoke, and saw Li Sinian’s eyes.
He abruptly stopped, pushed in the rest of the antidote without saying a word, then quickly pulled the needle out, feeling his cheeks burn. I must have inhaled too much seawater. Fang Daichuan calmly touched his chest. The old deer in there was happily jumping about, making his chest ache with pain.
He’d just survived a near-death experience and just a moment ago, his mind had been filled with the fear of death. Now that he could relax and was trapped in such a small space, Fang Daichuan suddenly felt uncomfortable. He stood up and walked around, pretending to examine the surrounding stone walls and scratched his head. “This place is quite spacious, why is there such a place? Why didn’t you find it when you came down to pry oysters……”
“This cave was submerged in water. The passage we came in was an upward slope. I’m guessing this place is above sea level. It’s probably the inside of the reefs that we climbed before.*” Li Sinian leaned to one side and gasped as he spoke. “Something may have been blocking this place before. It is probably because of the geological activities in the past two days. The stone blocking the cave entrance was pulled away by the tide, and now we washed into here. “
(T/N : Chapter 11)
Fang Daichuan heard him speaking with difficulty and hurriedly said, “It doesn’t matter what the situation is now, don’t talk, just lie down and rest for a while.” He sat next to Li Sinian and lowered the other man’s head on his lap.
Li Sinian’s forehead was scalding hot, his eyelids were twitching, it was visible to the eye that the antidote and the poison in his body were fighting fiercely.
Fang Daichuan patted him on the shoulder and coaxed, “Don’t think so much, go to sleep, it’s already late.”
The interior of the grotto* echoed so loudly the sound of the seawater pounding and gurgling against the stones outside could be heard clearly inside. The pipe organ sound also became much louder, combined with the sound of sea water, it harmonized, like a hypnotic nursery rhyme.
https://www.allthingsnature.org/what-is-a-grotto.htm
In such an environment, Li Sinian quickly fell asleep. He slept in a very good posture, lying flat on his back at first, then when he felt colder as he was still lying on Fang Daichuan’s lap, he curled his body towards him.
Fang Daichuan gently rubbed his cold arm, thinking that in this confined place he definitely wouldn’t be able to ignite a fire for heating, so he could only resort to rubbing to create heat.
Li Sinian’s lips moved slightly, murmuring something, Fang Daichuan asked subconsciously, “What?” Then, leaned his head over to listen.
He heard Li Sinian crying softly, “Mom.”
Fang Daichuan felt as if he’d just eaten an unripe apricot, his heart was terribly sour.
Welcome 