Translator: 549690339
As these words were spoken, everyone fell into a synchronised silence.
If we make another mistake, I fear even the second floor will be flooded
Even the normally confident Li Li hesitated, unwilling to make a decision on a whim.
Tan Xiao seemed perplexed, looking around at everyone’s changing faces and asking, “What’s the matter? Haven’t we found the beads? Why the long faces?”
Li Li said, frustrated, “We’re worried about misunderstanding…”
“How could we misunderstand?” Tan Xiao asked, his eyes wide with confusion. “If they’re not beads, what else could they be?”
Everyone exchanged glances.
If they’re not beads, what else could they be?
They had searched the entire house countless times! Apart from the ship they found in the whale stuffed toy, there was nothing else that could be considered treasure.
These shining beads were their only hope!
After a moment of contemplation, Shen Mo suggested, “Just to be safe, let’s move everything we can use from the second floor to the loft. If the second floor floods, we won’t be able to use anything down here.”
Professor Cheng said, “Let’s move the books we haven’t finished too!”
Maybe there were other clues in the remaining books.
Everyone rallied and began moving the items from the second floor to the loft. Some carried books, others moved bedding and pillows.
During this time, Zhu Shu went into the water once and found a bead.
After a brief rest, she went back under to search, but had no such luck on the second attempt.
The loft, now housing 10 people and with the added clutter of books and household appliances, felt cramped and stuffy, even the air felt heavy.
Lun Ang, a man of robust build, feeling much too suffocated, asked Tan Xiao to open a window.
The loft had only one small window.
The latch was rusted, and it took Tan Xiao a couple of hard shoves before he was able to push it open.
The salty wind carrying with it light rain blew in, bringing in fresh air and dampening the floor by the window.
Tan Xiao stuck his head out of the window to check the view— all he saw was an endless expanse of water. The hills and forests were no longer visible, and their house seemed like an island in the middle of the sea, facing the risk of submersion at any moment.
Pulling his head back in, he sighed, “The window is too small. If we get flooded here, we won’t be able to get out.”
“Then we’ll take it head-on!” Lun Ang said gruffly, “We have ten people here. Even if we think of something, surely we can take down a fish?”
“It’s tough and thick-skinned, how do we take it down?” Tan Xiao was worried, “We don’t even have any weapons.”
Their only utility knife had fallen into the water when they were rescuing Lun Ang.
Having heard this, Shen Mo calmly responded, “The utility knife should be near the stairs, it wouldn’t be too hard to find it. But we should verify the number of beads first.”
Including the bead found by Zhu Shu, they had a total of 33.
But were there only 33 beads?
If a few beads were missing when they served them to the guests, would the guests become irate?
Then, Yan Qingwen advised, “Let’s do one more thorough check. Each one of us should dive one after another. The beads are small, when we swim underwater, the waves could shift the beads. Everyone, please be more careful.”
Apart from the injured Lun Ang and Li Li, along with Professor Cheng and Bai Youwei who couldn’t swim, the remaining six went to the second floor.
This time Xiaoxin went too.
They took turns diving for beads.
Before they knew it, another two hours passed.
At three in the morning, everyone was extremely exhausted.
Dragged their wet, cold bodies back to the loft, they put all the beads they found together—
” everyone rest on the spot. Tomorrow, we will serve the guests.” Yan Qingwen’s voice rang out like the final verdict.