Shortly after we decided to walk back to the ship, that event happened.
I have never personally experienced a natural disaster. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods were all matters I had only ever seen on the news. However, what happened today was beyond what I had ever seen. It was more mysterious, swifter, and definitely more terrifying.
The sky darkened all of a sudden in one or two minutes. The sun was nowhere to be seen, and the clouds had gathered above as if all the dark clouds from the past few days had come together.
Everyone noticed the dramatic change in weather. The tour guide yelled out immediately, Hey, you guys! Come to the ship, quick!
I grabbed Tan Jiaos hand and started to run. There were six to seven others around us. The Yan Yuan couple was here, Chen Ruying and her mother were here, and there were two other males and one other female.
Tan Jiao and I were at the front of the group. Not long after, it started to pour.
Loud rumbling filled the air as flashes of lightning ripped through the skies. Tan Jiao was shaking in fear as she said, Wu Yu, did we get struck by lightning, and thats how we began to time travel? Oh my gosh! At a time like this, I still found her comments to be hilarious.
If we got struck by lightning, we wouldve been dead already. We wouldnt be going through all this crap now. I held her close to me. The weather now was unsuitable for us to risk it and run around. What if, as she said, we got struck by lightning? I started to look around the area, looking for some sort of shelter to hide in.
The people behind me were probably thinking about the same thing. They all stopped. Yan Yuan had his arm around Zhu Jirui, while Chen Ruying and her mother came to me together. Ah Yu, what do we do? Im scared.
At that moment, I suddenly noticed the ship at the lake slowly moving in a certain direction.
Why was it moving? Despite the storm, the lake would not create waves huge enough to move such a heavy ship. Could it be that the controls on the ship had issues?
No, that could not be.
That was not it.
I did not hear the sound of the rain nor the people around me. All I could focus on was what I saw in the distance, with my normal eyes, the ship moving ever faster.
The people on the ship were feeling it too and began to panic and run. I saw Wu Miao as well, holding onto the railing on the deck, looking at us with fear in her eyes.
Whats going on? What happened to the ship? Someone behind me noticed this as well.
Wu Yu! Look over there! Tan Jiao screamed.
Theres a whirlpool in the lake! Yan Yuan, who had been quiet all this while, suddenly yelled out. His observational skills were good after all.
My heart fell as I turned to see the whirlpool that was now at the center of the lake, the size of around two football fields. It was still shallow, but it was noticeably growing deeper and deeper.
Was it because of an earthquake or some other natural disaster?
Something in my heart collapsed at that moment.
Wu Miao! I yelled out. I turned to Tan Jiao and said, Wait for me here! Through the rain, I saw her eyes widen as if something in her eyes had also collapsed.
No! Wu Yu, you mustn't go! She tried to hold me back.
I ran toward the ship.
I heard footsteps behind me. She was trying to follow me.
However, I could not stop now. I could not be valuing my life more than hers, knowing that Wu Miao would be extremely terrified right now. Knowing that I was not beside her as she held on for dear life on that swaying ship.
I knew how scared she was when that person kidnapped her in the dark alley. She must have dearly wished that day I had agreed to go with her. I knew how terrified she must have been to be locked up in a dark place, watching that scum come close to her with a knife. I knew she must have suffered tremendously under the physiological and physical pain, losing her consciousness slowly, losing her life slowly.
At a moment like this, she needed her big brother. She needed her big brother to calm the storms and protect her. Even if I could not hold onto her hand to comfort her, I must at least let her see that there was still hope.