First, I went to the lake with Xiuxiu on an inflatable raft.

We soon arrived at the center and Xiuxiu went down into the water with a safety rope.  On the lake, we saw several of Qiu Dekao's boats in the distance. Lights were blazing on one side of the bank and strange sounds could be heard, just like Pattaya in Thailand.  Those noisy secular voices, filtered by the wind and the water's surface, sounded like an ethereal stillness in the far center of the lake.

This kind of feeling was wonderful, probably because the lake center was quiet, and the distant sound was blown to pieces by the wind and wrapped in the ear, seeming like a whisper from another world.

It was drizzling, and under the yellow light of the lantern, you could see the rain falling like cow hair. The lake water illuminated by the lantern was dark and had shallow waves, and the raft was swaying gently.  The other boats were far away from us, looking like isolated lights floating on the water.

I watched the safety rope tied to Xiuxiu stretch tight, keeping an eye on the time and enjoying the strange feeling.  If only everyone was safe at this time, then I could thoughtlessly watch beautiful women swimming, open a few bottles of beer, and lie on the boat in a daze, listening to the rain, wind, and voices.

After thinking about it, I rejected my own idea.  At that leisurely time, I definitely wouldn't have any idea how to enjoy these things, and I would definitely want some excitement.  Men are f.u.c.king b.i.t.c.hes. (TN: yes that's what it translated as and I love it. Cracks me up every time I read it lol).

In the middle of my daze, the timer on one side suddenly rang. I looked at the lake and pulled the safety rope—Xiuxiu should be coming up.

But after pulling, I found the safety rope was loose. I gave a few hard tugs without any effort and was shocked. Did her safety rope break?

As I was thinking about whether something was wrong with her, I suddenly heard a “h.e.l.lo” from behind.

I quickly turned and saw Xiuxiu lying on the raft's side looking at me with a smile. The diving equipment was already hanging on the side, and her wet hair stuck to her skin. Her face was especially white against the black lake water, so white that one couldn't look away.

I breathed a sigh of relief and said, “You scared me to death.  What's the matter, how did the safety rope break? “

She said: “I came up to see you in a daze and just wanted to scare you.”

I walked over to pull her up, but she swam away, splashed in the lake, looked at me, and slowly said, “I don't want to get on the boat yet, do you want to come down and swim with me for a while?”

I gave a wry smile. The girl's character was really strange. I answered, “If we don't go back, they'll worry.”

“If I were afraid of people, I wouldn't be here.”  Like a mermaid, she leaned close to the s.h.i.+p's rail in the water, “Come on, Brother Wu Xie, swim with me for a while.”

I watched her white skin and slender body stretch in the water, and I really felt the urge to jump down and swim with her, but I wasn't really in the mood right now.  I motioned with my hand, “Then you can swim a little longer and I'll wait for you here.”

She looked at me helplessly, giggled, and went underwater. When she resurfaced, she was far away from the boat, and I only heard her cry: “so boring, you really will become an uncle.”

I watched with a wry smile and lit a cigarette.

Beautiful and lovely girls always make people relaxed and happy, and I'm a little relieved at this time, however, I suddenly found that some places on the lake seemed different from before.

In the distance, one of Qiu Dekao's boats had come closer to me, and had lost its light. It was now completely dark in that direction.

Have you returned to sh.o.r.e?  I was a little surprised but knew it was impossible. I could see it just a few minutes ago.

Maybe the foreigners started messing around on the boat, turning off the lights to keep others from seeing.  I said in my heart that people are just different. They go according to their own ideas wherever they go, and don't care about anything. Just as I was thinking this, I suddenly heard a few loud screams from another of Qiu Dekao's boats in the distance.

I stood up and turned to look. The lights on the other side of the s.h.i.+p also went out immediately, and a series of screams carried across on the wind. Then I heard something falling into the water.

Feeling that something was wrong, I immediately shouted at the lake “Xiuxiu come back.” I turned the raft's searchlight, s.h.i.+ned it in that direction, and picked up the walkie-talkie to call Xiao Hua on the sh.o.r.e.

No one answered and I waited while moving the searchlight and s.h.i.+ning it on the water. I only saw that there was nothing in the direction where the other boat had stopped.

“Xiuxiu!”  I gave a loud roar, and suddenly saw a mark on the water's surface illuminated by the searchlight, as if something huge had floated beneath the surface.

That thing was still far from my boat, but my back was already p.r.i.c.kling.  I started looking for the paddles while yelling at the walkie-talkie, and then continued yelling for Xiuxiu in the lake.

I didn't know whether it was a psychological effect or something else, but I thought I called for a long time, and still she hadn't responded. I also knew that when swimming under the water, you could only hear the sound of water and nothing else. Just as I was worried, suddenly, I felt the boat sway very strangely, as if something was swimming beneath it.

“Xiuxiu?”  I immediately turned around and raised the lantern to look at the boat and froze.

I actually saw other colors appear in the dark lake behind the raft.

Just below the surface was a huge monster.

It was light in color, at least under the illumination of the searchlight, but there were dozens of black spots on it which initially made me feel that it was a huge lotus canopy poking up from the water.

What was it?

I was horrified, but felt puzzled at the same time.  After so many dives, we had never seen anything like this. After all, this isn't Loch Ness Lake, why was there such a big thing in it?

I raised my oars, looked over carefully, and saw that as soon as the color of the thing darkened, it seemed to sink again. My mind was already clouded and I didn't dare scream any more. I only saw that the shadow in the water quickly crossed beneath the raft, reached the other side, and was close to the surface again.

I saw the black spots on it were bigger and my instinct told me that the lights must be turned off now.  No matter what happens to Xiuxiu now, she can't see the lights and would be safer to swim directly to the sh.o.r.e.  Otherwise, no matter who is in the water now, I'm afraid the results won't be good.

I carefully retreated to the edge of the searchlight and touched the switch with shaking hands.  With a bang, the light went out, and the water immediately turned dark. I couldn't see anything except the edge of the raft's rail as reflected by the lantern.

However, just when I was terrified that I was going to die, the walkie-talkie sounded—Xiuxiu had already reached sh.o.r.e.

With lingering fear, I immediately rowed to sh.o.r.e and suddenly had a very bad feeling about the waters here.

The next day, I took Xiao Hua and Pan Zi to find the place where I was rescued by Uncle Two.

His men had all withdrawn, and I didn't remember exactly where the place was. I just searched the woods according to my memory and soon found the entrance that had been camouflaged by others.

I opened the camouflage calmly and found that the crack was completely different from what I saw at that time.  It had become very small and only a hand could pa.s.s through. Although the inside was bottomless, it was absolutely impossible for a person to pa.s.s through.

Xiao Hua drew a picture and laughed, asking me, “Were you a c.o.c.kroach before?”

“This isn't funny at all.”  I didn't have time to talk to him.  After pulling away all the camouflage, I found that there were no other gaps.

“What's going on?”  I muttered to myself, “Has the crack in this mountain healed?”

“It's possible, but unlikely.”  Xiao Hua said, “Maybe it's the kind of thing in the rock you mentioned before that's playing tricks.”  He grabbed a handful of rubble at the edge of the gap and sniffed it, but he seemed to have no clue.

Then he took out the Yangs.h.i.+ Lei, compared it to the mountain, and said, “Never mind, this place is completely different from the entrance marked by the drawing. It seems that the situation in this mountain is very complicated, and it's likely that all the cracks here are open." He pointed to the mountain on the other side of the lake, "The main entrance should be over there—s.h.i.+t!”

I was startled by him and looked down. I saw Xiao Hua's flashlight s.h.i.+ning in the crack of the rock and one eye was staring at us.

I almost fell to the ground and suddenly a b.l.o.o.d.y hand came out of the gap and grabbed my foot.

I was so scared that I shouted and kicked the hand fiercely. It started beating against the ground ceaselessly, and an extremely vague voice came from the gap.

I was stunned for a few seconds when I suddenly realized that the voice was very familiar.  I looked at the hand and listened to the voice. I instantly responded: Fatty!  This is Fatty!

How did he get stuck here?

I was pleasantly surprised, and immediately shouted at the edge, “Somebody, pry open this crevice!  This is one of our own people!”

<> <><>