novelsite Chapter 560 Doubt
Chapter 560 Doubt
Under the surprised gazes of the crowd, the drifter put a piece of bone into his mouth and sucked it for a long time as if it were bone marrow.
Chao Sheng said, "This is their custom. When they see bones near water, they use this method to show respect to the dead."
Although we didn't understand, we didn't say anything. What undead? These people in Zukengyuan have been dead for at least eight hundred years. If souls existed, they would have been reincarnated several times.
About half an hour later, the group arrived at the green pool at the end of the cave.
Water was still dripping from the top of the cave, and as soon as he saw the pool, the drifter frowned.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
The drifter stepped forward, tasted a sip of the water, and said something in a mumbled voice.
His nephew Lao Zhang translated: "My uncle said this is green water. There are dead people underwater. It's very dangerous."
Chaosheng said expressionlessly, "Don't keep thinking of excuses to increase the money. According to what we agreed on yesterday, if we can salvage the thing, it'll be 1.5 million. If we can't salvage it, it'll be 700,000 for hard work. There are not only dead people down there, but also water ghosts. Why would I ask you to do ordinary work?"
Piaozi Ke didn't know whether he understood Chaosheng's words or not, and he muttered a few words in response.
"My uncle said he lost money on this job, but he'll let it go for your sake."
Chaosheng rolled his eyes.
From yesterday to today, they have proposed to increase the fee twice in different ways, and Chaosheng has been trying his best to speak up for us.
Our plan is this, divided into two steps.
In the first step, Chaosheng led Piaozike into the water and swam all the way to the abyss. For a master like Piaozike who had been swimming in water caves all year round, one round trip was enough for him to become familiar with the underwater environment.
The second step was to leave Tou and Xiaoxuan up there to keep watch, while Douyazai and I went into the water to pick up the drifting passengers.
There are three reasons for this arrangement. First, the leader is old and his body cannot bear it. Second, there are not many gas cylinders left, so this can save some. Third, since we have spent a lot of money to hire someone, we must reduce our own risks, otherwise the money will be wasted.
Chaosheng took the air tank and headlamp and jumped into the water to test the sealing of the mouthpiece.
The drifter stood on the shore and took two leisurely puffs of his cigarette. Then he took off his shoes and shirt and followed the rising tide to jump into the pool.
He had no warm-up, no air tank, no headlamp, really nothing.
As the two disappeared, only a series of bubbles remained on the water surface.
The translator, Lao Zhang, also lit a cigarette. He said as he smoked, "Don't worry, my uncle doesn't need a gas cylinder. Those equipment would be a hindrance to him."
I nodded and asked, "You call him uncle. Are you also from the Gu Tan tribe who came from Jingdi Village?"
"No buddy, do I look like him?"
"Not like."
He flicked the ash from his cigarette and explained, "I'm from Jingdi Village, but I'm not a Tanka, and we're not blood uncles or nephews. You can think of me as his agent. We've been working together for over 20 years."
He held a cigarette halfway between his lips, looked up at the cave ceiling and said, "This place is very strange. There are obvious signs of human intervention. Such a large-scale project is being carried out in such a remote place. Maybe it was used by powerful people in the past to hide something."
"I have a suggestion. Instead of taking the 1.5 million, how about we take a 30% stake if we find something?"
I immediately laughed and said, "No, let's just stick to what we agreed on. If we end up with nothing, and your efforts are in vain, we'd feel bad."
His eyes rolled around and he changed his tone, "How about 20%?"
I shook my head.
He also smiled, stood up, stamped out his cigarette and said, "It was just a joke. We still prefer to make safe money. I'm going to pee and will be back soon."
I said there is a stone over there, you can go there to deal with it.
As soon as the man left, he raised his head and whispered, "This man is playing tricks."
Douyazi whispered, "Boss, is he trying to trick us by taking advantage of the fact that we can't understand what the drifter is saying? Is he trying to find an excuse to charge more?"
He lowered his head with his eyelids drooping and said "hmm".
Xiaoxuan whispered, "This guy looks honest, but his words and actions are dishonest. Be careful of him."
Actually, I saw it a long time ago, but I just didn’t say it.
I turned my head and looked at him, then whispered, "It doesn't matter. We're not afraid of him asking for too much. On the contrary, we're afraid of him not asking for anything."
Douyazi whispered again, "I think... they're still fucking unreliable. Are Chaosheng and the other two colluding to cheat us out of our money? Think about it, even if the drifter can swim back and forth without an air tank, the abyss is at least four or five hundred meters deep. How can he get down there without an air tank?"
Douyazi raised two fingers and whispered, "Once you're over 200 meters, the water temperature drops to several degrees below zero. Even a double-layer diving suit won't keep you warm. It's easy to die. Besides, in that kind of environment, you can't see anything with the naked eye. And how is he going to decompress without an air tank? Scientifically speaking, it's impossible."
I remembered the last time Brother Yu suddenly had a nosebleed, and I asked him, "What do you think we should do?"
Douyazi scratched his face and whispered, "We can't afford a submarine, and even if we could, we can't get it into this place. So, in my opinion, there's only one possible solution."
"Like last time, tie two coils of rope together and let them touch the bottom. Tie three cylinders to the rope every fifty meters. If you do it this way, the time you spend down there can't be more than five minutes, and the time it takes to surface and decompress will be at least six hours."
"Six hours? It takes that long?"
Douyazi nodded: "I underestimated it. Strictly speaking, it might take more than ten hours."
"Then why did Chaosheng come up so quickly last time?"
Douyazi smacked his lips and said, "I can do that too. He hasn't dived to the bottom yet. It's still a lot deeper down."
After listening to Douyazai's analysis, we began to doubt the drifters.
Can he do it?
How should he do it?
I believe Chaosheng because Chaosheng said that if Piaozike couldn't do it, no one in this world could do it, and the treasure might be buried under the water forever.
It's like a time capsule that never expires, frozen forever in the abyss.
Is that "golden" color under the abyss the "golden armor" that I guessed?
No conclusion can be drawn until it is salvaged.
Suddenly, my eyes were attracted by the bulging snakeskin bag.
This was brought by the drifter. Could it contain some secret equipment that allows him to dive to the bottom of the water?
I stood up and tried to secretly open the bag and take a look.
At this time, Lao Zhang, who had gone to the toilet, suddenly came back, and I hurriedly sat down.
"Ah!"
"Ouch, I've got a little cold. It's really cold here."
Douyazi looked at him sideways, as if he was afraid that he would run away.
He didn't notice our gazes at all. He sat down, yawned, then leaned against the wall and closed his eyes to rest.
At the top of the cave, water drips continuously into the deep pool, sounding like the sound of a stopwatch pointer.
Time passed second by second.
Suddenly, there was movement on the water surface; it was the rising tide.
Chaosheng had just taken off his mouthpiece and turned off the diving light when Piaozike also surfaced the next second. He did not gasp for breath as we had imagined, but instead raised his head above the water, took a deep breath, and then his face returned to normal.
"How's the survey going?" asked the leader.
Just as Chaosheng was about to speak, Piaozi Ke started talking in a long, unsteady voice.
"My uncle said the situation isn't optimistic! It's deeper than expected! If it hits the bottom, it might be more than 450 meters! He's not so sure."
Douyazi immediately pointed at him and said, "Brother, translate it for me properly and stop talking nonsense."
"How could I be talking nonsense! These are my uncle's exact words! Why don't you believe me?"
I interrupted Douyazi and said with a smile, "He has a bad temper. Don't argue with him. We've come this far now. We have to give it a try to see if it works. What's the saying in the underworld? There's no water hole in the world that can stump a drifter."
He glared at Douyazai, then turned and said a few words to Piaozike in a dialect we couldn't understand.
Piaozi Ke nodded and suddenly gave me a thumbs up, which made me stunned and I didn't know what he meant.
Then, the drifter untied the snakeskin bag and took out a bottle filled with "yellow-white liquid".
He unscrewed the bottle cap in front of us and gulped down the whole bottle in no time.
I asked what this drink was?
Lao Zhang said, "It's oil. Beef and fish oil. It's to maintain body temperature."
"What is this?"
Then, the drifter took out a stack of things from the snakeskin bag that looked like raincoats or some kind of animal skin.
"Don't ask, just watch."
After saying that, Lao Zhang walked over and helped grab a corner of the thing.
Then I saw Piaozi Ke kneeling on one knee, he bit the thing, and began to blow air into it with his cheeks puffed out.