SES Chapter 52 V1

Chapter 52

Early the next morning, Mu Dai was awakened by footsteps on the boat. She struggled to open her eyes, stretched, and mumbled, “So early…”

Suddenly, a jolt went through her—she was wide awake.

She could speak again?

She tried swallowing and sure enough, her throat didn’t hurt anymore.

She’d never appreciated being able to talk freely as much as she did now.

Her first instinct was to wake up Yan Hongsha, but then she hesitated. Hongsha was still hurting from her uncle’s death—this probably wasn’t the time to be all cheerful and chatty in front of her.

After getting dressed and washing up, she ran into Yi Wansan first. Mu Dai stopped him, grinning. “Yi Wansan?”

He shot her a sidelong glance. “What?”

“Do I seem different today?”

Yi Wansan immediately grew suspicious. The last time Mu Dai smiled at him like this, she changed her face within seconds and nearly crushed his hand so badly he couldn’t hold a bowl for three days. That trauma was still fresh.

He backed away like she was a venomous snake. “Same as always! Still gorgeous! Always beautiful!”

He waved her off like swatting a fly and hurried away.

Mu Dai wasn’t satisfied and slowly shuffled over to the cockpit.

Luo Ren was already prepping to sail. A half-eaten compressed biscuit and a bottle of cold boiled water sat next to him.

Mu Dai casually strolled over, cleared her throat, and said, “You’re starting the boat?”

Luo Ren didn’t even look up from the control panel. “Mm.”

Mu Dai felt a little deflated. Okay, her voice wasn’t exactly angelic, but after being mute for two days, he could at least show a little surprise?

She was about to turn and leave when Luo Ren reached out to stop her. On the other hand, he picked up the biscuit and took a bite.

“You can talk now, huh? Give me back my whistle.”

Mu Dai reacted fast—grabbed the whistle hanging outside her shirt and shoved it down her collar, then slapped her hand over it.

Luo Ren had only been teasing, but her reflexes…

He pulled his hand back, thinking: Shameless. Absolutely shameless.

Mu Dai glared at him, muttering under her breath: Stingy. So stingy.

They returned to the same stretch of sea. After turning off the motor and stabilizing the boat, they slowly lowered the repositioned underwater camera.

Yan Hongsha stared at the slowly descending chain, then suddenly asked, “Mu Dai, I can’t let my uncle’s body just float down there in the sea. Can we… bring him up?”

The question was directed at Mu Dai, but it was aimed at everyone.

Her emotions were understandable, but the risk was obvious. Yi Wansan snapped, “Even the boat could get capsized here—who the hell would dare go underwater? You want to tie yourself up next to your uncle?”

Yan Hongsha’s eyes reddened, but she said nothing. She knew it was dangerous, but she had to say it out loud. Even if they refused, at least she had tried.

Mu Dai patted her back gently. “It might not be impossible. Let’s check the situation down there first. If there’s only one giant clam, maybe we can create a diversion.”

How exactly to “create a diversion,” she wasn’t sure. But the idea was that if there was only one clam, it couldn’t guard everything at once. Distract it somehow, and maybe someone could sneak in.

Yan Hongsha lowered her head, then sneaked a glance at Luo Ren.

Yi Wansan wasn’t going down there, and Mu Dai couldn’t swim. If there was even a sliver of hope, it rested entirely on Luo Ren.

Would he go?

The underwater camera paused at a high enough point to get a wide view.

The scene gradually became clearer.

Mu Dai’s heart went cold. “Are those… bones?”

Yes. Bleached white bones, some scattered loosely over the seemingly flat seabed, others partially buried in the sand. It looked like a submerged battlefield.

Luo Ren was incredulous. “That many bodies at the bottom of the sea? No way.”

He looked at Yi Wansan.

Yi Wansan was also stunned. “I don’t know. I used to swim in these waters, but never dove that deep. Only real pearl divers went down there. Back then, this kind of thing wasn’t here—if it was, the villagers would’ve noticed.”

So the bones only appeared after the pearl diving stopped? But that didn’t make sense. Mu Dai had guessed there might be the occasional illegal diver, but not enough to leave this many bones.

Yan Hongsha suddenly screamed, “There! Look! A phone!”

Everyone turned their eyes to one spot.

It wasn’t a phone, but a giant clam crouching on the seabed. A brightly colored lanyard was caught on its shell, attached to a waterproof glowing phone pouch.

The clam was about the size of a small tabletop, pretty much what they’d seen in the video.

Luo Ren said, “Actually, it’s not that hard to kill it. If it comes ashore again to sunbathe, and it opens its shell, we could throw in a grenade with a fuse…”

Yi Wansan nodded. “Or like I did back then—burn it!”

They all chuckled bitterly. Talking big was easy. In reality, just looking at the ocean floor made them shiver, let alone getting close.

Mu Dai kept staring at the screen. Then suddenly: “Do human bones look like that?”

She pointed to something behind the clam. “That doesn’t look like a human skeleton, does it?”

On the screen, the clam shifted slightly, revealing a curved, slanted, horn-like object behind it.

Yi Wansan’s eyes lit up like a flashbulb. “I get it!”

He got excited. “Back then, for a good pearl harvest, the village used to sacrifice animals to the sea god. Every March, we’d throw in offerings—sometimes just a pig or goat head, but for major events, we’d sacrifice whole animals. Gutted them, filled them with stones, and sank them to the seabed. The old chief said if they didn’t sink, they’d drift off with the currents, and the blessings wouldn’t fall on our village’s pearl beds.”

So, not all the bones were human?