SES Chapter 54 V1

Chapter 54

It was already afternoon.

Back on shore, everyone was completely exhausted—some sitting, some lying down. The room was silent. Mu Dai had been leaning against the bed, but when she suddenly saw Luo Ren wrapping a bandage around his shoulder with one hand, she quickly got up to help him.

She had gotten plenty of cuts and bruises during training before, so she was quite skilled at dressing wounds. Carefully, she helped wrap the bandage, snipped it cleanly with scissors, and taped it down. Then she asked, “Does it hurt?”

Luo Ren replied, “Of course it hurts. What are you going to do about it?”

Mu Dai was caught off guard. She had expected him to say “No,” and then maybe they’d share a smile like in the TV dramas.

Luo Ren had said it on purpose: Yeah, it hurts—what are you gonna do? Can you make it stop?

Mu Dai’s response made him laugh and cry at the same time.

“Oh, then just tough it out.”

With five people crammed together, even basic things like food and sleep became a challenge. Luo Ren’s car was parked in the last village, a fair distance from Wuzhu Village. Technically, they could take the boat back and forth, but nobody wanted to go near the water again—not today.

There weren’t enough dry rations on the boat—nowhere near enough biscuits to gnaw on—so someone had to head into the village to get food.

Luo Ren decided to go and drive the car over. Yan Hongsha couldn’t walk, and Cao Yanhua had been soaked in the water so long that he was spaced out and lethargic. Yi Wansan had planned to go with Luo Ren, but when they were about to leave, Cao Yanhua kept winking at him like crazy, nearly squinting his tiny eyes out.

So Yi Wansan said, “Someone’s gotta stay here who’s useful, right?”

That meant it’d just be her and Luo Ren? Mu Dai looked down, nudging her toes into the ground. She wasn’t sure whether to feel happy or awkward.

A while later, Luo Ren came over and said, “Let’s go.”

It was a long way. The sun was beginning to set, casting a golden glow throughout the river. Everything around them was quiet. Just the two of them walking along the beach, their footprints trailing behind.

Mu Dai tried to strike up a conversation.

“You good with knives?”

Luo Ren said, “Yeah. That’s why they call me Luo Xiaodao. Gotta live up to the name.”

“You learned in the Philippines?”

He shook his head. “I started practicing knives a long time ago. Back then, Ping Ting used to call me ‘Brother Knife.’ I wanted to look cool in front of her, so I practiced throwing knives in the courtyard.”

He chuckled at the memory. “Every time I practiced, everyone in the courtyard would scatter. My uncle would come out holding a pot lid like a shield, cursing that Luo Xiaodao’s knives would go flying and even he couldn’t find them.”

Mu Dai laughed too. Everyone had clumsy, embarrassing moments in their youth.

She asked, “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

Luo Ren said, “Later. After dinner.”

Mu Dai felt a pit drop in her stomach.

After dinner? Like he was worried she’d lose her appetite if he told her beforehand?

At the village, Luo Ren bought a ton of fish and shrimp, plus skewers for grilling. He also had Mu Dai grab drinks and snacks from the store. They carried back armfuls of bags—it looked like they were ready for a full-blown camping trip.

Mu Dai couldn’t help but mutter, “After everything that happened today, I’m still terrified and here you are, all cheerful.”

Luo Ren replied, “You get used to it. I’ve been through enough close calls. Every time I survive, I feel like I got away with something and want to celebrate. Used to go all out. If we had the setup for it…”

He didn’t finish the thought, but a smile crept onto his face. Mu Dai figured he was thinking about those friends again—the ones grilling fish on rocks, sipping German beer, the one who liked strumming a ukulele.

Last time they talked about this, Luo Ren had fallen silent. She had guessed it was a painful memory and quickly changed the subject. “So, what now?”

Luo Ren asked, “Did you think that old clam was scary?”

Mu Dai thought about it, then hesitantly shook her head.

At first, it was terrifying, mainly because they hadn’t seen it, which left room for their minds to run wild. But now that she knew what it was capable of, it wasn’t quite as frightening.

Besides, they’d survived a sudden encounter today. If they were better prepared next time, who knew? Maybe they’d have the upper hand.

In a place as remote and dangerous as this, the fact that they were having a proper meal was nothing short of miraculous. Cao Yanhua was thrilled. He volunteered to fetch well water for cleaning the fish and shrimp and gathered firewood, getting the campfire blazing.

As night fell, Yan Hongsha rotated a skewer of shrimp over the fire. The seasoning might’ve been off, but the smell was amazing. Still, it couldn’t calm her nerves.

She kept glancing back at the sea.

What if the old clam attacks us again?

What if it flies through the air like a UFO? Shooom—

As she spoke, she nervously shielded her neck with her hand and tucked her chin in like a turtle.

Mu Dai laughed. “Fly? What is it, a flying guillotine?”

Luo Ren said, “We all know one clam alone can’t do all that. It’s the cursed bamboo slip at the root of it.”

Yan Hongsha was confused. “What’s a cursed slip?”

Cao Yanhua chimed in, frustrated. “Yeah, that clam—what the hell even is it? Someone explain already!”

They both got booted from the conversation for missing too much context. Luo Ren and Yi Wansan continued.

Yi Wansan was worried—if the slip had attached to something, was it the urn or the clam?

Luo Ren said, “I remember what that Taoist guy said—the cursed slips might be alive, maybe even able to communicate with each other.”

“We thought they were scared of the five elements and would avoid them. But what if they can work around that? I’m starting to wonder…”

He lowered his voice. “What if the first slip didn’t jump straight from Zhang Guanghua to Liu Shuhai? What if it left Zhang at the bottom of the lake, latched onto a fish or shrimp, and only then jumped to Liu when he fell in?”