Even with the latch secured, Ashalina was not satisfied. She dragged over several bamboo poles and laid them side by side across the hold’s wooden hatch, jamming each end into the gaps of the iron railing so they were locked firmly in place!

A’long and A’qing pressed their own bodyweight down onto the poles!

From below the deck came the sound of large-scale chewing — a wet, crunching *crunch, crunch*, with occasional *bangs* as the two fish monsters competed over their meal.

This went on for three to five minutes before the fish monsters finally noticed, belatedly, that they had been locked in.

They began to struggle.

With claws. With teeth. With their tails. Throwing everything they had into it! But the hold was narrow and cramped, and their strength was diminished without room to maneuver. Several times they nearly forced the hatch open, only to be shoved back down by Ashalina and the others.

A few minutes later, the sounds from below the deck finally ceased. It was unclear whether the fish monsters had tired out or succumbed from being out of water too long.

No one dared open the hold to check.

Ashalina’s back was already soaked through. She held her hands pressed down against the wooden hatch, raised her head, and looked at Bai Youwei. Sweat slid down her cheek.

“Two,” Ashalina said, still catching her breath.

— The third cave had contained two fish monsters.

So the number of fish monsters did not increase in order of cave number. It increased based on the number of mistakes made.

One wrong choice: one fish monster appears.

Two wrong choices: two fish monsters appear.

Three wrong choices…

Ashalina’s face went pale. With their current strength — could they hold off three fish monsters?

Bai Youwei’s brow was tightly knit. Her hands turned the plush rabbit’s ears over and over. More than half of the rabbit’s charge was gone.

“Let’s leave here first,” she said.

The fishing vessel had already reversed halfway back through the cave. Pan Xiaoxin returned to the wheelhouse and maneuvered the ship into a continued retreat, backing all the way out of the cave.

Once again they emerged into that open stretch of water.

On one side: one cave. On the other side, seven caves arranged in a fan shape as if mirroring it.

Ashalina stared at all those identical cave openings and felt a deep, helpless weight settle over her.

“The first cave had one fish monster. The third cave had two. The fourth cave had none… Is the exit in the fourth cave?”

But even entering the fourth cave would bring them back here. They couldn’t possibly keep choosing the fourth cave every time.

“Let’s keep reversing,” Bai Youwei said, calmly stroking the rabbit. “By now, we can be almost certain that the number of fish monsters is tied to how many times we’ve chosen wrong — but I’m not sure whether ‘wrong’ refers only to individual mistakes, or whether choosing wrong once means every subsequent choice is also wrong.”

She continued: “To be safe, I think we should reverse all the way back to the starting position and walk the path again from scratch.”

A’long couldn’t help but ask: “If we keep reversing and go back into the first cave, will we run into monsters again?”

All of them were nearly exhausted.

Bai Youwei pressed her lips together and replied: “If it’s only one, we should be able to handle it. Once we’re inside, have Xiaoxin back out of the cave at maximum speed.”

Ashalina knitted her brows, thought it over, and nodded. “All right, let’s do that. If it’s just one, it shouldn’t be too hard to deal with — we still have items we haven’t used.”

With that decided, after the fishing vessel backed out of the third cave, it continued its retreat.

They stood watch on the ship, nerves stretched to breaking point, eyes fixed on the dark, oppressive water — unable to predict where a fish monster might surface at any moment.

Whether from the tension or something else, A’qing kept drinking water incessantly, his whole body wound tight with anxiety.

A’long advised: “Slow down. We only brought four bottles total, and there’s no telling how many days we’ll be stuck here.”

A’qing gave a quiet sound of acknowledgment, but his hand didn’t leave the bottle — he kept drinking, one gulp after another.

Meanwhile, Pan Xiaoxin maneuvered the fishing vessel back out through the first cave.

—