Bai Youwei’s body was sinking.

Sinking, sinking…

From the moment she had fallen in, she hadn’t struggled at all. She lay perfectly still, letting her body drift slowly down through the water.

All around her was darkness. Above, a faint light shone — the light leaking down from the attic.

Occasionally a black shadow swept past — it seemed the water monster was chasing the light source as it moved.

Someone must have dropped a flashlight. That beam of light had agitated the monster’s senses, and like a bull charging at a red cape, it had stormed over and torn and gnawed at the flashlight — crunching it to pieces and swallowing the whole thing — before flicking its tail and swimming off elsewhere.

Good…

Even though it was a frenzied monster, the water was pitch-dark down here. So as long as she made no great disturbance, it couldn’t see her hiding here.

Bai Youwei floated silently in the water.

The elaborate dress and skirts made movement underwater difficult, but also gave her indirect cover — the broad skirt billowed and drifted in the water just like clusters of aquatic plants.

Her hands slowly explored the environment around her.

Wooden floorboards, steel bed frame, rough wallpaper… By the position, she judged she must have fallen from the attic down to the edge of a bed in a second-floor bedroom.

The bed boards had been moved away by Yan Qingwen’s people; only a bare steel bed frame remained.

She couldn’t swim. To get back to the attic, she would have to navigate around to outside the door, and then climb up the damaged staircase.

No rush.

The monster was still there. Better to wait for its three-minute rampage to pass before going back.

—

Besides, she had eaten fish meat — staying in the water a little longer shouldn’t be a problem.

Although…

This water was truly, terribly cold…

Bai Youwei thought of Shen Mo.

Was he somewhere on the second floor right now too? Perhaps they were right beside each other, only unable to see each other because it was so dark underwater.

Was he safe?

Was he alright?

…No, he would be fine. Given his intellect, he would soon notice the fish monster’s weakness — its poor vision. As long as he stayed still, he could avoid being found by it.

Come to think of it, fish had very poor eyesight.

People always said eating fish eyes was good for one’s own eyesight — but in truth, almost all fish were severely near-sighted, and deep-sea fish had largely lost functioning vision, relying on other sensory organs to navigate.

…Wait.

What was that clue Li Li had found?

【The water monster’s home is in the deep depths of the water, and within its home are hidden glittering treasures.】

Deep in the water…

At a depth of 100 meters, light intensity is only 7% of what it is at the surface. As depth increases, light diminishes rapidly — by about 2,000 meters, it is essentially pitch-black.

Without light, beads would not be “glittering.” So how would anyone discover “glittering treasures”?

The beads were indeed wrong.

The so-called “glittering treasure” — it should emit its own light.

Bai Youwei’s body was ice-cold in the water, but her mind, as if struck by cold water itself, became utterly clear.

So, it was that thing after all…

Something that emits light…

Something that generates electricity…

The water rippled, as though something large was approaching.

She slowly curled inward, pressing silently against the wall, eyes wide open, not moving a muscle.

In the murky water, the light was so faint it was nearly nonexistent.

She watched the enormous creature drift slowly past. Apparently the three-minute rampage had ended — it moved sluggishly now, waving the pectoral fins on each side, occasionally bumping into a doorframe or piece of furniture, upon which it would gape its massive mouth and chomp irritably to the left and to the right!

Bai Youwei stared at its long, spiny fins, and the eighty-percent certainty in her heart became one hundred percent.

She knew what the answer was.

—