She heard Yan Hongsha using the bed for support as she walked, saying with half-delighted surprise that she could take a few steps now. Then she heard the sound of the wheelchair, with Cao Yanhua saying, “Alright, Sister Hongsha, get on quickly. I’ll push you to have breakfast.”

At the cabin entrance, she didn’t know if they encountered Yi Wansan or Luo Ren, but Cao Yanhua suddenly raised his voice by several octaves: “My Little Master is pretending to be asleep.”

Mu Dai was so annoyed she rolled her eyes under the covers.

After everyone had left, she finally got up reluctantly, brushed her teeth, and washed her face using water from the tank. After tidying herself up, she went to the cockpit. Yan Hongsha and the others had almost finished eating, though “eating” just meant the small packaged bread and cookies they’d bought yesterday, washed down with mineral water.

Seeing Mu Dai enter, Yan Hongsha suddenly reached out and gathered the remaining small bread rolls on the table, hugging them all to herself, saying: “There’s none left. We’ve eaten everything.”

The bread in Cao Yanhua’s hand had just been torn open, but hearing this, he quickly stuffed it into his mouth, mumbling that he had none left either, that it was indeed all gone.

After saying this, he pushed Yan Hongsha toward the door, calling out to Yi Wansan as they left: “Brother San, come out! Let’s watch the sunrise!”

Yi Wansan replied irritably: “The sun rose long ago. Can’t even eat in peace.”

But he went out anyway.

So in the cockpit, only she and Luo Ren remained.

Luo Ren found it amusing. He chewed his bread slowly, looking at Mu Dai with great interest.

Mu Dai was very self-conscious and didn’t dare look at Luo Ren. Knowing he was watching her, she felt her hands and feet were out of place. She pretended to sort through the packaging papers on the table, muttering to herself: “They ate everything.”

Luo Ren held back his laughter, not responding to her comment.

Was there any need to search? Didn’t she know everything was gone the moment she came in?

She politely spoke to Luo Ren again: “Look, you didn’t even save anything for me.”

Luo Ren was so amused that his stomach hurt from holding in his laughter. He said, “I did save some. I saved some for my girlfriend, but she hasn’t come yet.”

After a while, she came over to herself, very embarrassed.

She said: “That’s me.”

Luo Ren asked: “Who are you?”

She hesitated again before saying, “Your girlfriend.”

Luo Ren couldn’t help laughing out loud, finding her unbearably adorable. He pulled her close, hugging her and affectionately nuzzling her cheek. She kept her head down without speaking, her ears turning red.

Luo Ren said, “You should get up earlier in the future, or you won’t get any food.”

He added: “But don’t worry, I’ll save some for you.”

She just nodded, accepting the water and bread. Though it was no different from ordinary water and bread, it felt different. Holding it in her hands, it seemed to weigh more.

On the first day, everything felt wonderful. Even the clam in the sea didn’t seem so terrifying anymore.

The boat sailed again toward that area of the sea.

As they got closer, Yan Hongsha’s mood became increasingly downcast.

Perhaps because of her youth, she had been excited by the small, uplifting events around her. Now suddenly remembering that her uncle was still in the sea, she immediately felt inappropriate—inappropriate to be happy, inappropriate to smile.

She tugged at Mu Dai’s clothes, asking in a small voice: “Mu Dai, I know Luo Ren is close to you, and he’ll listen to you. Can you ask him to find a way to bring my uncle’s body up?”

Mu Dai didn’t know how to answer and could only comfort her: “There will be a way. Yi Wansan’s father’s urn and your uncle’s body—we’ll find a way for all of them.”

The words came easily, but where was the solution? Yan Hongsha bit her lip, resting her chin on the boat railing, tapping it lightly, over and over.

The engine was turned off, and the sea surface suddenly quieted.

This time, their purpose was clear—not to fight the old clam or to catch it, but to take photographs from different positions, hoping, as they had theorized, to piece together the imagined giant picture.

Mu Dai and the others were no longer amazed by the view through the water window, but for Cao Yanhua, who was seeing it for the first time, it was quite startling. He kept exclaiming and muttering.

“There are no fish. I guess they’ve all been scared away.”

“Those large patches—are they kelp? Can we eat them if we bring them up?”

“There are so many bones…”

Yan Hongsha became impatient with his comments. She glanced at the screen, her expression gradually becoming strange. She asked Mu Dai, “Are we in the same position as that day?”

More or less. It was hard to pinpoint locations on the sea surface; they could only estimate visually. Mu Dai asked her: “What’s wrong?”

“Where’s my uncle?”

Yan Jiuxiao had disappeared.

Yan Jiuxiao, who had been entangled in seaweed at the bottom of the sea, swaying with the currents, had vanished into thin air.

Mu Dai felt a chill run up her spine, straight to the top of her head.

This seemed to give Yan Hongsha an absurd, bizarre hope. She clutched Mu Dai’s hand, anxiously licking her lips: “Mu Dai, could my uncle still be alive?”

Yi Wansan dampened her hopes: “Would it be good if he weren’t dead? After being at the bottom of the sea for so long, not being dead would be even more frightening.”

Yan Hongsha was silenced by his rebuke.

Luo Ren thought for a moment: “I think it’s more likely that he’s been moved. After all, there’s that unpredictable old clam down there. The range of the water window that can be seen is limited. Let’s stick to the original plan of piecing together the images. If our initial approach doesn’t work, we’ll make other plans.”

Events proved Luo Ren right. After changing positions for the third time, Yi Wansan pointed it out to Yan Hongsha: “Is that him?”

There was no need to ask—everyone knew it was. Yan Jiuxiao, wearing a diving suit and helmet, was quite conspicuous.

This time, he lay at the bottom of the sea in a twisted posture, as if performing some action.

Luo Ren sighed softly in his heart and said, “Let’s continue.”

After completing a circuit, they felt the area of sea they had covered was large enough. The water window had taken hundreds of photos, and overlap didn’t matter; they left the task of piecing them together to Yi Wansan. Luo Ren and the others went to the main cabin to discuss how to deal with the old clam.

From what they’d seen, the old clam could only show its strength in or on the sea. The key was to separate it from the water.

And more crucially, to separate the old clam from the evil bamboo slip.

Yan Hongsha recalled the video her uncle had passed on to her of the old clam basking in moonlight: “We could be more patient. On the night of the full moon, after it comes ashore, it would be easier to catch.”

Luo Ren pondered: “That’s hard to say. You can’t be certain the old clam will come out of the water on the night of the full moon. Besides, there are still more than ten days until the full moon. We can’t just wait here all that time.”

Cao Yanhua thought for a moment: “How about I row out to sea alone again? Doesn’t the old clam habitually attack solitary pearl-diving boats?”

Luo Ren smiled wryly: “You can’t swim. I’m afraid that before we catch the old clam, we might lose you.”

Mu Dai suddenly thought of the chain net.

Luo Ren still found it precarious: “The angle of the chain net is too tricky, and the old clam’s direction and speed are unpredictable. We can include it in the plan, but it’s not the best option.”

What should they do? Mu Dai’s brows were knotted into a lump.

Cao Yanhua sighed: “If only we had a giant.”

“A giant could reach up to heaven to seize the moon or down to the depths to catch turtles. With a swipe, they could pick it up with just two fingers. Or else, with a big net, they could scoop it up in one go.”

Coming up with one idea after another, Yan Hongsha rolled her eyes at him.

But Luo Ren had a sudden thought: “It seems like it might actually be possible. Remember that day when the old clam was angered and started spinning on the water’s surface?”

Of course, they remembered. Cao Yanhua still had lingering fears: “Like a wheel of fire, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Anyone who got hit would bleed.”

Mu Dai instinctively glanced at Luo Ren’s shoulder.

Luo Ren said, “At that time, being underwater was safer. If there were a large enough net underwater, we could catch it.”

The logic made sense, but it seemed impractical to execute. Yan Hongsha widened her eyes: “How would you spread such a large net underwater? It’s not realistic.”

Luo Ren smiled: “It’s just that you dare not imagine it.”

Yan Hongsha was indignant, defending herself loudly: “That old clam is so big and seems to have some intelligence. If it sees a net, there’s no way it would enter it willingly!”

Luo Ren got up to find a paper and a pen. After returning, he first drew a boat on the paper.

His drawing skills were indeed inferior to Yi Wansan’s, but in Mu Dai’s eyes, everything he did was fine.

She rested her chin on her hands, watching.

Luo Ren drew another boat, separated from the first by some distance, parallel to it.

Yan Hongsha exclaimed, “We don’t have two boats!”

Mu Dai glared at her: “That’s why he said you dare not imagine. We can rent another boat.”

Yan Hongsha was speechless, but unwilling to let Mu Dai and Luo Ren continue their harmonious exchange, she irrelevantly blurted out: “Is dating such a big deal?”

Huh? What did this have to do with dating? Mu Dai’s face flushed, and she didn’t know how to retort. Luo Ren casually remarked: “Of course it’s a big deal. You have someone to back you up when you speak.”

Mu Dai thought this was right.

Yan Hongsha was embarrassed and had nothing more to say.

Luo Ren continued, drawing chain nets extending from the railings of each boat.

He explained: “The two boats need to be separated by some distance. The water area between the boats will be where we hunt the old clam. The pearl-diving boat that lures the old clam can only operate in the middle of this water area.”

As he spoke, he added a small wooden boat in the middle of the sea, with a small figure standing on it. After drawing, he glanced at Mu Dai and added a stroke to the small figure’s head, implying a ponytail.

This indicated that the person on the small wooden boat was female.

Yan Hongsha exclaimed: “Is it me? My leg hasn’t recovered yet!”

Luo Ren said: “You just stay obediently on the fishing boat. On this wooden boat, I’m placing Mu Dai.”

Yan Hongsha gasped, murmuring: “Even willing to put his girlfriend at risk—how ruthless.”

Mu Dai felt somewhat nervous, but not very panicked. She instinctively felt that Luo Ren surely had a plan.

Indeed, he added a taut rope between the two boats.

“With Mu Dai’s lightness skill, walking on a rope shouldn’t be a problem. This way, whether Mu Dai is on the boat or the rope, she’ll be at ease, able to lure the old clam to the surface. At this point…”

As he said this, he added a person to each of the fishing boats.

“Cao Yanhua and Hongsha will need to vertically lower chain nets from the boats on both sides, ensuring the nets enter the water as silently as possible. As for Yi Wansan and me…”

He paused: “We’ll go into the water and connect the two chain nets underwater.”

He made a gesture of joining two things into one: “Understand? This way, the chain nets will join beneath the old clam. At this point, if we time it right and both boats operate their winches simultaneously, we can quickly scoop the old clam out of the sea.”

Cao Yanhua’s mouth hung half-open, unable to close for a long time.

He said: “As long as we can get it out of the water, whether to kill it or flay it will be entirely up to us, right?”

Growing more excited as he thought about it, he was about to say more when Luo Ren suddenly looked behind him: “Is it ready?”

Yi Wansan’s voice came from behind: “It’s ready.”

“Is it a picture?”

The corner of Yi Wansan’s mouth twitched: “It’s a picture. Come and see for yourself. It’s really…”

He used a somewhat sarcastic term.

“It’s really… lifelike.”

On the computer screen, Yi Wansan had completed the puzzle. It wasn’t complex—just a scene, an ancient scene. How complex could it be?

Dense white bones piled up to form mountains, forests, and a nearby river, like a crude sketch, pictographic and ideographic.

The reason it was called “lifelike” was because of the figures in the picture.

They weren’t piled up; they were real—dead people. And the scene consisted of two panels, with the second one incomplete.

Like a comic strip.