On the way back, they encountered Yi Wansan and the others coming to meet them with their boat. The boat wasn’t completely fixed—it would run for a while, then stop, stumbling along like someone just learning to walk.

Cao Yanhua helped pull Mu Dai onto the boat, and after learning what had happened, his eyes widened like brass bells.

“Sister Little Master, while we were fighting furiously with the old clam, how did you drift away?”

“If my Brother Luo hadn’t found you, where would you have drifted to? To the Western Heaven to fetch scriptures?”

Yan Hongsha glared at him: “Stop it, stop!”

She took a blanket and helped wrap Mu Dai up. Girls are just more thoughtful, noticing that Mu Dai’s wet clothes would make her cold.

The old clam had been fished up and lay lifeless on the deck. The cremation box was bound with iron chains and placed in a bucket full of water. The bucket was covered with writing, quite straightforward this time, such as: “Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth,” “Laozi,” “Phoenix Luan Buckle.”

Yi Wansan shrugged and said, “It’ll hold for a while at least.”

Luo Ren asked: “What about the other boat?”

“It’s damaged worse than this one. We were in a hurry to come get you, so we left it there.” As he said this, he seemed to remember something. “It’s a good thing you didn’t ram us head-on, or both boats would have been ruined. You were quite foresighted.”

He thought Luo Ren’s decision to change from a direct hit to a side impact in that instant was quite wise.

Luo Ren glanced at him and said, “You’re too kind. I didn’t think that much at the time. I just thought both boats were rented with my money, and if they were damaged, I’d have to compensate.”

Back at their original position, Yi Wansan continued tinkering with the boat according to the diagram—at least to get the boat back to shore. Luo Ren put on his equipment and went underwater to retrieve Yan Jiuxiao’s body.

Yan Hongsha was incredibly moved and said to him, “Luo Ren, you’re truly a good person.”

After Luo Ren went underwater, Yan Hongsha’s gratitude was still beyond words. She went to find Mu Dai: “Mu Dai, you should marry Luo Ren soon. He’s wonderful.”

Mu Dai looked very tired and said, “I need to sleep now. I’m very tired.”

Oh well, let her sleep then. After Mu Dai fell asleep, Yan Hongsha tucked in the corners of her blanket, tiptoed out, and closed the door, feeling as if she had indirectly repaid Luo Ren this way.

Soon, Luo Ren surfaced with Yan Jiuxiao’s body.

Having been underwater for so long, water had seeped into the diving helmet, making the head pale and swollen. Yan Hongsha didn’t dare approach until Luo Ren covered the upper half of Yan Jiuxiao’s body with his coat. Only then did she move closer with red-rimmed eyes.

She couldn’t say she had particularly deep feelings for this uncle who was always busy outside, but he was still her uncle.

She made up her mind to cremate her uncle’s remains nearby and not tell her grandfather about it for now.

Lost in her thoughts, she heard Cao Yanhua asking: “So what do we do with this old clam?”

Luo Ren said, “It’s already dead. What would you take it back for?”

Cao Yanhua muttered: “But there are still pearls inside.”

“Don’t you have psychological trauma? If I made a necklace for you, would you wear it?”

Do they just throw it back into the sea? Cao Yanhua felt reluctant.

Yan Hongsha suddenly realized and said, “Give it to me.”

Luo Ren nodded: “That works. Your uncle was after the pearls in the first place. If you take these back, at least the trip won’t be in vain.”

Yan Hongsha shook her head and explained: “My family is in the treasure harvesting business. We have many downstream partners who offer reasonable prices. Although I’m not very knowledgeable about pearls, the pearls in this old clam’s womb are of good quality and can fetch a good price. The boats are damaged and will cost quite a bit to compensate for. We can use the money from selling these to subsidize that, and if there’s anything left, we can share it among everyone.”

Share with everyone! These four words sounded wonderful!

Cao Yanhua became excited immediately. This journey had been so exhausting, almost costing him half his life. If there could be some compensation, that would be excellent—and the quality of these pearls was more than just “good”!

Sister Hong Sha was truly generous.

Luo Ren didn’t care much and casually said, “Whatever.”

Then he asked: “Where’s Mu Dai?”

“She said she was very tired and exhausted.”

Is that so? Luo Ren felt a slight unease, but he couldn’t quite articulate where this unease was coming from.

By the time the boat could barely move, it was already dusk. Both boats were in similar condition—they would work for a while and then break down, sometimes rocking like a seesaw, making everyone both laugh and cry.

Finally, they reached a village where they could rest. Luo Ren found a village mechanic to fix the boats. Cao Yanhua borrowed a knife from the villagers and began digging out the pearls one by one, filling an entire plastic bag. Thinking about this unexpected gain, he was grinning from ear to ear.

He wasn’t a greedy person, but looking around, how many people in this world who toil and labor would dare say they’re not doing it for money?

They paid for dinner, asking a nearby village household to prepare it. The steaming meal had fish, shrimp, and meat, with white rice piled high like a gold ingot. It was truly the best meal they had eaten in days.

Mu Dai also got up with drowsy eyes. The group sat around in the boat cabin to eat. With the cabin door closed, it added a touch of warmth.

Cao Yanhua was eating noisily when he suddenly looked up and saw Luo Ren watching Mu Dai.

He smiled mischievously and said, “Brother Luo, just eat. You can look after eating. My Little Master won’t run away.”

Mu Dai blushed, but was happy inside. She looked up at Luo Ren, who easily changed the subject: “Tonight, let’s all sleep in the same cabin, just like last time at Xiao Shang River.”

He also instructed Yi Wansan: “Keep an eye out to see if you can draw a water shadow. Based on our previous experience, you were the first to see it.”

Would Yi Wansan be the first to see? Cao Yanhua felt a bit competitive. Before sleeping, he went ashore, scooped up a plastic bag of sand and soil, and placed it by his head, staring at it continuously.

Yan Hongsha felt quite envious, thinking that each of them could see something special, which was truly remarkable.

Only she couldn’t, giving her a sense of inferiority.

She lay on the bed listlessly, wanting to chat with Mu Dai, but found that she was already asleep again, with shallow breathing.

Yan Hongsha thought: Mu Dai is sleepy today.

Luo Ren was outside making a phone call.

First, he called Uncle Zhang. It was the busiest time at the bar, and as soon as the call connected, he heard Uncle Zhang’s frantic voice, probably directing a new waiter: “Quick, quick, take the order.”

Then he hurriedly went to a quiet place to talk, immediately asking: “How is our Mu Dai?”

There was a hint of displeasure in his voice.

Of course, he was displeased. Directly or indirectly, because of this, Luo Ren, almost all his bar staff had left. A few days ago, Yi Wansan had made an abrupt call saying that Mu Dai couldn’t speak, which had worried him terribly.

Learning that everyone was safe and would return to Lijiang in a couple of days, he finally felt relieved.

Before hanging up, Luo Ren suddenly hesitated.

“Uncle Zhang, I want to ask, did Mu Dai ever suddenly forget things in the past?” He didn’t know how to explain. “Like, she did something, but afterward, completely forgot about it.”

Uncle Zhang chuckled, as if suddenly remembering something amusing.

“Yes, she did.”

Luo Ren’s heart leapt with hope.

“When the Little Boss Lady gets drunk, after she sobers up, she completely forgets what happened.”

Not that kind, Luo Ren felt somewhat disappointed, but still asked: “Mu Dai can’t drink alcohol?”

“She can. Sometimes when she’s idle, she’ll pour herself a glass of wine and drink it like a beverage. But she has a limit with alcohol, like a line where quantitative change leads to qualitative change. Once she crosses that line, it’s terrible.”

Uncle Zhang clicked his tongue, as if still fearful: “When she gets drunk, she’s terrifying.”

Luo Ren hung up with a bitter smile.

No, Mu Dai’s condition today had nothing to do with alcohol.

He tried to convince himself not to overthink and to simply accept that she was “scared out of her mind” as the reason, but he couldn’t. Something felt wrong.

A frightening thought occurred to him—could she be possessed by the evil bamboo slip? Although one evil bamboo slip had already been confirmed to be in the cremation box, what if there were two evil bamboo slips in the old clam?

When she dropped from the rope, the old clam brushed past her body as it spun upward. Could it have happened during that passing moment?

Luo Ren’s mind was chaotic. He ordered himself to stop these wild thoughts, but couldn’t.

When he turned back, the lights in the cabin were already out.

It was late, time to sleep, and Yi Wansan’s water shadow would be best drawn in darkness.

Luo Ren hesitated, then dialed Shen Gun’s number.

It was noisy on the other end. He heard Shen Gun shouting vigorously: “Every time I come, you make me work! Don’t believe I won’t come next time!”

Could Shen Gun also be bullied? It seemed inconceivable, but for some reason, his tone always gave people a feeling that “his words express anger, but his heart is pleased.”

Luo Ren asked: “You’re not in Lijiang anymore?”

“No, I came to see a friend.” He seemed to remember something. “Did you find that fire?”

“What if I found it? What if I didn’t?”

Shen Gun’s voice lowered, with a hint of smugness: “If you found it, I might know how to save Pin Ting.”

Luo Ren’s blood rushed to his head: “How to save Pin Ting?”

“Listen carefully. The evil bamboo slip and the Phoenix Luan Buckle are incompatible. If you are truly the people chosen by the Phoenix Luan Buckle, that means the five forces of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth have been transferred to you. I’ve thought of a rather brutal method, but it should work…”

“Injecting the mixed blood from all five of you into Pin Ting’s body would likely force out that evil bamboo slip.”

The mixed blood of five people, injected into Pin Ting’s body…

“With incompatible blood types, is that possible?”

“Oh, Little Radish, is your brain filled with nothing but radishes?” Shen Gun complained dissatisfied. “At a time like this, you’re still thinking about blood types? Can you think more broadly? Not everything has to strictly follow science, and besides, Pin Ting is already in that state. Just consider it a last resort…”

In Luo Ren’s mind, tiny sparks seemed to flicker.

The mixed blood of five people, injected into Pin Ting’s body…

He suddenly asked Shen Gun, “If the five people each possess the attributes of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, does that mean the evil bamboo slip won’t possess them?”

Didn’t Yi Wansan just say that the cremation box originally had a ferocious face, but after it was thrown back into the water, the box’s surface instantly flattened? Water is one of the five elements, and so is wood. Mu Dai could see the Phoenix Luan Buckle’s messages from wooden objects. If the power of wood had been transferred to her, theoretically, the evil bamboo slip would also be wary of her…

Shen Gun hadn’t thought of this and was somewhat uncertain: “It seems… there’s that possibility too.”

Luo Ren let out a long sigh.

Suddenly, Yan Hongsha’s scream came from the cabin.

Luo Ren’s body tensed, and he rushed in quickly, switching on the wall light. Everyone was awake. Mu Dai was fanning her hand to help Yan Hongsha, looking apologetically at Luo Ren and the others, and mouthed a sentence.

She had a nightmare.

Thinking something had happened, Luo Ren breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at Yi Wansan, who shook his head and handed him the sketchbook, saying, “I only drew half.”

Luo Ren took it and looked.

On the other side, Cao Yanhua crawled on the mattress for a bit, then crawled into Mu Dai and Yan Hongsha’s bed, asking: “Sister Hong Sha, what nightmare did you have?”

Yan Hongsha said quietly: “I dreamt I cremated my uncle.”

Perhaps it was a case of thinking about something during the day and dreaming about it at night. During the day, she had decided to cremate her uncle Yan Jiuxiao nearby, and at night, she had a dream about a crematorium.

She dreamt that she took her uncle Yan Jiuxiao to be cremated.

The crematorium was empty. She was alone, pushing a small cart carrying her uncle’s remains to the edge of the furnace.

The crematorium worker looked grotesque, with a black cloth covering his head, and spoke to her in a muffled voice: “Go wait in Monitoring Room Number One.”

There was a row of rooms, all monitoring rooms. Inside the monitoring rooms were closed-circuit televisions, allowing family members to observe the cremation process.

Monitoring Room Number One was the first room in that row.

So she went back to the monitoring room, which had three rows of seats. She sat in the middle of the front row.

She kept watching the TV screen, and finally, an image appeared. She saw her uncle’s body, wrapped in white cloth, slowly entering the furnace. Then, almost instantly, fire erupted, and the furnace opening turned fiery red.

Following the tradition of the older generation, she should call out “Dodge the fire!” at this point, to remind the departing soul not to be burned by the mortal flames.

Yan Hongsha lowered her head to wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes. When she looked up again, she was suddenly struck as if by lightning.

She saw a woman appear at the furnace opening—a woman with disheveled hair, screaming. The closed-circuit television had no sound, but precisely because there was no sound, the visual impact was all the more terrifying. The woman’s face, contorted with pain, seemed about to break through the screen.