Chapter 201: One link after another, each interconnected.
There weren't many mangroves or even any other miscellaneous marine plants in this area, so everyone could only stand under the scorching sun and wait for the two to return from the sea.
At first, everyone waited quietly, but as time went on, perhaps to distract themselves, most people started whispering to each other.
The fishermen who had put down their work to join in the fun couldn't resist any longer. One of them, probably seeing that Xu An was young and easy to talk to, tugged at Xu An's clothes and whispered, "What's going on in the sea?"
Xu An turned his head and glanced at the person. The face looked familiar, and he must have seen him many times before, but he didn't know who the person was. He replied vaguely, "We don't know yet. We just received a call and came here to wait for news."
While the two were talking, three more fishermen gathered around and overheard Xu An's entire conversation.
Just as the three younger fishermen were lamenting that they hadn't gotten any gossip, the older fisherman had a thoughtful look on his face. After a two-second silence, he suddenly spoke up: "I heard you just say that the mud here is all hot, isn't it?"
"Hmm!" Xu An nodded, looking at the old fisherman's expression, sensing that he seemed to know something: "Uncle, do you know what's going on?"
The old fisherman suddenly looked up at the sea, his eyes losing focus, his eyebrows sometimes raised and sometimes furrowed, his mouth moved several times, and finally he slowly recounted the old stories he knew.
"My father and grandfather were both fishermen. When I was a child, they would sometimes mention a strange spring when they talked about fishing at sea. Of course, 'spring' was what they called it, not some official name..."
The old fisherman's voice wasn't loud, but it wasn't quiet either. At least Uncle Dongliang and the others standing near Xu An heard it. When they turned around, they made quite a commotion, and the others who were anxiously waiting also turned to look.
"...That spring, no matter spring, summer, autumn, or winter, always emitted steam. My grandfather even tried it with unwanted sea fish; the fish would get half-cooked in it... Everyone thought this spring was a bad omen, so they surrounded it with bamboo and other things. I don't know if that's why, but later the spring got smaller and smaller, the temperature dropped lower and lower, and finally it disappeared completely..."
Is that true?
Upon hearing this, Xu An immediately turned to look at his second grandfather, the oldest person present in Xu Family Village, hoping to get his approval. However, his second grandfather was also frowning, looking deep in thought. On the other hand, Uncle Dongliang, standing next to Xu An, suddenly slapped his thigh and exclaimed in realization.
"I talked about this with my buddies when we had a late-night snack. His dad also told me about it. Back then, his dad couldn't get eggs at home, so every time he went out to sea, he would put one in his pocket and then go to this spring to boil it! He did this secretly for more than a year. His grandma thought there was a thief in the house who was stealing eggs instead of anything else!"
As Uncle Dongliang spoke, he gestured to the old fisherman: "When everyone first noticed that spring, it was about the width of a person's arm. Over the next few months, it slowly expanded a little bit every day, and eventually its diameter reached more than three meters, right?"
"I don't know about that." The old fisherman shook his head and explained, "My father only went out to sea for two or three years, and then he stopped. I've never been out to sea either; I only heard about it from my grandfather."
"Dongliang, you just said spring?" Professor Yu, in his excitement, seemed to have forgotten that he was standing on a muddy beach with mud almost up to his knees. He lifted his foot to walk over and almost tripped and fell flat on his face. Fortunately, Professor Yu's four students were quick-witted and caught him, preventing him from falling headfirst into the muddy ground.
"Yes, but I only heard about it from someone else; I've never actually seen it myself." Uncle Dongliang scratched the back of his head somewhat sheepishly. "According to that person, it must have happened twenty or thirty years ago..."
"That's almost it, that's almost it!" Professor Yu murmured to himself, his face relaxing as if he had figured out some major problem. He turned to his second grandfather, smiling as he grasped his hand: "Old village chief, your village is blessed! Absolutely blessed!"
Professor Yu's two sentences immediately put everyone's hearts in their throats. Their eyes were filled with anticipation, waiting for Professor Yu to explain the source of this "good fortune." But Professor Yu, unfazed by their stares, simply said, "It's a good thing, but let's wait for the results," before turning and smiling at the sea, leaving the bewildered crowd behind.
Riddlers, how awful!
But Professor Yu's mouth is his own, and since he didn't want to talk, no one could force him to. So they could only chatter and wait for the two frogmen to come up.
At this moment, only Xu An was looking down at the still slightly warm mud on his hands, lost in thought. As memories surged in his mind, a hint of joy appeared on Xu An's face and quickly spread to his entire face, his mouth almost reaching below his ears.
He only felt something was wrong with the abnormal temperature of the silt, but he didn't have any clue. However, when he mentioned the springs and the scalding fish and eggs that the fishermen had mentioned, a slightly absurd idea appeared in Xu An's mind.
Could this so-called spring be a hot spring? A medium-boiled egg is a hot spring egg!
But can there be hot springs in the sea? Aren't hot springs usually on land?
He hastily wiped his hands on the clean parts of his clothes, reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, opened the browser, and typed "hot spring" into the search bar. A second before pressing the search button, Xu An hesitated, returned to the input screen, added "at sea" before "hot spring," and then pressed the confirm button.
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