Chapter 109 The 109th Day of the Beginning [Two-in-One] First Time Meeting
Day 109 of the game [Two-in-One]
After leaving Chu Zhaoqin's cabin, Yin Yu lost his sleepiness and didn't want to go back to the cabin.
He turned to look at He Lianzhou and asked, "Shall we go up on the deck for some fresh air?"
He Lianzhou responded with a nod, teasingly saying, "I'll listen to you. After all, I'm a man of my word."
It took Yin Yu two seconds to realize what He Lianzhou was referring to. He couldn't help but chuckle and turned to stride toward the deck.
Less than a few days had passed, but the twilight on the mudflats that day felt like a distant, otherworldly experience.
It was still dark outside, and only the crew members on duty were on deck. When they saw Yin Yu and He Lianzhou come up to the deck, they immediately greeted Yin Yu in a neat and orderly manner.
"Captain Yin!"
"Captain Yin, is there something wrong?"
Although the other crew members didn't ask, they all turned to look at the same time.
Seeing this, Yin Yu's lips twitched slightly, and he smiled helplessly: "It's okay, I just came up to get some fresh air. You guys go about your business."
"Okay, Captain Yin."
After all the crew members had left, He Lianzhou chuckled and looked at Yin Yu, saying, "Look at you, you scared them so much. You can't just go in and out to let them out for a bit."
Yin Yu twitched the corner of his mouth, snorted softly, and walked to the railing to look at the distant sea: "They are nervous because they know what kind of danger there will be, not because of where I am."
"Only those who know nothing don't know fear." Yin Yu turned to look at He Lianzhou. "What are you afraid of?"
“Me?” He Lianzhou raised an eyebrow. He leaned lazily against the railing, facing the opposite direction from Yin Yu, and could see Yin Yu’s face. He said casually with a flippant tone, “I’m afraid of dolls and toys. Those things give me the creeps.”
Yin Yu scoffed at him and rolled his eyes. He was asking a serious question, but this guy was just spouting nonsense to him.
Seeing this, He Lianzhou clicked his tongue lightly: "See, I told you but you didn't believe me."
Yin Yu waved his hand dismissively, "I believe you, I believe you."
He Lianzhou looked at Yin Yu and asked, "And what about you? What are you afraid of?"
"I have so many fears, I could talk about them all day long," Yin Yu said dismissively.
He Lianzhou snorted: "Perfunctory."
Yin Yu chuckled softly: "That's true too."
The two chatted idly, while geckos still floated on the sea. However, the sea was shrouded in fog, and patches of white fog pressed down on the shimmering blue light, giving this area of the sea a dreamlike quality.
After an unknown amount of time, a sliver of golden light appeared on the horizon.
Yin Yu narrowed his eyes slightly and said softly, "It's almost dawn."
He Lianzhou responded with a cheeky laugh, "We've watched the sunrise. It's kind of romantic for the two of us."
Yin Yu's eyelids twitched, and he resisted the urge to elbow her.
He gestured towards the crew members on duty around him and said to He Lianzhou, "They watch the sunrise and sunset together all the time. Ask them if they think it's romantic?"
What is this called? This is called the brotherhood of socialist revolution.
He Lianzhou: ""
The two bickered casually, while in the distance, a salted egg yolk had already jumped out of the sea.
The fog that had been swirling around the ship seemed to be accelerated, visibly torn apart and receding from the sea.
Behind layers of sea fog, golden morning light emerges, brilliant and vibrant. The sea surface seems to be adorned with gold leaf, shimmering and shining, creating a harmonious and dazzling beauty.
Yin Yu and He Lianzhou stopped bickering at the same time and quietly watched the sunrise over the sea.
"You asked me earlier what I was afraid of," Yin Yu began, speaking softly. "I'm afraid that one day, even the ordinary sunrises and sunsets will become a beauty that humans can only appreciate in fear, monsters will roam freely, humans will stay indoors, and the streets will become garbage dumps."
"The apocalyptic scenes in the movie are in my mind. I only know that if Guanshan cannot defend the last pass, then those scenes are very likely to become reality."
He Lianzhou paused for a moment upon hearing this, then laughed: "Your concerns are quite broad. Well, you should rest assured, the Lord's existence is to create a living environment for these monsters and balance their coexistence with humans. What you're worried about is exactly what you can do."
“Even now, I still don’t know what I can do,” Yin Yu scoffed. “You, on the other hand, are full of confidence for me.”
He Lianzhou tilted his head and looked at Yin Yu: "You did a great job in my world. You created a paradise for those sealed monsters to liberate them. There was order and harmony there. There was a future where humans and monsters coexisted. You did at least what I never did there."
Yin Yu paused: "But you are the lord there, why can I?"
He didn't finish speaking, but frowned and looked at He Lianzhou. He remembered that He Lianzhou had said that there was only one lord in a world, that He Lianzhou belonged to that world, and that he was just a strange intruder.
He still remembered He Lianzhou's initial obsession with his body, which was also because he was a lord.
"I don't know, but I have some guesses." He Lianzhou shrugged. The two unconsciously moved very close as they talked about these things, and Yin Yu subconsciously turned his face towards He Lianzhou.
He Lianzhou said in a low voice, "Perhaps it's because I've been absent yet still 'alive' that my world can neither give birth to another lord nor allow monsters to be in a state of disorder or even semi-out of control. So you came into being, a lord from another world."
“Only lords possess the ability to ‘create.’” He Lianzhou looked at Yin Yu. “When I said I lifted an entire underwater mountain range from the seabed, it was true.”
Yin Yu's eyes widened slightly. Of course he remembered that when they were in the far north ice mountain, he thought He Lianzhou was being indecent again.
He Lianzhou smiled broadly and explained, "Monsters need to have enough living space to live in, and the seabed is much larger than the land, so I 'borrowed' some space to come up here. That's what the lord can do."
“And what you did at the amusement park, wasn’t it the same?” He Lianzhou tilted his head. “Only a lord has the ability to break the seal set by the lord. You broke mine, and you also broke those monsters.”
Yin Yu paused for a moment: "But that's different."
Yin Yu couldn't explain the existence of the "system" to He Lianzhou, but because of He Lianzhou's explanation, he suddenly understood that the system's existence was like a "novice lord's guide," and the amusement park in that world was like a testing ground.
He was both pulled in to "rescue" someone in an emergency and to "learn" how to become a lord.
He Lianzhou chuckled: "At least so far you've done a good job. At least while I was absent, you brought order to the place."
"You're back now," Yin Yu said softly, looking into He Lianzhou's eyes beneath the mask. At least for this moment, he could tell that the other man was serious.
“Me?” He Lianzhou shook his head, spread his palms, and laughed mockingly. “It’s not that easy. If I were in my old state, that shipwreck would be on the surface of the sea by now, instead of me having to go through all this trouble to crawl under the sea.”
He grunted.
Yin Yu couldn't help but chuckle when he heard He Lianzhou's slightly complaining mutter.
But soon, an even bigger question arose in his mind: "Why did you become like that?"
He Lianzhou paused almost imperceptibly, then looked at Yin Yu: "Tell me what Meng Xiao meant by 'that time' last time, and I'll tell you. And what you and Chu Zhaoqin were talking about, were they talking about the same thing?"
Yin Yu looked away. "I'm not that interested in knowing."
“Likewise.” He Lianzhou also looked away.
The two exchanged barbs without any politeness, but soon they subconsciously glanced at each other.
Yin Yu rolled his eyes, and then heard He Lianzhou chuckle softly beside him, his lips curling up slightly.
This damn annoying and useless tacit understanding has increased.
The two stayed on the deck for a while longer, until the deck started to get crowded, before Yin Yu and He Lianzhou decided to go back to their cabin.
As soon as the two reached the middle of the deck, they saw Fang Bo and several engineers walking towards them.
"Captain Yin!" Fang Bo waved to Yin Yu as soon as he saw him. "What a coincidence, I was just about to send someone to call you."
Yin Yu raised an eyebrow: "Looking for me? What's up?"
Fang Bo gestured to walk to the other side of the ship's side, where an unmanned submarine emerged from the floating hangar below the starboard side of the salvage mother ship: "This is Qianlong No. 1. Director Meng plans to send it to the underwater sunken ship to observe and collect nearby seawater readings and environmental conditions before deciding whether to send people down."
Because of the detection of hydrothermal vents and the rapid increase in seawater sulfur content, they did not send a third or fourth diving salvage team down.
Now, three days have passed since the hot spring erupted. They don't know how intermittent the hot spring is doing, so they plan to send an underwater submarine to take a look around. If the environmental readings have returned to normal, then they can continue the salvage operation.
The only saving grace was that the super tropical cyclone that was expected to form the day before did not materialize, so it did not have a significant impact on the condition of the sunken ship.
Yin Yu nodded upon hearing this: "Then what do you want to see me about?"
"Another objective of Qianlong-1 is to dive to the depths of the trench near the shipwreck to explore hydrothermal vents," Fang Bo added. "Director Meng wants you to go to the observation point to monitor the situation."
Yin Yu paused for a moment: "Explore underwater hydrothermal vents?"
“Yes.” Fang Bo responded, scratching the back of his head. “Director Meng thinks that might be a breakthrough.”
He lowered his voice and complained, "But how high must the eruption temperature be for hydrothermal vents that can affect the temperature of the sea thousands of meters away? What kind of creatures can live there?"
Yin Yu's eyes lit up, and he looked at Fang Bo abruptly: "I understand, I'll go right now."
Hydrothermal vents form on mid-ocean ridges, which are also the most active areas for submarine volcanic eruptions. The lava ejected from the volcanoes cools and solidifies on the seabed, forming various seabed landforms. This area is also exceptionally rich in biological and mineral resources.
Aren't underwater volcanoes also "mountains"?
His parents told him to "stay away from the mountains," but what if these "mountains" didn't refer to the "Guanshan" mountain but rather to the underwater mountains?
Fang Bo couldn't understand why even Yin Yu was so enthusiastic about this "theory." He shook his head. Anyway, he didn't understand biology or geography. He would just do whatever his superiors asked him to do.
"Countdown to the launch of Qianlong-1." Fang Bo let out a soft breath, glancing at the submarine being battered by the waves, creating layers of white foam. He counted down from three: "Three! Two! One! Launch!"
Yin Yu and He Lianzhou have arrived at the observation point, and the ocean appears on the screen.
"Director Meng," Yin Yu called out from the doorway.
Seeing this, Meng Xiao gestured for Yin Yu to come in and sit down: "Did Fang Bo tell you about this?"
"I did," Yin Yu nodded in response, sitting directly in front of the large screen.
As soon as he and Meng Xiao sat down, they heard a screeching metallic scraping sound coming from behind them. They both looked back at the same time and saw He Lianzhou dragging a chair over without a care in the world, the chair legs making a screeching sound on the ground.
Yin Yu: ""
Meng Xiao: ""
Oh well, I'm used to it.
Yin Yu took a deep breath, not looking at He Lianzhou, and focused on the scene in front of him.
The submarine descended very quickly, and in less than five minutes it had reached the vicinity of the shipwreck.
The shipwreck remains silently on the seabed, seemingly unchanged.
Yin Yu glanced at the various readings displayed in the lower right corner: "The environmental readings have all returned to the state they were in when we first went into the water."
Meng Xiao nodded and notified Fang Bo to have the third batch of diving salvage teams prepare to depart.
Unmanned submarines cannot enter the interior of the sunken ship. They can only circle around the ship to observe for any abnormalities. Once they confirm that there is nothing wrong, the submarine turns around and swims towards the deep-sea trench next to it.
The seawater at the trench turned increasingly dark, a stark contrast to the seabed beside it, as if anything that approached would be sucked down.
Yin Yu clenched his fist slightly.
The trench in front of them is three or four hundred meters wide, several kilometers long, and is predicted to be 13,000 meters deep. It is unknown how deep their unmanned submarine will eventually be able to successfully detect.
The unmanned submarine swam to the top of the trench, below which lay a calm and dark chasm.
It began to descend at a constant speed.
Less than fifty meters down, the light on the seabed completely disappeared, and Yin Yu saw only darkness until the light band around the submarine suddenly opened, restoring the brightness of the view.
Yin Yu slowed his breathing and focused intently on the screen.
The unmanned submarine descends at a very constant speed, reaching 300 meters in five minutes. However, it is still unknown how deep it will need to descend to reach the unknown hydrothermal vent area.
Yin Yu was observing when suddenly a notification sound rang out. Meng Xiao answered the phone, responded briefly, and then hung up. He picked up his tablet, seemingly checking some emails.
"The biological samples from the bite marks at the entrance of the shipwreck that you sent back earlier have been analyzed," Meng Xiao said to Yin Yu.
Upon hearing this, Yin Yu turned to Meng Xiao: "What do you mean?"
"The biological testing team determined that the bite marks at the entrance to the shipwreck may have come from two different time periods, with a span of nearly ten years, or even longer," Meng Xiao said, looking at Yin Yu.
"They detected a type of fungus in the microbial analysis of the tooth marks. This type of fungus often lives in the mouths of creatures such as triggerfish, sharks, and whales. The presence of fungi is like a record book, effectively documenting changes."
Yin Yu frowned: "If the biological analysis team is correct, then the bite marks at the entrance mean that the thing that attacked this shipwreck ten years ago attacked it again ten years later?"
Meng Xiao glanced at Yin Yu, then pursed her lips and corrected, "It may not be the same one, but in terms of time, it is."
"Perhaps it was the force of the ocean currents brought by the hydrothermal vents that carried the shipwreck from a place that was originally impossible to detect and salvage to its current location, and that is why it attracted the attack of a certain type of highly aggressive fish and creatures," Yin Yu said.
“The shipwreck was very likely originally located in the trench area we are currently exploring.” Meng Xiao nodded in agreement. “This trench was likely originally part of an underwater ridge, but at a certain time, there was crustal movement, and since there were unstable hydrothermal vents inside, it was more likely to break apart and collapse, thus creating this deep trench.”
"But this isn't on their original route, so why is the ship here?" Yin Yu still had questions. "Have the analysis results for the shipwreck's caskets been obtained?"
Meng Xiao shook his head: "It won't be that fast, and the box is somewhat damaged. The original data still needs to be repaired. We need to be extremely careful during the process to avoid irreversible data loss."
Yin Yu had no choice but to give up his hopes in this regard.
He looked at the big screen.
The Qianlong-1 submersible is still diving, while the split screen shows the view of the third batch of diving and salvage personnel.
"Wait, Chu Zhaoqin?" Yin Yu, with his sharp eyes, recognized Chu Zhaoqin's face in one of their field of vision. He leaned forward slightly and gasped almost imperceptibly. "Why did he go down again?!"
Meng Xiao frowned as well. She contacted Fang Bo: "Fang Bo, why is someone from the second team on the third diving list? Is his physical condition suitable for continuous diving?"
Fang Bo received Meng Xiao's call with a sigh, pinched his brow and said, "I know Director Meng. He insisted on going in. I had Director Shang Wen check him out, and all his physical indicators met the requirements for going into the water. We had no choice but to let him go."
There were three days between the two salvage operations, and Chu Zhaoqin didn't get a proper rest. Only his excellent physical condition allowed him to dive consecutively.
Upon hearing what Fang Bo said, Yin Yu frowned deeply, took a deep breath, and said to Fang Bo in a low voice, "Fang Bo, get me Chu Zhaoqin's solo channel."
"Received, Captain Yin." Fang Bo's eyelids twitched. He could hear the suppressed anger and dissatisfaction in Yin Yu's words. He didn't dare to be ambiguous at all and immediately opened the channel without hesitation.
"Commander Chu, you're currently on a one-on-one channel with Captain Yin," Fang Botong knew. "Captain Yin, you two can talk now."
Chu Zhaoqin slowed his descent slightly, then asked, "Yin Yu, is something the matter?"
"What are you thinking? Diving continuously for 72 hours, do you know how risky that is!" Yin Yu scolded in a low voice.
Chu Zhaoqin nodded: "But having someone who has been down there before leading the team can increase efficiency by at least 100%, and that's the value I can create for them."
Yin Yu paused, then his voice was tinged with barely perceptible anger: "This is not what I told you before!"
“I didn’t think about anything else, Yin Yu. I’m just stating the facts. Conducting two dives within 72 hours isn’t about showing off. This is my job, and I know my limits.” Chu Zhaoqin interrupted Yin Yu. “I know what I’m doing, and I don’t have any self-destructive tendencies.”
Yin Yu's breathing became slightly heavier.
Chu Zhaoqin heard Yin Yu's breathing and knew he hadn't guessed wrong.
He continued, "I took your advice and went to see the ship's psychologist after you left, so I know the word and what you're worried about. The reason I chose to go down with the team is simple: to improve efficiency, complete this salvage mission as soon as possible, and bring back all the crew members' remains."
“In our line of work, some people say that shipwrecks are an unfinished script written by God, and we are the ones who put the final strokes on that script,” Chu Zhaoqin said in a deep voice. “I have to personally put the final strokes on this mission. If necessary, I will also participate in the subsequent salvage operations, as long as my health permits.”
Yin Yu was silent for a moment; only their breathing could be heard over the radio.
Two seconds later, Yin Yu spoke again: "As long as you know what you're doing. Be careful."
"Received," Chu Zhaoqin replied, ending the one-on-one call.
Yin Yu took a deep breath and stopped looking at the split-screen diving situation.
Fang Bo heard that both people on the radio had ended the call. He hesitated for a moment before speaking, "Captain Yin, what about Chu Zhaoqin?"
"It's nothing. Since he has the ability to lead this dive mission, let's arrange it that way. No problem." Yin Yu interrupted Fang Bo, knowing what Fang Bo was worried about.
Since Chu Zhaoqin had been so frank and direct, they had no reason not to trust him. In addition, Chu Zhaoqin's diving and salvage capabilities were the most outstanding among this group, and Guanshan needed him.
“Okay, Captain Yin,” Fang Bo replied.
Yin Yu took off his headset, closed his eyes, and looked somewhat tired.
Meng Xiao listened to Yin Yu's words, taking in all of Yin Yu's emotions. She patted Yin Yu's shoulder and whispered, "He has your qualities. Now that you're here, he can too."
Yin Yu paused, pursed his lips, and said nothing.
He Lianzhou listened from the side, a dark glint flashing in his eyes.
When Yin Yu got up to go to the restroom, He Lianzhou also got up and said with a forced smile, "Me too."
Meng Xiao frowned. Why was this person acting like a primary school student, always going to the toilet in pairs?
Yin Yu was used to He Lianzhou always being by his side. He just glanced at He Lianzhou and lowered his voice: "The bathroom is indoors, no more than twenty meters away."
“But I just want to be with you,” He Lianzhou snorted.
Yin Yu rubbed his arm and rolled his eyes almost imperceptibly.
He Lianzhou and Yin Yu walked to the bathroom door. He tugged at the corner of his mouth and couldn't help but say, "You seem to care about Chu Zhaoqin quite a bit. I never realized you were so kind. You're so nice to people you just met, but you only seem to be attacking me?"
Yin Yu paused, then looked at He Lianzhou indifferently: "Don't you remember what you did to me when we first met? What? Jealous?"
He Lianzhou paused, then the bathroom door slammed into his nose, causing him to gasp in pain and nearly squat down in front of the bathroom door.
Meng Xiao heard a loud bang behind him, turned around and saw He Lianzhou with a bright red nose and a face full of pain.
Meng Xiao: ""
This was the first time she had ever met someone who could provoke Yin Yu to the point of violence; it was quite unusual.
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