Chapter 30: Despair
Lu Ao’s Yandong County belonged to Qianyong City, but it was located in the most remote part of Qianyong.
From their village to the county seat by provincial road took around three hours.
From the county seat to the city took another two-plus hours.
Lu Ao got into the car a little after seven. By the time he arrived in Qianyong City, it was already past midnight.
The driver drove straight to the Qianyong City Maritime Public Security Bureau.
In the early hours of the morning, the Qianyong City Maritime Public Security Bureau was brightly lit. When Lu Ao got out with his luggage, he glanced over and could see several people moving around through the windows.
If not for the enormous words “Public Security Bureau” hanging at the front gate, Lu Ao would have suspected this was some company in the IT industry.
After getting out of the car and locking it, Old Xu, the driver, called to Lu Ao, “Don’t just stand there. Let’s go in.”
Lu Ao followed behind him with his suitcase.
Old Xu entered the building. When the female officer sitting at the front desk looked up and saw him, she quickly greeted him. “Old Xu, you’re here?”
Old Xu walked over, propped one hand on the front desk, and said, “I brought Lu Ao here. Where’s your captain?”
“Still inside.” The policewoman at the front desk leaned out to look at Lu Ao. After seeing his appearance clearly, she could not help smiling, and her voice became even warmer. She quickly stood up. “You two sit for a while first. I’ll call the captain.”
Old Xu brought Lu Ao to sit at a small table nearby, then personally went to pour him a cup of cooled boiled water.
“Wait a bit. They’re just like this. Once they start working, they lose all sense of time. They might not be able to come out right away.”
“All right.” Lu Ao lowered his head and took a sip of water. He was not particularly thirsty, just a little hungry.
Old Xu had already introduced the situation of this salvage job on the way. Of course, he had said everything he could say. As for what could not be said, it still could not be said now. After going over it again and again, there was not much substantial content to explain.
Before long, Captain Old Zhang came out. Seeing Lu Ao, he strode forward and shook hands with him, smiling warmly. “You must be Lu Ao?”
“Mm. Captain Zhang.”
“Come, sit, sit.” Old Zhang let go of his hand and greeted him. “Old Xu probably told you about the situation this time, so I won’t repeat it. In short, we need to salvage a very important laptop. We’ll have to trouble you for your help.”
Lu Ao nodded and asked, “When does the salvage work begin?”
Old Zhang had not expected him to be so straightforward and immediately said, “Tomorrow morning at six-thirty. We’ll leave from the bureau together and head to the accident site.”
Lu Ao nodded. “No problem.”
“Then all right. I’ll have someone take you to the guesthouse next door to rest. Get up early tomorrow. We’ll try to find that laptop as soon as possible.”
“Okay.”
Old Zhang stood up, walked to the corridor, and shouted toward the office inside, “Xiao Du!”
“Coming—” Along with a young male voice, a tall, thin young man quickly ran out from inside. “Captain, what’s up?”
“Lu Ao is here. Take him to the guesthouse next door to rest. You should get off work and go home to rest later too.”
“Got it.” Xiao Du poked his head out from the corridor and said to Lu Ao, “Wait a second. I’ll go get something.”
After saying this, Xiao Du did not wait for a response and quickly ran back into the office. A moment later, he came out carrying a large lunch box in his left hand and his phone in his right.
He walked up to Lu Ao. “Let’s go. I’ll take you to rest.”
Lu Ao nodded to Old Zhang and Old Xu, then followed Xiao Du out.
Outside the public security hall was an open-air parking lot, where quite a few cars were parked.
Xiao Du pressed his key, quickly found his own car, and called to Lu Ao, “Get in. I’ll take you to the guesthouse.”
Lu Ao put his suitcase into the trunk, opened the passenger-side door, and sat down.
Xiao Du drove out of the parking spot. While watching the road, he asked, “You brought your ID card, right?”
“I did.”
Xiao Du said, “Then that’s fine.”
Lu Ao sensed that he was not particularly enthusiastic, so he did not bother to speak further.
While driving, Xiao Du secretly glanced at Lu Ao’s face and muttered inwardly. If someone said this man was a celebrity, he would believe it. But if someone said he was a diving expert, no matter how he looked at him, he did not seem like one.
Rather than finding someone like this, they might as well directly deploy a few more detectors and scan the sea area section by section. Even if the detectors were not very precise, that would still be better than casually placing their hopes on some person.
The guesthouse was very close to the bureau. In just three minutes, they arrived.
It was an internal guesthouse of the public security bureau. Xiao Du showed his police ID, helped Lu Ao check in, and then went back.
After Lu Ao got his room card, he put his suitcase in the room and came downstairs again. He asked the front desk, “Excuse me, is there any decent restaurant or food stall nearby?”
“Are you going out for a late-night meal?” The girl at the front desk enthusiastically gestured. “After you go out, walk with your back to the guesthouse and head right. At the first intersection, walk down, and there’s a twenty-four-hour food stall there. The taste is pretty good. You can try our Qianyong specialty fried shrimp cakes.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Hey, why don’t we add each other on WeChat? If there’s anything you don’t know, just ask me on WeChat. I’m on duty tonight, so I’ll be here at any time.”
Hearing this, Lu Ao looked up at her.
The girl at the front desk had a very sweet smile.
Lu Ao paused, then took out his phone. “I’ll scan yours.”
“Sure.”
Lu Ao added the front desk girl on WeChat. She quickly sent him several official accounts.
He opened them and glanced. They were all local food review accounts for the city. After thanking her, he scanned through them briefly and then closed them.
Putting his phone back into his pocket, Lu Ao walked over to the food stall he had just asked about.
It was already extremely late. Even though this food stall was open twenty-four hours, there were not many people at this hour.
Lu Ao spotted Xiao Du at once, sitting in a corner, gnawing on a pig’s trotter while scrolling through short videos.
Xiao Du often went out on police calls, so his senses were sharp too. He was grinning foolishly at a video when he sensed something off. He looked up and saw a tall, long-legged young man walk in with his head raised. That face really was handsome. Even casually entering a food stall looked like the protagonist’s entrance in a blockbuster film.
The problem was, had he not just sent this man to the guesthouse?
Xiao Du quickly stood up and called him. “Lu Ao?”
“Mm?” Lu Ao had originally planned to sit somewhere nearby. Hearing him call, he had no choice but to walk over. “What is it?”
Xiao Du was puzzled. Shouldn’t he be the one asking that?
“Weren’t you going to rest at the guesthouse?”
“I’m a little hungry, so I came out for a late-night meal.” Lu Ao looked at the half-eaten pig’s trotter and mung bean soup on his table, nodded slightly, and said, “Enjoy your food.”
Having been caught eating a late-night snack, Xiao Du could not very well eat alone. After all, they would still be working together tomorrow. He could only greet him. “Sit down. Let’s eat together.”
“No need. I’ll order separately.”
Xiao Du firmly pulled him over. “Eat first, then have them bring more dishes.”
Lu Ao was too lazy to keep refusing. He sat down and called over the server. In one go, he ordered more than ten dishes, including roasted pig’s trotters, steamed ribs, fried shrimp cakes, roasted potatoes, garlic oysters, garlic large green mussels, fried rice, and more.
Xiao Du listened with his mouth agape as he quickly reported the menu. Only then did he react and hurriedly stop the server. “No, no, we won’t be able to finish that much.”
Lu Ao said, “That’s all. We can finish it.”
The server stopped and looked at the two of them.
Lu Ao added, “I can finish it. Place the order.”
The server smiled and took the menu to the kitchen.
Xiao Du felt rather embarrassed. “Really, there’s no need. I’m almost done eating. You can’t eat much for a late-night snack anyway.”
Lu Ao said, “I have a big appetite.”
Only then did Xiao Du belatedly react. “You can finish all that by yourself?”
Lu Ao was too lazy to even lift his eyelids.
Xiao Du made a rough calculation. There had to be at least thirteen dishes here, not to mention a coconut sago dessert.
Only a rice bucket could eat all that, right?!
Before long, the server first brought over the roasted pig’s trotters.
Their roasted pig’s trotters were all braised in advance. After being braised, the skin was dried with a fan, then they were stored in the fridge.
When a customer ordered them, the pig’s trotters were taken out directly and placed on a rack to roast.
No one knew whether this trotter came from the front leg or back leg. It had been cut open before being served. The skin was extremely glossy, the whole thing an enticing light soy-brown color, sprinkled with red, yellow, and green chili bits, golden minced garlic, green scallions, and white sesame seeds.
The heat of the charcoal fire awakened the roasted pig’s trotter, and the steaming aroma unique to pig’s trotters surged toward the two of them.
Lu Ao gently picked up a piece of pig’s trotter. Because the skin had been braised in advance, it was very soft and sticky. With one touch of the chopsticks, it trembled.
He gently bit through the soft, flavorful skin. Underneath, there was not much fat; instead, it was all tendon.
The tendon had also absorbed the flavor fully. It was soft yet chewy, not the kind of empty, melted texture that came from being over-stewed.
Probably because it had been roasted, this layer of tendon was quite glutinous. He had to use a little force to tear it free and chew it in his mouth.
Lu Ao narrowed his eyes and tasted one piece. His whole person gave off the air of someone fully satisfied.
After finishing it, he pulled out a napkin from the side and wiped his hands clean. Then he took a photo of the pig’s trotter, even specially adding a filter, and sent it to Song Zhou: The pig’s trotter tastes really good. Want to try?
After sending it, he still was not done. He specially added a filter and started recording a video.
He gently nudged the pig’s trotter with his chopsticks, and the steaming pig’s trotter trembled, looking indescribably tempting.
After recording it, he sent the video to Song Zhou too.
Sitting across from him, Xiao Du watched as Lu Ao bit the meat off a piece of pig’s trotter in under ten seconds. In less than twenty seconds, not only had he finished the meat, he still had time to take a photo of the pig’s trotter.
Xiao Du felt slightly alarmed. He vaguely guessed that this guy’s appetite really was quite large.
Seeing Lu Ao take a photo and send it in one smooth motion, then still seem unsatisfied and record another video, he could not help feeling curious. “Who are you sending that to? Tempting someone with food late at night is too cruel.”
“No one.” Lu Ao waited a few seconds, but when he did not see Song Zhou reply, he put his phone away and gestured to Xiao Du. “Eat.”
“Ah, I’m almost done. You eat.”
Lu Ao did not bother urging him. He placed his phone to one side and continued eating.
Thick, soft pig’s trotters. Tender, juicy ribs. Fragrant, crispy fried shrimp cakes. Soft, piping-hot roasted potatoes. Garlic-scented roasted oysters. And plump, meaty large green mussels.
Lu Ao ate plate after plate of late-night food. His movements were extremely quick, but they did not give off the feeling of wolfing food down.
Xiao Du stared in stunned silence as the plates in front of him emptied one after another. Once the food entered his mouth, it was as if it had gone into a bottomless pit.
Lu Ao quietly ate under his gaze. The incandescent light shone on his face, casting shadows beneath his long lashes. The light seemed to hide all his flaws together, making him look so perfect beneath the lamp that he hardly seemed human.
Xiao Du was not someone who judged people by appearance, but even he found it a little hard to look away.
In less than half an hour, Lu Ao had almost finished the large table of food. The server had even come over twice to clear plates.
Xiao Du could not help asking, “Did you not have time to eat dinner? Sorry, this mission really was a bit rushed.”
In reality, Lu Ao had not only eaten dinner, but his dinner had also been a giant lobster.
He nodded slightly and looked at Xiao Du. “If you’re done eating, you can go home first. You don’t have to wait for me.”
“It’s fine. A few more minutes won’t make a difference.”
Hearing this, Lu Ao stopped trying to persuade him.
He continued eating. After finishing the last sip of coconut milk, he pulled out a napkin, wiped his mouth, and stood up to pay the bill.
Xiao Du snapped out of it as if waking from a dream. “I’ll do it, I’ll do it.”
The words had barely left his mouth when he glanced at the empty bowls and plates on the table, and his heart ached.
So many dishes. Half a month’s worth of his food expenses was about to be sacrificed here.
“I’ll pay for myself.”
Lu Ao lit up his phone. The first thing on the screen was a bank notification. Because his finger pressed against the fingerprint sensor, the full message popped open.
Xiao Du had sharp eyes and saw at a glance the six-figure balance starting with an eight.
Although he did not know exactly how far into the eight hundred thousands it was, for a twenty-four-year-old young man to have more than eight hundred thousand in a bank card was already shocking enough.
Xiao Du was dazed for a moment. By the time he came back to himself, Lu Ao had already paid the bill.
Feeling embarrassed, Xiao Du hurriedly took out his phone. “Hey, I’ll transfer you the money. I did eat with you.”
“No need. You didn’t eat much.” Lu Ao said, “I’m going back first. See you tomorrow.”
With that, he turned and walked out.
“Ah, okay. See you tomorrow.” Xiao Du followed behind him and hurriedly said, “I’ll bring you breakfast tomorrow. There’s a shop here that makes really good stone-ground rice noodles.”
Lu Ao waved a hand and turned in another direction, heading toward the guesthouse.
On the road, he opened the text message.
It was a deposit notification. Judging from the amount, it was the payment from selling the large yellow croaker.
Weng Qian’s hotel was surprisingly efficient.
Lu Ao calculated the exact balance. After confirming there was no problem, he sent Weng Qian a message telling him that he had received the payment.
It was already very late, so the other party did not reply. Song Zhou, on the other hand, had replied earlier: Are you having a midnight snack with your new coworker?
—No. Just ran into him by chance?
—This place tastes really good. If you’re free tomorrow, we can come eat here again.
Before long, Song Zhou’s message came back: All right. What time are you getting up? Why aren’t you asleep yet?
Lu Ao stared at the message, a hint of a smile appearing in his eyes. He opened the keyboard and typed: I’m heading back to the guesthouse now.
Song Zhou: Go sleep.
—I’m already at the guesthouse. I’m going to sleep first. Good night.
Song Zhou: Good night.
Lu Ao replied while entering the guesthouse.
When the receptionist saw the especially gentle look in his lowered eyes, she wailed inwardly. She knew it. How could such a handsome, long-legged guy possibly not have a girlfriend?
Lu Ao returned to his room. After washing up, he quickly went to sleep.
At six-twenty the next morning, his alarm woke him right on time.
He got up, washed up efficiently, and went out for breakfast.
After eating, he came back, took his equipment, and went to the nearby public security bureau to report in.
Many people had come to the bureau today—tall, short, fat, and thin. Judging from their expressions and movements, they probably were not police officers.
When he walked in, Xiao Du spotted him first and quickly pulled him over to make introductions. “Lu Ao, this is the diving team we invited. Today, you’ll continue trying to salvage the item with them.”
Lu Ao nodded.
The captain of the diving team, Old Wen, smiled at him.
Old Zhang soon came over and communicated the precautions for today’s dive and salvage work.
These diving teams had already become used to this over the past few days. It was basically just a formality. In the whole place, only Lu Ao listened seriously.
After Old Zhang finished the briefing, he said to Lu Ao, “Lu Ao, follow Captain Wen and pay attention to safety.”
Lu Ao answered, “Okay.”
Old Wen asked, “You’ve used a tank before, right?”
“I have. I’m all right with it.”
“That’s good.” Old Wen gave a hearty smile. “Stay with me later. As long as we follow standard procedure, there won’t be any danger. Don’t worry.”
Lu Ao nodded.
Everyone packed up their things and did not delay. They immediately lined up and got into the vehicles to head to the pier.
Xiao Du came over and squeezed into the same car as Lu Ao. He handed him a large bag. “I bought you breakfast. Five portions. I don’t know if you’ll like it.”
The others in the car found this rather novel.
Old Gao, in particular, turned around from the front in surprise. “So that’s why you specially kept an extra bag. Turns out it was for Lu Ao?”
Xiao Du’s honey-colored skin flushed a little. “I freeloaded off Lu Ao’s midnight snack last night.”
Lu Ao did not eat in the car.
When they reached the pier and everyone transferred onto the boat, Xiao Du could not help presenting it like a treasure. “Try it. Our rice noodles here are really good.”
Old Gao also said, “Lu Ao, eat. It’ll take more than twenty minutes to reach the target sea area.”
Lu Ao then ate breakfast in a corner of the fishing boat.
Xiao Du had not exaggerated. The rice noodles he bought really were delicious. They carried a faint fragrance of rice, the combination of minced meat and noodles was perfect, and there was scallion oil poured over them too.
Lu Ao ate one portion after another. Before long, he had finished all five portions of rice noodles.
Seeing him eat with such relish, Xiao Du felt a little proud. “If you like it, I’ll bring you more tomorrow.”
“Thank you.” Lu Ao nodded. “Let’s see tonight. Tomorrow, I might want to eat something else.”
The weather was quite good today. The sun was bright, and the sea wind was strong.
Sitting on the boat, they did not feel hot.
Soon, the group of five boats arrived at the target sea area.
The five boats did not stop together but spread out evenly.
Old Gao took out a tablet and confirmed with them. “Today, we’ll search this area. Take a look first.”
Old Wen had already seen it before. He only glanced over it and said, “No problem.”
The other team members also said there was no problem.
Everyone’s gaze fell on Lu Ao. After looking carefully, Lu Ao nodded.
Everyone began putting on gear, carrying tanks, and going into the water one by one.
Lu Ao moved relatively slowly and ended up at the back.
Old Wen reminded him again, “I’ll be in a group with you. Later, we’ll follow this current and search forward. You know diving hand signals, right? If anything happens, you must tell me immediately. Safety comes first.”
Lu Ao nodded. “I’ll go down first. I’ll need to adjust my weights.”
“All right. I nearly forgot you don’t use tanks that often.” Old Wen smiled. “No worries. You go down first. I’ll watch you from the boat.”
“Thank you.”
After getting ready, Lu Ao took a deep breath and flipped backward into the sea.
With a splash, he was already in the water.
He carried weights of around one-tenth of his body weight and slowly adjusted himself to neutral buoyancy—inhale to rise, exhale to sink.
After carefully sensing it, he removed two lead weights.
Xiao Du took the lead weights from him, startled. “Your weights are that light? Will that be okay?”
“No problem.” Lu Ao made an OK gesture. “I’m going down first.”
With that, he bit down on the scuba mouthpiece, held his dive light, kicked his fins, and swam downward.
Old Wen followed him in.
This sea area was fairly deep, around sixty to seventy meters. The deeper they went, the darker it became. By the time they reached the seabed, they could barely see anything clearly.
Lu Ao gestured to Old Wen, and the two followed the route they had set earlier and began searching.
Aside from their flashlights, both of them also carried metal detection devices, slowly scanning along the seabed.
If the metal detector detected metal, it would light up, prompting them to search the spot.
Lu Ao carried the detector as he swam, and the metal detector kept flashing along the way.
There was a lot of metal on the seabed, but most of it was human-produced trash—cans, iron wires from fishing nets, nails, fishhooks… all sorts of garbage.
Whenever Lu Ao detected something, he tossed it into his fish basket to bring ashore later for disposal.
The two stayed underwater for more than thirty minutes but still found no trace of the laptop.
The place where the accident happened was only about a hundred meters from them. Over the past few days, Old Wen’s team had searched all of it bit by bit, not even missing something as small as a needle.
Lu Ao glanced at the time. They still had just over twenty minutes before they would have to return to the boat and rest for a while.
Everything was steady—until this moment.
Lu Ao suddenly sensed that something was wrong with their companions about twenty meters away.
Old Wen sensed it too.
The two exchanged a look and gestured, planning to go over and check.
Their speed underwater was average.
Before they reached their companions, Lu Ao already knew what had happened.
That teammate had found a relatively hidden spot beside a reef and was taking off his pants!
He was about to go to the bathroom!
Lu Ao and Old Wen looked at each other.
Old Wen had never expected something like this to happen during their first time working together. A trace of embarrassment showed on his face.
Neither of them had expected that just as they turned around to swim back to their search area, Old Wen’s face would change. He suddenly gestured to Lu Ao as well, signaling that he needed to make a three-minute safety stop.
Lu Ao understood almost immediately.
Old Wen had diarrhea too.
Old Wen looked very urgent.
Lu Ao’s mind nearly went blank. He bit down on his scuba mouthpiece and quickly swam more than ten meters away.
Old Wen had never imagined that this kind of mishap would happen the first time he dove with a new partner. He was so embarrassed he wanted to die, and his stomach hurt so badly he also wanted to die.
He hurriedly descended, found a suitable spot beside a reef, observed the direction of the current, began taking off his weights and hanging them around his neck, then removed his buoyancy control vest.
Lu Ao was nearby and simply could not bear to look.
He gestured to Old Wen, telling him he would go hide nearby for the time being.
While awkwardly clamping the oxygen tank between his legs and taking off his wetsuit, Old Wen made a gesture of understanding, then continued struggling with his equipment.
Lu Ao knew that when nature called, no one could hold it back. Once it became urgent, there was no way to endure it all the way through a slow ascent. It could only be dealt with underwater.
They were sixty to seventy meters underwater. If they ascended too quickly, the large amount of nitrogen dissolved in the blood would rapidly release and form bubbles, causing air embolism or even alveolar rupture. At that point, it could be life-threatening.
Compared with that, losing face in front of a teammate was an utterly insignificant matter.
Even so, Lu Ao had no desire to watch someone go to the bathroom.
Especially underwater. Someone relieving themselves underwater might attract fish.
Just imagining that scene made Lu Ao feel despair.
He had already swum more than ten meters to the side, watching Old Wen from afar.
He wished he could swim another ten meters away.
If not for the need to keep his companion safe, he would have simply fled.
After all, he was not human anymore. Even without a tank, he could easily dive dozens of meters. In water, he felt even freer than on land.
But he could not do that now. He had to be responsible for his teammate’s safety.
Lu Ao sighed inwardly. For the first time, he lamented why his hand had been so itchy that he had accepted this job.
Wasn’t staying home with Song Zhou, planting vegetables and herding geese, fun enough? Why did he have to come all this way to the bottom of the sea and watch a bunch of grown men go to the bathroom?!
What sin had he committed?!
Update Posting Schedule: Starting next chapter, posting schedule change from posting every day to 2 chapters every Thursday and Sunday~
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