Tianjin people will never lose SAN

Chapter 585: The Mouth of the Abyss (4k+)

Liu Yonglu had an illusion in the past two days, as if he was not on the expedition ship of the Lost Sea, but on a luxury yacht.

I go fishing, bask in the sun, and chat with my wife every day. The day goes by quickly. I don’t have to worry about food. Three meals a day, plus occasional midnight snacks and afternoon tea, are all served. If I really feel like cooking, I can cook two dishes myself.

Close the door, drink some wine, hum a few Peking operas with the little guy on the street, and life is quite comfortable.

But there is one thing: entertainment activities are a bit monotonous and scarce, so Liu Yonglu goes to bed earlier and earlier every day. Today, Liu Yonglu woke up naturally at dawn.

Arriving at the kitchen, I smelled the aroma of breakfast. The eldest disciple had already started preparing breakfast. Today, Xia Ni made fried fish, vegetarian dumplings, and a pot of eight-treasure porridge for Liu Yonglu to enjoy.
"Shani, remember to ask Kogan if we have any extra eggs today. Fried fish tastes good, but I'm still a little uncomfortable eating something so hard in the morning. It'd be best if we roll the eggs in a pancake tomorrow."

Fried fish and vegetarian buns couldn't stop Liu Yonglu's mouth. He ate while giving advice on Jiangshan.

"Okay, Master, we'll go fishing on the deck later. Kogan and the others have to go to another boat to preach. Just let us know when you see them."

Mr. Shani wiped the stove with a towel, served himself a breakfast and ate it sitting opposite Liu Yonglu.

"Ah... Take your time eating. I'll check what I'm going to catch later."

Liu Yonglu yawned and stretched. His sleep duration and quality had been pretty good recently. The only problem was that he woke up too early. Liu Yonglu's biological clock had not yet adapted to the situation, and he was still a little dazed when he just woke up.

"Master, I have put all the things on the rack on the deck. The fishing rod for octopus is also ready. Don't worry about it. I will clean up the kitchen and move out later."

"Okay, I'll go out and smoke a cigarette."

When Liu Yonglu passed by the kitchen door, he glanced at the bucket placed at the foot of the wall. It was quite large, with several iron hoops nailed around the wooden board. It must be quite heavy. Well, since the eldest disciple asked him to move it, let him move it.

Liu Yonglu had just woken up and felt sore and lazy all over. Under normal circumstances, he might have just taken the cigarette out with him, but this time he just took out a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth.

The sea breeze in the early morning was still mixed with a little chill. Liu Yonglu straightened the collar of his coat and looked up. The crew members on the lookout were observing the surrounding seas diligently. When they saw Liu Yonglu coming out of the cabin, the bearded young man nodded at him.

"all the best?"

Liu Yonglu looked up and asked.

"Yes, Mr. Richie, everything is going well. Look at the ten o'clock and three o'clock directions, they are the Defender of the Holy See and the God of the Harvest respectively."

The lookout gave him a sufficient field of vision. Liu Yonglu stood on the deck and looked hard before he could barely see the outline of the Holy See battleship in the northeast direction.

The sea surface was still the same as usual, dull and tedious. There was nothing but sea. As the sun had just risen, the sunlight was not strong, and the rolling waves hitting the hull only created streaks of gray spray.

Liu Yonglu clung to the fence and looked hard into the water, as if trying to find some clue that a giant sea beast had followed him here, but the water was always a dull dark blue color without any change.

"Master, come on, let's start."

Just at this moment, Mr. Shani carried the wooden barrel out of the cabin. He carried the cable that fixed the barrel on his shoulders. There was a reserved iron ring on the iron hoop of the barrel. Mr. Shani tied the barrel tightly with the cable along the iron ring.

"Kick the bucket down first. This thing has to hang for a while. I hope we can catch a few more and make a grilled octopus. We just need to bring it up before noon...ah."

Liu Yonglu yawned. He had not yet recovered from his sleepiness.

"Master, it's done. Please help me watch the rod in three hours while I go to the kitchen to mix the batter."

Mr. Shani clapped his hands and fixed the end of the rope to the hull. Without saying a word, Liu Yonglu kicked the wooden barrel into the sea.

……

The lookout bucket of the "God of Harvest" is as big as two desks put together, and can accommodate three people for reconnaissance in the lookout bucket at the same time.

Jacob climbed up the rope ladder. There were two believers on the ladder. One of them was looking into the distance with a monocular telescope, while the other was taking notes with a pen.

"The Holy Lady's mercy shines upon the earth. Your Excellency the Inquisitor, we have not found anything unusual since 11 o'clock last night."

Seeing Jacob, the recorder quickly stood up and saluted.

"You guys go and rest first, I'll take care of it."

Patting the believer on the shoulder, Jacob took the notebook from him and looked at it carefully.

"Well, then I'll leave it to you next."

The two believers who were in charge of night reconnaissance were obviously very sleepy. The recorder picked up a box of Cosmic brand cigarettes from the wooden barrel, smoked one himself and threw one to his companion.

Jacob has recently been checking the night's reconnaissance every day at dawn and again before the 11pm shift change.

Since Saint Baran has entrusted me with the important task of reconnaissance and surveillance, I must do my best.

Fortunately, in recent days, Jacob's pilot ship has been able to give immediate warnings as soon as the huge shadow appears.

Two believers on night duty climbed down the rope ladder, cigarettes in their mouths, leaving only Jacob on the lookout.

The circular monocular telescope still saw the endless sea. Looking upward, a few thin clouds were drifting away into the distance with the sea breeze. It looked like it would be another sunny day.

But when Jacob moved his gaze towards the sea again, he found that the huge underwater shadow appeared in his field of vision again without warning.

About...fifteen nautical miles away, no...maybe closer.

Jacob immediately put down the telescope and rang the copper bell at hand. The crisp sound of the bell instantly energized the crew on duty in the morning. After this period of running-in, the crew were all clear about their positions. Some notified the engine room to increase horsepower, some used flag signals to notify other ships in the fleet, and some ran into the cabin to notify the crew to assemble.

Jacob checked all the details to make sure there were no mistakes, then picked up the monocular telescope at hand.

But when he turned his sight to the sea again... Jacob found that the shadow had disappeared...

Was I dazzled just now? No way, the outline of that shadow was so clear, and it was just now cruising rapidly towards the direction of the fleet under the sea.

According to previous experience, the unidentified creatures will follow the fleet for a period of time, until the ships run at full speed and completely leave them behind, and then the unidentified creatures will give up and leave.

But the current situation is different from the previous one. The shadow appears in an instant and disappears in an instant.

"Your Excellency the Inquisitor, have you just spotted that lingering sea monster again?"

The second mate climbed onto the lookout. Jacob said nothing, but handed him a telescope. His meaning was obvious: help me look for it.

The second mate started observing around the 10 o'clock position just like Jacob, but no matter how he adjusted the focus, he could not observe the shadow under the sea.

The sea was calm as usual, with occasional seabirds dropping into the water to look for food. No matter how you looked at it, it didn't look like there were any giant sea beasts lurking underwater.

After observing for three minutes and finding nothing, the second mate simply turned around and looked 360 degrees around the entire sea area. "Mr. Jacob!"

The second mate exclaimed, and Jacob quickly took the telescope from the second mate.

In the southeast direction, in the circular field of vision, Jacob saw the underwater black nightmare again. It seemed that it had used some unknown method to suddenly appear in the center of the fleet!
In the center of several huge warships was a medium-sized exploration ship, which was Saint Baran’s vehicle, the “Dog Riding a Rabbit”.

At this time, a black shadow with a diameter far exceeding the length of the hull appeared directly below the hull of "Dog Riding Rabbit".

"Quick! Use flag signals to inform the captain of the other ship, the gunners are ready, and the helmsman is adjusting the direction..."

Jacob was still holding the telescope and giving incoherent orders, but the next second, a huge splash of water rose straight up from the screen, and the mist even blew onto Jacob's face.

In the telescope, half of a huge black body emerged from the sea, and the "Dog Riding Rabbit" above its head was thrown up by the huge force like a rubber toy in a child's bathtub.

Just as previously speculated, this was an unknown huge sea beast. The moment it emerged from the water, it opened its huge mouth and swallowed the "Dog Riding Rabbit" directly.

The size of the sea monster was larger than Jacob had expected. Its wide-open mouth completely enveloped the exploration ship, and the edge of the exploration ship's hull did not even touch the upper and lower jaws of the sea monster.

"boom!"

Another loud noise was heard, and the sea beast that had swallowed the exploration ship fell back into the sea.

The whole process lasted only thirty seconds. In the blink of an eye, the central sea area of ​​the fleet returned to calm. Only the slightly shaking hull clearly reminded Jacob that everything he had just seen was real. This was not a dream, but reality.

"Snapped."

The monocular telescope in Jacob's hand fell to the ground. It was over. Monsignor Saint Barlan, who had just been found, was lost again!
……

Time goes back to ten minutes ago. On the "Dog Riding Rabbit", Liu Yonglu had just kicked the wooden barrel down and set up the fishing rod. He was about to go back to the house to make a pot of hot tea and come back to fish, when he heard his eldest disciple Shani calling him:
"Master, did you hear someone...hiss...it sounded like someone was shouting...I couldn't hear what they were shouting, but there was definitely some noise."

Shani blinked and paced back and forth, as if looking for the source of the sound.

"No, the story about the water monkey I told you yesterday was all made up. It was made up by Grandma Li upstairs from my house when I was a child. The location was not the seaside, but the Ziya River."

Liu Yonglu didn't take it seriously and thought that his eldest disciple was just hallucinating.

"No, Master, come over here and listen. There really is a voice shouting... It sounds quite urgent. Could it be that someone has fallen into the water?"

"Really? Let me listen."

Liu Yonglu lit a cigarette, walked to Mr. Xia Ni and listened with his ear tilted. Hey, the eldest disciple was really not Hu Qin, there was really someone shouting for help!
"This voice sounds familiar. I feel like I heard it somewhere..."

"Hush! Hush!"

Liu Yonglu tilted his head, squinted his eyes, and strained his ears. He vaguely heard someone calling his name:
"Help! I will never...lose...my eighth generation...oh my god...what bad luck...damn it..."

What is that? Mr. Shani is right. It sounds familiar. Tianjin dialect! Real Tianjin dialect! A high-pitched voice! And the words are all in bits and pieces!

Chicken run!

Liu Yonglu reacted immediately and realized that it was Zou Ji who was shouting for help. Liu Yonglu quickly leaned over the side of the boat and looked down. He saw Zou Ji struggling on the water around the hanging cable. It was estimated that the one leg had grabbed the rope, but it would be difficult for him to pull himself out of the water.

Fortunately, the walking chicken is the incarnation of a water lizard. If it were an ordinary bird, it would have sunk to the bottom by now.

Zou Ji didn't know what had happened. Last night, he lay down on his small mat and fell asleep as usual. In the morning, when he was half asleep, he felt his bed shaking.

But this is normal. When an expedition ship is sailing on the ocean, it is possible to encounter windy and rainy weather. This kind of thing has happened before.

In the past week, Zou Ji has been preaching on the boat of the Holy Maiden Sect every day. It is very exhausting, and I have to sleep until noon every day. That is the only way to enjoy it.

So even though the bed shook slightly, Zou Ji didn't take it to heart.

While sleeping, Zou Ji heard Xia Ni and Liu Yonglu talking beside him. Zou Ji was half asleep and felt a little uncomfortable. There were so many things to dream about, but he had to dream about these two people.

The chicken in the bucket turned over, covered its head with its wings and slept even more soundly.

After a while, the chicken felt its body losing weight and falling rapidly. Then, the cold sea water poured into the bucket, waking it up instantly!

In panic, the chicken began to struggle in the water, thinking to himself, my life is over, I must have encountered a shipwreck while I was sleeping!
But after flapping for a few minutes, the chicken discovered... hey, I can breathe in the water! It's okay!

Looking around, he realized that he was not in the cabin but lying in a wooden barrel. What was going on?
After finally surfacing, Zou Ji looked up and saw Liu Yonglu and Xia Ni holding out their fishing rods. Zou Ji understood everything at once. Liu Yonglu! You are such a wicked bastard! You don't do things like that. You are using me as bait!

But he couldn't fly up by his own strength, so he could only shout at the top of his lungs for Liu Yonglu to save him.

"Shani, give me a hand and pull him up!"

Liu Yonglu was also confused. What a fool! He didn't want to sleep in the bed but got up early to go swimming. This was not a normal thing.

The wooden barrel was heavy to begin with, and it was now filled with sea water. Liu Yonglu couldn't pull it up by himself. Fortunately, Mr. Shani was there to help, and the two of them grabbed the rope and pulled the chicken onto the boat.

But... as he was pulling, Liu Yonglu saw a large shadow suddenly appear under the sea!

Could this be the sea monster that Jacob mentioned before?

"Go chicken! Try your best to climb up!"

Seeing the horrified expression on Liu Yonglu's face, Zou Ji was still wondering... Yonglu is really getting more and more naive. He has never seen anyone swimming in the sea? Is he really that scared? And he asked me to crawl. Look at my one leg. Can I crawl up! ?
"under!"

Liu Yonglu cried out loudly.

"That's the sea below! I'll settle the score with you two when I get up there. If you don't make me the most delicious steamed buns with shrimp paste for lunch, I'll never let you two off!"

The chicken is still ordering food! Liu Yonglu has already seen the outline of the sea beast's dark upper jaw.

It was not covered with rough skin, nor were there any sharp teeth. It was just a mass of pure black, with faint hints of sharp corners.

"There's something!"

"Nonsense! I have a bucket hanging underneath me, and there's still yesterday's..."

The chicken saw it too! There really is something there! It's quite big:
"Yonglu! Save me!"

Just as the sea monster emerged from the water, Liu Yonglu and Xia Ni finally worked together to pull the chicken onto the boat.

(End of this chapter)