Chapter 32 The Great Storm

This Li Sidi was a very good swimmer, and he was in charge of all their work in the water. “There must be a huge storm coming. It’ll probably be here within the hour,” he said to them. “The fact that the seawater has receded so much is proof of that. In a few minutes, the water that’s been sucked away by the low pressure will rush back over all at once, just like a small tsunami. We only have three small kayaks here so I’m afraid things aren’t looking too good for us.”

He had said all of this in a very tactful manner but Uncle Three could tell by his expression that he thought they were as good as dead. These people had never been out in the real world before, so when they heard what Li Sidi said, they all turned pale with fear and several of the girls began to cry.

Uncle Three took Chen Wen-Jin’s hand and found that it was sweaty. She was obviously just as frightened as the others even though she wasn’t showing it. Uncle Three had never dealt with this kind of thing before but he was a professional grave robber, as well as someone with a strong mental fortitude. He immediately warned himself not to fall into a panic because if he did, things would really be hopeless!

He counted the number of people. When they first came to this place, there were ten people in total, but now one person was dead and another had gone back with the big boat in order to report the accident and their undersea discovery. Now, there were only eight people left in their group.

Uncle Three turned to Li Sidi and asked, “How long will this storm last?”

“This kind of summer storm is very short so it’ll pass after about ten minutes,” Li Sidi said. “But during that time, the seawater will rise at least five or six meters and completely submerge this reef.” He shook his head. “These ten minutes are no joke. If you get hit by the wave, you’ll either be smashed up against the reef and die or you’ll get swept out into deeper waters and drown. I’m not trying to scare you guys. We really are in big trouble right now.”

Uncle Three’s mind was racing as he tried to come up with a solution. Several ideas popped into his head in an instant but were rejected just as quickly. Attempting to row back to land in their kayaks was just asking for death because no matter how fast they rowed, they wouldn’t be able to outrun the storm. They also couldn’t use their diving equipment to hide in the water because the sea around the Bowl Reef was only seven meters deep, which wouldn’t work at all.

Uncle Three could see that the seabed was almost visible to the naked eye now, and like a flash of lightning in the dark night, a very risky plan suddenly emerged in his mind. There was no more time to discuss the feasibility of this plan, so he simply turned to the others and said, “Let’s stop thinking about it and focus on gathering our oxygen tanks and seeing how much air is left in them. We’ll go down into the ancient tomb and take shelter!”

Uncle Three was very familiar with going down into ancient tombs so he didn’t think too much about it, but the others were nerds. In their eyes, this proposal was simply too outrageous. In fact, everyone immediately went into an uproar as soon as they heard this sentence. Uncle Three saw how opposed they were to the idea and hurriedly explained what was at stake.

He pointed to the horizon and said, “Everyone, look at this storm. We haven’t felt its effects yet but we’ve all seen documentaries about tsunamis. This kind of thing is no joke. If we wait here for the storm to come, we’ll all die and they won’t even be able to find our bodies. But under this sea, there’s a ready-made shelter. We already know that there must be air inside this ancient tomb and that it’s fresh air. Since it’s connected to moving water, the air quality inside should be fine. Plus, there aren’t many of us. We can stay inside the tomb for an hour and then leave. It’s our only chance of survival!”

Uncle Three was talented at persuading people—otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to run such a big business in the future—so everyone felt a glimmer of hope after listening to what he said. They quickly gathered all the diving equipment together and then deflated and folded the three kayaks up. Now that everything was ready, Uncle Three taught the others a few sign language gestures to use when they were underwater. Then, he led them into the water, turned on a waterproof flashlight, and swam into the tomb passage.

Diving equipment at that time consisted of a large helmet worn over the head, which looked very bulky but was actually very sturdy. If any large sea creatures suddenly appeared in front of you, they wouldn’t be able to swallow you as long as you were wearing this helmet. At least, that was what Uncle Three told himself as he tried to relax.

He continued swimming forward and saw that the tomb passage was getting narrower and narrower. This gave rise to another question on whether they would be able to fit through the passage and make it to the end or not. But fortunately, he had a full set of tools with him so if things took a turn for the worse, he could still make a path for them.

There were a lot of faces carved onto the walls of the tomb passage but they were covered in a thick layer of things which made it impossible to identify which dynasty they were from. The archeological team members had never seen the real world before and obviously forgot about their current predicament as they all gathered around to study these faces. Uncle Three could feel a headache coming on as he frequently stopped and urged them to keep moving forward.

They continued swimming forward for fifteen minutes and made several turns until they felt as if they had lost their sense of direction. Uncle Three realized that these people were becoming too disorganized and needed to be rectified, so he made a gesture to stop everyone behind him. He then asked Chen Wen-Jin to do a headcount to see if anyone had been left behind.

It took a lot of energy to swim in this narrow tomb passage. Everyone was feeling so exhausted that when they saw Uncle Three make the gesture to stop, they all staggered and sat down as if they had been granted amnesty.

Uncle Three looked at them all helplessly while thinking to himself, being the leader isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. He used his flashlight to look back at them before starting to turn back towards the front, but at this time, Chen Wen-Jin suddenly tapped him on the leg. Uncle Three turned to look at her and saw that her expression looked very panicked. His heart clenched as he wondered if someone had really been left behind.

Chen Wen-Jin was so flustered that she didn’t seem to know how to express herself. She held up a finger and kept waving it in front of Uncle Three’s face but he couldn’t figure out what she was trying to say. “Is one person missing?” He mouthed at her.

Chen Wen-Jin shook her head and then held up one palm fully extended while the other hand held up four fingers. She then put the two hands together. Uncle Three was still very puzzled, but after carefully looking at the words Chen Wen-Jin was mouthing at him, he finally realized that what she was trying to say was, “There’s one more person!”

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