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Ch42 - Ghosts in the Water (ii)
Joe bent down and spoke a few words to Ke Jin. After informing Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan, he brought Ke Jin back to the villa first. The two caretakers also followed behind them. Apart from Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan, the only people left on the beach were Uncle Chang, who was putting aside the spare diving suits, as well as a girl who had come to replenish the refreshments.
“Just now I received—” Gu Yan had only just started speaking when he noticed that Yan Suizhi appeared a little distracted, his gaze scanning the area all about them. “What are you looking around for?”
Yan Suizhi looked at the calm sea surface. He clicked his tongue. “I’m still a little worried.”
“Worried about?” Gu Yan asked.
“Charles didn’t look in good form earlier,” said Yan Suizhi. “It took him quite some effort before he went underwater. He really didn’t look fit for going into the water with the way he looked.”
“Did the instructor go down with him?” Gu Yan’s eyebrows furrowed as well.
“Yeah, but it’s always hard to say what could happen underwater.”
“He should know to signal with the dive light if he runs into any issues.” Right as Gu Yan said this, his eyes swept over the soft sand a short distance away and suddenly glimpsed a black object. “What’s that?”
The two of them walked over to take a look. Their complexions instantly changed.
Speak of the devil. A dive light really was lying on the soft sand.
Whether or not this belonged to Jason Charles, their hearts still skipped a beat.
Yan Suizhi lifted his eyes and exchanged a look with Gu Yan.
“Uncle Chang!”
“Is there something you need?” Uncle Chang raised his head.
“Do you know how to dive?” Yan Suizhi’s face was grim.
Baffled, Uncle Chang shook his head. “I can’t claim to have the talent.”
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Jason Charles was struggling underwater.
Actually, the situation wasn’t this severe at first. The tightness of a diving suit, be it slightly tighter or slightly looser, wouldn’t significantly affect a dive. However, he had gained a lot of weight over the years. With his present physique, he was easily prone to adverse reactions during dives. The combination of these two issues caused him to panic all the more when trouble came knocking.
Despite having heard a lot of the safety talk before diving, theoretically knowing how to react in certain scenarios was still different from actually being neck-deep in danger. He wasn’t able to think at all, and acted purely on instinct.
So, he instinctively tried to swim up to the surface as quickly as he could to get out of the water. However, the excessive speed of his ascent caused the air in his lungs to expand rapidly…
Further, he seemed to have lost the dive light during this, and the figure of the instructor was nowhere in sight!
I’m probably going to explode.
I’m about to die here.
Jason Charles’ thoughts spiralled wildly in utter despair.
In the last moment before his consciousness faded away, he felt someone grabbing the locking strap of his diving gear. And it wasn’t just one hand.
It felt like several hands had caught hold of him.
What in the heavens was this? A hallucination? An octopus? Or had someone finally realised that he was about to die?
These were Jason Charles’ last thoughts right before he passed out.
Just before four in the afternoon, the beach at Yaba Island was in a flurry of chaos.
The people who had gone diving earlier were all coming ashore in their own time. Laura and the others had already changed into normal clothes. Ignoring the water stains on their clothes and their wet hair, they hurried behind the stretchers.
Joe’s face was vexed. He pulled his hair as he arranged for the island’s medical staff to send the stretchers to an ambulatory care centre.
“What happened?” Elena had come out of the shower to find out that the world had changed. She was confused and unable to make sense of what was happening. “Weren’t things all fine when I came to shore?”
Laura rapidly explained. “It’s Jason. I’m not sure what happened on the dive, but something went wrong. He almost died in the sea. Furthermore, this guy actually went underwater without a dive light, and the speed of his ascent was too fast. Thank heavens for Gu Yan and his intern. They noticed something wrong in time. Maybe those on the shore have keener intuition? Anyway, I’m really glad they didn’t go down with us.”
“So why are there three stretchers?”
“There’s also Mr Zhao and the instructor. They got tangled up with sea snakes underwater. The doctor’s still looking for the wound, but hopefully, they’ll turn out okay. I heard Joe say that they had the anti-venom on the island.”
Elena was aghast. “My God, how could this have happened?”
George Manson looked the worst of them all. After all, the three men who had gone underwater with him had all collapsed; he was the only one who had made it safely back to shore. Although chance didn’t work that way, he still got the illusion that he had narrowly escaped from death underwater as well.
He sat on a deck chair by the beach and fetched a glass of chilled wine to cool his face, trying to calm himself down.
Not far from him, Yan Suizhi was also seated on a deck chair. His gaze was lowered as he removed the special black gloves used for rescues.
When he and Gu Yan had pulled Jason Charles ashore earlier, the paramedics were eager to put him on a stretcher as well to take him in for a check-up, but he turned them down.
After thrice affirming that he was fine did the paramedics finally set their mind at ease and leave.
In truth, he was extremely worn out. So worn out that he didn’t even want to stand up.
It had been a long time since he last dived. And Jason Charles, that unlucky guy, just had to be a fatty who was at least one and a half times his weight. Fortunately, Gu Yan was able to give him a hand, otherwise a solo attempt to retrieve Jason would have ended up with them both collapsing in the sea.
When other people were worn out, their faces would be flushed and they would pant heavily. On the contrary, Yan Suizhi’s face turned paler. The more tired he was, the paler he became, and the stark contrast of the black diving suit made this paleness even more striking.
He habitually restrained his breathing to a certain frequency, which caused him to appear extremely calm, alongside a slight, wan aloofness.
Eyes cast downwards, Yan Suizhi folded the gloves he had removed.
A faint swishing sound came from the beach in front of him. It sounded like someone was walking over his way.
Yan Suizhi was so fatigued that he couldn’t even be bothered to smile; in this manner, his eyes flicked up coolly. He saw Gu Yan carrying his diving mask and regulator in one hand, eyes hooded as he bit off the glove on his other hand.
His wet hair was raked back with not a strand falling down. Apart from the meticulousness and neatness it presented, this image also gave off a faint sense of arrogance, like an aristocrat of the days long past.
“All taken to the ambulance centre?”
“Mn.”
“That’s good,” Yan Suizhi lazily responded.
“Let’s go. Change out of your diving suit.” Gu Yan walked over to Yan Suizhi, pointing with the glove to a villa dedicated for showering not far off.
Professor Yan languidly said, “You go on first. I don’t want to move for now. I’ll get up later.”
Gu Yan lowered his gaze on him for a moment, then gathered his gloves and gear together in his left hand. He extended his right. “Do you plan to go only after you start to rot in your diving suit?”
Unexpectedly, the hand that he had removed the glove from wasn’t wet with water nor any sweat. It looked slender and dry, and it was very clean.
Yan Suizhi shot him a look, crossly slapping his hand into that palm. Gu Yan’s fingers tightened.
Condescending to stand up, he pulled himself up with that hand, saying peevishly, “If I really start to rot, I assure you that I’ll meditate in your room as an aromatherapy stick for an hour.”
“You can try and see what happens.” After he stood steady, Gu Yan then let go of his hand, returning icily.