"Gui, I hope we'll get the chance to meet again."
"Goodbye."
Xiao Xiao turned and swam ahead.
"Goodbye."
"Xiao Xiao."
After a long while, Gui's deep, distant voice echoed in his mind.
The corners of Xiao Xiao's mouth lifted, and his smile widened.
"Splash~"
Uncle Zhang surfaced and wiped a hand over his face. Before lowering it, he hurriedly asked the people surfacing nearby, "Did you find him?"
"No."
"Couldn't find him."
Everyone shook their heads. Their faces were anxious, but their eyes and brows showed signs of exhaustion.
Searching back and forth like this took a tremendous amount of energy.
On top of that, the pressure of the situation only made them feel more physically worn out.
"We still can't find him..."
Uncle Yu swam over, his voice heavy. "Maybe... he sank to the bottom."
The others exchanged glances. No one spoke up to disagree.
By now, most of them had more or less started to suspect the same thing.
They just didn't dare say it out loud.
It felt as if saying it would make it final.
As long as they didn't voice it, there was still a glimmer of hope.
"Ah..."
Someone sighed.
The atmosphere grew heavy.
"Let's call the police."
Uncle Zhang spoke up. "This is too large an area for us to search on our own."
"At the very least..."
They needed to recover Old Master Li's body.
Uncle Zhang didn't say the rest, but everyone understood.
"Let's all get back on the boats."
Uncle Yu waved a hand. The wrinkles on his face seemed to deepen.
"Splash~"
A sudden splash sounded.
No one paid it any mind, assuming another person had come up from searching.
Someone was about to remind the person surfacing that they were heading back and