Encountering People

He had originally thought that with his tiny, stubby body, lifting it would be very difficult.

But reality exceeded his expectations. Holding the stone, he found it strangely light, as though it took no effort at all.

The stone fell under gravity and easily smashed the snail to pieces.

There was nothing wrong with this stone. If it could crush a snail to bits, it had to be heavy.

His strength had increased.

Lu Ao stared seriously at the snail beneath his claws.

The snail beneath the stone had already been smashed into mush and was completely inedible.

Lu Ao stared at it for a while, then switched to a lighter stone and gave it a gentle tap.

The snail cracked open at once. Like a human cracking sunflower seeds, he pried apart the broken shell, revealing the plump snail meat inside.

Lu Ao ate only the meat.

The snails from this natural stretch of sea were fresh, delicious, and rich.

His keen sense of taste thoroughly picked apart the snail's texture and flavor. The plump meat was bursting with juice, its rich, savory taste flooding his tongue until he nearly wanted to swallow his tongue along with it.

Lu Ao cracked them open one by one with a stone and quickly finished the small pile of snails.

Seeing the pile of shells and innards at his feet, he still wanted more. His stomach had only just awakened, and having the food run out right after he got a taste for it felt awful.

He stared at his tiny stubby claws. After thinking for a moment, he painstakingly pressed them together, hugged a stone, and went to smash some oysters.

Smashing oysters was much easier than he had imagined.

His tiny claws were unexpectedly nimble, and he was strong too. He smashed open the oysters one after another, quickly cracking open a large pile.

This island stood alone far out at sea. No one knew how long it had been since humans had last come here, or perhaps there were no humans in this world at all.

Without human interference, these oysters had grown large and plump.

Lu Ao easily smashed open a pile of them. Every single one was larger than the palm of his hand back when he had been human.

With so many oysters, he slowly shuffled his hind legs into the sea, meticulously rinsed his front claws, then came back to open them.

He did not need a knife to open oysters at all. His thin, sharp claw tips were the best knives. One stab and one pry, and the shell opened, revealing the thick meat inside.

The oyster meat he opened was still contracting. When he gently shook the shell, the plump, slightly yellow flesh inside trembled as well.

He lowered his head and sucked up a huge mouthful. Fresh juice burst across his mouth, filling his entire mouth with the flavor of oyster meat. The abundant juices quickly soothed his thirst.

He narrowed his eyes in satisfaction. Sunlight cast his shadow onto the ground, and his long eyelashes could vaguely be seen.

Lu Ao thought strangely that this lizard body of his seemed rather delicate-looking.

Full and satisfied, he grew sleepy and found a corner to sleep in.

For the next two days, he did nothing but eat and sleep.

After turning into a lizard, he had no intention whatsoever of returning to the human world.

He did not even have the desire to explore beyond the island.

He was very strong and swam quite quickly. If he wanted snails, he ate snails; if he wanted fish, he ate fish; if he wanted oysters, he ate oysters.

He felt that there might be something wrong with his mental state. He could not muster interest in anything now, and every day he did only three things: wake up and look for food, eat, and lie down to sleep.

Those three things alone exhausted all his energy.

He instinctively felt that he ought to do something. Whenever he thought about being a lizard, he became depressed and only wanted to empty his mind for the time being.

Just like that, two days passed.

The weather was nice that day as well. The sunlight was brilliant, bleaching everything white.

Lu Ao was daydreaming while dozing off. Just as he was sleeping comfortably, he suddenly heard the sound of an engine. It reached his ears with a rumbling "putt-putt-putt."

He jolted awake, raised his head warily, and his dark green eyes darted around.

Very quickly, he spotted a boat carrying people toward this deserted island from afar.

Wasn't this world supposed to have no humans?!

Lu Ao had spent several days on this deserted island and often felt as though he was no longer on Earth.

Yet after only a few days, he had heard the engine sounds of human society.

The engine drew closer and closer. He could already see the boat cutting through the waves toward the island.

It was a typical fishing boat, roughly twice the length and width of a speedboat, with a cabin, a deck, and railings around the deck.

Lu Ao stared at the boat, crawled forward a few steps, and quietly slipped into the sea.

Wave after wave washed over the island's reefs, completely concealing Lu Ao's traces.

Soon, the group landed on the island.

As a newly minted lizard, Lu Ao quietly shrank farther down beneath the water.

After coming ashore, those people began setting up cameras and water pumps, then started pumping water right away.

Not only did they start pumping water, they also greeted the camera and introduced the day's itinerary.

Lu Ao gradually understood. They were probably a group of content creators who specialized in filming short videos of drained tidal pools and posting them online.

Lu Ao watched them quietly from nearby.

Their Mandarin was not very standard and carried strong regional accents. They were probably from his city.

Even if they were not, they were at least from the same province.

It seemed the water had not carried him very far after all.

If he were still human, he could have gone over and greeted them. But since he had turned into a lizard, forget it.

Lu Ao thought sluggishly and continued hiding underwater beside the reef.

The moment that thought arose, heat immediately surged through his body and limbs.

Lu Ao's eyes widened. He tried to swallow back his cry of alarm, but a small sound still escaped.

"Who?!"

Tian Mingzhi, who had been speaking to the camera, suddenly heard a muffled groan. He instinctively turned to look to the side, but saw nothing. Even so, a chill inexplicably ran down his spine.

"What do you mean, who?" His companion and cameraman, Chen Shengrong, lowered his phone in confusion and stopped filming. "What happened?"

Hu Xingjin, who had been pumping water nearby, also walked over in puzzlement. "You're not filming anymore?"