The wind and waves were too fierce.
Zhang Mingqi did everything she could, working with Zhang Ninde, Zuo Shenghang, and Yue Xiamo to get some of the crew onto the lifeboats, only to slip and fall into the sea herself.
The waves battered her, the seawater was icy, and overhead, gales howled and rain poured down. The feeling of suffocation never left her.
A pair of hands hauled her up with tremendous, unyielding force and flung her straight onto a wooden board.
"Cough, cough... cough..."
Zhang Mingqi coughed the seawater out of her mouth and clutched the board. Looking up, she realized it was Mr. 39. His long silver hair had come loose, hanging wet against his body. His back was to her, and he was probably holding that black cat, since its tail was flicking back and forth beside him. From behind, he looked just like a cat-holding merman from a myth.
Zhang Mingqi looked around and found Wei Yanchi coughing beside her, along with an unfamiliar crew member clinging desperately to the board and playing dead. Mr. 39 had probably fished them all out.
She teased him, "So you went off to make things worse?"
Wei Yanchi's face was flushed from coughing. "I..."
For once, her sharp-tongued junior fellow disciple had nothing to say. He sat there sulking, his face red.
The board kept drifting with the waves through the darkness and white haze. There was no telling where it would take them, or where the wind and waves had swept everyone else.
Xie De sat on the board with Coal Ball in his arms, staring blankly. Once he had recovered a little strength, he finally managed to speak.
"455, you're a real genius. You discharged electricity underwater. Don't you know water conducts electricity? If I hadn't come