More than two minutes passed without any sign of his teammate coming up, and the other soldier began to grow anxious.
"Why hasn't A-San come up yet? I'll go down and check."
"A-San? Uh... how about waiting a little longer?"
"Can you manage? Forget it, I'll go down..."
"Oh, it's loose..."
Ye Yaodong tried pulling up the fishing line. It came out of the water without any resistance, and right afterward, someone surfaced with a splash.
"Come on up. Thanks for the effort..."
He and the other man each reached out a hand and pulled him aboard.
"Thanks. If you hadn't come up, your teammate would've jumped in after you."
"It's fine. The hook caught on the lock of a big chest."
"So there really is a shipwreck down there? Tsk, tsk, chest after chest. The museum's going to strike it rich. I wonder how much funding they can help us apply for to build the temple?"
Ye Yaodong was only making a few passing remarks and didn't expect them to answer.
But just then, the man called A-San who had jumped into the water pulled two things out of his pocket.
"Scallops?" he said in surprise.
A-San smiled. "I happened to see one running along the seabed when I went down. It was wobbling and stumbling along, looking pretty cute, so I picked them up and put them in my pocket."
"Well, would you look at that. They're pretty big, too. What does one look like when it runs?"
"Uh... how do I describe it? Like a toddler trying to run, I suppose."
Ye Yaodong took them and hefted them in his hand a few times, feeling a little regretful. With these men around, he couldn't very well dive down.
"Why didn't you pick up a few more while