Although the stones here seemed to have lost their spirit, Su Huilan still picked one up as a sample and stuffed it into Qingmu's backpack.
The Crow on the roof complained, "What if there's radiation? Will we mutate?"
Su Huilan laughed and said, "You two have already completely mutated, how else could you mutate?"
However, she still took it seriously and asked Petru, "Does your ship have radiation detectors?"
Petru shook his head. "What would I need that thing for? I'm not developing nuclear weapons!"
Su Huilan said, "Then we should go back to the base again. The rescue center has equipment; it'll be more reassuring to have it checked. It would be best to ask them for one; we might need it when we get to that Ghost Island you mentioned."
Qingmu didn't care. Although he had never actually come into contact with highly radioactive substances, he always felt that such things should be perceptible to a person with a keen mind, because slight changes in the body's physical state would inevitably have some manifestation in the mind. For example, he had once felt some peculiar mental fluctuations in the corridor of the hospital's radiology department.
At the time, he didn't know it was caused by radiation. It wasn't until he saw Tapu on Tubuai Island that he remembered the feeling. However, he didn't understand. If even the small amount of radiation from the radiology department had a serious impact on the body, necessitating lead walls and lead glass for isolation, then how strong was the radioactivity of Tapu's massive mental barrier? Why would people back then build such a dangerous thing?
Moreover, these stones always gave him a sense of security and made him feel no danger.
Petru a similar view, feeling it wasn't worth wasting time and fuel on a single detector. He said, "If I were hiding there Tiantian and there was strong radiation in Tapu, wouldn't I have turned into the Hulk by now?"
"If you're going to transform, you'll become the Red Giant!" Su Huilan said irritably. "I think you're just worried about your Redbeard being recognized, aren't you?"
Petru shrugged noncommittally, but ultimately agreed with Su Huilan's opinion.
However, when they returned to Ahurei Bay, the scenario Petru least wanted to see happened.
There is a United States. warship anchored in Ahurei Bay.
Petru gritted his teeth and sailed past the warship. Fortunately, since they were not ships of the same tonnage, they did not need to stop together. They docked about 700 meters away from the warship.
Upon arriving at the rescue center and the book camp, Qingmu encountered an acquaintance he never expected— Xia Xiaoxiao.
Xia Xiaoxiao's face was a little pale, perhaps because she had been exposed to too much sea wind, as if she had been smeared with fine sea salt. Her hair was slightly messy, and her lips were a little dry and pale. But none of this affected her beauty. Her beauty was stunning wherever she went, and even the salty sea wind could not change it, but instead added a touch of desolate and otherworldly beauty to her.
When Qingmu came in, Xia Xiaoxiao was holding a glass of water and talking to a staff member from the rescue center in English. She turned her head and smiled at Qingmu, her expression calm and composed, as if the two of them had arranged to meet here today.
"Mr. Qingmu, what a coincidence." She politely put down her cup and extended her hand.
"..." Qingmu grasped her hand, momentarily unsure how to address her— Miss Xia? Or Madam Situ?
"Just call me Xiaoxiao. You're Meimei's godfather, no need to be so formal," Xia Xiaoxiao said.
Qingmu said "Oh," released her hand, and asked, "How did you get here?"
Xia Xiaoxiao glanced at Su Huilan and Petru behind Qingmu and said, "We came here for tourism and happened to hear that a research vessel had an accident, so we wanted to do our part."
Knowing that there were many people and gossips around, Qingmu decided not to ask any more questions and simply introduced Su Huilan and Petru to her.
Su Huilan noticed that Xia Xiaoxiao and Qingmu had something to say to each other. After exchanging a few polite words, she took Petru to the rescue center's warehouse to find a radiation detector.
Xia Xiaoxiao smiled and said to Qingmu, "Come for a walk with me."
The two men left the camp's makeshift hut and went to the beach at Ahurei Bay harbor. Not far away was Petru's fishing boat, moored with several other boats. Apart from its two tall masts, which looked a bit out of place, it was just an ordinary fishing boat.
The Crow perched on top of the ship's mast. He disliked the noise of the birds on the island, saying that listening to it too much would lower his IQ.
"I'm here to see my husband," Xia Xiaoxiao said.
"I guessed it," Qingmu said. "Did you find it?"
Xia Xiaoxiao shook her head, a hint of melancholy flashing in her eyes. "You must be wondering why I'm so persistent in searching for my husband even though I don't know his whereabouts?"
Qingmu was indeed strange, but it was his privacy, and he shouldn't pry.
"He loves me, so he doesn't want me to get involved in dangerous things. But when he rescued me from Laboratory No. 19, I was already in danger. In fact, some of the dangers he faced were caused by me, but he didn't tell me."
She gazed at the vast sea, the sea breeze ruffling her long, soft hair like a violinist gently plucking the strings.
"Since Meimei was born, I accepted his arrangement, letting him face the dangers and bear everything alone, while I was only responsible for raising Meimei. Now, Meimei has returned to Wuzhong and is receiving the best care from her maternal grandparents, and with you as her godfather, I have no worries. So I decided to find him."
Qingmu suddenly felt a pang of guilt. Since acknowledging Xia Chujue as his goddaughter, he had only Xia Family her twice and hadn't even bought her a single toy. Compared to Shi Dazhuang's treatment of his comrade's daughter, he had been a terrible godfather.
"How did you know he was here?" he asked.
"He is, after all, my husband. I know everything about him. Even if he can hide from me, I can still find some clues," Xia Xiaoxiao said. "I know he is very concerned about the disappearance of the research vessel and the underwater pyramids, even more so than he has always been concerned about. In an email he sent me, he said that this matter could be related to the fate of all mankind."
"So, he's been here for a while now?"
"I don't know." Xia Xiaoxiao's throat suddenly became a little hoarse, as if she had taken a breath of sea wind. "He has a submarine, which he bought from Ukraine a long time ago. A few months ago, he had it refurbished and also purchased weapons."
Qingmu immediately thought of the last line in Captain Church's diary: To war, God bless!
Did Situ attack the research vessel?
But then he thought again, something didn't seem right. Situ had been seen in Copenhagen when the research vessel disappeared, and the person they later rescued from the ship, mentioned in the captain's diary, was very likely Situ. But if Situ had a submarine, how could he have gotten on the research vessel?
"My naval friend told me that submarine debris has been found at sea and has been identified as Romeo-class Type 633 conventional submarine built by the Former Soviet Union in the 1960s, the same type as my husband's."
Xia Xiaoxiao's voice trembled, and her eyes were slightly moist, "I know... the survival rate in submarine accidents is almost zero..."