"Then what?"
"And then? Nothing more. I only heard those two sentences, and then it was as if they had never been there. After those two sentences, there was no sound, not even a footstep. To be able to walk so silently through the jungle, that's either a ghost or you've encountered a fellow mercenary. But what mercenary—oh, I'm talking about mercenaries, not pirates—would come to this godforsaken place? So, I think I might have seen a ghost, or maybe there's something wrong with my mind."
Petru looked somewhat dejected. "I didn't bring many weapons with me, and I was afraid something might happen to my boat. If it wasn't my mental problem, and there were really people on the island, they would definitely have found my boat. So I quietly returned to the ship the way I came."
"Given your temperament, you wouldn't leave so easily. You must have left some marks along the way when you came out, right?" Su Huilan said.
"Of course! I finally found this place, and I felt there was something mysterious about this island that was drawing me in; perhaps it held what I was looking for. I retrieved my weapons from the ship and returned to the island. Because of my previous encounter, I was very careful this time, afraid of being discovered."
"But as soon as I got there, I encountered an unexpected situation. It wasn't exactly dangerous, but it gave me a fright because I found that what I saw on my second trip to the island was completely different from what I saw on my first trip. Everything on the island had changed; the shape of the mountains had changed, and the vegetation had changed. All the marks I had left were gone, as if I had never been there at all. Later, I still found the lake, but I didn't hear any sounds or meet anyone along the way."
"Until then, I still didn't know that the Mental Power was coming from the lake. I discovered that the lake water was warm. Generally speaking, hot spring water is not drinkable, and judging from the water temperature and the surrounding rocks, it might be a volcanic crater. But I was tired and thirsty, so I didn't care and knelt down to taste it. The water was sweet, without any saltiness or strong alkalinity. Then I took off my clothes and jumped into the lake for a bath."
"You must find it strange that someone like me, who lives on the edge of his seat, would so easily let his guard down and dare to bathe in the lake," Petru laughed self-deprecatingly. "I thought so too. But for some reason, I was dizzy and just really wanted to take a bath. And after I jumped in, I found that the lake water was very relaxing. Then I discovered the source of my Mental Power, at the bottom of the lake. There must be something down there; I guess it's Tapu."
"What puzzled me at the time was why Tapu was built underwater? Then I thought, this place might have originally been a dormant volcano that came back to life at some point, and the eruption caused Tapu to sink to the bottom of the lake. I felt that some unseen force was calling me to find it, that it was meant to see the light of day again. So I dived underwater."
"I didn't bring any diving equipment, but I'm a very good swimmer. For people like us who make a living at sea year-round, diving is a basic skill. In such warm water, I can hold my breath for more than ten minutes. After I dived down, I found that the lake was quite large, the bottom was full of rocks, and it got deeper as you went further in. When I swam to the center of the lake, I ran out of breath and had to surface for air. But when I surfaced, I suddenly saw two people standing on the shore."
"That's where I went into the water, and that's where I took off my clothes. They first looked at my clothes over and over, then picked up my gun and started talking in gibberish. Because they were far away, I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I probably wouldn't have understood them even if they were closer. There was fog on the lake, so I couldn't see what they looked like, and they probably wouldn't have noticed a head peeking out from the middle of the lake."
"I quickly dove underwater and swam towards them. I didn't want to run away naked, and besides, I wanted to hear what they were saying. I calculated my route and swam to a secluded spot under a protruding rock on the lake shore. I heard them talking, but unfortunately, I was right, I couldn't understand a single word. Their pronunciation was unlike any language I had ever learned. Then, I heard a gunshot."
"I was startled, thinking they had spotted me. Then I heard someone scream in terror and heard hurried footsteps fading away. I made sure no one was on the shore before crawling out of my hiding place. I saw my clothes lying on the bank, and a person lying on the ground. I realized my gun might have gone off accidentally. Because I was in the water, I couldn't see the person's face. Just as I was about to climb up to check and retrieve my clothes and weapon, a large group of people suddenly emerged from the thick fog in the distance. They were carrying spears, had feathers in their hair, and were running while shouting 'whoosh whoosh whoosh.'"
"I was so scared that I quickly dived back into the water and swam towards the opposite shore. About halfway up the lake, I quietly surfaced for air, then looked back and saw shadowy figures on the shore. One of them seemed to glance at me. Actually, we were so far apart, and the fog obscured my view, that I couldn't see the person's face at all, but I really felt like he saw me. You don't understand that feeling; it's like being targeted by a sniper. I didn't dare linger. I dived to the other side, got out of the water, and, ignoring my naked bottom, plunged into the thickest part of the fog."
As he said this, Petru took a deep breath, looking exhausted, as if he had just returned from a deep-sea swim.
Qingmu frowned and asked, "You mean, there are savages on this island?"
Su Huilan said, "It's unlikely. The surrounding islands have all been civilized. The resources of an isolated island in the ocean are insufficient for a tribe to survive. It doesn't make sense genetically either."
Petru said, "But they were definitely not local natives; they looked like Native Americans from a hundred years ago."
Did you see them again after that?
"No, it's gone," Petru said, shaking his head. "After I escaped that time, it was already dark, and I was afraid they would find my ship, so I didn't dare go back. When I went back later, I couldn't find the island."
"Then why did you hide this experience from us?" Su Huilan asked.
"It's not that I'm trying to hide it, it's just that even I find it unbelievable, like a hallucination or a dream. Besides, it's not exactly something to be proud of to talk about Redbeard running away naked," Petru said.
"Wait a minute..." Qingmu suddenly remembered something, "You just said there were two people speaking Russian, and it seemed like they called each other by name, right?"
"Yes, one is named Ivan, and the other is named Boris."
Are you sure?
"Of course I can confirm it. I only heard those two sentences that I could understand that day. I remember them very clearly; there's no way I could forget them."
" Ivan, Boris..." Qingmu vaguely remembered that Captain Church's diary seemed to have mentioned these two names.