After the Crow finished speaking, Hanran let out a loud meow.
Then Petru shouted, "Madam! Where is Mrs. Larry? Oh my God, I just let go, damn it! Madam?!"
"Madam is here, she's alright!" Qingmu called out.
" God bless you!" Petru's voice carried a mixture of relief and a touch of self-reproach.
"Hehehe, stop talking and quacking! We need to gather together and swim this way!" the Crow cawed. "Yes, yes, listen to my command, come closer to me! One, two, one! One, two, one!"
Holding onto the log, Su Huilan splashed her feet as she swam toward the direction from which the Crow were calling. She saw Petru through the thick fog; they were swimming in the same direction.
Then they saw Qingmu and Mrs. Larry, who was perched on the log. Hanran was also perched on the log, only Crow perched on Qingmu's head, craning its neck and cawing at them.
" Guagua, quack, I see you! Yes, quack, quack! Keep swimming, good form!"
" Mrs. Larry, are you alright?" Petru swam over and asked.
Mrs. Larry was injured and clearly uncomfortable in the water. She responded weakly, "I'm fine, everyone's alive, that's good! Thank God!"
The fog was so thick that they tried to stay close together, but even so, their faces were still somewhat blurred.
Su Huilan looked at Qingmu: "Staying in the water like this isn't a solution. We need to choose a direction and swim there."
Qingmu said, "The fog is too thick. We don't know where we are or which side is the shore. If we get the direction wrong, it will be very troublesome."
"What about those savages?" Petru asked.
"I didn't see them. They ran faster than us; they've probably already reached the shore," Qingmu said.
"How do they navigate in such thick fog?"
"Perhaps they know the way around."
Mrs. Larry suddenly said, "Where's Alice? Didn't Anderson say she was with you?"
Qingmu and Su Huilan then remembered that Alice and Anderson were still in that cave, and they didn't know how they were doing. Given the terrifying scene of destruction on the island, they were probably dead.
"Madam..." Qingmu didn't know how to say it.
Mrs. Larry probably guessed what was going on, sighed, and said nothing more.
The Crow cawed, "It's all fate!"
Everyone fell silent in mourning.
They floated on the water using the buoyancy of the logs, partly because the thick fog made it difficult to discern directions, and partly to conserve energy, as the water was warm.
After drifting for an unknown amount of time, the fog gradually thinned, and faint mountain silhouettes appeared in the distance.
The Boss Coal suddenly exclaimed, "Caw! What's that?"
"Where?"
"There!" the Boss Coal shouted, craning his neck.
Qingmu looked in the direction the man was pointing and saw a dark figure drifting slowly in the mist.
The shadowy figure became clearer, revealing itself to be a small boat, accompanied by the sound of paddling.
Everyone fell silent, wondering how a boat had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
The people on the ship probably spotted them too, and they stopped there as well.
The lake suddenly became very quiet, and you could almost hear the bubbles rising from the water.
As the fog thinned, the boat's complete outline became clearly visible, revealing two people sitting on board.
Mrs. Larry called out first, " Alice! Is that you?"
Then Alice responded, her voice trembling with a mixture of surprise and joy, as she cried out, " Mrs. Larry! Oh my God! Madam, is it really you? I didn't hear you wrong, did I? It's me, Alice... Waaah... God, where am I? God!"
The two sides quickly reunited.
Alice and Anderson first pulled Mrs. Larry onto the small boat, and then pulled the others on as well.
This is a small boat that can hold seven or eight people. After they all got on, there were six people, plus a cat and a bird, which was just right.
Alice and Mrs. Larry hugged each other tightly, like a daughter returning to her mother's arms.
Taking advantage of this moment, Qingmu asked Anderson, "How did you escape? And where did this ship come from?"
Anderson said, "After you left, we waited for you in the cave. Then suddenly it got dark, a terrible moon rose in the sky, and the ground beneath our feet began to tremble, as if it were the end of the world. But we still followed your instructions and didn't leave the cave until you returned. We weren't very afraid; there was nothing left to be afraid of. At worst, we would just die. Later, fog rolled in on the island, even in the cave. I remember you said before you left that when the fog rolled in, we should leave the cave, climb over the mountain behind, and go to the beach to find the raft you left there."
But when we went outside, it started raining heavily. I felt a flood was coming. The sea was too far, so I decided to take Alice and run to the lake. Our lifeboat was hidden in a cave by the lake. We were able to row our boat from the sea into the lake, so maybe we could row it out too.
To be honest, I didn't have high hopes; I just wanted to give it a try. I never expected... I never expected...
The joy of surviving the ordeal and being reunited brought tears to Anderson's eyes. He wiped his moist eyes and exclaimed, "Oh, this place is wonderful! I wish I could fish here!"
After listening, Qingmu and Su Huilan exchanged a glance, then looked around at the book. The fog had not completely dissipated, and the distant mountain shadows were still hazy and indistinct.
"So, we're still in that lake in the middle of the island?" Qingmu scratched his head, recalling everything that had happened. "We started from a river flowing out of the lake, which formed a waterfall in the canyon, and then that waterfall flowed back into the lake?"
Su Huilan shook her head and said, "It's hard to say right now. It's not too strange that the lake water is flowing back. Space curvature or uneven gravity distribution could cause this phenomenon, which is also consistent with the characteristics of Klein Bottle. But if we are still on the same island, where did the moon and the flood go?"
By this time, the fog had completely dissipated, revealing the undulating mountain ridges and the mudflats along the lake shore.
Petru stared for a moment and then suddenly yelled, "Bloody hell! Isn't this the same lake I first came to?!"
Qingmu and Su Huilan were taken aback, and asked simultaneously, "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely!" Petru said with certainty. "I've been to countless deserted islands. I can remember the topography of every island and mark their locations on the charts. This is a basic survival skill for pirates; sometimes it can save our lives. I also clearly remember the last time I was here. There was also thick fog, but not as dense as this. It was in patches, sometimes there was fog, sometimes not. I encountered savages and even overheard two Russia talking."
"That must be Ivan and Boris with Mr. Stone; they're Russia," Mrs. Larry said.
"Look over there!" the Crow cawed again.
Everyone looked over and saw some figures bustling about on the lake shore ahead. Some of them were carrying logs, which seemed to have been cut down from the woods in the distance.
"It's a savage!" Su Huilan exclaimed.
"Let's find another spot to dock, then sneak over and see what they're doing," Qingmu said.