Chapter 604: What Is This?

“Whoa, don’t go in!”

Seeing Hah’Er’s stance, the captain and the waiter still on the boat nearly had a heart attack. The other two unfamiliar animals were one thing; they had seen Shen Yibin call out to them before he got in the water, so they figured their swimming skills were probably decent and they wouldn’t have any problems.

But a panda was different. Never mind that they had no idea how well pandas could swim—even if it could, they couldn’t let it go in. If anything happened, they couldn’t bear the responsibility. So they rushed forward to block Hah’Er and quickly brought out all sorts of fruit from the rear cabin to coax their little VIP, begging it not to go in.

“Hmph!” Hah’Er grunted twice in displeasure, but for the sake of the fruit, it gradually gave up on the idea of joining the fun. It sat on the deck, gnawing on the fruit, its two small eyes fixed on the water below, observing the movements of Shen Yibin and the Bald Qiang couple.

“Captain, why do you think this Mr. Shen came to a place like this to dive? Don’t tell me he’s looking for some kind of treasure?” The waiter had just read *Ghost Blowing Light* the previous night. That, combined with Shen Yibin’s rather unusual actions today, sparked this idea. ‘If he really pulls up some national treasure, what should we do? Ugh, you don’t think… there’s a big Zongzi down there, do you? I didn’t bring a black donkey’s hoof!’

“What do you care what he’s doing?” the captain chided in a low voice. As service staff for a high-end hotel, they had all received relevant training and knew they weren’t supposed to pry into a client’s privacy. “As long as it’s not illegal, we shouldn’t say a word about what people do. Otherwise, you’ll be in for it!”

After speaking, he thought for a moment and added, “If he really does pull up some national treasure, we’ll just report it and see what the manager says.” ‘Right, I should record the call when I report it. That way, if the police come knocking later, I’ll have an excuse to deflect blame, won’t I?’ The captain was an old hand and had thoroughly considered how to play it safe.

The waiter, however, was constantly sizing up the surroundings, as if trying to commit this place to memory. He secretly mused, ‘If Shen Yibin really hauls something good up from down there, I have to find a chance to come back and search the area myself. If I could just pick up a couple of leftover treasures, I’d be rich! I’d never have to be a waiter again.’

While one of them was figuring out how to shirk responsibility and the other was lost in a daydream of striking it rich, Shen Yibin was utterly frustrated underwater. ‘The Pet Radar clearly shows this is the spot. So why have I gone in a full circle without seeing any animals? It’s obviously not those fish and shrimp that fled earlier, but there doesn’t seem to be anything else, does there?’

After struggling for a while, he was getting a bit tired. Shen Yibin surfaced and gave a hand signal. The captain and waiter quickly pulled from above while the diving instructor pushed from below, helping Shen Yibin back onto the boat. The Bald Qiang couple was still playing joyfully in the water, showing no intention of coming up. Shen Yibin shook his head and let them be.

“Hand me a bottle of water!” Shen Yibin called out. He took the mineral water and GLUG, GLUG, GLUG, downed a few mouthfuls. Then he took out his phone and opened the Pet Radar again. The orange dot’s position hadn’t changed; it was still right here.

‘I don’t think I missed any spots, did I?’ Shen Yibin zoomed the map to its maximum scale. He could clearly see the orange dot was within a four or five-meter radius right below the boat. He had searched almost the entire area just now and hadn’t seen any suspicious targets. ‘What on earth is going on?’

‘Let’s see, were there any places I didn’t check just now? I think there were a few rocks down there I didn’t inspect. Could it be under the rocks? Maybe a big crab? Or a small fish hiding in a crevice? Ugh, I guess I’ll go down and check again.’ Having rested, Shen Yibin ambled over to the side of the boat, preparing to enter the water again.

Before getting in, he called the Bald Qiang couple over and gave them some instructions, telling them to help him search. Then Shen Yibin put his diving suit back on.

‘Huh? It couldn’t be this one, could it?’ Just as he was about to get in the water, he saw a frog croaking as it leaped from the small island into the water. ‘If it’s a frog, what would be so special about it? Could it be… Ugh, it was on the island just now, which doesn’t match the orange dot’s position!’ Shen Yibin smiled and plunged headfirst into the water.

This time, he didn’t pay attention to his surroundings in the water but dove straight to the bottom. With the Bald Qiang couple in tow, he turned on his underwater light and began to search the seabed inch by inch. He’d flip over a rock here, then stick his hand into a crevice there. His actions gradually stirred up the sediment, making the water murky.

Bald Qiang did not like this. Unlike Shen Yibin, who wore a diving helmet that protected him from the cloudy water, the stirred-up sand and mud made it a bit difficult for him to breathe. So, he moved a little farther away, settling on a roundish rock at the bottom to watch Shen Yibin’s actions from a distance.

‘Sigh, I brought you two all the way from Yunzhong City specifically hoping you could help me out. Who knew you’d back away at the critical moment? If I’d known, I wouldn’t have brought you!’ Shen Yibin beckoned, but seeing that Bald Qiang still wouldn’t come closer, he felt quite dejected.

‘Looks like I’ll have to rely on myself after all!’ Shen Yibin shook his head and continued to scour the bottom. But for some reason, he couldn’t find a single water bug under these rocks, let alone a crab. He searched and searched for a long time but came up empty-handed.

‘This is strange. In the past, whether it was Shi Gaofei or Scarf, they were just a little hard to catch, but finding them was easy. Why can’t I find this one? This shouldn’t be happening. It’s such a small area, and I’ve searched it all. Even if I haven’t found its hiding spot, with all the commotion I’m making, it should have come out by now, right? So why haven’t I found anything?’

He flipped over another large rock, and a cloud of sand and silt billowed up, making the water even murkier. Shen Yibin instinctively turned his head to dodge it. His gaze happened to fall in Bald Qiang’s direction. The creature was still squatting steadily on that round rock, not moving at all.

‘Huh? But it doesn’t seem to be completely motionless. It looks like it’s moving to the left, but so slowly that I didn’t notice it before.’

‘But Bald Qiang’s paws and tail aren’t moving at all. So where is that movement coming from?’ Realization dawned on Shen Yibin in an instant. He immediately shifted his gaze to the round rock beneath the creature. ‘It must be you, you little rascal, causing all this trouble!’