Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“What?!” Gu Yanran, who was having a dedicated beautician give her a spa treatment, shot up from the waterbed right away. Her face showed total shock. “Who? How did they find that place?!”

She was completely naked. Her voluptuous body, full of curves, was as alluring as a perfectly matured peach. Although her dedicated beautician was also a woman who had seen many female bodies before, she couldn’t help flushing, and her heart beat quickly every time she saw Gu Yanran.

The woman on the phone gave a quiet laugh of derision. “Who else? It’s your Mr. Huo.”

“Hey… How can you say that? When did he become my Mr. Huo?” Gu Yanran froze before immediately objecting, “Don’t say that, he already has someone.”

“Hehe.” The woman didn’t reply but only urged her, “Hurry up, I’m afraid you’ll be picking up his body if you’re too late.”

Gu Yaran was aware of how powerful the blue hole near her family’s island was. She signaled the beautician to leave as she said to the person on the phone, “That’s a real blue hole there. It’s not a limestone cave where divers love to go. The water doesn’t circulate in the blue hole—there aren’t even any fish there. How could they dare go there? What are they trying to do?”

“I don’t know what they’re doing, but they are definitely interested in your family’s island.” The person on the phone mulled over it before adding, “This is a good chance, and I won’t get you in trouble. You be careful, too. I’m going to hang up now.”

Gu Yanran understood what she meant. Pursing her lips, she replied, “Don’t act too rashly, either. You’ll take it too far.”

“I know what I’m doing. I can’t drag you into this.” The person hung up.

Gu Yanran called again to only find that the number was a fake one. She was shocked and speechless at her elusive, phantom-like friend. However, she was in a rush to go out to sea, so she’d already made several calls as she dressed and put on makeup in the lounge. She had her newly hired housekeeper arrange for a yacht and a full team of security to accompany her to sea in 10 minutes. Money made the world go round, and with the Gus’ power, the preparations were easily complete within minutes.

…

A very streamlined, white, bullet-shaped yacht floated in the waters by the blue hole near the Gus’ island. Gu Nianzhi didn’t bother putting on a hat as she lay by the small table and continuously fiddled with the radio, her curvy lips pressed tightly into a thin line. The curves on her face appeared even more exquisite and delicate, like fine porcelain as thin as an eggshell that could shatter from a breeze.

Yin Shixiong sat anxiously beside her on the deck, rubbing his hands together nonstop. “Little princess, stop touching it. Be careful not to break it, or we won’t be able to get any news from Mr. Huo.”

“It doesn’t work in the first place,” Gu Nianzhi said gloomily, her fine, pale fingers a stark contrast to the black radio.

“How could that be?” Yin Shixiong attempted to explain, “When you dive down to the deep sea, communication with the surface will naturally be affected. And they also went to a place like that blue hole, so it’s impossible that there will be a good radio signal.”

“Really?” Gu Nianzhi was a little doubtful and looked at Yin Shixiong suspiciously. “Are you sure? Do you guarantee it?”

“Oh my God! I was just saying that it’s a probability! Probability! Get it?”

“Of course, I get it.” Gu Nianzhi glared at him. “But there’s definitely something wrong with this radio, too. What if Huo Shao and Brother Ze want to communicate with us but can’t because of this broken radio? Who’s going to take responsibility?”

“Me! I’ll take it! Is that fine with you? Little princess, hurry up and put it down! Put it down!” Yin Shixiong implored her and managed to get the radio away from Gu Nianzhi’s hands. He hugged it to his chest for fear of Gu Nianzhi taking it back and breaking it with her fiddling.

Clapping her hands, Gu Nianzhi went to the cabin to wash her face and reapply her sunscreen before putting on sunglasses and coming out again. Looking at the view of the sky and sea merging into one expanse of blue, she couldn’t find any reason to be cheerful. She hugged her knees on the lounge chair, eyes staring blankly at the nearby blue hole without blinking.

It was said that seawater was the cradle of life—and that seawater as deep and blue as the water in the blue hole did not give life but destroy it. Because there was a lack of circulation in a true blue cave, ocean creatures had no way of surviving within them. Gu Nianzhi bit her nails as soon as she grew stressed, but this time, as soon as she put her hands to her lips, she recalled how Huo Shaoheng had helped her clip her nails. Her heart couldn’t help but wrench even harder.

…

Meanwhile, Huo Shaoheng and Zhao Liangze had dived into the blue hole, unable to communicate. As soon as they entered the blue hole’s waters, they discovered that it was truly different from outside. Everything was still, even the seawater. With no light and no sound, the only sensation was the incredibly vivid hue of blue. They dove in the blue hole, experiencing an abnormal resistance. As soon as they entered it, they found that they couldn’t communicate freely.

Visually, there was no barrier between the seawater in the blue hole and outside, but there was an invisible force that separated the two. Light could seep in, and humans could swim in, but sound and radio waves happened to be blocked outside this blue hole.

Huo Shaoheng was deeply impressed with the wonders of nature as well as the handiwork of the creator, but he also had an inkling in his mind that Gu Xiangwen may have been using this blue hole to block out all signals from the island. The human eye could discern the island, but high-tech satellites and sonar detection systems couldn’t find it. Like an outdated GPS, the systems would detect the existence of a path with no resistance, yet if the physical road had already been dug out, what awaited after making the turn was not a vast road—but a fall off the cliff.

Zhao Liangze was very nervous. If it hadn’t been for him still being able to see Huo Shaoheng swimming ahead in his upper-right corner, he would have fearfully floated up. Although he was annoyed by the fish that had tricked him earlier, he really wanted it to come back to tease him once again, if only to prove that there were other living creatures aside from him and Huo Shaoheng.

But the truth was, they were the only living creatures. This was a grave for underwater creatures. They had dove roughly 200 meters, yet the ocean floor was nowhere to be seen.

Zhao Liangze followed Huo Shaoheng, diving down and grabbing his arm in an attempt to pull him up. However, Huo Shaoheng waved at him then pointed down deeper in the water. Zhao Liangze looked curiously to see, at their six o’clock position, a shadowy, round object that didn’t appear to be a natural formation. It was far too round and perfectly shaped. Their geographical knowledge made it obvious that there were no natural spherical objects in nature.

“Down.” Huo Shaoheng gestured at him, and they dove down toward the spherical shape.

…

On the ocean surface, Gu Nianzhi closed her eyes from the ocean breeze and slowly lay down on the wicker chair. The waves weren’t too rough and slapped against the yacht’s side to shake its entire body like a bullet-shaped cradle. The swinging motion of the yacht resembled that of a cradle, lulling its occupants to sleep. It was also noon and just after a full lunch, so people often got sleepy. Gu Nianzhi originally just wanted to close her eyes to prevent the noonday sun from dazzling her eyes, but she fell asleep soon after. Although she was napping, her body still remained tense and concerned for Huo Shaoheng and Zhao Liangze’s well-being.

Yin Shixiong sat on the other lounge chair to the side and still had a fishing rod placed in front of him. However, he wasn’t focused on the fishing rod but the radio. He had to be ready to receive any messages from Huo Shaoheng and Zhao Liangze at any time.

…

The white Millenium Ota contrasted sharply against the sapphire blue seawater. A sleek, 10-person rowboat quickly discovered it.

“Is this it?”

“It must be. It’s the only white yacht near the blue hole.”

“Let’s go to the blue hole first.”

The people on the rowboat put on diving suits before swimming toward the blue hole. They had brought special instruments that enabled them to transmit messages from outside the blue hole. Soon after, they entered the blue holes’ boundary and initiated the instruments to easily communicate.

At the same time, Gu Nianzhi was asleep on a wicker chair on the deck. She suddenly felt a faint tremor like a gentle breeze flowing through branches or a kitten sticking its tongue out to lick her fingernails. It was extremely gentle but unable to ignore. She assumed it was the forces of the ocean currents pushing against the yacht and didn’t think much of it. Flipping over on the wicker chair, she still wanted to nap some more.

After a while, the tremor grew more obvious and was also very uniform. One, twice, three times—it repeatedly vibrated against her skin.

Opening her eyes suddenly, Gu Nianzhi discovered the tremor had disappeared. She looked around to see that on the vast sea, the line between water and sky had melted away. Everything was painted blue, and for a second, she was confused about her whereabouts. She had no idea which was the sky and which was the sea.

Rubbing her forehead, she turned to look at Yin Shixiong sitting with his arms crossed beside her. Had He closed his eyes in meditation, so she pushed him after getting up. “Brother Xiong, don’t you think the ocean waves are a bit strange here?”

“How are they strange?”

“It keeps vibrating. Don’t you feel it?”