Liu Xing raised a loudhailer and shouted, the device crackling as his voice boomed across the water, "Young hero, please wait. You there with the shark sub, please wait!"
Jing Shu shot back, her words carrying sharp over the waves, "Private salvage boats aren't allowed here. If I stay, do you want me arrested?"
Liu Xing rapped the man who had spoken earlier on the head with the loudhailer, the plastic thudding dully against his skull. "Treat what he said like a fart. I'm the supervisor here. There are classified documents inside, and we were afraid of leaks, but look at the state of things now. With the place flooded like this, the water lapping high against the walls, who can still worry about secrets? From now on, you're free to salvage here. How about it? Take what you pull up for yourself, or trade it with me for virtual coins. I'll settle on the spot."
Jing Shu raised a brow, the motion slight under her visor. "Then why were you calling me?"
"To have Xiao Wang take you to try pulling up the people trapped down below." Sweat beaded on Liu Xing's forehead, rolling down his temples in the humid air. Losing several people on the first day would scare the rest off, and the impact would be terrible.
Jing Shu frowned, her mouth tightening. So they were tangled up down there. In that case, there was usually no saving them. She didn't yet know what had ensnared them.
"Alright, saving lives comes first. Let's go." She followed Xiao Wang without another word, the sub humming as it turned.
On deck, nerves ran high, the air thick with tension. People murmured over what had happened, their voices low and uneasy against the slap of water on hulls.
With Xiao Wang leading, Jing Shu guided the amphibious shark submarine to the top floor of the government tower, smashed through a pane of glass, shards scattering in the current, and slipped inside, the sub gliding smooth into the dim interior. In moments, they reached the site, the floodlights cutting bright beams through the murky water.
Floodlights blazed, harsh white against the gloom. In a corner, a dense mass coiled around three people, the strands thick and twisting. One of them still twitched from time to time, faint movements rippling the water. The other two were motionless, limp in the tangle.
Xiao Wang pointed from a distance, not daring to get closer, his finger steady in the sub's light. He tossed a looped rope, the line uncoiling through the water. Jing Shu swung the sub around, poured on the power, the engines thrumming loud, and dragged the tangled bundle toward the surface in one go, the rope taut and vibrating.
It's fast. Barely over a minute.
The amphibious shark submarine surged up, leaping high as it towed the line, water spraying in sheets. With a smack, the three bodies landed on a boat, heavy and sodden. Gasps rippled through the crowd at the fluid sequence of movements, the deck creaking under the impact.
The glare lit the trio, the lights harsh on their skin, and a hiss of breath swept the deck. Half the writhing mess around them had been hauled up too. Thick blood-red bugs pulsed and retracted, their bodies slick and gleaming. Leeches covered the victims from head to toe, clinging tight.
They looked like walking leech men. Each leech, swollen and taut, had gorged on blood, their segments distended.
Some leeches flew off with the momentum and splattered across the deck, wet thuds drawing screams, sharp and sudden in the air.
And the coils binding them were, of course, red nematodes, long and slick in the light.
It's the nightmare Jing Shu remembered from her previous life. This was why she had never salvaged then. When you worked underwater, the worst thing was stumbling into a nest of leeches or red nematodes.
The unluckiest encounter of all was when red nematodes and leeches fought and you drifted near. One red nematode lacked the strength to matter, but thousands upon thousands were worse than a bed of weeds, tangling everything in reach.
"Quick, doctor, doctor! See if there's still a chance!" Liu Xing stamped his foot, the boot thudding on the deck. A disaster on day one, what a curse.
A doctor in a sealed rain suit rushed over, the fabric rustling, examined them, gloved hands probing carefully, and said, "This one, this one can still be saved. I need several people. Bring salt. Sprinkle it on him. Don't pull the leeches off by force.
And don't waste the leeches. They're valuable. Collect every last one," the doctor added, aghast when he saw people about to toss them, hands freezing mid-motion.
Two were dead beyond doubt, drained of blood, their skin pale under the gore. The third had been stabilized for the moment, though whether he would live was uncertain. With post-treatment conditions like these, survival might as well be a coin toss.
"This is too dangerous. I quit. If I die, what happens to my kid?"
"I'm out too. With so many of those things down there, it's terrifying."
Liu Xing boomed through the loudhailer, the amplification echoing wide. "Listen up. Everyone gets a free serving of rice today. This job will only last a few days before we finish salvaging. You won't find work this good later. I guarantee this was an exception. It won't happen again."
He ground his teeth, the sound faint but sharp. Next time someone went missing and didn't resurface, it would be better not to search. Otherwise it only piled on trouble and panic. Better to die below than drag them up and terrify everyone.
For an extra bowl of white rice, people told themselves to be careful and got back to work, movements deliberate as they gripped their tools.
Jing Shu turned and reentered the government building, the sub dipping smooth into the water, returning to the spot where the leeches had appeared. She searched carefully, the lights sweeping the corners, and, sure enough, found several blood-red mushrooms in a corner, their caps vivid against the debris.
In her previous life, she had heard the saying: where leeches and red nematodes battled, a mutant fungus would grow, called blood mushroom. It was said to be an evolved strain of China's earlier red mushroom.
Red mushroom was dubbed the King of Mushrooms. Its nutritional value was renowned, and it offered many benefits for women, from anti-cancer properties to nourishing the blood. Unfortunately, it couldn't be cultivated artificially.
The aquatic blood mushroom not only shared those effects, it had even stronger medicinal value. Rumor had it that it could prolong life. In the second year of the apocalypse, it became the top tonic and was listed as a rare species. A few years after the floodwaters receded, it went extinct.
Anyone lucky enough to find a wild blood mushroom that couldn't be farmed was like a carp leaping the dragon gate.
Jing Shu wanted to try raising the so-called impossible-to-cultivate red mushroom inside the Rubik's Cube Space. But mushrooms weren't grown from seeds. As far as she knew, one method was spore isolation and test-tube culture. That was impossible under current conditions, and she didn't know how anyway.
Another was sterile propagation, cutting a portion and coaxing it to grow quickly with careful handling.
Whatever the case, she would try. If it worked, this would be a perfect path to fortune.
Of course, she decided to set one aside for Yang Yang's grandfather. Who doesn't like something that promises longevity? It was precious, yes, but with the amphibious shark submarine, she could always find more, the sub ready beneath her.
"Looks like I should save people often," she mused, the words quiet in the cockpit. Over the next few days, she could linger here and dive whenever someone disappeared. Maybe she would net another patch of blood mushrooms. Cast a wide net, catch more fish. If she went hunting place by place across Wu City, how long would it take?
As for the legendary blood mushroom, this time she would feast. Blood mushroom stewed with an old hen would be unbelievably nourishing, the broth rich and steaming.
Days later:
Liu Xing: "I beg you, stop saving people!"
Jing Shu: "No. You wish."
The government complex was huge, and there were three towers, their structures looming in the flood. She only searched a few floors and found nothing else of real note, except a safe stuffed with several kilograms of gold bars, the metal heavy and cool in her grasp. In the apocalypse, gold wasn't worth much.
Still, for someone who had never seen so much gold in her life, Jing Shu's eyes sparkled like a magpie's, wide at the gleam.
Hiding gold bars in the government building was the perfect example of the rule: the most dangerous place is the safest. Bold.
She planned to have Grandpa Jing hammer some into jewelry so she could enjoy the feeling of being rich, the pieces warm against her skin.
It's getting late, the light fading over the water. Jing Shu picked up Su Lanzhi and headed home, the sub cutting steady through the waves. Maybe, just maybe, she would finally sleep well tonight.