My childhood friend is in her mature, sophisticated form again today. - Chapter 71

“Where is the ship owner?” Lin Jiqiu stood on the deck, looking at the gray-blue sea in the distance.

“He doesn’t go with the boat, he only rents equipment. The boat is operated by his nephew, surnamed Liu, who said he’s been at sea for over ten years.”

Lin Jiqiu nodded. The ship owner’s nephew, named Brother Liu, was short with broad shoulders, his skin a dark brown from the sea breeze. He stood at the bridge door, a roll of new rope at his feet. Lin Jiqiu didn’t ask any questions, instead looking down to check the equipment list. A-Zuo handed him the list, which listed deep-sea flashlights, spare oxygen cylinders, waterproof sealed compartments, and spare batteries for the communication repeater. He silently read it through, confirming the quantity and location of each item in his mind, then put the list away and turned to look at the bridge. Brother Liu was leaning against the steering wheel, an unlit cigarette between his fingers.

“How long will it take to get to that area of ​​the sea?” Lin Jiqiu asked.

“Soon, it depends on the weather. The waves aren’t big today, it should take about four hours to drive there.”

Cheng Ran emerged from the cabin, holding a tablet. “The communication repeater is ready. After launching, the signal can be transmitted to the ship and relayed back to the office via satellite.”

Lin Jiqiu responded and glanced at the time on her phone. “How about Ayou?”

He said he would look after the house.

Ah You didn’t come to the dock to see him off. Before leaving, he said, “Boss, be careful,” and then went back to the kitchen. Lin Jiqiu knew he was holding back—coming to the dock meant he was really leaving, and leaving meant he might not be back for a long time, or even not at all. So Ah You chose to stay at the firm, pretending it was just an ordinary trip, no different from the previous ones. Lin Jiqiu didn’t try to persuade him, only saying, “Keep an eye on Ah Hua and the others,” and then turned and left.

At 10:00 AM sharp, the boat departed the fishing port. The dock receded into the distance, the trees and buildings on the shore gradually shrinking until they became a blurry line. The wind was light, the waves gentle, and the boat rose and fell gently with the swells. The propellers cut through the water, leaving a white contrail that slowly spread across the surface. Lin Jiqiu sat in the cabin, watching the coordinates on the tablet—the distance from shore was steadily increasing, from five kilometers to ten kilometers to twenty kilometers. The color of the seawater changed, from the grayish-green near the shore to a deep blue, like a block of ink gradually deepening.

Cheng Ran sat beside him, also looking at the data. “The water depth is increasing. It’s now over two hundred meters.”

“At a distance of one kilometer, the water pressure will be very high.”

“Therefore, ordinary submersibles cannot go down. We need to use the pressurization equipment on the ship to go down to a depth that we can withstand first, and then use a small probe to go down.”

“Is the detector ready?”

“It’s ready. The one left by the ship owner has been modified and can withstand the water pressure of two thousand meters. Although it can’t carry people, it can take pictures, collect samples, and do simple sonar scans.”

“Then use it.”

At noon, Brother Liu prepared a simple lunch. It wasn’t as good as Ayou’s, but it was enough to fill their stomachs. Lin Jiqiu and Cheng Ran each ate a portion and sat silently in the cabin. Around 1 p.m., the tablet showed that the distance from the shore had exceeded 100 kilometers, and the water depth had exceeded 800 meters. The color of the sea had also changed; it was no longer deep blue, but a near-black blue, like a piece of pressed silk, without a single ripple.

“We’re getting close to the coordinates.” Cheng Ran looked at the tablet. “The marked location of the deep-sea station is about five kilometers ahead.”

Lin Jiqiu stood up and walked onto the deck. The sea breeze was strong, making his coat flutter loudly. There was nothing on the sea ahead—no buoys, no ships, no floating equipment. Only an endless expanse of deep blue, merging with the sky in the distance to form an arc. He put his hand to his forehead to shield his eyes from the sun, and after looking for a while, he noticed a faint reflection at the edge of his vision. The light was very weak, like a reflection from a glass mirror, flashing and disappearing in an instant, then being covered by the waves.

“Cheng Ran, did you see that?”

“I see it. It’s probably a buoy, very small, and its color is close to that of the seawater.”

Brother Liu poked his head out of the cockpit: “There’s a buoy up ahead. I see it.”

The ship slowly approached the buoy. It was small, dark gray, almost the same color as the seawater. A small antenna, like a communication device, was on top. The buoy had no name, no number, no markings. But its very existence was the marker. They had come to the right place.

“There might be mooring cables below the buoy.” Cheng Ran looked at the sonar screen. “I see an anchor point on the seabed. The depth is about 1,100 meters.”

“Is the equipment ready?”

“Ready.” Cheng Ran walked into the cabin and opened a metal box. Inside was a circular detector, about half a meter in diameter, with a titanium alloy casing covered with sensors and lenses. He checked the power supply and communication module, then placed it on the deck.

“The probe can dive to depths of over 1,000 meters. Its sonar and optical sensors provide clear images and feedback. If the deep-sea station is still operational, the probe should be able to spot it before it even reaches the seabed.”

Lin Jiqiu carried the probe to the side of the ship. Brother Liu came over to help secure the boom, and the two of them worked together to lower the probe to the surface. Cheng Ran stood in front of the control panel, his fingers hovering above the keyboard.

“Ready.”

Lin Jiqiu nodded. Cheng Ran pressed the release button. The boom slowly rotated, and the probe’s tether swayed for a moment between tension and relaxation before it submerged in the water, sinking down with the tether.

The screen on the control panel lit up, displaying live footage from the probe. Initially, the image showed only pale blue seawater and increasingly dim light. The depth numbers increased—fifty meters, one hundred meters, two hundred meters. The light gradually dimmed, but the sonar showed the outline of the seabed was becoming clearer.

“There’s something there.” Cheng Ran zoomed in on the sonar image. “It’s on the seabed. It’s not rock, it’s a man-made structure.”

What shape?

“It’s roughly square. Not very big, about 20 meters by 15 meters. It’s similar in style to the buildings we see in underwater facilities.”

Lin Jiqiu stood behind the control console, looking at the sonar images on the screen. The square structure, reflecting a faint light against the deep blue background, lay quietly on the seabed, showing no signs of activity.

“The deep-sea station is still there. It has not been demolished.”

“Perhaps the Heavenly Palace Division didn’t have time to evacuate.”

The probe continued its descent. When the depth reading jumped to 800 meters, the optical lens captured a faint light—not natural light, but an artificial one. It emanated from the bottom of the square structure, very weak, as if seen through thick glass. Cheng Ran pointed the lens at the light source, zoomed in, and a portion of the structure appeared on the screen. Walls, windows, a door. Consistent with the style seen before.

“Is the deep-sea research station still operational?”

“Not necessarily. The light source might be a backup emergency light.”

Lin Jiqiu was silent for a few seconds. “Could you move the detector closer?”

“Yes. But the cable length is limited; we can only extend it by a maximum of fifty meters.”

“put.”

Cheng Ran operated the control panel, and the probe slowly continued its descent. The square structure in the image grew larger, its edges becoming increasingly clear. The walls were metal, covered with a thin layer of marine sediment, like a gray velvet blanket on the metal surface. The windows were round, with thick glass that let in a faint light.

When the probe approached to within about ten meters of the structure, the sonar suddenly picked up a regular signal—not like the echo of ocean waves, nor like the noise of ocean currents, but rather some kind of intermittent knocking sound. It repeated precisely in time, like someone striking metal with some kind of tool. Lin Jiqiu’s fingers tightened slightly on his knee.

What is that sound?

“I don’t know. It could be the sound of the equipment running.” Cheng Ran pulled up the spectrum analyzer. “But the frequency is very low, it’s not mechanical vibration, it’s more like…”

“More like what?”

“It’s like Morse code.”

Lin Jiqiu looked at the waveform on the screen. It wasn’t random; it followed a pattern—long notes, short notes, intervals. Someone was transmitting information using knocking sounds. It was coming from a deep-sea research station a thousand meters below the surface.

Can it be decoded?

“Yes, but it will take time.”

“Continue recording. Pull the detector back.”

Cheng Ran operated the control panel, and the probe slowly rose. The square structure in the image grew smaller and smaller, gradually disappearing into the deep blue background. Lin Jiqiu stood on the deck, looking at the sea. When the probe, trailing its cable, surfaced, it splashed white water. Brother Liu came over to help him pull the probe onto the deck.

Cheng Ran stood at the console and imported the typing sound into the computer. “I’m not sure about the exact content, but the pattern isn’t random. It’s ordered encoding.”

Lin Jiqiu looked at the sea. The buoy was still there, floating quietly on the gray-blue water. The deep-sea station was just below it, in the deep sea, in the darkness. He wondered—who was that tapping sound for? He turned around. “Tomorrow, and again.”

“good.”

Lin Jiqiu stood at the ship’s railing, the night wind brushing against his face, carrying the chill of the late autumn sea. In the distance, the sky was completely dark, the sea and sky merging into a bottomless darkness, with only the stars twinkling overhead. He looked up for a moment, then looked back down at the sea. The buoy was still there, drifting quietly. He stared at it for a long time, then turned and went back to the cabin.