295: One hundred fifty-two.
The whistle that slices through the night sky 295: One hundred fifty-two.
The whistle that slices through the night sky In the faint murkiness, a voice indistinct in distance echoed in his mind, calling out to Lu Li.
Awakened from his sleep, Lu Li found a black crow leaping into his sight.
It perched by the cave entrance, its claws hooked onto a recliner, and the inky orbs of its eyes reflected the figure of Lu Li as he sat up, opening its beak to let out a cry.
“Caw—”
The crow’s hoarse and piercing call resonated in the cramped windbreak, a shrill sound enough to rouse anyone at rest.
Perhaps it was this crow that had been calling Lu Li.
Black crow…
Lu Li’s gaze shifted downwards, landing on the crow’s claws.
A ssage cylinder dangled from its right leg.
Did Lu Li rember what Friday had said about a ssenger bird—was it this very crow before him?
Lu Li stretched out his hand to the crow, which did not shy away; instead, it indifferently bowed its head to tidy the ssy feathers beneath its wings, allowing Lu Li to open the cylinder on its leg and extract the rolled-up paper within.
Unfolding the palm-sized thin parchnt, Lu Li saw it was a map marked with various lines—representing the local sea areas.
On the map, Lu Li spotted several islands and sunken reefs, including Disc Reef and Seaview Cliff, where the hurricane had begun.
Realizing the map’s purpose, Lu Li drew a piece of slender charcoal from the firepit and circled the Seaview Cliff they were at, gently blew off the ash, and rerolled the parchnt map before placing it back into the cylinder.
After so thought, Lu Li picked up a can, intending to treat the crow that had co from afar.
If it would eat it.
“Caw—”
With its ebony eyes reflecting Lu Li’s actions, the crow cawed at him and stretched its wings, flying out of the windbreak.
Lu Li set down the can and followed the crow out of the windbreak, watching as it took to the wings and flew towards the woods on the other end of the cliff.
There lay a decayed monkey corpse and a waterhole.
It seed not to need looking after; the crow had already toured the entire island before finding Lu Li.
The investigator’s rescue shouldn’t be too far off.
But whether Friday was aware of this, Lu Li couldn’t be sure.
Lu Li raised his eyes to look towards the top of the cliff; the dark shadow had disappeared without a trace.
If it was still tracking Friday, it should have already climbed to the cliff’s summit by then.
The point of light behind the clouds had shifted from the east at dawn to now in the west, nearing sunset.
Lu Li replaced the water-carrying can at the water point and took a small path around the cliff to ascend to the cliff top.
This ti, Lu Li felt none of the unsettling presence he had felt before.
As he approached the front of the cabin, Lu Li saw the dark shadow.
It crouched in the niche beside the window, its palm on the windowsill, peering inside and maintaining its pose as though spying into the window.
The sight was enough to raise goosebumps.
Thud!
A dull thump—the door suddenly opened, and Lu Li took a half-step back, reaching for the Spirit-Calling Gun.
Friday appeared in the door.
She passed by the dark shadow on the wall without a glance, stepping out of the wood cabin and casually greeted Lu Li in her usual light tone.
“Good afternoon.”
…
Sss—
With the flip, both the sound of grilling at on the stone and the aroma of the fish wafted out together.
The hand holding the stick withdrew as Lu Li used a piece of stone to scrape off so stone salt from a depression near the fire, sprinkling it onto two palm-sized half-grilled fish.
Night enshrouded the island, dark and devoid of any light, as a chilling sea breeze swept through.
In the sheltered area, it was just the opposite, bright and warm.
The recessed space made one want to comfortably sleep.
Smoke and sound floated up from above the lounge chair to the beach, dispersed by the sea breeze.
It was a bountiful day today, as Lu Li, using the rotten flesh sprinkled in the water, attracted a large number of fish that sward in with the high tide—there appeared to be over twenty.
Lu Li only scooped out the four largest ones, each about the size of a palm, gutted and cleaned them by the waterhole, then brought them back to the shelter.
He threw the offal back into the waterhole, using it as bait for next ti in a cyclical recycling process.
These were enough for his and Friday’s dinner, but if Friday wasn’t full after her two fish, she would have to catch her own by the waterhole.
After nearly half an hour of cooking, the sea fish were almost done.
Just in case, Lu Li waited until the outside was nearly charred before skewering the grilled fish with a branch and handing it to Friday.
Friday reached out to take it, her slender palm wrapped in bandages grasping both ends of the branch, and brought it under the shadow of her hood.
When she took it back out, a small portion of the fish was missing, revealing steaming white flesh.
Her attitude toward food reflected Lu Li’s treatnt of her—not one to initiate, but she would reciprocate your actions.
Lu Li moved the other three similarly cooked sea fish out of the fire’s range, skewered them with branches, and like Friday handled both ends of the branch, biting off a piece to chew slowly and grind down the bones.
Friday ate much faster than Lu Li, seemingly oblivious to the bones, devouring bite after bite until only the fish head remained.
As Lu Li, who had only eaten half, paused his al, he picked up another grilled fish and passed it to her.
Friday took it once again and quickly finished it off as before.
Lu Li did not pass the third one, nor did Friday ask for it.
A few minutes later, after finishing the al, Lu Li threw the greasy branches with the two fish heads into the fire pit and gently blew on the jar that had not yet cooled, taking small sips.
In the sheltered area, only the sound of crackling fire and blowing, drinking water remained.
The unattended pile of canned food was in the corner.
After a while, Lu Li asked, “When will the investigator’s rescue arrive?”
“Very soon.”
“How soon is soon?”
The term was too vague, and then Friday told Lu Li the exact ti to the minute, “Two hours and twenty-five minutes from now.”
“I hope so.”
“I’m going to sleep now.
Call when the boat arrives,” Friday said after a while, leaning against the rock wall, her breathing gradually steadying.
Lu Li quietly contemplated the aning of Friday’s words for a few seconds, then poured the thin layer of sand at the bottom of the jar and so hot water onto the edge of the fire pit.
Lu Li did not fully trust Friday’s words, nor did he fully distrust them.
In any case, he subconsciously started timing in his mind.
An hour passed, then two…
At so point after two hours, the supposed-to-be asleep Friday suddenly raised her head and whispered, “We can leave now.”
Upon hearing this, Lu Li’s black eyes looked beyond the lounge chair, where the sand wall obscured most of the view, but at the edge of the sand wall, a glaring beam of light pierced the night.
A sharp, echoed whistle reverberated above the island.
Their rescue had arrived.
Moving the lounge chair aside, Lu Li and Friday, erging from the shelter, looked toward the sea.
On the pitch-black sea, a steamship was stationary a few dozen ters off the coastline, its searchlight falling far across the sand.
“You want to complete your case and beco a formal investigator?” Friday suddenly asked.
Even with rescue in sight, Lu Li’s expression remained unreadable as he calmly asked, “What do you an?”
“As long as we don’t say that I helped you, they will never know,” Friday said, stepping back into the shelter to avoid the searchlight that had moved onto the sand.
Lu Li could only see the corner of her black robe, her voice continuing to sound, “Rember, you haven’t t , and you don’t have to worry about .
I’ll sneak onto the ship.”
Friday paused there and then added one more thing.
“And, welco to the investigators.”
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