Published at 8th of October 2024 3:04 am

Chapter 987: Time to Retreat

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The black cannon barrel resembled a single eye. Under its silent gaze, Lin Sanjiu climbed onto another boat. Zao Peng remained seated on the sinking boat without moving and asked, “What’s the method to distinguish the good boat?”

“It has garbage that hasn’t been soaked in water,” Lin Sanjiu replied with just that sentence. Zao Peng suddenly realized and exclaimed, “Ah!” She looked at the boat Lin Sanjiu had stepped on with a skeptical expression, then shifted her gaze, “Your boat doesn’t have anything. What’s the garbage inside the boat you brought me?”

“It’s this,” Lin Sanjiu picked up a piece of dry and neatly folded gum wrapper from under her feet. “Look, the garbage is on this boat.”

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Zao Peng scoffed. “You had plenty of chances to move it elsewhere. Hey, call them over.”

“What are you planning?”

“What’s with the nervousness?” Zao Peng laughed. “If someone who doesn’t know saw us, they would think we’re all in the same group.”

Perhaps because of Lin Sanjiu stepping into the boat, the boat beneath her was swaying with the water waves. She tightly grasped the edge of the seat, not responding to the other’s mockery.

“When you all thought I had sunk and no matter how loudly I shouted, you didn’t even look at me,” Zao Peng spoke, each word she uttered seemed soaked in hatred. “… After I finally stabilized myself, I saw that you were discussing so intently, as if your lives depended on it.”

Her mouth twitched, devoid of any hint of a smile.

“You already know how to distinguish the good boat, so there’s no reason why it took you so long to find only one. I’m becoming less and less convinced.” Her voice turned hoarse as she continued, “Just before I bombarded Natasha, she was searching around on that boat as if she had picked up something. It just dawned on me when you spoke. She must have picked up some garbage. If her boat was indeed a good boat, then you would only have three boats left in your hands.”

Lin Sanjiu tried her best not to show any expression.

“How could you bear to give the good boat to me?” Zao Peng shrugged her shoulder, shifting the black cannon barrel on her shoulder. As the other two approached, startled by her movements, their pedal boat creaked under their sudden halt. This seemed to amuse her, as she burst into a few hysterical laughs.

“Come closer,” she commanded while sitting on the sinking boat. It was like a military review as she looked inside each boat. Inside the boats brought over by the other two, there was a beverage bottle and a crumpled ball of paper. She furrowed her brows in thought, seemingly unable to decide which good boat to choose. After a few seconds, she looked up and asked, “Which one of you is willing to ride the boat this woman stepped on?”

Philibert and the round-faced man exchanged glances, and the former dryly said, “… I’ll do it.”

However, that sentence somehow made Zao Peng make up her mind. She waved her hand to stop Philibert’s movement and instead pointed at the boat beneath the round-faced man, saying, “No, you ride. I want this one.” Then, she pointed at Philibert and said, “Give me the boat you brought over.”

Under the gaze of the black barrel, the group hurriedly switched boats. By the time they finished, all the boats were rocking unsteadily on the lake surface.

“Alright, now retreat,” Zao Peng patted the black barrel and cautiously said, “When you’ve moved further away, I’ll board the boat.”

“What’s the point of all this?” Philibert asked aloud.

“She doesn’t believe the boat I brought is a good one,” Lin Sanjiu said as she turned the steering wheel—her boat moved, and the others followed, still in a straight line.

“Yes,” Zao Peng smiled. “You definitely won’t give me the good boat. So, the question is, whether the boat you’re riding is good or the boat you brought over… I don’t know. I have to rely on luck. She delivered the boat to me, and you two are supporting her—”

The two pedal boats left for her were now within Zao Peng’s reach. While scanning the interior of the boat with her gaze, she continued, “She might have guessed that I would be suspicious, so perhaps neither of her two boats is good in order to trick me. As the ones supporting her, there’s a high chance that you two will bring over a good boat for her. After eliminating her boats, I’ll choose two out of your four boats. It should be enough for me to reach the other side. Of course, there are other possibilities, but it’s still a six out of two problem. I can only choose the most likely one.”

Dragging one pedal boat at a time was already quite difficult, or else she would have loved to drag all the boats away.

“I never realized before that you are so devious,” Philibert couldn’t help but say. “I can’t keep up with your twists and turns…”

“Just get lost,” Zao Peng gritted her teeth and laughed. “You want to build a bridge, right? Go, go test out this bullshit way of clearing the stage.”

Apart from the sound of paddles breaking the water’s surface, there was no response between the two sides. Once they had pulled apart, Zao Peng threw the black barrel into the new boat and laboriously and carefully climbed aboard.

On the lake surface, the boats on both sides gradually moved further away from each other, leaving only the ripples created by their wakes colliding with one another.

The first boat to encounter trouble was the round-faced man’s boat. Being in the middle of the straight line, he was taken by surprise when his boat suddenly broke. His body tilted, and in a panic, he shouted, “Hey!”

Philibert glanced back at him and turned away.

Lin Sanjiu saw it clearly from the back. Her heart tightened immediately. Just when she thought the two of them were about to turn against each other again, Philibert untied the knot, and the seagull boat he had been dragging was released, drifting backward with the water’s current. The middle-aged gentleman extended his arm, pushing it hard and shouted, “Quick, get on!”

Round-faced man didn’t need Philibert’s urging. He pedaled the boat forward several times with all his might and leaned out from one side. When he grabbed the seagull boat’s stern, he also fell into the water with a heavy thud. After his previous boat sank completely into the lake bed, he gasped for breath and climbed onto the seagull boat, pedaling it forward step by step.

“Change places!” Lin Sanjiu reminded them in a low voice.

Philibert slowed down his pace, while the round-faced man desperately pedaled the boat. He brushed past Philibert and became the first boat in a straight line. After pedaling for a while, they could see the boat pile less than a minute away. Suddenly, the middle-aged gentleman’s boat emitted a muffled cracking sound and began tilting and sinking slowly.

“Pedal a few more steps forward as much as you can,” Lin Sanjiu urgently shouted. “Climb up at the right moment!”

When she passed Philibert with her boat, his face turned pale. He pedaled a few times and then froze, sitting stiffly on his seat, watching as water gradually seeped into his boat. Lin Sanjiu took his place and glanced forward, shouting, “Round-face!”

“That’s not what I’m called,” the round-faced man muttered. He hurriedly pedaled a few more steps forward, getting closer to the boat pile shaped like fingers—but before he could reach the boat pile, Lin Sanjiu’s voice came from behind, “He can’t hold on much longer, get off the boat!”

The round-faced man’s body stiffened—even if his face couldn’t be seen, his unwillingness was palpable.

“Get off!” Lin Sanjiu yelled.

The round-faced man grumbled under his breath, grabbed the center of the rope, and jumped into the water toward the front—he pulled the boat off balance, but it didn’t sink. Using the length of the rope, he swam forward with all his strength and finally extended his hand from the water, landing it on the foremost yellow duck in the boat pile.

“Get ready!” the round-faced man turned around and shouted. He let go of the rope with a kick, and the pedal boat floated backward unsteadily. Lin Sanjiu immediately followed suit, jumping into the water while holding onto the rope. When she grabbed onto the round-faced man’s boat, Philibert’s boat disappeared from the lake surface, the last corner sinking.

The middle-aged gentleman was immersed in the water, his hand resting on Lin Sanjiu’s boat, panting heavily, his face ash-gray, as if he had narrowly escaped death.

“Quick,” Lin Sanjiu urged the round-faced man. “He won’t last much longer in that boat!”

Dripping wet, the round-faced man stood up from the yellow duck, gasping for breath, and climbed into the next flat-top boat. He pushed the yellow duck backward and, as soon as he stabilized himself, quickly climbed into the next blue whale boat. The same process repeated again and again as the boats were passed down like a game of musical chairs. Philibert’s boat sank twice, but both times he managed to save his life by grabbing the newly passed boat in time.

When all three of them collapsed exhaustedly onto the boats, Lin Sanjiu finally realized that Zao Peng’s screams were echoing across the lake like thunder.

“What’s happening?” she screamed in anguish—compared to her previous hysteria, her voice was filled with genuine despair. “How is it possible… both boats sank!”

Even though she knew what had happened, Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help but sit up and glance outside. That glance almost made her bite down on her own teeth in shock—how could her luck be so bad?

She didn’t know whether to praise Zao Peng’s agility or not—she didn’t expect the other person to climb onto the sinking boat once again, but this time, she stood on top of it. Zao Peng’s two boats held on for quite a distance. The final sinking point was only a mere three to five meters away from the place where they were retreating. Zao Peng was standing directly in front of the retreat point, with only her upper body exposed above the water, like a newly surfaced water ghost.

“Don’t look so terrible,” came Philibert’s weak voice from another boat. “Did you not notice? Her cannon fell off.”

Just as Lin Sanjiu was stunned, the round-faced man, pedaling on the blue whale boat, caught up from the other side. The pile of boats they created was merely a facade. The real purpose of their actions was to arrange the good boats one by one, extending the distance as much as possible to “receive” them. With the other boats providing cover on both sides, the line formed by the three boats became less noticeable.

As if to confirm Philibert’s words, Zao Peng’s shadow in the distance was thrashing and groping in the water as if in madness. Several times, she twisted her body in a desperate search and almost fell into the water. Her howling and fragmented sounds floated in the air.

The group silently watched her for a while, and the round-faced man asked, “What do we do next?”

Lin Sanjiu squinted as she looked into the distance, gradually relaxing her expression.

“What else can we do?” she exhaled slightly. “We should retreat from the boats.”

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