Chapter 57: Fishing for Lies Qin Jiu couldn’t hold back, scanning the surroundings before commenting, “Quite the popular figure—you command a following wherever you go.”

You Huo crouched down, bringing the torch closer to the ice surface.

The ice here had accumulated over time, astonishingly thick. Some areas were clearer, allowing a glimpse of the dark reefs buried deep below, while others were covered in spiderweb-like cracks, appearing as opaque white.

Beneath one of these cracked areas, a pale face looked up, its unfocused pupils a deep black that occupied most of the eye sockets.

He quietly watched You Huo.

“Made us search all over, and here you’ve been hiding?”

Qin Jiu’s voice came from above, playfully greeting the faces: “Good evening.”

His “good evening”

was like fish food thrown into a pond, causing over a dozen faces to float up one after another.

They all looked up at the same angle, dozens of eyes fixed on You Huo.

You Huo: “…”

Qin Jiu’s lips moved.

“Shut up,” You Huo said.

Qin Jiu narrowed his eyes and obediently pressed his lips together.

You Huo: “…”

His expression grew odd.

But before he could think it through, Qin Jiu pointed to the ground, signaling him to look down.

You Huo lowered his gaze and immediately felt his face fall.

His “shut up”

seemed to scatter a handful of fresh fish food, prompting a large group of human faces to swarm over in droves.

They really were swarming in droves…

Wherever the light of the flame could reach, there were faces.

It looked just like a massive concert scene.

Qin Jiu couldn’t hold back and, after sweeping his gaze around, commented, “Your popularity is quite good—a single call summons hundreds to respond.”

You Huo thought, go to hell with your single call summoning hundreds to respond.

He stared coldly at Qin Jiu.

Qin Jiu obediently shut his mouth again, making a “shh”

gesture with a roguish touch.

You Huo’s expression grew even more peculiar…

Indeed, Qin Jiu had teased him in the past too.

Throwing around nicknames like “Mr. Hmph”

and “Honors Student”

at random, and when he got carried away, his tone would even give off the illusion of being “intimate teammates.”

Just like a lion lazily idle after a meal, lightly poking you with the tip of its claw now and then—a little prickly but not painful.

This action is far too beguiling.

It can deceive people into forgetting the lion’s ferocity, make them drop their guard, and start getting used to it…

You Huo is a classic example.

But he believes he can stand between vigilance and habit, maintaining some kind of balance.

But now the other party suddenly even retracted their claws, leaving only the soft pads…

Did he take the wrong medicine or something, or is there some plan in mind?

Holding the torch in front of his face, You Huo suddenly fell into deep thought.

He felt a subtle trace of concern…

If this keeps up, once Qin Jiu figures out whom he’s been teasing, would he come before him carrying a leather rope to perform a hanging?

* * *

“Hey! Over there, found them!”

a shout rang out from the distance.

“Hey—”

You Huo snapped back to reality.

He lifted his gaze and noticed Qin Jiu turning his face away, as if he had just looked away from him.

The person in the distance was still shouting.

Perhaps thinking that shouting “Hey!”

was impolite, he changed his words and called out, “You Ge—Qin Ge—just wait, we’re coming over!”

Judging by the voice, it was probably Di Li.

Behind him were a group of people holding torches, likely all the examinees from the cave had been called out.

Gray-haired Classmate’s voice carried strongly, his shouts echoing across the entire deserted island.

The address “Brother Qin”

suddenly reminded Qin Jiu of Zhao Wentu.

He froze for a moment, then shouted at the gray-haired figure running toward him from afar, “Don’t come over yet, and stay quiet.”

Di Li yelled back, “What—the wind is too loud—I can’t hear you—”

Qin Jiu: “…”

Staying quiet now was useless.

The faces under the ice suddenly changed direction, swarming toward Di Li.

If there had been only one or two faces, the faint movement would have been easy to ignore.

But this countless swarm was deadly. Di Li could only watch as a massive expanse of white, like a cloud, surged toward the ice beneath his feet.

He lowered his head to look…

“Holy mother—”

He screamed, his feet slipped, and then he sat down on the icy surface.

Right under his seat was the chasing white auspicious cloud.

“Damn it…”

He scrambled and crawled, struggling all the way to the two tall figures, before finally being hoisted up.

“What the hell is thi—mff—”

Just as Di Li had come back to life, he managed to get halfway through his gratitude speech when two hands simultaneously clamped over his mouth.

One hand covered his mouth and nose, while another slapped a lid over that exact area.

“……”

Di Li struggled a couple of times, nearly suffocating.

It turns out that being too agile isn’t always a good thing.

Especially when you run into someone who reacts the same way…

You Huo was covering Di Li, Qin Jiu’s hand pressed down on half of his hand, also covering Di Li.

Both of them froze in surprise.

You Huo’s fingers, which were being pressed down, moved slightly.

Qin Jiu glanced at him, then lowered his head to say to the ash-gray-haired classmate, “If you don’t want to be chased, shut your mouth and don’t make a sound.”

Beneath the three of them, a vast expanse of human faces gaped open, eager for a meal.

Qin Jiu thought for a moment and added, “It’s best if you don’t open your eyes for a little while, either.”

After a few more seconds passed following his words, the warmth on the back of You Huo’s hand vanished.

Qin Jiu had released his hold.

* * *

Two hands were removed from his face. Taking two deep breaths, Di Li honestly kept his eyes closed and remained still.

He knew that his feet were currently standing in those things.

At such times, having an overly vivid imagination was absolutely fatal.

Uncontrollably, some scenes began to appear in his mind…

In the scene, those human faces frantically pierced through the ice layer, one after another biting his feet, then gnawing their way up.

They gnawed the calves, then the thighs, and after the thighs came the…

Hmm…

You Huo gestured to Qin Jiu, bending down to melt the ice along the edges of the reef with fire.

Turning around, he saw the top student silently covering his crotch.

You Huo: “…”

What on earth is he thinking…

“You’re quite alert for a little brat, aren’t you?”

Qin Jiu pried off chunks of ice and gravel from where You Huo had roasted the area.

Di Li endured for a moment but couldn’t help himself, whispering in a mosquito-like voice, “How come you all can still talk?”

Qin Jiu: “Because we’re not afraid.”

Di Li grumbled again: “What are you doing now?”

“About thirty candidates are on their way here—”

Qin Jiu glanced at the crowd, “To avoid any wailing or even wetting their pants along the way, I’m picking up a few things just in case.”

Alright.

It’s just faces, who hasn’t seen them before? They’re all over the streets.

Di Li did some mental preparation, took a deep breath, and opened his eyes.

He first heard a few thumping sounds and realized that the faces under his feet were trying to break through the ice and come up.

“……”

He swiftly scrambled onto the reef, turned his head, and saw You Huo kick the reef, dislodging a stone the size of a head before reaching out to grab it.

“……”

Di Li felt that he had a slight misunderstanding about the “small gadget.”

Although everything had turned out differently from what he expected, Di Li managed to hold his ground.

He followed You Huo and Qin Jiu, gathering a handful of stones of various sizes before the crowd surged forward.

Sure enough, as soon as he had them gathered, he heard the overlapping cries of panic from the examinees.

You Huo straightened up and said, “Quiet!”

The examinees reflexively fell silent, eyes wide.

You Huo said, “Turn around.”

They obediently complied once more.

This time, without needing any further prompting from You Huo, they instinctively ran toward the stone cave.

The faces that had been crashing against the ice layer froze for a moment, then swam forward together for several meters, seemingly about to give chase.

You Huo flung the head-sized rock in the opposite direction.

Thud—

The rock hit the reef with a heavy sound, then rolled from its edge onto the ice.

The rolling sound continued forward.

These movements were much louder than the sound of slipping footsteps. The chasing face abruptly braked, turned around, and went straight for the rock.

The three of them stepped back a little and slowly followed the crowd of examinees.

Seeing the face becoming eager to come, Qin Jiu also threw out a rock.

Thump—

Another loud noise, and the face rolled further away following the sound.

Di Li thought, Are you fucking kidding me?

Then he swiftly threw a small stone.

Though small, the stones striking the hard ice surface still produced a series of crisp sounds.

As expected, the face vanished again.

They made their way towards the stone cave, continuously tossing stones in the opposite direction.

Seeing the pale-faced figures rush to the east, then huddle to the west, Di Li suddenly experienced the thrill of fishing with deception.

* * *

Later that night, the scene inside the cave was entirely opposite to what it had been before.

Apart from You Huo and Qin Jiu, two bosses who clearly had no idea how to write the word “fear,”

all the other examinees were still on edge after their close call. Not one of them could sleep.

Not only could they not sleep, but they also dared not make a sound. Even the two sailors who snored had their mouths covered by others.

They picked up a few slender tree branches, roasted them over the fire, and used the blackened ends to write on the ground whenever they wanted to communicate something.

Because the cave was quiet and the fire was exceptionally warm.

You Huo slept very soundly through this rest. When he opened his eyes, daylight was already fully bright.

He had just sat up straight when he saw a ground full of ghostly scribbles, nearly thinking he had stumbled into a shamanistic ritual site.

A crowd of examinees were staring at him, their gazes filled with anticipation. Based on their stiff postures, they might have been watching him all night.

You Huo: “…”

He rubbed his hair, about to ask what they were doing, when he heard someone cough a few times, followed by the sound of sluggish footsteps mixed with jingling and clanging, coming closer.

Anyone who could wake up so boldly definitely wasn’t a frightened examinee.

Those were the crew members of the merchant ship, yawning and stretching as they greeted them.

Apart from a few simple words spoken in awkward Chinese, the crew spoke in a bird-like language that none of the examinees could understand, until the flat-headed first mate appeared.

The examinees immediately grabbed hold of him and whispered, “First Mate, tell the crew to keep their voices down.”

The first mate was taken aback: “Why?”

“Shh—”

Di Li immediately gestured to be quiet.

He softly described the scene from the middle of the night.

After hearing this, the first mate pondered for a moment and said, “We’ve been here for eight months and haven’t seen anything like that.”

“Well, we don’t know either. It just popped up suddenly at night,” Di Li said.

As they spoke, a deep voice chimed in with a string of incomprehensible language.

Everyone turned to see that it was actually the captain.

This captain had been sick and injured, always drifting in and out of unconsciousness, leaving everyone with the impression of his various sleeping postures.

Thanks to Wu Li’s bandaging and treatment, along with a hearty meal last night, this captain—also named Barentsz—had finally regained his spirits.

He stretched his limbs, tying his long hair back as he nodded toward the examinees.

Then, he let out a long whistle toward the first mate.

The first mate: “…”

“I have something important to discuss with you,” the first mate said.

The captain mumbled something else.

The first mate followed with a long string of bird language.

Judging by his gestures, he was likely repeating Dili’s words.

Unexpectedly, after hearing these words, the captain actually seemed somewhat… exhilarated?

After a long while, everyone finally understood from the first mate’s translation that the captain’s joy stemmed from a legend.