Dragon Clan: Lu Mingfei Returns from Japan

Chapter 487 Diving Mission (Part )

It was a narrow space, and all I could see was darkness.

Lu Mingfei and Jiude Aki sank slowly like two fish in the bottomless water. The guide rope was like an arrow in a web game that guided them forward.

In the second dive, the guide rope helped them avoid most corners and bends, but the tension in their hearts was no less than yesterday. For high-risk missions, this kind of tension is not a bad thing. It can make people more cautious and respond more quickly when encountering emergencies.

"150 meters." Aki whispered a number.

从120米下潜到150米的位置，这一次他们只花了不到10分钟的时间，昨天他们下沉最快时是5分钟20米。现在她们的下潜速度已经接近了昨天下潜最快的时候。

For the sport of cave diving, such a fast descent speed is somewhat dangerous, because high-speed descent means that the air pressure is also changing rapidly. Even if they have a diving suit to help them adjust the balance of internal and external pressure, there is no guarantee that they will not be overwhelmed by the sudden increase in pressure.

Once the consciousness becomes blurred, the complex environment in the cave will make it difficult to escape, which is why cave diving, an extreme sport, has the highest mortality rate in the world. In front of nature, humans are nothing but insignificant dust.

but……

I don't know if it's because I've already dived once yesterday and I've adapted to it. After this quick dive, Lu Mingfei felt that his body's reaction was not as strong as yesterday.

The guide rope reached the end, and Lu Mingfei and Jiude Aki had already dived to a depth of 160 meters. This section of space was slightly more spacious than the previous corridor, enough for two people to not have to squeeze together.

It took him and Aki more than an hour to dive to this depth yesterday, but less than 40 minutes today. There was nearly three quarters of oxygen left in the oxygen tank, which was enough to support them to continue underwater activities for nearly an hour.

"We have already reached the deepest point we reached yesterday. Should we take a break here or continue diving now?"

The voice of Aki Sakude with a slight electric sound came from the headphones. Even if there was a data cable connection on the diving suit, the communication signal would be affected to some extent under such a deep water level.

Lu Mingfei lowered his head, and Jiude Aki also lowered his head subconsciously. The spotlight could not penetrate far in the deep water, and only a blue-gray light band illuminated the downward direction. The faintly illuminated rock wall pillars showed a strange beauty.

"Let's take a break first. There's no rush and there's still a lot of oxygen left in the oxygen tank." Lu Mingfei raised his head and said.

Shude Aki also nodded. The two of them leaned against the rock wall behind them to rest, connected to each other only by the lifeline on the diving suit.

The boys and girls were breathing heavily in the headphones, and they were both adjusting their tense bodies and minds skillfully. The slightly oversized transparent masks allowed the two people facing each other to only see half of each other's face.

Lu Mingfei suddenly remembered the scene when he was a child and secretly put on his uncle's motorcycle helmet and cosplayed as an astronaut while his uncle and aunt were not at home. At that time, the image of himself in the mirror with half of his face showing from the helmet seemed as funny as it is now.

The long-lost memories he recalled deep in the cave after so many years made him feel a little funny. It was amazing that he could still remember such things 160 meters underwater.

Almost at the same time as the corners of his mouth raised, he heard a girl's soft laughter in the headphones.

"?"

The tacit laughter in the headphones made the two seniors look up at each other almost at the same time. In the dim light of the spotlight, Jiude Aki saw through the mask that Lu Mingfei had a somewhat stunned expression on his face. Lu Mingfei also saw the incomprehensible emotions in Jiude Aki's lively eyes.

"Senior sister (junior brother), what are you laughing at?"

in unison.

"..."

Shutoku Aki put her hands behind her back, and there was something rarely seen in her beautiful eyes, rippling, just like a gust of wind suddenly blowing through the Hie Shrine in March when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom.

Lu Mingfei was very perceptive and scratched his head… If he could scratch it now, he would definitely do this: “How about I speak first?”

A look of approval appeared on the half of Shude Aki's face beneath the mask. Although only her eyes could be seen, it seems that one only needs a pair of eyes to read a certain mood.

It seemed that this was the first time that Lu Mingfei had seen so many emotions in Aki's eyes. To outsiders, his senior sister had always been a Yamato Nadeshiko-like girl, with a gentle smile on her face...

But there was only a gentle smile. No other emotions could be seen, just like a river flowing in all seasons. It was rare to see emotions flowing in the eyes like today.

Lu Mingfei cleared his throat and said what he had just thought of.

It seems a bit uncomfortable to talk about these innocent memories with a senior schoolmate who I know but am definitely not too familiar with.

But perhaps because the two of them were now in a strange cave 160m below the water surface, in a sense they had already exchanged life and death, so talking about this matter was easier than Lu Mingfei had imagined.

But right after he finished speaking, Lu Mingfei immediately heard a faint laugh in his headphones again.

Lu Mingfei was silent, staring at the beautiful senior schoolmate in front of him with a depressed look on his face.

“…I’m sorry, I’m not making fun of you, Junior Brother Lu. I just think, well, Junior Brother Lu, you are quite childish.”

After adjusting his breathing, Shude Aki raised his eyes again and met Lu Mingfei's gaze.

Seeing the doubt in Lu Mingfei's eyes, Jiude Aki added seriously, "Really?"

"I believe it's true..." Lu Mingfei said, "So what about you, Senior Sister Yaji? What were you laughing at just now?"

"I……"

Jiude Aki's eyes suddenly retreated when he heard this, and he hesitated to speak. However, after a short silence, he met Lu Mingfei's gaze again and asked softly, "Junior brother, do you really want to hear it?"

"Um... Actually, I don't really want to! It doesn't matter if you don't say it..."

Lu Mingfei noticed that this topic seemed to touch upon some parts of Jiude Aki that he was unwilling to mention. He knew that there was always a small forbidden area in everyone's heart that they didn't want to be known to others. That was where people hid secrets that they didn't even want to touch, so he spoke immediately.

"It doesn't matter. It's not a secret that can't be told."

Aki Sakutoku nodded, then suddenly looked away and spoke softly, "I'm not actually an only child... I have an older sister, and we lived together until I was five."

elder sister……

When Lu Mingfei heard this, his expression changed slightly and the figure of Jiude Mai immediately appeared in his mind.

"Once, when I was very young, my sister and I watched a movie about Egyptian pharaohs on TV. My sister suddenly had an idea that she looked like a mummy, and then she asked me to wrap her up with toilet paper, leaving only her nose and eyes exposed for breathing, like a zongzi. Then my sister found herself tied up with tissues and unable to move, and she burst into tears out of fear... Just now, when I saw you, my junior brother, with only your nose and eyes exposed under the mask, it reminded me of my sister."

After saying this, Aki Sakutoku shrugged his shoulders and said, "So, that's what happened."

Just like what Shude Aki said, this is indeed not a secret that cannot be told.

But Lu Mingfei never expected that the peerless enchantress who was always as beautiful and sharp as a blade could be so cute. He could even unconsciously imagine in his mind a scaled-down version of the loli Jiude Mai, wrapped like a dumpling in a tissue and crying loudly.

Hmm, it suddenly feels like a pretty good handle?

Miss Jiude Mai, you don't want others to know about your childhood... But after all, it's still hundreds of meters deep under the water, so Lu Mingfei certainly doesn't have much time to imagine this kind of Japanese netizens' plot... He is now curious about another thing: "Senior sister, you just said that you lived with your sister before you were 5 years old. What about after 5 years old? Did you two separate?"

"Well... I can't tell you this. Junior brother, you still have to keep some secrets for me, right?" Shude Aki blinked and smiled gently, turning back into the Yamato Nadeshiko that Lu Mingfei was familiar with.

She looked down at the oxygen meter and said, "We have used up almost one-tenth of the oxygen. The oxygen consumption at a depth of around 160 meters is about 100 times that at a depth of 1.55 meters. We should have rested for about 8 minutes. We need to keep going."

Lu Mingfei also quickly recovered and nodded immediately: "Okay."

Aki Shude swung her feet underwater like a mermaid swinging her tail, reached out and hung the new guide rope she was carrying on the buckle she left yesterday, and connected it to the 160-meter depth mark.

"Junior brother..."

She turned her head to look at Lu Mingfei, ready to ask Lu Mingfei to hold her hand and continue the diving operation.

But before she could say anything, Lu Mingfei had already reached out and put his arms around her waist and hugged her.

Jiude Aki was stunned for a moment. This action itself was not too inappropriate. Because before, when Lu Mingfei and her passed through some narrow passages, in order to prevent the invisible bumps on the stone wall from scratching the diving suits, the two of them really had to hug each other to pass through these narrow sections.

However, the space in this 160-meter section of the corridor is much more spacious than before. Two people only need to hold hands to ensure that they always move together to prevent one of them from being swept away by the sudden rapid water flow.

Adopting the hug-and-dive posture here... doesn't seem too necessary.

"Maybe it's because I've been diving in this posture just now, and I'm used to it, so I didn't pay attention for a while..." thought Aki Shude.

As an elite student of Kassel Academy, Aki Jude has performed many missions, so he certainly won't feel ashamed or have any other abnormal emotions because of a hug. Fluctuating emotions are dangerous for such underwater missions, and an accelerated heartbeat will increase oxygen consumption.

Moreover, complete trust in each other is the basic principle of being a diving partner. Cave diving has never been an individual sport. The first rule of diving is "you cannot dive alone, you must keep pace with your diving partner." Because once you are in danger underwater, your partner is your only hope of survival.

It only took Shude Aki a few seconds to adjust the strangeness in his heart, and he was about to continue diving in a hugging posture... At this time, his body felt further force.

Lu Mingfei on the opposite side put one hand on her waist, grabbed one of her wrists, and pressed her against the wall.

"!"

This action obviously goes far beyond the ordinary hug and dive posture.

After a moment of daze, Aki Jude immediately tensed up, and the suddenly accelerated pointer on the oxygen meter showed that she had subconsciously experienced emotional fluctuations in her heart.

Jiude Aki immediately raised his head and observed Lu Mingfei's current situation through the beam of light from the spotlight.

Lu Mingfei's eyes were blurry...his expression was like he was drunk.

Jiude Aki's first reaction was that Lu Mingfei might be suffering from hypoxia. It is not uncommon for hallucinations to occur due to lack of oxygen during diving. The left frontal cortex will produce high signal line-like lesions in an oxygen-deficient environment.

It was just that when she was at 160 meters, she and Lu Mingfei had checked the remaining oxygen in the oxygen tank...

Unless Lu Mingfei was already suffering from hypoxia without knowing it at that time, and did not even see the reading on the oxygen meter clearly!
It was not easy to exert force underwater, but fortunately she had more support than Lu Mingfei with her back against the wall.

She immediately broke free from Lu Mingfei's grip on her wrist, used her legs to lean against the stone wall to get behind Lu Ming, and used a boxer's behind-the-back lock to hold Lu Mingfei from behind. She lowered her head and prepared to use a spotlight to check the count on Lu Mingfei's oxygen meter.

If the count is lower than normal, she will immediately notify Professor Mans to retrieve Lu Mingfei's lifeline.

But at this moment, she suddenly heard a faint call in her ear.

"..."

Jiude Aki was stunned, and the voice in the headphones became clearer and clearer.

“…Senior Sister…Senior Sister Aki!”

The familiar shouting voice was amplified by the headphones and transmitted into her mind. Dizzy, Aki Sakutoku tightly closed her eyes.

When she opened her eyes again, the spotlight shone into her pupils. In the slightly dazzling light, she saw Lu Mingfei's nervous face.

"Senior Sister Aki!" Lu Mingfei held Jiude Aki's wrist with both hands and asked uncertainly: "Have you regained consciousness?"

"I……"

"Palace Yuye Liquor?"

"..."

"Sledgehammer?"

"..."

"Captain, don't shoot?"

"I..." Yaji stammered, "I haven't watched the Spring Festival Gala many times..."

Lu Mingfei heaved a sigh of relief when he heard this, knowing that Jiude Aki had sobered up, and said, "Then you can make it up to me later, Senior Sister."

"What happened to me just now?" Yaji looked up at Lu Mingfei, and suddenly saw a string of bubbles slowly floating out in front of her. She was stunned: "Oh my God..."

Lu Mingfei held Yaji's shoulders and said, "Sister, don't panic. We still have enough oxygen in the oxygen tank. Adjust your breathing and listen to me."

Yaji looked into Lu Mingfei's eyes, nodded, and slowly relaxed her body and adjusted her breathing.

"Just now when we were preparing to dive, you suddenly turned around and hit the cave wall. During the collision, a crack appeared on your breathing tube. This caused your oxygen to leak."

Lu Mingfei spoke slowly, word by word: "I guess you must have had some kind of hallucination just now. But it doesn't matter, we still have enough oxygen. I still have more than half of the oxygen. I can hold my breath for five minutes normally. We can exchange oxygen masks. Half of the oxygen is enough for us to float back to the surface from here."

Jiude Aki shuddered in her heart. It turned out that she was the one who had the hallucination! But why...

But now she obviously didn't have time to think about the reason. There were no accidents in cave diving, only death. Once the gas was interrupted during cave diving, death would be calculated in seconds!
They must escape from the cave of "Eye of Kuimen" as quickly as possible and return to the "Moniah"!

The reading on Aki's oxygen meter was gradually reaching the bottom. Lu Mingfei took a deep breath, expelled the water from the mask, put on the breathing tube, and took it off and handed it to Jiude Aki.

Just as Shude Aki put on the oxygen mask, she suddenly felt a huge suction force pulling her deeper into the cave.

……

(End of this chapter)