CHAPTER 296: CHAPTER 293: GHOST WAVE

"Madam, any further and you’ll be under the waves. It might be dangerous; should we continue?" Sun Chuyao couldn’t help but speak as he saw Lin Wanwan and her daughter get more and more excited, moving closer to the sea.

Lin Wanwan looked up and realized that indeed, just a bit further and they’d be beneath the waves. However, she estimated that the sea would at most reach up to her calves, which didn’t seem too serious.

If they were in the modern era, they could swim in the sea wearing swimsuits, but unfortunately, that’s not possible in the Great Tang.

Little Qingyu lifted the veil on her hat, her head full of sweat from the heat, "Mother, can I take off my hat? It’s uncomfortable."

Lin Wanwan laughed and said, "Aren’t you afraid of turning into a little black coal? The sun is so big, you’ll become like Kun Lun with just a bit of sun."

Little Qingyu looked at Lin Wanwan, then at Kun Lun, shivering slightly, "No, I don’t want to be a little black coal."

Kun Lun heard his name and looked at his two masters in confusion.

He wasn’t collecting seafood; his task was to ensure the safety of his masters and prevent them from falling into danger.

The beach held many dangers, and they could encounter undercurrents or quicksand.

During the high tide on the first day, a lady from Dafeng Village, who came to the beach to gather seafood, got careless and ended up in quicksand, almost losing her life.

Luckily, someone from Lin Family Manor saw the situation and promptly helped, pulling her out like a radish.

The lady came out naked, her body completely exposed, as her loose hemp garments were left behind in the quicksand, making her cry in shame.

If it weren’t for the fact that only women and children were on the beach, she might not have been able to live with the embarrassment.

Eventually, someone from Lin Family Manor ran to their home and lent her some hemp clothing to cover up.

That day of seafood gathering turned into a nightmare for her; not only did she gain nothing, she also lost a set of hemp clothes, leaving her humiliated.

The story was quite sensational and quickly spread around the area.

In the countryside, where there’s little entertainment, an event like this was rare, and even those who hadn’t witnessed it couldn’t stop talking about it, as if they had seen it themselves, filled with excitement.

Lin Wanwan heard that the lady hadn’t stepped out of her home for half a month because of this incident.

It was only because people in the farming community were precious and poor men found it difficult to marry, especially in a littoral impoverished settlement like Dafeng Village, that her family kept watch, preventing her from committing suicide.

If this happened in town, her in-laws might have driven her to death.

Even in the Great Tang, such an incident would be hard for anyone to endure, let alone in modern times.

Lin Wanwan imagined herself in such a situation; she would rather expose the Space-Time Gate and return to the modern era than face such public disgrace.

"Eh, mother, look, why is the ground here moving?" Little Qingyu curiously poked at the ground nearby.

Lin Wanwan looked closely and realized it wasn’t ground at all, but a giant sea turtle with all its limbs retracted into its shell!

The turtle shell was over two meters long!

This was an adult leatherback turtle, and it was too large to fit through the Space-Time Gate, otherwise, Lin Wanwan would have been tempted to bring it back to the modern times.

Sun Chuyao recognized it too and exclaimed excitedly, "It’s a leatherback turtle! It’s huge, and it’s a great tonic!"

To Sun Chuyao, sea creatures were judged solely by their edibility.

The sea turtle seemed to understand human speech and clumsily began moving toward the sea.

"Wow! It’s a giant sea turtle!" Little Qingyu now recognized the true form of the "moving ground" and was ecstatic.

She had once kept a small sea turtle in the pond she dug in her backyard. To care for it, Kun Lun had carried buckets of seawater from the coast to fill the pond.

Later, that green sea turtle was given by Lin Wanwan to the police in the modern era and was probably now living in an aquarium.

Since losing the little sea turtle, Little Qingyu had been longing to raise another, so seeing such a large turtle made her very excited.

Sea turtles can swim at a speed of thirty-five kilometers per hour in the sea but on land, they move only seventy meters per hour – painfully slow.

Since she couldn’t bring such a large sea turtle back to modern times, Lin Wanwan wasn’t inclined to capture it and just watched with a smile as it crawled awkwardly toward the sea.

Sun Chuyao considered capturing it, but Lin Wanwan stopped him. Even though turtles were valuable and not protected animals in the Great Tang, Lin Wanwan felt there was no need to harm them just for food.

There was plenty else to eat.

Little Qingyu also had no intention of capturing it and was just happily jumping around the turtle.

With its slow pace, the turtle remained within sight, and Lin Wanwan felt anxious for it as she watched its sluggish progress.

This area was already beyond the tidal reach, where the cool seawater lapped over their feet. Watching Little Qingyu play, Lin Wanwan suddenly felt a sense of foreboding, "Xiao Yuer, stop surrounding the turtle and come here to me."

No sooner had she spoken when the water suddenly surged, and in the blink of an eye, both Little Qingyu and the great sea turtle vanished from Lin Wanwan’s sight.

Lin Wanwan rushed towards the sea in terror, letting out a fearful scream: "My darling!"

Sun Chuyao quickly pulled Lin Wanwan back a step, "Madam, this is a phantom wave! Step back! I’ll go find the young lady in the sea!"

On the other side, Kun Lun had already rushed into the sea, but in the vast ocean, Little Qingyu was nowhere to be seen.

"It’s a rip current!" Lin Wanwan was overcome with guilt and rage, shaking off Sun Chuyao and charging towards the sea.

Rip currents, the invisible killers of the beach, appear without warning, suddenly sweeping people from the shore into deep waters with great speed.

Other people gathering sea goods at a distance noticed Lin Wanwan’s disturbance and began calling out.

As Lin Wanwan threw herself into the sea, swimming into the depths, Little Qingyu suddenly broke the surface a hundred meters away, standing on the sea like a mermaid, waving to Lin Wanwan: "Mother! Mother!"

The large sea turtle that had been swept away by the rip current with Little Qingyu had raised her up.

Seeing that Little Qingyu was safe and sound, Lin Wanwan was overjoyed to tears.

The turtle, with great speed in the sea, brought Little Qingyu back to the shallows in no time, reuniting with Lin Wanwan, Sun Chuyao, and Kun Lun.

Little Qingyu leaped from the sea turtle’s shell towards Lin Wanwan, who held her tightly and swam quickly towards the shore, her heart still pounding with fear.

As they climbed back onto the beach, the people of Lin Family Manor had gathered around.

"What happened? Is there a phantom wave here?"

Anyone living by the sea had heard stories about phantom waves.

Unlike the massive and visible big waves, phantom waves are completely unpredictable and pose a massive threat to those gathering goods by the sea.

Over the years, nearly ten clan members of Lin Family Manor had died due to phantom waves.

Because the news spread about phantom waves appearing at this beach, no one dared continue gathering seafood, and they quickly packed up to head home.

Soaking wet, Lin Wanwan carried Little Qingyu back home. This day’s unexpected incident nearly scared the life out of her.