“Yes.” Jiang Cheng didn’t wish to dwell on this issue. He merely nodded.
For Fatty, it was already a gift that he could return alive. He looked at the Doctor and asked the last question, “Doctor, you also heard the whale song, right?”
“Then…” He moved his body closer to the Doctor. He looked quite funny with how careful he was, “What creature do you think made that sound?” Fatty frowned as his voice involuntarily lowered, “Doctor, I don’t know why, but I have a feeling it was not the monster that killed us who made that sound. It didn’t have the size for it.” Fatty licked his lips. “I’ve heard the whale song a few times. I was shocked each time. You might not believe me, but it felt like the song echoed directly into my soul. My body trembled with it every time. Plus… I could hear the creature’s heartbeat.” He was so deep in his memory that he didn’t notice the change in the Doctor’s expression, “The heartbeat was very slow but powerful. I could even imagine the heart expanding as it pumped the blood. I think…” Fatty raised his head as he looked at the Doctor with fear, “Perhaps on this issue, the things from the Black Stone Town weren’t lying.”
After a long time, Fatty heard the Doctor’s voice. For some reason, the Doctor’s voice unsettled him. However, Fatty didn’t dwell on it, and he continued, “Doctor, do you still remember their description of it?” Fatty frowned as if he was caught in a mental conflict. On one hand, he wished to forget everything about the mission since it was already over. On the other, the thing that made the whale song kept appearing in his mind. It was as if… the things that happened in that world… were not over yet.
Curiosity and fear weaved together in his heart. He didn’t know what he hoped to gain from the Doctor, but if he didn’t voice this out, the strange feelings in his heart might crush him. He kept involuntarily repeating the mumbling that he had heard before. “No one can witness its true appearance. Each scale on its body is the size of a small mountain. Its sharpest teeth are like the steepest mountains. One can see the sunrise and sunset by standing on its front and back. It is beyond human comprehension. Humans can only prostrate before it…”
Jiang Cheng’s face was hidden in the dark. His inky eyes appeared to be darker than the night. Fatty’s words clearly affected him, not because Fatty’s words explained something but… because they helped him remember the things he had forgotten.
“Do you remember… what Su Xiaoxiao said?” He said lightly. Fatty was taken aback. The Doctor’s words felt strange to his ears. It sounded like the Doctor just wanted to talk, but he knew the Doctor was not that kind of person.
“Do you remember what Su Xiaoxiao said,” Jiang Cheng repeated, “About her younger brother?”
The Doctor ignored him and continued, “Su Xiaoxiao said when her brother was in the forest, he’d use his own method to number and label each tree and each rock.”
“Yes, Doctor,” Fatty replied, “I do remember that. She also said that in her brother’s perception, they… I mean, those trees and rocks kept changing… like they were alive.”
Jiang Cheng shook his head as he sighed, “I think what Su An really wanted to express was not that they were alive, but they were constantly… moving. Since they kept changing their positions, everything in the forest was different from how they were one second ago in his perception.”
Fatty slowly widened his eyes. He didn’t really understand the Doctor, but he caught a sense of something in his words… The scent of the truth.
“Have you considered this?” Jiang Cheng continued, “Since that island was a projection of the real world, something similar to it would exist in real life.” His words were not hard to understand.
“In that case, why haven’t we heard of something like that in the real world?” Jiang Cheng continued, “After all, if such a strange place existed, with the power and size of the organisation behind that aged woman, they could have afforded even the biggest loss. They would not hesitate to send troops to explore the unknown due to the meaning it represented.”
Fatty was not used to the Doctor being so serious. The thing that unsettled him the most was the Doctor’s dark eyes that stared at him from the dark. The Doctor seemed to have many things to say… but something held him back. Was it because Fatty was too stupid to understand them?
Fatty didn’t think so. He had a feeling, or rather a guess, that… the Doctor didn’t want to drag him into the whirlpool because the Doctor was having a bad time escaping it himself.
“So…” Fatty’s lips trembled.
“They can’t find the island.” Jiang Cheng’s voice took on a strange tone as well. “The aged woman’s expedition was probably the last time they encountered that place.”
Fatty widened his eyes, “How… is that possible?” In Fatty’s recollection, the island was huge. It could fit an entire city.
The organisation behind the aged woman possessed energy and technology that he couldn’t comprehend. Nothing on Earth would escape its eyes.
“Fatty,” Jiang Cheng stared into his eyes before he closed the door. “I believe the island doesn’t exist on the surface of the sea anymore.”