The pale morning fog crept from the horizon as if part of a long-held plot, its wisps seeping into the world and drifting over the sea. Even people in the same boat, once shrouded in the mist, became nothing more than vague, fragmented silhouettes.
"...Is that some kind of floating trash?" Hai Luwei finally whispered.
They had held their breath and waited for a moment, but no more thuds came from beneath the boat. They swept the area around the hull with a flashlight beam and a fishing rod, but nothing floated up from the dark, heavy water.
"I didn't see any trash," Emily said, also lowering her voice.
"Maybe it floated—"
Hai Luwei had barely started speaking when another THUD came from under the boat. The three of them jumped, freezing instinctively.
It didn't sound like trash; it felt like a very heavy object.
Several minutes had passed, and it hadn't floated away... Why was it still right under the boat?
