After Wang Yang finished listening to my examples, he pondered for a moment and said, "If what you say is true, then that woman left herself some things before she lost her memory. With these, she continued to do what she was doing before she lost it?"
"Exactly, and everything she did was for one purpose: to find out who she was," I replied.
"I don't think so," Wang Yang chuckled.
I looked at him with confusion. He exhaled a puff of smoke and said, "Think about it, if I knew I was going to lose my memory, I would definitely write down all the information about who I am before I lost it. Then, after losing my memory, I could just look at that information and know who I am. Why would I need to search for it?"
"What if you couldn't write down that information at all?" I asked.
"Hm?" Wang Yang was puzzled.
"Let's assume, for now, that Sister Ying's amnesia is confirmed. Then, we'll incorporate the fact that she's immortal into our theory."
Even as I said it, I still found Sister Ying's immortality to be incredibly unbelievable.
However, to verify my deductions, I had to temporarily accept this fact.
"When did Sister Ying become immortal?" I asked.
Wang Yang shook his head.
"Let's assume," I continued, "that she gained this ability in the Ming Dynasty. That would mean she's lived for over six hundred years. Forget six hundred years, even a hundred years, and it would be difficult to clearly recount the events that happened to you, let alone six hundred."
I paused and added, "What if she was from the Tang Dynasty? Or even the Three Kingdoms period? Even if you used paper and pen, how much would you have to write to know who you are?"
Wang Yang seemed to understand my line of thought. He said, "Her immortality is a secret in itself, she couldn't possibly record it..."
I nodded. "So she had to rely on clues left before she lost her memory to gradually find out who she truly is..."
At this point, Sister Ying's face couldn't help but appear in my mind.
The thought of how many events she must have experienced throughout the long river of history if these deductions were true.
Just imagine, never knowing who you truly are, constantly searching for your past.
What a tragic and terrifying thing that would be.
A strange feeling washed over me. I could only hope that all of this was just my speculation.
"Now that you've put it that way, I've figured it out!" Wang Yang's eyes lit up. "Then Shen Wansan must have the same tattoo as me! He must have seen that woman back then..."
His speculation wasn't impossible. If Sister Ying's immortality was true, how did she achieve it?
Every time I thought about this question, I got a headache.
It seemed many things could only be known by asking her directly, but where was Sister Ying now?
The next day, Old Yuan sent a few skilled swimmers to check the sea. When they returned, they all said they hadn't seen any stone turtles.
I insisted it was impossible and even brought Song Bing to testify, but those swimmers were adamant they hadn't seen a stone turtle.
Finally, I decided to go down myself. This time, when I dove into the sea, the stone turtle was actually gone!
This left me somewhat bewildered!
I had clearly seen it in the sea last night, so where had it gone?
Even Song Bing seemed surprised. Old Yuan suggested it might have been washed away by the sea.
I said, "Impossible. Such a large stone turtle, if the sea could wash it away, how big would the waves have to be?"
Besides, the water currents underwater are far less turbulent than on the surface.
The situation had developed in a way no one had anticipated.
For a moment, everyone was at a loss. Just then, Bai Hanyan asked Old Yuan to fetch the Jade Finder.
Following Yang Hanxue's previous method, they placed the Jade Finder into the porcelain basin. The water currents were clearly less turbulent than before.
Bai Hanyan took out her compass and looked at it for a while. "Strange, the location has changed again..."
I asked her what location had changed.
She said, "Yesterday, Yang Hanxue asked me to calculate the Taiyin position. Yesterday it was clearly here, but today it has changed location."
"Where is it today?" I asked.
She pointed in a direction and said, "Over there."
I hesitated for a moment, then asked Old Yuan to steer the boat in that direction, but he refused outright.
"I haven't found the Captain yet, I can't leave this place... I said I'd see him alive or find his body," Old Yuan said with difficulty. "Brother Xiang, I hope you can understand."
Seeing his reluctance to sail, Wang Yang walked over and said, "The speed boat I drove here yesterday is still here, right?"
Old Yuan replied, "It's still here."
"Then give us some fuel and a few sets of diving gear. We'll go and check over there first. If we don't find anything, we'll come back and rendezvous with you."
Old Yuan hesitated. "This... I'm afraid that's not appropriate, is it?"
I said, "It's alright, we're also trying to find Captain Yang."
Old Yuan sighed. "Very well, Brother Xiang, you guys be careful."
Soon, Old Yuan prepared some diving gear for us, along with necessities like food and water.
After getting on the speed boat, led by Bai Hanyan, we drove for over two hours and arrived near a small island.
The island didn't look very large. It was bare, with hardly any vegetation.
After parking the speed boat by the shore, Bai Hanyan confirmed that this was the location.
After eating something, we split up to explore the island. At noon, Song Bing discovered a cave.
This cave was very high, with almost half of it submerged in seawater.
Bai Hanyan dug a circular pit nearby and poured some seawater into it. The moment she placed the Jade Finder inside, the water began to boil.
I had seen this happen yesterday, so I wasn't surprised. Wang Yang, however, found it quite magical.
"It seems we'll have to go into this cave," I said.
Wang Yang and Song Bing both agreed, and Bai Hanyan was also eager.
However, for safety reasons, I asked Bai Hanyan to stay on the shore, and let the three of us men go into the water.
She adamantly refused, saying, "Why not you stay up here?"
Wang Yang winked at me, seemingly reminding me to use the "coaxing" method.
Understanding him, I walked up to Bai Hanyan and looked at her earnestly, "Hanyan, do you trust me?"
"What do you want to say?" Bai Hanyan avoided my gaze.
"Do you know that you are the person I trust the most?" I said very seriously. "Someone once said that you should only turn your back to the person you trust the most. By letting you stay up here, I want to ensure that if something happens to me, at least there's someone I absolutely trust to handle things..."