Hearing me say this, Nobita seemed greatly pleased, chuckled, clapped me heavily on the shoulder, and declared, "Exactly, you should have decided this long ago. Ever since you mentioned the strangeness of the Ruins Island, my heart has been itching.

That so-called Durban Kingdom must hold tons of treasure!" The sight of him thinking only of valuables made me speechless for a moment. At this point, * chimed in, "Right!

What place have we not been to? Are a few wisps of fog going to stop us brothers?" I nodded and asked Liang Qian, "Little Fatty, what do you think?" Liang Qian shot me a side-eye and replied, "I don't have any particular thoughts right now, but if you decide to go, I'll definitely be going too." Hearing Liang Qian say that, Nobita whistled and grinned, "You two...

when did you become so in sync?" At that moment, Liang Qian's face suddenly flushed, and she quickly clarified, "I mean... since Nie Chuan and I are of the same clan, his business is my business." Nobita was about to say something more with a playful grin, but I gave him a kick.

"We're discussing serious matters, can you stop interrupting, alright?" Nobita shrugged, dropping the topic, then asked me, "So, tell us, when do we set off, and where do we get a boat?" * interjected, "The boat is indeed a problem. After all, it's several hundred nautical miles away; a common small skiff definitely won't make it.

I think the only vessel capable in the village is the Village Chief's motorized boat, so it looks like we need to figure something out with the Chief." I nodded, a sudden thought furrowing my brow. "But the Chief uses that boat every day.

I see only one option: we sneak onto the boat, and when they are fishing for cod near the ruins, we take that chance to jump ship and get to Ruins Island ourselves. But if that's the case, we won't have a way back.

If we run into any danger on the island, we can't possibly swim back, right?" Liang Qian added, "Besides, even if we manage to sneak across, the moment we vanish, Professor Andre will know we went to Ruins Island, and he'll just have to drag us back." I shook my head. "It's not a problem if he knows we went to Ruins Island; the island is so vast with so many structures, he won't find us immediately.

But if there's real danger on the island, the villagers he sends to look for us might be in peril." Considering all these factors, we fell silent. Finally, * spoke up, "How about this: I'll go alone first.

Anyway, Mr. Andre and I aren't close; as long as you give him some casual excuse, he probably won't suspect anything.

With my skills and experience, I should manage without any mishaps." After he finished speaking, we all looked at him. I noticed hesitation on everyone's faces.

After all, the island was fraught with extreme peril; letting the old man venture out alone made us all uneasy. But then again, I had always been the one slowing the group down.

As for *—while he might not be as strong in a straight fight as Nobita—in terms of skill, experience, and intellect, he was the strongest among us. If only one person were to go, * was indeed the best choice.

Nobita seemed to trust * completely and asked, "How will you get there?" * offered a slight smile and replied, "Don't worry, I can get there however necessary. When I was in the army, our unit once swam across the Strait of Malacca, so even swimming there is no issue for me." Nobita nodded and conceded, "Alright then, be careful.

We'll take care of things here for you." Seeing Nobita agree so readily, * quickly cut him off and turned to me, "Wait! Can you really manage going alone?" * looked at me with determined eyes and countered, "What do you think?" I frowned and said, "Fine, you can go alone, but if you haven't returned in three days, we will absolutely set out in the boat to find you, no matter the cost.

Remember to leave some markers on the beach if you encounter danger, so we can locate you immediately when we arrive." * smiled confidently, stroked his mustache, and stated, "Seven days... If I haven't returned in seven days, then you come looking." I considered it for a moment.

"Okay, seven days it is." * lightly tapped the table, signaling that we would depart first thing in the morning. We conferred for a while longer, pooling the contents of our backpacks to equip *.

We found him a flare gun, a glow stick, a handgun, three lengths of rope, along with emergency rations, a canteen, and an iron mess kit. After assembling a large bag packed full of supplies, more than an hour had passed.

Just then, the latch of the courtyard fence creaked open, and footsteps sounded. Nobita hurriedly stuffed the backpack into *'s bedding to hide it, then returned to the living room where we all pretended to be chatting.

Soon after, Andre and the Rabirovich couple walked in, their expressions tinged with gravity. I quickly asked Andre how he planned to deal with the bodies of the sea-women.

Andre rubbed his beard, sat down in the chair opposite us, and said, "We've discussed it, and we plan to return the sea-women's bodies to Ruins Island so their kin can take them. Otherwise, it could very well invite disaster." The Village Chief muttered a few words in Russian from the side, his face conveying worry.

Andre translated, "The old man says he will send the bodies back first thing tomorrow morning, and they'll bring some grapes and fruit wine along to properly honor them." I nodded and inquired, "Do you need our help with that?" Andre shook his head. "This is a matter for our village; you don't need to involve yourselves.

Furthermore, we can't have too many people going to Ruins Island. Tomorrow morning, the Chief is only taking two young men with him." Hearing Andre say that, I subtly signaled * with my eyes, because if only three people went in total, it would be very easy for him to sneak onto the boat heading to Ruins Island.

* clearly wasn't truly planning to swim across, and he gave me a slight nod, understanding my meaning instantly. Andre and the others continued their conversation, paying no attention to our expressions.

After a while, they addressed us, "Alright, it’s getting late. Don't wander around the village tonight; get some sleep early." We all agreed and returned to our rooms.

After a quick wash, the three of us grown men crammed onto one bed. Nobita asked to play with my phone.

As soon as I handed it over, he opened the Flappy Bird game and immediately started snoring. And *, needing to wake up early the next day, also closed his eyes to rest.

Only I couldn't sleep. I snatched the phone back from Nobita, opened my e-reader app, and started reading the hottest tomb-raiding novel of the year, Grave Robbers' Chronicles.

Unconsciously, I read for over two hours. The snoring of the two men beside me seemed to have absolutely no effect on me.

The room was quite warm due to the burning charcoal in the fireplace. Yet, it was precisely the glow of the embers that cast everything in the room in a slightly eerie, dark red hue.

My eyes felt tired from staring at the phone, so I subconsciously glanced around the room.