Then Daxiong looked at me, his gaze questioning...

I nodded, confirming that what he saw was not a hallucination.

Daxiong set down the fishing net he was holding, picked up the refined steel chisel nearby, and strode toward the back of the tree.

I glanced back to see Liang Qian still playing with Toni, and without showing any reaction, I picked up the shovel beside me and followed him.

Daxiong was faster. The snow wasn't quite as heavy now. Every step his massive frame took on the snowy ground made a faint crunch, though the sound wasn't particularly loud.

Daxiong reached the tree where the dark shape had vanished in just a few strides, then flashed behind the trunk of the giant tree, which required two people to hug around.

And then he went completely silent.

I hurried to catch up and also rounded the tree, only to find Daxiong crouched on the ground, looking intently at something.

I moved closer, and Daxiong turned his head to say, "It looked like some animal passed by here just now, moving very fast."

Hearing him say that, I also crouched down to look. Sure enough, there was a series of marks scraped across the ground—not footprints, but rather lines, like someone had been kicking the snow surface while walking.

I pinched a handful of snow covering those marks and brought it to my nose to smell; there was no scent.

If it had been a wolf, an arctic fox, or a reindeer, there should have been an odor, but there was absolutely nothing here.

However, judging by the scale of the marks, it shouldn't have been a very large animal, so it posed no real threat.

I relayed my thoughts to Daxiong, and he nodded before we walked back together.

Liang Qian had clearly noticed our brief departure; as soon as we returned, she asked where we had gone.

To avoid making her worry—and especially not wanting to frighten the little girl—we claimed we had gone to relieve ourselves.

Liang Qian gave us both a look of suspicion and said, "It's getting cold, and the days are short; you two need to hurry up with your work."

I nodded, and Daxiong and I headed out onto the ice, walking perhaps fifty or sixty meters toward the center of the lake.

Beneath the ice where we stood, the schools of fish were gradually becoming denser, though these salmon were clearly wary; even the slight vibrations caused by our footsteps scared them darting into the deeper water.

As a person walks on the ice, the fish swim right near the soles of your feet—it was a very peculiar sensation.

Daxiong and I selected a spot where the surrounding ice seemed thickest to set up camp, then pulled out the old-fashioned miner's lamp we had prepared.

We didn't immediately drill into the ice because I wanted to observe the fish’s reaction to the light first.

So we set our gear aside and sat down in a circle around the lamp.

I glanced back to see Liang Qian by the shore using wild grass to braid a grasshopper for Toni, completely absorbed in their game. I took out my conversational phrasebook and continued reading.

Daxiong also found something to occupy himself with. Unbothered by the cold, he pressed his face against the ice surface, peering down into the lake to see if any schools of fish were approaching.

After watching for a while, he asked me, "Chuanzi, if I keep breathing hot air onto this ice, do you think it might melt and we’ll fall in and drown?"

I decided not to answer such a childish question, so I remained silent and kept reading.

A moment later, Daxiong asked again, "Chuanzi, do you think the fish aren't coming because it isn't dark yet and they can't see the light?"

I shook my head helplessly and said, "If you were a fish and saw a bear drooling while staring at you, would you approach? Get up now, you’re scaring the fish away."

This time Daxiong ignored me, still flat against the ice, scanning everywhere.

Three black lines appeared on my forehead. I returned to my book.

After another little while, Daxiong finally pulled himself up off the ice, rubbed his hands, and grumbled, "Damn, it’s freezing! I can’t believe this ice froze so solidly overnight. I should have brought my skates from home. Back when your Uncle Xiong was in high school, I was thin—they called me the Prince of the Ice. With my signature backward skating moves, I charmed countless girls; I was known as the Little Ice Prince."

I truly couldn't picture what Daxiong looked like when he was thin; my mind was filled only with the image of a fat Daxiong stubbornly skating backward with his rear stuck out, so I couldn't help but let out a cold laugh. "If we’re talking about cartoon characters, 'Prince of the Ice' doesn't suit you. Grizzly Bear fits you much better."

Daxiong rubbed his reddened nose, unhappily retorting, "Haven't you heard that every fat guy has potential? Don't underestimate me."

Seeing that I was ignoring him again, Daxiong looked toward the lake shore and suddenly exclaimed, "Where did Liang Qian and that little girl go?"

Hearing this, I quickly turned back. Sure enough, I couldn't see any sign of them. But after watching for a moment, I saw two snowballs occasionally flying out from behind those large trees—it looked like they had started a snowball fight.

Daxiong clearly saw it too and chuckled, "I knew you cared about that dame... Seriously though, why are you two taking so long? I’m eager to be a godfather."

I sighed, "Why do you talk so much, like an old woman? Look, now the fish aren't coming anymore."

Daxiong blinked wide and retorted, "Who said they aren't coming!"

Saying that, he shifted his rear slightly, and sure enough, I saw a small school of fish swimming beneath the ice directly under his bottom.

I recognized them as cold-water crucian carp, which tend to hide in shadowy places. Daxiong’s backside was large, probably mistaken for a patch of waterweed blocking the light.

Watching those carp glide slowly, I said to Daxiong, "This lake is quite deep."

Daxiong asked, somewhat bewildered, "How do you know that? Did these few carp have 'Lake *' written on their backs?"

I told him to stop talking nonsense and explained, "Although crucian carp can live in relatively cold places, once the ambient temperature drops to zero, they usually hide at the bottom of the lake. But look at these carp—they’ve come right up to the surface, and they seem quite active."

Daxiong scratched the back of his head and asked, "So that means the lake is deep?"

I nodded. "Exactly. It means the volume of lake water is enormous. So even though the surface has already frozen into a five or six centimeter layer of ice, the water at the bottom can still maintain a relatively high temperature because water has a very high specific heat capacity. Furthermore, cold water generally cannot float on top of warm water unless one condition is met: convection at the lake bottom. And this kind of convection usually only occurs where there are springs bubbling up from the bottom."

When Daxiong heard this, he mumbled, "Oh, so after all that explaining, you just mean there’s a hot spring at the bottom..."

I nodded. "That’s one possibility. Another possibility is that the lake bottom connects directly to the sea."

With that, I used the chisel in my hand to break off a shard of ice from the surface and said to Daxiong, "Try tasting this—it will definitely be slightly salty."

Daxiong eyed the ice shard in my hand and said, "Why don't you taste it..."