The sound of rippling water could be heard from behind the rows of silver trees. They quickened their pace, pushing through the wet, broad-leafed shrubs. Before them stretched a small river with incredibly clear water. The riverbed consisted of white stones that emitted a faint glow.
"Water!" Zhao Lin shouted. He immediately ran to the riverbank and scooped up the water with both hands.
"Wait! Do not drink it yet!" Xinghe snapped.
Zhao Lin stopped with his hands full of water in front of his mouth. "What now? This is clear water, not liquid mercury!"
Xinghe approached the riverbank. He dipped his finger into the water. The water felt very cold, nearly freezing. He sniffed its aroma. There was no smell of metal or sulfur. He looked at the white stones at the bottom of the river. There were small fish swimming nimbly. The fish had transparent bodies so that their blue-colored bones were clearly visible.
"There is life in it," Xinghe murmured. "If those fish can live, it is highly likely this water is not toxic to carbon organisms."
Xinghe drank a little water from his palm. It tasted very fresh, with a slight, strange sweetness at the tip of his tongue. As soon as the water entered his throat, he felt a warm sensation spreading through his chest.
"Safe," Xinghe said. Everyone immediately scrambled to wash their faces and drink the river water. Li Wei even submerged his entire head into the water. They felt their strength being restored very quickly. The choking thirst since the blue planet was finally gone.
"These fish," Han Dong observed the transparent fish. "They look easy to catch if we had a net."
"We do not have a net, Dong," Lin Mei replied. "And we do not have fire to cook them. Do not tell me you want to eat raw fish."
"If forced, why not?" Han Dong stood up and looked toward the forest across the river. "We have to find a place to stay the night. Over there is a gap between the rock cliffs covered by tree roots. That could be an emergency cave."
They crossed the shallow river. The white stones at the bottom felt slippery. On the other side, there was a short cliff wall covered by a weave of very thick silver tree roots. Behind those roots, there was an empty space sufficient to hold the eight of them.
"This is good enough," Xin Yan said while inspecting the inside of the rock crevice. "The ground is dry and protected from the wind."
They began clearing the remaining dry leaves and pebbles from inside the crevice. Zhao Lin sat in the corner, silently staring at his wounded hands. Li Wei tried to collect dry twigs fallen around the river.
Some time later, Li Wei returned with a pile of twigs in his arms. He dropped the pile of withered purple-leafed wood in the center of the rock crevice area. His breath was still heavy because of the foreign air.
"The twigs are a bit damp, but the inside is very dry," Li Wei said while patting his dirty hands. "The main problem now is, who has a lighter in their pocket?"
Everyone looked at each other in silence. Han Dong felt his tracksuit pockets and shook his head slowly. Zhao Lin looked away; he never carried a lighter because he did not smoke. Zhao Lin's phone, which might have had its battery tampered with to trigger a short circuit, was lost on the dead planet earlier. Lin Mei's and Fang Hua's phones were completely out of power and they did not know if damaging a lithium battery in a place like this would be safe.
"We use the primitive way," Han Dong said. He sat on the ground and began removing the shoelace from his left sneaker. "Xinghe, help me find a tree branch that is somewhat curved and sturdy. We also need a straight piece of wood about the size of a thumb for the rotating spindle. We will make a bow drill."
Chu Xinghe nodded and walked out of the root cave. He searched around the riverbank and returned bringing two pieces of branches that matched Han Dong's request. He also brought a stone about the size of a fist whose surface had a natural indentation.
"Use this stone to press the top spindle so your hand does not blister," Xinghe said while handing the stone to Han Dong.
Han Dong tied his shoelace to both ends of the curved branch, making a small bow. He looped the string around the straight branch, then placed the bottom end of the straight branch onto a flat piece of wood that had already been given a small notch by Li Wei using a sharp stone.
"Hold the stone from the top, Xinghe. Press steadily but not too hard. I will pull the bow," Han Dong instructed.
Chu Xinghe pressed the stone on the top end of the wooden spindle. Han Dong began pulling and pushing the bow. The spindle wood spun very fast, frictioning against the flat wood beneath it. The sound of wood grinding filled the rock crevice. After five minutes of struggling, sweat began to drip from Han Dong's forehead. His movements became faster. A little white smoke began to billow from the point of friction.
"There is smoke! Keep going, Dong!" Li Wei exclaimed with enthusiasm. He gathered dry moss and dead purple leaves, placing them right near the point of friction.
Han Dong stopped his movement when he saw small glowing reddish-black powder in the wood notch. Li Wei immediately moved that small ember into a clump of dry moss. He blew on it very slowly and carefully. The ember spread, eating the dry moss, and suddenly a small flame ignited.
"We have fire," Xin Yan murmured with a relieved smile. The cold air that slowly began to descend as the sun set immediately felt slightly dispelled by the warmth of the small campfire.
"Now that the fire is here, we need something to cook," Han Dong said while standing up. He took a long wooden branch whose tip he had sharpened with a sharp stone. "I will try to catch the transparent fish in the river."
"I am coming too," Chu Xinghe took another sharpened branch. The two of them walked toward the riverbank. Both suns in the sky were nearly fully set behind the mountain range, leaving a strange reddish-purple hue on the horizon. The clear river water reflected the remaining sunlight. The transparent blue-boned fish swam slowly among the white rocks.
Xinghe removed his shoes and rolled up his pants to his knees. He entered the water. The river water temperature was much colder than he expected, making his feet feel numb in seconds. Han Dong entered a few steps from Xinghe's position. The athlete had very sharp reflexes. His hand swung the sharpened branch quickly into the water. A fish the size of an adult's palm was skewered right in the middle of its body.
"Got one!" Han Dong exclaimed while lifting his wooden branch. The transparent fish flopped for a moment before going still.
Xinghe concentrated his gaze on the blue shadow in the water. He waited for the fish to swim near his feet, then he thrust his branch hard. His thrust missed by a few centimeters due to the refraction of light in the water, but the fish did not immediately dart away. The creature instead turned in confusion, allowing Xinghe to perform a second thrust that finally hit the target.
In less than half an hour, they managed to collect eight transparent fish. Night began to fall very quickly. The bright blue sky turned into pitch black, decorated by formations of stars whose sizes looked ten times larger and brighter than any they had ever seen on Earth. They returned to the rock crevice. The campfire had grown larger thanks to the twigs added by Li Wei and Zhao Lin.
Han Dong cleaned the insides of the fish using a sharp stone fragment. The fish blood was not red and it was like a clear fluid that was slightly sticky. They skewered the fish on small branches and stuck them around the campfire to be roasted. The aroma of burning fish meat began to be smelled. It was not fishy at all; instead, it released a faint savory aroma reminding them of the smell of roasted pine nuts. The eight teenagers' stomachs growled loudly.
"How long does this alien fish take to cook?" Zhao Lin complained while swallowing saliva. His eyes did not leave the transparent meat that was slowly changing color to milky white due to the heat of the fire.
"A bit longer. Do not let the meat burn; we have no backup food," Han Dong answered, turning his fish branch.
After the meat truly turned to a dense white, they began eating the fish. The first bite provided a surprise for them all. The fish meat was very soft, nearly melting in the mouth without needing to be chewed hard. The blue-colored bones turned out to be very soft and could be eaten like cartilage. Once the meat entered their stomachs, a very comfortable warm sensation immediately spread throughout their entire bodies.
"This is delicious," Yun Hai murmured. The girl finished her fish quickly. She touched her injured knee. "Strange. The pain in my knee is completely gone after eating this fish. My body feels very light."
"The water and animals here might contain something, Xinghe," Lin Mei said while chewing slowly. "Just like the flower scent from the disc in the cauldron earlier. This environment heals our bodies."
Chu Xinghe ate the last part of his fish. He felt the blood flow in his body humming softly. The fatigue from climbing the snowy mountain and being thrown into the forest vanished without a trace. His muscles felt full of new energy. His grandfather was right; there are places in this universe where energy is not just dead radiation, but something that provides sustenance to life directly.
They sat surrounding the campfire in silence for a while. The sound of crackling wood and the flow of the river water became the only sounds accompanying them in the middle of that foreign forest. The night grew deeper. The air temperature dropped drastically, but the warmth from the fish and the campfire kept them feeling comfortable.
Xin Yan sat huddling her body next to Xinghe. She stared into the blaze. "What will we do tomorrow morning, Xinghe? The cauldron is gone. We are truly stranded."
"We will follow this river flow tomorrow," Xinghe answered. He threw a small piece of wood into the fire. "River water always flows toward lower ground or larger lakes. Where there is a large collection of water, there is likely a form of civilization settled around it. If this place can be inhabited by animals and plants, it is not impossible that there are humans or other intelligent beings here."
"What if the intelligent beings turn out to be dangerous?" Zhao Lin cut in quickly. "We are just ordinary humans. We do not have firearms. If we meet a cannibalistic inland tribe or monsters, we are finished."
"Then you want to sit in this rock crevice until you are old?" Han Dong stared at Zhao Lin sharply. "We have to find a way out. Xinghe is right; staying here only delays death by starvation. If we can negotiate or learn to survive from the indigenous people of this place, that is much better."
Fang Hua leaned her head on Lin Mei's shoulder. "I miss my bed. I miss my mother's cooking. I want to go home."
Fang Hua's words represented the hearts of them all. No one answered, because there were no false promises that could be given. They were just small dust swept to the edge of the universe. They began to arrange sleeping positions on the ground covered with dry leaves. Li Wei and Han Dong took turns guarding to keep the campfire from dying. When midnight arrived, Chu Xinghe was still awake. He lay while staring at the tree root gap showing the starry night sky.
The bronze watch in his pocket felt cold and dead, no longer ticking. That flying cauldron vanished, taking with it the resonance of the watch. He tried to recall all the ancient texts he had ever memorized. Nine Heavens, Nine Hells. If a sea of chaos separates this universe, what place are they stepping on right now? Suddenly, a strange sound was heard from the distance. The sound was very subtle. Initially, it sounded like a long and soft gust of wind.
The sound of a gentle breeze that usually sweeps through leaves in autumn. However, there was something very odd about the sound. Chu Xinghe rose to a sitting position. His eyes swept the environment around the rock crevice. The purple leaves on the silver trees did not move at all. The grass on the riverbank stood still. The surface of the river water flowed without any ripples from a gust of wind. The environment down here was not touched by any wind.
But that gentle breeze sound was heard more clearly and getting closer. The sound descended from the direction of the sky. Han Dong, who was taking his turn on guard, also noticed the anomaly. He stood up and approached Xinghe.
"Do you hear that?" Han Dong whispered. "The sound is like a cloud storm moving over a mountain, but the air here is still."
"Wake the others," Xinghe ordered in a suppressed voice. Han Dong tapped Li Wei's shoulder and shook Zhao Lin's foot. Xin Yan and the other girls also woke up due to the sudden movement. They rubbed their eyes which were still sleepy, but immediately fell silent when they heard the strange gentle breeze sound above their heads.
"What is that sound?" Yun Hai whispered while tightening her jacket.