Book 2: Chapter 19


    The dinner table was silent. I looked at Poker-Face. The rain outside had stopped, so he withdrew his gaze from the window and looked at us.


    To be honest, I was a little hungry.


    I didn''t think they had interacted before going to Thunder City. But I had also never asked and they didn''t mention it. I couldnt help wondering if they didn''t find anything useful in the end, so the both of them were too embarrassed to mention it.


    The younger ones were already hungry and their eyes were looking around greedily. This was fate. If you wanted to embarrass anyone in this world, there would be some things that woulde back to bite you in the ass. Xiao Hua waved his hand for the food to finally be served. I figured a lot of dishes had been cooked and were being kept warm, so they would be served one by one shortly.


    We all looked at ck sses. Before he continued speaking, he opened a bottle of beer and poured it for himself, "The two of us went a little deeper. I wont talk about the specific process, but he helped me get the thing off of my back."


    "How?" I asked.


    "By listening to thunder." ck sses nced at Poker-Face, as if asking for his permission to continue.


    When Poker-Face nodded, I immediately frowned. <em>Hmm, thats interesting. The two of them have to get permission from each other to talk about these things.</em>


    ck sses took a sip of beer and kept talking.


    The two of them stayed on the riverbank for a long time. ck sses was almostpletely blind by this point and only had a little bit of light perception left.


    Poker-Face was sitting opposite him, surrounded by the smell of fried shellfish.


    "If you leave, be sure to squeak." ck sses said to the darkness in front of him.


    "Will your eyesight recover?"


    "I dont know. Based on past experience, if I keep my head down and stay still, my eyesight may be able to slowly recover," ck sses said. "Can you swim against the current here?"


    Poker-Face didn''t answer him, but ck sses felt as if he came to stand in front of him and put his hand on his neck.


    Warmno, it was hotblood ran down his neck. This was the residual blood from Poker-Face''s hand wound just now. He knew that it was harder for this man''s blood to coagtepared to normal people.


    "Can you also cure cervical spondylosis? Youre stealing this blind mans job." (1)


    "No."


    "Can you see whats behind me?"


    "I can feel it."


    ck sses sighed, "Do you think its afraid of you?"


    There was a moment of silence, and then Poker-Face said, "Its not afraid."


    "Then go, ck sses said. This is between me and it."


    No sooner had he spoken than a strange sound came from the depths of the underground river.


    ck sses concentrated on the sound, which came in bursts one right after another. He realized that it was thunder. It was raining again.


    How could they hear thunder when they were in an underground river?


    "Mute.." his voice trailed off as he heard the sound of someone entering the water. The words, go and take a look" got stuck in his throat. Heughed and felt around him. Food and weapons were all within easy reach, and there was also a can of beer.


    He picked it up, opened it, and took a sip.


    To make a long story short, ck sses mustve felt veryfortable now that he had beer in the underground river. But that isnt important. Poker-Face soon swam back, came out of the water, and grabbed ck sses.


    "What''s going on?" ck sses asked. He couldn''t see anything, so he didnt know what the current situation was.


    "Its thundering. Everything in the water hase out, and theres a riverbed downstream with bronze devices for listening to the thunder," Poker-Face said in his heart. In fact, Poker-Face didnt say anything at all and just dragged him into the water so that they could float downstream. But for the convenience of understanding, ck sses told us what he thought Poker-Face was thinking "in his heart" at that time.


    The two people drifted down along the current and soon came to the next beach. At the moment they came out of the water, a huge p of thunder just so happened to sound.


    Thunder in the underground river definitely couldnt described as thunder. If anything, it was more like an earthquake. The whole ground was shaking and ck sses felt a rush of air billow out.


    In an instant, his eyes could see things again. The immortal thing on his back appeared to have been shaken off by the loud sound.


    But as soon as the noise stopped, he was blind again.


    Then, there was another p of thunder and he could see things before his eyes. This time, it was like he could see the sounding towards him with the naked eye. He also saw a huge bronze implement hanging upside down in the rock stratum above the underground river.


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Cervical spondylosis is a general term for age-rted wear and tear affecting the spinal disks in your neck. In some Asian countries, massage therapy is a natural career path for visually impaired people, so thats why ck sses said Poker-Face would steal his job.