406: Chapter 403 It's Uncomfortable

After listening to the elderly couple's remarks about "releasing mineral water to accumulate merit," Chen Xing didn't know what to say for a moment.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again.

Forget it, there's no arguing with this group of old people. He sighed, nodded politely, and turned back toward the riverbank.

Ye Ouyang and Li Zhe were still standing there waiting for him. Big Orange was invisible, and though it was unclear where it was crouching, the air near Li Zhe's hand was slightly distorted, so it was likely there.

"How did it go?" Ye Ouyang asked.

Chen Xing shook his head. "Not much. The elderly couple doesn't know anything; they're just here... accumulating merit on their own."

He paused and looked down at the detector in his hand.

"The instrument says there was indeed an evolutionary fluctuation here, but I'm afraid it might have already left. Let's look around and see if there are any clues."

The three of them walked along the riverbank for a while. To the left was the river, to the right was a green belt, and further away was a road. After walking about two or three hundred meters, there was nothing unusual, except for some greenish stuff floating on the surface of the river.

Ye Ouyang leaned over to the riverbank and took a look. "Why is this river so green?"

Li Zhe also took a look. "Algae, probably."

"So much?"

As they were talking, there was a splashing sound from ahead. A middle-aged man wearing waterproof pants was standing in the river, holding a long pole with a net attached to the end, scooping something from the water's surface. He scooped up a netful of greenish stuff, dumped it into a bucket on the bank, and continued scooping.

Chen Xing walked over, stood on the bank, and asked, "Sir, what are you doing?"

The man looked up and wiped the sweat from his face.

"Oh, me? I'm scooping the algae out of this river." He pointed at the river surface with the net. "I don't know what's going on, but suddenly so much algae has appeared on the river surface lately. I don't know what species it is, but with so much of it growing, the water quality must have a problem."

He plunged the net into the water and continued, "This river allows single-rod fishing, and I usually fish here. Look at this algae, it's floating everywhere. Whenever I cast my rod, it gets covered in a clump of it. How can I fish like this? I have to clear them out, then bait the area so I can cast my line."

Chen Xing's eyes flickered slightly. "There wasn't this algae before?"

"No." The man shook his head. "This river used to be quite clean. I don't know why so much suddenly appeared. I've been coming here every few days to scoop it out, but it grows back after a couple of days."

Chen Xing nodded thoughtfully.

"Alright, thank you."

He turned and waved to the two of them. "Wait here for a moment."

After saying that, he walked quickly back to the SUV parked on the side of the road and took a silver-gray waterproof box out of the trunk. He opened the box to reveal a palm-sized underwater drone and a VR headset-style remote control. He assembled the equipment in a few quick moves and returned to the riverbank.

"Is this an underwater drone?" Ye Ouyang leaned in to look.

Chen Xing didn't answer, just nodded. He placed the drone into the water, and the machine sank silently. He put on the headset and began to operate it.

The image from the headset was a bit murky, but still clear enough. The drone slowly sank, and its lights turned on, illuminating the underwater world.

At first, it was a normal riverbed—silt, gravel, and occasionally a few small fish swimming by.

Then, something appeared on the screen.

Half a roasted chicken.

Yes, half a roasted chicken. It was unknown how long it had been soaking in the water; its skin had turned white from the soaking, the bones were exposed, and a few chicken bones were scattered nearby.

Chen Xing's brow furrowed.

The drone continued forward.

A soggy, soaked cookie wrapper with the brand still visible.

A sticky lump of something, like leftover rice, already rotten and blackened, with a few small fish pecking at it nearby.

Another wrapper, this time a vacuum-sealed bag for cooked food, which seemed to still have residual grease inside.

Further ahead, something appeared on the screen... it was hard to tell what it was. It looked like a ham sausage, but thicker, and it had swollen from the soaking, with a layer of white fuzz growing on its surface.

Chen Xing's brow furrowed even tighter.

"What is all this..." he muttered.

Chen Xing stared at the image in the headset, his brow furrowing tighter and tighter.

The situation at the bottom of the water was worse than he had imagined. Leftover cooked food was scattered across the riverbed, some already soaked white and rotting, with a group of sickly-looking fish gathered around them. They swam slowly, their gills opening and closing rapidly, and some were even swimming on their sides, struggling to maintain their balance.

And the algae—those thread-like, bright green algae—were almost everywhere. They were wrapped around every dead branch, covering every stone, and drifting slowly in the current like countless green tentacles.

The data transmitted back by the drone flickered in the upper right corner of the headset.

Dissolved oxygen: 34.7 mg/L.

Chen Xing's heart sank a little. Normal water should be 5 to 8; this was already more than four times that.

A fit of coughing came from the bank.

Chen Xing took off the headset and looked at the middle-aged man who was fishing. He was hunched over, clutching his chest, coughing quite severely.

Ye Ouyang walked over and patted him on the back.

"Are you okay, sir?"

The man waved his hand, straightened up, coughed twice more, and finally caught his breath.

"Oh, it's nothing major." His voice was still a bit hoarse as he spoke. "It's just that it's been like this lately, a bit of a cough, and chest tightness. I think it's probably just a cold. Sigh, cough, cough—"

Chen Xing walked over and stood beside him.

"Does this happen every time you come here?"

The man thought for a moment. "It seems so... the last few times I've come here, I've felt a bit uncomfortable. It gets better when I leave, so I didn't pay much attention to it."

Chen Xing didn't speak. He looked at the data in his hand, then at the dense, greenish, flocculent material on the river surface, and had a judgment in his mind.

He crouched down and began to retrieve the drone. The machine rose from the water, bringing up a stream of fine bubbles—those bubbles were dense in the water, as if it were boiling, and only popped with a 'pop' when they reached the surface.

"The oxygen content in this water is a bit too high." He stood up and looked at the man. "You shouldn't come here for a while. This place... might have a problem."

The man was stunned. "Oxygen content too high? Isn't that a good thing? Isn't more oxygen good?"

Chen Xing didn't explain further. He turned to Ye Ouyang and Li Zhe. "It's likely these algae that have evolved. They've suddenly increased in the last few days, and with the excessive oxygen content, it's hard not to link the two."

He looked back at the man.

"Sir, could you give me some of the algae you've scooped up? I'm a researcher, and I'd like to take it back to investigate. If we can find a way to treat it, we might be able to restore this river to its original state."

The man's eyes lit up.

"Oh? If that's possible, that would be great!" He immediately brought over the bucket full of algae next to him. "Take it, take it! Take as much as you want!"

Chen Xing took several sealed sampling tubes from the silver briefcase he was carrying, picked out some algae that looked fresh, put them inside, and sealed them.

"Thank you."

"What are you thanking me for? You're helping me treat the river; I should be thanking you!"

Chen Xing put away the samples and looked at Ye Ouyang and Li Zhe.

"What are you two going to do? Wait here? I'll head back first; the bureau handles things quickly. Are you coming back with me, or staying here to look around more?"

Ye Ouyang thought for a moment. "I'll look around here. It's not like I have anything else to do anyway."

Just as Li Zhe was about to speak, he suddenly felt something tug at his pant leg.

He looked down—there was nothing there. But the force was still there, pulling him to the side.

It was Big Orange. The invisible Big Orange was holding his pant leg in its mouth, pulling him in a certain direction.

Li Zhe was stunned for a moment, then stood up.

"Um... I'm going to head over there for a bit." He nodded at Chen Xing and Ye Ouyang. "Big Orange seems to have something going on. I'll be back in a bit."

After saying that, he was pulled by that invisible force and walked toward the other end of the riverbank.

Ye Ouyang watched him walk away, then turned to the man who was packing up his net.

"Sir, do you have an extra net?"

The man looked up. "What's wrong?"

"Let me help you scoop for a while." Ye Ouyang rolled up his sleeves. "I'm just idling anyway."

The man smiled and pointed to a small net leaning nearby.

"Yes, use that smaller one. Be careful, don't fall in."

Ye Ouyang grabbed the net, walked to the riverbank, and began to scoop algae with the man. Net after net, he scooped it up and dumped it into the bucket next to him; when the bucket was full, he dumped it into a larger woven bag.

The sun slowly rose higher, making people's backs feel hot.

After scooping for about twenty minutes, Ye Ouyang suddenly felt a bit of tightness in his chest.

He didn't pay much attention to it and continued scooping.

After a while, he started coughing. At first, it was just an occasional cough or two, but later it became more and more frequent, and his chest began to ache faintly.

He stopped, leaning on the net, and coughed several times.

The man glanced at him, coughed twice himself, and then said, "Young man, are you feeling uncomfortable too? Let me tell you, if you stay here for too long, it's like this. It's nothing, just walk around a bit and you'll be fine."

Ye Ouyang straightened up and took a few deep breaths, but the dull pain in his chest did not dissipate.

He scratched his head, feeling a bit bewildered.

(Thanks to Yang efy for the tip.)