I felt like the distance between me and the other two wasn"t getting any shorter. Lulu and Xiao Lingdang appeared to become more and more anxious. "What are you doing?"
I turned my head and saw the boy sitting in the chair looking at me in fear. He quickly stood up and began retreating towards the pool, looking at me warily.
"What did I just do?" I asked tentatively.
"You keep running in place, running and talking," he replied warily.
It made sense that I"d somehow been stuck running in place. After running so long without approaching Lulu, what other explanation was there? But I"d been talking? I didn"t remember talking to myself at all.
"What did I say?" I asked the boy.
The boy seemed to see that I was normal again, and said, "You said "Wu Ting, no. I love you, no.""
Wu Ting? I called to Wu Ting? What was I trying to stop her from doing?
I asked the boy if I"d said anything else, and he replied, "You were shouting, "Don"t go, don"t go there!" over and over."
Don"t go where?
Because I"d had something strange happen to me, I thought that maybe everything weird I"d experienced was just the influence of Wu Ting. I relaxed, deciding that everyone around me was actually human.
But what about the floating body in the water? I"d forgotten about it, and looked back, half-expecting the body to have disappeared. However, it was still there at the bottom of the pool. The boy followed my gaze, then let out a scream.
I called to the lifeguard again, pointing to the floating body. However, he was being splashed by several children in the pool and did not hear me. One of the kids turned to look where I was pointing and then began to swim over.
I admired his courage, especially at his young age. If it were me, I never would have swum over. Of course, the child didn"t know what he was about to find. Maybe I should tell him?
I nervously watched as he got closer to the submerged body. Ten meters, nine meters, eight meters…
He finally saw the body, paused for a moment, and then swam as fast as he could back toward the lifeguard. The man was currently in the middle of the group, being splashed and taunted by the other teenagers.
The lifeguard, who was by this point furious, saw the kid swimming towards him. Rage welled up in his chest, and as soon as the child was within striking distance, he hit the kid on the top of his head, knocking him below the water.
The lifeguard"s move immediately angered the other children. They stopped laughing and all began shouting at him. The lifeguard seemed to be frightened by the children, but simply repeated that they had to leave the pool. His tone had calmed a lot, and I guessed that he was afraid of getting into trouble.
The children continued to curse at the lifeguard. He began to grow angry again, and started to shout back. No one noticed that the child who was slapped by the lifeguard had not reemerged.
I began to shout at the lifeguard again, but in the chaos that was already erupting, no one seemed to hear me. Suddenly, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye, and I was relieved to see that the boy was climbing out of the water.
He was holding a black thing in his hand, and he threw it at the lifeguard and the children. The item flew through the air, then splashed down in the middle of the chaos, immediately catching everyone"s attention.
The pool had finally quieted down. I looked back at the boy, and my heart froze. Wu Ting, all in black, was standing behind the boy. A wet hand lay on the boy"s shoulder, and the boy looked as if he"d lost his soul.
I noticed that Wu Ting only wore one shoe, the other unnervingly white foot exposed. The boy had found her shoe and thrown it at the group.
The lifeguard and several children looked at the boy and asked what he was doing. Obviously, they couldn"t see Wu Ting. I took the opportunity to shout:
"Come ash.o.r.e. Come on. Somebody"s drowned!"
I did not want them to see the floating body or linger in the water any longer. Wu Ting"s strength was in the water. If they didn"t get ash.o.r.e soon, I had no doubt that they would all die in her hands.
They ignored me, again. Everyone asked the boy what he was doing, thinking that he was waiting for them to retrieve the item he"d thrown. One child dove into the water, looking for what I knew was Wu Ting"s shoe.
He must have wanted to die. I wanted to cry out to him, but I knew it would be no use. I looked for something to throw since that at least seemed to get people"s attention, but all that was nearby was a table and chair. I knew I couldn"t throw either of those two meters.
The boy began to walk toward the pool. Wu Ting bowed her head, and with a hand on the boy"s shoulder, followed him to the edge.
I shouted again, with no success. I felt like something was wrong. It was impossible that they couldn"t hear my voice, yet no one looked in my direction. Then I remembered that only a few people had spoken to me since I entered the pool. Everyone else seemed to act like I didn"t exist.
Was I dead? Was I the floating body? No, impossible.
I quickly lifted the chair and threw it into the water. It made a huge splash in the pool that caught everyone"s attention. I waved my hands and yelled, but no one looked at me. They all continued to stare at the ripples on the water.