Mermaid Reef

Juan opened his eyes drowsily. He heard someone talking to him, but he couldn't tell what was inside.

Some broken words flowed into his brain.

"...attack... compass...may have fallen into the sea..."

Then there is the figure of black Nick, who seems to be talking to the doctor.

There was a strong smell of disinfectant around.

White walls, white ceilings, and medical staff wearing masks.

Juan could hear the voices of those people talking, and recognized some familiar faces, but his brain couldn't think, couldn't piece together the information collected, and couldn't realize what he was going through, so what happened? .

His sobriety can only last for a few seconds, just intermittently.

Suddenly one day he felt the existence of his body, and his brain began to function normally.

Those fragmented memories were "washed" to the front of the eyes like running water, and connected one by one.

First of all, this is a hospital, and he was taken to the hospital.

Then, he got into trouble.

If you just have a cold and a fever, you don't need to be hospitalized.

Juan's throat was dry and he was struggling to sit up when there was a scream from the door.

The brown-skinned nurse quickly called the doctor and gave Juan a glass of water.

"...Unexplained high fever, we checked your blood and feces, ruled out acute infectious diseases, appendicitis, meningitis..."

The doctor's English is much better than the nurse's standard.

Although the official language of Jamaica is English, Juan can't understand many local people's words.Juan hired Nick as an assistant among a group of people because he could understand what Nick said.

It's a pity that in the hospital, there is another situation where I can't understand English.

"Sorry, doctor, I don't understand medical terminology very well. My native language is Spanish." Juan pointed to his leg tied to the hospital bed and his arm that had just been released by the restraint belt, with a blank expression on his face. Asked with an expression, "I want to know, am I suffering from a mental illness?"

The doctor looked at Juan and said bluntly: "In the past three days, you have developed symptoms of delirium, talking nonsense, yelling, and doing one action repeatedly."

Juan's pupils contracted, and he tentatively asked, "Am I running for my life?"

"You're swimming."

The doctor opened the medical records and said without looking up, "This is related to your experience of falling into the sea. Now that you are awake, I don't think you need to do a psychiatric evaluation, and Dr. Mala from the archaeological excavation team can also save a lot of money. "

He dropped the words sternly: "If you feel unwell, ring the bell for a nurse. I leave work at five o'clock. If Dr. Mara arrives at the hospital before then, please ask him to come to the office to see me."

Juan watched the doctor come out of the ward.

Black Nick nearly bumps into the doctor at the door.

Nick took three steps back in panic, apologized repeatedly, watched the doctor leave, and then stumbled into the door.

"God! Mr. Juan, you are finally awake!"

Like a lost lamb, Nick finally found the priest. He put his hands around his head and waved it several times in a reductive manner, emphasizing his excitement and collapse.

After the nurse took his temperature and left, Juan immediately asked, "What happened?"

"Do not you remember?"

Nick exclaimed, he said frightenedly, "It was the antique dealer who said we stole the compass, and this was his first business in Jamaica, and he decided to 'teach' us who didn't know the rules. So he Hired a few people and sneaked into the tent at the seaside construction site in the middle of the night..."

Because the salvage work had just started, there was nothing to gain, and the people in charge of guarding the camp didn't care, so they were easily mixed in by those people.

"...Then they snatched the compass and threw you into the sea. Fortunately, Dr. Marat couldn't sleep at night. When he saw suspicious figures, he called someone to chase them and caught them. It's the wound floating in the sea. If you slow down, you might be drowned."

"Wait, you mean I was beaten?" Juan had no memory of it.

He only remembered the bizarre compass.

Inexplicably fell into the sea?That's true, and it was almost swept away by the huge waves!

"What time was that?"

"Uh, it's like ten o'clock at night."

"impossible."

Juan clearly remembered the dazzling sun and the crystal ball of the compass shining desperately under the sun.

Nick looked hesitant, apparently not knowing how to answer the conversation, mainly because Juan's irrational look frightened him a few days ago, and he was worried that he might say something wrong and irritate Juan.

Juan was also staring at his assistant.

What Juan is best at is not doing surveying and mapping, nor excavating archaeological work, but "watching people".

He is very accurate in seeing people, which has brought great help to his work and life.

Juan once suspected that Nick stole it back when the compass reappeared, but according to the reaction he observed now, Juan believed that there was nothing about Nick in it.

"Tell me about that compass." Juan sat up from the hospital bed and asked calmly.

"Compass?" Nick subconsciously showed an expression of resistance.

Juan immediately asked: "Did the police believe the antique dealer's words and think we stole the compass?"

"Correct!"

Nick hugged his head and said angrily, "No matter how I explain, they don't believe me, and Dr. Mara blames me... That antique dealer even pointed out you, saying that he found a compass in your tent."

"and then?"

"God! That's the problem. The antique dealer insists that he got the compass from your tent and lost it in the chaos, maybe into the sea, but he doesn't admit it and keeps slandering Dr. Marat and the hospital. , Said that after the incident, someone took advantage of the chaos and stole the compass, after all, it is a golden chain."

Nick was on the verge of tears, he was under a lot of pressure these days.

Juan was beaten all over his body, and he was talking nonsense with a high fever, and he couldn't help him at all.

The archaeological team and the hospital were very angry when they were bitten back by the antique dealer. The matter was provoked by Juan and Nick, so of course they would not give them a good face.

In fact Nick has been fired from the archaeological dig team.

If it weren't for Jamaica, it would be hard to find a skilled surveyor to replace Juan, and Juan would lose his job.

"Let me think, where is that antique dealer?" Juan asked with a headache.

"Squat at the police station."

Nick said thanks to Dr. Mara.

As the person in charge of the underwater excavation project, Dr. Mara questioned why outsiders were able to sneak into the construction site, why they could accurately find the location of Juan's tent, and who was responsible for losing cultural relics and gold treasures in the future.These words directly blocked the mouths of Jamaican government officials.

Dr. Marat asked the antique dealer if he had any evidence to prove that the Juan surveyor had stolen and defrauded the money. After all, the compass was found in the tent, which was told by the antique dealer and his subordinates, and no one saw it.

Dr. Mara also sharply pointed out that the antique dealers did not know how they lost things, but wanted to recover the losses, so they put their ideas on Juan and the archaeological team.

The real plan of the antique dealer is that if Juan stole the compass, he just got it back. If not, it is very likely that Juan owns a similar object. Has the real identity been exposed?In the eyes of antique dealers, Juan is a fat sheep with oil and water.

Dr. Marat wasn't slanderous, because a lot of things were found from those guys, all of them were stolen from the camp.

But everyone knows that this is not evidence, those people have the habit of petty theft, including some workers who work in the camp during the day.

So Dr. Mara still suspects that Nick stole the compass and caused the accident. As for who took the compass later, he really doesn't know.

Nick was aggrieved.

"I'll explain it to Dr. Mara," Juan said, patting Nick on the shoulder.

Juan's heart was heavy, what was going on with this compass?

Nick looked at Juan cautiously: "Well... Except for those bastards, the police also searched your tent later, and things were turned into a mess. It is said that the group of robbers stole your binoculars, pens, ink, razors... ...But these things were recovered, but some were broken..."

Juan rubbed his head and asked painfully: "Is there any worse news?"

"Have!"

A voice came from the door.

"Dr. Marat?"

Juan and Nick exclaimed at the same time.

Dr. Mara of the archaeological excavation team is a southern European in his 40s. He has lost all his hair. He is tall and has a beard and looks very strong.

Dr. Marat walked to the hospital bed, folded his arms and sighed: "Dear Juan, you have caused a big trouble."

Juan was so embarrassed that he could only apologize.

Then Dr. Mara dropped a bombshell.

"The antique dealer died last night."

"what?"

Nick's eyes popped in shock.

Juan felt chills all over his body, and he remembered that weird memory, whether it was a dream or reality.

He was soaking in the sea, holding a luminous compass in his hand, and there were strange sounds in his ears, and then there were huge waves overwhelming the sky.

"How did he die?"

"I don't know. I heard that there was no warning, and the mouth and nose were bleeding." Dr. Mara was very troubled.

Juan remembered what the doctor said, and hurriedly conveyed the news of the appointment in the office to Dr. Mala.

"Great, I'm going to ask. I heard that someone from the hospital went to the police station for an autopsy. Maybe they know the cause of the antique dealer's death."

Dr. Mara said, looking at Nick.

Juan immediately testified for his assistant that the matter of the compass had nothing to do with Nick. If possible, he wanted to re-hire Nick after the investigation was clear.

"Okay, we'll talk after you get out of the hospital." Dr. Mara left, but Juan couldn't calm down.

Intuition told him that the compass was cursed, but reason first rejected such an unscientific guess.

***

That night, the storm rattled the hospital windows.

Juan couldn't sleep in bed.

He walked around the ward and the corridor, closed all the windows, and half of his body was soaked by the rain.

The nurse saw it, and immediately pushed Juan back to the ward. Because she was worried that he had a fever, she took his temperature again, and ordered Juan not to get out of bed.

After Juan heard that the medical staff sent by the hospital to the beach to give him first aid were framed by the antique dealer as a suspicious person who stole the compass, his head hurt even more.Facing the strict demands of the nurse now, Juan did not argue and chose to continue lying down and staring at the ceiling.

He put his arms behind his head.

Suddenly, he felt something hard under the pillow.

Juan lifted the pillow, his eyes fixed on the golden chain compass.

The arm trembled uncontrollably.

Juan knew that if this thing had been here from the beginning, no one would have noticed.

So who would it be?Who stuffed things under his pillow while he was going to the hallway?

He was the only one in this ward, the other beds were empty, and the windows were still closed.

The nurse's lounge was in the other direction. Although Juan left the ward, he kept paying attention to the movement in the corridor. He swore that no one entered this room at all.

Unless someone can pry open the window and enter the ward against the wind and rain at night.

——Why would a person with such skill stick a compass under his pillow?

Is this to frame people, or to scare people to death?

Juan didn't dare to touch the compass this time. He used the bed sheet to pad his palms, picked up the compass carefully, and wondered where to hide it.

Juan dared to tell the truth to Dr. Mara, but he dared not say things that looked crazy to the police in Jamaica. It would be worse if they were found out by the hospital.

There are no pockets on the clothes, they can only be stuffed into the pillow.

Juan intends to keep his eyes open until dawn.

The weird thing happened again, he was not sleepy at all just now, his eyelids were heavy as if a stone had fallen.

Juan put the pillow back in its place and slumped down, resting his head on the bed, not sleeping on the pillow.

He gradually lost consciousness and fell into a dream.

***

"Crash."

It was the sound of the waves again.

Juan jumped up on the spot vigilantly, and assumed a fighting posture.

Then he hit the wooden steps, causing him to jump around with his right leg in pain.

"Hehe, young man."

A deep British accent.

Juan saw a table and a parasol in the courtyard, and an old man with gray hair was smoking a pipe in an easy chair.

In the distance is the blue water, this is a house standing on the hillside.

Nearby is a red-roofed villa of almost the same structure. Flowers are blooming in the courtyard. The weather is sunny and the sea breeze is cool.

This is definitely not Jamaica in tropical waters.

"Hello, sir, what is this place?" Juan stood by the steps and asked cautiously.

"It's a dream."

The old man said slowly, "I'm going to ask you, why did you come to my dream and yell for three days in a row?"

"What?" Juan was shocked.

He subconsciously felt that the other party charged him with a crime.

His life was completely disrupted, and all kinds of inexplicable things happened.

"Sir, it is impossible for a person to go to someone else's dream."

"Under normal circumstances, it really can't." The old man tapped his pipe on the table, when a man came at the end of the stone-paved path.

Juan once thought that Dr. Mara was the strongest explorer he had ever seen, but now he knew he was wrong. The man with the half-person-high bag on his back and trekking poles was the real strong man. And the Grizzlies.

His eyes were strange red, and the hair on Juan's back stood up when he glanced at him.

"The second dream victim who was harassed by you in the past few days is here." The old man said with a smile.

The grizzly man stopped at the courtyard gate, took off his hat, and nodded to Juan.

Juan analyzed instinctively, and his intuition told him that the other party was not a vicious gangster, and he even felt a hint of friendliness?

It's ridiculous!

"Come on, please sit down." The old man patted the table, and suddenly there were two more rocking chairs in the courtyard.

Only then did Juan see the face of the old man.

He looks like he is 60 years old, and he looks like 40 years old. Those wrinkles do not testify to his aging, but seem to decorate the years.His eyes are bright, containing the light of wisdom, his arms are strong, and some muscles can be seen through the clothes.

It seems that you can pick up the chair next to you at any time and stun the enemy.

"You can call me John." The old man said with a smile.