Chapter 20: Fame on the Internet

A sudden thought flashed through Lu Chen’s mind. He swiftly turned around and dove back beneath the water. His claws churned the lakebed, stirring up mud and dark green algae, until he unearthed a long, black men’s wallet. The wallet had clearly rested at the bottom for ages—its surface was encrusted with algae and even a few tiny snails clung to it. Yet, beneath the muck, one could still discern its once-exquisite craftsmanship; it must have been a designer piece.

The zipper was half-open, and a faint glimmer shone from within.

A gold necklace?

A classic sign of a nouveau riche—a thick gold chain!

Lu Chen’s excitement spiked, and he prodded the wallet’s zipper with his talon. But with the slightest force, the aged leather tore open a gaping hole. Clearly, the wallet had been submerged for so long it had rotted through. On the other side, several bills were stuffed inside, but they’d decayed beyond recognition.

He extracted the necklace, feeling its substantial weight. It seemed genuine, without a doubt.

By all rights, someone who lost such an expensive gold chain would have hired divers to retrieve it. Most likely, the water was too deep and the exact spot unknown, so they’d given up after a fruitless search.

And now, Lu Chen had found it.

He wasn’t sure about this world, but in his previous life, gold was over four hundred per gram. The chain before him might weigh over twenty grams—worth more than ten thousand, give or take.

That was assuming it came with certificates and receipts, of course. This necklace was uncertified, undocumented—a “three-no” item. A pawn shop would surely offer far less for it.

Lu Chen shook his head in frustration. What was the point of such thoughts? Even if he could cash it in, what would it matter? He was no longer human—he had nowhere to spend money.

In the end, the thing was utterly useless to him. He certainly couldn’t wear a thick gold chain around his neck and play the part of a gangster crocodile—that would be sheer madness.

He stuffed the necklace back into the wallet and tossed it to the lake bottom.

Best to leave it for some future, destined finder.

For now, he resumed exploring Willow Lake.

To his surprise, just minutes later, he found evidence of broken porcelain amid the mud of a shallow area, along with scattered, hefty green bricks.

His curiosity piqued, Lu Chen pawed through the silt. He unearthed three glazed porcelain plates and a bowl broken in two, all marked on the base, along with more than a dozen copper coins covered in verdigris.

This must be an ancient tomb… Yet, what did it matter? After a brief look, Lu Chen returned everything to its resting place.

* * *

"Yunyun, have you lost your mind? Dragging me out birdwatching in this heat—what are you thinking? Your flat chest isn’t going to swell up in the sun, only shrink."

"Don’t be ridiculous! I just bought this camera and wanted to try it out in the park. Besides, it’s already past six—the heat’s gone down," retorted the ponytailed girl in a white T-shirt and sun visor, giving her friend a playful twist in annoyance.

She was used to such jibes about her figure.

"You could’ve come alone and let me off the hook instead of feeding me to the mosquitoes," grumbled her tall friend, spritzing herself liberally with insect repellent.

"I’m not scared—well, I am a bit. Didn’t you hear about that dismemberment case at Willow Lake recently?" the ponytailed girl replied, a touch of fear in her voice.

She raised her new DSLR with a telephoto lens, adjusted the angle, and pressed the shutter.

"You’re hopeless. If you’re so timid, why come at all?" her tall friend complained, though she didn't leave. Instead, she raised her phone for a selfie, using the flowers by the lake as her backdrop.

After snapping a few shots of birds in flight, the ponytailed girl aimed her camera at the distant lake, lowered her position, and prepared a close-up of a flock of mallards feeding on the water.

Mallards, with their flattened, rounded bodies, looked especially grand from a low angle—making it easy to capture their faces and eyes for a dramatic effect.

She had only taken two shots when she suddenly let out a cry.

The flock of mallards, startled, quacked in panic and took to the sky in a flurry.

"What’s wrong? Did you step on a snake?" her tall friend rushed over.

"No—it’s a crocodile! There’s a crocodile eating the ducks!"

"You must be seeing things. How could there be a crocodile in Willow Lake? The Yangtze alligators in Wujiang City have been extinct for decades."

"I’m serious! Look at the photo I just took," the ponytailed girl insisted, quickly scrolling through her pictures and zooming in on one.

There, half-submerged, was a dark body and a gaping, ferocious maw closing on a mallard. Judging by its shape, it truly resembled a crocodile.

"Oh wow, take a few more quick!" her tall friend urged, thrilled.

With the telephoto lens, they quickly captured more shots of crocs skimming the lake’s surface. Not just one, but three—hauling the ducks’ bodies toward the grassy shore.

Meanwhile, Lu Chen was hidden deep in the reeds, eyeing a flock of magpies perched on a distant willow.

He’d thought his feud with the magpies was over, but they were relentless.

Whenever he appeared, they’d immediately bombard him from above, chattering out their taunts.

What irked Lu Chen most was that these birds could somehow distinguish him from the other baby saltwater crocs. They targeted him without fail—never mistaking their mark.

Their repeated provocations had left him seething. He’d even set a trap beneath the willow, lying in wait for them to take the bait.

But after half an hour, dusk falling fast, the magpies still showed no sign of descending.

Lu Chen, however, was patient—just as he’d been with the ambush on the giant snakehead before. If need be, he’d wait a week.

Damn!

Lu Chen had no inkling of the commotion on the lakeshore. He certainly didn’t know that footage of the croc pack’s hunt had been captured and uploaded to DouShou Video, titled: “Yangtze Alligators Spotted in Wujiang Willow Lake Park!”

The video quickly hit the local trending list, racking up hundreds of thousands of views.

“Is this for real? Aren’t Yangtze alligators only found along the main river? How could they be in Wujiang City?”

“Actually, Wujiang was historically part of their range, but they’ve been extinct here for decades. If you watch the video, these don’t look like Yangtze alligators at all—they’re probably exotic crocodiles, released by accident...”

“Can someone tell us for sure if these are Yangtze alligators or not?”

The comments buzzed with speculation about the crocs’ true identity.

Soon, an authoritative response appeared:

“The Yangtze alligator is a species of short-snouted crocodile unique to our country. Its head is broad, with granular and banded scales, and earthy-toned eyes. But in the video, the crocs have long, narrow snouts, light brown armored scales, pale bellies, and dark, spotted stripes along their bodies and tails. These features do not match the Yangtze alligator. Careful examination of the three crocs shows no heavy armor on the neck and back, confirming they are an introduced species—likely the so-called ‘naked-neck crocodile’ or saltwater crocodile, also known as the man-eater. Most likely, they were released or escaped from a farm.”

This comment received widespread approval. News of saltwater crocodiles appearing in Willow Lake Park spread rapidly, picked up even by mainstream media.

Sensing a hot story, a few enterprising streamers, seeing the video’s popularity, immediately set out for Willow Lake to launch a live search for the crocs.