Li picked up an empty seashell and tossed it into the ocean; it sank without creating a ripple, swallowed by the waves.
"The sea is beautiful, but the people on the island are all landlubbers, and they dissolve upon entering the water.
"So, as the tide rises, we can only keep migrating inland; sometimes, if we can foresee the coming waves, we remain unharmed.
"But sometimes, if we're too late, we pay the price," Li said as she led Zhang Ze towards the center of the island.
"The sea is infinite, but the island is finite, and as the water level rises, the space we can move in becomes smaller and smaller.
"Eventually, we have nowhere left to flee."
Li was now riding on Zhang Ze's shoulders, and the two reached the mountain peak, where the island had been swallowed by the sea, leaving only a small patch of the summit to stand on.
"Yet somehow, we managed to survive, as evidenced by the Four Continents. What miracle happened later?" Zhang Ze asked while stroking Li's small tail.
