Chapter 39: Heartbeat Unceasing — “Actually we are already married”
The gentle sound of waves lapping against the shore echoed not far away. Warm sunlight brushed over his eyelids.
A heavy weight on his chest pressed down on Lu Xunye, making him breathless. A gust of cold wind blew past, waking him directly.
Before he even opened his eyes, he shivered first. Opening his eyes revealed a vast blue sky and white clouds.
Seagulls flew past his vision. Memories rushed back, and Lu Xunye’s heart instantly leaped to his throat.
He realized belatedly that beneath him wasn’t the bouncy softness of the inflatable boat but wet, cold, hard sand. The undulating motion of drifting on the sea was also gone.
Only after confirming he was on a beach and seeing the red inflatable boat dragged ashore did his breathing ease.
His gaze moved down to the person lying on his chest. He was dazed for a moment. “Shen Yunqian?”
The back of his hand brushed against the other’s spine. In that instant, the icy touch froze his hand into recoiling.
So cold?!
The black eyes under Lu Xunye’s long lashes trembled. In a panic, he held Shen Yunqian’s arms and sat up, leveraging the movement.
Shen Yunqian’s eyes were tightly closed, his face pale. As his arms were grabbed, his head tilted to one side without support.
Lu Xunye reacted quickly, cupping his face to straighten it. Unsurprisingly, it was also terrifyingly cold.
The youth was ice-cold all over, trembling slightly.
Seeing his thin clothing, Lu Xunye frowned. Looking down, he realized the other’s jacket had been covering him the whole time.
The clothes, thoroughly soaked by water and worn on the body, were mostly dry after a night of drifting at sea.
He hurriedly draped the jacket back over Shen Yunqian.
Lu Xunye regretted a bit. Had he known, he would have put on more clothes in the changing room on the cruise.
His jacket was used to trick Lu Yan, and he didn’t want to wear the bodyguard’s clothes, so now he was left with only a single-layer white shirt.
Lu Xunye looked down at the sand and dirt on his body.
Alright… not white anymore.
Did Lu Yan know about his little actions all along?
So he was watching him in secret?
Putting away his thoughts, Lu Xunye saw some dry wood scattered around.
There were charred indentations on the wide, flat wood, looking like failed attempts at drilling wood for fire. That knife was stuck vertically into it as if venting anger.
As for how they got from the uninhabited sea to the shore.
Only two possibilities.
One: Washed ashore by waves.
Two: Shen Yunqian paddled alone with the oars.
Between these two scenarios, Lu Xunye leaned more towards the latter.
For a moment, mixed feelings surged in his heart. For the first time, he felt a sense of belonging to this fake world.
He also felt ashamed of his act of rashly disrupting Shen Yunqian’s life for his own selfish reasons.
Lu Xunye’s lips pressed tight quietly, then opened silently: Thank you.
He shook the other person gently, called a few times, but got no response. He only saw the other’s lips moving, unable to hear what was said.
Lu Xunye leaned his head close and heard the other say: Hot.
But how is that possible?
He touched the other’s forehead temperature; it was still cold.
Lu Xunye was shocked: Hypothermia?! If it was hypothermia, without immediate transfer to a warm environment, it was much harder to deal with than a fever.
“System, are you there?”
“Xiao Ai?”
…
“…”
Lu Xunye touched the spot on the back of his neck where residual pain lingered, his mind unsettled.
Every time after an attack, the system would disconnect from him.
Was it a coincidence or was there some secret?
This pain was like burning fire, more like being struck by electricity, deep into the bone, wearing down consciousness extremely fast.
Within a few miles radius, it didn’t look like anyone lived here. Lu Xunye didn’t even know where this place was.
An uninhabited desert island or a common coast?
His phone was lost at the bottom of the sea when he fell. Shen Yunqian’s wasn’t with him either.
The only hope of contacting the outside world was dashed.
Suddenly, Lu Xunye thought of something. Perhaps due to excitement, his heart beat a few beats faster. He raised his hand to take off the ear clip on his ear.
This was the tracker given to him by the Lu family bodyguard.
Lu Xunye turned Shen Yunqian around to face away from him and dragged the other into his arms. Instantly, he shivered.
This feeling was even more intense than someone stuffing a snowball down your collar in the dead of winter—a heart-penetrating coolness.
He took the jacket off Shen Yunqian and draped it over the front of the other’s body.
Then Lu Xunye wiggled forward, hugging the other tightly, and studied the tracker. He shook it hard, throwing out some water droplets.
This banquet was supposed to sail on the sea for three days and four nights. Hope it didn’t malfunction and they discover their disappearance quickly.
“Nngh… thirsty.”
Hearing the weak voice, Lu Xunye laid Shen Yunqian flat on the ground, got up, and walked towards the sea to find the thing he made.
He squatted down and shook the plastic bag spread over the sand pit. The distilled water droplets attached to it fell into the container below.
Then he lifted the plastic bag and picked up the half plastic bottle from the center of the moist sand pit.
And these things were all trash Lu Xunye picked up… washed ashore.
Watching the sun’s trajectory, about two hours passed. He collected the plastic bags.
All the distilled water collected from the bottles in the pits was poured into one bottle, reaching only one bar of height.
He sighed. Even if they didn’t starve or freeze to death, they would probably die of thirst.
Lu Xunye gritted his teeth: My good “Second Uncle”, you’d better pray I don’t go back.
He helped Shen Yunqian up to lean against him. The other’s body had warmed up a bit and wasn’t crying hot like before.
Lu Xunye reached out to pry open his mouth. He tried prying the jaw and pinching the cheeks.
Only leaving some red fingerprints on Shen Yunqian’s fair face, but failed to open it.
“Truly harder than a dead duck’s beak.”
After complaining, Lu Xunye put down the half bottle and sat cross-legged beside him, thinking of a solution.
A wave gathered strength and rolled ashore, smoothing over the place where pits were dug just now. The wind blew past, rolling up Shen Yunqian’s shirt hem which wasn’t fully covered by the jacket.
Noticing this, Lu Xunye reached out and pulled down the jacket edge to cover all his single layer of clothes. As if the fog hovering in his brain was blown away by this wind, a flash of inspiration struck.
He turned over and straddled Shen Yunqian’s waist.
Looking at the youth’s curled eyelashes and lips that had regained some color beneath him, his Adam’s apple moved, suddenly feeling a bit thirsty.
A seagull flew overhead and cried out. Lu Xunye’s body shook. Feeling guilty like a thief, he withdrew one leg, half-kneeling beside the youth.
He helped Shen Yunqian up. Thinking of what he was about to do, he coughed twice to divert attention.
Then he pressed his palm against the side of the other’s lower back, just like that night when the two dodged the “pursuit”.
Lu Xunye imitated the force and position from that day.
Shen Yunqian frowned in discomfort in his sleep. His jaw felt a tickle as if swept by a feather. His clenched teeth loosened, and he let out a whimper of dissatisfaction.
Lu Xunye took the opportunity to push his thumb in and pressed a certain wet and soft place. His face instantly turned explosive red.
He hurriedly stuffed the smoothly whittled wooden stick in place of his finger.
Then he pulled out his thumb. Looking at the bite marks and suspicious water sheen on it, the corners of his mouth tightened unconsciously, his eyes darkening gradually.
After pouring water into Shen Yunqian’s mouth, he had a big reaction, retching once. Lu Xunye hurriedly lifted the back of his head to let the water flow down his throat.
Half a bar remained in the bottle. Lu Xunye took a small sip. His dry throat was instantly disgusted by the smell of stinky feet, and he wasn’t thirsty anymore.
“…” Forget it, better than seawater.
The sun set in the west. The sky above the sea was like an overturned palette; warm colors mixed together into a warm yellow like orange candy.
After a while, the warm yellow was mixed with diluted ink.
“Hurry up! I remember leaving the thing here after school yesterday.”
“You are not allowed to tell Mom and Dad, okay! Just say we stayed at school to recite texts and came back this late. Remember?”
“Alright, then find it quickly.”
The sound of footsteps running barefoot on the sand approached from the distance.
A beam of white light shone over. The footsteps stopped.
Two children looked at each other.
One of them asked weakly, “Is that a person?”
“Good brats, running to the seaside so late instead of going home? Did I tell you this area is going to be developed in a couple of days and no entry allowed?”
A middle-aged woman appeared behind the two unknowingly, twisting one ear in each hand.
“Ouch ouch ouch, I was wrong. Mom, look, there seems to be someone over there.”
Hearing this, the woman snatched the flashlight skeptically and walked over. The middle-aged man beside her sent the two kids home and followed worriedly.
The glaring white light hit the two people. Lu Xunye was dazzled, barely opening his eyes.
Behind the white light stood two figures. For a long time, both sides were startled by the other; no one moved.
“You guys… uh, here for tourism?” The woman seemed a bit cramped, completely opposite to the image of lecturing her sons with full confidence just now.
Human language? Not a desert island! Lu Xunye was overjoyed, so much so that he forgot to reply.
The middle-aged man took the flashlight from her hand to smooth things over. “You guys get up first then talk.”
Hearing the awkwardness in the other’s tone.
Lu Xunye looked down in confusion and saw their currently misunderstanding-inducing posture.
Shen Yunqian had a black jacket draped over his front, wrapped in his arms. And his own collar was wide open, using body heat to warm the other’s back.
Although only he was disheveled, Lu Xunye felt that in others’ eyes right now, he was no different from a hooligan taking advantage of someone’s precarious position.
Lu Xunye laid Shen Yunqian flat on the sand, immediately distanced himself, buttoned his shirt, and hurriedly explained, “We encountered a shipwreck last night and drifted here. My friend has hypothermia, so I had to resort to this.”
Lu Xunye emphasized: “Absolutely law-abiding.”
The couple hadn’t thought in that direction anyway. Instead, his eager explanation seemed like trying to hide something.
Hearing they suffered a shipwreck and lost their phones, and seeing Shen Yunqian’s weak complexion, pity instantly rose in them. “Our home is nearby. Come back with us first.”
“Your… uh, friend’s condition needs to be checked.”
“Thank you so much. We will definitely repay you in the future.”
It turned out this was an island. Because of the beautiful scenery, pleasant climate, and numerous specialties, people often came here for tourism. The couple and their family of four opened a homestay here.
There were only a few fishing villages and this homestay within dozens of kilometers. Medical care was only available at the village clinic.
When Shen Yunqian woke up, the doctor had just left the homestay with the medicine chest.
He was on an IV drip now. He looked up to survey this ordinary room.
The door opened.
Lu Xunye came in carrying a bowl of rice porridge. Seeing him awake, he hurried forward.
“How are you? / Are you okay?”
The two spoke at the same time.
“I’m fine. / Where is this?”
Hearing the noise, the couple also came in. Seeing their tacit understanding, they burst out laughing.
The woman nudged the man beside her with her elbow, teasing, “Seems we didn’t come at the right time, disturbing the young couple’s warmth.”
“You two stop pretending. Although we are a bit backward here, our thinking isn’t backward. Not to mention the country has already introduced same-sex marriage laws.”
Shen Yunqian glanced at the silent Lu Xunye. “We are not…”
Before he could finish, he was interrupted by Lu Xunye: “Actually, we are already married.”
Shen Yunqian’s eyes widened slightly.
The man put his arm around the woman’s shoulder and said to Lu Xunye and the other, “It’s getting late. You rest for the night first. We’ll talk about anything else tomorrow.”
“Uh, Brother, Sister… are there any extra rooms?” Lu Xunye scratched his face in embarrassment.
“What a coincidence, not really. The last room was just booked just now.”
The man patted the woman’s back comfortingly, signaling her not to interfere.
Then, he walked to Lu Xunye and whispered earnestly, “Big Brother has been there. Quarreling between husband and wife is inevitable. Didn’t you hear him denying you just now? Coax him more.”
Lu Xunye: “…”
A vivid demonstration of what it means to lift a rock only to drop it on one’s own foot.
If time could turn back to half a minute ago, Lu Xunye would choose to sew his own mouth shut directly.
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