“Not bad, Teacher Jiang. It looks like our coordination isn’t too terrible after all.” The corners of Xie Weiyi’s lips couldn’t help but hook upward, though it quickly vanished back into the dim lighting.
Her use of “Teacher Jiang” sounded completely natural, carrying an extra touch of ambiguity.
She remembered when Jiang Tong used to teach her how to speak Chinese, often placing a finger on the other person’s lips or neck to feel how different tones caused vibrations.
Back then, when she jokingly called Jiang Tong “Teacher,” Jiang Tong would cooperatively put on a serious expression and respond, after which the two of them would burst into laughter together.
Right now, however, Xie Weiyi looked at Jiang Tong, but did not wait for a response.
Lowering her gaze, Jiang Tong sidestepped Xie Weiyi’s flashlight beam and avoided her overly direct gaze as well, saying softly: “Let’s go take a look in the coconut grove.”
Jiang Tong turned and headed inside first, with Xie Weiyi following step-for-step closely behind her, her figure radiating desolation no matter how one looked at it.
Entering the coconut grove, the sandy ground underfoot grew soft, and the lighting became even dimmer.
Jiang Tong walked very carefully, but with one momentary lapse in attention, her foot was abruptly tripped by a thick, protruding tree root.
“Ah!” Letting out a low cry, she lost her balance and plunged forward.
The clumsy tumble into the sandy ground that she had anticipated never happened. A warm hand seized her wrist in the nick of time, stabilizing her posture.
It was Xie Weiyi.
Through the thin layer of her jacket, Jiang Tong could distinctly feel the temperature of Xie Weiyi’s palm, burning hot enough to scorch.
Xie Weiyi’s grip was very steady.
Instead of letting go immediately, she fixed her gaze on Jiang Tong’s gripped wrist, which was so slender it seemed as though a single snap would break it.
“Why have you gotten so thin?” Xie Weiyi’s voice dropped very low, carrying a tension she hadn’t even noticed herself.
Following that, her line of sight slowly drifted upward, locking onto Jiang Tong’s startled, panic-stricken eyes.
The words were so light that Jiang Tong couldn’t be certain whether it was her own wishful thinking or if she had truly heard that expression of care from Xie Weiyi’s lips.
Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the coconut leaves, casting mottled light and shadow between them.
Xie Weiyi’s face was somewhat blurry against the backlight, save for those eyes that shone astonishingly bright, churning with a complex emotion Jiang Tong couldn’t understand—looking like probing, or perhaps like a long-suppressed yearning on the verge of erupting.
Once she regained her footing, Jiang Tong gently disengaged her wrist from Xie Weiyi’s grasp, turning her face away and not daring to look at Xie Weiyi any longer.
“T-thank you.” Her voice carried an unperceived tremor.
Xie Weiyi’s hand paused in mid-air before she slowly pulled it back.
Even though her heart was thumping wildly, she nodded with feigned composure, the expression on her face already reverting to its previous casual indifference.
“You’re welcome. Teacher Jiang should still be careful walking; the road here is uneven.” Utilizing the motion of brushing hair back from her forehead, she masked that momentary lapse of composure.
[!!! She grabbed her wrist! I’m shipping this subtle, indefinable ambiguity to death!]
[The “push-their-heads-together” faction has logged on, heh heh heh (rubbing flies’ hands)]
With this small interlude over, the air between them seemed even more peculiar, permeated by an indescribable and unnameable awkwardness.
Neither of them spoke again; they simply continued walking forward in silence.
Fortunately, Jiang Tong possessed sharp observational skills and soon spotted the corresponding clue beneath a strangely shaped, crooked-necked coconut tree: a marker meticulously pieced together out of small white seashells.
Following the marker, they quickly found the second wooden box beneath the tree roots.
After attaching the third map fragment, the final clue was handed over by the accompanying cameraman.
The clue pointed to the location of the final treasure: “The kiss mark of the waves and the sand.”
This time, both of them raised their heads simultaneously, their gaze crossing the coconut grove toward that stretch of beach illuminated into a pearlescent white by the moonlight not far away.
The tide had just receded, leaving behind that winding boundary line.
When the two arrived, Song Anna and Bai Yu’s group had also just reached the vicinity, searching around in all directions.
Xie Weiyi and Song Anna locked eyes, and the flames of competition instantly ignited.
The final keepsake was hidden within an unassuming sand pit. Xie Weiyi and Song Anna discovered it practically simultaneously and squatted down at the same time to start digging, seemingly fueled by a burst of determination to outdo each other.
Jiang Tong exchanged a glance with Bai Yu and had no choice but to join this slightly childish battle of contention.
The sand pit was shallow. Soon, Xie Weiyi’s fingers brushed against the edge of a hard object.
“Found it!” she said excitedly, just as she was about to push the sand aside when Song Anna’s hand touched the other corner of the box.
“We found it first!” Xie Weiyi asserted firmly, putting strength into her hands.
Song Anna refused to show weakness: “Clearly we touched it at the exact same time!”
Two top-tier beauties competing fiercely on the beach over a plastic treasure chest possessed quite a bit of comedic effect.
[Hahaha, fight, fight!]
[Anna and Aine look like little kids fighting over a toy.]
[hhhh I can’t take it anymore, why are the two of them so childish hhhh]
Bai Yu attempted to mediate, but neither of them yielded an inch.
Standing helplessly to the side, Jiang Tong swept her gaze across their contending hands when she suddenly caught sight of a slight collapse in a patch of sand nearby, revealing a small wooden pointed corner.
Something else seemed to be buried underneath.
A thought stirred within her. She slowly squatted down and brushed away the sand.
Quietly lying underneath was a smaller, more archaic-looking dark wooden box, cut from the same cloth as the boxes found previously.
“There’s another one here,” Jiang Tong picked up the small wooden box, speaking softly as her gaze shifted to Xie Weiyi. “The previous clues all pointed to this kind of wooden box. This one should be it too, right?”
The two arguing individuals stopped and turned to look at the small wooden box in her hand.
The director’s voice came through the megaphone right on cue: “Congratulations to the team of Xie Weiyi and Jiang Tong for finding the ultimate treasure! The other treasure chest is a consolation prize.”
Xie Weiyi immediately let go, stood up, patted the sand off her hands, and raised her chin triumphantly with an eyebrow raised at the still somewhat dissatisfied Song Anna.
“Well done, teammate.” Xie Weiyi turned her head to look at Jiang Tong, her voice carrying clear joy, shining dazzlingly under the illumination of the lights.
Lifting her eyes in response, Jiang Tong crashed straight into her smiling gaze.
The word “teammate” bounced repeatedly in Jiang Tong’s heart before leaping forward fiercely against her regretful past, fulfilling that unfulfilled stage dream of her failed group debut.
Xie Weiyi walked up to Jiang Tong’s side and, with total naturalness, reached out her hand to open the box together with her.
Inside the box lay two rattan-woven bracelets personally crafted by Lin Bo, strung through the middle with a few polished and buffed seashells.
“This is the reward for the victors! The two partners shall put the bracelets on each other!”
Song Anna and Bai Yu had also opened their consolation prize; inside lay two seashells looking utterly desolate.
Song Anna leaned over, then indignantly pulled her gaze back.
Patting her shoulder, Bai Yu consoled her: “It’s fine. If you like, we’ll weave the seashells into bracelets tonight when we get back.”
[Aine, our Anna started crying the moment she got home—what’s going on, what’s going on.]
[Teammate! Xie Weiyi called Jiang Tong ‘teammate’! 5555 dream fulfilled!]
[Anna got the consolation prize, Anna is good. Bai Yu comforts Anna, Bai Yu is good. Jiang Tong digs up the treasure, Jiang Tong is good. Xie Weiyi acknowledges her teammate, Xie Weiyi is good.]
[The person above is a total soup-broth big mama!]
Dinner was set at a long table by the beach, with flickering candlelight and a lively atmosphere.
As winners, they naturally enjoyed a few special privileges. Xie Weiyi didn’t decline in the slightest, leading Jiang Tong straight to the main seats of the dining table.
Sitting beside her, Jiang Tong ate leisurely while watching her hold up a glass of wine and proudly recount how heroic their entire treasure hunt had been, thinking to herself: Xie Weiyi still loves exaggerating so much when telling stories.
Suddenly, Xie Weiyi used the serving chopsticks to pick up the largest, most visually tempting salt-and-pepper prawn, placing it with absolute naturalness onto the small plate right in front of Jiang Tong.
“Here, contributor, eat more,” she said with a smile, her tone affectionate and open.
The table fell quiet for an instant, immediately followed by a few sounds of good-natured teasing.
Lowering her eyes to look at the glossy, fragrant prawn on her plate, Jiang Tong picked up her chopsticks and began peeling the shell at a slow pace.
The subtle sound of the prawn shell peeling away was practically inaudible amidst the surrounding commotion.
Instead of eating the prawn meat once it was peeled, Jiang Tong raised her eyes to look at Xie Weiyi and placed that piece of prawn meat straight into Xie Weiyi’s seafood porridge, which was still practically untouched.
Xie Weiyi froze. Lowering her head, she looked at the bowl of porridge, then back at Jiang Tong’s calm and gentle expression. An indescribable, scorching emotion abruptly surged up from the bottom of her heart, instantly sweeping through her entire being.
The next second, she heard Jiang Tong softly ask: “Xie Weiyi, can you call me teammate again?”
This form of address had been uttered once before by Xie Weiyi as a tentative, nostalgic, feigned joke after the treasure hunt was announced as complete.
She had watched Jiang Tong freeze because of it, watched complex emotions sweep across Jiang Tong’s eyes, watched Jiang Tong accept it calmly and cooperatively put on the victory-symbolizing bracelets with her.
Back then, she had thought her own regrets had been fulfilled within the maximum limit of what Jiang Tong could accept.
Never in her wildest dreams had she expected Jiang Tong to proactively bring up this request.
Using such a tone close to a plea, at such a bustling moment, looking at her with such gentle eyes.
Did this mean that failing to debut in a group together with her was also Jiang Tong’s regret?
Xie Weiyi felt her breath hitch for a second, her throat feeling as though it were plugged by a ball of cotton. She opened her mouth, yet was incapable of producing any sound.
The few seconds of silence stretched out long as a century.
The surrounding laughter and chatter, the whispers of the waves and the evening breeze—everything was muted at this very moment. In Xie Weiyi’s entire world, nothing remained except Jiang Tong’s pair of eyes and that weight-of-the-world request.
Setting down her wine glass, Xie Weiyi hid her trembling fingertips under the table, resting them upon her knees.
“Alright,” she said, looking straight into Jiang Tong’s eyes, word by word, clear and slow, “teammate.”
The instant those words fell, she saw Jiang Tong nod slightly, giving a response of “Mm.”
Following that, Jiang Tong reached out to clasp her still-trembling fingertips, counseling her in an ultra-low volume: “Captain, hurry up and eat.”
Xie Weiyi wanted to ask Jiang Tong if she was drunk, wondering why she would utter such rule-breaking forms of address.
Yet she immediately reminded herself that the one who had been drinking tonight was herself—the one who had yearned for this title of “Captain” for seven full years.