The restaurant was on the beach, with blue skies, white clouds, and a sunroom where the glass refracted light into starry specks on the floor.
The tables, chairs, and floors were all wooden; walking on them produced a creak-creak sound. On the tables stood white lilies, with the water level just right, covering the stems.
From every angle, one could look directly out at the sea view, or watch parasailers swooping down from the sky thrilling and exciting.
A weird thought suddenly popped up. “Brother Muxuan, do you think if a typhoon hit, these windows would pop, and shatter into pieces?” “No. When typhoons arrive, there’s an outer wooden layer. The restaurant will be completely enclosed, very safe.”
Bai Muxuan looked Qi Beichen up and down. “As for you, you’d likely be blown into the sky, spin around, and then splat…” “Not going out during a typhoon is common sense.” “Your little brain is still quite smart.”
Qi Beichen sat at the table, casually flipping through the menu, his appetite fully opened. Everything was seafood: Haicheng jiazi powder, crab porridge, spicy scallops with vermicelli…
“I want to eat something savory and drink something spicy! And we have to have a couple of cups of wine it’s not easy to be this relaxed!”
Bai Muxuan looked down at the menu. “Keep dreaming.” “…” “You just recovered from a high fever. Seafood is considered cold and cooling, which affects your subsequent recovery. You’re also a medical student; this is the most basic common sense.” “Common sense! It exists to be broken! Every medicine has three parts poison; only nutritional therapy makes you recover fast.” “Fine, that’s what you said—’nutritional therapy recovers fast.’ Millet porridge, vegetable soup, barley water, soybean sprouts—these are most suitable.”
Qi Beichen pouted. Since he’d said it himself, he couldn’t go back on his word.
He tugged at Bai Muxuan’s sleeve, his brow furrowed, a hint of inexplicable coquettishness in his voice. “Brother Muxuan, this is a coastal city. Besides, we’re climbing Nanshan Temple tomorrow. If I don’t have the strength then, what should I do…” “If you don’t have the strength, there’s a cable car. It’s only 140 for a round-trip ticket.” “Brother Muxuan, although they say ‘sincerity leads to spirituality,’ I still want to try walking up myself. Ascetics take a small bow every three steps and a full prostration every five steps. I’m just climbing a mountain. Plus, I have so many wishes; if I cheat like this and the gods get offended and ignore them, then everything is ruined.”
Whether it worked or not, he didn’t know. Bai Muxuan didn’t follow up. Instead, he tried to seduce him with his looks resting his chin on his hands, looking down, his collar slightly open to reveal his pale, delicate collarbones, then casting a flirtatious glance at Bai Muxuan, who was sitting opposite him.
Bai Muxuan reached out and pulled his clothes shut, commenting as if complaining, “Public place, mind your influence. You look very dangerous like this.” “Not dangerous. I’m just exercising my reasonable rights.” “I think you’re intentionally seducing me.”
Fortunately, it wasn’t mealtime yet, and there were only a handful of people in the restaurant.
“I only seduce Brother Muxuan…” “Put your clothes on and sit properly. Otherwise, you won’t even get any mushroom soup.”
Arguing logically really hadn’t achieved much. Qi Beichen only tasted the seafood mushroom soup, which had a pitiful two or three shrimp. He shouted that this was a scam; one bowl was actually worth 200 yuan.
Soulless. His big shrimp had just flown away like that.
Click-clack! Click-clack!
Qi Beichen snapped a few photos of the food on the table and edited a message: “The first meal in Haicheng. Happy.”
He deliberately chose a photo that showed Bai Muxuan’s hand, and another of Bai Muxuan putting food into his bowl. The warm sunlight added a layer of gold, making it look extremely ambiguous.
Beep-beep-beep…
Su Haoxuan: The brothers are working themselves to death in Jiangcheng, and you two animals are actually enjoying yourselves! Xie Zhixu: Indeed. Look at them, the two of them, head over heels in love, feeding each other. Liang Han: You guys really know how to play! You really know how to play~~ Dining together is forbidden in the palace; you guys are causing chaos in the harem!!! Qi Beichen: … Bai Muxuan: Don’t spout nonsense. Qi Beichen: We just happened to be at the same table. The place was crowded; it wouldn’t have been cost-effective to sit separately. Qi Beichen: [Video.jpg]
It was a pity that his video editing skills weren’t mature enough. The video looked normal at the start, but then suddenly, someone holding a flying saucer appeared.
Su Haoxuan: 6! (Cool!) Xie Zhixu: 6! Liang Han: 6! Qi Beichen: Can I say that a UFO appeared in Haicheng? Bai Muxuan: Less gossiping. It’s a workday—have you finished your projects? Su Haoxuan: That’s a killer blow! Xie Zhixu: That’s a killer blow! Liang Han: That’s a killer blow! Qi Beichen: Please stop gossiping. Alright, we’re going to do something else. My phone battery is dead! Su Haoxuan: Believe your big head. Your photo shows the battery level—it’s still at 80%! Qi Beichen: Ai, ai, ai, the signal, why is it so bad? Why can’t I see your messages anymore? Pop, your phone has entered a weak signal area; please put it away temporarily. Su Haoxuan: Damn! Xie Zhixu: Damn! Liang Han: Damn!
Three echo-bugs.
The sunlight was warm, and the sea breeze wasn’t cold. The itinerary hadn’t originally included blowing in the wind by the beach, and Qi Beichen’s cold hadn’t completely cleared—if he caught too much wind, he was afraid he’d burn up again.
Qi Beichen looked pitifully at Bai Muxuan. He hadn’t been satisfied with the meal earlier, and now he couldn’t even stand the sea breeze.
“Brother Muxuan, the sun is still quite nice. Let’s stay for a little while, just a little while. I promise to tell you when I’m not feeling well.”
Bai Muxuan looked at him skeptically. “Are you sure? Who was the one who got airsick on the plane earlier?”
Qi Beichen flushed red and lowered his head. “That was my secondary personality, Qi Xiaochen.”
Fine. Bai Muxuan couldn’t take it anymore. “Then just for a little while, don’t let your ‘third personality’ come out.” “I have five personalities in total, collectively known as ‘The Fifth Personality’.” “…”
The sand beneath their feet was soft and the grains very fine. A fair number of tourists had gathered on the beach, and there were many activities. He definitely couldn’t touch the seawater, and his supervisor was right there, so picking up shells or something similar was always fine.
Qi Beichen didn’t bring any tools; he squatted down in front of a patch of moist sand and stared blankly.
“What are you doing?” “I’m seeing when a scallop will suddenly crawl out of the sand and say hello to me… I feel like they can.”
Bai Muxuan sat on the beach, casually scraping at the sand with his hands, and seawater overflowed from the pit, bubbling up with a gloop-gloop sound.
“What a pity. Watching those beach-combing videos, the vloggers always bring a bag of salt and sprinkle it into the small holes; in no time, a razor clam pops out. I’m so envious…” Qi Beichen dragged out the tone deliberately.
He started digging with his bare hands.
“You forgot, your hand it’s not better yet.”
His fingertips were wrapped in Band-Aids. These past few days, he had changed the dressings on time, but for some inexplicable reason, the wounds on his fingertips just wouldn’t heal.
“Whatever you want, there’s stuff for sale here.” “What you buy isn’t as good as digging it yourself. Ah, Brother Muxuan! Heaven is so unfair to me!”
Bai Muxuan rolled up his sleeves. He had originally come to eat and hadn’t brought any tools. Seeing places with holes, he reached out and dug hard a few times, but maybe his luck was indeed bad he dug several, but found nothing.
Instead, a “putt-putt-putt” sound came from afar.
He saw a small excavator puffing white smoke appear on the beach. The beach administrator on it was holding a bag of scallops and tossing them onto the beach. Following behind were quite a few tourists, all holding small buckets and picking them up with their heads bowed.
Bai Muxuan pointed to the small excavator over there. “How about we go check that one out?”
Qi Beichen had no other good methods, so he could only listen to Bai Muxuan’s suggestion and follow him over.
In the staff members’ small buckets, there were white scallops as well as clams with various patterns. They were opening their mouths, flickering and spitting out layers of tiny bubbles—all of them were alive.
The vehicle moved quite slowly, and the speaker on it was playing the nostalgic old song, Sailor.
Qi Beichen bent his waist, picking up a scallop. It was opening its mouth, and the scallop meat inside was orange-yellow.
“When I was a kid, I really wanted to be a sailor. The ocean is so beautiful. But after growing up, I became a doctor, and I’m even afraid of blood. It’s truly embarrassing.”
He tossed the little scallop back into the ocean. “Go, go home!”
Bai Muxuan casually picked up a clam. It had a ring of patterns, looking better than the previous scallop. “There’s nothing embarrassing about it. If you can’t stand the sight of blood, you can work in logistics; it’s not like you have to be on the front lines.”
Qi Beichen was having fun, and half of Bai Muxuan’s words were scattered by the wind.
After blowing in the wind for a while, his spirits actually improved. The sky was growing late, and the sea breeze was beginning to turn cold. Considering his health, Qi Beichen obediently followed Bai Muxuan away from the beach.
Returning to the room, from a distance, he could see a bonfire being built outside. Qi Beichen had taken his medicine and was still dripping a bit of nose water. He checked his body temperature 36.5 degrees, which was normal.
He had to admit, the beach sunshine was a bit toxic. Although it was already November, his skin was a bit red from the sun, especially on his chest.
The sunset clouds had completely climbed onto the sky—a magnificent sight. Tomorrow would definitely be good weather.
The lamp posts outside lit up one after another. The coconut trees on the beach were covered with small strings of lights—colorful, and in the distance, there was a lighthouse, guiding the cruise ships on their long voyages.
“Splash… splash…”
Qi Beichen opened the floor-to-ceiling window and walked toward the small courtyard in front. He casually closed the gate, the wooden gate making a “creak” sound. The entire wooden wall was climbed over by Boston ivy, and some nameless little yellow flowers were blooming lushly.
“Clang, clang, clang…”
A knock came at the door.
Qi Beichen hurriedly trotted over to open the door, without even closing the floor-to-ceiling window. The moment he opened it, a strong cross-current blew his tufts of hair upright again.
Bai Muxuan stood at the door and casually patted down his hair. “It’s late. Close the floor-to-ceiling window and draw the curtains. The night breeze is very cold; be careful of a relapse.”
Qi Beichen was stunned for a moment, and then a smile blossomed on his face. “Brother Muxuan, you’re really considerate to me. You wouldn’t really have a thing for me, would you?”
Bai Muxuan held his forehead. “You’re the only one who gossips about yourself. Alright, go have a bath obediently; I’ll come check later.” “Okay!”
Qi Beichen darted into the bathroom and stripped off all his clothes. He turned around and looked at his back—it was flushed red. He was afraid it had truly been sunburned. This delicate, pampered flesh, he thought, I’ve really been defeated by it.
The bathtub was crescent-moon shaped. He’d originally thought about soaking in the outdoor hot spring pool, but that blast of cold wind earlier had persuaded him otherwise.
Warm water overflowed from the faucet, and the cold air was veiled in a thin layer of mist. The moment his toes touched the water, Qi Beichen retracted them—it was a bit hot.
He added some cold water, and it was just right.
The feeling was completely different from soaking in a bath at Bai Muxuan’s house. The bath ball dissolved completely in the water, emitting the fragrance of lavender.
He submerged his whole body in the water, leaving only his head exposed.
Beep-beep-beep…
The phone at the edge of the bathtub vibrated.
Bai Muxuan: Beichen, you aren’t asleep yet, are you? Room service will deliver fruit in a bit. If it’s inconvenient, I’ll remind them.
“Splash…”
Qi Beichen looked like a beauty emerging from a bath, creating a curtain of water. Droplets flowed down his arms and chest.
He lay on the edge of the bathtub, looking at the message.
Qi Beichen: Not asleep yet. The water temperature is just right. Then I’ll trouble you, Brother Muxuan. I’m just getting ready to come out and apply body lotion. Bai Muxuan: What man is so meticulous every day? Qi Beichen: Maintaining skin is one of my required courses. I got a bit sunburned today. Brother Muxuan, can you help me apply sunscreen and repair lotion later? I can’t reach it myself. Bai Muxuan: Keep dreaming. Men and women shouldn’t touch and men and men neither. Qi Beichen: [Himi.jpg] Then I’m a German Shepherd. Bai Muxuan: …Don’t be cheeky. I’ll be over in a bit.