Do you dare?

Mu Dai didn’t respond immediately. She pursed her lips and said, “Then I’ll call Hongsha and the others to join us.”

Luo Ren said, “I want to talk to you about some things, not play a group game.”

Mu Dai couldn’t quite explain the subtle resentment she felt inside, but she asked, “How do we play?”

Luo Ren extended his hand, palm up, displaying a ten-yuan Year of the Goat commemorative coin.

“We’ll flip the coin. If it’s the character side, you ask me a question. If it’s the goat side, I ask you a question. One question at a time, then we flip again.”

Mu Dai didn’t say anything, but a vague decision formed in her mind, and she nodded.

Luo Ren flipped first. Mu Dai stared intently as the commemorative coin spun through the air like a bee with rapidly beating wings. When it landed on Luo Ren’s hand, he would normally cover it, but just as he raised his hand, Mu Dai suddenly extended her arm to block him. Seeing that the coin had already turned to “goat” on his hand, she reached over, covered it, swiped, and turned the coin to the character side.

This was cheating at its finest.

Luo Ren smiled and said, “Fine, you ask first.”

Mu Dai asked, “Do you still like me?”

Mu Dai had made up her mind to ask this first. If Luo Ren answered “no,” she would know everything she needed to know, and there would be no point in continuing the game.

She hated how she had been so anxious about him these days, feeling insecure. Mu Dai felt she needed a resolution or a straight answer.

Luo Ren nodded, “Yes, I do.”

Oh? He likes her? Mu Dai’s spirit lifted momentarily, and she suddenly didn’t know how to arrange her expression. Watching the coin fly up again, she felt it didn’t matter anymore.

This time, it was Luo Ren’s turn to ask.

“If you like someone, would you die for them?”

Mu Dai didn’t respond immediately. Girls are generally sensitive, and she felt she knew what Luo Ren wanted to ask and what his purpose was.

Hadn’t he said to be truthful? Not to hide selfishness, cowardice, vanity, or greed? Then she would tell the truth.

She said, “When you like someone, it’s to be happier together. Why would you want to die? Who would easily choose death? Hong Yi raised me, and I want to repay her so much, but if you asked me to die for her, I would still have to think long and hard.”

Luo Ren nodded.

This time, it was Mu Dai who flipped the coin, and again it landed on a goat. Luo Ren was still asking questions.

He asked more directly, “If you liked someone, but they had many troubles that would bring you into those troubles too, would you still like them?”

Mu Dai stared at him, “First, I have to ask, what would he do?”

Luo Ren hesitated for a moment, “Mu Dai, I have many troubles—life-threatening troubles.”

“So I’m asking you, what would you do?”

They didn’t need the coin anymore; they might as well speak directly.

“Mu Dai, I hope you stay safe and happy. I don’t want you to take risks. And I especially can’t let you be harmed because of my troubles.”

Mu Dai asked, “So what do you want me to do? Stay far away from you? After we go back, I’ll move out, never contact you again, find another boyfriend, get married, have children, and after decades, when I die of old age, not even notify you. I’ll be buried here, you’ll be buried there, and we’ll each die our separate deaths. Is that it?”

Luo Ren didn’t speak. In her few short sentences, she had covered life from beginning to end. Was the connection between people so thin? One day, they could be willing to live and die together, and the next day, they could forget each other at opposite ends of the earth.

She pressed, “Is that how it is?”

Luo Ren remained silent. Of course, it wasn’t like that. He didn’t want that.

Mu Dai continued, “Or, I’ll avoid you first, and after you’ve resolved all your life-threatening troubles, when the world is at peace and the great unity is achieved, when beautiful days are about to begin, I’ll be with you then. Is that it?”

Luo Ren hesitated again. This was indeed the best solution, but he felt there was a heavy sarcasm in her words.

Sure enough, she said, “You’re dreaming.”

Her eyes reddened as she said, “I may not have been in love before, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand. I only know that the best time for two people to be together is when you like me and I like you. Those ideas of ‘wait until I have money,’ ‘wait until I’m famous,’ ‘wait until I solve these troubles,’ ‘wait until I’m whatever’—while waiting and waiting, everything just disappears.”

Luo Ren looked at her.

She said, “When I was little, I loved milk chocolate candy. Hong Yi wouldn’t buy it for me, afraid I’d ruin my teeth. I thought about it every day. Now I’m grown up and can buy it myself, but I don’t like it anymore.”

“Luo Ren, you’re like that milk chocolate candy I longed for as a child. When I can never get it, I stop thinking about it. I won’t wait for you. I’ll only wait for someone who has deep feelings for me, someone I love enough to die for. Neither of us likes the other that much.”

Then she murmured, “Who knows if such feelings even exist in this world?”

She sighed, stood up, and walked away. After a few steps, she turned back.

“Luo Ren, you say you don’t want me to take risks, don’t want me to get hurt. I want to tell you that even if I leave you, I might still take risks with another person I love. I might still get hurt. It’s not as if leaving me would guarantee I’ll live a peaceful life. You’re not me.”

Having finished, she turned and walked away, going to sit beside Yan Hongsha, who looked at her curiously and asked, “What were you talking about?”

Mu Dai first chased Cao Yanhua away. With a stomach full of words she wanted to say but couldn’t express, she finally let out a sigh.

She said, “Emotional matters are truly troublesome. I originally thought mutual liking was enough, but there are many more things to consider.”

Yan Hongsha said, “Of course! Love must have its twists and turns, anxieties, tears of sorrow, and tears of joy before it can succeed.”

Mu Dai glared at her, “How would you know? Have you ever been in love? How many times?”

Yan Hongsha fell silent. After a while, she slowly replied, “Well, that’s what all the books say. If it weren’t true, would they publish them?”

Cao Yanhua, having been chased away by Mu Dai, found himself without a place to go. Thinking that Luo Ren probably wouldn’t welcome him either, he went to find his good friend Yi Wansan.

Yi Wansan was sitting not far away, legs crossed, using a branch to draw something in the sand. Cao Yanhua knew he was an artistic youth and called out from a distance, “Brother San, what are you drawing?”

Walking too carelessly, his foot caught on something, and he staggered forward. Fortunately, the beach was soft, so falling didn’t hurt, and he managed to brace himself with his hands before plowing headfirst into Yi Wansan’s artwork.

Yi Wansan looked at Cao Yanhua, who was sprawled at his feet, with irritation, “You can’t even walk properly? Get up, get up!”

Cao Yanhua grumbled, “What are these horizontal lines, vertical lines, diagonal lines?”

Yi Wansan’s heart skipped a beat as a thought suddenly struck him. As Cao Yanhua was getting up, sticking his bottom in the air, Yi Wansan pressed his head down.

Cao Yanhua protested, “Hey! Hey!”

Yi Wansan asked, “What am I drawing?”

With his face pressed down by Yi Wansan, only about ten centimeters from the ground, all Cao Yanhua could see was the sand disturbed by the branch. He felt angry, “How should I know what you’re drawing? Why don’t you just push my head into the ground to look?”

Yi Wansan loosened his grip a bit and pulled Cao Yanhua by the collar to a slightly higher position. “How about now?”

“Horizontal lines, vertical lines, diagonal lines.”

Yi Wansan let go, “Stand up and look.”

Cao Yanhua got up grumbling, brushing the sand off himself, scrutinizing the drawing from all angles, sometimes stepping closer, sometimes tilting his head.

“Trees, houses, the sea… are you drawing the village?”

Yes, he was drawing the village. Feeling depressed, he had sat here, drawing stroke by stroke, remembering how the village looked when he was a child.

But Cao Yanhua had interrupted him.

Yi Wansan’s heart began to race. He suddenly stood up, threw away the branch in his hand, and quickly ran toward Luo Ren.

Everyone gathered around the bonfire.

Yi Wansan was somewhat excited, his words jumping from one topic to another as he recounted what had just happened. Cao Yanhua didn’t understand and thought to himself: Of course you can’t see clearly up close, is it really worth discussing with everyone?

He listened halfheartedly as Yi Wansan spoke.

“It’s like the Great Wall. From a high, distant place, you can see that it’s a winding defense system. But if you’re close, you might just think it’s two walls not far apart…”

He could barely contain his excitement, “That day on the boat, when looking down through the water window, I had an idea, but then the old clam suddenly moved, and I forgot about it…”

Luo Ren interrupted him, “What are you saying?”

“This might be similar to the nature of the fishing line figurines. Those bones at the bottom of the sea, whether human bones or animal bones from sacrifices, might not be arranged randomly. They might form a picture, a giant picture at the bottom of the sea, similar to the fishing line figurines, depicting the scene of some atrocity.”

The bottom of the sea, a giant picture formed by white bones?

Yi Wansan had mentioned that Wu Zhu Village had been sacrificing to the sea god for generations. How many bones would be down there? The water window certainly couldn’t see the entire panorama, but the view was already quite large. If, from that angle, they still couldn’t see the whole picture, how big would this picture be?

Cao Yanhua finally understood and carefully offered his opinion.

“But if the water window were any higher, wouldn’t you see nothing at all? It’s already hard to see clearly at the bottom of the sea.”

Luo Ren said, “Not necessarily. We can piece it together. The boat can change positions on the sea surface, with the water window capturing an image each time. Then we can… assemble the images from a large area of the sea.”

What kind of picture would it be? They would know tomorrow.

Mu Dai tossed and turned in bed. Her blanket had been used to cover the old clam, and only a thin quilt remained in the cabin, which felt cold. Next to her, Yan Hongsha slept soundly, her breathing even and deep.

The cockpit couldn’t accommodate everyone, and nobody was particularly particular, so Cao Yanhua also stayed in the cabin, sleeping on the floor, snoring loudly. Luo Ren and Yi Wansan slept in the cockpit, taking turns keeping watch.

Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night.

The sound of waves, sometimes distant, sometimes near, reminded her of the pillow song Luo Ren had mentioned.

—Tonight I sleep on a silk pillow, tomorrow at sea I’ll rest on the waves…

—I ask my pillow if I’m asleep or not…

She heard the light sound of the door and looked toward it, seeing Luo Ren’s familiar silhouette.

He stood at the door for a moment, then walked straight over to her. His footsteps were very light. He came to her side, sat down, bent over, and asked softly, “Are you asleep?”

He didn’t need to ask—her eyes were open, bright and dark.

But still, afraid he might not know, she reached out, grabbed the edge of his clothes, and tugged gently.

Luo Ren leaned close to her ear and whispered, “It’s past midnight.”

So what if it’s past midnight?

“Let’s start from today, okay?”

His breath brushed past her ear, warm and ticklish.

Mu Dai, her head on the pillow, nodded. One nod wasn’t enough, so she nodded several more times emphatically.

In the darkness, Luo Ren lowered his head and gently kissed her eyes. She had to close them, but her eyelashes still trembled slightly, brushing against his lips.

She heard him say, “Then goodnight. Tomorrow… see you soon.”

Could she still sleep well?

Mu Dai lay motionless, looking at the cabin door that hadn’t been completely closed. Outside was the dim night, extending far and high, where she could even see stars blinking at the edge of the slanted sky.

Suddenly, she wasn’t sure—had Luo Ren come or not? Was it real, or had she dreamed it?

Beside her, Yan Hongsha suddenly sat up.

She said, “See, I told you love is full of twists and turns. You never know what will happen from one second to the next! Aiya, I was almost suffocating just now. I didn’t dare breathe…”

Mu Dai’s face turned crimson. She grabbed the quilt and covered Yan Hongsha’s face, shouting, “Go to sleep!”

From the other side of the bed came Cao Yanhua’s voice.

“Sister Little Master, why don’t you switch with my Brother San? You two can be in the same cabin and do whatever you want. We’re people who sincerely want to sleep but can’t. It’s dark, we can’t see anything, and it’s uncomfortable…”

She didn’t know how the night passed. She slept, yet it felt like she hadn’t, enduring until the sky turned from dim to bright.

Cao Yanhua and Yan Hongsha both got up one after another. Mu Dai pretended to be still asleep. Even though her feelings had been exposed last night, at least that was at night. To face them in broad daylight…

No, she’d rather delay it as long as possible.