—I’ve come down from the mountain. Stop at the public beach when you pass by, I’ll be waiting for you there, and we’ll go back together.

……

There were two or three yachts scattered across the sea surface, some near and some far, and beyond that it stretched endlessly. The three o’clock afternoon sun was a bit scorching. Her neck ached, and as she gently tapped the side of her neck, Ban Wei hurried over to help massage her back. Passing two or three beach chairs, Fang Xuan was lying on the fourth beach chair with a MacBook on her lap, staring at the screen, her fingers idly tapping away at the keyboard’s edge. Wu Jiakui said, “Didn’t you say you didn’t bring your laptop?” Fang Xuan looked up: “Huh? I borrowed it from Long Qi.”

“Since when are you two so close?”

“I just took it from her room last night. Her web WeChat is still logged in on it.”

Wu Jiakui took a seat on the beach chair next to Fang Xuan’s. Following her gesture, she glanced over and saw Long Qi’s WeChat chat page, and also saw the text she had sent in Jin Yiken’s chat box over an hour ago. Without looking further, she said: “Log out, I don’t want to see it, don’t look at it.”

“Hehe,” Fang Xuan laughed, “No way, I want to look.”

Wu Jiakui paid her no attention, lying down with her sunglasses on. Ban Wei sat on the lounge chair on her other side, propping herself up on her arms with her legs crossed, saying “My little Kuikui looks good doing everything.” Wu Jiakui took a breath, putting in her earbuds without looking sideways, but after only putting in the left one, her hand movements slowly stopped: “What’s happening on the sea?”

Ban Wei turned her head, following her line of sight.

In the distance, near the shore, a yacht remained stationary. Two speedboats were approaching the yacht, circling around the surrounding waters. After three or four circles they stopped, gathering at the bow doing something unknown. For a long while there was no movement. Ban Wei squinted, then withdrew her gaze because the sunlight was too glaring, saying: “Probably dropped anchor, or someone drowned.”

“Ban Wei.”

There was a call. Following Ban Wei, she looked toward the source of the voice and saw Jin Yiken more than ten meters away. He was walking ahead of Wu’er, having just parked the car, one hand in his pocket, walking along the lounge chair area. He was also squinting toward the yacht on the sea surface. After looking for three or four seconds he withdrew his gaze. The sea breeze blew at his T-shirt sleeves, while Wu’er wore a floral shirt with a bag on his back, spreading his hands behind him and shouting: “Little beauties! Sister has arrived to greet you!”

“Hello!” Fang Xuan, naturally sociable, immediately shouted back loudly, “Wu’er! Save me a role too! Look, I’ve been waiting for you for three days!”

Wu’er laughed heartily, pointing at her, but couldn’t recall her name for the longest time. Wu Jiakui added: “Fang Xuan.”

“Right, right, right, right, Fang Xuan, hahahaha, I remember…”

“I’m not acting anymore.” Fang Xuan waved dismissively.

“Don’t! Give sister one more second, sister will remember it, we’re even mutual follows on Facebook, right?”

“Unfollow!”

While these two were bantering, Jin Yiken had already reached Ban Wei, looking at the beach and asking: “Have you seen my wife?”

“No, we also just came down from the mountain.”

Hearing this, he took out his phone from his pocket, unlocked it to WeChat, and held it to his lips: “Send me your location, I’m here, coming to pick you up.”

After sending the voice message, he scanned the beach area within a hundred meters around them again, asking Ban Wei: “Who did she come down the mountain with?”

“Zang Siming.”

He nodded.

First he called her phone—no one answered. He then dialed Zang Siming’s number, holding it to his ear. At the same time, there was the sound of an ambulance on the shore. Wu Jiakui turned her head to look toward the shore, contemplating for a moment, then looked back at the sea surface. The speedboats that had originally been gathered beside the yacht were now speeding toward the beach at high speed. The figures on the boats went from blurry to clear—there were three or four people huddled together.

“Someone did drown.”

She extracted the correct one from the two possibilities Ban Wei had suggested earlier.

From the entrance where the shore met the beach, there were also figures of several beach safety management personnel passing by. They ran toward the coast. Jin Yiken listened to his phone while glancing over. As the distant speedboat approached shore, there was quite a commotion around them. The ongoing beach volleyball game paused. Tourists whose attention had been disrupted looked over there in twos and threes. The person from the speedboat was carried down. Management personnel gathered. Someone carrying a child quickly left. A girl grabbed her boyfriend’s arm and backed away. Others also pointed and moved forward. His call didn’t go through. After hanging up, he redialed Long Qi’s cell phone number, leaving Ban Wei with: “If you see my wife, tell her to wait here.”

“Where are you going?”

Ban Wei started asking this, but then seeing the direction he was walking, and seeing Wu Jiakui following him, she also followed along. Then it was Fang Xuan’s turn to ask: “Where are you all going?”

“You stay here and wait for Long Qi.” Ban Wei called back.

The dialed calls never got answered.

After the third call went unanswered and automatically disconnected, he put his phone in his pocket. At that time he was dozens of steps away from the incident site where management personnel had gathered. Heads bobbed everywhere. The drowning victim at the center was obscured by frequently passing figures, making it impossible to see clearly. He could only see a section of right wrist lying limply on the beach—pale to begin with, and rendered bloodless by the seawater, fingers naturally curved, thin, with each finger joint distinctly visible, trembling slightly with the CPR the medical personnel were performing on her. As he walked, he watched that wrist. Wu Jiakui was also watching. Some tourists around them recognized her, and seemed to recognize Jin Yiken too, causing another small commotion. At this moment, Zang Siming, soaking wet and in a terrible state, suddenly stumbled out from the crowd.

Wu Jiakui’s steps paused. Ban Wei also stopped.

Zang Siming looked extremely exhausted, collapsing and sitting on the sand gasping and coughing, breathing heavily. After a second or two of reaction time, he turned his head and saw them. Management personnel were racing against time to save someone in the inner circle. His gaze moved from Ban Wei and Wu Jiakui to Jin Yiken at the front. In that instant, his face turned deathly pale, and he supported himself to stand up.

Opening his mouth, wanting to speak but unable to, he quickly glanced at the inner circle, then looked back at them, at a complete loss.

“What happened?”

It was Jin Yiken who asked first.

His tone was quite flat as he looked him up and down from top to bottom, observing his stiffened neck and trembling lips. As if subconsciously, three seconds after the previous question fell, he slowly followed with: “Where’s my wife?”

“This was an accident…”

He replied hoarsely.

Almost in the same second as the words fell, Jin Yiken’s gaze shifted to the inner circle. The management personnel who had just finished a round of CPR wearily moved aside. Long Qi’s face, hair stuck to it, lay there quietly on the wet, sticky beach, without a sound. Another management personnel immediately followed up, continuing to press down on her chest one press after another. Zang Siming spread his hands trying to explain, while Jin Yiken’s entire lazy frame underwent a change in that moment. Wu Jiakui raised her hand to cover her mouth. Ban Wei let out a “Holy shit” as heavy as a low growl. He immediately stepped forward, fast as lightning, crouching down to hold her hand to gauge the temperature—so cold she had almost completely lost body heat! Then he brushed away the long hair stuck to her forehead and the side of her neck. Management personnel asked who he was. Zang Siming added in a trembling voice: “She got too wild, really, I told her not to climb the ship’s railing, don’t climb the ship’s railing! But I drank too much too, I couldn’t watch her, I’ve wronged you, really, I…”

“Family member.”

He responded to them, reacting quickly, his voice hoarse. But after pushing aside the hair on the side of her neck, he immediately saw three to four red hickeys extending all the way to her chest—on her pale, damp skin they were as vivid as branded burn marks. His gaze moved downward, and he saw the blood-red color on her lower body pants, saw the phone case tied in a dead knot on her arm. Zang Siming pointed: “She, she was playing with some girl, I can’t remember which one, we all drank too much, she insisted on making a bet with someone, fuck, I wasn’t watching her at that moment, I just know my eyes couldn’t leave her for even a second! You also know how crazy she gets…”

“Shut up.”

He didn’t look up.

His entire gaze and attention were fixed on her. He repeatedly held her hand, his thumb brushing over her eyes and her lips that had no breath. She was too quiet. The person who had been full of life sitting on the swing laughing at him just two hours ago now had no reaction no matter how he called, no heartbeat, her whole body at low temperature. When the management personnel did CPR, sweat dripped onto her body and she had no reaction. She used to detest getting touched by sweat the most, but now she wouldn’t even open her eyes. He bent down pressing his forehead against hers, palms pressed tightly together. It took a full three seconds to force himself to recover. At that moment he finally stood up and said to the person: “Move!”

As soon as the management personnel released their hands, he immediately gave her high-efficiency CPR, forcefully pressing down press by press, then giving her artificial respiration. He was also sweating, cold sweat, dripping down, flowing from her neck to the sandy ground. At the same time he shouted at the management personnel: “Where’s the ambulance!”

“Still stuck at the street entrance on shore, blocked by an illegally parked big truck!”

He continued CPR, desperately doing it, giving her artificial respiration multiple times, slapping her face hoping she would wake up, shouting again: “Why are you standing there stunned instead of clearing the traffic!”

“Cough!”

Just as the nervous management personnel ran off covered in sweat, there was finally a response beneath his hands! She finally coughed up water, with blood threads in the water. Zang Siming watched, subconsciously backing up two steps. Wu Jiakui stared at him, while Jin Yiken held her upper body in his arms. She was too weak. Her first reaction upon waking was still to press her lower abdomen, bending her knees, her breath barely a thread. Zang Siming, who had backed up two steps, suddenly rushed forward again, crouching down and grabbing her hand: “Long Qi, how are you feeling, hmm? Can you speak?”

She couldn’t speak. She seemed to have something to say but just couldn’t say it. Her face was frighteningly pale, but she struggled to grasp Jin Yiken’s hand, holding on no matter how much effort it took. The phone in the waterproof bag dangled by her arm. Her fingernails dug into the web of his thumb. Jin Yiken watched her actions, lowering his head to look into her eyes. She also looked into his, her eyes red. Zang Siming grabbed her again: “This is all my fault! I shouldn’t have pulled you onto the yacht, Long Qi, you absolutely can’t have anything happen to you, you…”

“Don’t touch her!”

He suddenly lost his temper at Zang Siming. Long Qi coughed, her body starting to go limp again. The hand grasping the web of his thumb dropped down powerlessly. Her head resting against his chest also fell. He immediately lifted her horizontally in his arms. The ambulance on shore finally drove to the beach entrance. Medical personnel got out carrying a stretcher. As he stood up, he shouted: “Ban Wei!”

“Here!”

“Don’t follow. Stay here. Not a single person who was on that yacht can be missing—men, women, old, young, as long as they were on the boat, watch them all for me! Get the surveillance footage. I’ll look at it when I get back.”

Then he shouted again: “Zang Siming!”

Zang Siming looked at him, his shoulders trembling.

“You’re coming with me,” Jin Yiken’s voice was low and explosive, “Before she wakes up, don’t even think about getting away for a second, don’t even think about seeing anyone from the boat.”

Long Qi’s arm hung down, her long hair also tangled around his arm. The waterproof bag’s clasp had already slid open. As he walked, the phone fell onto the sandy ground. Zang Siming watched imperceptibly, gasping, his chest rising and falling. Just as he was about to crouch down to pick it up, Wu Jiakui’s hand grasped the phone first. The two made eye contact for a second. She picked up the phone and stood up, following closely after Jin Yiken.

As Long Qi was being placed into the rear compartment of the ambulance, Wu Jiakui caught up and put the dropped phone in his pocket. At that moment all his mind and spirit were on Long Qi. Following the movement, he glanced at her. Wu Jiakui said: “You need to stay calm, you need to hold on.”

Inside the vehicle compartment, the medical personnel glanced at the bloodstains on Long Qi’s lower body and blurted out: “Is the patient pregnant?”

Wu Jiakui turned her head.

Jin Yiken’s gaze had been on her, but hearing this question, he also stared at the medical personnel who had asked. For two or three seconds he made no sound, then gazed again at her on the medical stretcher, now covered with a respirator. Her hand hung down, water dripping from her fingers. She looked so much like she had in their senior year of high school, just after she had aborted their first child—so weak she seemed about to die. The medical personnel looked at him, and he stood there in place. At that moment he didn’t reply with a single word, but his shoulders were collapsing, because he realized what he had lost in the previous second, and vaguely realized what he would lose in the next second. Almost unable to bear it, he only asked heavily, hoarsely: “What’s wrong with her?”