After the wedding, Lin Shuang and Zhou Zheng holed up at home for two days. On the third day they went to Fu Min’s house for a meal, then went to thank Lin Shuang’s aunt and Principal Ding, and finally, loaded down with bags, went back to the countryside to spend a few days with Grandma.
The school was accommodating and his colleagues were considerate, so Zhou Zheng’s on-duty days this summer had been greatly reduced. By the time they got back to the city, it was time to pack for their honeymoon abroad.
The two of them said goodbye to family and friends and drove to Wancheng Airport. It was an international flight — Wancheng straight to Singapore, with a three-hour layover at Changi Airport. She was already itching with excitement, and couldn’t resist buying a round of things at the duty-free shop. She hadn’t been abroad in years, and her state of mind now was completely different from before.
Zhou Zheng followed close behind her, one hand carrying shopping bags, the other holding a foreign novel. Lin Shuang seized a moment to ask him, “Where’d you buy the book? Did you bring it from home?”
“There’s a bookstore nearby.” He was absorbed in the book, not looking up. “They have foreign bestselling mystery novels you can’t get domestically. I bought a couple to pass the time.”
Lin Shuang couldn’t help wanting to roll her eyes. Before they left the country, she’d forbidden Zhou Zheng from bringing his computer to work, and they’d agreed that neither of them would scroll their phones or use electronics. Zhou Zheng had clearly thought about it for a moment before nodding seriously and agreeing.
Eight days and seven nights on the island — was he worried that just eating, drinking, and playing would bore him to death?
“Have you been abroad before?” Lin Shuang asked him.
“Yes.” He nodded. “The year I graduated, I went to Southeast Asia with some classmates. We crossed the border from Yunnan, took buses through Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, and also went to Tibet, wandering around the Nepal border.”
“Not bad.” Lin Shuang praised him — definitely a shoestring backpacking trip, this kid really had never treated himself.
From Changi they transferred again to Malé, where a travel agency picked them up and arranged a seaplane to the honeymoon island. Lin Shuang had already changed into a bright, festive vacation outfit — a wide-brimmed hat, a beach dress, and flip-flops. By the time they saw the clear water, white sand, and shadows of coconut palms, it was already noon the next day.
The sky and sea were an especially vivid, clear blue. There wasn’t a tourist in sight on the island — aside from a private butler, it seemed completely empty. Lin Shuang drank the welcome champagne, sprawled flat on the bed, and yawned lazily. “The wonderful honeymoon begins… I really want to sleep well.”
Zhou Zheng flipped through the hotel guide. “The butler says there’s a sunset party at the restaurant tonight, free drinks — want to go?”
“There’s a party? How could I possibly miss that. Quick, help me up, I need to shower and get ready.” She rested her head on her own hand. “Free drinks — not taking advantage of that would be a crime.”
Zhou Zheng smiled as he looked at her. “You said the exact same thing at the duty-free shop.”
He pulled her up off the bed and deposited her into the bathtub. Lin Shuang sat there and asked him, “Hey, are there any Chinese people on the island? Who am I supposed to talk to at the party?”
“No Chinese people. There seem to be two Japanese and Korean couples.” He was packing the suitcase. “You’ll have to speak English to talk to anyone.”
Lin Shuang shrank her neck a little. Her English was choppy — simple communication was probably fine, but if she had to actually chat with people, that would be a bit of a challenge.
She should have known to listen to BBC News properly every morning — better late than never, she supposed.
Still, the free drinks were thoroughly enjoyable. Sitting by the sea watching the golden sunset sink slowly below the horizon, she felt utterly at peace, body and mind.
Mixing drinks, she accidentally drank too much, and before dinner was even finished, Lin Shuang was so dizzy she couldn’t tell east from west.
Zhou Zheng held her hand and walked her back along the beach under the brilliant starlight.
“Can you find our room?” she asked, carrying her flip-flops, stepping in the wet, soft sand.
“Of course I can.” He answered, “Follow the beach to the end, there’s a private stretch of sand behind it, take the third fork on the right, the one with the thickest shade is ours.”
“Pitch black out here and you’ve still got a great sense of direction.” Lin Shuang praised him. “From now on when we travel, I’ll just leave everything to you and be lazy about it.”
“Should we travel once a year from now on?” she asked him.
“Of course.” He smiled. “Winter and summer breaks are meant for resting.”
“Do you have next semester’s teaching schedule worked out? First year or second year?”
“Starting with first-years, taking them all the way through to third year, plus coaching the three-year math competition class.” He squeezed her hand. “There are also a few certifications to take, and a research project to keep up with.”
“The school really works you to the bone.” She shook her head with a sigh, and pushing all these matters out of her mind, tugged him forward. “Never mind all that — let’s just rest properly for a few days first.”
Said resting, meant resting. Every day they slept until they woke naturally, ate brunch, lounged in the sun, biked around the little island, and got spa treatments. Zhou Zheng had probably never had such idle, unstructured days before — the first couple of days he seemed a bit uncomfortable with it, but things got a little better once he started joining the foreign tourists in beach volleyball and billiards, and running for exercise. After they switched from the beach bungalow to the overwater villa, with its own star pool and shallow lagoon, Lin Shuang became obsessed with swimming and sunbathing, dragging him down to the water’s edge every day.
“Want to snorkel with me? Or should we go out on a catamaran?” She leaned on the edge of the pool and asked him, “How much longer are you going to sit in that chair? Haven’t you finished the book yet?”
Zhou Zheng didn’t go in the water. Every day he sat by the water’s edge holding her sunscreen, lying on the lounge chair by the water, drinking champagne and reading his novel, glancing up at her every so often.
“A little more left.” He waved the book in his hand. “I read slowly.”
Lin Shuang swam a lap in the pool and back, then swam over to him, wiping the water off her face. “Want to go out to sea? We could go see dolphins? Go fishing?”
Zhou Zheng shook his head.
She reached her hand out of the water and tugged at his pant leg. “Zhou Zheng, talk to me.”
“Talk about what?”
She bobbed up and down in the water like a mermaid. “Do you not like the island honeymoon? Why won’t you play in the water at all?”
“Of course I like it.” He raised his eyebrows slightly. “It’s just — be careful, it’s the rainy season right now, the waves can get rough, be careful swimming.”
She took a sip of the juice sitting on the ground, thought for a moment, then tilted her head back and asked him, “Zhou Zheng, can you swim?”
Zhou Zheng nodded, then shook his head. “I could when I was little, but I haven’t been in the water in many years — I probably can’t anymore.”
“You haven’t gone in the water at all these past few days. Do you really not want to try? We’re literally staying on the water.” Lin Shuang blinked. “It rained yesterday and you wouldn’t even let me stay in the pool. Zhou Zheng, are you afraid of the water? Are you scared?”
His gaze lifted from the book, looked out at the boundless blue sea, thought for a moment, and pressed his lips together. “Not exactly afraid — just not used to it.”
Zhou Zheng came over with the sunscreen and rubbed it onto her arms and back. “When I was little I loved swimming in the river, but after my parents’ accident, my grandparents forbade me from going near water. Even if I was just playing near the reservoir or the riverbank, they’d beat me every time they caught me. After that… I never touched water again. And once I grew up, I never had the urge to try.”
“That was an accident, almost twenty years ago now.” She stared at him. “Do you want to try coming into the water?”
He pressed his lips together and said nothing.
“I can teach you.” Lin Shuang wiped the water off her face and dove under, then burst back up with a splash, her voice bright and clear. “Zhou Zheng, I can protect you.”
He sat at the edge of the pool, staring for a long while at the dizzying blue in front of him, watching the figure moving so nimbly in the water.
“I don’t need you to protect me.” He watched her whole body floating on the water’s surface, keeping guard over her, and said calmly, “I should be the one protecting you.”
“If you want to protect me, then you have to get in with me first.”
Lin Shuang smiled at him, flipped over and dove into the water, kicking her long legs, finally bursting up out of the water in front of him, splashing him thoroughly, her smile radiant. “Try something different. Try to love someone you thought was impossible. Try a different kind of vacation. Try living a different kind of life. Try starting over. Try touching the things you never dared to touch.”
She swam to the edge of the infinity pool, far away from him, then turned back to look at him. “See — the world is way out there, at the far edge. How wide open our possibilities are.”
Zhou Zheng followed her gaze, looking out over the boundless Indian Ocean.
He sat quietly by the pool for a while, and finally slid his legs into the water, easing himself gently in along the wall.
Lin Shuang came up to him with a smile and wrapped her arms around his waist.
“The sun’s about to set — we can lie on the edge of the pool together and watch it go down.” She held his hand, pulling him forward through the water. “Tonight we can be in the star pool, watch the stars and the moon, and talk about life and dreams.”
He turned his head to look at her beside him, pulled her into his arms, and answered in a low voice, “Okay.”
The two of them stayed on the island for eight days, completely abandoning their phones and computers — eating, drinking, playing, sleeping. Infected by Lin Shuang’s spirit, Zhou Zheng finally let loose, and in the end they truly had a wonderful time. On the way back from the Maldives, they stopped in Kuala Lumpur for a few more days of sightseeing, worked their way through Southeast Asian cuisine, and walked tens of thousands of steps a day until they were exhausted.
Their return flight landed directly in Wancheng, the plane touching down along with the setting sun. After two weeks of wandering abroad, the two of them still weren’t quite used to Wancheng’s heat.
At the airport exit, Lin Shuang sat on her suitcase waiting, head down, tapping away on her phone, bombarding the group chat with wave after wave of beautiful photos. Her hair was braided with colorful beads, jewelry jingling all over her, wearing a light, breezy slip dress and flip-flops, her red-painted toenails showing on her pale white feet. A young traveler hurrying past was captivated by her exotic look and stopped to strike up a conversation, wanting to exchange contact information. She smiled, chewing her gum. “Sorry, I just got back from my honeymoon.”
Happiness was written all over her brow.
Zhou Zheng brought the car up from the underground parking lot and stopped in front of her, loading the several huge suitcases into the trunk. She climbed comfortably into the passenger seat, tossing her small bag and the sunglasses hanging around her neck into the back seat, reclining the backrest, curling up in the seat and stretching, her voice drawn out. “So tired.”
“Rest well once we’re home.” Zhou Zheng turned on the music, lowering the volume.
The car pulled out from the airport onto the highway, and two and a half hours later they entered Beiquan proper, with Lin Shuang already fast asleep.
“Shuangshuang, we’re here.” He called to her repeatedly.
Lin Shuang had a long, chaotic dream in the car, and when she blearily opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the night scenery outside the window — there was a moment of disorientation.
It wasn’t too late — it was the time after dinner when people go out to stroll and cool off. Citizens were out enjoying the evening air, and they passed a bustling street, lined on both sides with bright lights, colorful neon flickering in the trees. The sidewalk was full of people coming and going, some hand in hand, some walking side by side, laughing and chatting as they passed by her window. Zhou Zheng rolled down the window; the midsummer night breeze was slightly cool and slightly dry, carrying the scent of dust and the lively aroma of street food.
Something inside her stirred awake.
“Hungry? Should I get out and buy something to eat?”
Lin Shuang stretched and nodded. “Let’s get some late-night snacks.”
After two weeks eating out, she was homesick.
Zhou Zheng parked the car by the road and got out to buy the snacks. His figure walked into the light, threading through the crowds of people, disappearing into the bustling street, and finally reappearing in front of her, back in the car.
“I got a bowl of mango pomelo sago, and beef brisket rice noodles, and some skewers, and spicy crayfish.” He set the food in the back seat. “First meal back — should be something different.”
Lin Shuang let out a sigh. She was satisfied.
The car drove on, passing the dark, quiet Beiquan High School and her milk tea shop, turning a corner into their residential compound. She looked up and immediately spotted their home — dark, without any lights on, but by the glow of the neighbors’ lights, she could just make out the red “double happiness” characters pasted on the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Zhou Zheng opened the car door.
Starlight pooled gently in his eyes as he smiled and held out his hand. “Shuangshuang, let’s go home.”
From now on—
She had a home too.