The man underwater
There were still some glue residues on the dark brown door that hadn't been cleaned off, and it creaked when it was pushed open.
Chen Sizhe, gripping the doorknob, tilted his head to examine the door, a door etched with the spirit of perseverance despite its disability. He frowned and glanced at Wen Dai standing in the entryway. He stepped onto the doormat, closed the door behind him, and spoke with a creak: "You didn't change the door?"
Wen Dai nodded absentmindedly, pressing a finger against the area below her lips. "Mmm." A faint mark was etched between her brows, her pupils were unfocused, and she seemed lost in thought.
A hand rudely extended shoe covers in front of Chen Sizhe, his peach blossom eyes still staring blankly at a certain point in the air, his voice even more faint: "Put them on yourself, my house doesn't have central air conditioning, and I don't have any extra slippers." The implication was that he either had to put on his own shoe covers or freeze to death barefoot.
His eyes met hers in speechless silence. Chen Sizhe twitched his lips twice, reached out and took the shoe covers she offered. He reluctantly abandoned his elegant demeanor, and as he put on the shoe covers and went inside, he couldn't help but scoff, "I've never seen anyone so stingy."
Wen Dai accidentally pressed down hard on the area below her lips, and hissed in pain. Her features creased briefly, but her tightly furrowed brows didn't relax. As she followed Chen Sizhe into the living room, she casually spread her hands and said, "So now you've seen it."
Sitting casually on the sofa, Chen Sizhe's gaze lingered for a moment on her tightly knit brows before moving down to her lower lip, which showed a slight asymmetry due to mild swelling. "What happened to you? Did you get cheap lip fillers?"
A cushion was thrown at Chen Sizhe, but he caught it quickly and put it in his arms. The culprit was glaring at him. Wen Dai sat on the sofa, supporting her thighs, and sighed. She said with a sullen face, "If you can't speak properly, then shut up, okay? I don't know how many times I've said that... Please shut up."
Looking at the person in front of him who seemed drained of all her energy, Chen Sizhe put down the cushion on his lap, his fox-like eyes darting over her. "So what's wrong with you? Lust is the root of all evil, you..."
"Get out of here!" The spineless person suddenly stood up again. She grabbed the cushion behind her and threw it at Chen Sizhe again. Her originally pale face turned slightly pink with anger, and her empty eyes seemed to hold a volcano about to erupt.
Opening her mouth too wide, Wen Dai, injured once again, quickly covered her mouth, pain spreading across her face. She glared angrily at Chen Sizhe, who was putting on an innocent face, pinched her lower lip and pulled it forward slightly, saying vaguely, "It's just a blister on the inside of my lip, don't try to smear me."
At this moment, Chen Sizhe's thirst for knowledge suddenly surged. He lifted his eyelids, his two dark eyes reflecting her directly. "Why are there blisters? Did you apply any medicine?" His concerned words made Wen Dai, who already had PTSD, feel that he had ill intentions.
She glanced at him suspiciously several times, but in the end, she couldn't resist the gaze that seemed to contain sincerity. She slowly parted her lips and said, "Yesterday, because of something, I... I cursed the immortal behind me."
A sincere expression still clung to Chen Sizhe's insincere face. He nodded with an "oh" and casually uttered, "I understand, it's retribution."
"Tsk." The man leaned back lazily against the soft sofa, casually crossed his legs, and tapped his finger lightly on the cushion next to him. The look in his eyes as he looked at Wen Dai was mocking, and his tone was drawn out: "So you see—people still need to have some manners."
She shouldn't have told him.
Chen Sizhe was met with an eye roll from Wen Dai, who retorted, "How much better are you? It's like the pot calling the kettle black."
Just as the argument was about to erupt, the fragile door was knocked on. The knocking was not heavy, with one knock followed by another. Perhaps her thoughts had been diverted by Chen Sizhe, because after standing up, Wen Dai subconsciously said, "That was a very polite knock."
She glanced at the man lounging motionless on the sofa and added, "Much more polite than you." Having vented her anger by putting him down, Wen Dai ignored Chen Sizhe's expression and quickly went to the door to open it.
The person who came was as she expected. Lai Wenyi was in much worse condition than when they first met. Her eyes were bloodshot, her previous vigor had turned into listlessness, and her tear troughs seemed to be more pronounced. Even though she was wearing a long down jacket that looked extremely thick, she couldn't stop shivering. Her mouth and everything below her mouth were buried in the collar of the down jacket, one hand was in her pocket, and the other hand was either red to black or black with a hint of red. Her shoulders also seemed to be tucked in.
She slowly tilted her head back, a thin layer of red moisture clinging to her eyes, a sight that was startling.
Her voice was weak and feeble: "Wen Dai..."
Startled for a moment, Wen Dai quickly reached out and pulled her inside, closing the door behind her. Wen Dai then reached into the shoe cabinet, took out a pair of cotton slippers, and placed them in front of her. Her gentle voice, though urgent, said, "Put your shoes on and come in. Then tell me what happened, and I'll help you deal with it. If you don't want to talk about it... well, I can look into your past; but actually, talking about it can help you release all that negative energy."
“Okay, I can talk to myself.” Lai Wenyi, who moved like a sloth, nodded in agreement. She slowly put on her slippers. When Wen Dai helped her up, she reached out and touched the exposed part of her hand. The cold touch under her fingertips made her feel as if she were touching ice.
After Wen Dai helped Lai Wenyi over, Chen Sizhe straightened his posture. He sat up straight and glanced at Wen Dai when his eyes fell on the slippers on Lai Wenyi's feet. Wen Dai naturally pretended not to see it.
She helped Lai Wenyi sit down, then sat close to her, wrapping her cold hand in her own and rubbing it repeatedly to warm it.
Lai Wenyi's breathing was slightly heavy. She lowered her head, her eyes seemingly fixed on her knees. After a moment, her pale lips, buried in her collar, moved slightly: "Going to Liche Island was originally just about having fun on the cruise ship, maybe occasionally going down to scuba dive. Everyone here dives, and I have a diving certificate, but I didn't expect..."
The down jacket that extended to her legs didn't exist a day earlier; she was wrapped in a wetsuit.
The speedboat on the cruise ship was left at sea. Led by a diving instructor, Lai Wenyi and several other tourists boarded the speedboat. The nearshore diving spot was not far away, but a mistake occurred when fastening their seat belts.
She tugged at her seatbelt and yelled at the diving instructor in front of her, "Hey, it's broken. I think I should move to another seat or go back to the cruise ship."
Several seats around her were occupied. Lai Wenyi loosened her broken seatbelt and stood up. She was a little unsteady on the swaying sea. She looked at the white tour leader, who waved his hand and shook his head, saying, "No, don't worry, you'll be safe."
A vague sense of unease urged her to leave. She frowned and pointed at the cruise ship, saying, "No, no, no, I'm terrified. If something happens, can you take responsibility? I think I should go back and wait for the next batch."
But the team leader's assurance was unequivocal; he firmly repeated, "You will be safe. I guarantee you will be fine."
Even so, Lai Wenyi still wanted to get back on the cruise ship. She trusted her intuition, but... the woman sitting next to her was getting impatient and raised her arm, shouting, "Please don't waste any more time."
The woman tilted her head back towards her, one eyebrow raised high, her light-colored pupils revealing a clearly unfriendly gaze. "If you're really scared, then I'll switch places with you."
Turning her gaze away from the woman, Lai Wenyi glanced at the expressions of the other tourists, only to find that those who turned back to look at her all wore expressions of impatience.
"Can you decide quickly? Or I can switch places with you." The voice from the front carried a sense of disdain, probably because it looked down on her for being suspicious.
Lai Wenyi glanced down at the seat below. The broken, unfastened seatbelt lay there quietly. She clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms. A voice inside her comforted her: It's okay, everything will be alright. It's just that there are no seatbelts on a speedboat.
She sat back down, her brow furrowed, her eyes unable to muster a smile, and her lips unable to curve into a smile. "No need, I can sit by myself." She wanted to retort, but the words "It wouldn't be good if I were blamed if something happened to you" remained unspoken. When you're out having fun, there's no need to make things worse.
Her heart pounded faster the further she got from the cruise ship. She gripped the seatbelt tightly, pondering her next move.
Suddenly, she found herself fastening the seatbelt to her body in a knot. She gripped the seatbelt and tugged at it forcefully, only removing her hand when she was sure it wouldn't come loose easily.
The feeling of being tossed about on the sea was like her brain was being shaken; she wasn't sure when she started losing consciousness. The surging waves and the speeding submarine finally capsized her—her safety harness, which had been tied in a tight knot, mysteriously came undone.
With a splash, Lai Wenyi fell into the water. She urged herself to hold her breath, and her falling body seemed to accelerate; or rather, it seemed as if a hand was constantly pulling her down.
The deeper she went, the darker it became. Before the light in the sea was completely swallowed up, she forcibly pulled her eyelids apart, which seemed to be stuck together, and looked down. Another hand was climbing up her body.
A dark hand slowly moved from her calf to her thigh, then to her waist. The man's head gradually rose to her chest, revealing a familiar face—a dark eye socket staring menacingly at her, its features rugged and angular. But Lai Wenyi couldn't remember it at all.
The man pressed her shoulders down, and even holding her breath, she couldn't hold on any longer. She gave up, and as her consciousness slowly faded, she suddenly felt an upward pull on her body. The hand holding her arm felt incredibly real.
While she could still open her eyes, Lai Wenyi struggled to open them a crack—the team leader had come to rescue her. Relieved, she allowed her consciousness to drift away, plunging completely into darkness.
When she woke up again, she was lying on a cruise ship, surrounded by tourists who showed concern for her and a tour leader who kept apologizing.
Liche Island is in summer all year round, and the scorching ultraviolet rays burn Lai Wenyi, but she cannot shake off the bone-chilling cold in her body.
She raised her hand and stroked her arm repeatedly, her mind flashing back to the face of the man who had pulled her down in the sea.
She felt a physiological nausea and clutched her chest, turning her head to the side and vomiting onto the cruise ship's floor. The seawater that hadn't come out of her stomach came out along with the remaining food.
Unable to even apologize, the cruise ship's stewards, who had been watching everything unfold, rushed over to clean up the mess.
The team leader's face turned pale with shock. He stepped forward and knelt down in front of Lai Wenyi, saying nervously, "I think you may need to go to the hospital for treatment now. I'm very sorry, but I will cover all your medical expenses. I hope you won't report me."
Lai Wenyi braced herself on the floor with one arm bent, feeling as if seawater was churning inside her head, and the dizziness almost swallowed her consciousness again.
She raised one hand and waved it, then closed her eyes again—the man she had seen in the sea was haunting her; she couldn't shake his face no matter whether she opened or closed her eyes.
When Lai Wenyi changed back into her regular clothes, she took the amulet that Wen Dai had given her out of her drysuit. The waterproof inner pocket on her chest protected the amulet well, and it didn't get wet.
She leaned against the wardrobe door, holding the amulet in her hands, and stared at it for a long time with her head down.
She let out a few bitter laughs, clutching the amulet tightly to her chest. Fortunately, perhaps she needed to talk to her father, who, though not a believer in gods or Buddhas, still regularly donated incense and occasionally participated in animal release activities.
There must be a reason why some things can exist for so long.
She rushed back to the hotel, packed her clothes immediately, checked out of the room early, and called Wen Dai from the hotel lobby.
"That's how it is. I cancelled the room early and didn't pay the deposit. I sat on the sofa in the lobby watching people come and go, and called you. I felt so helpless. You pointed out that I'm not a budget backpacker. Liche Island is the 27th island I've visited in my travels. I thought I was experienced enough, but I never expected something so unexpected to happen." Her voice was weak, low, and hoarse.
Lai Wenyi's sniffling sound was particularly clear in the quiet living room. Her eyelids were lowered, and her pupils were still dull and lifeless, showing no trace of the vitality she had shown at the beginning.
With a furrowed brow and a worried look in her eyes, Wen Dai gently patted her shoulder, then suddenly stood up.
Wen Dai ran back to her bedroom and found the electric hot water bottle she had used to warm her stomach in the middle of the night. Judging that it was still warm enough, she took the hot water bottle back to the living room and handed it to Lai Wenyi. "Warm it up first. If your body is too cold, it is easy for external evils to invade. And the coldness on your body seems to be a sign of heavy yin energy... Anyway, warm it up first. How were you later at the hostel?"
However, a deep fear suddenly appeared in Lai Wenyi's expression. She gripped the electric hot water bottle that Wen Dai had handed her tightly. Even though her hands and abdomen were warmed, it couldn't stop her shoulders from trembling.
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