Chapter 46 The group followed...
The group randomly picked a local restaurant near the fishing port, and the food was better than expected.
Back at the hotel, it was still early, so everyone gathered in one of the rooms to chat and play games. The previous two nights, everyone was exhausted from returning to the hotel late at night, and after washing up, they went straight to sleep. But on the last night, it seemed like we couldn't resist indulging a little.
A boy bought beer and playing cards from the convenience store. Wang Kan, caught up in the atmosphere, pulled the tab and took a couple of sips before noticing Fang Minzhou's gaze coming from the side.
He almost spat out his drink, forgetting that earlier at the karaoke bar, he'd seen Fang Minzhou not drinking, so he'd just drunk cola along with her. He frantically tried to salvage his image, but it was too late; Ouyang Qian stepped between them, and Wang Kan silently swallowed his drink.
"Do you know how to play poker?" Ouyang Qian asked.
Fang Minzhou shook her head, "I only know how to play 24-point."
Those nearby couldn't help but laugh, but it wasn't just Fang Minzhou who didn't know how. Ouyang Qian simply rallied everyone who didn't know how to play to the sofa, while those who did know how were already playing on the bed and floor.
Jin Baihao awkwardly adjusted his glasses and sat down. Wang Kan saw this and also wanted to sneak into the newbie village.
He hadn't actually expected Jin Baihao to come, and Lin Sinian hadn't come either, probably because he wasn't interested. But he pretended to apologize in the group chat, saying he had something to do and was very sorry.
As Ouyang Qian shuffled the cards, she looked at him with amusement and asked, "You don't know how?"
Wang Kan: "..."
On the other side, Zheng Yanhang deliberately called out, "Wang Kan, we're one short for mahjong, come over here!"
Amidst the harmless chuckles, Fang Minzhou remained silent with her head down. Wang Kan, not wanting to embarrass her, was also a little blushing himself. Seeing Fang Minzhou take out her phone, he suddenly understood, sat down next to Zheng Yanhang, and only after dealing half the cards did he casually take out his phone to check it.
Fang Minzhou: Drink less alcohol and don't go too far.
Wang Kan pursed her lips and turned to find Fang Minzhou. She sat on a single sofa, facing him sideways, casually tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, listening attentively to this "lesson."
Wang Kan looked at the cards again, but still couldn't help but laugh. Her heart was racing, burning with excitement. She licked her dry lips and took another swig of cold liquor.
Zheng Yanhang glanced at Wang Kan and asked curiously, "Can you drink alcohol? How much did you drink? Your face is already so red."
“It’s hot,” Wang Kan said calmly.
"The air conditioner is only set to 20 degrees Celsius."
"Twenty degrees? You guys are still hot, but I'm freezing." A girl chimed in.
Boys and girls have different body temperatures, so Wang Kan couldn't help but look at Fang Minzhou again. She was wearing a skirt, and she wondered if she was cold. Thinking this, Wang Kan got up, found the remote control, and turned up the temperature amidst the pleas and cries of the boys.
When Wang Kan was jokingly criticized for prioritizing romance over friendship, she replied, "A calm mind brings coolness; it's not that hot. Hurry up, it's your turn."
Fang Minzhou braced herself and analyzed the suit in her hand, pretending to be deaf and dumb, unable to hear or understand everyone's teasing.
At first, there were two groups of people, one with more boys and the other with more girls, who knew how to play and the other didn't. Later, after Ouyang Qian finished teaching, everyone mixed up the games.
Fang Minzhou learned quickly, but lost interest. After all, if she were interested, she would have learned it long ago. Later, she gave the memorial tablet to others and went to watch TV. On the way, she passed behind Wang Kan and glanced at the cards in his hand. They were terrible.
But before I could watch TV for long, I was dragged to join a game of Truth or Dare to make up the numbers.
Fang Min and Zhou Ning would rather go back and play cards again, but they had already been forced to sit down, and the first person the wine bottle pointed at was her.
The group exchanged glances, both polite and eager to try, and the noise from the card game nearby subsided. Fang Minzhou gritted her teeth inwardly, but under everyone's watchful eyes, she nonchalantly said, "I choose dare."
"Ah? No, please..."
"Let's do something else, like Truth or Dare," Ouyang Qian said, speaking up for Fang Minzhou.
Fang Minzhou maintained a smile throughout.
The gossip they wanted to ask couldn't be asked, and the dare... was too risky to handle. Finally, a girl suggested: "Make eye contact with any member of the opposite sex present for ten seconds."
As soon as a boy yelled, Fang Minzhou readily agreed and chose Jin Baihao, who was sitting next to her.
Jin Baihao exclaimed "Ah!"
The girl who gave the instructions now deeply regretted not naming names, while Ouyang Qian immediately began a countdown: "Ten, nine..."
Where no one could see, Fang Minzhou almost pinched her own thigh, because she had guessed what everyone was going to do, which was why she didn't want to play this game.
Jin Baihao stood there like a statue, frozen in place. When the ten seconds were up, Fang Minzhou gave him a grateful smile, and Jin Baihao smiled back before adjusting his slightly slipped glasses.
With the excitement over, Zheng Yanhang sighed regretfully, nudged Wang Kan, who had a grim expression, with his elbow, and chuckled inwardly, but still managed to say something sensible: "What? It's nothing, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered you."
"It's nothing," Wang Kan said, turning her head back.
Everyone knows that he and Fang Minzhou are a couple, everyone knows how dull Jin Baihao is, and everyone knows that Fang Minzhou chose Jin Baihao only to avoid gossip.
But I'm still not happy.
I'm so annoyed, so annoyed, so annoyed.
Wang Kan took another swig of wine.
Two conflicting thoughts were raging in his mind.
One moment he regretted it, thinking that if he hadn't been so smug after the college entrance exam and had continued acting with Fang Minzhou, she wouldn't have avoided him to avoid being teased. The next moment he thought fiercely, "The exam is over, everyone knows, so why keep hiding it? When will this end?"
Fang Minzhou was lucky enough to skip a few rounds, so she excused herself to go to the restroom, and this time no one tried to keep her. After carefully washing her hands in the restroom, she came out to find the wine bottle spinning rapidly. Naturally, Fang Minzhou went to play Werewolf.
They stayed out later and later, even ordering late-night takeout and turning the air conditioning down again after it had been turned up.
During her senior year of high school, Fang Minzhou often stayed up late. After the college entrance examination, she adjusted her biological clock back to going to bed at 11 p.m. When that time came, she felt sleepy again and again. She went to the balcony for a while to get some fresh air. When she returned to her room, some people had already fallen asleep on the spot, some were yawning and preparing to go back to their rooms, and some were forcing themselves to continue playing cards.
Fang Minzhou also wanted to leave, but couldn't find Ouyang Qian; their room key was with her. However, having gotten past the most sleepy hour, she wasn't so sleepy anymore.
They searched the room again, but still couldn't find Wang Kan.
They've already left?
"It seems Ouyang went out to make a phone call," a classmate told her.
“Oh, okay, then I’ll wait for her outside,” Fang Minzhou said.
Stepping out of the room, Fang Minzhou was surprised to see Wang Kan leaning against the door. She closed the door behind her and asked, "...You haven't gone back to your room yet?"
"Mmm," Wang Kan responded with a nasal tone.
Being so close, Fang Minzhou could smell the alcohol on Wang Kan and couldn't help but frown slightly: "How much have you drunk?"
"Not much." Wang Kan straightened up. "I had a little. Are you going back to your room?"
"I'll wait for Sisi."
Wang Kan said "Oh," but didn't move. The two remained silent for a while in the dimly lit corridor. Fang Minzhou looked down at the floor, which was covered with a sound-absorbing carpet, casting no shadow.
"Would you like to... go for a walk?" she heard Wang Kan ask her.
Fang Minzhou raised his eyes. His expression was blurry, making it difficult to tell how drunk he was, but his eyes still seemed clear.
Fang Minzhou thought for a moment, sent a message to Ouyang Qian, and then said to Wang Kan, "Let's go."
The hotel was just one block from the nearest beach. The sea breeze was slightly cool in the early morning. Because it was a commercial area, some shops were still open, with only a few diners. They crossed the empty road and walked onto the silver sand. The dazzling lights fell behind them, and at the end of the deep blue night, the black waves surged with a loud crashing sound.
This was the first time Fang Minzhou had ever seen the sea at night.
The moon hid behind the clouds, and the fishing lights twinkled faintly, unlike the brilliance of sunrise and the splendor of sunset. At this moment, the boundless sea resembled a worn inkstone, dark and gloomy. The colorful and lively scenes of the daytime had become mirages in my memory, somewhat oppressive, yet the sea, like a black hole, sucked away all my emotions.
The sound of waves crashing against the shore.
Wang Kan hadn't said a word the whole way. Fang Minzhou thought of the saying that drunkards can't walk in a straight line, so he lagged behind a few steps to secretly check. He had his hands in his pockets, his head slightly lowered as if deep in thought, and he shuffled along. His white short-sleeved shirt was stretched open by his broad shoulders, and when the wind blew, it looked like a somewhat lonely wave, but he didn't look drunk.
As for what he's worried about...
"Should we take off our shoes?" Wang Kan suddenly turned around and walked backwards.
"ah?"
Fang Minzhou quickly realized that Wang Kan was referring to stepping on the sea.
The past two days, she wore canvas shoes for easy walking, and when she went to the beach, she only walked a few steps along the edge of the waves. Today, however, she changed into sandals.
The last time I waded in water was when I was very small.
Fang Minzhou said "okay," stopped, bent down to untie the straps of her sandals, but the moment she took off one shoe, she felt inexplicably shy and subconsciously looked up at Wang Kan, only to see that he was also staring at her blankly.
The moonlight, so distant and bright, illuminated our hidden thoughts, clean and profound, like green vines covering a wall in summer—refreshing at first glance, but with intricate branches behind them.
The two quickly looked away. The sea breeze kept blowing, and Fang Min felt hot and cold all over. She hesitated, but it seemed even stranger to put the shoes back on. So she decided to take off the other shoe as well.
Stepping barefoot onto the beach, sand immediately gets stuck between your toes.
They placed their shoes side by side next to a rock on the beach, one big and one small, in a way that was almost comical. Then, to the sound of the calm waves, they walked towards the sea, step by step, as the sand beneath their feet changed from soft and dry to wet, heavy, and firm.
The first wave of seawater washed over her feet, cool and refreshing. Although gentle, Fang Minzhou still let out a soft cry and looked at Wang Kan beside her, who was also smiling.
As the tide receded, it carried away the sand from her feet, but as she walked, it would stick to her feet again. With each rise and fall of the tide, Fang Minzhou felt her whole heart being gently cleansed again and again.
As she stood on the safe beach gazing out at the vast ocean, surrounded by darkness, a thought welled up within her: a yearning for adventure. Perhaps it was the instinct of human nature to seek out the deeper waters, but Fang Minzhou knew she couldn't; it was too dangerous. So she simply let the waves wash over her calves, slightly wetting her skirt.
Suddenly, Wang Kan stepped on her instep. Fang Minzhou was startled, both angry and amused. She lifted her skirt and stepped back at him without backing down.
Although the sea is more unpredictable at night than during the day, there's no fear because they're together, and since they're the only two on the beach, it even feels a bit romantic. While playing around, she lost her balance and was about to fall when Wang Kan grabbed her hand.
She still couldn't see Wang Kan's face clearly, but she could clearly feel the emotions surging and burning more intensely than the ocean waves.
Her body was trembling, like the colorful waves, and she didn't know if Wang Kan had noticed. She didn't want him to notice, yet she also felt that he seemed to be trembling as well.
It's so quiet, Fang Minzhou thought. There was only the long sound of the waves and the wind, the sound of her heartbeat, and... the sound of her breathing that unconsciously entwined with her own.
The seawater swirled around their ankles. When Fang Minzhou tiptoed and lightly touched Wang Kan's lips, she didn't really think too much. Perhaps she was just changing the object of her desire to conquer the depths of the sea that she had longed for but could not fulfill.
Her eyes blinked like stars in the sky, and her legs felt a little weak.
After their lips parted, Fang Minzhou held her breath, waiting for Wang Kan's reaction.
She was so nervous that her mind was completely blank; she couldn't remember any sensations... Maybe it was because it was too short, or too light? There wasn't even a ripple, like touching a piece of jelly but not tasting it...
"Kiss me." Wang Kan stared at her and made his decision.
Fang Minzhou: "..."
She admitted to taking responsibility for her actions. Her mouth was slightly open, but before she could utter a sound, he cupped her face in his hands.
A warm, wet kiss surged into her body like waves. Her hands, which had been pressed against Wang Kan's chest, slowly climbed up his neck. As their lips intertwined, Fang Minzhou tasted the faint scent of alcohol on his breath.
Beer-flavored jelly, my first time trying it.
"I'm back," Wang Kan said breathlessly, pressing her forehead against hers.
"..."
"You have a sweet tongue."
He had barely finished speaking in a daze when Fang Minzhou slapped him, saying, "...Don't talk nonsense."
I'll just say it.
"I'm serious, it really is sweet."
It's sweeter than anything I've ever dreamed of.
Wang Kan dared not say those words again. He held Fang Minzhou, who was trying to push him away, tightly in his arms and called her name with a sigh.
“…Mm,” she replied.
"Now it's settled, isn't it?"
"What?" Fang Minzhou didn't understand.
Wang Kan buried his head in the side of her neck and chuckled softly, "Hello, my girlfriend."
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A message from the author: Happy National Day everyone!
Holiday time is too fragmented, so updates will be changed to before midnight during this period. Extra chapters will be added later (I'll owe you one for now).
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