Chapter 01. Reunion
It was just past noon when the high-speed train arrived in Tianjin.
Ke Fan dragged his suitcase tiredly and slowly walked out of the platform with the crowd.
My phone vibrated. It was a message from my good friend Cao Xinyu:
"Are you back to Tsu City?"
The word "return" made her eyebrows jump, and time suddenly paused for half a second. She belatedly noticed her surroundings in her busy schedule.
Jinshi is located on the coast, so the air is milder and more humid than in Haishi, and the city is also full of trees and flowers. At this moment, the sun is at its peak, and through the glass dome of the high-speed railway station, the shadows of the trees outside the window interweave and cast a hazy shadow on the marble floor tiles.
When I left that year, it seemed to be an early summer like this with swaying tree shadows.
The sun was just as bright that year, but in my memory there is a brighter young face.
"Why do you always forget to eat?" A fair and slender hand handed over the candy he carried with him.
When those round smiling eyes looked at her, that look seemed sweeter than candy.
But those smiling eyes eventually turned into a pair of stubborn tearful eyes.
"Then break up! Even without you, Ke Fan, we still have Zhang Fan, Zhao Fan, and Li Fan... Just don't regret it!"
How did she answer at that time?
There were people coming and going outside the exit, and another passenger accidentally bumped into her suitcase, and that person quickly apologized.
Ke Fanwen smiled and said it was okay, but his thoughts suddenly returned to his mind.
She rubbed her brows and replied briefly to her friend:
"Yeah, just arrived. Now taking a taxi to the wind farm."
Soon, an emoji of a little man wearing a glorious red flower was sent over, along with the caption: "Model Worker."
Ke Fan shook his head and smiled, sent her a gesture of pinching her face, and then put away his phone.
On a weekday, there weren't many people waiting in line for a taxi, and Ke Fan quickly got into a taxi.
The people in Jinshi are warm and friendly, and the drive is quite long. The driver brought up topics for conversation several times, but Ke Fan just smiled faintly and didn't say much. She wanted to make the most of her time to catch up on her sleep.
An hour and a half later, the taxi arrived at its destination.
When you open the car door, a warm sea breeze blows towards you, carrying the salty scent of the sea water. Looking up, you will see the endless golden beach and the undulating gray buildings.
Ke Fan walked towards the building with his suitcase. The large words on the gate gleamed in the sun:
[Oasis Offshore Wind Farm Control Center].
The glass door under the sign was pushed open, and a smiling man walked out.
He looked to be about forty years old, with dark skin. He waved his hands eagerly, and spoke in a loud voice with the unique rolled tongue accent of the people in Jinshi:
"Dr. Ke! Here, here!"
Ke Fan approached and just as he stretched out his hand, he was grabbed by the other party.
"I'm Xie Xingyong, who contacted you before. You can call me Engineer Xie or Old Xie. Welcome, welcome, and be honored to see you."
Ke Fan couldn't resist his enthusiasm and smiled:
"Hello, Mr. Xie, you're so polite. Just call me Xiao Ke, no need to use yours."
Old Xie smiled and followed suit:
"Haha, okay, okay, hello Xiao Ke."
As he spoke, he opened the door and stood still. Only then did he notice the suitcase behind Ke Fan and was a little surprised: "Did you just come here today?"
"I was originally supposed to come yesterday afternoon, but there was a problem with a project at the institute and they were short-staffed, so I worked overtime to help them solve it. I took the earliest high-speed train here today."
The fastest high-speed train ride from Hai City to Jin City takes at least five hours. Old Xie gave her a worried look and said, "You didn't get much sleep, did you? Should we move on to another day?"
Ke Fan shook his head, his hands still moving as he dragged the suitcase through the door. "It's okay. I've rested on the high-speed train and in the taxi. Let's stick to the original plan."
As they were talking, the two walked into the hall. In the middle of their sight was a huge electronic information screen hanging on the wall, monitoring the current status of all the wind turbines in the oasis.
The mostly green and normal operating conditions made Ke Fan's slightly frowned brows relax slightly.
Old Xie took her through the hall and into a well-lit room:
"This is the office the institute has arranged for you on this business trip. You can leave your luggage here for the time being."
The afternoon sun was bright, and the faint dark circles under her eyes were nowhere to hide.
"Don't you really need to take a break?"
"Well, no need."
Ke Fan put the luggage in the corner. Her tone was calm and gentle, but she left no room for negotiation:
"I don't like to disrupt my plans. If I wanted to postpone it, I wouldn't have taken the high-speed train so early in the morning."
Old Xie couldn't help but look at her again.
The girl standing in front of him was slender and thin, with a fair and soft face, but her eyes were full of determination and perseverance.
The boats going out to sea were prepared in advance.
The boat left the shore and moved steadily on the calm sea, leaving behind traces that broke through the water surface.
In the distance, the vast sea and the blue sky are connected as one, and a breeze blows. It is a nice day in May.
Ke Fan and Lao Xie leaned on the railing, but their topic was not as light-hearted and cheerful as the weather.
A month ago, several wind turbines near the coast of Oasis broke down one after another. Lao Xie, who was in charge of operation and maintenance, organized local colleagues in Jinshi to try to repair them several times but to no avail.
So, they applied for support from the Haishi Wind Power Station at the headquarters - this was also the purpose of Ke Fan's trip, as she is an expert in wind turbine structure.
"We checked several times but couldn't find the cause... It's very strange." Old Xie said with a frown.
Ke Fan's expression was also somewhat solemn. He reviewed the data of the wind turbines he had seen in his mind, pondering the possible reasons.
While I was lost in thought, the outlines of offshore wind turbines began to vaguely emerge on the originally endless sea, standing like giants in the sea.
As the ship approached, the white leaves turning in the sea breeze gradually became clearer.
Suddenly, the ship made a muffled sound and then stopped moving while shaking.
Ke Fan held onto the railing, trying to steady himself. His face turned slightly pale. He then turned to look at Lao Xie, a hint of uneasiness in his eyes.
Old Xie's expression also changed drastically: "I'll go and see what's going on."
Before he finished speaking, he hurried to the cabin and checked the situation with his colleague who was driving the boat.
If something really happened to the ship in the middle of the sea so far away from the land, it would be extremely dangerous.
Ke Fan stayed on the deck, observing the situation around the water.
Soon, Old Xie came out again, with a look of annoyance on his face, but he was no longer as nervous and frightened as before.
It turned out to be an engine failure.
After hearing this, Ke Fan also breathed a sigh of relief and his expression calmed down a little:
"If it's just an engine problem, that's fine. Let's contact our colleagues at the control center and ask them to send another ship to support us."
"Okay, I'll go now."
He agreed and started contacting immediately.
It’s just that it’s not the peak period for electricity consumption recently, and there are not many operation and maintenance colleagues on duty at the center, so it’s impossible to send a ship over for the time being.
Moreover, they had already sailed more than ten nautical miles, and it would take two hours for another ship to arrive.
While he was contacting her, Ke Fan also went to the cabin for a walk. The driver was trying to repair the engine, but due to lack of tools, he was helpless and she could not help much.
It was boring to sit on the boat and wait, so she took out the wind turbine information from her backpack and read it.
After more than half an hour, she looked at the data of these wind turbines again. She had a few more ideas in her mind. She raised her head and stretched her neck, just about to stretch.
The moment she stood up, the empty feeling in her stomach made her feel a little dizzy.
Then I remembered that because I was in a hurry to catch up with my schedule today, I only hurriedly ate a piece of bread before getting on the high-speed train.
There must be no food on the boat now, and the situation is quite chaotic at the moment, so she doesn't want to cause any more trouble.
She secretly rubbed her stomach a few times, then leaned on the railing and looked into the distance to relieve the discomfort.
Suddenly, a small white dot appeared in the distance.
"Old Xie, look!"
Hearing the sound, Old Xie followed her gaze and spoke with a voice full of surprise:
"There's a ship coming over there?!"
Ke Fan concentrated on identifying it, nodded, and asked:
"Well, is our rescue ship coming?"
"That shouldn't be the case. They're not that fast. They're probably the boats of nearby fishermen. There are several fishing grounds nearby, and we've occasionally encountered their boats when we went out to sea before."
"Maybe we can ask them for help."
Old Xie immediately took out a very conspicuous orange-red life jacket and walked to a raised place on the deck and waved it.
Ke Fan leaned over the railing to look. The white ship was getting closer and closer, and its shape was becoming clearer and clearer.
There are fishing nets hanging on the side, but it doesn't look like a fishing boat.
The hull has three floors, with cabins above the deck and a viewing platform above the cabin. It is a private yacht.
The yacht was heading towards their ship, and they could vaguely see the letters "FS" printed on the hull.
What then came into Ke Fan's sight was a tall figure walking towards them on the yacht deck.
It was evening, the sun was setting. The sky was painted a vast expanse of orange and gold, and the boundless sea reflected tiny fragments of light, making it difficult to open your eyes.
Ke Fan narrowed his eyes and looked at the man walking towards the deck.
At first, only the rough outline can be seen.
The man was tall and straight, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. The simple black windbreaker outlined his capable figure.
When she looked up and saw the face clearly again, her breathing couldn't help but stop.
The man had excellent facial features, a high nose bridge, and clean, sharp facial lines. Even the messy hair on his forehead, blown by the sea breeze, did not affect his noble and handsome appearance in the slightest.
Yi Lingjia walked step by step to the edge of the deck and took in Ke Fan's stunned expression.
The light from the sea surface reflected on his gold-rimmed glasses, and his dark and deep eyes could not be seen clearly, only a faint sense of heart-pounding coldness was revealed.
He raised an almost flat smile and said in a low voice:
"What? Don't you recognize me?"
Ke Fan inexplicably recalled a day in college when Yi Lingjia confessed his love to her for the first time and was rejected. The two met face to face in the corridor of the Youth League Committee office building.
The corridor was dark and narrow. Standing opposite her, she looked away awkwardly and quickened her pace to leave.
But he stretched out his hand to stop her, and the height difference forced her to look up.
A pair of dark and stubborn eyes met hers, and his hot breath was almost beside her ears.
Nineteen-year-old Yi Lingjia always likes to raise the end of her voice when she speaks, like a feather falling into her ear and tickling it.
"What's wrong, Ke Fan, don't you recognize me?"
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