Chapter 47 They Exiled This World
Jiang Meng was very glad that she stepped out of her house at dusk.
The sunset that day was beautiful.
The motorcycle stopped at the red light intersection at the beginning of the coastal highway. Jiang Meng asked him, "Will my actions affect your performance?"
“No,” Chen Jizhou said, bracing his long legs on the ground and glancing at the rearview mirror. “But it will be safer if you hold onto the back.”
Jiang Meng held him tightly without moving, saying, "It's alright, just drive slower and you'll be safe."
...They really know how to come up with ideas; they just don't want to let go.
Chen Jizhou wasn't wearing contact lenses, so she saw in the rearview mirror that his deep eyes curved for two seconds.
Jiang Meng said, "I'll give you one of my earphones."
Chen Jizhou took her Bluetooth earphone and put it into her left ear.
With a deep roar of the engine, he said, "Let's go, hold on tight."
The car sped off, and she bumped into his broad back.
Rock music was playing in my headphones.
The ocean waves turn into salty, wet particles that are swept ashore by the wind and stick to the skin.
The relentless summer heat was swept away by the wind, calming some of the restlessness.
The bright, fiery clouds dyed the sea a vibrant color. A gust of wind lifted the strands of hair on Jiang Meng's back, and the asphalt road turned a warm orange in the sunset, casting the shadow of her hair dancing on the ground.
The 14-kilometer mark was reached quickly.
In front of me is a paddleboard club.
Chen Jizhou parked his car and came over. Jiang Meng was already standing at the door watching. He put his keys in his pocket and followed her. He stood with her for a while, watching the tourists coming and going carrying their signs and walking out.
He looked at Jiang Meng: "Have you ever played this before?"
"without."
"Let's go, let's give it a try."
Jiang Meng hesitated again, grabbing his clothes and whispering, "It looks a bit dangerous to me, such a small board floating in the waves."
He was already walking inside, saying, "It's not dangerous, this is the safest project."
Chen Jizhou walked into the store and noticed that Jiang Meng was hesitant and hadn't followed yet. He turned around and smiled, saying, "I know people like you. When you're playing, you yell 'No, no!' but when things get exciting, you don't want to get off, right?"
Jiang Meng touched her nose and said, "No way."
Chen Jizhou paused for a moment, then looked at her seriously: "Are you afraid of being with me?"
That's the best reassurance.
Jiang Meng's hesitation vanished, a smile appeared on her face, and she quickly followed.
Chen Jizhou rented a paddleboard and was inflating it with an air pump when Jiang Meng was busy assembling several important parts from the coach.
Chen Jizhou gave her a life jacket to wear, but he didn't wear one himself. Jiang Meng fiddled with it for a long time, unable to untangle the ropes. Chen Jizhou squatted down and helped her straighten the straps, then helped Jiang Meng step her legs in. He then pulled the life jacket up, tightened and secured every rope and buckle to ensure she was safe. After she was dressed, Chen Jizhou looked up and saw Jiang Meng staring at him with a silly grin.
He was puzzled: "What's there to be happy about?"
Jiang Meng didn't say anything, but looked at him with her bright eyes, and shook her head with a smile. She couldn't very well say, "I think you have maximum boyfriend potential right now."
She seemed like a naive child being taken care of.
However, Jiang Meng was also afraid that Chen Jizhou would be scared away by her repeated outrageous remarks.
Flirting isn't done like that; it requires tactics. She understood.
Jiang Meng nodded to herself.
This is a bay, and there is a pier diagonally opposite. The shortest route here is to paddle to the pier and then turn back. Some professional paddleboarders will paddle even further, but because Jiang Meng is scared, Chen Jizhou said that they would just go to the pier and let her experience it.
He pushed the plank into the sea so that Jiang Meng could stand on it.
As the paddleboard slid into the water, she suddenly lost her balance and staggered. Chen Jizhou supported her waist from behind, and unexpectedly felt a slender softness beneath her clothes so soon.
Chen Jizhou steadied her and immediately let go. When she looked at him with a gentle expression, Chen Jizhou had already lowered his head and said to her, "Don't be nervous, put this on."
He put a leash from the paddleboard on her, the other end of which was secured to the bow of the boat, also for safety. Double insurance, absolutely no hidden dangers.
Jiang Meng looked at his fully equipped gear and worried for him: "Don't you need to wear a life jacket?"
Chen Jizhou sat down with his knees bent, his legs slightly apart, his arms resting naturally on his knees, in a relaxed and carefree posture. He said nonchalantly, "I'm a veteran of many battles, and the water here is shallow enough that you could stand in the water and still have your head sticking out."
"……oh."
Jiang Meng sat cross-legged opposite him, holding a paddle in her hand, paddling left and right. She quickly overcame her fear and entered a state of great enjoyment.
She politely asked Chen Jizhou if he wanted to try it. It was just one oar. Seeing that she was interested, Chen Jizhou didn't try to take it from her: "You row, I'll enjoy being a lord today."
"Alright, I'll be at your service right away."
As Jiang Meng spoke, she immediately became energetic again, rowing the boat left and right with a heave-ho.
He sat there leisurely.
Perhaps due to her novice skills, Jiang Meng rowed for a long time, but the boat barely moved. She noticed that those who had started later than them were already speeding up. Just as she was wondering about this with a bitter face, she heard Chen Jizhou ask, "Don't you usually come out to play?"
Jiang Meng, still full of competitive spirit, looked at the speeding paddleboards next to her. Hearing this, she turned to look at him and said, "Yeah, I don't have time. The friends I met here don't really like playing these games. It's no fun for me to play alone."
Chen Jizhou nodded slightly, then looked at her again. He calmly examined Jiang Meng for a moment, then asked her in a slightly serious tone, "How have you been these past few years?"
Jiang Meng said, "It's great. I studied in Ningcheng and graduated last year."
"I think my current job is pretty good. It makes me feel comfortable. Although managing students is annoying, I have a good mindset and am adapting well so far."
"Although I envy your free and easy life, it's unlikely that I can become like you. I prefer my quiet life. You see, I don't even rent a big house. It's not because I don't have money. I think it's more down-to-earth."
Jiang Meng's arms ached after paddling for a few strokes, so she put down the oar, drank her watermelon juice, and earnestly shared her thoughts on life with him.
Chen Jizhou looked at her, pondered for a moment, and said, "Feeling at peace is freedom."
He hadn't changed his posture since boarding the boat, lounging with his knees crossed, a bottle of ice water he'd just bought on shore held horizontally in his hand. The icy water vapor soaked his slender fingers, which slowly dripped down.
Jiang Meng was having a lot of fun, and she wouldn't tire herself out by playing for a while and then resting, so he didn't help her. The seawater was warm, and a little bit of it washed over them, wetting the hem of their clothes, but Chen Jizhou didn't move. It wasn't until Jiang Meng started paddling and realized something was wrong that she suddenly asked, "Chen Jizhou, have you noticed that our boat is moving particularly slowly?"
Chen Jizhou finally glanced around.
Night was falling, and some ships had already overtaken them.
He took the paddle from Jiang Meng's hand, stood up, and paddled a couple of times, but the feel was completely off. Not only was he unable to control the direction, but the water resistance was abnormally high.
Chen Jizhou assessed the situation and asked Jiang Meng, "Did you just put on the tail fin?"
What is a tail fin?
"It looks like a fish fin, triangular in shape."
Jiang Meng was stunned. "I was faking it. The coach told me to fake it."
"There's a slot for securing it; did you snap the part into it?"
"Is that... really that important?" She seemed completely unconcerned about having any card slots.
Seeing her blank expression, Chen Jizhou guessed what had happened. He casually tossed the oar onto the boat, spread his hands, and made a doomed expression, but with a roguish smile on his face, he stood on the high ground and laughed at her, "Alright, the boat is ruined, let it drift slowly."
"What?!" Jiang Meng screamed in disbelief. "How can you still laugh?!"
Chen Jizhou sat back down, seemingly defiant, and became even more unrestrained, his eyes crinkling into crescents.
Jiang Meng tugged at his arm, genuinely a little scared: "No, no, you have to think of something right now. The sun has set, it'll be dark soon, what are we going to do?"
He explained to her gently, "It's okay, it's just fallen, it's just that the direction was hard to control."
Chen Jizhou opened his phone, glanced at the contact information of the coach he had just added, and slowly analyzed with Jiang Meng: "Plan A, we'll drift slowly to the shore, and it should take about half an hour."
"Plan B, I'll make a call and have someone come pick me up in five minutes."
"Plan C, jump into the sea, I'll swim you there. It might take a little time, but it should only take 40 minutes."
Finally, he looked up at her and asked, "You choose?"
Jiang Meng listened attentively, then pondered for a moment: "If I can get ashore, I'll choose to drift slowly."
"I can get ashore," he said confidently.
Jiang Meng looked up and gazed at the blue sky before sunset.
How terrifying is the ocean at night? It's unimaginable.
However, Jiang Meng felt that Chen Jizhou was in shallow water and thought he wouldn't lie to her because from this position, she could see the brightly lit shore not far away. It was a bit of a distance to row over, but it didn't look far, which made her feel quite reassured.
Jiang Meng asked him, "What if the wind picks up later?"
Chen Jizhou remained calm: "Then let the wind blow on us."
What if it rains?
He still smiled, looking directly into her eyes: "Then let's get wet in the rain."
"..."
Jiang Meng couldn't help but laugh; she felt both annoyed and amused.
That sounds like a very unique attitude towards life.
It was indeed the Chen Jizhou she knew.
He said, "Don't worry, I checked the weather forecast before I came out. There's no wind or rain today."
For some reason, Jiang Meng felt at ease even when he said nonsensical things.
Paddleboards carrying people passed them one by one.
Everyone else was moving at full speed, but they were drifting slowly towards the shore in a crooked trajectory.
They seem aimless and don't compete for superiority.
Jiang Meng rested her chin on her hand: "It seems like we've been exiled by them."
Chen Jizhou laughed and corrected her, saying, "We're the ones who exiled them."
She turned her head and looked into his calm and composed eyes.
Chen Jizhou turned on his phone, and Jiang Meng leaned over to look. "How many bars of battery are left?"
15.
Jiang Meng immediately said, "Then you'll have to be careful—"
Before he could even utter the word "use," Chen Jizhou had already casually opened a music app. Jiang Meng stared at him in disbelief. How could someone not have any battery anxiety at all? He calmly searched for a song and said to her, "We need some music right now."
It's "Yellow".
Chen Jizhou smiled and showed her the screen.
As the intro began, his fingers tapped lightly on his knees to keep time. After the lively instrumental music ended, the singer's husky voice rang out.
A beautiful melody flowed into Jiang Meng's ears.
Chen Jizhou started singing along.
Look at the stars
See the stars shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Watch them shine for you
And everything you do
And your every frown and gesture
Yeah, they were all yellow.
Yet so timid and cautious
Chen Jizhou felt that he wasn't a very good singer. The year he sang "Red Bean" for her, he was the first to express his lack of skill in this area. Actually, it was just because he didn't have any professional techniques, which made his voice sound very straightforward. But Jiang Meng felt that this was good enough. The unadorned voice was the most sincere and moving, and it was his most original, honest and open self.
Chen Jizhou had heard the song many times, so he didn't need to look at the lyrics; he just looked at Jiang Meng.
It was like singing a love song to her, but admittedly it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. Chen Jizhou has done many things on a whim, and this song is no exception.
She slowly, slowly became immersed in it, and her heart calmed down under his gentle gaze.
The sound of flowing water, rumbling and irregular, was all they could hear, crashing against the planks they had laid out level with the water's surface, only to be quickly drowned out by the singing that hadn't yet come up.
At that moment, she understood the meaning of "drunk, unaware that the sky is reflected in the water, a boat full of sweet dreams pressing down on the Milky Way".
Your skin, oh yeah your skin and bones
Your skin
Turn into something beautiful
So beautiful, ethereal, and real
You know I love you so
I love you so much
You know I love you so
You should know that I have fallen deeply in love with you.
Passersby rowed their boats, a bustling group of young people. As they rowed, they looked in Jiang Meng's direction and cheered him on with Chen Jizhou's voice: "You know I love you so!!"
Chen Jizhou turned his head to look over and gave them a friendly smile.
People nearby were clapping and tapping their feet in agreement.
Those who rowed quickly went ahead, and those who followed didn't disappoint.
A lively chorus, both loud and soft, was repeatedly and brightly singing the line "Look how they shine for you" for her.
—Watch the stars shine for you.
Jiang Meng knew very well that she was not the heroine in a fairy tale, but in this situation, it was hard for her not to believe that the applause and singing were for her.
It's hard not to think that the person in front of her is her male lead.
She looked at him under the starry sky, with the universe above and the sea below.
In the vast ocean, they exiled this world.
Between heaven and earth, only unrestrained singing remained.
And your skin, oh yeah your skin and bones
Your skin
Turn into something beautiful
So beautiful, ethereal, and real
For you, I bleed myself dry
I'd give up everything for you.
For you, I bleed myself dry
You should understand that I wouldn't regret losing my life for you.
As the unplugged performance ended, Jiang Meng was deeply moved.
Chen Jizhou glanced at her, thinking she was still terrified, and turned off his phone, saying, "How many chances in life do you get to be stuck at sea with a top-tier handsome guy? Enjoy it."
Jiang Meng chuckled and retorted, "How many chances in life do you get to be stuck at sea with a top-tier beauty? You better remember this day."
Chen Jizhou laughed loudly.
"I won't forget."
He observed her expression briefly, then gently reassured her, "It's alright, don't worry."
Chen Jizhou reached out and flicked her troubled forehead, then suddenly said, "Happy Valentine's Day."
Jiang Meng was stunned for a moment, her vision blurring slightly. She looked at the person in front of her, yet it seemed as if she wasn't looking at him at all: "What kind of Valentine's Day is this today?"
Chen Jizhou smiled faintly and said, "As long as you're in a good mood, then every day is."
In the passage of time, an old string was taut, the dust settled, and she was once again stunned under the bright fireworks of her seventeenth year.
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