Jump into the sea
When Yunheng placed his phone on the beach, the screen went completely dark. Before the last bit of battery drained, his fingertips hovered over the message with his grandmother. The notification that the message "I'm sorry" had been successfully sent burned like a red-hot brand, making his eyes ache. The message the caregiver had sent half an hour earlier still lingered at the top of the screen: "The old lady is talking about you again. She said she'll teach her how to use her smartphone to see the wheat when you come back."
"There's no going back." He whispered to the surging waves, his voice torn into pieces by the wind and mixed into the sobbing of the waves.
As the tide crept over his calves, the icy water crept up his trouser legs, like countless fine needles piercing the seams between his bones. He walked deeper and deeper into the sea, the sand growing softer beneath his feet. Every step felt like he was being dragged down, sinking deeper into nothingness. His trouser legs, soaked heavy by the seawater, slapped against his ankles with increasing force, as if urging him to sink.
Yu Xiao's face suddenly flashed through his mind—not the ferocious drunken look from last night, but the look on stage during the third public performance. He'd stood in the spotlight, his white suit tinted a warm gold by the stage lights, singing "You Are My Rose" in his direction, his eyes blazing like fire. The "Xiao Heng" sign in the audience blinded him, yet he'd foolishly assumed there was something special hidden in that look, a moment that transcended the manipulation of capital, a moment that belonged to them both.
"Rose?" Yun Heng laughed out loud, tears mixed with seawater sliding into the corners of her mouth, salty and bitter. "I obviously just want to grow wheat."
He remembered his grandmother always saying that wheat was the most reliable plant. Plant the seeds, water the crops, and you'll definitely have a harvest. It wasn't like the flowers in the city, which looked bright but vanished in the wind. Back then, he'd laughed at his grandmother's old-fashioned ways. Now, he understood: he was like that wheat plant, forced into the greenhouse, struggling in soil that didn't belong to it, ultimately destined to wither.
When the waves rolled up to his waist, he was hit hard by a wave, and his body instantly lost balance. The cold seawater suddenly poured into his nostrils, like countless ice needles piercing his brain. The suffocating feeling was like an invisible hand, tightly grasping his heart. He did not struggle, and even subconsciously closed his eyes, allowing himself to sink deeper.
As the water washed over his chest, his shirt became transparent, clinging to his skin like an icy membrane. The red mark on his collarbone from last night shone a faint pink in the water, like an ugly scar, a reminder of his humiliating entanglement. Yu Xiao's screams, the reporters' inquiries, the netizens' insults, the ringing of the phone in his grandmother's hospital room... countless sounds exploded in his ears, then were swallowed up bit by bit by the water, until only endless silence remained.
In his moment of blurry consciousness, he seemed to see the wheat fields of his hometown. The golden wheat undulated in the wind, like a flowing sea. Grandma stood on the edge of the field, the hem of her blue shirt puffed out by the wind. She waved her straw hat and called to him, "Ah Heng, come home for dinner!" The sun fell on her face, and the wrinkles were filled with warmth. It was the most gentle light he had ever seen in his life.
"Grandma..." He called out softly in his heart, and the corners of his mouth seemed to taste the sweetness of locust flower cakes, which his grandma would steam for him every spring, with a slightly bitter fragrance.
Just as he thought he was about to be completely swallowed by the darkness, his wrist was suddenly gripped by a huge force, so strong that it seemed to crush his bones. Then, he was violently pulled upward, and his back slammed hard into a hot chest. The familiar cedar cologne and the strong smell of seawater mixed together to form a familiar feeling that suffocated him.
"Yunheng! Yunheng, wake up!"
Someone was screaming in his ear, the voice tinged with tears, making his eardrums ache. He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt heavy as if glued, and only gasping sounds came out of his mouth. Seawater mixed with the acid from his stomach kept pouring out of the corners of his mouth, choking his throat and making it burn.
"Don't sleep! You're not allowed to sleep!" The man dragged him toward the shore, his knees sinking into the sand with a heavy grinding sound, and every step seemed to exhaust all his strength. Yun Heng's head hit a reef, and he groaned in pain. A white light flashed before his eyes, but he still couldn't open them.
He could feel her hand trembling, her fingertips cold, yet she gripped his wrist tightly, her knuckles white from the strain. Her breathing was as heavy as a broken bellows, her sobbing voice mingling with the waves, each word hammering at his heart: "I was wrong... Yunheng, I really know I was wrong... Please don't die... Please... I'll give them all the Yu family. I don't want anything else, I just want you to live..."
Those words were like warm needles, piercing the icy water and piercing his numb nerves. He wanted to laugh, to laugh at how people always learn to cherish things only after losing them; he wanted to cry, to lament how he had ended up like this. But he didn't even have the strength to move his lips. He could only let himself be dragged around like a rag doll, bobbing and rising in the waves.
After an unknown amount of time, he was finally dumped on the dry beach. The sand rubbed against his back, bringing a faint warmth that was less painful than the icy seawater. Someone knelt beside him, frantically unbuttoning his soaking wet shirt. When their cold fingertips touched his chest, he flinched as if burned, then pressed harder.
"One, two, three..." He heard Yu Xiao counting, his voice trembling and crying, "Wake up... Please wake up..."
The warmth of his palms passed through his skin, carrying an almost scorching urgency. Yun Heng's chest ached from being pressed, and a fishy-sweet taste welled up in his throat. He tried to cough, but only a faint sound came out.
Suddenly, their lips were pried open, and a kiss, tinged with the salty taste of seawater, stormed in, bringing in a breath of air thick with tears. Yu Xiao's eyelashes brushed against his cheek, wet as if with tears. There was no trace of lust in this kiss, only pure desperation and pleading, like a drowning man grasping at a last straw.
"Yunheng..." Yu Xiao's voice was right beside her ear, so close that she could feel his trembling. "Look at me... just one look..."
Yun Heng's eyelashes trembled, finally opening a crack. In her blurry vision, Yu Xiao's face loomed close. His hair, soaked and plastered to his forehead, a few strands clinging to his pale cheeks. The arch of his high nose bridge looked particularly fragile in the twilight. His eyes were red as if they were dripping blood, and there was a deep dark cyanosis under his eyes. A blue stubble had sprouted on his chin. Where was the delicate and noble "prince" he usually looked like?
"You..." Yun Heng wanted to say something, but a stronger fishy and sweet taste surged in her throat. She could only cough out a few mouthfuls of bloody sea water, which splashed on the back of Yu Xiao's hand, like a few sad flowers blooming.
When Yu Xiao saw him open his eyes, his pupils suddenly contracted and his eyes instantly turned red. He frantically hugged Yun Heng to his arms, his movements clumsy and forceful. Hot tears splashed on Yun Heng's face, sliding along his jawline into his collar, carrying a scorching temperature.
"You scared me to death... Yunheng, you scared me to death..." Yu Xiao's voice was choked with sobs, repeating over and over again, as if to confirm that the person in his arms was still alive, "I thought... I thought I would never see you again..."
His embrace was tight, trembling with the pain of someone who had just survived a catastrophe, and it hurt Yun Heng's ribs. But Yun Heng had no strength to struggle, his consciousness flickering like a candle in the wind. He could feel his heartbeat like a drum, transmitting through his soaked shirt, shaking his chest.
He looked at Yu Xiao's panicked face, saw the fear and regret in his eyes, saw his lips trembling with tears - regretting it now? When he was driven to despair by cyberbullying, choking on the seawater, nearly dying? Could the uprooted wheat, the harassing phone calls, the unbearable comments, all be erased with a simple "I was wrong"?
The waves came crashing down again, soaking the corners of their clothes. Yu Xiao subconsciously pressed Yun Heng tighter against his chest, shielding himself from the surging water with his back. His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping against the surface. "Let's go to the hospital... right now... I've asked the driver to wait on the highway. We'll be there soon..."
Yun Heng opened his mouth, but no sound came out. His vision gradually blurred, and Yu Xiao's face became a swaying shadow in his eyes. In the end, only his red eyes remained, like two clusters of fire about to go out.
"Ring..." He squeezed out two words from his throat with all his strength.
Yu Xiao was stunned for a moment, then reacted and frantically reached into his pocket, pulling out the plain ring that had been chilled by the seawater. The words "Heng Xiao" on the inside of the ring were a little blurred from wear, but the two words nestled tightly together could still be clearly seen.
"Here..." Yu Xiao stuffed the ring into Yun Heng's palm and wrapped his hand with his own. The warmth of his palm seeped in little by little. "Take it... Don't lose it..."
Yun Heng moved his fingers, trying to clench them, but he had no strength. The ring slipped from his fingers, landing on the beach with a slight sound, and was immediately swept away by the rising waves, disappearing instantly in the surging black waves.
Yu Xiao watched the ring being washed away, his pupils suddenly contracted, as if all his strength was drained away, and the arm holding Yun Heng suddenly loosened.
At this moment, Yunheng's consciousness completely sank into darkness.
In the last moments before he fainted, he seemed to hear Yu Xiao let out a suppressed whimper, like a wounded animal, echoing on the empty seashore. The waves crashed against the beach again and again, as if singing a long and sad elegy for this belated redemption.
The lights of the distant city lit up, glittering like a false sea of stars. But two people on this beach, one trapped in endless darkness, the other clinging to their last remaining hope, awaiting an unknown dawn amidst the cold tide and despair.
Yu Xiao knelt on the beach, holding the unconscious Yun Heng tightly in his arms, letting the waves wet his back. The person in his arms was very light, as light as a feather, but it made him breathless. He lowered his head and kissed Yun Heng's cold forehead, his voice as soft as a sigh:
"When you wake up, we'll go home. Back to your wheat fields."
But he didn't know whether Yunheng could still hear him, nor did he know whether the wheat field that they had hurt together could still accommodate two people covered in scars.
The night was getting darker and darker, and the sea breeze was blowing faster and faster, as if it was urging us to stay, and as if it was trying to keep us.
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