The cruise ship docked in the night, and its shadow melted into the water.
The last missing person was leaning quietly in a lounge chair on the deck, covered with a thin blanket, with the sea breeze gently touching his hair.
He was sleeping soundly, and although his breathing was still weak, it was much smoother than before.
His right hand was held in a warmer hand, which was still writing on his palm, stroke by stroke very slowly.
This time, in addition to the usual payment, there were two more words than before.
"Wei, Ting." The owner of the hand introduced himself to him, "My name is Ming Wei Ting, and I'm your friend."
The owner of the hand paused at this relational title.
Although he was just practicing and considering, he still wasn't sure if he could call himself that, so he changed his words: "My name is Ming Weiting, I'm your fan, chasing your star."
The missing person's hand was gently held, and his thick eyelashes drooped. The soft short hair was touched by the wind, making people almost have the illusion that he was attracted by this somewhat strange self-introduction and tilted his head slightly.
But he never actually woke up, perhaps because he was too tired, or perhaps because he couldn't find any reason to wake up.
Since the day he was rescued, he has been sleeping quietly like this, and has never even moved.
Ming Weiting raised his hand, gently touched his hair, put the pale hand back under the blanket, and then covered the edges of the thin blanket completely.
He gestured to the people around him, stood up, and walked a little further to the other end of the deck.
The visitor lowered his voice consciously: "Sir..."
"I already know it." Ming Weiting recalled the name and slowly read it out, "Ren Chenbai."
Ming Weiting asked: "Uncle Lu, what else did he do?"
Ming Lu is the steward of the Ming family. He is nearly seventy years old and has been with the Ming family for three generations.
He walked over and handed over the sorted information respectfully: "We still need to find someone."
Ren Chenbai refused to accept the fact that Luo Zhi disappeared in the shipwreck.
Ren Chenbai called Luo Jun, but Luo Jun was kneeling in the confinement room and being punished. No one knew where Luo Cheng had hidden, and he couldn't be found at all. Jian Huaiyi simply told him that Luo Zhi was dead. Ren Chenbai beat her to death out of control, and almost killed someone...
A messy and clumsy farce.
After all the fuss Ren Chenbai made, in the end, he only saw the belongings of the missing persons sent by the cruise ship.
Much less than he had imagined.
There was only one windbreaker that had been soaked in the sea and then left there to dry, now wrinkled and covered with salt.
Half of the windbreaker was torn by the reef, and the remaining pieces of fabric were stained with an ominous dark red.
Because Luo Zhi's ID card was in the inside pocket of her windbreaker, and the pocket happened to be well sealed, it was easy to identify the owner of the item.
As for what happened specifically after that, it is difficult for outsiders to find out the whole story.
All we know is that Ren Chenbai insisted on taking the windbreaker away, and the Luo family naturally disagreed. The quarrel between the two parties alarmed Luo Chengxiu, who had been staying in his study for the past two days. The whole Luo family was in turmoil, and an ambulance was called in the middle of the night...
Minglu said a few simple words and then stopped talking: "It's just a show for them, sir, nothing to see."
Do people act for themselves?
Of course, especially when you want to deceive yourself into believing something.
The Luo family is used to being heartless and is best at putting the blame on others. The most suitable person for this “someone else” is Luo Zhi. Now that Luo Zhi is out, he will be replaced by Luo Jun.
It was not until he was pushed into a similar situation as Luo Zhi that Luo Jun finally began to understand Luo Zhi's pain. As for other people, there may be some belated regrets, or perhaps a moment of guilt and remorse when they wake up from a dream in the middle of the night... but if there are no special changes, that is probably the limit.
Those people would even be comforted by their own regrets and sadness, truly believing that they were heartbroken and shed tears for Luo Zhi, and then tacitly let these things pass quickly.
No one will take the initiative to touch any truth, no one will seek trouble or suffer.
No one would think of peeling off the layers of selfishness, standing in front of the truth that can burn a person to ashes alive, waiting for the shame and guilt in human nature to revive, and then being dragged into an endless hell.
…
Ming Weiting walked to the edge of the deck.
The beach in the distance was shrouded in night fog. It was a very dark night, and everything there was dark, cold, and blurry.
It was in that kind of place that Luo Zhi was found.
Luo Zhi had his ticket but never got on board.
Ming Weiting led his men off the boat to look for him, and finally found him along the beach.
At that time, Luo Zhi had become completely like a piece of ice. The rising tide was about to cover his mouth and nose, but he seemed unaware of it and continued to lie quietly on the wet sand without moving.
Ming Weiting picked the person up and found that Luo Zhi was still awake.
Luo Zhi was awake, but could hardly recognize him. She just kept her eyes open and watched the outline of the cruise ship in the fog.
Ming Weiting held him up and Luo Zhi's hands and feet fell limply.
Ming Weiting knew that he couldn't hear, so he held his hand and wrote "hmm" back and forth on his palm, but Luo Zhi seemed to have forgotten what that meant.
Just one day.
Just a day ago, Luo Zhi was so happy about selling a painting that she kept praising his taste in art and generously gave him a script with a buy-one-get-one-free deal.
Luo Zhi couldn't hear, so she didn't know that she didn't speak out loud, she just kept talking to herself happily. He was not good at lip reading, so he had to bother the other person to repeat himself many times.
Then he understood that Luo Zhi was saying thank you very much and that she was very happy today.
He was also very happy, so he gave Luo Zhi a boat ticket and wrote an invitation to Luo Zhi on a note in the hotel.
"The first mistake." Ming Weiting looked at the ripples on the sea for a while, "I thought he was just drunk and needed to rest, so I left him alone in the hotel for a while."
The cruise ship was about to dock, and Ming Weiting had to discuss a business deal before leaving the port, so he left the hotel before nightfall.
He was actually planning to come back, so he didn't take anything else with him. Even the script was unconsciously stuffed into the briefcase at Luo Zhi's kind recommendation.
But when he returned to the hotel, Luo Zhi was gone.
"I saw the sketch he left behind and thought he remembered what happened at that time." Ming Weiting left the side of the boat and slowly walked back to the lounge chair. "I thought he just left because of an emergency. My second mistake."
As the night deepened, the sea breeze began to get colder and it was no longer suitable to stay on the deck.
Ming Weiting wrapped the sleeping person in a thin blanket, picked him up gently, and returned to the cabin.
He used careful force, and the person he put back on the bed was not disturbed at all, and didn't even frown.
"My third mistake was that I took him from the beach back to the cruise ship and thought I could take good care of him without checking the passenger list."
Ming Weiting removed the thin blanket and covered the man with the quilt again: "The fourth mistake was that I failed to prevent the cruise ship from capsizing."
Minglu followed in and was finally speechless after hearing this: "Sir, this is the captain's fault. He has been severely punished and the evidence has been compiled to bring charges."
The accident was caused by the captain's serious misjudgment, who illegally drove the ship into shallow waters near the shore. As soon as Ming Weiting found something unusual, he rushed to the captain's room to deal with it, which gave the Luo family the opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
If it is not handled in time, the cruise ship will not just run aground or hit a reef. If an explosion or capsizing occurs, it will cause irreversible consequences.
"The follow-up handling of this accident was close to perfect, with only the last link missing."
Ming Lu hesitated for a moment before asking again, "Sir, are you really not going to announce the conclusion of zero deaths?"
"That's not necessary." Ming Weiting shook his head. "Strengthen internal supervision, re-evaluate qualifications, and strictly prohibit such low-level accidents from happening again in the future."
Of course, these are things that must be done. Ming Lu responded with a yes, wrote them down one by one, and then looked at the person sleeping in the bed.
"Sir," Ming Lu asked, "Is the reason for not announcing the zero death rate because of this... Mr. Luo Zhi?"
Ming Weiting frowned.
The Ming family has no tradition of being gentle. He looked kind because he was next to the sleeping guest, and now his breath was cold and his eyes were dark.
Ming Lu knew he had asked the wrong question and lowered his head to apologize, but Ming Weiting spoke again.
"Luo Zhi sank into the sea and could not be rescued."
Ming Weiting said: "It has been sent back to the Luo family."
Ming Lu was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously glanced at the person who was sleeping peacefully with his eyes closed. Then he immediately understood what Ming Weiting meant: "Yes."
Minglu looked at the guest carefully again, as if he wanted to ask something else, but was a little hesitant.
"I am his fan, I am chasing his star," Ming Weiting said, "I consider myself his friend."
He had practiced these sentences in his mind many times, so he could say them fluently now. Minglu was a little surprised by this statement: "Sir, do you know what star chasing is?"
Ming Weiting lowered his eyes and looked at the guitar leaning against the bed.
He sat there motionless until Minglu thought he would not get an answer to this question and was about to leave when he heard his voice again.
"The fifth mistake." Ming Weiting said.
Minglu was stunned.
Ming Weiting reached out his hand to cover the corner of the quilt before getting up and going out. He walked out of the cabin and returned to the deck along the gangway.
Ming Weiting lit a cigarette.
He didn't have the habit of smoking. He just looked at the cigarette, watching the flame flickering in his hand.
He didn't understand what a fan was or what star chasing was, so he missed the most important thing.
The beach there shouldn't have been so dark and cold. There should have been the brightest and warmest bonfire and the most beautiful guitar solo in the world. He had never heard of anyone sitting on the beach and playing guitar like that, so he started a route following that guitar, and cruise ships have been calling here ever since.
But the bonfire was gone.
"I jumped in the water and got him."
Ming Weiting said: "He is not far from me."
Not far away was the lifeboat where Luo Jun was. Luo Jun stretched out his hand eagerly towards Jian Huaiyi, and that man didn't even see Luo Zhi at all.
Ming Weiting pushed aside the water and swam over. The sea water was freezing cold and his arms were so frozen that he could not use any strength. He failed to successfully catch Luo Zhi in one try.
Luo Zhi was awake, the surging cold, salty liquid flooding his body and swallowing him up.
Ming Weiting dived into the water, hugged him, and swam towards the surface with him.
They were very close, his arms were around Luo Zhi's back, Luo Zhi's face was pressed against his neck, large drops of hot liquid oozed out and were quickly assimilated by the sea water to a temperature close to freezing point.
I don't know how long it took, but the liquid gradually disappeared.
He lowered his head and saw the fire leaning coldly against his chest, its pale neck folded backwards weakly, no longer breathing.
Luo Zhi was left in that sea forever, along with everything that the name implied.
When the person who took care of him passed away, in all the years he lived as Luo Zhi, no one ever told him that they loved him again.
How can there be fans who, after meeting a star in person, don’t even know how to say they like him?
"So no."
Ming Weiting's voice was very light: "It's just acting, no."
He dusted off the cigarette ash, and the sea breeze immediately blew the gray and white debris into the bottom of the water. The lights of the cruise ship reflected on the water, causing ripples to appear like tiny stars.
Luo Zhi handed him the painting and wrote on it crookedly, stroke by stroke, "I have never done anything bad."
Luo Zhi lay on the cold, dark beach before dawn, opened her eyes in confusion, unable to understand his answer.
Luo Zhi sank into the icy water in front of him without calling for help from anyone.
“They’re going to regret it.”
Ming Weiting looked at the sea and said, "They will always regret it."
He would not let those people disturb the fire again. No one was worthy of disturbing the fire again. But those people must always regret it.
Those people can no longer have anything to do with that fire, but they must be exposed and roasted on the truth, and they must stay awake and torture themselves forever.
Minglu answered from behind him: "Got it."
"The girl from the Luo family hid in school." Ming Lu said, "Mr. Ren Chenbai happened to be helping her contact a documentary exemption contract. The director has some evidence and can sue the head of the Luo family for intentional injury over the years..."
Ming Weiting nodded, put out his cigarette, let the smoke on his body dissipate completely, then returned to the cabin.
From his personal perspective, he didn't want the fire to have anything to do with the past. But he had no other position after all, so there was no way for him to ask the other party right away whether he was willing to use the surname Ming.
…
Either choose a better-sounding surname, or simply don't have a surname.
These matters should be decided by the other party after he wakes up and has complete and clear capacity to act.
So Ming Weiting had to temporarily pick the name Luo Chi.
Luo Chi underwent a comprehensive physical examination after being rescued. The cardiac and respiratory arrest caused by drowning did not leave more serious consequences because of the timely rescue. But doctors suspected that there was a tumor pressing on his brain, which caused problems with his hearing and other body functions.
After all, the medical level on the cruise ship is not as good as that on land. Ming Weiting plans to take Luo Chi to the hospital for a check-up tomorrow, so he needs to have a good rest tonight.
Ming Weiting sat on the edge of the bed. He reached out and touched Luo Chi's hair, which rubbed softly in his palm.
"Good night." Ming Weiting whispered, "My name is Ming Weiting, I'm your fan, chasing your star. I'm sorry I didn't tell you this before, I like you very much."
Whenever he had free time these two days, he would practice saying these words to Luo Chi many times. This way, when Luo Chi wakes up, he will be able to speak fluently like every star chaser.
He withdrew his hand and was about to stand up, but suddenly stopped.
Luo Chi curled his fingers lightly, his eyelashes fluttered laboriously several times, and finally opened little by little.
Ming Weiting stood where he was.
It's not surprising that Luo Chi doesn't seem to recognize him.
According to the doctor's speculation, Luo Chi's mental state had been very bad during the few times they met, and the pressure from the suspected tumor in his brain might have also had an impact.
They didn't know each other very well to begin with, so it didn't matter, he could just introduce himself again, he had already practiced it many times.
"Good night." Ming Weiting sat back down, "My name is Ming Weiting."
When he said this, he suddenly stopped at Luo Chi's eyes.
Luo Chi's eyes were blank, and there seemed to be a thin layer of mist covering his eyes, a kind of emptiness without a clear focus, which made his pupils appear cleaner and darker.
Ming Weiting lowered his eyes.
He spent a little more time suppressing the sinister and cold hostility he felt towards that family and the man named Ren. This seriously disrupted his star-chasing thoughts, and he stopped halfway after practicing the words he had finally become proficient in.
In fact, he thought about taking revenge in a more illegal way, but he couldn't. He was learning how to be a fan of Luo Chi, and he heard that fans should not slander their idols at will.
So he left the matter to Uncle Lu. He would not tie up all these people and throw them on an uninhabited desert island.
"My name is Ming Weiting."
He squeezed Luo Chi's cold fingers and recited again: "...I like you very much."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
