(1)
Early in the morning on the second of May, almost all the students had gotten up early.
The sun above them was brilliantly bright, without a hint of clouds drifting in from the distance. An Jing was changing clothes inside the room—the clothes she had hung out to dry last night were already dry, all thanks to Wang Xinru wringing them with such force. It wasn’t as good as a washing machine, but it came close.
“Should I wash these clothes?”
“I only wore them to sleep. There’s no need to wash them. If they can’t dry, Xiao Jing really won’t have any clothes to wear.”
“Okay. Just leave them on the bed.” Wang Xinru nodded gently.
There were two beds in the bedroom. Last night, Wang Xinru had slept in one herself, while An Jing had shared the other with Zhu Ying—even though she had slept with her face pressed against the wall, she had still been hugged all night long, making her feel like she was about to turn into a life-sized plush toy.
The worst part was that Zhu Ying was a very restless sleeper. She would talk in her sleep, even nibble on her head in the middle of the night, and mutter nonsense about wanting to eat an ‘apple’.
“Phew. It feels so good to wear my own clothes.” An Jing let out a long sigh, squinting at the newly risen morning sun outside the window. “Yahoo. The weather’s great.”
“It’s a perfect day for a trip to the beach!”
“Yeah. Oh, right, if you guys see any blue sea glass, pick it up for me. It’s a gift I plan to bring back for Huihui Jie.”
“Sea glass? What’s that?” Zhu Ying stuffed a milk candy into her mouth and asked curiously.
“Ha—no way. You don’t even know that? Are you really from Small City?”
“Hey now, my household registration says I am!”
“Living in a seaside city, how could you not know this… Don’t tell me you’ve never really been to the beach?”
“I haven’t been much.”
“Hey hey, that’s such a waste. Living by the sea but hardly ever going…”
“The city’s still a bit far from the beach. It’s boring to go alone. My parents are busy, and even when they have rare free time, they go on their own honeymoons. So—I guess in the future, Xiao Jing will just have to take me on more dates to the beach.”
“For someone like me, who grew up on an island, dating at the beach doesn’t feel all that romantic…” An Jing gently touched her own small face. “Sea glass, to put it simply, is glass.”
“Natural?”
“How could it be? It’s man-made, of course.”
“Huh—? Who would be so bored as to throw glass into the sea?”
“Actually, sea glass is considered a kind of marine pollution, just a bit better than plastic. In short, some glass products get thrown into the ocean, and over time, they get worn smooth. They usually have a frosted texture—that’s sea glass. Most sea glass comes from beer bottles, so it’s either green or blue. It’s rare to find other colors.”
“Artificially polished junk?”
“Pretty much. To be precise, it’s trash that people threw away.” An Jing sighed a little, putting her hands behind her head and staring out the window at the faintly visible golden beach. “Nature never really minds that stuff. It takes what we don’t want, makes it beautiful, and gives it back to us.”
“When you talk about nature, Xiao Jing, it always sounds like a gentle big sister.”
“Isn’t it?”
“But nature has a really fierce side too. Earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes… and it happens every year, right? Small City gets big typhoons and stuff.”
“Nature is just like that. It has a side that’s good to humans and a side that’s not so good. But in the end, it’s all about maintaining the balance of everything.”
“They’re gathering downstairs…” Wang Xinru interrupted their philosophical discussion, her voice low.
“Let’s go, let’s go, Xiao Jing. To the beach! I’m wearing my swimsuit today!”
“…Huh?”
“Hehe. It’s a swimsuit that’ll definitely make your eyes pop!”
“Ha—? With a figure like yours, how could it make anyone’s eyes pop?”
“Xiao Jing—” Zhu Ying smiled warmly. “What did you just say? I don’t think I quite caught that.”
“Did An’an bring a swimsuit?”
“I don’t have one… and there’s no way I can go in the water anyway. Otherwise, everything would be exposed. I don’t really have anything obvious yet, but once my clothes get wet and stick to me—you’d still be able to tell, you know.”
“Tough luck, Xiao Jing. You can only watch us play.”
“There’s nothing I can do about that. But it’s still fun to watch everyone play. Besides—compared to swimming, I actually prefer building sandcastles.”
“Is that so? Xiao Jing doesn’t know how to swim, huh?”
“What are you thinking?” An Jing rolled her eyes dramatically, and even Wang Xinru covered her mouth with a light laugh.
Telling a child who grew up on an island that she couldn’t swim was, indeed, a huge joke.
In fact, An Jing seemed to have known how to swim since she was little. She didn’t even have a memory of learning how. It was as if she had just played along with everyone and picked it up naturally.
Of course, there were some unlucky ones who didn’t manage to grow up safely on islands surrounded by the sea—among the people An Jing knew, two of them had disappeared forever into those surging waves.
If you couldn’t swim, you wouldn’t survive on an island…
“Hey, Xiao Jing, were there many drowning deaths where you’re from?”
“Hey hey, it’s a good day to go to the beach. Why are you bringing that up?”
“Just got curious all of a sudden.”
“People who aren’t very good at swimming usually don’t get into trouble. The ones who get into serious trouble, the kind you can’t save them from, are often the ones who are really good swimmers. For example, I had a distant cousin who wanted to swim to another island, got a cramp halfway, and drowned.”
“Wow? That’s asking for death, isn’t it?”
“Mainly because he’d made the trip back and forth several times before. Nobody thought it was a big deal that time.” An Jing puffed out her cheeks a little. “And generally, the sea between two islands doesn’t have very big waves…”
“From here, can you still see the island where you grew up?”
“No, you can’t see it from here—just like you can’t see the mainland from there. When I was little, I seriously thought the whole world was just ocean. The only place you could step on soil was the island beneath your feet.”
“What a shame.”
“What, do you want to see it?”
“Since we can never go back anyway, I’m still a little curious, you know?”
“Hmm… I’m fine with it. After all, everyone’s moved to a new place to live. The photos I’ve seen look really nice. The roads are wide, the transportation is convenient… it’s much better than living on the island.”
“But that’s not your homeland anymore.”
“Homeland, huh…” An Jing gently licked her lips. “I don’t think I have much of a hometown complex…”
“Xiao Jing, you’re so heartless~!”
“It’s just that An’an isn’t old enough yet. She doesn’t have that many memories worth recalling, or that much of a life to feel sentimental about.”
“What did Wangwang just say?” An Jing widened her eyes, her expression dazed. “I feel like I understood, but also like I didn’t?”
—
(Part 2)
Rumor had it that this empty, golden beach belonged to Wen Ye’s family.
On the land of the Kingdom of Qing, there naturally weren’t any great landowners with permanent property rights.
So, this piece of land had been leased for an additional fifty years after its initial ten-year lease expired ten years ago.
The reason for leasing the land was for tourism development, but there are still no signs of development here to this day—nor does it look like there are any plans to develop it.
According to Wen Ye, because this was the birthplace of the Ye family’s fortune, it would forever remain in this state and never be developed into a commercial beach.
As for the tourism development project, it was just a smokescreen. Even if development wasn’t possible, their family would still pay the land lease fees. And as for greasing the wheels with the right people, that was even less of a concern.
Qingye Pharmaceuticals was, after all, a major enterprise on the level of the entire Z Province, and even the whole country.
That was why An Jing and the others could enjoy such an empty, golden beach.
In fact, if they wanted to come, they could play here on their own. But the reason it hadn’t become a well-known scenic spot was ultimately because it was too far from the city and had no public transportation nearby—taking a bus would only get you to the town, and you’d still have to walk a long way to get here.
“If everyone’s living conditions get better in the future, and every family owns a car, this place will probably get crowded, right?” An Jing tilted her small face up, looking at the unusually plain-looking young man sitting next to her, shirtless.
“Ha ha, maybe. It’ll be lively here then.”
“But didn’t you guys say you like peace and quiet? When that happens, will you block people from coming, or start charging admission?”
“Open it up. Anyone who wants to come can come freely.”
“Huh?”
“Just go with the times and let development happen naturally.”
“But then it’ll lose its feeling like a paradise.”
“That’s just natural development.” Qiu Yi laughed heartily. “Wenwen thinks the same way. And if a lot of people really do come to play in the future, then we’ll just go with the times and develop this beach. A place this beautiful—if many people are willing to come and share it, that’s also a happy thing.”
“Oh—” An Jing gently scratched her right instep with her left foot. A few grains of golden sand were slowly sliding down from her smooth, fair skin. “I thought rich people were supposed to be a bit selfish. Anything they spent money on, they absolutely wouldn’t let anyone else touch.”
“People are complicated. Rich people also have many different personalities. In my opinion, the poorer you are, the smaller the differences in personality become.”
“Why?”
“Probably because… life suppresses the development of individuality.” Qiu Yi laughed and fell back onto the sand, letting the golden sunlight shine on his face. “I used to be the same way—now that you mention it, aren’t you going to play with the others? Your two girlfriends are having a lot of fun.”
“Ha, ha?! Wh-what two?!”
“Aren’t they?”
“There’s only one! Hey, hey, Teacher Qiu, don’t talk nonsense. If Xiao Ying hears that, I’m in trouble!”
“Ha ha ha—I thought you were a lot cooler than that.”
“It’s not about being cool or not! Even if you like them both, you can’t choose everyone. You have to be responsible, right?”
“Right.” Qiu Yi smiled. “You’re a lot more decisive than I was at your age.”
“What was Teacher Qiu like when he was young?”
“Long story. If you want to hear it, I’ll give you the short version…”
“Sure.”
“Let’s start from high school…”