The bright and clear sunlight scattered across the shimmering coastline.

The faint scent of greenery drifted onto the island as the sea breeze, mingled with a salty tang, swept through in waves.

A boy’s figure emerged from the white house, walking to the edge of the embankment. He took off his hat, placed it under him as a seat, and casually tossed the little pebbles by his side down the embankment, where they vanished into the azure waves in an instant.

At that moment, his face was still beaded with sweat, as if he had just finished exercising.

Swoosh—Swoosh—

In the distance, the waves rhythmically lapped against the shore.

The boy looked around for a while, and on the distant coastline, he seemed to see a figure of a woman in a long black dress. She wore a large sun hat and stood barefoot against the vast blue backdrop, like a fresh, elegant painting of the deep-blue sea.

“You can go talk to her.”

Footsteps approached, and Feng Juguan’s deep voice sounded from behind.

Hong Haocheng turned his head and said, “Your wounds are healed? I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened. I was so scared at the time, I thought you were going to die.”

“I have sunk to the bottom of the sea underwater and seen torpedoes explode right before my eyes. My boat has capsized, my yacht has lost its power in a deserted place, and I have even wrestled with sharks. None of these things killed me.”

Feng Juguan let out a long sigh and sat down beside the boy. “Huh—eeaahh—”

His eyes, darkened by years of sun exposure over the many years, gazed steadily into the distance.

“So, a little guy like you isn’t qualified to take my life.”

Hong Haocheng let out two awkward chuckles.

He himself didn’t understand what was going on. Two days ago, after a training session, he saw lines reappearing behind Feng Juguan, and instantly felt ravenous, longing to devour all those lines into his body.

Then he lost control.

When he woke up again, he found himself tied to a bed.

“There’s not much time left. If you want to know something, go find her.” Feng Juguan pointed at the distant figure of a woman.

……

The gracefully built woman was holding the brim of her hat with one hand, turning her head to gaze at the distant sea.

Suddenly, she looked back, watching the boy running down from the slope behind the white house, slapping his hat against his thigh along the way.

“Reporting for duty! Feng Juguan sent me to find you.” Hong Haocheng rushed to her side.

Before he could clearly see the woman’s face, he first caught a faint fragrance wafting from beneath her black gauze skirt—a scent that made him feel very comfortable.

The woman lifted her hat brim slightly and carefully examined the person before her.

He was so full of vitality.

“Haocheng.”

“Huh, do we know each other?” Hong Haocheng looked at her oval-shaped face with some confusion.

She revealed a very sweet smile and said intimately, “Now we do.”

Hong Haocheng looked to her side, where the tide was washing over the carcass of a seal. Creatures resembling hairy-footed worms nibbled at the rotting meat beside it, the summer heat already breeding maggots within.

Hong Haocheng was a bit speechless.

“So this is what you were staring at.”

The girl before him seemed refined and extraordinary, yet here she was, fixated on a decaying seal.

If a painter had captured her in that moment, the audience would never guess that the heroine in the painting was actually staring at a corpse.

“Come with me.” The woman smiled and walked toward a folding chair in the distance, under which a sunshade was propped. On a nearby table sat a glass teapot filled with lemon-scented flower tea, accompanied by a few books.

“Looks like you’re on vacation.”

“Sort of.”

The woman sat gracefully on a wooden chair and poured a cup of tea for the boy.

Hong Haocheng casually picked up a book from the table and flipped through it; the text was utterly indecipherable. “Studying a foreign language? What script is this? The characters look so abstract.”

“Around here, we call it the Hermes Tongue.”

“There’s such a language?”

The teacup clattered as it was set on the table before him, and at the same time, the woman handed a large book of distinctly strange material to the boy across the table.

“This is for you. You’d better memorize it in the next month.”

Flipping through the pages, Hong Haocheng’s eyes grew wider and wider, and with a shocked expression, he stammered, “You want me to memorize these in just over twenty days?!”

“Mm-hmm.” The woman smiled and nodded.

“Do you have any idea how they tortured me these past two weeks?” Hong Haocheng pointed at the distant house without looking at his arm. “Do you think I have nothing better to do?”

The woman extended her hand to support her smooth chin. “Of course I know, because all of these were my suggestions.”

“What?!”

Hong Haocheng suddenly stood up. He glared at the woman before him, speaking incredulously:

“What exactly is this place? Who are those people? And who are you?!”

“Don’t rush.”

The woman stood up, stepped back twice, and spun around like a fairy emerging from a painting.

“Do you think I’m beautiful?”

“Uh, yes, you are.” Hong Haocheng told the truth. He had been struck by her at first sight, though she seemed much older than him.

“Then do you like me?”

“Ah?!” Hong Haocheng suddenly stammered. “That’s way too…”

He suddenly recalled the image of her staring at the seal carcass. The woman’s boldness seemed innate; if not for being a linguistic expert with a scholarly aura, she would definitely be a rough old street-gal.

“What, hesitating when a twenty-eight-year-old big sister confesses her love?”

“I… uh…”

Initially wanting to dodge the question, Hong Haocheng saw her playful smile as if teasing an innocent boy, and a surge of stubbornness rose within him.

He deliberately scoffed, “So what if I like you?”

“Then let’s get married.”

“Are you a demon?!” Hong Haocheng leaned back, toppling over with his chair, causing the woman in black veil to cover her mouth and laugh, eyes curved with mirth.

The woman approached him, suddenly reaching out to twist his chin.

“What are you—mmph…”

Shocked, Hong Haocheng only felt a soft pair of lips press against his own, the moist, tender sensation like lightning streaking through his mind.

Under the sunlight, the shore waves crashed with a rustling sound.

After about ten seconds, he was finally allowed to breathe. Hong Haocheng felt his face flustered and dazed, looking at the beautiful woman in front of him in disbelief. “You!”

“The wedding is today.”

……

The small island suddenly bustled with activity.

When Hong Haocheng ran back to the dormitory in panic, he found Feng Juguan directing other young men to decorate with lanterns and colored streamers, hanging up red lanterns and pasting couplets.

“What are you doing!”

“Huh, didn’t she tell you?”

The boy’s eyes went wide. “Are you kidding me? Wow, is this the 18th century or the 15th and 16th? You can just abduct someone to be the mountain king’s son-in-law through marriage?!”

Laughter erupted all around.

Feng Juguan grabbed the dazed young man by the arm and pulled him to the corner of a building freshly painted snow-white.

From here, he could still see the woman lounging in a deck chair, basking in the sun on the distant coastline.

“You’re not setting up some kind of prank, are you, huh? Why did I run berserk and faint before? Who are you people!”

Feng Juguan firmly clamped a hand on his shoulder.

“Calm down!”

A roar of majesty, like a fierce tiger, calmed the somewhat panicked Hong Haocheng. But Hong Haocheng still stared wide-eyed and breathed rapidly at the man before him.

Suddenly, he kicked at Feng Juguan, only to be subdued in a few moves, with his arm twisted behind his back and pinned against the wall.

“Not bad, already able to trade four or five moves with me in just a week.”

The boy was twisted and dragged by him towards the woman in the black gauze dress. The woman smiled at the towed boy and the stern-faced Feng Juguan.

“Didn’t you make it clear to him? Why is the kid so uncooperative?”

“No, I didn’t. I wanted him to figure it out on his own when the time comes.”

“Find out what, you…”

Feng Juguan covered Hong Haocheng’s mouth, staring at the woman, and said:

“But the way it is, he’ll never settle down and train. Didn’t you say there’s hardly any time left?”

“It doesn’t matter. We’ll treat the coming time as a honeymoon. I believe he’ll grow up quickly in the future.”