Chapter 35: Beach Day
"We are finally here! I can't wait to step on the soft sand!" Feng Jiu exclaimed excitedly. Then she started running towards the beach, and Xiao Yan ran after her.
"Calm down, kids. We have the whole day to enjoy!" Si Ming smiled as he slowly walked towards the beach.
They rented a gigantic beach umbrella and took out their beach mats. Feng Jiu started to get comfy, and she lay down under the shade. Si Ming and Xiao Yan then ran towards the sea and started swimming.
On the other hand, Dong Hua arrived at the beach, along with Chong Lin. He didn't want Chong Lin to know his purpose of coming to the beach, so he pretended to walk around the beach, trying to spot Feng Jiu. Then he noticed Feng Jiu sitting down under the beach umbrella.
"Chong Lin, go rent a beach gazebo in this area. The view is better here." Dong Hua casually said. The 'view' that he was referring to was actually Feng Jiu.
After they settled down at the gazebo, Dong Hua said to Chong Lin, "Don't mind me. Go have fun."
"Umm... Are you sure?" Chong Lin asked cautiously since he thought that Dong Hua was acting a little different today.
Dong Hua didn't say a word, then he put on his sunglasses and leaned back against the beach chair.
Chong Lin immediately took the hint, and he left to find the other employees that were also at the beach.
Si Ming and Xiao Yan felt a little tired after swimming, so they came back to look for Feng Jiu. Then they started to eat the snacks that Feng Jiu prepared.
Dong Hua noticed that Feng Jiu kept giving Xiao Yan more snacks, and he wondered what their relationship was.
"Should we start playing frisbee?" Xiao Yan asked.
"Yeah! Let's go now!" Feng Jiu replied excitedly.
Then the three of them started to play frisbee in an empty spot of the beach nearby. Dong Hua instantly felt curious, so he sat up and looked at them play.
Si Ming was good at frisbee, so Feng Jiu and Xiao Yan teamed up against him.
"Throw the frisbee to me!" Feng Jiu shouted to Xiao Yan.
Xiao Yan then threw the frisbee towards Feng Jiu, and she jumped up, trying to catch the frisbee. But she couldn't catch the frisbee because she was too short, and then she clumsily fell onto her knees. Feng Jiu started whining, "Not fair! I'm too short!"
Xiao Yan then helped her up, and they all laughed. All of them were having such a great time together.
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Dong Hua, who was still looking at Feng Jiu from afar, accidentally let out a small laugh after seeing what happened. "This is getting interesting," he thought to himself.
At this moment, the frisbee flew into Dong Hua's gazebo, and he picked it up. Then Feng Jiu ran over to pick up the frisbee.
Dong Hua instantly panicked upon seeing Feng Jiu running towards his direction, and he quickly tried to hide his face, using the work documents that he was holding on to.
"Hold on... Why do I have to hide?" He thought to himself, and then he put aside his work documents. He slowly sat up straight and tried to look calm.
Feng Jiu was shocked to see Dong Hua when she walked into his gazebo.
"Dong... Dong Hua?! What are you doing here?"
"Enjoying the sun at the beach." He replied coldly.
"Yeah, he definitely needs to melt his 'Ice' under this hot sun." Feng Jiu muttered under her breath.
"Did you say something?" Dong Hua asked.
"Oh. Enjoying the sun? But you're sitting in a gazebo, under the shade!" Feng Jiu said, and then she looked away, avoiding Dong Hua's intense gaze.
Dong Hua thought to himself, "How dare she talk back to me? Nobody ever dared to do that."
He hid the fact that his ego was bruised and replied calmly, "What are you doing here then?"
"Uh. I'm just here with some friends to enjoy my day." She replied, and she also silently thought to herself, "I was enjoying my day until I met you. Why do I keep bumping into Dong Hua?!"
"Oh, I see. Playing frisbee with your boyfriend, huh? No kickboxing this time?" Dong Hua teased her, but at the same time, he wanted to know more about her relationship with Xiao Yan.
"Boy..boyfriend?! What are you talking about? I don't have a boyfriend!" Feng Jiu replied anxiously. Then she thought to herself again, "Stupid Dong Hua, teasing me again! It must be because of that Xuan Yue's incident."
Dong Hua was pleased to hear that, and he quickly turned away, trying to hide his smile.
Before Dong Hua could say anything, Xiao Yan came running over, and yelled, "Why are you taking such a long time to pick up the frisbee?"
Then Xiao Yan came into the gazebo and noticed Dong Hua. "What is he doing here?!" He whispered to Feng Jiu.
"I don't know, but we should quickly take the frisbee back and leave." She whispered back.
"Good idea."
Xiao Yan then turned over to Dong Hua and said, "Would you mind returning the frisbee to us? The one that you're holding on to."
Dong Hua looked back at Xiao Yan with an expressionless face, and he replied, "Oh? Sure."
Then he immediately threw the frisbee towards Xiao Yan, and it hit Xiao Yan's head lightly.
"Are you okay, Xiao Yan?! Is it painful?" Feng Jiu immediately rubbed Xiao Yan's head lightly.
"No, it's not painful at all. It didn't hit me that hard!" Xiao Yan smiled at Feng Jiu.
Feng Jiu then turned to Dong Hua and said, "Why did you do that?!"
He looked back at her with cold calm eyes, and replied, "My hand slipped." Feng Jiu was speechless.
"Let's go!" Feng Jiu then started dragging Xiao Yan away.
While they were walking back, Xiao Yan ask Feng Jiu, "Do you think Dong Hua threw that frisbee at me on purpose, because he was jealous of Ji Heng and me?"
Feng Jiu shook her head and disbelief and replied, "Why didn't you cry up a scene when Dong Hua hit you with the frisbee? That was your fault."
Xiao Yan widened his eyes in shock and exclaimed, "Wait! Guys can do that too?"
Feng Jiu calmly replied, "Of course. It's the year 2020 now, and Gender equality is a human right."
Xiao Yan smiled and replied, "Feng Jiu, you're so smart!"
Then they ran towards Si Ming, and they continued playing frisbee.
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Dong Hua smiled and then continued to read some work documents. Although he canceled all his work plans for the day, he was still a workaholic.
After reading for a while, he decided to take a break, and he put aside his work documents.
Then he sat up and thought to himself, "I can't even remember when was the last time I went to a beach."
Dong Hua took out his sunglasses and looked out towards the sea. Suddenly, the bright sunlight reflected off the sunglasses and shone right into Dong Hua's eyes.
The bright glare immediately caused Dong Hua to have a headache, and he gentled rubbed his temples to ease the discomfort. But his headache got worse instead, and out of a sudden, he experienced flashback memories again.
"Jiu-er, why are you treating me so well?"
"I really like you, Jiu-er. I like you so much that I'm losing control of myself.
Dong Hua then started to massage his temples vigorously to try to ease the pain from his migraine. But it was of no use, and he also started to feel giddy.
"Jiu-er... Jiu-er..." This name kept popping up in Dong Hua's mind, but he couldn't remember anything. Then he closed his eyes and laid back against the beach chair.
After some time, Dong Hua's headache subsided. Chong Lin came back at this time and noticed Dong Hua looking pale.
"Are you feeling okay, Sir?"
"I'm fine. Maybe I'm just not used to being under the bright sun. Let's head back now."
Chong Lin immediately calls for the driver. Dong Hua then turned to look at Feng Jiu again, before they packed up and leave.
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It was 4 PM, Feng Jiu and her friends boarded the shuttle bus, to head back to the resort. They were exhausted, as they had a long day at the beach. Then they took a quick nap on the bus.
After 30mins, they arrived back at the resort lobby.
"We still have to study for the SOP test tomorrow." Si Ming reminded Feng Jiu and Xiao Yan.
"Gosh. I had too much fun, and I totally forgot about the test! Guess I'm going to stay up to study then, I can't afford to fail this test!" Feng Jiu sighed.
"Shall we study together tonight?!" Xiao Yan exclaimed.
"Yeah, it sounds like a good idea! I might fall asleep if I am studying alone in the room. We should go to the 24 hours cafe. I heard it's quiet there and an excellent place to study. We can have dinner there as well."
Then they headed back to their respective rooms to freshen up before meeting up for dinner and their study session. They arranged to meet at 7 PM.
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On the other side, Dong Hua arrived back at the resort a few hours ago. His head was hurting a little, so he went back to his suite to rest.
Dong Hua then took a shower, so that he would feel better. He started thinking back on the flashback memories that he experienced earlier on.
"Why do I keep calling her Jiu-er? I don't even know her that well." He pondered.
Dong Hua didn't have any answers as to why he was having such flashbacks, but he started to feel more and more curious about Feng Jiu.
Dong Hua then smiled to himself, while thinking back on their conversation at the beach.
"She mentioned that she doesn't have a boyfriend."
"Wait! Why do I even care? I must be feeling too stressed recently that I would allow these things to get to me."
He immediately stopped himself from thinking more about it. Then he decided to get some coffee after his shower so that he could stay awake to complete his work.
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"I'm getting hungry! You're so slow, Xiao Yan!" Feng Jiu nagged.
"Well, blame Si Ming! He took such a long shower, and I had to rush after he was done!"
"Fine, fine. It's my fault. Let's head over to the cafe now. I'm sure everyone is hungry."
They arrived at the cafe shortly, and it was indeed quiet and pretty empty. As the cafe was located at the far end of the resort, not many people knew about it. Feng Jiu only knew about the cafe, because she overheard the resort's staff talking about it.
They ordered some food and drinks, and they sat down in a comfortable seating area. Feng Jiu and Xiao Yan sat side by side, while Si Ming sat opposite facing Feng Jiu.
"Mmm! This is such a nice cafe, and the food is delicious too! I'm so glad that we found this place!" Feng Jiu said happily.
"Alright, let's quickly finish our food and start studying. I heard that this test is going to be hard." Si Ming replied.
"Yeah! I hate the person who comes up with this SOP test!" Xiao Yan nodded his head and lightly banged the table.
Feng Jiu chuckled and thought to herself, "Yeah, you already hate that person, Xiao Yan."
"Why are you smiling to yourself, Feng Jiu?" Xiao Yan leaned towards Feng Jiu, upon noticing her smile.
Right at this moment, Dong Hua walked into the cafe, and he saw Xiao Yan leaning close to Feng Jiu.
He avoided eye contact as he walked towards the cashier counter to order a drink.
"Is that for here or to go?" The cashier asked Dong Hua.
"To go."
"Sure. You may want to take a seat first, and we will serve you shortly." The cashier replied, and she pointed towards the seating area.
Dong Hua's face remained expressionless, and he calmly walked towards the seating area. Then he chose the seat, which was directly facing Feng Jiu, and sat down. Then Dong Hua looked at Feng Jiu with his cold, calm eyes.
Xiao Yan, who was sitting beside Feng Jiu, immediately complained, "Why do I keep seeing Ice Face wherever I go?! Such bad luck!"
Si Ming shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Well, the resort is only this big; it's not strange to be bumping into people we know."
Feng Jiu then tapped Si Ming's shoulder, and said "Hey, Si Ming. Can we switch places? It's too cold on this side." The 'cold' that she was referring to was Dong Hua's cold stare. Feng Jiu wanted to avoid looking at Dong Hua, so she made up an excuse to switch places with Si Ming.
Si Ming immediately got up and switched places with Feng Jiu.
"Thanks, Si Ming. Now I can focus on studying without feeling cold." She thanked Si Ming.
Xiao Yan then replied sarcastically, "Anyone would feel cold, especially with those cold eyes staring over here." Then Si Ming turned to look at Dong Hua and gave a polite smile to him.
"How dare she avoid me?" Dong Hua silently thought to himself. But he was good at hiding his emotions, and his face remained emotionless throughout the entire time he was at the cafe.
"Here you go, sir. Your drink is ready to go." The waitress walked over to Dong Hua's table, passing him his drink.
Dong Hua then thanked the waitress and left the cafe. Dong Hua was having mixed feelings about Feng Jiu avoiding him because this is the first time he met a girl who didn't want any of his attention. This made Dong Hua even more curious about Feng Jiu.
At the same time, Feng Jiu also didn't understand why the more she tried to avoid Dong Hua, the more they kept seeing each other.
Then she brushed the thought off and started to focus on studying.
"Why is she avoiding me? - Dong Hua"
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