"Come over here, try this swimsuit on..."
"I don't want a swimsuit!"
"Then how are you going to get in the water like that?" Chu Ge coaxed, patient as a teacher. "Even with your magic protecting you, walking onto the beach dressed like that would be weird. You'd stick out terribly."
"I can just not go! I can stand right here and look, so why do I have to go on the sand at all, why do I have to get in the water!"
"Well—I'm already here... and it wasn't easy, coming all this way..."
"I won't!"
"Don't you want to experience how modern girls live?"
Qiu Wuji said hotly, "You call this how modern girls live?"
Chu Ge was utterly righteous about it. "Are they not girls? Look how happy they are, smiling and running around on the sand. Look—there are even little girls."
Peering past the shade awning, Qiu Wuji saw several little girls running barefoot along the water's edge, wild with joy, while other children built sandcastles. Every face was brimming with happy laughter.
At the sight, the stiff line of Qiu Wuji's face softened a little.
They're all in swimsuits too... so I suppose it really is normal...
Who knows, though. Back then, an OL skirt and black stockings on the street looked perfectly normal too, and then in a certain someone's eyes it was... So it isn't the clothes that are abnormal—it's certain people's filthy minds, isn't it?
As if he could read the meaning in her eyes, Chu Ge flopped flat and threw in the towel. "Right. I'm the filthy one, not the clothes. So wear it all you like, it's fine..."
Qiu Wuji looked down on him. "What a pity that the one beside me is you."
Chu Ge: "..."
"Forget it." Qiu Wuji flicked her ponytail and picked out a bikini at random. "Little girls wear them, so there's nothing for me to be so fussy about. And if a certain someone dares let his lecherous eyes wander, he'd better watch those eyes of his!"
"Yes, yes, yes, no wandering, definitely no wandering." Chu Ge was secretly overjoyed. "Hey, hey, wait a moment."
Qiu Wuji turned her head. "What's your game now?"
"That one in your hand is an A cup at the very most, you can't fit into it. Try this one..."
"Get lost! So now you can measure by eye, can you!" Qiu Wuji aimed a kick at him, snatched the one out of his hand, and stormed into the women's changing room.
The moment she got inside, she was struck dumb.
So much bare white flesh... If a pervert walked in here, he'd die of bliss.
Nervously, Qiu Wuji spread out her divine sense. This is really not the sort of thing that should be seen.
But seriously, do I really have to undress in front of this many people? Though everyone's so casual about it, and they're even chatting.
Seeing how casual everyone was, Qiu Wuji hesitantly began to undress. One after another, the eyes in the room turned her way; every woman there, old and young alike, lit up.
Where did this fairy come from? So beautiful!
She even undresses this slow and unhurried—so classy!
"Not bad at all, young man!" The girl at the counter was staring at Chu Ge in wonder too. "That's the first time I've ever seen such a beautiful girl!"
Chu Ge looked up at the sky.
Girl? She's old enough to be your great-grandmother.
"And of course the first time I've ever seen such a handsome young man."
...? Here comes the sales pitch, right?
"Does the young man want some suntan oil?" Sure enough, the girl launched straight into an enthusiastic pitch. "Oh, and here are our prices for renting lounge chairs and beach umbrellas..."
She handed over a printed list.
Chu Ge looked at the string of numbers on that list and felt his heart bleed, but for the sake of an unspeakable goal, he had to let the knife fall.
"Rent. Rent it all. Sunscreen too—two bottles!"
Chu Ge took the goods, ducked into the changing room in a flash, changed in three quick moves, and came back out to wait at the mouth of the passageway.
He had never in his life waited for anyone this anxiously; he paced back and forth like a nervous husband outside a delivery room.
What's about to walk out is Qiu Wuji in a swimsuit!!
Click. Someone opened the changing-room door and came out of the passageway. Chu Ge darted forward. "Qiu— uh, sorry, wrong person..."
The one who came out was just a young married woman he didn't know, pretty enough in a flirtatious way, and she looked at Chu Ge with a meaningful gleam in her eye. "Are you hitting on me, handsome?"
"Huh?" Chu Ge hastily backed up. "Misunderstanding. That's not what I meant."
The woman stepped forward. "Then... what's your WeChat?"
...? So you're the one hitting on me? Chu Ge was stunned speechless, and for a moment he had no idea how to answer.
The woman sized Chu Ge up with a smile. This man is so handsome. Nice muscles, and he seems pretty honest, too? Oh my, do men like this still exist these days? I wasn't even going to flirt with him, but I can't help myself.
"What's the matter, handsome?" The woman deliberately leaned in, reaching out as if to trail her hand over his chest. "Did you not bring your phone? Or is it... hidden... somewhere?"
And her hand went wandering downward to "look for the phone."
Chu Ge backed away in alarm and banged right into the wall. "No—listen, miss, I'm waiting for someone..."
"Oh? And here I thought you were waiting for me."
Chu Ge could tell the girl was probably just doing it on purpose, and finding it fun. But he really didn't want to play this game—if Qiu Wuji saw and it set off some ridiculous soap-opera misunderstanding, he was finished!
In his panic the words burst out of him. "I have a girlfriend! It's not you I'm waiting for!"
Just as he said it, someone tapped the woman on the shoulder.
She turned and saw the beauty who had stunned the whole changing room standing behind her with a smile. "Excuse me. He's waiting for me."
The woman blinked, and the phrase "a perfect match of talent and beauty" surfaced in her mind at once. She said hurriedly, "Don't misunderstand me, sister, I was only teasing him. Your boyfriend is very handsome, you two are a wonderful fit!"
Killing intent had very nearly shown in Qiu Wuji's eyes. At those words she forced it down and produced an impeccable, polite smile. "Thank you."
The woman hurried away, and only then did Qiu Wuji's eyes land on Chu Ge. She gave his bare torso a quick once-over and twisted her lips in a way that was barely visible.
So he draws bees and butterflies now? What's even worth looking at...
Well. A little bit worth looking at.
Looking at the thoroughly displeased expression on Qiu Wuji's face—like a mother hen guarding her chick—Chu Ge was actually delighted. He said with a grin, "See? I'm a cadre who can withstand the test, aren't I?"
"If you hadn't come out here with me, a couple of pats and you'd have lost all sense of north and south long ago," Qiu Wuji said coldly. "A lecher like you, withstanding a test? Tell it to the ghosts."
"Put that way, it's not entirely unreasonable—but I already have you, don't I? So all those other hypotheticals don't exist!" Chu Ge declared with righteous gravity. "As long as there is Qiu Wuji, Chu Ge will never take a second woman as long as he lives!"
"Bah! What do you mean, have me? Do you, now?" Qiu Wuji turned and walked off. "Save that sweet talk of your book's male leads, it's so cringe I'm breaking out in goosebumps!"
That was what she said, but her steps were light. Chu Ge caught up and fell in beside her, stealing glances at her as they walked.
Qiuqiu in a bikini.
She really is beautiful... Her fair, tender skin on full display, the perfect figure wrapped in that swimsuit—the kind of thing that would get clipped by Dianniang if he described it one word more.
But... but, but—why do I suddenly not want her to go out there and be seen by other people?
Chu Ge sank into deep confusion. Is there something wrong with me?
Right, what if some other man comes over to hit on her and we end up fighting? Just watch—yours truly would pound them into the sand.
"What are you thinking about over there?" Qiu Wuji looked at him oddly. "You talked me into coming with a thousand tricks and ten thousand coaxings, and now that we're standing on the sand you go all quiet."
"Ah, nothing, nothing." Chu Ge smiled and took her hand. Both of them barefoot, they stumbled unevenly over the sand, slowly walking toward the sea.
The sea breeze blew into their faces, faintly damp, cool and refreshing. Bare feet at the water's edge, the waves washed over their insteps and drew back again with some rhythm hard to put into words, until even Chu Ge's restless, wandering thoughts gradually settled into calm.
Never mind that he'd been born and raised here—he actually hadn't come all that often. Qiu Wuji had probably seen more of the sea than he had.
But coming here now, his mood was completely different.
Because she was beside him.
The swimsuit Qiuqiu he'd been pining to see suddenly seemed meaningless... The real meaning was this: hand in hand, standing side by side with her. Even saying nothing at all, his heart could be at peace.
Qiu Wuji narrowed her eyes, letting the wind tumble her loose hair, and gazed at the vast, distant blur where sea and sky met.
This was autumn's sea and sky, without edge or bound.
The glittering water stretched all the way to the horizon; at the end of the world, water and sky were joining together.
Just as now, under the sunlight, the shadow the two of them cast on the sand, hand in hand, looked like a single person.