99: Chapter 99 Wuzhizhou Island

Chairman Wang Shunyi stood on the balcony, only extinguishing his cigarette when it had burned down to the filter.

Yesterday, it had been agreed that they wouldn't go to Wuzhizhou Island.

She said, "Let's just stay at the hotel, I don't want to go anywhere."

He agreed.

But a woman's mind is something others can never fathom; this morning, Park Min-ji thought it over and over, then stepped softly onto the floor, wrapped her arms around Chairman Wang Shunyi, and whispered in his ear, "I suddenly want to go after all."

Chairman Wang Shunyi smiled, nodded, and called Kim Young-jun again.

"Hey, Young-jun, buy the tickets again. Get all the tickets for Wuzhizhou Island upgraded to VIP, with a private boat, to avoid the tour groups."

Kim Young-jun replied instantly that he understood.

After eight o'clock, she sat on the balcony chair eating breakfast.

She was eating Hainanese chicken rice sent by the hotel, which wasn't exactly breakfast food.

She had said she wanted chicken rice in the middle of the night, and only remembered she had ordered it when the waiter brought it this morning.

She didn't speak while eating, and Chairman Wang Shunyi just sat beside her looking at his phone.

Nine o'clock, the yacht marina.

The sunlight was so bright it was hard to keep one's eyes open.

Park Min-ji put on that straw sun hat; she had brought it with her, it wasn't bought at the hotel, having carried it all the way from Seoul to Sanya.

On the plane, she had placed it in the overhead bin for fear of crushing it.

He had said at the time that if it got crushed, he would just buy her another one, but she replied, "You can't buy this style."

The sunglasses were Ray-Bans, a gift he had given her for her last birthday.

The brand's logo caught the light when she lowered her head to look at the boat.

A row of white yachts was docked at the pier, some large and some small, with the largest capable of seating over twenty people.

The one Kim Young-jun booked for them was medium-sized, capable of seating eight, but today it was only carrying the two of them.

The captain stood at the bow, his white uniform puffed up by the sea breeze, and standing next to him was a crew member wearing an orange life vest.

Park Min-ji didn't hold onto anyone when boarding the boat.

She stepped on with one hand holding her hat and the other gripping the railing, her steps steady.

He followed behind, and as she boarded, he placed a hand on her waist to support her, fearing she might slip, but she swatted his hand away and said, "Take your hand off."

Not only did he not remove his hand, he took advantage of the situation, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly, and only let go once she was settled in the deck chair.

The boat started, its bow cutting through the water and kicking up white spray.

She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, letting the sea breeze blow her hat until it was about to fly off, then grabbed it with one hand.

He sat across from her and took his phone out of his pocket, snapping several photos from that angle without her knowing.

It was a forty-minute boat ride.

She slept for over ten minutes, with her hat covering her face to block the sun.

With nothing to do, he stared blankly at the sea; the water had changed from the light green at the start to a deep blue, so dark it was almost black.

Occasionally, a flying fish would leap from the surface, glide for a stretch, and dive back in, moving so fast that one could see a blur even in slow motion.

By the time they arrived at Wuzhizhou Island, there were already many people on the pier.

The loudspeakers of tour groups were shouting things like "local tour guide."

Chairman Wang Shunyi frowned slightly; the VIP tickets Kim Young-jun had booked allowed them to enter the island through a special passage, avoiding the crowds.

The security guard checked their tickets and called for a golf cart over the walkie-talkie; the cart had no windows and moved slowly, while the roads on the island were lined with bougainvillea, blooming densely in reds and purples.

"Where should we go first?" she asked.

"Snorkeling. While the water is clear in the morning."

They changed into their gear in the snorkeling area.

She had tied the straps of her life vest too loosely, so he went behind her to help tighten them.

When he pulled them tight, she took a deep breath and said, "It's too tight, I can't breathe."

He loosened them a little.

She couldn't swim, so when she got into the water, she grabbed his arm tightly, her nails digging into his skin, but he endured it without shaking her off.

He shoved a spare buoyancy noodle into her hands, telling her to lie on it and just kick her legs gently.

She tried several times, but couldn't keep her head submerged, lifting it the moment she put it in.

"Don't rush, take it slow."

"Water got into my ears."

"It's fine. If water gets into the snorkel, just spit it out."

On the third try, she finally buried her face in the water, and after a few seconds, she lifted her head sharply, her eyes sparkling.

"I saw it! There are fish!"

That is the reaction of everyone snorkeling for the first time.

He had seen it many times.

Before, in Palau, in the Maldives, in the Philippines.

But he could remember her reaction.

The coral on the seabed was alive, swaying gently with the current.

There were many fish: some with black and white stripes, some entirely golden, and some with sharp, needle-like mouths.

She pointed at a nest of clownfish resting on the coral reef, too excited to speak.

He floated beside her, watching her more than he watched the fish.

They snorkeled for almost an hour before coming ashore.

She sat on the beach, took off her flippers and tossed them aside, water droplets still clinging to her face.

"Sunyi, that underwater world just now was really so beautiful..."

She was still panting while speaking, but the light in her eyes hadn't dimmed at all.

He handed her a towel and watched her wipe her face and hair; she stopped when it was half-dry and tried to return the towel, but he didn't need it.

They ate lunch at a restaurant on the island.

The restaurant was made of wood and open on all four sides, with the sea breeze blowing through and causing the tablecloth to lift from time to time.

She ordered coconut rice, and he ordered seafood fried rice noodles.

The coconut rice was served in a coconut shell; the rice was sticky and fragrant with coconut, and after one bite, she pushed it to him to let him try it too.

He tasted a bite, swallowed, and said it was not bad.

She looked at him and said, "Just 'not bad'?"

He nodded and said it was very delicious, and only then was she satisfied.

In the afternoon, they went hiking in the tropical rainforest.

The entrance to the rainforest was in the middle of the island; the stone path was lined with giant ferns, their leaves taller than a person.

Sunlight filtered down through the gaps in the canopy, casting spots of light on her face, shoulders, and white dress, like someone had absentmindedly sprinkled a handful of gold dust.

She walked very slowly, not because she was tired, but because she wanted to see the shape of every tree and every insect that passed by; her attitude toward nature was not like that of a woman who spent every day in a Seoul office building staring at Excel reports.

He followed slowly behind her, stepping on the same stone slabs she had stepped on.

"A squirrel!"

She suddenly stopped and pointed at the trunk of a large tree by the roadside.

A furry brown ball paused on the trunk, then darted up at high speed, soon disappearing into the canopy.

She looked back at him, thinking she had seen wrong, and he said, "Minji, you didn't see wrong, it was a squirrel."

She was happy for a long time after that.

The beach at five in the evening was different from the morning.

The morning tourists had all left, and the afternoon crowd hadn't arrived yet.

There were only a few couples scattered on the beach, far apart from each other.

The sound of the waves filled the entire world.

She took off her shoes and stepped barefoot into the sand; the sand wasn't hot, and she walked closer and closer to the sea, where the waves surged up to wash over her feet and then receded.

"Sunyi, look, the sand here is so fine, just like flour."

"That's formed from ground-up coral."

She bent down, grabbed a handful of sand, and let it slowly trickle through her fingers.

His gaze was glued to her profile, gilded by the setting sun.

His phone vibrated; Kim Young-jun had sent several progress updates regarding the Wuhan Warehouse, but he didn't reply.

He flipped his phone over and set it face down in the sand.

"Tomorrow, we're going to Nanshan Temple," he said.

"Hmm. What time?"

"Leaving at eight. Kim Young-jun will arrange the car."

"So early?"

"It's less crowded if we go early. We'll be back before noon, and you can rest at the hotel in the afternoon."

She nodded, looking at the sun that was about to sink below the horizon.

The sky changed from orange-red to purple, and she leaned over, resting her head on his shoulder.

He didn't move, afraid that if he did, she would be uncomfortable.

"Sunyi, tomorrow is the last day."

"Hmm."

"I don't want to go back."

"I don't want to either."

She didn't speak, nor did she move.

The sound of the waves came and went in their ears, and she wrapped her arms around his entire arm, pressing it against her chest.

He didn't look at her, feeling her body heat radiating from where his arm was pressed.

By the time the boat came to pick them up, it was already getting dark.

The lights on the pier were on, spreading a dim, yellow glow across the water.

The captain helped them board the boat, and Park Min-ji went first, this time not refusing the hand he extended.

The boat started, and as she sat in the cabin looking at the pitch-black sea outside the window, she suddenly smiled and asked him, "Should we go swimming tomorrow? We still haven't been to the hotel's infinity pool."

"Sure, we'll go tomorrow."

He smiled as he said it, unable to remember the last time he had gone swimming in a pool; it was probably a long, long time ago at some resort, alone, and it hadn't been very interesting.

"Then you wear swimming trunks tomorrow."

"I've got them."

"The good-looking kind."

He looked at her.

She shifted her gaze away, a smile still hanging on the corners of her lips.

The cabin lights were very dim, and the straw hat she had carried all the way from Seoul to Sanya rested on her knees.

A patch of light lit up on the distant shore; that was the Yalong Bay hotel complex.

When the boat docked, someone was waiting for them on the pier.

Kim Young-jun, wearing a pair of white shoes, stood beside the parking space; he had spent the day at the hotel handling the Wuhan Warehouse contract and had come to pick them up in the evening.

When he opened the car door, he said, "Chairman, the matter with the Wuhan Warehouse has been settled."

Chairman Wang Shunyi glanced at him.

Kim Young-jun was about to say the next sentence, but suddenly saw in the rearview mirror that Park Min-ji, sitting in the back, was looking at the sea view outside the window, so he swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue.

On the way back to the hotel, Park Min-ji rested her head against the car window, eyes closed, her eyelashes trembling slightly in the reflection from the sea.

He thought about whether to extend his arm for her to lean on, hesitating for a moment.

She changed her position, turning to lean on his shoulder, very naturally, as if she had leaned on it many times before.

After unlocking the door and going in, his phone screen lit up—a message from Kim Young-jun.

He opened it, and it stated that the terms of the Wuhan Warehouse contract had been confirmed and would be signed on the eighteenth of next month.

"Good," he replied.

The sea outside the window was pitch black; one couldn't see the water, only the lights of a cruise ship moving slowly in the distance.

He tossed his phone onto the bed and listened to the sound of her showering coming from behind the curtain; she was humming a song, though the tune was unclear.

He closed his eyes, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.