I wiped away the rain water stains on my face as I made my way toward the airplane. My s.h.i.+rt was drenched by the icy lake water, and occasionally I could hear thunder rumbling at the distance.
The airplane was floating above the water—more specifically a shallow patch of land in the lake—and I could see some people standing around the airplane. They all looked pretty panicky and worried.
My brain turned blank, and my nose crinkled with indescribable emotions. Throwing all caution to the wind, I moved in a straight line toward the plane.
……
The heavy rain still wasn"t stopping, and the lakewater had climbed all the way to my neck. Unfortunately, I was still dozens of meters away from the airplane, so I had no choice but to swim toward it.
Lightning kept flas.h.i.+ng across the sky. The weather was so bad that I could hear people breaking into tears around the airplane.
The heavy rain was blocking my vision, but when I got close I heard a woman shouting, “Look, there"s someone there!”
I looked up. There were water plants hanging on top of my head, and I almost couldn"t open my eyes because of the rain water sliding down my face.
It was at this moment I heard an exclamation of surprise from inside the cabin. It was He Yi"s voice. The next moment, my beautiful leader appeared at the entrance and stared at me with indescribable emotions. She covered her mouth with both hands and burst into tears.
“Miss, miss!”
A flight attendant tried to stop her, but He Yi had already jumped into the water and held me tightly. The flight attendant shouted, “Please come back, miss! The boat"s coming very soon!”
He Yi simply shook her head in response before looking at me. “How did you come here, Lu Chen…”
I pointed to my back. “Sis and Beiming are waiting by the car.”
“Then let"s go there right away.”
He Yi laughed at the sight of the water plants hanging from the top of my hair and shoulders, but she couldn"t stop the tears pouring out of her eyes. After she had kicked off her high heels, the two of us swam all the way back to the lakesh.o.r.e. When we entered the shallow area, I stopped He Yi for a moment and held her in a princess carry. It was because there were shards of broken gla.s.s all over the place, and I didn"t want to risk her stepping on them barefooted.
He Yi"s arms were wrapped around my neck, andher legs were partly submerged in the lake water. Despite the pouring rain and the lake water lapping against He Yi"s legs, I felt an indescribable warmth settling inside my heart.
……
Murong Mingyue hurriedly got out of the car and opened an umbrella. When she saw us, she couldn"t help but blurt, “Have you both gone crazy!? I can"t believe you…” She sighed. “You"ve both gone crazy…”
He Yi burst into a giggle as I put her gently at the backseat. “Sister Mingyue, can you drive? And turn up the temperature of the AC, please. As you can see, we"re both completely wet.”
“Sure!”
Murong Mingyue entered the driver"s seat, and Beiming Xue moved to the front pa.s.senger seat so that He Yi and I could sit together in the back. It was autumn right now, and the rain was naturally frigid. The wet clothes clinging to our skin also felt incredibly uncomfortable. If we didn"t get home and take a hot bath very soon, we were absolutely going to get sick or worse.
Murong Mingyue started the car but frowned when she saw the state we were in. She immediately took off her black windbreaker and pa.s.sed it to He Yi, saying, “Eve, take off your wet clothes and wear this right now. You know your const.i.tution, and I don"t need to tell you how bad it is to catch a flu in this weather, do I?”
“Ah? Now?” He Yi"s mouth fell open in astonishment.
Murong Mingyue shot me a glance before smiling. “Why not? It"s not like Lu Chen"s an outsider. Just tell him to look away and it"ll be fine…”
I looked away and said, “Time to go, sis. Don"t worry, the rain"s so heavy that no one can see into the car.”
He Yi blinked in embarra.s.sment, but in the end all she could do was nod and get to changing right away.
I heard some rustling sounds as He Yi started changing next to me. I was staring outside the window, but my heart was beating like a drum as a matter of course. It was dark outside, and Murong Mingyue had turned on the interior lights, so it wasn"t long before I noticed that the car window had become slightly reflective, just enough for me to catch a glimpse of He Yi taking off all her clothes and revealing her smooth, milky skin. After she was done covering herself with Murong Mingyue"s windbreaker, she looked up and shot the rear-view mirror a glare. “Miss Murong, please focus on driving and stop staring at me through the rear-view mirror!”
Murong Mingyue giggled a little. “So stingy. It"s not like this is the first time I"ve seen you undressed!”
“Hmph!”
After that, He Yi gave my arm a tug and said, “Lu Chen, you can turn around now.”
“Oh…”
I was barely able to stop myself from salivating just now, but just in case, I consciously wiped the corner of my lips before I finally turned around to face He Yi. He Yi had taken off all of her clothes, and she was wearing Murong Mingyue"s windbreaker only. Although the apparel was huge, it did little to hide her gorgeous curves. If I looked up, my eyes were inevitably drawn toward the spectacular roundness of her chest. If I looked down, it became almost impossible to look away from her long and well-proportioned legs.
Moreover, her clothing was placed at the center of the back seat. My eyes were immediately drawn toward a faint purple bra and a thin piece of cloth that looked like—ZZAP! My brain turned completely blank at that moment. I… I"m not sure how much longer I can endure this!
Seemingly noticing my embarra.s.sment, He Yi immediately grabbed a handbag and stuffed her wet clothes inside. A different girl would"ve thrown away the branded suit that was worth at least a couple hundred thousand RMB, but He Yi was the able and virtuous type who wouldn"t waste even a single fen no matter the money she made. It was why we led a “poor” life during the starting period of the Frost Cloud workshop.
……
Murong Mingyue said as she drove, “I still can"t believe Lu Chen jumped into the lake and swam all the way to the airplane. Not even death can stop him from reaching you… but Eve, it isn"t like you at all to do something so dangerous. Did you have any idea how many water plants are there in the lake? How dangerous it is to swim back to the sh.o.r.e in this weather, or any weather for the matter?”
He Yi smiled. “It"s fine, everything turned out well in the end, right?”
Murong Mingyue pursed her lips. “Hmph. When you put two geniuses together, the end result is a pair of b.u.mbling idiots, huh.”
He Yi laughed. “No, that"s not true. Can"t you see how artistic it is to swim under a downpour? I think I also gained a level in my b.u.t.terfly stroke skill…”
I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, my dog paddle certainly improved after that experience…”
Beiming Xue burst into a giggle. “You don"t get to say that, big bro! Do you know how worried I was when you jumped into the lake without warning?”
“Ahem, I was worried…” I hesitated a couple of seconds when I noticed that He Yi, Beiming Xue and even Murong Mingyue was staring at me through the rear-view mirror. “I... was just worried about the possibility of a leak, that"s all. If the airplane really started to sink, then the sooner I got there, the better, right?”
“Hmph hmph!” Murong Mingyue snorted.
He Yi squeezed out some water from her hair and gave me a sweet smile. “Well, this was certainly not how I imagined my return trip to be, but I"m glad I didn"t decline all those meetings and come back as fast as possible for nothing...”
The only response I could muster to that was an awkward smile.
……
The car fell into awkward silence for a moment. Pulling the windbreaker around her body closer, a red-faced He Yi leaned against my shoulder without a word.
Beiming Xue turned around and looked back and forth between me and He Yi with those round eyes of hers. She looked like she wanted to say something but didn"t know how to begin.
In the end, it was Murong Mingyue who broke the ice again. “Mn, it"s going to be a while before this boring car trip is over, so why don"t we talk about the near future for a bit? The first order of business is of course the Who Will Rise tournament. Does everyone think that we have a chance of entering the Top 3?”
He Yi replied, “We definitely have a good chance of winning since Li Chengfeng has joined our party, but at the same time I"m dragging down the party because my level is okay at best, and my equipment is falling behind the best of the best…”
I consoled her with a smile. “Don"t worry, it"s not an issue. With Li Chengfeng and I in the same party, it"s going to be smooth sailing all the way to the Top 32 at the very least. There are a handful of powerful parties that could threaten us such as Candle Dragon, Snowy Cathaya and Warsky Alliance, but again, only a handful. Still, we should keep in mind that a ton of dark horses will be partic.i.p.ating in this tournament as well.”
“Mn.” He Yi smiled. “That"s exactly what I"m worried about. I"m afraid that we might lose to a dark horse.”
I squeezed some water out of my collar before giving her a confident smile. “No worries, boss. Just trust in Li Chengfeng and me! Another party might have to worry about having their a.s.s kicked by a dark horse, but not us. I promise you that our workshop will enter the Top 3 even if G.o.d or the Buddha himself is standing in our way!”
“Good!” He Yi replied with a glad expression. “I"ll do my best to grind EXP and not become a burden to you all after I return to the workshop. Speaking of which, are you free to grind with us, Lu Chen?”
Her question caught me off -guard a little, but I shook my head and said, “Count me out. I"m currently grinding inside a closed map, and I don"t want to leave until I achieve my objective. Don"t worry, I"ll definitely come out of my "secluded cultivation" in time to partic.i.p.ate in the tournament!”
“Mn, okay!”
……
Some time later, He Yi actually fell asleep on my shoulder. She looked incredibly cute like this. Her exhaustion must have caught up to her after the long flight and that landing fiasco.
Over time, He Yi grew more and more relaxed until she slid on top of my legs. She unconsciously curled into a ball and lay snugly inside my lap, sleeping as if she had become a child once more.
I carefully wrapped my arms around her. Murong Mingyue saw everything through the rear-view mirror and smiled a little.
Everything was perfectly peaceful for a time. It was as if the thunderstorm outside and the warm s.p.a.ce inside the car were two completely separate worlds.
……
By the time we reached Suzhou, it was past 11 in the morning. A b.u.mpy ride into the district later, He Yi finally woke up and stared at me with bright eyes. Instead of pulling herself upright, she stared at me from my lap and asked with a smile, “How long did I sleep?”
“About an hour or so.”
“Are we home?”
“We are.”
“Mn.”
He Yi got up and tried to get out of the car. Then, she recalled that she had kicked off her leather shoes worth hundreds of thousands of RMB in Lake Tai earlier. Smiling helplessly, I carried her in my arms again and walked toward our apartment, Beiming Xue and Murong Mingyue staying close to me.
My beautiful leader hugged my neck tightly as we entered the elevator. There were two middle-aged uncles inside, and they shook their heads when they saw us. “Sigh, millennials these days…”
“I know right? These millennials…”
……
He Yi and I exchanged a smile with each other. So what if we were “millennials”? We went through the trial of life just like them, and were just as capable of holding up the sky of China!