"I'm tired, I want to sleep." Dripping with water, she yawned and rested her head on his shoulder. "It's almost three, right? In another hour, we can watch the sunrise. Why don't we just go straight to the beach for it?"
"Can you stay awake?" He held her steadily, striding toward the beach house. "Not a bad idea. We can have breakfast after the sunrise and then come back for a nap?"
"Of course." Her eyelids were so heavy they nearly stuck together. "Good idea."
They didn't fuss when they returned. Chen Yi placed the drowsy, teary-eyed Miao Jing in the bathtub, washed her hair and body, then dried her hair and dressed her. Miao Jing barely managed to open her eyes to drink a cup of coffee before following Chen Yi out. They found a quiet spot on the dimly lit beach, spread out a towel, and waited for the sunrise.
The sky was faintly bright, and the morning breeze was refreshing. Miao Jing had already fallen asleep with her head on Chen Yi's lap. He held a cigarette in one hand and stroked her long hair with the other, patiently waiting for the first rays of sunlight to cast upon the clear sea.
"Miao Jing, the sun's coming up." He nudged her head.
The unparalleled sea, the breathtaking sunrise—a pink sun leaped above the horizon, and the water changed colors with every passing second. She lay across his lap, her cheeks tinged with the glow of dawn, as radiant as peach blossoms, staring blankly at the stunning scene before her, silently waiting for the sun to rise fully and hang low above the sea.
A new day had arrived.
The crowd watching the sunrise gradually dispersed. Miao Jing pushed herself up from the ground, feeling something was off but too dazed to realize what. After taking a few steps, she suddenly paused, raised her left hand to her eyes, and her heart raced—a ring, with a shell-like texture, slightly rough and simple, was unmistakably on her ring finger.
She had no idea when it had been slipped on.
Her mind went blank. After a moment of stunned silence, her lips parted slightly, and her gaze instinctively shifted to Chen Yi's face. She stared at him dumbfounded. He met her eyes, followed her gaze to her finger, then shoved his hands into his pockets lazily. The wind whistled through his shirt as he spoke in a casual tone.
"Bought it from a roadside stall. A handicraft made from polished shells. One dollar each."
The ring was slightly loose, resting awkwardly on her slender finger. Miao Jing looked down, twisting the ring, her heart warming with a mix of emotions, leaving her momentarily speechless.
"When did you buy it?"
"Yesterday, when I went to get water. The vendor didn't have change, so I grabbed something of similar value."
"Oh." She responded faintly.
He took a couple of steps forward, paused slightly, and turned to look at her, his tone calm. "Miao Jing, do you want to get married?"
Miao Jing froze, stunned for a long while. She stared at him, carefully considering his words, wanting to say something but unsure how to begin. Finally, she said, "I've never thought about it..."
Chen Yi whistled lightly. "Do you think there's any need for us to get married?"
Having known each other for so many years, transitioning from siblings to what they are now—it seemed whether they married or not wasn't particularly important. That deep, bone-deep connection made Miao Jing feel they never needed the worldly ties or nominal confirmation. She had never imagined how marriage might change their lives. Was marriage useful? What changes would it bring? What kind of life would it switch them to?
"Whether we marry or not, it's fine." She thought seriously, fiddling with the ring in her hand. "Why are you asking me this?""That means you don't want to get married." He chuckled softly. "It's fine if we just spend our whole lives like this."
"No..."
It wasn't that she didn't want to get married. She wasn't resistant to the idea of marriage. Miao Jing felt her heart lightly stirred. Of course marriage would be acceptable too - just getting a certificate, treating everyone to wedding candies, such simple matters...
Chen Yi took her hand and casually slipped the shell ring off her finger, holding it between his fingertips.
With the foreign object gone, her finger suddenly felt empty. She frowned delicately, her gaze fixed intently on the ring in his hand.
"The vendor told me this kind of ring is made from seashells gathered from the ocean," he said. "There's a legend on this island - if you make a wish into the ring and throw it into the sea, the sea god will grant your wish. I heard there's pirate treasure buried beneath this island. I'm hoping the sea god will send me something good..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Yi swung his arm and the ring flew right before Miao Jing's eyes, landing in the water with a "plop."
Something in her heart seemed to fly out with the ring, splashing with that "plop" sound. The white sand, the white ring - completely vanished without a trace.
Now it was Miao Jing's turn to be unhappy.
She couldn't articulate why she was unhappy - it wasn't exactly sadness or sorrow, just a somewhat hollow feeling. Biting her lip, she stared blankly at the sea surface, feeling inexplicably sulky.
Chen Yi dragged her away, his arm slung over her shoulder as he lazily yawned: "Let's go, we should eat something and get some sleep."
Miao Jing carried this sulkiness into her sleep, so much so that when she woke up and found the room empty, she sat gloomily for a long time, lying on the bed emotionlessly lost in thought - that shell ring, she hadn't even examined it carefully before it was thrown into the sea.
There was food on the table along with a note from Chen Yi saying he had gone to the beach and asking her to join him after she woke up.
When Miao Jing found Chen Yi, the sunset was painting the sky. Unusually, he wasn't in the water but wearing a T-shirt and beach shorts, playing with a group of children by the shore, digging sand and building castles.
The tropical fish in the water weren't afraid of people, swimming around their feet. The shells and seashells displayed brilliant colors - just reaching into the water would yield beautiful shell fragments and colorful small stones. Children of various skin colors ran back and forth, burying the shells and stones they collected from the water into their sand castles.
"Big sister, our castle has lots of treasures! Do you want to come treasure hunting?" a child waved to Miao Jing. "Come play with us!"
Miao Jing walked over and saw they had built ten tall sand fortresses. A blue-eyed girl said to her seriously: "You are a princess from a distant kingdom, but your prince charming has been enchanted and trapped in a thorny bush."
The little girl pointed at Chen Yi, who was smiling with his chin propped in his hands, surrounded by a circle of sand pits, and explained with utmost seriousness: "You need to retrieve the gemstone that symbolizes your identity to cast the magic that will save your prince. The treasure is buried in the ten castles - you must find it."
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