Chapter 37 Vacation Surfing

Chapter 37: Surfing on Break

“Xu Zhu, is something wrong?”

Silence stretched on the other end of the line. Wen Qi pulled the phone away to check the screen—it wasn’t Xu Zhu, but Jian Youan.

“Ah, You An! Long time no see.”

“No time for pleasantries,” the voice sounded urgent, with yelling and fighting sounds in the background. “When are you coming back?”

Wen Qi switched the phone to his other hand, a frown creasing his brow. “Tentatively a month from now. Why do you ask?”

Why was everyone urging him to return? Could Wen Mo really be in such dire straits?

“Next month?!” Jian Youan exclaimed.

“I’m swamped lately, so I can only come back next month to check. Is Wen Mo’s condition really that bad?”

“Him? Who cares if he lives or dies! He’s about to sell you off! Don’t you know Wen Mo is attending the Holleschel Abbott family’s banquet in two weeks?”

Wen Qi instinctively glanced behind him, confirming the door was still closed, then turned back and lowered his voice. “What’s going on? I thought Wen Mo was hospitalized?”

“Hospitalized, my ass! He was bouncing around with boundless energy yesterday and even spent two hours at our training ground!” The person on the other end muttered a curse. “You really don’t know Wen Mo is going to discuss a marriage arrangement?”

“Him? With the Holleschel Abbott family? Is he forcing Wen Lifei into another arranged marriage?”

Wen Qi’s tone darkened. Previous blind dates or other messy situations could be brushed aside, but the Holleschel Abbott family was different.

The current head of the Holleschel Abbott family, Holleschel Abbott, was the First Alliance Marshal. The Abbott family undoubtedly stood among the upper echelons of nobility and influence. How had Wen Mo even gotten connected to the Marshal?

“No…” Jian Youan’s voice caught in his throat. “Seriously, no one told you? Damn those bastards—after all these years, they haven’t changed a bit.”

“It’s you! You’re the one being set up for the arranged marriage!”

What?

Wen Qi’s first reaction was that it was a joke, but then he thought, if it involved Wen Mo, it made a twisted kind of sense.

“But the Holleschel Abbott family has always had alphas, generation after generation. They would never agree to a match with a beta.” Wen Qi reasoned calmly, trying to reassure his friend. “It should be fine, don’t worry too much.”

“No, the main issue is that I heard the Holleschel Abbott family specifically requested you. You should’ve seen Wen Mo’s smug, self-satisfied look—how could he even laugh about it!”

“Not many people know about this yet. I’ve managed to suppress what I can for now, but once the banquet happens in two weeks, it’ll be impossible to hide. Not to mention, Wen Mo is practically eager for everyone to know about his connection to the Holleschel Abbott family.”

“Okay, I understand. Thanks for telling me.” Wen Qi added, “By the way, can you get in touch with Xu Zhu? I tried calling him but couldn’t get through. I’m worried something might have happened.”

“Ah, it’s nothing,” the background noise of fighting grew quieter. “He… has been busy learning boxing lately. Said he wanted to exercise and get fit. He’s probably still training at this hour. He’ll contact you once he’s free.”

Wen Qi was relieved. After exchanging a few more pleasantries, he hung up.

Wen Mo truly hadn’t changed one bit.

Knock, knock.

Startled, Wen Qi hurriedly put his phone away. He rubbed his tense jaw, took a deep breath, and walked over to open the door.

“Let’s eat, the food’s getting cold.” Ji Yaoming noticed his absentmindedness—he had barely touched his meal during dinner.

After a moment of thought, Ji Yaoming said, “The training base is locked down these couple of days. The backup base is an hour’s drive away, so you guys should take some time off. Is there anywhere you’d like to go?” He spoke softly, “About twenty minutes west of Tofios Town, there’s a beach where you can surf.”

It wasn't until the mention of surfing that Wen Qi's eyes finally lit up.

Ji Yaoming: "Want to go check it out?"

——

The afternoon sun blazed, yet three or four bare-bottomed children still ran back and forth by the shore, splashing in the water.

Under a sun umbrella, wearing a flamboyant red floral shirt and lounging leisurely on a beach chair, a white-haired man in sunglasses raised a hand to greet the men and women in alluring swimwear.

Beside him was Ji Yaoming, also dressed in a blue floral shirt with white daisy patterns and beach shorts.

"Seriously, Commander Ji, you own an outfit like this? What happened to all those black shorts? The bodysuits?" Lu Sien slid his sunglasses down, his eyes practically popping out. "Did you raid Xiao Wenqi's closet?"

Ji Yaoming said nothing, merely pushing away the face leaning in with a look of disgust. He frowned, sat up straight, and scanned the surroundings. After spotting the tan child hugging a beach volleyball and running around with his bare bottom out for the fourth time, he lay back down again.

"You're such a buzzkill. You never brought us to a place like this before."

"Yeah, and right now I still want you to buzz off."

Lu Sien: "So quick to abandon your friends for some eye candy... But why haven't those two come out yet? Did they run off behind our backs?"

No sooner had he spoken than two figures emerged from the changing rooms: one wearing eye-catching yellow beach shorts, boldly shirtless, his dark chocolate skin blending perfectly with the sandy beach; the other, by comparison, pale and luminous, with his bangs tied into a small apple-shaped puff, crescent eyes visible even behind his sunglasses, and holding half a large watermelon in his left hand, which was covered by a white full-finger arm sleeve.

"Ahhh, hot guys!"

"Hey honey~ I'm Mark, I'll be waiting over there~"

"Tanned dude, are you an alpha? Your body is so hot, wanna get to know each other?"

"Don't look at him, look at me! Either of you is fine, can I get your contact info?"

......

A crowd materialized out of nowhere and rushed toward the two who had just stepped out of the changing rooms. Within minutes, they were swarmed. Some clueless tourists even crouched down to snap a few photos, as if it were a tourist attraction...

The two on the beach chairs exchanged a wide-eyed look: "..." Without another word, they sprang from their chairs and bolted into action. Long arms parted the crowd, ignoring the curses behind them—"Can't you wait your turn?" "First come, first served, ever heard of it?" "What kind of people, looking decent but so rude"—they tuned it all out.

Wen Qi was getting overwhelmed, his hands trembling as he held the watermelon, pushing away the reaching hands while backing up.

"Wen Qi."

A hand with distinct knuckles gripped his arm firmly, and the next second, he was pulled out of the crowd. His legs moved mechanically, following the person in front until he finally snapped back to reality after sitting down on a beach chair.

"Everyone, move along! Why are you crowding around someone else's husband?"

Lu Sien's irritable voice carried over: "Rong Qiu, if you accept one more number, I swear!... Don't you dare take them!" Even from a distance, they could hear his furious ranting. Soon enough, he stormed over, arm wrapped around Rong Qiu's waist.

Rong Qiu didn't seem bothered at all; in fact, he was beaming and eyeing the stack of numbers in his hand eagerly.

"Damn it!" Rong Qiu jumped up excitedly. "I said no, I said no! Are you a professional plumber or something? Why are you stuffing so many in?"

"You're just jealous," Rong Qiu said.

"I'm not jealous." Lu Sien grew agitated. "Fine, I'm losing it, okay? Just throw the numbers away, huh? Look, there's a drift bottle setup over there. Can't we just set them all adrift?"

Rong Qiu ignored him completely, walking over to sit under a nearby tree, carefully examining the numbers.

Lu Sien: "..."

Wen Qi watched as the major gritted his teeth, scurried after him, crouched down beside him, reached out to take the numbers away, only to get a solid smack on the hand before obediently pulling back.

Wen Qi gave a soft laugh.

Those two are really close.

"What about you?" The guy crouching in front of him suddenly spoke.

"Huh?" Wen Qi jerked, instinctively trying to stand, but he was pressed back down. He had been too busy pulling himself together and watching those two earlier, completely unaware that Ji Yaoming had been crouching in front of him, lightly checking his legs and hands, observing something.

"I meant the note you got."

Wen Qi immediately shook his head.

"I didn’t get one." He then handed the watermelon in his hand to Ji Yaoming. "I wanted to bring you some watermelon. It was still chilled earlier," he said, his mouth turning down slightly. "But it's not cold anymore."

Ji Yaoming looked up, his expression softening. Wen Qi looked away, flustered, avoiding eye contact. The feeling of looking down at Ji Yaoming from above was too addictive.

That’s not fair.

"Feed me."

"What?"

Someone pressed a spoon into Wen Qi’s hand, and his hand was guided to the watermelon. Ji Yaoming repeated, "I want to eat."

Wen Qi’s face was now as red as the watermelon in the spoon. Blushing, he guided Ji Yaoming’s hand to feed him a bite. A drop of juice trickled from the corner of Ji Yaoming’s mouth, and he gazed intently at the flustered Wen Qi, wanting to do it again.

"Ji Yaoming!!!!!"

"Cough, cough, cough..."

A deafening shout nearly choked Ji Yaoming. He clutched at his thigh, coughing violently, his face flushed red as he looked up. Wen Qi quickly put down the watermelon and patted his back.

A vein bulged in Ji Yaoming’s forehead as he turned his head and glared coldly at Lu Sien, who was wailing and stumbling toward them, looking like he wanted to skin him alive.

"Xiao Wenqi!! Ji Yaoming!! What do I do?! My baby is trying to cheat on me—I can’t go on living—!!!"

He threw his arms around Wen Qi and began sobbing theatrically. Without a second thought, Ji Yaoming "peeled" him off and "shoved" him to the ground.

Wen Qi was also puzzled. "Brother Sien, when did you and Rong Qiu get together? We hadn’t heard."

Lu Sien: "?"

Sprawled on the ground, Lu Sien cried even louder.

"He won’t even give me a proper title! He used me and then just walked away—how heartless can he be!"

Ji Yaoming added fuel to the fire: "Explain what you mean by 'used you.'"

Wen Qi and Lu Sien: "..." The latter felt there was no hope in relying on these two and scurried back to Rong Qiu, clinging to him without letting go.

Wen Qi scratched his cheek, embarrassed, with his fingertip.

No wonder those two have such a good relationship.

Ji Yaoming watched them squabbling, lost in thought, before turning back to look at Wen Qi, who was gazing out at the ocean. He let out an almost imperceptible sigh.

Better take it slow. He couldn’t act like before.

It would scare him.

Ji Yaoming bent down, planting the two surfboards he had prepared earlier on the ground. With his back to the sun, he quirked a smile and extended a hand to the seated Wen Qi, inviting him. "Want to go surfing?"

Wen Qi was momentarily dazzled, his heart pounding wildly. Life had been too good lately—so good it scared him. This feeling of floating in the air, this lack of stability, hit him hard.

Ah, whatever, he thought. Even if it’s just a dream, what’s wrong with a year-long one? After all, he didn’t ask for much.

Wen Qi took his hand and stood up, but his phone buzzed in his pocket. Ji Yaoming motioned for him to check it first. Wen Qi took it out, but after just one glance at the message, he broke out in a cold sweat despite the blazing sun.

Unknown number: "I’m Wen Mo. We need to talk."