Morning thirty-six dawns as foggy as the rest of them.
Early on, Di Qing, Fang Daiyu, and Captain Li make their way over to the same greenhouse that Wang Xi and Di Qing had first found the director in. Early morning exercise is great for your health, and ever since Xu Mei, they’ve had a strict buddy system.
No one goes, or stays, alone. And with Wang Xi off doing god-knows-what with Wang Bohai (picking wild berries, thanks for asking) and Xu Wang refusing to leave Ding Dongqi’s bedside– well, they’ve become a trio by default.
Fang Daiyu has calluses in places she didn’t even know she could get them. Not to mention the old standbys, such as-
“Hold on a minute-” She stops and pulls her socks up for the third time, trying (too late) to prevent the raw rub against her achilles. This is the problem with borrowed shoes. She takes a few steps, making sure the friction is better distributed, and kicks rocks down the sad little slope. “-Next charter, I’m sleeping with my trainers laced up.” She never knew she could miss a ratty pair of Adidas so much.
Engineer Di kicks a rock even farther (pei, men) and pipes up, “Trainers? Ha! Next charter, I’m resigning.”
Captain Li whacks him upside his head. Even in dire situations, it’s best not to talk about turning in your notice while in a throuple with your boss. Fang Daiyu snorts at his misstep, and at his prowess at launching rocks.
“Don’t worry, Cap. I’ll stick with you. Just with trainers on.” Girl’s gotta eat. And the therapy that she’s going to need after this? Not free. She wagers Di Qing will come to the same conclusion, the minute they get out of this place and evil starts to feel nice and comfortably banal again. If they’re too traumatized, they can just focus on day trips and island hopping for a bit. Still money in that.
No one has time to care about ghosts when rent is due and you’ve got filial piety to live up to. The dead are the dead, but mothers? And landlords? And mothers that want to know why you ‘live in such a dump’ and ‘this is why you can’t find a man, even with the ratio’ and ‘ai, you’re already basically a left behind woman?’
Sheesh. Much scarier.
Surely there’s similar nagging for a dog bachelor like Di Qing.
The only solution to such terrors is a job that takes you away from the shore and pays you well enough to flaunt and pretend you’re living the dream instead of blowing your money on drinks in expensive locales and time on disappointing bedmates.
Bickering like school children on a compulsory nature hike, the mismatched trio pick their way across the island, hunting one surprisingly spy old man and his confusingly large array of randomly located greenhouses and micro plots and bushel plantings. Maybe it’s something to do with the finicky nature of soil on such a scrubby island? But really, it just feels like he’s trying to hide from them.
Old fox.
Eh, not like they have anything better to do.
The boat is as clean as it can get, and any more work will just be the foolhardy vanity of putting lipstick on a pig. Especially without their engine woes sorted. Until they figure out their tubing situation, they really have nothing better to occupy their time than hunting old men.
Up and down, they bitch and they squint and they look behind boxes and tents and ramshackle little lean-tos. They also grab a few cherry tomatoes and mostly dried sunflower seeds. To keep their energy up. And maybe anger the old goat into appearing?
Plus, fresh produce feels like a safer bet than food prepared by the shy little cutie. Even if it doesn’t make sense for the crops they’re seeing to appear in the same climate or to ripen at the same time, who ever heard of a haunted tomato, or a cursed apricot? What ghost would throw away their face to that extent? Anyway, they’re from the shore. They don’t know shit about agriculture, and can stay happily ignorant!
They finally run the man down up to his wrists in black mud, in an onion patch that they’d swear didn’t exist a week ago.
—
Oh good. More children here to try to scam components out of him. Joy of joys.
Xi Kuang, who very much wants to finish this task before the skies open up again and rot his unexpected harvest, looks up at the three trespassers with dead fish eyes. He’s the only one in this godforsaken place that likes the taste of onion. The hateful island virtually never throws him this kind of bone and he needs to capitalize, okay?!
He has to pickle, dry, cook, preserve as many as he can before the good fortune ends and he’s once more in a bland herring and rice wasteland. Despite that, when he returns their greeting, his tone is conversational, hands continuously moving from plant to plant, like a nervous first-time father.
“Here to help harvest?” Not that he’d trust them with his bulby beauties. But if they’re polite, they can hold the bucket and help carry the mature ones home.
Captain Li gives a little shake of his head and talks to him ‘man to man.’ He mistakes them for peers of similar ages. Heh. If only that were the case, Director Xi wouldn’t be reduced to being deeply invested in the life cycle of alliums.
“No, I’m afraid our focus is purely on the boat. Especially with the promised rescue being pushed back-” Who exactly said you would be rescued, you silly man? “-Well, if the delivery ship won’t come around in time, we’ll have to deliver ourselves. We all have lives away from this place. Obligations. Loved ones.”
To Director Xi, it’s a foreign concept. His obligations are here. His loved ones- if he ever had such a thing, they have long since been consigned to the ashy soil beneath them. His closest thing to kin now are the two boys he failed most terribly–
Shan Haoyu, and Shan Yutian.
His eyes wet a little. Ah, he must have crushed one of his poor onions. Better get these three away before they distract him into further abuse.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Jjqajlc Ol gecr klat la, fzqijlclcu, “Qf cffv qlqlcu obg atf fculcf– atf wfaji qjgar, kf’nf rbinfv, atf bli, kf’nf obecv– atfgf kjr fnfc j tjio-yjggfi bo oefi lc atf ybjatberf, tlvvfc yftlcv atf fwqalfr. Dea atf aeylcu kjr abb yglaaif ab erf.”
“Then, let’s see what there is to scrounge up.” Director Xi stands up, brushes off his knees, and bids a temporary farewell to his onion patch. Xiao Yu made it clear that if they asked, he should do his best to render aid.
He leads them back up a hill that’s hell on his knees, and into the potting shed where he cuts lengths of tubing to make drip feeds for the more finicky plants that appear on the island. The diameter– he’s not sure. But he thinks, dimly, that he’s done this before, and the tubing seemed to be able to fit after a little adjustment and a lot of lowered expectations?
Anyway, the trio practically vibrate with excitement, telling him he’s ‘one of the good ones’ and that they’ll be on their way. The scramble off, he tidies up, and the world continues to turn. On their way–
Well, it’s not bad to be confident. And they at least have a captain and an engineer around. That’s far better than what usually washes up this late into a judgment. Sailing off on your own… taking the initiative to leave the island, instead of waiting to die or be released from your sentence?
He’s never seen it go well, but he’s also never seen Shan Haoyu so happy. Maybe things can be different this time around. No matter how it shakes out, it’s not his problem anymore. His problem is strictly limited to onions.
Better get back to them!
—
The taste of success is bitter.
It’s bitter, that all it took to get piping was lightly haranguing an old man. It’s bitter that Xu Mei tried to fix things up on her own and died– especially now that it seems all they had to do was be persistent and fearless in their asking.
Her death is still a discordant note between them– she was a great swimmer, she was a calm person, she-
She wasn’t the type to drown in a few feet of water, or to be unable to untangle herself from dock debris.
But Xu Wang won’t talk about it. All they know is what they were told right after collecting her corpse– she stole, she endangered, she was ‘reminded.’ She did what she had to, for them– her death was barely bearable under that narrative, but now that her gamble seems totally unnecessary–
How can they reconcile it?
They cannot.
But understood or not, some things can only be accepted. All they can do is try to wash down the bitterness of the truth with the salty wash of purpose. They can only cut the tubing and carefully wrap it with scavenged adhesives and linen-turned-tape.
They can only wait with bated breath, as the engine finally sputters to life like a stage four patient, hacking and coughing through the agony of being revived. Twice, the tubing comes loose and they have to hurry forward to patch it up, but finally, it holds. Finally, they have a boat. They must press this advantage, and look onwards.
They can only swear that they’ll find help, find answers, find a way for all of them to get back home. Even Xu Mei. They’ll- they’ll definitely find an undertaker to attend to her and give her family closure!
Captain Li takes the helm and carefully maneuvers the limping vessel out of the dank boathouse and into the shallow waters of the natural inlet at the horn of the island. It looks better than it drives, and it looks like shit. But Captain Li has driven worse.
Not in several decades, and not with such high stakes, but he’s done it.
Like riding a bike. Through shark-infested waters. He shouts over the din of the clanking engine and the choke of the diesel, “There’s not enough spare fuel for slowly testing it out.”
It’s unfortunate.
In a perfect world, they’d take this ugly duckling around the island at least once, to get a feel for her and to be within swimming distance of land, in case she falls apart on them. In a perfect world, they’d take short little jaunts after, to test her balance on larger waves. But in a perfect world, they wouldn’t be in this situation at all.
Engineer Di jumps up and into the boat, feeling a sad shadow of his sea legs. Compared to the Ru Yi, this thing is really hard to look at, but whether it’s a black boat or a white boat, if it can take them across water, it’s a good boat. “We’ve already done all we can to fix her up. Between that and the sail, if we can get a heading, this salty bitch should be worth the chance.”
In the place of shrimping nets hang two handmade sails, ready to be unfurled if the engine fails. Fang Daiyu and Wang Xi’s contribution.
Having seen the boat floating for a solid minute without a leak or an engine explosion, the lady herself finally joins the two of them on the scuffed aluminum decking. She folds her arms and takes a short lap around the tiny trawler as Engineer Di continues to talk up the advantages of this rust-bucket.
“You sound like every man justifying his deadbeat girl in every trash relationship ever, just so you know.”
“You disagree?”
“Not particularly. Just-”
“Being a bitch?”
“Well, without MeiMei around, someone has to keep your arrogance in check.”
Di Qing admits she has a point.
They carefully pilot the newly-christened Xiao Jing, hoping that this ugly little whale will make it to anchorage at Uto’s main dock without any calamity. When it does, they call the barely three kilometer jaunt a successful maiden voyage, congratulating themselves that she’s certainly seaworthy.
If they know they’re engaging in self-deception, they don’t admit to it.
Instead, Engineer Di jumps off and teaches Chief Stew Fang how to help with the ropes to tie her down, while Captain Li continues to baby the engine and line her up as well as he can, given that she pilots like a drunk Buick.
Around the edges of everything remains that bitterness, but they focus on the sweet success instead. Properly tied off, they cut the newly prepared engine and run off to rouse Wang Xi and Wang Bohai. After, they’ll grab Xu Wang and let him know that Xu Mei’s dream has been realized:
They can go home.
—
Outside the dorms, Shan Haoyu and Zhou Xiwei rock back and forth on the repaired swing, watching the commotion at the dock and the way the trio hurries off to bring out others to show off in front of. Zhou Xiwei laces their fingers together.
“Can they make it?”
“Perhaps? But if I had to bet, I’d say no.” Shan Haoyu squints, like he’s trying to remember something more than half-forgotten. “There may have been- No, I’m unsure. I know that whenever I’ve tried to leave like that, I’ve washed back up here.”
“You’ve tried to leave?” Despite his desire to carry Shan Haoyu home, Zhou Xiwei can’t actually imagine the guy outside of this place. Can’t imagine him wanting to leave, either. Shan Haoyu confirms his impression, as he explains:
“When I was younger, before I saw more of the kinds of people out in the world, I know I tried. At least twice? I never succeeded. Always ended up tucked into bed, with A-Tian hovering and crying and making me promise to stop. I did- I couldn’t keep damaging him. Unless the island gives its blessing, you can’t leave.”
“And the blessing is your delivery ship?”
“It took people before. Only one or two. Only ones left. It always came back after, so it must not have crashed.”
Well, the logic checks out, even though Zhou Xiwei still feels like he’s missing something. Like there’s a square piece jammed into a round hole, and he’ll be able to fish it out if he just takes a second look. But for some reason, he doesn’t. Maybe he doesn’t want to?
Zhou Xiwei has a bad feeling in his gut, but indigestion is no reason not to be a coward. He squeezes Shan Haoyu’s hand and shakes his head. Gives the right answer, the easy answer, the one that doesn’t require the kind of deep thought that sets his nerves aflame with the sense of missing it.
“If it won’t work, then we have to warn them.”
“They won’t listen.” Shan Haoyu sounds so sure. The voice of experience.
“We- we still have to try.”
Zhou Xiwei’s actually not as sure as he’s pretending to be, and the uncertainty leaks into his voice. It’s easy to put on a facade of righteousness, but in truth, he’s never been one for conflict himself, and he knows better than most how easy it is for people to ignore truths that they’d rather not acknowledge.
But you have to warn people, even if it’s just to say you have. Even if it’s just a way of making yourself feel better… To not try at all is to give up on optimism completely. And Zhou Xiwei’s always been far too romantic to be a pessimist about anyone except himself.
They continue to swing, fingers interlaced.
Shan Haoyu looks out at the horizon. Perhaps he’s imagining those previous warnings that made things worse, or remembering the visitors who successfully left and all those who didn’t- the poor souls that the two of them carefully don’t speak about. That they pretend never existed.
After a long while, Shan Haoyu nods.
—
“That ship won’t let you reach the next shore.”
…Okay, maybe he should have prepped Shan Haoyu a little more on how to deliver warnings? Around the dining table, the celebratory mood is replaced with awkward silence. And a lot of people (all the people) staring at an expressionless Shan Haoyu like he’s just sprouted a second head.
Good start. Zhou Xiwei coughs and nudges his knee under the table, encouraging him to elaborate. He does.
“That boat is from a group that ran aground during a storm a long time ago. They tried to leave on it and kept getting swept back.” Better. Still not great. After all, any sailor worth their salt will-
“We’re not dumb enough to try going out during a storm.”
Yep. Any decent sailor will assume that the problem is a want of expertise, and trust in their own skill. It’s a common affliction. Given that in this case, the issue is supernatural interference rather than anything purely meteorological, it’s much wiser to slowly bring them around to the awareness that-
“You can’t leave without permission.”
Or you can rush right in. And make it sound like you’re collecting hostages. Oh boy.
Zhou Xiwei can only blame himself.
Shan Haoyu is a babe in the (haunted) woods, and he’s convinced him that honesty is always the best policy without any type of practice or clarification. This is what people mean, when they talk about beauty leading to the downfall of kingdoms. There’s something a little wrong with that comparison, but-
First things first!
Figure out why the (majority) of the yacht crew seems more at ease with Shan Haoyu over this? And figure out a game plan for how to deal with the fact that the rest of the Song party are looking at him like his new flame is mentally unwell.
Yech.
Divide and conquer? He squeezes Shan Haoyu’s knee again and clears his throat, speaking with a casual confidence that’s incongruous with the situation, but that might be just the thing to get things moving in the right direction.
“Shan Haoyu, maybe you can go with Captain Li and the others and help them see some of the problems that might linger from the first wreck?” Surely, they already know, but it’s a decent excuse. Sensible and hard to refuse. “I’m sure your brother and I can keep dinner on track while you go help.”
Help. He’s helping. Everyone should keep that in mind.
Maybe they do? Because even though the Song contingent are looking at him with caution, the yachties seem to relax. Between the two groups, he’s less familiar with the yacht crew and thus more uneasy with their moods. Them being at ease (and hopefully, willing to listen and avert their own disaster) is most important.
The Songs (and Zhiping and Qian Li) are people that he can smooth things over with by himself. Probably.
He flashes them a winning smile as Yu’er silently gets up and starts walking down to the dock, yachties trailing behind him. …Zhou Xiwei swears the guy is cute and charismatic when he wants to be. There’s just been a lot of changes all at once, and everything has a learning curve, especially explaining curses to strangers.
“More congee? Director Xi’s scallions came out amazing!”
Father Song and Song Bai share a look before reaching out their chopsticks to pick up some rather bland dumplings. Fuck, but Zhou Xiwei knows that look. It’s the same one from when he didn’t want to get an economics degree and wanted to go into mechanical engineering instead. The ‘you go talk to him’ look that has seen him bend every last time.
But he doesn’t want to bend anymore. He wants to be his own person.
Zhou Xiwei pretends nothing is wrong, as he finishes dinner and waits for the ambush.
Author’s Corner:
Director Xi: I’ve only had these onions for a chapter, but if anything happens to them, I’m killing everyone from the yacht and then myself.
Fang Daiyu: [Silently puts down the pot she’s carrying]
Director Xi: Yes, good, a teachable child.
—
Shan Haoyu (internal): Okay, my boyfriend wants me to be honest. I can do that.
Shan Haoyu (out loud): The ocean will eat you, abandon all hope in the boat.
Scooby Gang: 
Shan Haoyu: [Looks to Zhou Xiwei for praise]
Zhou Xiwei: You know, this is on me. My bad.
fight, little zhou xiwei!! 🥹🥹
Well. He’s honest at least xD I totally understand Director Xi’s love for onions. That’s the life…
Thank you for the chapter and not one but two author’s corner !
Hahaha XD They definitely needed a practice session first.
And now for the Father Song talk, “Your boyfriend is cray cray.” …you’ve been on this island for over a month now. Just except the social ineptitude.
Poor little nutter wants to go into how things work instead of working other people’s money – you wanna take this one? Yah, sure, I’ll just go explain that knowing how to design or fix things will never get him anywhere useful.