Huayu 2021: Isn’t he in the technology field?

Chapter 119 A Heart Fluttering in Silence
8pm.

The food at Sister's Food Stall was indeed delicious. Jiang Qing and his companion looked at each other and laughed as they finished eating, clutching their stomachs. Zhang Jingyi suggested they take a walk to digest their food, and he readily agreed.

As they stepped out of the food stall, the cool sea breeze invigorated them both.

This was the busiest time of day, and even though the area they were in wasn't particularly famous, it was still packed with people.

Fortunately, neither of them was famous enough to be recognized at a glance. They each put on a baseball cap and squeezed into the crowd on the beach.

A few minutes later, they walked to the shallows.

The waves crushed the neon lights into fragments and scattered them on the beach. Jiang Qing watched as Zhang Jingyi kicked off her flip-flops and stepped into the waves, her plastic slippers dangling from her index finger and spinning around.

She suddenly squatted down and waved to Jiang Qing without turning her head.

"Dr. Jiang, look! The hermit crab is drawing!"

As Jiang Qing bent down, his shirt billowed like sails in the sea breeze, revealing crooked, crawling marks on the sand.

"This is the graph of a cosine function, right?"

After carefully examining the details, he smiled and used a metaphor.

"It looks just like a cat's whiskers!"

She picked up seashells and traced their patterns on the sand.

"Look, these are eyes."

The seashell was suddenly swept away by a wave, and Zhang Jingyi chased after it, plunging into the shallows, her jeans instantly soaked through.

Jiang Qing reached out to pull her, but the splashing water wet her sleeves.

"Haha...cough cough..."

As she threw her head back and laughed, a gust of sea breeze blew into her mouth, causing her to cough several times.

"Jiang Qing!"

After calming down, she called him by his name for the first time.

Do you know how to tap dance?

Before Jiang Qing could answer, she had already started dancing her own improvised steps on the waves.

Moonlight condensed into pearls on her ankles, and the way her ten toes curled and stretched out resembled a variation on the Moonlight Sonata.

Jiang Qing suddenly thought of a Ragdoll cat scratching at a ball of yarn, and the image was strangely similar.

Would you two like to buy some flowers?

When Zhang Jingyi stopped, panting, a little girl carrying a bamboo basket suddenly appeared, her rose petals glistening with water droplets, looking exceptionally beautiful.

"Fifteen yuan a bunch."

Jiang Qing glanced at Zhang Jingyi, who was instantly drawn in, and took out her phone to scan the QR code in front of the girl.

After the payment was completed, the girl handed the flowers to Zhang Jingyi, who immediately beamed with joy.

"Thank you, Dr. Jiang."

"As long as you stop dancing, everything..."

"Jiang Qing!"

Zhang Jingyi angrily interrupted him.

Jiang Qing shrugged and helplessly spread his hands towards the flower girl next to him, causing her to cover her mouth and laugh so hard her shoulders shook.

Zhang Jingyi glared at him with displeasure, then smiled and looked at the little girl selling flowers.

"Little sister, shall I show you a magic trick?"

She took out the blue starfish she had just bought.

"See, all you have to do is blow a breath."

The starfish spun three times in her palm before suddenly falling through her fingers into the sand.

Jiang Qing raised an eyebrow, then looked down at the starfish and froze.

The little girl giggled and ran away, while Zhang Jingyi scratched her hair in frustration.

"I clearly learned three magic tricks from a magician in Hengdian."

"Try using the principles of topology."

Jiang Qing picked up the starfish, straightened up, and looked down at her.

"When a closed surface undergoes continuous transformations"

"Stop, stop, stop!"

She covered her ears and walked backwards, the sea breeze ruffling her long hair.

"The doctor is so scary! I... Ah!"

As her heel struck the reef, Jiang Qing caught her elbow just as a beam of light swept across the distance from a lighthouse.

Zhang Jingyi smelled the lingering aroma of satay sauce on his cuffs and suddenly realized from this angle that his eyes and brows had an inexplicable familiarity.

"Dr. Jiang."

After regaining her balance, she pointed to the rising tide.

Can AI predict when we'll get wet from the waves?

"Based on the tidal coefficient and your movement trajectory"

Jiang Qing solemnly counted on his fingers.

"Thirty seconds later..."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Jingyi had already pulled him towards the breakwater.

The sound of slippers hitting the cement floor mingled with panting laughter. Her hair tie had slipped off at some point, and strands of hair brushed against Jiang Qing's wrist, carrying the salty, damp scent of the sea.

"See, it won't take thirty seconds."

Stopping in their tracks, Zhang Jingyi pointed to their soaked trouser legs and grinned triumphantly.

Jiang Qing looked down at her, then gave her a thumbs up.

The girl's smile grew even brighter, making the night seem a little more radiant.

They continued walking side by side. Zhang Jingyi would occasionally look down to smell the roses in her hand, and glance at Jiang Qing's well-defined profile in the moonlight. She was inexplicably in a good mood.

She didn't know why she would do these things with Jiang Qing, whom she was meeting for the first time today.

I was just inexplicably happy.

She suddenly remembered being interviewed by the media about her ideal boyfriend during the movie's promotional tour last month.

Without hesitation, she answered, "Handsome, humorous, and polite," glancing at the boy beside her...

Quickly lower your head.

Pshaw! What am I thinking?!
I am clearly a supporter of "Jiangzhou Fishing Lights", I must have been too biased when watching the show!
right! That's it!

Jiang Qing was unaware of the chaos and turmoil the girl beside him was experiencing; he was simply strolling leisurely.

He would occasionally glance at Zhang Jingyi, and just think that the world was sometimes really small.

When they reached the end of the breakwater, they met an old man sitting and fishing. Zhang Jingyi couldn't help but exclaim when she got closer to the fish bucket.

"This grouper is staring at me!"

She pointed to the bucket and poured out her complaint.

Jiang Qing leaned closer to take a look and couldn't figure out how the girl could tell that the grouper was glaring at her.

The old man handed over the fishing rod with a smile.

"Little girl, want to try your luck?"

"May I?"

Zhang Jingyi's face was full of eagerness.

"of course."

The old man handed the fishing rod to her.

Zhang Jingyi and Jiang Qing exchanged a glance, then grinned and accepted the gift.

She held the pole like she was holding a sword, her body taut and straight, unconsciously pursing her lips, looking as if she were facing a formidable enemy.

Jiang Qing gazed at her smooth face in the moonlight and her bright eyes, and was suddenly transported back to that night.

But at that time, he saw things more clearly.

When a fish finally took the bait, Zhang Jingyi's scream startled the seagulls into flight.

With the old man's guidance, she successfully caught the fish.

Holding the two-pound bass, she looked at Jiang Qing for help, bewildered.

Jiang Qing smiled as she accepted the spoils of war, her movements resembling those of someone holding a trophy. She found the girl's excited yet flustered expression quite amusing.

The old man laughed as he took pictures of them; in the lens, she was weaving a wreath for the fish with seaweed.

Should we release them?

Jiang Qing looked at the listless sea bass.

"Of course!"

She knelt by the rocks and gently pushed the fish into the water.

"Go tell your companions that you've encountered a stupid human who can use magic."

Jiang Qing chuckled at her actions, wondering if she was included in the "idiot" label. On the return journey, the rising tide submerged the path they had come from. Zhang Jingyi rolled up her trousers and waded through the water, her insteps gleaming white in the moonlight.

Jiang Qing took off her sneakers and held them in her hand, listening to her humming off-key "Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies," which had a unique charm.

"Watch out for jellyfish!"

She yanked his sleeve sharply, shattering the moon's reflection in the water with ripples.

Jiang Qing wanted to say that she had seen it, but seeing the smug look on her face with her chin raised, she kept quiet and let her be happy.

Passing by the night market stalls, Zhang Jingyi stopped in front of the ring toss game stall and couldn't move.

The green eyes of the plastic crocodile toy blinked under the colored lights, and all seventeen rings she received in exchange went unanswered.

Jiang Qing took the last three rings, and the parabola landed precisely on the farthest porcelain doll.

"This unscientific!"

She held her spoils, her eyes wide.

"It's actually very simple, you."

"stop!"

She placed the porcelain doll in his arms.

"Here, take this as a reminder to Dr. Jiang that there is such a thing as metaphysics in the human world."

At 10:07, they arrived at the entrance of the alleyway leading to the guesthouse.

Zhang Jingyi suddenly turned around and stood on tiptoe, at a height just high enough to look him in the eye.

"Today is the happiest day of my year."

The sound of distant waves suddenly became clear, and Jiang Qing saw many versions of herself swaying in her pupils.

The little flower girl's bamboo basket passed by behind me, and the rolling bass crashed and shattered in the damp night.

You seem to be in a good mood.

Jiang Qing looked directly into her eyes, his eyes filled with a smile.

"Thank you, Dr. Jiang, for your tour guide service and for dinner tonight."

"Didn't you buy me coffee this afternoon?"

"That's true."

During their conversation, smiles flowed in their eyes.

Your shoes

When Zhang Jingyi stepped back, she noticed that his sneakers were in such bad shape that they were unrecognizable.

"Perfect timing to get a new one."

Jiang Qing bent down and brushed the sand off his trouser legs.

"Just like the fish you release will grow new scales."

Suddenly someone splashed water on the second floor of the guesthouse, and the two people bumped into the courtyard wall covered with bougainvillea while trying to dodge.

Zhang Jingyi's back was pressed against the flower branch, and petals fell on her trembling eyelashes.

Jiang Qing reached out to brush it away, but heard her breathy voice filled with laughter.

"Dr. Jiang, your heart rate is over 120."

The delicate fragrance of bougainvillea mingled with the scent of sea salt filled the air between the two of them, and Zhang Jingyi unconsciously plucked a petal.

Jiang Qing remained propped against the wall, the ticking of her watch mingling with the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears.

"This is a normal physiological response after exercise."

He casually withdrew his hand and put it into his pocket.

"Just like your heart rate when you were chasing the waves."

"stop!"

Zhang Jingyi suddenly crouched down and emerged from the flower wall, her hair catching on a branch and bringing down a shower of purplish-red petals.

"There's a calico cat over there!"

She ran barefoot towards the cat licking its paws under the streetlight, her jeans rolled up to her calves, revealing her fair skin.

Jiang Qing picked up her flip-flops that had fallen into the flower bushes and noticed a half-shell stuck to the sole, which she flicked away.

"It has a collar; did it get lost?"

Zhang Jingyi crouched down in a small ball, trying to reach it with her hands.

"It doesn't seem to be shy around strangers."

Jiang Qing scanned the QR code on the collar with her phone, and the pet information that popped up made both of them freeze in surprise.

The cat's name is "Jiang Xiaoyu," and the owner's phone number ends in Zhang Jingyi's birthday.

What made it so memorable was that they had just been talking about this topic that evening.

"What a coincidence!"

Her eyes shone as brightly as if starlight had been shattered.

"This shows"

"This indicates that the pet registration system needs to strengthen its information security."

Jiang Qing cut her off, ignoring the girl's reproachful look, and made a slight smile as she dialed her owner's number.

While waiting for her owner, Zhang Jingyi tied her cat's hair into a small braid with a rubber band.

Jiang Qing leaned against the coconut tree, looking at her profile bathed in the moonlight, and his eyes and brows softened unconsciously.

Do you think the little fish will remember us?

Zhang Jingyi scratched the cat's chin and asked softly.

"Memory retention depends on the hippocampus."

"Stop! At this point, you should say, 'Of course!'"

She looked up at him, her nose, covered in cat hair, wrinkled into a small walnut.

Jiang Qing shook her head and chuckled, then nodded slightly in the girl's raised eyebrows, at which point she smiled with satisfaction.

At 10:37, the cat's owner left, carrying the cat and expressing his deepest gratitude.

Zhang Jingyi got up, shaking her numb legs, and almost knocked over the sign of a dessert shop on the roadside after taking only a few steps.

Just as Jiang Qing held her wrist, the neon sign flashed with the warm light of "Lotus Seeds and Lilies".

"Give me a bowl, ma'am!"

The girl's eyes lit up, and she waved to the proprietress.

"The last bowl!"

The proprietress smiled and opened the freezer.

"Would you like taro balls?"

"All!"

Zhang Jingyi had already taken out her coin purse, glanced at Jiang Qing, and then put it back.

"Dr. Jiang, please pay the bill."

Jiang Qing smiled and bent down to clear a table for them.

Soon, the proprietress brought over a bowl of lotus seed and lily bulb soup, generously filled with ingredients.

The plastic stool legs creaked as they dragged along the stone pavement. Zhang Jingyi suddenly spoke as she scooped up the glistening sugar water.

"Dr. Jiang."

The spoon made a clear sound as it struck the porcelain bowl.

"you……"

The fishing boat's horn suddenly roared, and the second half of the sentence melted into the night.

"Ok?"

Jiang Qing pushed the tissue over, looking puzzled.

"fine."

She smiled and gently shook her head.

"WeChat ID".

He showed his phone's QR code.

"So I can send you some embarrassing photos from today."

Zhang Jingyi's scanning gesture resembled deciphering Morse code; the moment the addition was successful, fireworks suddenly rose from the direction of the breakwater.

She turned around happily, tilted her head back, pointed at the fireworks, and exclaimed to Jiang Qing. The light reflecting off the fireworks on her face flickered, just like that day at Houhai.

As the sound of the tide subsided, Zhang Jingyi walked backwards up the steps, her waving phone leaving a trail of light in the night.

"Remember to take a picture of your ring toss winnings and send it to me!"

Jiang Qing smiled and nodded, standing there watching her jump up the last step, the sea breeze carrying her last half-murmur.

"Why are you jumping so fast? Really..."

(End of this chapter)