Who moved her body?

"Why don't you hire someone to help you watch the shop? You're alone day and night, can you manage?" Guan Jie asked.

"It's not that I'm busy, but it's a bit draining." Old Zhang put down his bowl, lit the cigarette Guan Jie had given him, and said to Guan Jie, "Hiring someone means you can't make ends meet without five or six thousand a month. Rather than giving money away to others, I might as well run the place myself for a few months. The peak season only lasts three to five months. After that, there are fewer people. When the big hotels are offering huge discounts, nobody stays here. So as soon as the peak season ends, I close down, go home, cuddle with my wife, and sleep soundly until dawn."

Old Zhang squinted his eyes, his face full of happiness, as comfortable as being in bed on a winter's day.

"This is what my wife brought me." Old Zhang gestured towards the food on the table and said, "My wife lives in the city, she picks up and drops off the kids in the morning and evening, and brings me lunch."

"That's great," Guan Jie said enviously.

"Want some?" Old Zhang patted the sealed box on the table and said, "There's still rice here, enough for you."

Is this appropriate?

"What do you mean by suitable or unsuitable? I can't finish it anyway." Old Zhang opened the sealed box, which was still more than half full of rice. He took out a pair of disposable chopsticks from the drawer and placed them on the box, saying, "Come on, I was just worried about not being able to finish it."

Guan Jie walked into the counter, picked up the sealed box, and started eating.

"My sister-in-law's cooking is excellent; it tastes much better than what you get at restaurants."

"My wife is picky about food, she's not good at anything else." Old Zhang's sarcastic words were full of proud doting.

"Brother Zhang, why isn't Huangyan Island open to the public? Look, tens of thousands of people play on the beach every day. If Huangyan Island were open, many people would go, and the ticket revenue would be substantial, at least tens of millions."

"Diro Company doesn't lack tens of millions. If they were short of money, they could just fence off the beach and charge each person a hundred or two hundred, and it would still be packed with people."

"That's true."

After finishing the meal, Guan Jie praised the food several times, but Lao Zhang did not mention that a girl had come to see Guan Jie in the afternoon.

Guan Jie thought that either Old Zhang was asleep or Ali had cleverly avoided Old Zhang's questions.

Stepping out of Tianyiju Hotel, the commercial street to the left casts vibrant colors into the sky, while the beach directly opposite is brightly lit by several ten-meter-high spotlights. The brightly colored sun hats are gone, replaced by jet-black heads, and the white sand is almost entirely replaced by black.

People seeking thrills in the sea are constantly screaming as the waves crash against them. If it weren't for the large number of people, the screams would really make it sound like a horror movie.

There were twice as many people at night as during the day, a dense swarm like blades of grass sprouting from a corner in spring, bursting through the soil and suddenly appearing on the ground when you couldn't see them. The children digging the beach with plastic shovels had never worked so hard, as if they wouldn't give up until they found some underground treasure.

The bridge leading to the sea platform is equipped with light strips on both sides, which change color every ten seconds or so. The edges of the bridge then reflect these colors downwards, turning the white sand beach and sea into a stylish and modern scene.

Starting from the approach bridge, the light strip extends all the way to the end of the sea platform, ending on the other side of the sea platform, as if the sea bridge is only this long and ends at the sea platform.

The streetlights on the bridge are conventional, their white light illuminating the passing vehicles. The offshore platform stands like a giant lighthouse, shimmering with a captivating glow.

Staff at the cruise ship center played a recording over and over again through a loudspeaker at the dock: "Hurry up if you're taking the boat, this is the last one, the last one."

Less than five seconds later, the horn blared again, "Hurry up if you're taking the boat, this is the last one, the last one!"

"What time does the ship depart?" Guan Jie asked, leaning against the half-person-high iron gate.

A tall, thin man with a dark complexion like a sailor pressed the pause button on his loudspeaker and said to Guan Jie, "Five minutes from now. Go buy your tickets before boarding the boat." The man pointed to a small house not far away.

Guan Jie bought a single ticket, returned to the man and handed it to him. The man tore a hole in the ticket and handed it back to Guan Jie, then opened the iron-barred door and let Guan Jie in.

"Come up and sit anywhere, there aren't many people here." After saying that, the man turned on the loudspeaker again and continued shouting.

Guan Jie boarded the only boat that still had its lights on, along the floating dock fixed to the sea.

The ship has two levels. The lower level is empty except for two rows of sofas by the windows, and there are no tourists there either. There is a toilet near the entrance on the lower level, with a picture of a black person wearing long pants and a long coat and a red human figure wearing a dress above it, meaning that the toilet is unisex.

The staircase is located a little outside the entrance on the first floor, and there is a machine room at the bottom of the staircase.

Ascending the stairs to the second floor, the space is divided into two sections. Near the stairs is an open-air wooden seating area, while the rear section is indoors, with two rows of long, undivided sofas along the windows. Further inside is the cockpit, with a rudder in front of the instrument panel, like the decorative items sold in shops. A man who doesn't look very young is leaning back in his chair; from his side profile, he appears to be asleep.

Three young couples were sitting on the open-air seats, each with a mobile phone in hand, occasionally exchanging information with the people next to them.

Guan Jie walked over and sat down on a sofa on one side.

The loudspeaker noise on the shore stopped, and a tall, thin, dark-skinned man walked towards the boat. Guan Jie knew it was time to set off.

The waves weren't big at night, and while sitting on this boat wasn't exactly like walking on flat ground, the boat was relatively stable. It didn't have the sudden ups and downs of surfing that makes you feel weightless at times.

The starry sky was exceptionally bright over the sea, as if these stars belonged exclusively to the sea and could not be seen on land. Even the moon appeared several times larger than it did on land.

The dark-skinned, thin man went downstairs and stayed on the first floor. The three couples outside finally put down their phones, held each other's hands, and pointed at the sky, creating an ambiguous yet warm atmosphere.

The driver's cab door was not closed, and Guan Jie approached the cab.

"Want a cigarette?" Guan Jie pulled out a cigarette case and shook out one.

The man steering the boat rested one hand on the helm, his left hand taking a cigarette from the pack. Guan Jie held a lit lighter to the tip of the cigarette. After the man waited for the cigarette to ignite, he removed it from the flame, took a puff, and the tip of the cigarette immediately caught fire, flashing a red light in the dimly lit wheelhouse.

"From the mainland?" the man asked.

"Hmm." Guan Jie also took out a cigarette and lit it for himself.

Watching Guan Jie skillfully smoke, the man smiled relaxedly on his wrinkled face, as if he was enjoying the taste of cigarettes.

Guan Jie doesn't like smoking, but he understands that there are times when he has to have one.

As the saying goes, "Those who have studied together and fought together are called brothers." Although many people know this saying and know that it is true, very few people have seriously analyzed the reasoning behind it.

Sharing a window or carrying a gun doesn't mean that going through the same experiences will lead to a qualitative leap. Rather, it means that spending the same amount of time together, having the same experiences, and recognizing each other, accepting and improving oneself through this recognition and sense of belonging.

Simply put, it means elevating oneself by praising those who share the same habits as oneself.

This is part of human nature. Smoking is the same.

Guan Jie leaned against the side, occasionally turning his neck to make himself look like a curious tourist.