They continued watching films until four in the morning.
Zhou Wu tried several times to end the gathering, but Qin Yun and Dou Yiqing had become completely engrossed and insisted on finishing the entire series.
Even when Wen Ci had stayed up writing her work report, she had never remained awake this late.
By the time she returned to her room, she felt as though her feet were floating. The moment her head touched the pillow, she fell asleep.
When she next opened her eyes, it was seven in the morning.
Only three hours had passed.
After seeing the time, Wen Ci sighed and closed her unbearably heavy eyelids, intending to continue sleeping.
Her phone suddenly vibrated.
**Mum: Do you have training this morning?**
**Mum: What is the training environment like? Take a few photographs and let Mum see.**
Wen Ci instantly became fully awake.
She sat up and opened her conversation with the teacher who was actually attending the training programme.
Forcing herself through the awkwardness, she said she was curious about the programme and asked whether the teacher could send her several photographs.
After receiving them, Wen Ci carefully cropped out the teacher’s name and sent the pictures to Mother Wen.
**Mum: All right. Be careful and remember to eat breakfast.**
**Wen Ci: You and Dad too.**
Wen Ci released a breath of relief and lay back down, carrying the guilt of lying with her.
Her eyelids remained heavy, and the back of her head ached faintly.
Her phone did not ring again, but for some reason, she could not fall back asleep.
She closed her eyes and tried to force herself into sleep.
Then faint footsteps sounded outside the room.
Her phone lit up.
Dou Yiqing had sent a message.
**Dou Yiqing: Are you awake?**
**Wen Ci: Mm.**
The next second, the bedroom door opened and Dou Yiqing poked her head inside.
The two women, who possessed identical teacher body clocks, stared silently at one another for several seconds.
Dou Yiqing said expressionlessly, “I knew teaching wasn’t a profession humans were meant to do.”
Mentally exhausted, Wen Ci burst out laughing and softly agreed.
“Exactly.”
“Are you going back to sleep?”
“I’m trying.”
“If you can’t sleep, don’t force yourself. Shall we have breakfast?”
Dou Yiqing raised her chin towards her.
“The breakfast buffet here costs 1,288 yuan per person. I deliberately asked yesterday. Our room cards let us enter the restaurant for free. What do you think?”
Wen Ci lifted the blanket.
“Let’s go.”
The hotel villas were scattered throughout the woods, some distance away from the hotel’s various facilities.
Dou Yiqing called reception, and a shuttle soon arrived to take them to the restaurant.
They chose an outdoor table with a view of the beach nearby.
The sea in the early morning was peaceful and still, and even the breeze was gentle.
Wen Ci rested her head on one hand and stared blankly towards the beach for a long time, until Dou Yiqing returned carrying another plate of delicate pastries.
Dou Yiqing looked at the half-finished bowl of plain congee in front of Wen Ci.
“You’re only eating that much?”
Wen Ci did not really have an appetite.
She had only come because she genuinely could not sleep and Dou Yiqing wanted company.
Returning to her senses, she said, “No. I also drank a glass of milk.”
“That won’t do. Wen Ci, you’re far too thin. Eat more.”
Dou Yiqing gestured towards the several large plates in front of her.
“Take whatever you want. Once you finish it, I’ll go and bring more.”
Wen Ci was thin because she ate very little.
Dou Yiqing was different.
She seemed to have been born with a faster metabolism than everyone else. She loved meat, fried food and late-night snacks, yet her weight never exceeded a healthy level. Her figure always remained balanced and fit.
Dou Yiqing believed this was only fair.
Life was already difficult enough. She deserved to have at least one advantage.
As she ate, Dou Yiqing took photographs.
She casually tried to push another pastry into Wen Ci’s mouth.
Unable to refuse, Wen Ci obediently opened her mouth.
“This place looks incredible in photographs.”
Dou Yiqing handed her phone to Wen Ci.
“Take a few pictures of me.”
“All right.”
Dou Yiqing sat with her back towards the sea and held all the beautiful food beside her face for the photograph.
After taking back her phone, she scrolled through the pictures and clicked her tongue in satisfaction.
“Darling, how did you make me look this beautiful?”
Wen Ci smiled.
“You’re beautiful to begin with.”
Dou Yiqing shook her head.
“Ah, I’m so envious of everyone on my Moments. They wake up and immediately get to see a great beauty like me.”
She raised the phone.
“Come on, Wen Ci. I’ll take a few photographs of you too. You can finally update your Moments. It’s practically gathering dust—”
Halfway through, Dou Yiqing suddenly remembered that Wen Ci’s trip was secret, so she could not post anything.
She changed direction.
“Forget it. Whether you post them or not doesn’t matter. The important thing is preserving the memory.”
“Don’t take any.”
Wen Ci raised a hand to cover her face and laughed.
“I must look terrible right now.”
“You don’t.”
Dou Yiqing did not force her.
“I’ll photograph you another day when you’ve put on makeup.”
Then she added, “By the way, don’t worry. I’ve already hidden my Moments from everyone who might tell my mother. There’s absolutely no chance they’ll expose you.”
…
“Dou Yiqing, is this really necessary? You posted seven Moments updates for one breakfast, and every single one had nine photographs.”
Qin Yun sat in the first-floor living room of their villa, eating the lunch he had just asked the hotel to deliver.
He shouted towards the upper floor, “I originally wanted to scroll through my phone for a while and then sleep again. Your posts frightened me completely awake. Why don’t you compensate me?”
Dou Yiqing’s chilling voice drifted down from above.
“Don’t worry. You’ll never see them again.”
Sensing something, Qin Yun picked up his phone.
Sure enough—
“You f*cking blocked me again?!”
“The greatest mistake I ever made was removing you from my blacklist,” Dou Yiqing said, unable to tolerate him any longer.
“Why did you have to come here for lunch? Couldn’t you go back to your own room and eat? We’re upstairs changing into swimsuits! Do you want me to call the police?”
“Is calling the police the only thing you know how to do? Change clothes. It isn’t as though I can see through walls.”
Qin Yun speared a piece of beef and placed it in his mouth.
“I came here to eat while waiting for you to go swimming and surfing.”
“Besides, I came to get Wen Ci’s school uniform so I can sign it. This has nothing to do with you.”
There was no further response from upstairs.
Apparently, Dou Yiqing could no longer be bothered with him.
Qin Yun did not care.
He opened his photo album and scrolled through the pictures he had saved from Dou Yiqing’s Moments again.
A photograph of her eating with puffed-out cheeks made him laugh once more.
He asked the person opposite him, “Did you add Dou Yiqing on WeChat?”
Zhou Wu put down his coffee.
His voice remained slightly hoarse from having only recently woken.
“No.”
“Oh. Congratulations. You escaped disaster.”
Zhou Wu lazily scrolled through his phone without answering.
The screen displayed Wen Ci’s Moments.
As always, it was perfectly clean.
Dou Yiqing had posted more than sixty photographs that morning, while Wen Ci had posted none.
Her latest update remained the school anniversary article she had shared two months earlier.
Just as Zhou Wu was about to put down his phone, Wen Ci’s profile picture suddenly appeared with a new update.
He raised an eyebrow and opened it again.
**Wen Ci: [Shared article from “Jiangcheng Primary School”: A Warm Summer Holiday Reminder About Preventing Drowning]**
…
Upstairs, Wen Ci pulled the signed school uniform from her suitcase.
Before they left for the holiday, Qin Yun had messaged her and reminded her to bring it so he could add his signature.
Wen Ci herself had nearly forgotten the matter, but Qin Yun had continued remembering it.
Dou Yiqing pushed open the door.
She held her swimsuit against her chest, the straps hanging over her arms.
“Wen Ci, have you changed? Could you help tie this for me?”
“I’ve changed.”
Wen Ci stood.
“Come here.”
Dou Yiqing stopped in front of her without turning around.
Her gaze slowly travelled from Wen Ci’s face downwards, then stopped.
Wen Ci’s hand, which had been reaching out to tie the straps, froze in midair.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
Dou Yiqing sighed.
“I’ve been mesmerised by your chest again.”
Wen Ci:
“…”
Dou Yiqing was not joking.
Although they were both thin—and Wen Ci weighed more than five kilograms less than her—Wen Ci lacked nothing in the places where curves were supposed to exist.
Today, she wore a relatively conservative one-piece swimsuit with a ruffled skirt covering half her thighs.
Even so, the upper half clung closely to her body, displaying the beautiful shape of her chest and the waist that was narrow enough to infuriate Dou Yiqing.
By comparison, Dou Yiqing’s swimsuit was considerably bolder.
Two thin straps tied behind her neck.
Yet it did not look particularly provocative.
The plain black swimsuit against her wheat-coloured skin created a lively, sunlit appearance.
Dou Yiqing examined herself from both sides in the mirror and felt she could take eight thousand photographs that afternoon.
“Done! Let’s go!”
Although their villa overlooked the sea, the beach was still some distance away and required walking.
Wen Ci was not accustomed to wandering around in a swimsuit.
She found the cover-up she had prepared in advance, pulled it on and hurriedly fastened two buttons.
Then she grabbed the school uniform and followed Dou Yiqing.
…
Qin Yun lifted the uniform and carefully studied the dense collection of names.
“This name is so unfamiliar. Who was this again?”
“The former labour representative.”
Sensing Zhou Wu also looking at the uniform, Wen Ci’s heart began pounding.
She pointed towards a section of fabric and spoke somewhat urgently.
“You can sign here.”
“There’s no hurry. Let me look a little longer.”
Qin Yun continued examining it.
“Hey, Zhou Wu. Your name is here.”
Qin Yun raised Zhou Wu’s name towards him.
Zhou Wu looked at it and raised an eyebrow slightly.
He had just reached out to take the uniform when Wen Ci snatched it away first.
She was not strong, but she moved quickly.
Zhou Wu only felt a gust of air before the uniform returned to the table several steps away from him.
Wen Ci pushed the pen into Qin Yun’s confused hand and urged him in panic.
“You… should sign quickly. Yiqing wants to take photographs on the beach while the sunlight is good.”
Successfully distracted, Qin Yun lowered his head and signed.
“There’s no need. Dou Yiqing’s natural conditions are what they are. No amount of good lighting can save her.”
Dou Yiqing charged out of the kitchen and struck his back with the half-empty bottle of water in her hand.
As soon as Qin Yun finished signing, Wen Ci swiftly carried the uniform upstairs and buried it at the very bottom of her suitcase again.
When she came downstairs, only Zhou Wu remained waiting at the courtyard entrance.
He had only recently woken after staying up late the previous night.
Zhou Wu stood lazily, his shoulders and back slightly curved, yet still appeared tall and straight.
He held a sun umbrella.
Upon seeing her, he lazily lifted his chin.
“Let’s go. They went ahead.”
Wen Ci agreed and hurried beneath the umbrella.
The beach was close to the villa, requiring only a walk along a gravel path.
Now that the matter of the uniform was settled, Wen Ci felt extremely relieved.
She looked up and smiled.
“Are you going surfing later too?”
Zhou Wu gave a quiet hum and turned his face.
Their gazes met.
He said calmly, “Ms Wen, the name on that uniform wasn’t written by me, was it?”
“…”
Wen Ci’s smile had not even disappeared before her footsteps stopped completely.
Every alarm in her mind began sounding.
Her mouth reacted before her thoughts could.
“How could that be? Of course you wrote it. Perhaps… perhaps too much time has passed, so you’ve forgotten. And people’s handwriting changes…”
Wen Ci’s voice gradually faded.
Zhou Wu remained silent, watching her with a faint, knowing smile.
His expression was identical to the one he had worn when catching her lying outside the school gates.
“…”
Wen Ci said awkwardly, “I’m sorry. I lied again—is it very obvious?”
Zhou Wu laughed softly.
He raised a hand, hooked the hair trapped beneath the collar of her cover-up and gently moved it behind her ear.
Then he regretfully informed her, “Yes.”
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