Chapter 89: Beach with children
The azure sea, blue sky, sandy beach, and countless men and women in light clothing, along with children running and playing.
Yu Shi sat on the lifeguard observation tower on the beach, gazing at the adults and children splashing in the nearshore waters.
He wore a bright orange lifeguard suit and a pair of swim trunks, his exposed skin slightly reddened by the sun.
Suddenly, he jumped down from the lifeguard tower and quickly rushed into the sea, disappearing beneath the surface.
Before long, he resurfaced, holding a child in his arms.
Thanks to the timely rescue, the child did not lose consciousness. After being lifted out of the water, the child coughed a bit and then burst into tears.
A pair of young parents playing nearby in the water only then realized that their son had almost drowned.
“You need to keep an eye on them. Don’t let the child stray too far on their own; it’s not safe in deeper water,” Yu Shi said as he handed the child over, though the child clung tightly to his neck.
The careless father awkwardly replied, “I put a swim ring on him, thinking nothing would happen.”
“A swim ring doesn’t fully prevent accidents. A child might lack the strength to hold on after playing for too long, or the ring could slip off. You need to watch them closely,” Yu Shi advised.
The mother quickly thanked him, hugging her child with a look of relief.
Yu Shi shook the water from his head and returned to sit on the lifeguard observation tower.
This was just a typical occurrence on the beach, something that those who noticed would talk about briefly before moving on.
However, as Yu Shi walked back, several young girls’ gazes followed him, whispering and laughing with their friends.
“A refreshing summer heartthrob!”
“He’s like a glass of lemon tea, so refreshing! I want to ask for his contact info!”
“All talk! Why don’t you go for it?”
“I don’t dare…”
The girls were joking quietly when they suddenly noticed an exceptionally handsome man in the crowd, walking toward the lifeguard observation tower.
It seemed he overheard their conversation, as he glanced at them with a smile.
The girls gasped, excitedly chattering about his appearance.
Feng Xuexiang, holding two glasses of iced tea, ignored the admiring whispers and heated gazes around him. As he walked from the hotel, he had drawn quite a few looks.
“Ashi, I brought some iced tea,” he said, raising a glass of lemon iced tea and handing it to Yu Shi before leaning against the tower with his own glass to keep him company.
They were at an open beach in Zhanghai City, a popular destination with countless visitors every summer.
The reason they were here was that a few days ago, when Yu Shi asked Feng Xuexiang if there was a place he wanted to visit, Feng Xuexiang replied, “We always go to places I want to see. This time, let’s go where you want to go.”
Yu Shi did have a place he wanted to visit. He lived in an inland city in his original world, far from the sea, and because of his eldest brother, he couldn’t travel far. As a result, his desire to see the ocean in person had never been fulfilled.
He wanted to see the sea, and Feng Xuexiang had no objections. He even considered asking someone if the Feng family owned a beach to give to Yu Shi.
But Yu Shi didn’t give him the chance to go that far, bringing him to Zhanghai City the next day.
When Feng Xuexiang planned to join him for a swim at the beach, Yu Shi ended up becoming a beach lifeguard.
Since it was peak tourist season, the beach was crowded, and the stretch of sand was long. With a shortage of lifeguards, even though Yu Shi volunteered as a temporary lifeguard, the work wasn’t easy.
Yu Shi felt a bit guilty and told Feng Xuexiang, “You can go swim in the sea or rest in the hotel; there’s no need for you to stay by my side.”
“Of course, I’m staying with you,” Feng Xuexiang replied. He hadn’t planned on going into the water; in fact, he was somewhat afraid of it.
Even when he came to the beach, he wore a shirt and long pants instead of a swim-friendly T-shirt and shorts, clearly not intending to swim.
Yu Shi was different from most people; he enjoyed trying out various jobs and experiencing different aspects of life.
In his original world, he had also explored many different careers, and his brothers all knew and supported his preferences.
Now, in this world, he had found someone who would support him and was willing to stay by his side.
Although his brothers supported him, they wouldn’t accompany him.
He worried that Feng Xuexiang might get bored and kept glancing over to see what he was doing. After a while, he noticed that Feng Xuexiang had started building a sandcastle nearby.
A little boy next to him was also playing with sand.
Feng Xuexiang’s creation was a miniature mansion, far more beautiful than the “castle” the little boy was randomly piling together.
As the boy watched, he suddenly ran over and stomped all over Feng Xuexiang’s mansion, raising his head proudly.
Yu Shi, watching from the observation tower, frowned at the scene.
Coincidentally, the little boy was the same child Yu Shi had rescued from the sea earlier.
Possibly because of the near-drowning experience, his parents didn’t dare let him go back into the water, so they allowed him to play in the sand at the shore.
Feng Xuexiang, looking at his ruined mansion, didn’t get angry. Instead, he smiled and gently patted the boy’s head.
The little boy dodged his hand, humming as he continued building his own fort.
But suddenly, the boy’s expression changed to one of terror. He started flailing his arms around his head and face, crying and shouting.
By the time his parents ran over after hearing the commotion, the boy was already rolling on the ground, screaming that bees were stinging him.
“There aren’t any bees! There’s nothing here!”
“There are! There are lots of them! They’re biting me!”
After some commotion, the boy’s parents, having no other option, decided to take him away to get checked.
Feng Xuexiang kept that same tolerant smile on his face as he stood by, watching the boy roll on the ground and eventually get carried away.
When he finally noticed that Yu Shi was also watching, his smile froze, and a guilty look naturally appeared on his face, quickly turning into an expression of grievance.
He hesitated for a moment but eventually walked over to “confess.”
“I just wanted to scare him a little; he’ll be fine in a bit,” he said, his pitifully aggrieved look enough to make even a stranger believe he was innocent.
Yu Shi’s shift had just ended, so after handing over his duties to the next lifeguard, he took Feng Xuexiang over to the sand mansion.
Squatting down, he carefully gathered sand from the little boy’s fort and repaired the damaged mansion.
After finishing, Yu Shi looked up at Feng Xuexiang and said, “It’s fixed.”
The two of them then headed back to the hotel, where, coincidentally, they ran into the boy and his parents just outside.
The couple was arguing, with one saying, “I told you to watch the kid, but you were too busy playing,” while the other retorted, “It’s because you spoil him all the time; he cries at the drop of a hat even at his age.”
When they saw Yu Shi and Feng Xuexiang, both parents looked a bit embarrassed. The mother recognized Yu Shi and smiled. “Oh, it’s you, the lifeguard who saved Taotao earlier?”
She patted the boy’s back and urged him, “Go on, you haven’t thanked your big brother yet!”
The little boy, Taotao, ran up to Yu Shi, his eyes still red, holding two lollipops.
He remembered that the big brother in front of him had saved him from the water, and generously offered one of the lollipops. “Big brother, this is for you.”
His parents were amazed, knowing how mischievous their son usually was and how much he guarded his snacks. The fact that he willingly offered one meant he really liked this big brother.
Yu Shi didn’t take the lollipop. Instead, he said, “You b*llied someone earlier. I don’t like you, and I don’t want anything from you.”
Taotao froze, his eyes suddenly welling up with tears, and he burst out crying, his heart broken from being rejected for the first time after trying to be nice. He cried even harder than when he had been scared earlier.
His parents were equally stunned, never having seen someone talk to a child like that before.
Yu Shi nodded politely at the embarrassed couple and calmly walked past the wailing boy, leading Feng Xuexiang toward the hotel.
Behind them, the boy’s cries and the voices of his parents trying to comfort and scold him echoed faintly.
“Pfft!” Feng Xuexiang leaned his head against Yu Shi’s shoulder, bursting into laughter.
After a moment, he looked up at Yu Shi with bright, sparkling eyes. “I thought you liked kids.”
No matter where they went, Yu Shi was always gentle with children.
Yu Shi replied, “Anyone who b*llies you, no matter who they are, I don’t like.”
He seemed gentle with everyone, but once you became someone he cared for, you could feel that special sense of being treasured.
He placed those he loved in the most important position, refusing to let anyone hurt them, even going so far as to repair the sand mansion that had been ruined, and carefully tending to the goldfish and potted plants Feng Xuexiang had bought. He never hesitated to show how much he cared.
Feng Xuexiang had always felt like there was a huge void inside him, but recently, it often felt like so much satisfaction was filling that emptiness that it was about to overflow.
These overflowing emotions drove him to get even closer to Yu Shi.
As Yu Shi lowered his head to press the elevator button, his face suddenly grew warm. He didn’t have time to react to Feng Xuexiang’s sudden enthusiasm before his face was covered in kisses.
It wasn’t as if they hadn’t shared affectionate kisses before, but being pecked on the cheeks repeatedly in the elevator made him feel a bit uncomfortable.
Gently holding Feng Xuexiang back, Yu Shi, slightly embarrassed, asked, “Alright, what’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”
Feng Xuexiang buried his face in Yu Shi’s shoulder and said, “I’m happy.”
He then lifted Yu Shi off the ground.
Yu Shi said, “Put me down.”
Feng Xuexiang responded, “No, I’ll carry you back.”
As the elevator doors opened, Feng Xuexiang carried Yu Shi out. They passed a mother and daughter in the hallway, and the little girl, seeing Feng Xuexiang’s long hair, pointed at them and said, “Big sister is carrying big brother!”
Yu Shi was speechless.
Feng Xuexiang was also at a loss for words.
After the little girl was quickly ushered into the elevator by her mother, Feng Xuexiang said, “I really don’t like children at all.”
Yu Shi couldn’t help but laugh, stroking his silky long hair.
…
They stayed there for only a few days before returning, and were soon invited back to the Feng family residence by Feng Zaiyin.
Feng Xuexiang rarely returned these days, but no one dared to comment. The new head of the Feng family was his older brother, a gentle person without strong opinions, who was simply pleased that Feng Xuexiang occasionally chose to come back.
Even in the past, the Feng family wouldn’t often ask the spirit demon for help, and now no one dared to command him.
This time, if it hadn’t been a serious matter with many casualties, the Feng family head wouldn’t have dared to send Feng Zaiyin to invite Feng Xuexiang.
When Feng Zaiyin arrived to convey his father’s message, he saw his long-absent Ninth Uncle.
Ninth Uncle had a smile on his face—not the eerie, fake kind, but a relaxed, bright one.
When Feng Zaiyin mentioned the demon incident at Changhe Hospital, Ninth Uncle nodded and agreed to handle it personally.
Feng Zaiyin felt a mix of surprise and confusion; he had expected Ninth Uncle to refuse so easily.
His grandfather had told him that Ninth Uncle was unpredictable, with no familial affection or compassion for others. Despite his great power, he was dangerous, and they needed to find a way to keep him in check.
However, in recent times, this unrestrained Ninth Uncle had not done anything to harm the Feng family. His mood seemed more stable, and he was even willing to deal with the demon.
Feng Zaiyin couldn’t help but question whether his grandfather’s words were true.
Regardless of whether his grandfather had lied, he could never forget that Ninth Uncle was involved in his grandfather’s death.
It’s hard for people to believe that someone who has been good to them could be bad, and Feng Zaiyin was no different.
He didn’t see his grandfather, who had raised him, as a bad person, and he felt that he must avenge his grandfather’s death.
As he left Feng Xuexiang’s residence, Feng Zaiyin finally allowed himself to relax, revealing a hint of his true emotions as he silently clenched his fists.
It wasn’t the right time yet; he still needed to be patient. Right now, he couldn’t take on Ninth Uncle.
