2023, summer.
Port city Lamma Island.
Outside the window, the night was dark.
In a sea-view B&B near Yung Shue Bay, Xia Li was sitting in front of the glass window of the cafe wearing a white cashmere shawl, with cold coffee and a half-eaten piece of cheesecake in hand.
The warm yellow light in the cafe shone down, reflecting her profile on the transparent glass.
Xia Li frowned and sat in front of the computer, revising the paper according to the instructor's requirements.
Xia Li is a fresh graduate from Peking University majoring in design. He has been busy working on his graduation design exhibition and thesis all day recently.
The school attaches great importance to this year’s graduation exhibition, and hereby declares that as long as the students rank among the top three in the graduation exhibition, they will receive a generous bonus, as well as subsequent employment support and other benefits.
In order to get this generous bonus to relieve the pressure on his family, Xia Li hurriedly bought a ticket and came to Hong Kong City after handing in his thesis.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the plane landed at the Hong Kong Island Airport, she received a message from her tutor asking her to revise her thesis.
The cell phone at hand rang at an inappropriate time, and then a voice call from her friend Chu Shishi popped up on the computer.
Xia Li rubbed his sore neck, took out the Bluetooth headset from the computer bag aside and put it on. Then he moved the touchpad and pressed the answer button on the computer screen, and continued to revise the paper seriously.
Noisy heavy metal music sounded in the headphones along with Chu Shishi's voice.
"Li Li, guess who I met at Bessie?"
Bessie is a well-known bar in Beijing.
Xia Li kept typing on the keyboard, seemingly not interested in it:
"who?"
"Qidu."
Qi Du is the young master of the Qi family and the nominal fiancé of Xia Li.
Today was supposed to be the day they received their certificates.
"By the way, has Qidu responded to your message?"
Chu Shishi's voice sounded in the Bluetooth headset again, and this time the noisy heavy metal music was much quieter.
Xia Li paused from typing on the keyboard, then picked up the phone he put aside and clicked on the dialog box with Qidu.
The conversation between the two still stayed on the message he sent to Qi Du yesterday.
[Remember to pick up the certificate at 9:30 tomorrow. 】
But the owner on the other end of the message seemed not to have seen it, and has not responded yet.
Xia Li put down his phone, took a sip of the cold coffee at hand, and calmly revised the paper on his computer:
"No."
Chu Shishi on the other end of the phone sighed: "Qi Du did this...does your engagement still count?"
"I don't know. Anyway, I plan to stay in Hong Kong City for a while. Let's talk about it when I get back."
The engagement between her and Qi Du was made when Mr. Qi was still alive.
At that time, Mr. Qi suffered from liver cancer and died soon.
In the last moment, he proposed to Xia Youming, who came to visit him, about Xia Li and Qi Du's engagement.
It was originally said that they would consider their engagement after Xia Li graduated, but in the past six months, the Xia family's capital chain suddenly broke. Overnight, it went from occupying the top of the entire business circle in the capital to becoming the Xia family that everyone in the circle would laugh at. .
The only thing that can save the Xia family now is the marriage contract between Xia Li and the Qi family, so the marriage contract has been postponed for many days.
Speaking of which, Xia Youming agreed to the marriage at that time just because he didn't want Mr. Qi to have any regrets in the end, but he didn't expect that the Xia family would one day be reduced to a point where it could only be saved by marriage.
This can be regarded as a coincidence, leaving a way out for the Xia family.
Xia Li also reluctantly accepted the path God gave her. As long as she could save the Xia family, she would do anything.
But what she never expected was that Qidu would let her go on the day of receiving the certificate.
In the afternoon of that day, Xia Li bought a ticket to Hong Kong City, saying that he would come here to collect folk customs and burn incense at the temple to ask Bodhisattva to bless the Xia family.
Before the incense was burned, her tutor's thesis revisions were sent over first, so her incense-burning schedule could only be postponed by one day.
"Okay, you have to pay attention to safety alone in Hong Kong City." Chu Shishi was still caring about Xia Li one second, but the topic changed the next second, "When you burn incense, remember to burn a marriage incense for me, sister. It’s up to you whether you can be single this year or not.”
"Know it."
After hanging up the phone, Xia Li sent the revised paper to his tutor's mailbox and turned to look at the sea view outside the window.
She gathered her shawl and walked around the chair behind her to the balcony behind the cafe.
Xia Li put one hand on the wooden railing in front of him, feeling the salty sea breeze blowing in his face, and his eyes fell on the beach not far away.
In the dark night, the waves lapped gently on the beach, as if all the noise was isolated and softened by this quiet night. Slightly raising your eyes to look up at the stars, the sky is like a piece of black velvet dotted with gems.
The junction between sky and sea seems to be another world.
A quiet and untouchable world, a world where people can forget all their worries.
Xia Li rested his elbows on the railing, propped up his head and was so absorbed in watching that he didn't notice the movement behind him not far away.
"Brother Yin, what do you think of my B&B?"
Not far away, Qizhou, wearing a black shirt, pushed open the door of the coffee shop and turned slightly to let the man next to him go forward.
The man wearing a white shirt and black trousers stepped into the coffee shop. His indifferent eyes looked around for a week, and finally fell on the slender figure on the balcony and paused.
It seems to overlap with the figure deep in the memory.
Qizhou walked into the bar and took the expensive coffee beans on the side with skillful movements:
"Try my craftsmanship?"
Xie Yin withdrew his gaze, walked slowly to the bar and sat down, turning slightly to look at the balcony.
There was the sound of the coffee machine starting up behind him. Xia Li turned around but suddenly ran into a pair of deep eyes.
The man not far away was sitting lazily on the bar seat, his long legs draped leisurely, and the hand with the prayer beads resting naturally on the bar.
She was stunned for a moment. The man's face always felt familiar to her, as if she had seen it before somewhere.
But she couldn't remember something.
Xia Li came back to his senses and didn't think much about it.
He walked straight back to his previous position, stuffed the computer on the table into his computer bag, and planned to go back to his room to rest.
When passing by the man, the man sitting in front of the bar happened to pick up the coffee cup on the table.
Xia Li caught a glimpse of the man's movements from the corner of his eye. The cuffs of his white inner shirt were folded up, revealing the tense cyan veins on his arms.
When he raised his hand to take the coffee on the bar, his arms had clear texture and a strong sense of strength.
Xie Yin's eyes fell on her, and his slender fingers held the handle of the cup and brought it to his lips.
Xia Li pushed open the glass door of the coffee shop and walked out. At the same time, Qizhou, who had finished cleaning the coffee machine, noticed that Xie Yin was staring at something, so he followed his gaze curiously, thoughtfully.
"Brother Yin, do you know that pretty girl?"
Xie Yin took a sip of coffee and said calmly: "I don't know." (I don't know.)
Qizhou looked at him with a hint of gossip in his eyes, and sat down next to him with a cup of coffee:
"I don't know you, but you've been staring at her for so long. Could it be that you've fallen in love with this pretty girl?"
The man just fiddled with a string of Buddhist beads on his wrist calmly and did not speak.
Xia Li got up early the next day, took a taxi and took more than an hour's drive to the temple.
In the temple, the sound of Buddha is lingering and the sound of bells is distant.
The bluestone slabs were covered with moss, and the bells hanging under the eaves swayed gently with the occasional breeze.
Xia Li bought three incense sticks in the incense shop. One was a marriage incense for Chu Shishi, and the other two were career incense.
She held up the incense piously and bowed in the four directions of southeast, northwest and northwest. She hoped in her heart that the Xia family would get better and better, and she also hoped that her career after graduation would go smoothly.
Xia Li turned around and inserted the incense into the incense burner nearby, then walked up the stairs to the Buddhist hall.
She happened to pass by a corner in the hall, and out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of a man wearing a black silk suit with his back to her, as if he was talking to the abbot.
Because the Hong Kong language the two spoke was a bit complicated, Xia Li didn't understand it very well, but the clear and pleasant male voice that came to her ears made her slow down a bit.
The weather in Hong Kong City is indeed changeable in summer.
It was clearly sunny one second, but the clear sky was instantly shrouded in dark clouds the next.
Immediately afterwards, bigger raindrops fell from the sky to the ground.
When Xia Li stepped out of the Buddhist temple, it happened to be the time when it rained the hardest.
She stood in front of the Buddhist temple, looking at the mountains in the distance that were now in chaos, shrouded in dark clouds. It was like a huge hole had opened in the sky, pouring down towards the earth.
Xia Li sighed, and his memory was suddenly drawn back to the heavy snowfall in winter five years ago.
She only remembered that the man stopped beside her holding an umbrella and asked her sideways if he wanted to take her for a ride.
But Xia Li had already forgotten the man's face. In her impression, his face should belong to the handsome type, but she had completely forgotten the specific facial features.
Xia Li stood under the eaves, watching the raindrops that were like beads dripping down from the eaves, hitting the bluestone steps and making small splashes.
She thought about waiting for the rain to subside before leaving, but the monk beside her told her in a Hong Kong Mandarin that the rain would not stop for a while.
Xia Li sighed again, looking at the rain that kept falling, she hesitated whether to rush out in the rain like other tourists in the temple.
At this time, a figure suddenly appeared next to her.
It seemed that the owner of the body had a strong aura that made Xia Li subconsciously turn his head to look, only to see the man's side face with cold eyebrows.
The man was holding a long-handled black umbrella. His profile was straight and straight, his nose was straight and his lips were thin. However, his gaze from the front was faint, and his whole body revealed a sense of indifference and alienation.
Xu noticed Xia Li's gaze, and the man beside him turned his head to look at her.
Eyes facing each other.
Xia Li's breath missed a beat in vain.
It was the man sitting at the bar in the cafe last night.
Xia Liben was still hesitating about how to ask the man if he could give her a ride, but unexpectedly the man in front of him spoke first.
"Girl, do you want to give me a ride?"
Xia Li was stunned for a moment. The familiar yet unfamiliar words once again seemed to match the year in his memory.
She pursed her lips slightly, nodded, and said in her broken Hong Kong dialect:
"It's not your fault, sir."
(Excuse me, sir.)
Xie Yin changed the umbrella in his hand, inserted the hand with the beads into the bag, and casually motioned for Xia Li to come closer:
"It's okay."
When walking down the stairs of the Buddhist temple, Xia Li suddenly felt that he was in a trance.
She turned her face sideways and looked at the man holding the umbrella. She was wearing a black silk suit, her shirt was fastened to the top button meticulously, and her exposed Adam's apple was a bit sexy.
His eyes slowly moved up unconsciously, and he felt that the man was born with a sense of coldness and nobility. Coupled with that face with almost perfect facial features, Xia Li suddenly felt that God was a little unfair.
Why can't she marry such a man instead of marrying this playboy Qi Du!
The man lowered his eyes slightly, and his deep and cold gaze met Xia Li's eyes.
Xia Li's heart suddenly tightened, and he looked away in panic, lowering his head.
The man raised his eyebrows casually.
The two walked quietly.
Xia Li walked a little absent-mindedly along the way, but she still felt that this man was a bit familiar, and she vaguely wondered if he was the same man as the gentleman she met in the temple vestibule five years ago.
As he walked through the bamboo forest and was about to reach the vestibule, Xia Li suddenly raised his eyes and asked:
"Sir, have we ever met?"
