Before losing consciousness, the last sight that floated before her eyes was the boundless expanse of the sea.
...
"So cold..." Bai Wenxi murmured involuntarily, her fingers curling up from the cold.
Her palms were filled with golden sand, and she lay on the beach like a dying fish.
"Are you okay?" Jiang Beihuai unbuckled his seat belt and felt Bai Wenxi's pulse.
There was a severe ringing in Bai Wenxi's ears. She couldn't hear any information from the outside world. Her mind was filled with nothing but chaotic and noisy static.
The night was getting darker, and the wind on the beach blew more fiercely.
A faint smell of burning wafted over, and Bai Wenxi fell into a coma again.
What woke her up was the smell of burnt grilled fish. Although it couldn't be compared with the delicately prepared delicacies in the city.
But on this kind of island, fresh game was more likely to whet people's appetites.
Bai Wenxi raised her hand to shield her face from the dancing flames.
She slowly opened her eyes, and what came into view were the twinkling stars in the deep sky.
The fire crackled, and Bai Wenxi yawned.
It wasn't the expected icy cold. She found that her clothes had been changed.
It was Jiang Beihuai's dry shirt.
The scarlet tongues of fire danced in the air. The flickering flames made the man's scar look even more ferocious.
When the two of them were together before, it was basically in the dark.
Although Bai Wenxi could touch it, she had never seen it so clearly.
Jiang Beihuai propped up Bai Wenxi's dress with two bamboo poles and baked it over the fire.
Seeing his wife wake up, he stuck the bamboo poles into the ground and held out a palm - sized leaf of clear water.
"Here, it's boiled water cooled in a banana leaf," Jiang Beihuai said with a deep smile in his dimple. "Didn't you say the equipment here was complete? I've searched for a long time but didn't even see a shabby hut."
Bai Wenxi took the leaf of water awkwardly and drank it all in one gulp.
"I'm sorry..."
She mumbled for a while and finally said this apology sincerely.
Holding the banana leaf cherishingly, her delicate fingers tugged at the hem of the shirt.
Hesitantly, she said, "Aren't you cold? My dress should be dry. Let's change our clothes back."
Jiang Beihuai didn't care. He took the small fish off the stick.
He tore off the best piece of meat from the fish's belly and handed it to Bai Wenxi.
"We're quite lucky. I found this little fish stranded on the beach, still wriggling around."
Bai Wenxi was too embarrassed to reach out. She lowered her head deeply. All Jiang Beihuai could see were the two whorls on the top of her thick hair.
He couldn't help laughing: "Why are you acting like this? It's not like you're being arrested. You don't have to be so cautious."
"I feel like I've dragged you down," Bai Wenxi's inner uneasiness grew.
"I didn't expect it to be so chaotic here. I didn't think they'd dare to rob us on the way."
Jiang Beihuai put the fish meat on the banana leaf, stood up, and sat down next to Bai Wenxi.
"I came here on my own. You don't have to feel guilty," he said, flipping the dress from time to time, afraid of burning it.
"How do you feel now?" Jiang Beihuai patted Bai Wenxi's head and then touched her cheek with his finger.
"Your temperature seems to have gone down. You don't know how worried I was this afternoon. When you were first fished out of the water, you were as hot as a lump of charcoal."
Bai Wenxi held the piece of fish meat back. Jiang Beihuai stared at the meat, his expression changing.
The fire illuminated half of his face. His long eyelashes fluttered, making him look even more mysteriously handsome in the dark night.
"Why do you have to draw such a clear line with me?" He seemed to finally lose his patience and was a bit on the verge of breaking down. "You're always like this. It makes me feel like you don't regard me as your husband."
"Even if it's just mutual concern between friends, can't you eat the food I made?"
Bai Wenxi was extremely embarrassed. The spicy energy she had on the boat had completely disappeared.
"I didn't mean that. You've misunderstood me."
Jiang Beihuai pouted, his eyes full of suspicion: "Then why do you hide everything from me?"
"You also said you went back to your mother's house to look for something for a documentary," he squinted, a disdainful arc forming at the corner of his mouth. "I was almost asleep that night, and I could still hear the rustling sound of you flipping papers."
"Humph, if I don't get angry, you'll think I'm a fool."
He was really angry. Although he was sitting next to Bai Wenxi, he tilted his head in a resistant posture.
Bai Wenxi poked his plump muscles, trying to ease the atmosphere: "What rustling sound..."
"Don't move around," Jiang Beihuai shook off her fidgety hand, dissatisfied with this kind of muddling - through attitude.
"Either you confess, or you continue to hide it. If you don't tell the truth, I'll never care about your business again."
An inexplicable fear welled up in her heart again. A sticky sense of powerlessness stuck in her throat, making her stutter and unable to speak.
Bai Wenxi stared blankly at the fire in front of her, her eyes empty.
Seeing that she didn't answer, Jiang Beihuai deliberately stirred the fire with a branch, making the sparks fly everywhere.
The tiny sparks flashed a bright light in the dark night and then suddenly went out.
Bai Wenxi kept giving herself a mental pep - talk before she managed to speak: "I didn't mean to guard against you on purpose."
She thought for a while and then changed her words.
"When we first got married, I did have a barrier in my heart towards you. But I think you can understand, right?"
Bai Wenxi turned her head, and her smooth black hair fell from her shoulders.
Her soft lips were hidden in the dim light. Although she had no makeup on, she was more touching to Jiang Beihuai than any of her elegant looks before.
Jiang Beihuai knew he was in the wrong and didn't argue.
It was an undeniable fact that he had hurt his wife because of a stupid misunderstanding.
The island was the same one he had come to with his parents before, but many of the plants had withered. Everything had changed.
Bai Wenxi looked around and remembered the backs of her parents snuggling together.
She struggled and spoke again. She felt a bit ashamed to reveal her innermost feelings.
"I don't believe in marriage, so I didn't believe in you either," Bai Wenxi's pupils reflected Jiang Beihuai's surprised expression.
"I was taught by the Bai family to be a lady since I was a child."
At this point, Bai Wenxi was actually a bit indignant. "The Su family taught my mother the same way, but our marriages don't seem to be very good."
"They separated when I was in kindergarten," Bai Wenxi placed her finger in Jiang Beihuai's palm. Jiang Beihuai held her ice - cold finger and couldn't help shivering.
"Later, as you know, my father had an affair during the marriage and had Bai Yunxi. I was robbed of my fiancé by this younger sister, and I embarrassedly grabbed you as a life - saving straw."
The nameless fire in Bai Wenxi's heart burned fiercely. She walked around in a state of collapse. The strong sea breeze blew the loose shirt billowing.
"A Wen, sit down," Jiang Beihuai put his arm around her shoulder and forced her to sit down in front of the fire.
"But now you have me by your side. We've decided to live a good life. You can definitely rely on me."
Bai Wenxi was already in tears. She choked out an apology: "But I don't want to be an obedient good girl anymore."
"I became a child from a single - parent family. I lost my mother, and then my father left. I married into your family to pay off the debt, but now I just found out that even this debt was fabricated."